Advertising is a way to let potential customers know about your business or services. But figuring out how to advertise and where to advertise can be difficult. Here’s a quick primer on how you can make sure your advertising is effective and economical. Remember: the most expensive advertisement you can buy is one that no one sees!
- Decide what audience you want to reach. Do you sell a product or service so unique that people will drive from miles away to buy it? For example, if you are selling Maseratis, it might make sense to reach out to everyone on LA’s Westside. On the other hand, if you’re a mid-priced tax accountant, you might want to target people within a short drive of your office.
- Decide what you want your advertisement to accomplish. Of course you want to sell more of the product or service that you offer. But there are two ways of doing that. One is to get more people in the door of your office or shop or bar or restaurant right away. The other is build a greater awareness of the products or services you offer — a reputation. That can take longer, but the benefits can be longer lasting.
You may have both goals. Consider Target, which advertises products on sale to get people in the door right away. But it also promotes itself in ads that don’t mention products but do mention its commitment to offering quality at the lowest possible price.
- Decide the best medium for reaching your ideal audience. There are various types of media — newspapers, magazines, websites, direct mail (postcards), billboards, radio ads and TV ads, to name the major ones. We will focus here on newspapers, magazines, websites and direct mail (postcards), which make the most sense for a local business.
This is the tough part of advertising, because it requires research. The good news is that we at WEHOville.com will do that research for local businesses, even if it means we end up recommending that you advertise somewhere other than with us. Why would we do that? It’s not because we’re nice guys (although we think we are:) We think a reputation for honesty and objectivity when it comes to consulting with local businesses will help us make more money in the long run. (In other words, we hope you’ll recommend us to others if we do right by you.)
What kind of research are we talking about? If you are considering a print publication such as the LA Times, LA Weekly, the LA Independent, Los Angeles magazine or Frontiers magazine, to name a few of the many options, you need to know three things explained below:
