If you are planning to advertise your business, there are several mediums you can choose and factors you need to consider. You can advertise in radio, Yellow Pages, online directories, billboards, cable — or even several mediums at the same time. In making your decision, you need to ask questions like:
- What is the most effective way in reaching my customers?
- How effective is the advertising medium I chose?
- What budget can I afford?
Of course, you want to use the medium that will give you the biggest bang for your buck. The best return on investment! You may want to read our article on Choosing the Right Advertising Medium for Your Small Business to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of each advertising medium.
We’re highlighting today on our homepage an article submitted to us that helps separate the fact from fiction in each advertising medium. The article 33 Things Your Advertising Representatives Never Told You advises business owners to take a more skeptical approach when talking to an advertising sales rep. Of course, the objective of the sales rep is to get your business, so the rep will present data and information to you that is designed to win your confidence.
Here are my favorite tips from the article:
- According to the Yellow Page industry, Americans look in the Yellow pages about 3.6 billion times per year. Sound like a lot? That’s only about 14 times a year a person.
- The average time someone looks at a billboard is about three seconds. The billboard companies tell advertisers to keep their messages short — seven words or less. How much selling can you do in three seconds or seven words?
- Advertisers buy space in shoppers to reach customers who won’t see a daily paper. In fact, readership is usually duplicated. Seven out of 10 readers of shoppers are already readers of the daily paper.
- It’s difficult to reach upscale or influential customers with direct mail. Nearly two out of three persons who graduated from college or earn $50,000 don’t read every piece of mail they get — their throw-away rate is 65%!
If you are thinking of advertising, approach the process with an open mind and be aware that it may not bring you the results that you want or need. Everything in business is a risk, but take calculated risks where you know that some advertising mediums may not work for your business, or may not bring you the kind of results you were expecting.
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