Advertising How-to Guide for Small Business

Brand ads that aim to create, change or enhance the brand personality and positioning. These ads are like business development people who identify, educate and nurture prospects and existing customers. 

Developing an ad campaign takes more work and costs more up front, but it pays back by establishing a stronger brand reputation for your product, service, company or non-profit organization. The theme and messages from the ad campaign can be used in other sales and marketing materials to further integrate your marketing. Consistency reassures customers and prospects and makes a brand look like a leader. It’s what Starbucks and McDonald’s and most major advertisers do because it works. Small businesses and non-profit organizations can do this too.
 

By using different advertising in different types of media in your ad campaign, you’ll benefit from what’s called the “Media Multiplier Effect.”  Major advertisers have learned when they use more than one type of media (generally TV and print), that the recall and communication of their message is greater than when they only use one type of media. Think of it this way: A sales rep who uses phone calls, sales meetings, email messages, printed letters and multi-media presentations will be more effective than someone who only uses one communication vehicle.
 

Campaigns need a “big idea” that will work across all marketing. and that takes time (and luck) to create.  It’s better to run one-off ads that are effective than trying to unify everything under a campaign theme that isn’t great. It’s the trade-off of integration versus effectiveness. Ideally you’d like both.

Where do you want to advertise?

• in a town? in a metro area
• nationwide?  or in several metro areas?
• online only?
• to particular business-to-business vertical markets?

• more than 1,300 TV stations
• more than 500 cable networks
• more than 19,000 magazines
• more than 10,000 radio stations
• more than 6,000 newspapers
• more than 100,000 websites

If you can’t afford a national campaign, then consider advertising in cities and major metro areas where you have the most sales opportunity.

If you’re buying advertising in a local city or what’s called a market (a city plus the surrounding suburban areas), then it may be manageable to research and buy ad media space yourself. 

If you want to make a regional or national ad buy, you will be calling a lot of media sellers to get rates and then when you decide what you want to buy, you’ll need to call back to negotiate rates. From our experience, it’s smart to find a knowledgeable media buyer to do this work for you.