Marketing: Where To
Place Your Offline Ads
Many people new to business or who have just
started their own business are at a loss when it comes to
marketing. I know I was when I first started. Marketing
your business online is one step, but what about offline?
If you are targeting a local market or wish to do so, then
you may wonder where to begin. Most people begin with the
classifieds of the local newspaper.
Sometimes this works, but in my experience
it is only a waste of effort and much-needed money. The
market for most services and products in the larger local
papers is too saturated and the cost of running an eye-catching
ad long enough to be seen is very prohibitive. There are
alternatives, however--many of which have worked for me
and for people I've known.
The best alternatives are smaller publications:
especially those that reach a fairly narrow or targeted
group of people. Small newsletters, weekly newspapers, special
interest magazines, etc. are great sources of advertising
at a reasonable cost. Chances are that if you're in a business,
you subscribe to that business market's trade magazines
and publications. Right? So do your potential customers!
Another alternative, especially for businesses
who serve a fairly broad market and who aim for lower and
medium-income people, are classified newspapers. There are
many publications (usually weekly) that carry nothing but
classified ads. The "Thrifty Nickel" ads are one
of the larger publications of this type--they publish locally,
but have an office and distribution area in most parts of
the country. The ad rates in these publications are inexpensive
and gather a lot of exposure. Further, if you talk long-term
with a salesperson from these publications, you can always
get more bang for your buck. Ask for a larger ad, or a display
ad of some kind and offer a longer contract (say six months)
for the larger ad at the smaller ad's dollar figure. Because
this is money up front and guaranteed sold space in their
publication (and since they're usually on commission) they
will generally agree.
More alternatives include movie theaters,
co-op advertising, and small-scale mailbox advertising.
Movie theater advertising (slideshows, posters, etc.) can
be expensive, but if you target a broad market, will pay
off in the long run.
Co-op advertising includes mass-mail coupon
packets, mass-mail postcard packets, multi-ad bulletin boards,
shared television time, and other cooperative advertising
elements. These can be very low-cost and beneficial, especially
if those involved together can offer a strategic partnership
of some kind (i.e. a printing press and an independent small-scale
editor).
If you're on a very tight budget and need
results quickly, traditional forms of contact including
cold-calling and door-to-door sales can get you out of trouble
in the short run. If you offer a long-term service, you
may get continual contracts from these forms of advertising.
However, they are very time-consuming and can be a waste
of resources - especially if you carry printed materials
with you. The turnaround rate for these is fairly low, as
most of the decision-makers may not be on-sight in the buildings
you target and most people can see a salesperson (this would
be you) coming a mile away and have a large list of refusals
pre-programmed in their minds to turn you away. Telephone
calls are not much better as the person answering is rarely
the person you need to talk to. In fact, the person answering
the phone is generally employed to keep people like you
from "bothering" the person in charge.
A great alternative to cold-calls is print
mail. Postcards are inexpensive and more effective than
envelopes and make a great first impression. Especially
if well designed and written. The front of the post card
should be simple and contain only your return address, the
prospect's address, and your other contact info. The back
of the card should include color elements to catch their
eye (a logo perhaps) and large print headlines to get their
attention. Your sales message must be brief, to the point,
and geared towards getting their reaction (i.e. phone call
or walk-in).
There are a lot of alternatives for advertising
out there. A good hint as to what works is to look at your
competitors. How do they advertise? In what mediums? What
types of ad to they typically run? How often? Most importantly,
how well are they doing business-wise? If they are doing
well, the answers to the other questions will tell you where
you should begin in your advertising considerations.
The number one rule to use is "the longer
the better." The longer you ad runs or is visible;
the more effective it will be to the audience it is aimed
for. Maybe they don't need your service or product this
week, but two weeks down the road they might. If they don't
see your ad again, they will have forgotten you. If they
see your ad enough times, they will begin to associate you
with that product or service.
Hopefully, you've gained some new ideas. At
the very least, maybe I've reinforced your own thinking.
Now go out and do it!
By Aaron Turpen of Aaronz WebWorkz
