If you own or work for a company that has an advertising budget that is allocated for local advertising, you have many options. How to best utilize your options is what we will cover in the paragraphs below.
Billboards, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, local publications, shopping carts, event sponsorship, college athletics and yellow pages are just some of your options for advertising your business. Let’s start with dealing with the account executives that sell these mediums of advertising.
I would recommend to you that when you decide on a medium, call and ask for the general sales manager (if you haven’t already spoken with an account executive). Then tell the GSM who you are and what your business is and ask to speak with an AE that best fits your needs. He will probably throw you to an AE’s voice mail because most of them are out of the office (it’s the nature of their business).
When the AE visits you – you should ask these questions first.
1. Why should I advertise with you? (be prepared for a long answer)
2. What clients are you currently working with? (Write down their answers on this question – then call those businesses and ask them for references and ask how the AE helped their business.)
3. What can I expect to spend to advertise with you effectively?
Packages: You should be weary of any AE that brings you a proposal with a package that offers certain programming or a weekly place in a publication. When an AE brings you something that looks as if it is going out to all advertisers – that usually means they are trying to get rid of inventory they can’t sell. The GSM usually puts together several items they can’t sell alone and put an attractive price on it sell it to you. This is the sign of an AE who could care less about your business. Be ready for an AE that brings you advertising solutions that FIT your business.
Demographics: Do you know who your target customer is? Make sure your AE targets your customer with placement of your advertising. Example: If you own a sports bar – you know that your primary demo is men 21-54. So you wouldn’t ever place an advertisement in a medium that is geared toward women. An example of poor placement of a TV commercial for a sports bar would be on the lifetime network. A perfect placement would be during a football game. Make sure your AE knows everything there is to know about demographics.
Mediums: Billboards, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, local publications, shopping carts, event sponsorship, college athletics and yellow pages. What works and what doesn’t.
1. Billboards – Do you pay attention to billboards? Who does? When I am in my car, I am driving and paying attention where I am going and I may
occasionally glance around but I haven’t ever saw a billboard and thought about it. I would say that you should completely stay away from
them unless you can get on a LED billboard. Then again, LED billboards rotate with other ads so I would say if you can’t OWN the LED
billboard then you shouldn’t be on it.
There are better ways to get your message across and much cheaper.
- Radio and TV – If this one is difficult for you to decide on, let me tell you this. Humans learn things audibly and they learn visually however, humans RETAIN information when they learn both audibly and visually at the same time. So, with that in mind – why in the world would you want to advertise on the radio? You can get your message out on the radio and some people might act on it but TV they SEE and Hear your message and are much more likely to remember it. TV is also a target audience – If you want to advertise to women – show your commercial during an episode of Desperate Housewives. If you want to advertise your message to men, then get your commercial in sports programming and so on. With radio – you can’t really do that (unless it’s talk radio but even then TV costs just as much and TV is WAY better for your business)
- Newspaper – Do not advertise in the newspaper unless you are a nursing home looking to fill your rooms up with elderly people. If the newspaper has a website – you might consider the website only but not the actual paper. If you look at studies on-line – newspapers are hurting across the country because their subscription is WAY down. That means no one is looking at the physical paper so why would you want to put your business in front of an audience that isn’t there.
- Magazines – If you really think it will work for you, go ahead but if you do….I would recommend that you only advertise in the magazine for 3 months and see what kind of response you get. If you aren’t willing to do 3 months without any other advertisement running then I wouldn’t do it.
- Internet – This is an effective medium that has targeting benefits. If you own a used car lot, try contacting your local TV or newspaper website and tell them your interested in doing a CAR OF THE WEEK on their website. You take photos of a car each week and send them to their web guy and the photos are changed out every week . Users who come to the site will check their news and weather and possibly your car of the week will end up in their routine. You can always do banners and tile advertisements that click-through right to your website but something like car of the week is web CONTENT. When you are the content – people see your business name more which increases top-of-mind awareness. Advertise on the internet and dare to be creative.
- Local publications – Let’s say there is a local events and happenings publication in your area and your business is a catering business. If you were to advertise in the restaurants section you might get a few responses but TV and the Internet might be a better deal so check them both out.
- Shopping Carts – Yes, shopping carts. Some grocery stores offer your business logo and color graphics on the flap of the shopping cart. I can tell you about this form of advertising in one single word: ridiculous.
- Event sponsorship – If you local area has a BBQ cook-off event or an air show or something where a lot of people attend, consider sponsoring it . But only if it fits in your demographic. If you own a women’s clothing store – forget the air show and try sponsoring a bridal / wedding event.
- College athletics – Be careful here. You may see a lot of advertisers all over the arena and ball field. Advertising in college athletics is an emotional buy. Meaning that the advertiser probably went to that college and wants to help support it. They generally don’t care if they get a return on their investment. However, if you think it might work for you – consider an annual agreement versus a season. An annual agreement gets you a lower price and all seasons.
- Yellow Pages – Possibly the worst thing you can do with your advertising budget is placing a big ad in the yellow pages. You could probably write your business logo on the back of 10 one hundred dollar bills and throw them into the wind in the middle of a busy intersection and get better results. You could spend your budget on internet and TV and get EXCELLENT results or piss it away on a big ad in the back of a book that sits in a drawer 99% of the time (accurate statistic Source: Benton assoc. 2006). If you want your business to fail – spend most of your money in the yellow pages.
TV commercial tips: Only sell one thing in your commercial. If your business does ten different things – make ten commercials. Negotiate with your AE and tell them you will give them 80% of your advertising budget if they give you 5 commercials for free. They will take the offer back to their GM and he will come back with 3 commercials for free and a bonus schedule – almost every time.
Thirty second commercials work but did you know that since the internet – television audiences’ attention span has DECREASED!! Try 10 second commercials. You will get a cheaper rate – much better frequency and more exposure. Try the ten if you can fit your message in that time frame.
Remember this if nothing else: Frequency = Top-of-mind awareness = market share. That formula will make your advertising work. I promise.
