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ADVERTISING GUIDELINES
Effective advertising and promotion is built on specific information not on hunches or hopes. Conducting a periodic promotion audit can help you promote your business to its markets more effectively.
Your advertising & promotional efforts are adjuncts to more direct methods of selling,not substitutes.
Advertising and promotion are not substitutes for selling.
Advertising is what you do when you can't have a salesperson work directly with the prospect. Advertisements can make prospects aware of you, make them receptive to your products and services, and even stir them to call or write for more information. But they can't replace ongoing
sales efforts.
Effective creativity is based on
i. thorough knowledge of products,
ii.target markets, and
iii competitive conditions.
Your advertising agency has to know what your objectives are, what your budget is, and when you plan to run your campaign.
Advertising and promotion have to be managed the same way you manage other parts of your business. You have to know what resources you can afford to commit to them, what you want to accomplish, and how to form a coherent strategy that ties in with your broader business and marketing goals.
Many small businesses have discovered that marketing geared at drawing online visitors is the single most important part of building an online presence.
Simply creating a Web site does not guarantee that users will visit it, so many businesses now advertise on the Internet through online city guides and yellow pages. An online yellow page directory
allows companies to expand their geographic reach beyond local customers, connects businesses with consumers who are ready to buy, and gives users the ability to search the directory's listings in a variety of ways.
Advertising Myths
There are three myths advertising myths in the industry :
1. Word-of-Mouth Advertising
2.Creative and Clever Advertising
3.Self-Made Advertising
WORD - OF - MOUTH ADVERTISING
"You can rely on word-of-mouth advertising."
This is usually an excuse to not invest in advertising rather than a good way to gain customers. Passive word of mouth is always ineffective.
Happy customers tell an average of 0.7 other people if they have had a positive experience with you. Unhappy customers tell 11 to 20 other people.
Word-of-mouth advertising can be made to work, but it requires discipline and a programmatic effort:
Ask customers for referrals.
Make it easy for them-give them brochures, flyers, samples, or whatever it takes to make your case.
Then follow up.
Used in conjunction with other media, word of mouth can be extremely effective.
CREATIVE & CLEVER ADVERTISING
"Only highly creative and clever advertising works." Not true.
Clearly targeted and consistent advertising works. It does not have to be creative and clever. Some of the most effective promotions merely keep the name of a small business in the public's view-sponsoring a local team, running a consistent advertisement in the local paper, making sure to use the Yellow Pages. Nothing particularly creative or clever here, so it won't win prizes, but it works.
SELF MADE ADVERTISING
"You can save money by doing your own advertising" This is a bogus savings.
Ineffective advertising is expensive. Advertising that does work, that informs your markets honestly, accurately, and effectively, is worth its high initial costs. Professionals can put your message
together faster and make it more effective than you can-especially since you can tell them who your customers are, what and how and when & why they buy from you rather than from the Competition.