Top Tips for Advertising
Who will buy your product?
If you’re producing hand-tooled leather briefcases you’re aiming at senior-management professionals. Cheerful plastic luggage sets will be popular with manual workers who enjoy package holidays. Stereotypes yes – but in advertising you can’t afford to ignore them.
Where are their eyeballs?
You’ve defined your punters, now investigate what they read and look at. At the basic level this is an obvious science – you won’t sell retirement chalets in a teen magazine or roller-blades in Pensioners Post. Now make your study more specific. Look in Writers & Artists Yearbook for information on all national newspapers and almost every magazine published in the UK.
On the other hand, if you’re selling a children product – bespoke doll’s houses, garden swings – remember who’s most likely to have the sentiment and the savings to snap them up. Doting grandparents! And what do they read? Pensioners Post etc.
The National Press. Who advertises in the big national papers and why? Well just have a look – it’s seems only the big corporations can afford the thousands of pounds for a single insertion, more in the glossy supplements – cars, drinks, financial services, telecoms are featured regularly. Can a small company benefit from splashing out alongside these giants? It’s possible, especially if you have a niche product. Investigate the smaller box ads of the lifestyle Sunday supplements.
Study Where the Competition is Advertising. Make a note of regular advertisements. If a company appears long-term in a magazine, it’s likely they’re getting a response. If you sell bathroom suites and you see a dozen bathroom shops in the back of a publication don’t assume that there’s no point you placing your ad there too. Maybe the magazine is familiar with consumers as a source of such products. They like the wide choice of companies from which to make a comparison. Placing your ad alongside similar firms means you can share in the market.
Local Hero. Some businesses have geographically defined catchment areas – for example leisure centers, car showrooms and other site-specific businesses where the punters have to come to you. Local advertising is clearly most appropriate – press, leaflet drops, posters etc. But in certain niche markets or where you have a unique selling point, people may travel from far and wide. Discount warehouses attract bargain hunters and restaurants with unique reputations can bring in gourmets for “destination dining”. If you can develop such a USP then advertising your local business nationally can bring big rewards.
Be Eccentric. A man selling imported rugs from a shed in his garden has made a good living for years. He advertises via a couple of lines and a phone number in the back of a magazine. He has no website, fax or fancy brochures and lives out in the country. People turn up, look at his rugs and buy them. It works through reverse psychology and appeals to people who hate consumer hype. Many of them travel miles and look on it as a day out. There are lots of other examples of this kind of grass-roots enterprise. Maybe elements of it would work for your products.
Monitor the Response. Always ask callers where they heard about you, and keep records so you can see which of your advertisements are working best. In separate advertisement you can add codes to your address or ask respondents to quote an offer number – this way you can monitor automatically.
How much to spend?
Initially you might be tempted to fork out an arm and a leg on advertising – and sales reps will be only too pleased to help you! Advertising is one of the easiest ways to throw money down the drain. It can also bring money flooding back to you. It’s all about being selective: study the market, experiment a little, monitor the response and if an advertisement isn’t working, spend the money elsewhere.