When People Don't Know
Is the Difference Between a Sale or No Sale
When people don't know about you, they won't walk in, call, email, or sign up on your website - or even buy from you!
We spend a lot of our time running our business and not enough time advertising and promoting our business. Most people reading this are self-employed or run small shops and as such it becomes a major task to sit down and employ profitable techniques. But it is a necessary task and you should be setting time aside regularly to get it done. You cannot run your marketing (promotions and advertising) in a hap hazard way. It must be systematic and regular to get consistent results.
When you start a business, you should not only employ a business plan, but you should also have a marketing plan to work your advertising and promotions. These three words marketing, advertising and promotions are very similar and sometimes used interchangeably; in regards to the end result of attracting more business, they are not the same. By understanding these words and how they relate to your business, you can more easily develop your Marketing plan. Let's review what each is:
Marketing
Advertising
Promotions
I believe that everyone should market their business in some way. Whether it be through the traditional advertising channels or through creative promotions, marketing is what draws business to you. Right now, I want to briefly tackle the concept of advertising. If you are not familiar with how advertising works, you may employ a method like throwing mud at the wall and see what sticks. That will cost you a lot of money and generate a lot of ill conceived notions that advertising doesn't work. You may also think you can't afford to advertise. Well, the saying goes that "you can't afford NOT to" if you want to stay in business.
A romantic notion for some business owners is that "everyone" needs their product or service. While this may be true in some instances, the amount of money it takes to advertise to "everyone" effectively and successfully is proportionately expensive; i.e. the more people you wish to reach, the more you need to spend. When thinking about advertising, first you need to make a narrow determination of who your market is. For example: a homeowner with annual income of $100,000, male, age 35-54, looking to buy a new car in the next 12 months. This segment can change depending on your campaign, and what you want to push. For example if you are a financial planner, during one campaign you may wish to target females 25-34 and males 45-54 during another. Once this segment has been determined for your
campaign, you should then determine what "channels" this demographic spends time in or better yet, where their eyeballs might be. A channel is not limited to radio or TV. The channel can be newspapers, magazines, websites, podcasts, radio, TV, billboards, park benches, etc. The first example demographic we used (homeowner, $100k, male, 35-54) may spend time with The Wall Street Journal daily, have a subscription to Golf Digest Magazine, and visits MensHealth.com 3-4 times per week.
It is important to know where your ideal customer is, and place your advertising frequently and regularly there. And if you want to own the market, find out where your competition isn't advertising and place your advertising there! Of course make sure it's a channel where your target market is. Remember, in order to see adequate results, you must reach your target market consistently.
A mistake many, if not most small business owners make is they "try" a channel, and when they don't see immediate results, they stop their advertising on that channel. If you do this, you only hurt your business, you don't help it. I reiterate, you must be consistent. If you are going to "try" a channel, it should be for six months to a
year, not for just a few weeks. If you don't have a large budget (and most small businesses don't), you need to research to find an affordable channel, stick with it and give it time to work for you. When trying a channel, you should do some research to know that your target market is in that channel. For example if you are selling Chanel No. 5 perfume, you wouldn't place an ad in PC World Magazine just
because your competition isn't.
Another mistake many small business owners make is that they don't advertise when their business is good. I have heard many times "I have all the business I can handle, so I don't need to advertise". That's fine and good, but eventually all business has a slump. Even McDonald's! And if you are in a slump, making less money than when "business was good", how will you afford to advertise unless you are
frugal with your money and diligently set money aside for that purpose? Thus it is important to advertise when business is good, so when your business is slow you can still benefit from the top of mind awareness created from the ad campaign. The most successful companies advertise, even during recessions; maybe even more so to take advantage of the fact that their competition isn't.
On the flip side, some people may say they never have advertised, and don't have a need to. This may be true. But the reason is that they are extremely good at talking about themselves, and networking to attract business. But networking itself is a form of marketing, more specifically promotions and is a topic for another day.
When people don't know about you or your business, you have to find the best way, the most efficient way, the most cost effective way to tell the most people about you all at the same time. If you don't tell anyone about your business, you shouldn't expect people to walk in, call, email, or sign up on your website - or even buy from you!
When people don't know about you, they won't walk in, call, email, or sign up on your website - or even buy from you!
We spend a lot of our time running our business and not enough time advertising and promoting our business. Most people reading this are self-employed or run small shops and as such it becomes a major task to sit down and employ profitable techniques. But it is a necessary task and you should be setting time aside regularly to get it done. You cannot run your marketing (promotions and advertising) in a hap hazard way. It must be systematic and regular to get consistent results.
When you start a business, you should not only employ a business plan, but you should also have a marketing plan to work your advertising and promotions. These three words marketing, advertising and promotions are very similar and sometimes used interchangeably; in regards to the end result of attracting more business, they are not the same. By understanding these words and how they relate to your business, you can more easily develop your Marketing plan. Let's review what each is:
Marketing
- The commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service Dictionary.com
Advertising
- The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.
American Heritage Dictionary
Promotions
- A systematic effort or part of this effort to increase the importance or reputation of by favorable publicity. Reference.com
I believe that everyone should market their business in some way. Whether it be through the traditional advertising channels or through creative promotions, marketing is what draws business to you. Right now, I want to briefly tackle the concept of advertising. If you are not familiar with how advertising works, you may employ a method like throwing mud at the wall and see what sticks. That will cost you a lot of money and generate a lot of ill conceived notions that advertising doesn't work. You may also think you can't afford to advertise. Well, the saying goes that "you can't afford NOT to" if you want to stay in business.
A romantic notion for some business owners is that "everyone" needs their product or service. While this may be true in some instances, the amount of money it takes to advertise to "everyone" effectively and successfully is proportionately expensive; i.e. the more people you wish to reach, the more you need to spend. When thinking about advertising, first you need to make a narrow determination of who your market is. For example: a homeowner with annual income of $100,000, male, age 35-54, looking to buy a new car in the next 12 months. This segment can change depending on your campaign, and what you want to push. For example if you are a financial planner, during one campaign you may wish to target females 25-34 and males 45-54 during another. Once this segment has been determined for your
campaign, you should then determine what "channels" this demographic spends time in or better yet, where their eyeballs might be. A channel is not limited to radio or TV. The channel can be newspapers, magazines, websites, podcasts, radio, TV, billboards, park benches, etc. The first example demographic we used (homeowner, $100k, male, 35-54) may spend time with The Wall Street Journal daily, have a subscription to Golf Digest Magazine, and visits MensHealth.com 3-4 times per week.
It is important to know where your ideal customer is, and place your advertising frequently and regularly there. And if you want to own the market, find out where your competition isn't advertising and place your advertising there! Of course make sure it's a channel where your target market is. Remember, in order to see adequate results, you must reach your target market consistently.
A mistake many, if not most small business owners make is they "try" a channel, and when they don't see immediate results, they stop their advertising on that channel. If you do this, you only hurt your business, you don't help it. I reiterate, you must be consistent. If you are going to "try" a channel, it should be for six months to a
year, not for just a few weeks. If you don't have a large budget (and most small businesses don't), you need to research to find an affordable channel, stick with it and give it time to work for you. When trying a channel, you should do some research to know that your target market is in that channel. For example if you are selling Chanel No. 5 perfume, you wouldn't place an ad in PC World Magazine just
because your competition isn't.
Another mistake many small business owners make is that they don't advertise when their business is good. I have heard many times "I have all the business I can handle, so I don't need to advertise". That's fine and good, but eventually all business has a slump. Even McDonald's! And if you are in a slump, making less money than when "business was good", how will you afford to advertise unless you are
frugal with your money and diligently set money aside for that purpose? Thus it is important to advertise when business is good, so when your business is slow you can still benefit from the top of mind awareness created from the ad campaign. The most successful companies advertise, even during recessions; maybe even more so to take advantage of the fact that their competition isn't.
On the flip side, some people may say they never have advertised, and don't have a need to. This may be true. But the reason is that they are extremely good at talking about themselves, and networking to attract business. But networking itself is a form of marketing, more specifically promotions and is a topic for another day.
When people don't know about you or your business, you have to find the best way, the most efficient way, the most cost effective way to tell the most people about you all at the same time. If you don't tell anyone about your business, you shouldn't expect people to walk in, call, email, or sign up on your website - or even buy from you!
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Labels: Advertising, Marketing, Promotions
posted by CAB Radio at
11:37 PM
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