If nobody knows about your product or service then you are unlikely to make many sales. It doesn’t matter if you are online or a purely physical business. You won’t sell if people don’t know it exists. So how do you make sure people know? By using marketing and advertising. Sure, it can cost money. But you’ll make that money back and more if you do it right. You will need to change the way you do things dependant on your target market and what the actual product is. However, for the most part the following tips can be applied to most products and services. Good luck with your advertising!
One of the first things you need to think about with advertising is a plan. Without a plan you start to randomly target streams that could garner no results, meaning you waste the limited cash you actually have in the bank. Draw up a buyer profile, where would they frequent, where should you advertise? Set a budget and work out the best places to advertise. Do not go over this budget. You will soon work out what advertising streams are working and what aren’t, meaning you can then further narrow it down and get more for your money. You can do this with Google analytics, which tells you from where people have clicked into your site form and even from what country, allowing the tailoring of advertising.
One of the first aspects you need to target is social media. It can be cost effective and you can reach millions of people. It may not be super targeted but it still allows you to reach so many different people. There are changes coming however, for example check out these 5 big Facebook advertising changes that will dominate 2017. The changes don’t mean you should avoid going for it, and there are other social media sites to make use of too don’t forget. Aim for blogs frequented by your target market. Look at popular websites and see if there is an option to advertise in some way. Look at well visited and relevant videos and comment in the comments box with links back to your product pages. It works a treat and you’ll see your traffic surge.
You should try to broaden your horizons too. Think outside the box. It doesn’t always need to be digital. Look at magazines and how much it would cost to place an ad. This is old school, but it still works really well. If your product or service is geared toward students then go for magazines aimed at that age group. It is pretty straight forward when you think about it and you can really make a hit by targeting. The same applies to billboards and large digital displays. Use them. Consider their location and make sure they’ll be seen by the right people. Look at flyers, and posters. You can even consider knocking on the doors of those close to your local business and telling them about it. You’ll be surprised by the warm reception you may get.
