Advertisement Ideas: Advertise or Die???

           

I walked by a few businesses that I had once approached about advertising when I worked at Forum Publishing and then when back to them when I left Forum to see if they were doing any advertising.These businesses were so busy finding reasons not to advertise that they are now boarded up. Why is it when sales are down the first thing that a business wants to cut is advertising? If people do not know who you are and you are not promoting your business you will  eventually go out of business. In today’s market place a business has many chances to advertise and those that choose not to advertise choose to die a slow death.  I have seen this cycle happen many times in the last 2 years. I approached a local yogurt shop about advertising and marketing their business and was told I don’t have a budget. Hello the first thing to think about after opening a store is to think how am I going to get the people to come to me and spend money and then come back to me. This yogurt store ran an ad for 1 week in a local community paper expecting an influx in business well guess what a one time ad is not going to work you need frequency and consistency. The key is to have people see you and get to know your brand.  Advertising needs to be proactive and  not reactive. Think of what is coming up and how you can capitalize on upcoming events. You Know from The Day After Thanksgiving until December 23 that the consumer will be geared toward buying and  that is a great time to run an ad wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah, A Merry Christmas, and  a Happy New Year with some other incentives to shop.

 

In today’s market place it is important to adopt the idea that if you do not advertise you are going to die. If you are not building your brand through effective advertising you are going to go out of business. I am told by many I don’t advertise my business it  is all word of mouth, again hello word of mouth is advertising and it is important to be of value and service to your existing clients/customers so you will continue to build your brand. The draw back to relying on word of mouth is that you only reach the people your current clients or customers know.  I have had people tell me I don’t do any advertising and don’t plan to advertise. I then see how their business goes and many time I watch their business fail because they don’t advertise and think oh people know me I’ll open a business and they’ll come. Again hello it doesn’t always work that way you need to have an advertising program to make it work because if you don’t advertise you are going to die.

 Now the question is where to advertise? The answer is where your target audience is. Do your research!!!

For example your target audience in Northern Broward County Florida, mothers 25-54 with a household income of $150,000+ you want to look at www.labonitakidz.com. Call me at 954-254-8227 after reviewing the web site to place your ad.

 You want to look at social media as an outlet as well as most people are turning to social media platforms to find products and services and knowing how to effectively advertise to them  will build your brand and get results. For example I am raising funds for The American Cancer Society at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/jdogglederman and I have posted it on Facebook and on twitter. Today (11/14/12) I went to the site and there was an $18 donation as a result of a post on social media.  The key is to be educational, informational, and entertaining and you will begin to attract people to do business with you.

 Customer service is an internal form of advertising and if used effectively it can grow your brand and increase revenue.If you don’t use this effectively you may find yourself closing your doors.

 Fitting advertising into your business is an important part of completing the puzzle. The advertising today should be:

1: Informational

2: Entertaining

3: Have a Strong Call To Action

 

The key is to remember if you do not advertise you will soon be shutting your doors.