If you are ready to get the word out about your business, one of the steps
that you need to do is to select the right media where you will advertise
and promote your business.
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For a small business, every dollar is precious. Small businesses do not
advertise for the sake of advertising. Instead, they want to get the most
return for their investment. Your advertising campaign should translate to
greater sales, more profits and healthier bottom line.
While there are a number of venues where you can promote your business,
you need to ask three important questions:
- Where are my target buyers?
- What is the best medium to reach them?
- Can I afford to launch an effective campaign using this medium?
An important step to developing your sales and marketing plan is to
select the right media to send out your message. There are no hard-and-fast
rules as to which media is better. The right media for one business may be
wrong for another.
Based on an excellent small business reference book "How to Start
and Operate a Successful Small Business: Winning the Entrepreneurial
Game" by David E. Rye, as well as contributions from our staffers,
below are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the advertising media
most frequently used by small businesses:
Newspapers.
Newspapers are one of the traditional mediums used by businesses, both big
and small alike, to advertise their businesses.
Advantages
- Allows you to reach a huge number of people in a given geographic
area
- You have the flexibility in deciding the ad size and placement within
the newspaper
- Your ad can be as large as necessary to communicate as much of a story
as you care to tell
- Exposure to your ad is not limited; readers can go back to your
message again and again if so desired.
- Free help in creating and producing ad copy is usually available
- Quick turn-around helps your ad reflect the changing market
conditions. The ad you decide to run today can be in your customers'
hands in one to two days.
Disadvantages
- Ad space can be expensive
- Your ad has to compete against the clutter of other advertisers,
including the giants ads run by supermarkets and department stores as
well as the ads of your competitors
- Poor photo reproduction limits creativity
- Newspapers are a price-oriented medium; most ads are for sales
- Expect your ad to have a short shelf life, as newspapers are usually
read once and then discarded.
- You may be paying to send your message to a lot of people who will
probably never be in the market to buy from you.
- Newspapers are a highly visible medium, so your competitors can
quickly react to your prices
- With the increasing popularity of the Internet, newspapers face
declining readership and market penetration. A growing number of readers
now skip the print version of the newspaper (and hence the print ads)
and instead read the online version of the publication.
Magazines.
Magazines are a more focused, albeit more expensive, alternative to
newspaper advertising. This medium allows you to reach highly targeted
audiences.
Advantages
- Allows for better targeting of audience, as you can choose magazine
publications that cater to your specific audience or whose editorial
content specializes in topics of interest to your audience.
- High reader involvement means that more attention will be paid to your
advertisement
- Better quality paper permits better color reproduction and full-color
ads
- The smaller page (generally 8 ½ by 11 inches) permits even small ads
to stand out
Disadvantages
- Long lead times mean that you have to make plans weeks or months in
advance
- The slower lead time heightens the risk of your ad getting overtaken
by events
- There is limited flexibility in terms of ad placement and
format.
- Space and ad layout costs are higher
Yellow Pages.
There are several forms of Yellow Pages that you can use to promote and
advertise your business. Aside from the traditional Yellow Pages supplied by
phone companies, you can also check out specialized directories targeted to
specific markets (e.g. Hispanic Yellow Pages, Blacks, etc.); interactive or
consumer search databases; Audiotex or talking yellow pages; Internet
directories containing national, local and regional listings; and other
services classified as Yellow Pages.
Advantages
- Wide availability, as mostly everyone uses the Yellow Pages
- Non-intrusive
- Action-oriented, as the audience is actually looking for the ads
- Ads are reasonably inexpensive
- Responses are easily tracked and measured
- Frequency
Disadvantages
- Pages can look cluttered, and your ad can easily get lost in the
clutter
- Your ad is placed together with all your competitors
- Limited creativity in the ads, given the need to follow a
pre-determined format
- Ads slow to reflect market changes
Radio
Advantages
- Radio is a universal medium enjoyed by people at one time or another
during the day, at home, at work, and even in the car.
- The vast array of radio program formats offers to efficiently target
your advertising dollars to narrowly defined segments of consumers most
likely to respond to your offer.
- Gives your business personality through the creation of campaigns
using sounds and voices
- Free creative help is often available
- Rates can generally be negotiated
- During the past ten years, radio rates have seen less inflation than
those for other media
Disadvantages
- Because radio listeners are spread over many stations, you may have to
advertise simultaneously on several stations to reach your target
audience
- Listeners cannot go back to your ads to go over important points
- Ads are an interruption in the entertainment. Because of this, a radio
ad may require multiple exposure to break through the listener's
"tune-out" factor and ensure message retention
- Radio is a background medium. Most listeners are doing something else
while listening, which means that your ad has to work hard to get their
attention
Television
Advantages
- Television permits you to reach large numbers of people on a national
or regional level in a short period of time
- Independent stations and cable offer new opportunities to pinpoint
local audiences
- Television being an image-building and visual medium, it offers the
ability to convey your message with sight, sound and motion
Disadvantages
- Message is temporary, and may require multiple exposure for the ad to
rise above the clutter
- Ads on network affiliates are concentrated in local news broadcasts
and station breaks
- Preferred ad times are often sold out far in advance
- Limited length of exposure, as most ads are only thirty seconds long
or less, which limits the amount of information you can
communicate
- Relatively expensive in terms of creative, production and airtime
costs
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Direct Mail.
Direct mail, often called direct marketing or direct response marketing, is
a marketing technique in which the seller sends marketing messages directly
to the buyer. Direct mail include catalogs or other product literature with
ordering opportunities; sales letters; and sales letters with brochures.
Advantages
- Your advertising message is targeted to those most likely to buy your
product or service.
- Marketing message can be personalized, thus helping increase positive
response.
- Your message can be as long as is necessary to fully tell your
story.
- Effectiveness of response to the campaign can be easily
measured.
- You have total control over the presentation of your advertising
message.
- Your ad campaign is hidden from your competitors until it's too late
for them to react
- Active involvement - the act of opening the mail and reading it -- can
be elicited from the target market.
Disadvantages
- Some people do not like receiving offers in their mail, and throw them
immediately without even opening the mail.
- Resources need to be allocated in the maintenance of lists, as the
success of this kind of promotional campaign depends on the quality of
your mailing list.
- Long lead times are required for creative printing and mailing
- Producing direct mail materials entail the expense of using various
professionals - copywriter, artists, photographers, printers, etc.
- Can be expensive, depending on your target market, quality of your
list and size of the campaign.
Telemarketing.
Telephone sales, or telemarketing, is an effective system for introducing a
company to a prospect and setting up appointments.
Advantages
- Provides a venue where you can easily interact with the prospect,
answering any questions or concerns they may have about your product or
service.
- It's easy to prospect and find the right person to talk to.
- It's cost-effective compared to direct sales.
- Results are highly measurable.
- You can get a lot of information across if your script is properly
structured.
- If outsourcing, set-up cost is minimal
- Increased efficiency since you can reach many more prospects by phone
than you can with in-person sales calls.
- Great tool to improve relationship and maintain contact with existing
customers, as well as to introduce new products to them
- Makes it easy to expand sales territory as the phone allows you to
call local, national and even global prospects.
Disadvantages
- An increasing number of people have become averse to
telemarketing.
- More people are using technology to screen out unwanted callers,
particularly telemarketers
- Government is implementing tougher measures to curb unscrupulous
telemarketers
- Lots of businesses use telemarketing.
- If hiring an outside firm to do telemarketing, there is lesser control
in the process given that the people doing the calls are not your
employees
- May need to hire a professional to prepare a well-crafted and
effective script
- It can be extremely expensive, particularly if the telemarketing is
outsourced to an outside firm
- It is most appropriate for high-ticket retail items or professional
services.
Specialty
Advertising. This kind of
advertising entails the use of imprinted, useful, or decorative products
called advertising specialties, such as key chains, computer mouse, mugs,
etc. These articles are distributed for free; recipients need not purchase
or make a contribution to receive these items.
Advantages
- Flexibility of use
- High selectivity factor as these items can be distributed only to the
target market.
- If done well, target audience may decide to keep the items, hence
promoting long retention and constant exposure
- Availability of wide range of inexpensive items that can be purchased
at a low price.
- They can create instant awareness.
- They can generate goodwill in receiver
- The items can be used to supplement other promotional efforts and
media (e.g. distributed during trade shows).
Disadvantages
- Targeting your market is difficult.
- This can be an inappropriate medium for some businesses.
- It is difficult to find items that are appropriate for certain
businesses
- Longer lead time in developing the message and promotional product
- Possibility of saturation in some items and audiences
- Wrong choice of product or poor creative may cheapen the image of
advertiser
Source: "How to Start and Operate a Successful Small Business:
Winning the Entrepreneurial Game" by David E. Rye; and contributions
from PowerHomeBiz.com writers
May 6, 2003
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