Have you been looking to expand your business and are unsure of where to advertise? Are you a small business considering your advertising options? Are you a business looking to advertise on a national level?
Advertising refers to how you promote and expose customers to your business. When you start advertising, you'll need to decide where you want to promote your business, how you want to advertise, and the message you want to send. Before you start advertising, you need to define the goal of your advertising campaigns and what needs to be done to execute the campaign.
- What are you looking to sell?
- What message do you want to send?
- Are you looking to gain new customers?
- Are you looking to market to existing customers?
- What made you decide to advertise?
- What is your budget?
Once these have been decided, you can work toward determining the platform(s/) on which you will advertise.
Local Advertising
A local advertising plan targets potential customers in your community and allows you to interact with them. Your goal should be to draw patrons to your store/shop/office, and your efforts need to highlight your reputation in your community, your goods and services, the positive customer feedback you have received, your expertise, your hours of operation, and your location.
Local advertising requires direct methods, such as putting your business name on a youth sports program's uniforms, having a booth at a local festival or local market, issuing special offers, or sponsoring a local school's art fundraiser. Having business cards and fliers made and placing them around town, connecting you with your community while also patronizing other businesses. Add a decal to your vehicle to get your name around town and show off your business. Attend meetings and professional groups (Chamber of Commerce, local or national chapters, civic associations, and local business groups/) to gain exposure.
You can collect store and website visitor email addresses for mass-distribution of news, and sales and promotions. You can also post your business on local directories (e.g., YP.com/) for a small fee (sometimes free of charge/).
For around $500 you can also post an advertisement in a local non-color print magazine or newspaper. This may seem like an older method, but people still read the want ads and newspapers. Also, a 30-minute spot on local television runs for a small fraction of the price of a nationwide commercial, so you may want to consider that route.
Celebratory events can be used to advertise locally. Having a grand opening? Offer grand opening introductory deals, sales prices, meal offers, perks, or membership fee reduction for early joiners.
National Advertising
A national advertising plan focuses on attracting customers to your business's products/services while selling your brand. The idea of a specific demographic to target has to be taken into consideration because national advertising relies heavily on relating to the consumer.
You'll find you'll primarily need to rely on the power of the internet and other mass media outlets (e.g., network television and national magazines/). If you're "going big," you need to have a deep advertising wallet, especially with the average price of $110,000 per 30-second commercial on network television and a national magazine advertisement averaging $20,000.
The top ways you can advertise nationally are:
- Television commercial
- Radio commercial
- Newspaper advertisement
- Magazine advertisement
- Mail advertisement
- Telemarketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO/)
- Pay-per-click marketing
- Web content marketing campaign
Of course not every national advertising method requires a large budget with the internet these days and email collection applications for mass-communication, but if you're advertising at a national level, then you're company will need to be able to support the business.
Advertising for All
- Use basic SEO on your website, so internet search engines understand the content of the pages on your site.
- Add a blog to your website and create posts on a weekly basis on your industry and expertise.
- Leverage social media and show your expertise. Post videos and links to articles and advertisements. Increase your online presence and market your brand.
- Pay to boost your most popular posts on social media sites to target existing and potential customers.
- Setup up a listing for your business on internet search engines local directories, such as Google, Bing, Yelp, etc.
- Create your business profiles on social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and Pinterest.
- Ask your customers to provide reviews on your business on these platforms.
- Sign up for an email service and send emails, newsletters, and/or promotional offers to your customers and prospects for your business.
- Collaborate with the vendors you buy products or services from.
- Ask for referrals from your existing customers and employees.
- Publicize your publicity and share it on your website and in your portfolio.
No matter the type of advertising you are conducting for your business, whether it be local or nationwide, your goal is to make an impression (or in the digital world, receive them/). If you follow your advertising plan and constantly think of creative ways to get your brand out there, you can effectively gain exposure and clientele for your business.
Looking to Invest in Advertising?
If you find yourself needing to find funding for advertising, First Union Lending is here to help.
We have nine different business loan types to choose from. This means that we're uniquely qualified to help you find the perfect loan to open your small business.
Applying for a business loan doesn't affect your credit. Better yet, your business loan may be approved as soon as the same day.
To discuss our business loans with one of our lending experts, click here or call 863-825-5626. We'll talk about our various business loans and help you find the right one for your advertising plan.
Get started with the process now by learning more about our business loan types here.