Advertising: I Know I Need It, But I Can't Afford It!

Laura Briere, President, Vision Advertising

Not every business requires advertising, but many do. Unfortunately many businesses advertise for the wrong reason – they feel they have to and do not have a well thought-out plan. Advertising and marketing is all about strategy. Without a strategy, the New England Patriots could never have defeated Carolina Panthers in Superbowl XXXVIII. Business is the same thing - company vs. company – competition all vying for the same tasty morsel of business. Every game is different, businesses are different, and thus, every advertising strategy is different.

Advertising comes in all shapes and sizes and has many different features and price tags. One common myth is that you have to be rich to advertise! If you do it wrong, that is certainly true. But if you have a game plan, your business can afford to include advertising in the marketing mix.

Should You Advertise?

First the why. When you take your company and stack it up to your competitor based on merit alone, what have you? Most likely you have two really good companies that equally deserve business. Unfortunately, life and business don’t work that way. You have to fight for the business to come to YOUR door before it goes to your competition. One of the best weapons is advertising. With advertising, you can promote the reasons why people should do business with you rather than the other guy, increase awareness of you to your audience, and promote special incentives to your target as a “call to action.”

Then the who. When making a decision to advertise as part of your marketing mix, to ask yourself the following questions:

Are my primary customers are the consumer?
Do I need to reach a very large audience regularly?
Am I new to the community and need to ensure that they are familiar with my business?
Does my business require me to obtain a high volume of customers?
Is my sales cycle relatively short, i.e. can I see an immediate return on investment?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you are a prime candidate for including advertising into your marketing plan. But even if you answered no to these questions, do not necessarily rule out advertising as an effective way to reach a large population very quickly.

Cost verses Value in Advertising

You’ve decided that advertising can benefit your business, but ohmygoodness, it costs so MUCH! When faced with this problem, some companies skip it all together, which may be a big mistake. Others use the “spaghetti strategy” where they throw it up against the wall and see what sticks. Or, minus the metaphor, advertising intermittently in whatever looks like the least expensive publication (thinking any advertising is better than none) and hoping something brings in business - another big mistake. Tsk, tsk.

The smart companies build a strategy and put it into action. The advertising they do is RIGHT for them, they can afford it, and they have made a way for it to happen. These companies target the right publications, which will have the highest return on investment. This is the category you want to be in.

Developing Your Advertising Strategy

Companies that successfully drive business through advertising and get the most from their advertising dollar develop a strategy. We are assuming that you have developed an overall marketing plan for your business, and advertising has been identified as a marketing program that you want to include in your marketing mix. If you have not already developed your marketing plan, refer back to the article “Build a Solid Marketing Foundation”, as much of the information you will need should be developed in that plan.

However, if you have a marketing plan, the following additional information will help you develop your advertising strategy.

First you need to develop your advertising objectives. Are you trying to raise awareness or generate qualified leads? Are you looking for an immediate response or are you cultivating new prospects?
Once you have your objectives, you need to define your value in both logical and emotional terms. Rational value is cost, location, or features. Emotional value includes how a client will feel, look, or be perceived.
Now you need to identify your target audience from the perspective of what media this audience is most likely to read. By understanding the habits of your target audience, you will be able to choose the media that will reach the greatest number of prospects.
Next comes your choice of media products including print, broadcast, Internet or items like billboards, buses or taxis. Your budget and your target audience will determine the mix. Pick the media products that put your company directly in front of your audience.
Once you have identified these, only then can you develop your creative message that grabs your attention, makes you interested, makes you desire the product and has a clear call to action/purchase.

How to Afford Advertising

Now here’s the best part: there are ways to execute your advertising strategy that is affordable. Once you have selected the media products that fit your business, you can determine a series of advertisements and the placement fees that are associated with the plan. Most publications have varying fees based on size, color and frequency. You don’t need to do a full-page color ad to be effective. Don’t spend outside of your means. Start small, but with frequency. You will begin to see some results even from a small ad.

For example, if you have decided to advertise in the local business journal, the cost to run in their publication for a six-month term for a ¼ page ad with no color is $10,000 (round number). If that is too steep for your budget, try to get something slightly different. If this is the right publication for your business, do not pass up the chance to capitalize on it. Here are some options for keeping your costs aligned with your budget:

Never be afraid to ask for a discounted rate. They may say no, but they may also say yes.
Run your advertising campaign for a year instead. Although your total budget will be higher, your per-issue rate will be lower and you will extend your exposure to your audience. Most publications bill you monthly so your cash flow will benefit.
Go with a smaller ad, but use color to ensure visibility. Most publications like business journals are black and white but provide a single color option. Color attracts attention first, not size.
If advertising is important to you, look for other ways to save and use the money for marketing. Go back through your budget and look at your expenses carefully. Are there ways that you can trim some fat? Check other expenses that are truly expenses and see if there is a way to save.

If none of these options work, resort to plan B. Here it is. Slice and dice the budget you DO have into alternative advertising methods that work for your target. Perhaps a Chamber of Commerce newsletter that has a similar demographic and circulation might be the right thing to do for you. It would cost less and does not come out as often, but you would be hitting the same target.

Getting Outside Help

Advertising is one area we stress getting some professional help. Normally we support businesses doing things for themselves when it makes sense, like for sales tools, web sites and collateral development. However, advertising is an area where you probably do not benefit from doing it yourself.

The major reason is that the media venue pays advertising agencies for the placement to encourage more volume from the agency. You still pay the same rate as if you went to the publication directly, but you don’t need to pay the agency for the media buy. There are other benefits of working with an agency:

The advertising agency may offer to create the ad for you if they do the media buy and place the ad. In other words, for the price of the ad placement, you get the ad created for you by the agency. Not all of them do this, but always check.
Getting your message across in an ad is difficult. How do you make the prospect understand why they should do business with you in such a small space? Using outside agents to help develop the ad can be beneficial.
A poorly created ad is a waste of money. Doing it for your self may look unprofessional and low budget. Getting an expert to come up with the creative will make your ad stand out from the crowd. They have experience in working with the various publications and understand all the guidelines that need to be followed so that your ad gets placed properly.
Given the large number of potential target publications, you may want to get unbiased help from someone who has access to all the different media kits and can help you determine which are the best publications for your business.

One final word of advice for all you happy advertisers out there in business-land - do NOT give in to solicitations that haunt you by phone promising “It’s only $199! ...Limited time offer!” Unless that venue is on your list of what is right for you, hang up.