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.
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.
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