If you're looking for how to grow your business then a large contributor to business growth is when you displace the right marketing strategies and methods. Advertising is one effective branch of marketing composed of free or paid forms of promoting your brand, products, and services. However, like any other marketing technique, your advertising campaigns should yield a return on investment for your business.
Fortunately, modern marketers are overflowing with creative concepts and ideas for advertising. You can access various mediums, from conventional TV to digital advertisements like promotional photos and podcasts. The key is ensuring you target your audience and successfully execute the campaign.
If you're ready to start advertising your growing business, you can rely on these essential tips and suggestions:
1. Printed Collaterals
Conventional advertising mediums like magazines, flyers, pamphlets, and newspapers remain valuable even in these modern times. The products for growing small businesses should be showcased and advertised using these printed advertisement mediums. Flyers are a great way for businesses to promote their products and services to the public. Whether it be for a special event, a new product launch, or just to build brand awareness, Wepik offers a variety of customizable flyer templates to help businesses get the word out.
Also, magazines continue to be an effective medium for people to check brands and trends for everyday life. In the past, magazines had distinct audiences, and large ads were available in full color. Marketers can easily target relevant consumers through magazines since they have a highly targeted audience. In general, audiences expect your advertising to be relevant and interesting. Also, magazines may have a strong brand that adds credibility to your ad, which is another advantage.
While it's true that many magazines have gone digital, there's still a good retaining percentage of people who prefer physical copies. After all, the shelf life of magazines is much longer than that of other printed media. The average reader keeps a magazine for several weeks after purchasing it. They can keep rereading the content as often as possible, giving your brand more leverage and exposure.
Generally, printed ads are effectively distributed to many people and shared among their friends and colleagues. When it comes to advertisement options, printed ads can come in vibrant colors and mono-colored ones, giving you more choices according to your marketing budget.
Magazine and newspaper advertisements also allow you to choose the space so you can customize how much exposure you want for your brand. However, it's worth noting that your readers will be attracted to your content if you use bright colors and appealing photography.
2. Audio Channels
While it's true that the rising trend for video advertisements is gaining momentum in various fields and industries, one can't underestimate the efficacy of audio advertisements too. In fact, audio dominated communication for many years.
When radio technology was first launched in the 19th century, marketers and business owners took advantage of it to promote their businesses. However, television and the internet eventually pushed it back to the background. But needless to say, prominent audio channel users still rely on this medium for informational resources, which can impact their buying power.
Here are the two audio channels you should consider when launching a business ad:
– Radio
The history of radio ads dates back to 1912 when record companies gave broadcasters free music in exchange for mentioning the company that provided the recording. These sponsored programs continued to be an effective advertising method for different brands and businesses worldwide. Even today, radio continues to be extremely popular among listeners and advertisers.
This kind of advertisement is essential for businesses that want to have diverse methods of reaching out to their prospects. Because the truth is, some still prefer listening to audio copies to watching videos. Despite the advancement of the digital revolution, this conventional advertising medium will continue to be a mainstay.
Another advantage of radio advertising is that it's very accessible, especially for people and regions that don't have internet connectivity. When it comes to infographics, a huge percentage of Gen Xers, millennials, and baby boomers continue to listen to the radio today.
If you're a small business looking for a cost-effective advertising alternative, radio advertisements are perfect for you. With frequent messages to consumers, advertisers won't have to spend all their budget on expensive ads.
– Podcast
Another effective audio advertising medium is the podcast. Podcast advertising is currently growing, and there has been an increasing number of podcast subscribers in recent years. Through podcast advertising, podcast hosts and narrators can insert advertising products and services in between their content.
It’s more likely that users will consider products if they’ve heard about them on podcasts. Also, there's a forecast that the number of podcast listeners will grow over the next few years. As with radio, podcasts can also take advantage of more conversational advertising.
Podcasts are seen as a more intimate way of reaching out to listeners and prospects since the hosts usually speak about specialized topics rarely discussed and tackled on commercial radio stations. A host's credibility with their audience is generally built over time, and promotions are generally made in their own words.
3. Catchy Headline
Another essential for effective advertising is a catchy ad headline. Advertisers use headlines to promote goods or services. Advertisements can be printed or digital and usually emphasize a product's primary purpose or benefit. Most advertisers aim to convince people to buy their products by creating catchy and noticeable ad headlines and combining them with images. Often, companies reuse a headline from an ad to form their brand's tagline.
With the saturated and tight competition of many industries today, marketers must create a unique headline that can earn instant attention and interest from readers and viewers; whatever copy or advertising content you're making should come with a catchphrase that’ll raise some attention. An effective headline in an advertisement captures the audience's attention and keeps it.
The headline is the first thing people would read when viewing advertisements digitally or traditionally. This will be the deciding factor as to whether they'll proceed to read and view the body or not. Therefore, it's important to decide who your headline will be geared toward.
Effective headlines can create leads and convert them effectively. For instance, subject headings on emails or newsletters will ensure that your customers will click on the content. There are many types of great headlines, but the key concept is to create a high-impact one.
4. Good Quality Copy Or Story
No matter what the medium is, words tell your brand's story. Therefore, an essential component of advertisements is good quality copy or story. Whether you're creating an article, video, photo, or meme, this should portray a story about your brand or business. Choosing the right words to say can make or break the entire ad. When building your website, ensure to create your content the right way.
The key is to come up with a goal. What message do you want to deliver? You could be launching a concept that relates to your target audience, or you could be sharing a story that earns the sympathy of readers and viewers. No matter your end goal, ensure that the content or copy is engaging and unique. An ad should be well-written and convey a clear message. Also, ensure you don’t copy any of your competitor's or other brand's concepts as this will only backfire on your business.
5. Effective Call-To-Action
Unfortunately, the call-to-action is frequently the most neglected element of your ad. In fact, some advertisers and marketers would forget its importance. Whatever products and services you offer, always incorporate a call-to-action at the end of the ad. You must inform your customers how to purchase your products.
No matter what your advertisement medium is, you should think of a discreet but effective CTA so customers can easily access your products. If you're calling to action through a click, sending you an inquiry, or visiting your store, your CTA should be clear for your customers to react to it.
6. Sense Of Urgency
Another component of any advertisement is creating that sense of urgency. Launching promotional campaigns isn’t because of displaying your products only for people to appreciate from afar—there should be a real-time sales conversion. The goal of your ads isn't just to plant seeds but to get people to act now on your offer.
People may really mean to try a company when they see an advertisement. Most people, however, forget about the advertisement and the product they may have been interested in as they move forward in their lives. To get people to act sooner rather than later, you need to encourage them to act now. Fortunately, there are diverse strategies on how to achieve this goal.
A time-limited offer, for instance, would be irresistible for your consumers to say no to. You can launch discounts and coupons that’ll trigger the buying power of your consumers. They’ll be more likely to act now if they see that they have a limited time to take advantage of an awesome deal. You should make it a point that the offer is too good to say no to.
A sense of urgency can be created in other ways as well. You can create the need now, even when your customers think otherwise. The key is to go through their pain points and see how your products and services can help them improve their lives. Your potential clients need to know that now is the time to take action, no matter how you do it.
Conclusion
The time has come for marketers and business owners to take advantage of numerous channels and mediums to relay and spread their marketing messages to their market. However, since the choice is too many, it's crucial to source those that’d work effectively for your brand and business. By understanding the essentials of advertisements above, you can better plan out a multifaceted media mix. Through experimenting with this mix of media, marketers can take advantage of the best features of each and use them to achieve their business goals.
