Talk to almost any advertising agency, or Fortune 500
company exec about advertising and promotion, and you will almost certainly
hear the buzz words "fragmented advertising" and
"consumer-centric campaigns" and long discussions about the many
pitfalls and difficulties of creating effective advertising campaigns today.
What is fragmentation exactly? It's the increase in the
number of available methods for getting your message to your audience.
One of the main difficulties faced by any entrepreneur is
that advertising has changed and evolved over the last few years. It now
includes visual, audio and electronic media.
In fact, if you do a Google search for advertising, you may
feel overwhelmed by all the options available to you now -- if you just look at
the options for your Website you'll find popups, popovers, audio messages,
flash video, RSS, even animated "salespeople" that can be programmed
to appear right on your Website and interact with your customers. And that's
just the tip of the iceberg!
So, is traditional advertising -- which includes billboards,
radio, television, newspaper and magazine -- dead?
Not by a long shot. According to one top advertising mogul,
traditional advertising methods are still around because they still work.
The trick is to figure out who your target market is, what
they want, and how they look for that information.
Mark Twain said, "Many a small thing has been made
large by the right kind of advertising."
If you know customers, you can spend your advertising
dollars on the mediums they use to look for answers.
If your customers are senior citizens who are not online,
then focus the majority of your advertising dollars on the newspapers,
magazines, television, and radio that they are reading, watching or listening
to.
If your target market is working parents, you need to know
how, when and where they get their information. Is it on the Internet? What
radio stations do they listen to? What magazines are they reading? Do they
watch television? When? Why?
So, what are your best options for creating an effective
advertising campaign?
Here are some simple steps:
1. Know your audience.
What do they want? Where do they shop? What do they read?
How old are they? Where do they hang out? Do they need your product or
services? Can they afford your product or services?
2. Know your competition.
Be prepared to do a little detective work. What are your
three main competitors doing to advertise? Where are they advertising? How
often? What types of advertising methods are they using? How long have they
been running? Are you reaching the same audience? Is your message different?
Look at what they're doing right, and figure out creative
ways that you can make your advertising just a little bit better, or
differentiate yourself from the crowd.
3. Next, take a look at what the "big dogs" in your field are
doing,
…and see if you can
adapt some of their methods to your target audience and your budget.
4. Know your message.
What exactly are you trying to say? What do your customers
want to hear? Why should they buy from you, and not someone else? Make every
word count.
Chances are, your customers are much more tech-savvy than
they were five years ago, or even one year ago. The Internet has made
unbelievable amounts of information accessible, but it also has contributed to
the "information overload" consumers complain of.
Another side effect of the Internet is that your customers
have probably become used to getting "instant gratification" when
they are looking for information, products or services. They want it, and they
want it now. Are you giving your customers what they want, when they want it?
If you want to have an effective advertising campaign, don't
try to be everything to everyone. Think of your advertising as a conversation
between you and your one "ideal" customer.
Remember, if you're giving your customers what they want,
they don't perceive your ads as a nuisance, they see them as a service.
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