5 Fast Fixes to Jump-Start Your Advertising Strategy
Advertising is a whole lot more complicated than just arranging TV spots, creating billboards and launching ads on social media. There’s a lot of thought and strategy that goes into successful advertising campaigns, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for businesses. Every business has different needs to fit and different customers and clients to reach, and every advertising platform has different options and requirements to fill. So how do you make sure your advertising strategy will work for you?
Before you launch your next big advertising campaign, make sure you follow these five important tips for success.
Reach the right audience
Before you put any time, effort or money into your advertising campaign, you need to make sure you know your target audience well. Without this important step, your campaigns will be a waste.
“If you don’t know your target market, it’s impossible to create effective advertising,” said Louisa Levit, co-founder of web development company Reliable PSD. “In fact, the majority of the work in advertising is compiling this target-market research.”
Make your campaign measurable
Big companies may be able to get away with throwing away money on big advertising campaigns that may or may not be effective, but small businesses have to be much more careful in their ad strategies.
Location, location, location
If your business has one or more physical locations, it’s important to make the most of your company’s geography, said Marc Prosser, co-founder of Internet publishing firm Marc Waring Ventures and publisher at Fit Small Business.
“I recommend setting up separate pages on your site for each of the areas you service,” Prosser said. “That might mean a city and two or three suburbs, or it might mean individual neighborhoods. Use Google Keyword Planner to see what people are searching in your area, and focus on those targets.”
Once you set up these pages, you’ll want to keep them updated to maintain their search rankings, Prosser said.
“One easy way to do this is to post reviews from Yelp and other sources on your site,” he said. “That way, you’ll make sure your local pages are all up to date and high up on Google’s rankings in the areas you cover.”
Be consistent
When you’re advertising on several different platforms, it’s necessary to make various changes to your campaign to fit each platform. But overall, your message should be very consistent.
Add urgency to campaigns
When it comes to direct-response advertising — or advertising meant to generate sales more so than brand awareness — it’s all about contextual relevancy and urgency.
