Advertising Strategy and Planning How-to Guide

Advertising Strategy and Planning How-to Guide for Small Business

Practical advice on advertising strategy and planning for small businesses.

Advertising strategy and planning how-to guides

Advertising Planning - advice on how to create an ad plan for small businesses
Advertising Strategy - how to develop a winning ad strategy
Marketing Planning and Strategy - your ad plan should be a part of your overall marketing plan
Marketing Objectives, Strategies, Tactics - examples so you understand the differences
Advertising Process and Timing - so you can plan how much time you'll need
Costs for Advertising
How to Determine Your Ad Budget
Ways to Save Money on Advertising - important to know this as you are planning

Tips on developing an ad plan and strategy

Create an ad campaign with a "big idea" that will work across all your advertising and marketing vs.ads that aren't connected through a campaign and central creative idea. Integrated marketing campaigns make your company or product look like a "big, safe brand".

Start with understanding ad costs so know know what it will cost to do an effective job.

Know this: A little advertising doesn't work. You need to be able to spend enough to reach 70% of your target audience who see your ads an average of three times each month. Hire an agency, media planning agency or a freelance media planner to do this media scenario planning for you before you start creating any ads.

Be very clear exactly what you want the advertising to accomplish and how you will measure success (or failure) of the advertising investment.

Invest in understanding your customers and prospects through market research. Understand their accepted beliefs about your company, brand, products, category and those of your competitors. Learn what words they use and what their emotional hot buttons are.
Base your advertising strategy on an emotional insight about a customer and why they buy/use a product or service. Then back that up with rational, credible reasons to buy your product/service/brand.
Plan enough time to allow for ad testing and revising ad concepts before you invest major money in media buys.

Determine your media mix (the types of advertising you will use), and then hire agencies or freelancers who have expertise in creating the types of advertising you will be using. Advertising is very specialized.
Remember that advertising will be seen and remembered most by your existing customers. Make sure your ad campaign makes them look good for being one of your customers. They'll be looking at your ads to confirm their belief about your brand.
Write an ad strategy (also called a creative brief or copy strategy by agencies). Use this to scope and define exactly what you want the advertising to do and to brief the advertising creative team.
Set up an advertising effectiveness system to track and monitor how effective the advertising is in market. Make sure you've pre-tested the ads so that you can eliminate that as a variable when assessing in-market effect. You then can use ad tracking research to determine if your media mix and media weights (amount you are spending) is enough to be noticed and recalled by your target audience.
More Tips on Advertising from industry experts and business owners.

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