Think “va va voom” and undoubtedly a product will spring to mind.  This demonstrates the power of good advertising.  It’s not simply down to the quality of the product, although this is important for long-term customer loyalty, but is more to do with the quality of the advertisement and the thought behind it.

Creating an ad with impact that leaves a lasting positive impression on your target audience can be an extremely good way of reinforcing your company reputation and building brand awareness.  Combined with other marketing activity, advertising is an effective way of getting your name and image in front of potential customers. 

However, if used incorrectly, as many companies discover, advertising can prove to be extremely costly, not only in terms of money, but also of reputation.  It’s important to get it right! 

Advertising is not just about generating any old response; it is about generating responses from people who are seriously interested in your product or service.  Ideally, the generated interest will outlive the advertisement itself. 

Before you embark on an ad campaign, there’s a lot to consider.  Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Establish what you hope to achieve.  Is advertising the best way to achieve it?  Seek professional advice if you’re not sure.  There’s no point in diving feet first into an ad campaign if a different marketing activity would do the job better. 

• Be realistic.  One ad, appearing once, is rarely going to change the world.  Like all good marketing, the impact of advertising is cumulative.

• Identify the group of people or businesses to whom you wish to sell your product or service and know what you want to tell them.  Tread carefully though – don’t advertise something your company is not.  Similarly, do not advertise a service that you can’t deliver.  It will only backfire!  Remember, your ad must be legal, decent, honest and truthful.

• Where to advertise?  Because there are so many options you need to take a few steps back and look again at your target audience.  Where would they be most likely to see the ad and be receptive to it? 

• Be aware that your message will not be suited to all media.  For example, a high profile peak-time television advertising campaign would not cost-effectively reach the right people if your company primarily sells business-to- business or to a niche market.  In this case, you might look instead at advertising in specialist publications – but make sure you select the right ones; those that will deliver responses of the calibre you require.

• Get the design right.  Good design is crucial to the success of an advertisement and must grab the audience’s attention and imagination.  A poor advertisement will go unnoticed.  It is essential that the ad is immaculately planned, well thought out and faultlessly designed to encapsulate or reinforce the company message. 

• Keep it simple.   Don’t bombard the audience with too many messages.  It is important to remember that an ad should get the message across, without overloading the recipient.  Make sure the message is simple, to the point, and accurate.  Remember, too, to sell the benefit, not the product.

• Advertising is a hugely time consuming task and one which requires a great deal of background research and specialist media knowledge.  This is where you should call in the experts.  An external agency will reduce your workload and use its experience and media knowledge to tailor an effective advertising campaign to suit your company and its budget.  A good agency will also negotiate the best advertising rates on your company’s behalf, which may free up budget to spend elsewhere.

• Make sure you have the resources in place to respond to enquiries quickly.  Making promises you can’t deliver won’t win customers in the long term, so make sure you make something of the sales leads; after all, that’s why you were advertising in the first place wasn’t it?

For more information about effective advertising, talk to us on 01904 610077.

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