Where should I advertise my Business?

-This is the One question that rings through each and every business owner’s head daily. Some of the most obvious choices would be as follows:
Television
Radio spots
Internet advertising
online directories
A local Newspaper
Press release
Press releases are an often overlooked inexpensive media blitz. One must remember that when doing a Press Release it is not written in advertising jargon. Rather, it is News and what and where it came from is the ‘pitch’. If you have noticed on the Splash pages on your Internet page you will see at the bottom where ads appear as news and rightfully so are. Yet, it is really a traffic generator written as news and after reading it one will realize it was not News, like ‘Life on another Planet’. Rather it is a description of ones gadget or company and mission statement along with a cleverly installed link to allow a peaked interested potential client to delve further into one’s product or service.

Here are some good guides for Small Business Advertising Success.

Small business owners can reap huge rewards by understanding the basic fundamentals of advertising. Gain confidence and better ad results by incorporating these guides:
1. Use One Message: Your small business advertising needs to quickly communicate its core message in 3 seconds or less.
This is your Brand, Motto or Slogan. You must stay true to it, do not keep changing it to ‘freshen it up. If you have freinds or aquantences tease you or joke with you about your Slogan. Great it is working remember that!

2. Add Credibility: Any claim made in your advertising which your customer does not perceive as the truth is a horrible waste of ad dollars.” It is better to be considered a trusted hub of information then a self proclaimed expert. That is how “we roll” at Netcommercial.net. We would rather go in with the approach of you, the business owner; know your business and what your customers want. All we do is point those things out quickly and hopefully interestingly, with enough impact so that it is remembered; like a good memory not a bad experience.

3. Test Everything: Large businesses have a greater margin to waste capital Small businesses do not have the luxury. I always suggest using an 800# for businesses who are making the leap into TV spot ads. What better way to field calls when they come into a number used exclusively for you ad campaign. Along with having access to their number, because after all it is your dime they are calling on. I also recommend web page flyin’s. Those are those pesky flyins that ask one to sign up for a news letter. However, the cheap skate in me usually only signs up with his “free email address” when I am offered a coupon or later discount offers by doing so.

4. Be Easy to Contact: Every single brochure, box, email and all company literature should have full contact information including: website and email address, phone and fax numbers, and company address. This is the beauty of the Internet, a static page of information for a client or potential client to reference 24/7. This is why Video internet commercials are on the rise. What is better? A static page or electric magazine with color pictures and fancy font… Or a short video commercial that delivers your Motto, Slogan or Message every time all the time?

5.Match Ads to Target: Successful business advertising speaks to one target market only. Example: If you are skateboard shop you would use the same tools yet target differently. The ads would be geared to younger people and what they are into as well as collaborating with a clothing line or the likes of. If Netcommercial were to do a commercial for Bob’s Skate Emporium how great would it be to get an up and coming skate shoe or clothing line to split the commercial costs, where their line is in your commercial. Both benefit with a soft sale approach. Bob’s is the place to find the line and the line is what is being demonstrated. Win-Win.

6. Create Curiosity: Successful business advertising does not sell a product or service. Create ads that generate interest and make the customer want more information. I kinda delved into this by exampling Targeting. Netcommercial’s ad if you previewed it, was all about marketing, targeting, branding and networking. Not how great we are or demonstrating video effects to show off editing software. We simply create curiosity of what we can do for you and your business.

Right here is where I should cut off or stop this article and cause one to have to sign up for my RSS feed to read on. Or use a Pesky Flyin page… Instead, I merely recommend or ask you sign for my RSS feed or hit my Social Media button or Bookmark me. We do not sell your information rather we simply send out specials to those who have inquired or who are fans.
I say all the time; “I will remember this site.” But I always forget later. Hit Control and the “D” keys on you keyboard and you have bookmarked this article for later reference.

Ways of Advertising one’s business…

Cheap Ways of Advertising My Business …
Advertising a new business doesn’t have to break your businesses start-up budget. There are many cost-effective ways to promote your services online and in person. Before you begin promoting, make sure that you have a memorable business name, a tag line that states what your business does and a well-designed logo. And stick with it! As mentioned above. The Internet is by far the cheapest way to advertise, other then word of mouth or referrals.
At first, it seems very complex …
To many business owners, starting an advertising campaign seems a bit overwhelming. So many questions to address! I felt the same way when I first started.
Yet I found it’s really quite simple. Advertising a business requires a systematic and methodical approach. Some companies spend a full 10% of their gross income on advertising, others just 1%. Research and experiment to see what works best for your business. (IAB XMOS) campaign studies in the US several (XMOST) studies in Canada came up with:
Your total ad spend, a minimum of 10-15% share towards online is required to do a good job.If you are Online and that is the Bolster of your business then obviously your percentage will commensurate.
So if you are a consumable product like ice cream. You will use up to 15% towards online ads and the other 85% would be “other ads” Be it Newspaper, mailer or coupons etc..

You’ll face two challenges. First off is awareness and gaining visibility and trust from consumers that your product the product your selling is right for them. If they have never heard of it, then you can’t really expect much sales.
Secondly, branding/awareness. Your method of attack or approach using a Drip method. Be it in the mailbox or ??

A lot of factors go into calculating an online media budget, such as:
– What’s your accepted allowable expenditure? (Your budget set aside to make a business)
– What’s you minimal (Rate of Investment for Return) Or R.O.I goal?
– Do you want to go national or regional? (A video commercial will give a small company that ‘big time feel)
– If regional, what markets? (This is where you will decide where to place your video commercial)
– How large is the audience size your product will attract? ( Does you video need to be broad or niche’)
– Of that audience size, how many people do you really need to reach with advertisement, drive to your site and obviously the number that will purchase? (Do they coupon or the likes of?)
– How much ad frequency will you need to actually attract consumers to your website? (How many spot ads?)
-How long before you refresh your video? (Most use a video for 18 months before refreshing or re-shooting the same message)
– Are you going to use an ad server in which you can track post impression vs post click conversions?(Funny commercial vids area great for this to go ‘viral. Viral=’free national ad)
– Is your product easily promoted through a banner or is it complicated that it requires Multiple messages or rich media to promote it? Or have you come to the conclusion that a ‘snappy’ video commercial would be best?
– What’s your value proposition? ( Do you bring a certain value to the table or are you just a prompt where house?)

-Is this a product that is in current demand?
– Who would you consider your competitors? And how much are they spending? Both online as well as offline? (You need to compete, it is a shark tank out here)
– Have you considered most spend at the very least, a couple of hundred towards advertising a month? (A video drip campaign that you use for 18 months could turn out to be very cost effective)
– What would your effective cpm rate need to be? (CPM may refer to: cost per mille, the advert cost per thousand views
Cost per impression, the online advert cost per thousand views M=1000 in roman numerals so CPM = C=Cost P=Per M=1,000 as in banner advertising you pay for each 1,000 ad views your banner gets)
– Would it be possible to partner with sites on a cpc or cpa model?
– Do you have a crm program in place where you offer users, the opportunity to receive more information from you via email if they are not ready to push the buy button? (That is that flyin page I referred to above or Social Media/Bookmark button)
– What’s your testing strategy? Can you test different offers? What’s your re messaging strategy? (800#’s, Adwords)

For any Drip campaign, not only do I look at Google and Yahoo search, but I would also include in the mix: ad networks, portals, shopping sites, co-reg and affiliate marketing.(Affiliate Marketing is like that Skate ad mentioned above or getting a reciprocal link) The nice thing about a commercial not only will it Brand, or create familiarity with a company but it can be used in a showroom or Kiosk. So if there is a competitor One knows they are on the right site or in the right store. Some will even ask or say; “You guys are the ones with the “(jingle-jingle?) or Slogan?”

How much money should I spend on advertising my company?

What percentage should I put into my company for advertising?
The retail industry provides some good examples. While Wal-Mart (WMT) might spend a meager 0.4% of sales on advertising, the sheer size of the company turns that tiny percentage into a significant budget. Wal-Mart’s nominally higher-margin competitor, Target (TGT), spends closer to 2% of its sales on advertising, while Best Buy (BBY), as a specialty retailer, spends upwards of 3%. Finally, more upscale stores like Macy’s typically spend on the order of 5%.

The same kind of ratios can be seen in the car industry (automakers’ generally spend 2.5% to 3.5% of revenue on marketing), liquor (5.5% to 7.5%), packaged goods (4% to 10%), and every other industry.

If you’re in a services business, you might want to bump your starting point higher than 5%. For example, like most professional services firms, my company is more margin-oriented than volume-oriented, so fueling its growth requires that we spend a higher percentage of our revenues. Last year, our number was just over 8%, and I’ve seen companies spend upwards of 15% when warranted—especially young companies that need to invest to build their brand.
If you spend 250.00 a month on line for ads, wouldn’t you agree that having a link to a smooth video or pitch would be more advantageous then a GIF or JPG and 2 lines of sentence?
Example: Bob’s Skate Emporium, “Where we have the latest stuff.”
Instead, have your 2 lines say: “Find out why we are preferred!” and then your link to a video commercial, where it is your canned message or slogan to further peak interest of your product or service.

Marketing, Not Just Advertising…

It’s important to make a qualification here. Giant consumer corporations such as automakers, packaged food manufacturers, and retail chains spend a huge percentage of their marketing dollars on paid media advertising, the most visible (and expensive) tool in the marketing toolbox. Depending on the size of your company and the business you’re in, this advertising might not be the right (and certainly not the only) tool for you. Although a testimonial video will fit in with any business. After all if you say something is so as a business owner it is hearsay, when someone else says it; it’s fact.

A professional services company like my own is a good case in point. While we serve a national clientele, we are much too small to effectively advertise on a national scale. Maybe after our Franchise availability is in full effect? As a result, we don’t purchase paid media advertising.
But we do have an aggressive marketing program built around tactics like writing useful articles that could or should be charged for or cause for subscription. By using Direct mail, door hangers (local) online marketing and Social Media we stay busy. After all, the first step in considering buying something is almost synonymous with Googling or Searching “key words” like Internet Commercial(s) for business or Video for Websites.
For a variety of reasons, paid advertising might not be right for your company either, but events or sponsoring them, vehicle Graphics, point-of-sale displays, Kiosks or other tactics certainly could be. Yet one thing holds true that by creating your own Brand or Motto via video be it a commercial for T.V cable or simply parked on your Website or Kiosk. Your message is delivered the way you want it all the time, every time.
As always if you enjoyed this article or would like to comment on it please include the words advertising for business in your comment text. Sadly you must include those words in your comment text due to spam and auto bots trying to rank these billions of generic sites.

“When they are surfing the Net and you don’t want them to forget!”
Netcommercial.net