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Welcome to the The Marketing Source e-newsletter! Our goal is to provide you with real-world marketing tips.If you have any ideas for articles, please send them along.
Five Budget-Busting Advertising Mistakes Small Business Marketers Make
Whether your advertising budget is miniscule or
maxed out, you ought to get results for those hard-won
dollars. And you can. Do your homework, ask your
media reps the tough questions and stay away from
these common blunders.
Advertising to "get your name out
there."
We ask "Why?" Most small business
marketers simply aren't served by image advertising,
which eats up advertising budgets and doesn't
generate business. Don't settle for this generic,
impossible-to-measure objective. If what you actually
want are more phone calls, increased visits to your
web site or leads for sales of a new product, build
creative and media plans directly focused on
accomplishing those goals.
Buying advertising because it's on
sale.
"Our business magazine is offering two
ads for the price of one. Let's do it?" This isn't strategic
media planning or even intelligent risk-taking. There is
only one reason to buy advertising: because it
efficiently and effectively delivers your message to your
target audience. If it's not a good media choice for you,
no amount of discounted pricing makes it better. (You
may also recognize a close cousin of the "it's on sale"
rationale, the CEO rationale: "The CEO talked to Our
Town News. She wants to try their print and online ad
combo." Just because it's recommended by the CEO
doesn't make it a strategic option.)
Running minimal advertising all year
long.
If you run one tiny print ad or a very limited broadcast
schedule all year long so you can stretch your budget,
re-think it. It takes a certain amount of advertising just
to get noticed. If you fall below that benchmark, you are
spending money without getting a return. Consider
flighting instead: run a heavier schedule for a few
weeks, take a two to three weeks hiatus, then run your
schedule again. You can time your flights to coincide
with your company's busy and slow times and with
any seasonal promotions you want to do.
Spending too little time on messaging and
targeting.
It's easy to get embroiled in the details of your media
schedule and where your billboards should be - and
all that is important. But equally critical is what you are
saying and who you are talking to. Most small
business marketers would do well to invest a bit of the
ad budget (and planning time) into understanding
their target audiences. Go beyond your basic sales
reports and demographics. It's great that you know
your customers tend to be 30 - 45 years old and
primarily women. Are they more computer savvy or low
tech? In a city or more rural? What problem does your
product or service solve for them? What are the best
media choices to reach them? Spend some time
researching and analyzing how your customers find
you, why they buy from you and what they want and
need. Then make sure your media choices and your
creative reflect that.
Putting all your advertising eggs in one
basket.
If you have figured out that print ads in the local
paper or a banner ad on a particular web site works
for you, then by all means keep doing it. Just
remember that in our multi-media society, consumers
are bombarded by information and messages from all
sides. And it's unlikely that your target audience
shares exactly the same media habits. If you are only
on radio, you've lost anyone who doesn't listen to the
stations where you advertise. You are better off
figuring out how to use a combination of media. That
lets people hear your message multiple times in
multiple ways - and repetition matters.
The best way to maximize advertising ROI is to have a
plan based on strategic marketing objectives. If you
don't know what you are trying to do, it's impossible to
come up with a solid advertising strategy to get there.
Need help with strategic planning or getting your
advertising under control? The Marketing
Source can help.
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