If you are the owner of a small business, you are probably aware of the fact that communication, outreach, and folding them into an all-encompassing and savvy advertising campaign is essential to success. However, the different platforms available nowadays, from the old fashioned to the virtual can be daunting, and you might be wondering what tactic to take every day.
If this sounds like you, then read on for a basic primer on different types of advertising media and their advantages.
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Print media or press advertising through newspapers and magazines retain a certain prestige for the different companies that use them. Depending upon the nature of your business, it might help you reach the sort of college-educated, middle class, or upper-middle-class clientele you need to get things going. If you are the owner of say, a small boutique, bookstore, and so on, this might be a great idea to pursue. However, you must also take into account the strength of the paper’s circulation, the geographic region in question – for example, focusing on the local town paper may be enough for your business – and, as previously mentioned, the class of readers it serves.
The Virtual World
The Internet revolution has focused continual attention on online advertising, which utilizes different social media platforms, websites for maximum effect. It is a strategic plan that encompasses a targeted approach to reaching customers using hard data to draw them to your business. This sort of smart strategic planning ensures that the information you need to send out reaches the right consumer base. A website advertising your business products is key, as well as engagement with the online community via platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. This can be considered the “base” of your digital advertising, and SEO, researching user analytics and other tools via Google are the integral pieces that will make the campaign run like a well-oiled machine.
Because people are almost always online nowadays, online advertising might be your safest – and most valuable – bet. Done properly, you can secure a thriving customer base in no time.
Radio Advertising
This is another technique that might sound old fashioned, but it remains a pillar of advertising media. Radio has morphed into private stations available on Sirius, for example, or in the storytelling episodic form in podcasts. The latter especially is a booming industry, with advertisers flocking to the different podcast hosts, and for good reason. Millions of people tune in to the new content available via their phones, tablets, or laptops daily, so an advertising block on only one podcast means being able to reach thousands of listeners, if not more. The marketing potential represented here is invaluable and should be tapped.
In the end, a smart advertising strategy across various multimedia platforms can quickly take your business into the stratosphere. However, it needs to be hammered down into a science, with the details in place and secure: you will quickly find that this could be the most costly aspect of your business, and planning it out properly from the very beginning will save you a lot of money and headaches down the line.