Advertising and Public Relation
Advertising is attempting to influence the buying behavior of your customers or clients by providing a persuasive selling message about your products and/or services. There are many different types of advertising that are effective for small businesses, from traditional forms of advertising such as signage, yellow pages listings and newspaper advertising through newer forms such as pay per click advertising on the Internet. Technically, advertising is only one way of promoting your business, and you will want to be sure that whatever form of advertising you choose fits in with your marketing plan and overall marketing strategy. Tips for effective Advertisements: 1. Be consistent in your ad message and style including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, signs and banners. 2. Newspapers, radio and TV stations are helpful in producing the advertising that you will be running with them. 3. While word-of-mouth advertising has been around a long time, it usually falls short of being able to attract the number of customers needed to be successful in business. 4. Promote benefits rather than features. A benefit is the emotional satisfaction your product or service provides, or a tangible performance characteristic. 5. Know your competitors. Knowing everything about your competitors is just as important as knowing everything about your own business. 6. Advertising is expensive, so know why you are advertising and what you want to accomplish. Evaluate your advertising carefully and measure its effectiveness. 7. Develop appropriate sales promotion tools such as flyers, brochures and signs. Carefully review each item for its effectiveness and evaluate what these tools say about your business. 8. Signage should be a major part of your marketing strategy. Signs are a vital part of small businesses and can be the most efficient, effective and consistent device for generating revenue. 9. Every small business should be listed under the appropriate heading in the Yellow Pages, but not every business needs to buy expensive display ads. Be judicious. 10. Get involved in your community. Join the chamber of commerce, business organizations, service clubs, and charities. Network yourself and keep your antennae up.
To be effective, advertising must be interruptive—that is, it must make you stop thumbing through the newspaper or thinking about your day long enough to read or hear the ad. Advertising
must also be credible, unique, and memorable in order to work. And finally, enough money must be spent to provide a media schedule for ad frequency, the most important element for ad memorability.
Advertising Checklist:
Communicate a simple, single message. People have trouble remembering someone's name, let alone a complicated ad message. For print ads, the simpler the headline, the better. And every ad element should support the headline message, whether that message is "price," "selection," "quality," or any other concept. Stick with a likable style. Ads have personality and style. Find a likable style and personality and stay with it for at least a year, to avoid confusing buyers. Be credible. If you say your quality or value is the "best" and it clearly is not, advertising will speed your demise, not increase your business. Identifying and denigrating the competition should also be avoided. It is potentially confusing and distracting and may backfire on you by making buyers more loyal to competitors. Ask for the sale. Provide easily visible information in the ad for potential customers to buy: location, telephone number, store hours, charge cards accepted. Make sure the ad looks professional. If you have the time and talent, computer graphics and desktop publishing software can provide professional-looking templates to create good-looking print ads. Consider obtaining writing, artistic, and graphics help from local agencies or art studios who have experienced professionals on staff, with expensive and creative computer software in-house. Electronic ads (e.g., TV, radio, Internet) and outdoor ads are best left to professionals to produce. Be truthful. Whatever advertising medium you select, make sure your message is ethical and truthful. There are stringent laws regarding deceptive practices and false advertising. There's an old adage that holds that at least 50 percent of all advertising is a waste of money. It's probably true—and if you can figure out which half of your ad budget is useless, you'll save a bundle. But until you achieve this wisdom (which has so far eluded most marketers), you'd be wise to continue advertising full tilt and not take a chance on eliminating something that just might work.
Low-and No-Cost Advertising:
Print attractive and informative business cards that include your logo and hand them out everywhere, consistently! If you use letterhead stationery in your business, have it match your business card. Keep your identity as consistent as possible. Print up some gift certificates. These let your customers introduce you to new customers. Since you get paid up front for the product or service, they are good for your cash flow. Brochures let you provide a lot of detail about your product or service. Simple three-fold brochure stock may be purchased from mail order suppliers such as Paper Direct (800272-7377) in small quantities. Flyers can be created very inexpensively on your computer, or by a local print shop. You can use as much color as you like, with a color printer or old-fashioned colored paper stock. They can be used as bag stuffers or inserts to include with billings. Doorhangers are very effective and widely used by fast food and home delivery and service businesses. If you choose this medium, use heavy stock so it won't blow off doorknobs and litter the neighborhood. Inserted ads include mailbox inserts and free-standing inserts. The science behind the mass distribution of inserts is beyond the scope of our discussion here. If you think that inserts could successfully reach your market, call one of the big distributors and learn how much it would cost you to try this kind of program. The industry leaders are ADVO (call 860-520-3200, and they'll give you the local contact) and Val-Pak which is so big that you can find it under "V" in most local phone books. Paper or plastic bags and packaging make economical billboards. Print your name, logo, and message on anything you can, on all sides. Mailing labels are another perfect medium. Everyone who handles your mail will see your ad at no cost to you.
Public Relations for Your Small Business
Public Relations—When and Why You should be thinking about public relations from the very beginning. Because people often believe what a third party says about you before they will believe you, mentions in the media are crucial to expand your reputation. Public relations is not, however, a miracle worker. It will not immediately drive business to your door and it will not overcome shoddy business practices. What public relations can do is enhance the good business practices you already have in place by making you seem more credible, and by helping your customers get to know you by reading about you in an article. PR—The Three Biggest Mistakes
1.Regarding public relations as a short-term fix. Public relations is a long-term investment and the relationship with the media—and with the customers who will be touched by that media— should be something that is allowed to grow and flourish. 2.Thinking public relations can replace good business practices. You can have the most glowing story in the world on the evening news, and if customers are disappointed by what you deliver, it won’t matter. You can’t hide behind public relations. 3.Not doing your homework. The first three letters in “news” are n-e-w and if your message isn’t fresh in some way, the media won’t be interested. Think about what you look for in your daily paper and what would interest you, then think about what your customers would be interested in knowing about you rather than in what you think they should know. That’s what would make a good idea for the media. When to Outsource PR
You’ll know it’s time to outsource if you simply cannot do the job yourself, either because you don’t have the time, or because you don’t have the talent. Unlike what some people might think, public relations is difficult and, if you find yourself missing reporters’ deadlines, it’s time to outsource—reporters never forget someone who’s made them look bad by blowing their deadlines!