How to select the right media for advertising
When business is good, it pays to advertise; when business is bad, you’ve got to advertise. Advertising is the mouthpiece of business. It is essential. Retailers are offered a multitude of avenues to promote their products; the greatest challenge is deciding where to invest your advertising dollar to get the maximum return. Advertising your business, services, and products does not have to be haphazard. You can plan, measure and monitor your advertising activities...
1. Consider your audience.
If you do not know your target audience, and you blanket advertise, you will be wasting your advertising budget. Everyone’s target market will be different, which is why you need to consider, firstly, such general variables as:
- the geographic location of your business and your audience - passers-by, workers, or residents
- the age group you wish to attract
- the gender you are targeting
- the primary socio-economic group you are hoping to draw upon
- the occupations of your audience.
2. Target your specific audience.
Having reflected upon your general advertising framework, you should become more focused on the individual customer. Marketers often use the term SPADE to focus retailers on their real target audience:
Starter - The person who initiates the enquiry
Purchaser - The person who pays for the goods
Adviser - The person who influences the decision
Decider - The real authority on what to buy
End user - The consumer of the product.
This may be one person or five different people. At each stage they are looking for different benefits. Your final advertising thrust should reflect this customer analysis by promoting to the selected target audience the benefits of your product.
3. Select the appropriate advertising media.
Once you have decided on your target audiences, you can then decide on the appropriate advertising media you should use to get their attention. Among the media available to you are:
National newspapers - Expensive, but ideal for nationwide retail chains.
Regional newspapers - Have immediate impact but remember, yesterday’s newspaper is old news.
Local newspapers - Have excellent household penetration and can be very cost effective.
Trade magazines - Well read and very targeted.
Local directories - Very effective, but you must plan well in advance.
Radio - Local radio and community radio are becoming more and more popular. This is a useful medium to consider.
Posters - Often linked to major advertising campaigns.
Street benches - Useful in high traffic areas. The message should be rotated every few months.
Public transport advertising - Moving messages on buses, trains and taxis must be simple, bold and short. Get them right and they work.
Television - Regional television is very cost effective. Only large retailers can afford metropolitan television. Ask your local television station; their advice is valuable.
Sponsorship - Always sponsor local events attended by your target audience. It gives credibility to you as a neighbourhood retailer and one of the ‘local good guys’.
Parking meters - These work in the United Kingdom: over 35,000 meters are used by 5.5 million motorists a week.
Point of sale display - Remember, internal advertising is always more cost effective than external advertising. You know you will hit your target.
Letterbox-flyers, direct mailings, the Internet, sandwich boards… and the list goes on.
Please note, this is only a small part of the topic.
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