Advertise online and offline (part-1)
INTRODUCTION
As a business owner, you know the importance of having other people
know about your business. Advertising is rarely an option. Even those
huge companies that you know well, who do not need to advertise
(because you will likely go to them repeatedly) put a good deal of their
profits back into advertising their business.
As a small business owner, marketing your business is important. It does
not matter if your business is a small one, such as a local repair shop or
retail store, or a larger one, finding the right way to communicate with
your prospective clients is critical.
One of the biggest concerns a business has is getting their potential
clients to know about them. You know you have a great service. You are
confident that you can wow the customer with your abilities. Yet, they do
not call. They do not come in to your store. They do not visit your
website. The only way to help this process is by spreading the word about
your business and letting everyone know what it is and what it can do for
them.
Do you have a strong advertising background? Most small business
owners (offline and online) do not. Yet, you do not need to have this type
of advertising background to find success through advertising means. The
more creative and direct you are, the more successful you will be. Keep in
mind some things you do not want to do such as promising more than you
can offer. However, be as creative as you can be if you hope to attract
new customers to your business.
This articles outlines the tips and strategies your business needs to do well
in 2021, a year that promises to offer new opportunities, new insight and
plenty of profit for those businesses that can provide they can advertise
well. However, this is an area of business that is changing. If you are to
find success in business in your 2021 advertising strategy, you need to
stand out from the crowd and approach advertising in new and interesting
ways. This book provides you with 101 ways to build an effective
advertising plan.
HOW IS ADVERTISING
Advertising a business is still as important as ever. Each year, thousands
of new companies open their doors. Internationally, hundreds of
thousands of businesses get their start. Many of these businesses are
direct competition for you. With that understood, it is important to
consider a few more important details about advertising.
STAND OUT OR NEVER BE KNOWN
With advertising, you need to be more creative than ever if you are going
to stand out. A simple ad in the local newspaper is not enough to generate
enough talk about your business to have people interested enough. A
small banner ad on a moderately sized website is still not enough to
generate the type of income that your business is looking for.
More so, the times have changed. Consumers themselves are more used
to shock advertising than ever. A scandal may hurt one person, but it can
often bring higher revenues to a company. However, now, people have
very high standards in where they shop, what they buy and what they pay
for it.
To further to explore that topic, consider these important factors when it
comes to advertising your business.
1. It is easier for the consumer to do the same thing repeatedly. In
other words, they are not going to go out of their way to visit your
location or to remember your website’s domain name unless you
have something that is new enough to them to make them want to
do so. If it is easier to do something else, though, people will do
that.
2. People do not want to pay more money for something. If you
cannot compete with big companies, include those large
department stores that seem to outdo every other company out
there, then consumers will not pay attention to your business. Use your advertising budget to differentiate your business from the
businesses of others. This is more important in 2021 because it now
is more important than ever for people to watch every penny they
spend.
3. Forget about misleading ads or promising more than you can offer.
Most consumers are wise enough to see right through the
advertisements that are obviously too good to be true. Consumers
also do not want you to spam them, to overwhelm them with mail
or email just to learn about your product or service.
4. There is more game in town. That means that there are more
people competing for those all important ad spaces on your favorite
websites. This may mean that your average advertising dollar is not
going to do as much as you had hoped that it would. On the other
hand, it may provide you with an ideal option for doing something
big that is memorable.
5. The Internet, television, newspaper and even direct mail is all
interconnected today. Your message needs to be strong enough to
reach across all of these playing fields properly. If you use
conflicting information, you will simply confuse your company.
There are a few things to point out, in addition, that are more positive.
For example, today’s consumer is well aware of the price of products, but
they are still looking for a good deal. Getting more for their money is
always going to be a big factor for the average consumer. Look for ways
to add something to the product you are offering that helps it to stand out
from the rest of the world’s products.
More so, consumers are knowledgeable. They are happy to learn about
new companies, but they want to learn about them before they will use
them. Either through your website or through your advertising, you need
to communicate who your business is, what it has to offer as well as what
makes it unique and better than the rest.
IMPORTANT MESSAGES
There are a few important messages that you want to use within the
advertising that you do in 2021. These messages are what people are
looking for.
1. Cost effectiveness: Price is a strong, important tool especially as
more consumers are looking for a way to save money after taken
advantage of by lenders, leaders and investments.
2. Environmental friendly: Today, people expect a business to be
doing everything that it can to actually save the world. In your
advertising, this can and sometimes should be the message that
you give. Show the world that your business is committed to
providing a safe haven for the environment.
3. Something new: Having a product that is new and better than
someone else’s product is going to make an impression that you
want to make on your customers. Although not all businesses will
have the same level of expectation on this front, many business
owners should advertise that they have something that trumps the
other person’s product.
4. Easy access: With people saving more money, working more jobs
to make ends meet and going out of their way to get the best of the
best, it is important to alter customers that you have a product that
is easy for them to use or easy for them to get to. Virtually all small
businesses need to be online in 2021, even if you are not serving
the entire Internet, but a local market. People turn to the web to
learn what is happening and to find what they are looking for.
5. Trustworthy: Yet another important advertising method for 2021
will be trustworthiness. Of course, with so many people feeling
taken advantage of by the horrors of the last few years, it is
important to distance yourself and your business from those
companies. Focus instead on being a company that is trusted,
secure and a great place to be.
When you put all of this together, you will have the right advertising plan
for your business. Throughout the rest of this book, you will find more
than 100 tips and tricks to help you to advertise your business in 2021. Is
this year any different from last? Of course it is. Today, it is even harder
to get in front of others than ever and people expect a lot more than ever
before.
CREATE AN ADVERTISING PLAN
Can your business make it? With the right advertising plan, your business
can excel. Take the time to consider the following tips and methods to
improving your business advertising plan. Use as many of these methods
as is possible, but do put together a cohesive plan that outlines your goals
first.
What does your advertising plan include? How many of the following types
of advertising methods can you use? Consider the following steps.
1. Look at each of the advertising methods mentioned here.
Determine which of these is most beneficial for your business. If it
is a possibility, note that it is. If the plan seems to be a good one
right off the bat, mark it as that. If there is no chance of it being
usable for your business, you should cross it off.
2. Create a list of those elements that you want to use. Determine
how to pursue each one. Determine the cost of each one, based on
your business model. Then, factor in your budget. How many of
these methods can you pull off?
3. Look for cost cutting methods. Look outside of the box before
writing off any of these advertising methods.
4. Build your business-advertising plan step by step. Create your
campaign, slogan and go for it.
5. Come back and look at your plan after you launch it. How well did
each of the elements work? Is there something more that you could
have done or changes that you could have made? If so, factor those
in for the next time around.
An effective advertising plan for 2021 tackles a wide range of mediums
and it delivers a clear message. It also provides consumers with a clear
solution to the ever-popular question, “What does this business do for
me?”
WORD OF MOUTH IS STILL
KING
Word of mouth advertising is one of the oldest forms. Simply put, it is the
means of one person telling another person something about your
business. It has always been one of the most powerful tools to have as an
advertising medium. Ask yourself, are you more interested in listening to
what a commercial has to say or what your best friend has to say? Who is
more believable?
As a business, part of your advertising plan should focus on word of
mouth advertising. OF course, it is important to point out that today; word
of mouth advertising is not just one person telling another of a product, as
in one woman telling another woman about a product they love. Rather,
there are many online and off line methods for delivering a word of mouth
experience.
In this chapter, we focus on a few methods of advertising that can help
you to pull out those recommendations that you want to get from others.
How can you get recommendations and referrals from the customers you
already have or the ones that you will be getting?
1 FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE
The first and most important element of advertising is not spoiling the
business that you have. Each customer that comes into your doors needs
to be a customer treated as if they are the most important customer for
the business. Although this may seem difficult to do, it is all about
delivering a quality service and smiling.
Customer service is important to business success. If you have a bad
experience at a restaurant, you tell your family and friends about it, and
stop them from going there. Not only does the business lose your
business but that of your family and friends, too. What you want to
create, on the other hand, is an atmosphere in which the words being
passed on are top quality recommendations to visit your establishment.
If you are not sure what you can do to improve your customer service, go
right to the source: your customer. Find out from them what you can do
to improve your overall experience.
2LOCAL OFFERS
If your business is a locally based one, as opposed to one that is Internet
based, focus on local offers that can help bring in customers. For example,
a customer comes in to your hair salon. You know they had a great
experience and so you offer them a discount card and one for their friend.
If they pass on the card, you have an opportunity for them to tell the
potentially new customer about your salon. This is easy advertising!
3 BE ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY
Another way to generate more word of mouth advertising is to let others
know about your business by allowing them to get to know you. Be an
active role player in the community. Churches, community organizations
as well as government offices are great ways for you to grow your local
popularity. Introduce yourself to your customers. Shake their hand. Be
present in your place of business.
4 SPONSOR LOCAL ACTIVITIES
It does not have to cost you much to sponsor a group of local baseball
players or to buy the t-shirt uniforms for the school’s soccer team. It does
not cost you anything to host a fundraiser for a local person who is ill
where you donate your profits. However, these types of actions get your
name in front of the masses. They are all instances that you can show
that your business is the business in town to be involved.
5 ASK FOR THE RECOMMENDATION
Unbelievably, one of the best ways for you to get the customers to
respond to you is to ask for a recommendation. For example, you have
saved someone $250 off his or her car repair bill. That is nothing to be
shy about. As the customer is happily paying their now discounted bill,
you can easily say to them that you are looking for new clients. Would
they please recommend your service to their friends and family?
When you ask for business, even if it is simply by asking for a group of
customers to come back again, you allow those customers to feel welcome
within your business. More so, they are happy to tell others about their
experience, especially when asked to do so.
More ideas:
Here are a few more, short and easy ideas for building up your business
through word of mouth advertising.
6 ASK CUSTOMERS TO COMPLAIN
Did you know that most customers who have a bad experience never
report that experience to the business? However, they do tell family and
friends about it, or even worse, they get online and start talking about it.
Ask customers to tell you of the problems they have with your business.
7 KEEP THE PROMISES YOU MAKE
As a business owner, if you promise to do something for a customer, you
had better do it. The negative word of mouth advertising this will cause is
enough to cause any business to struggle significantly. However, when
you do keep your promises, customers will respond to that as well.
8 DO MORE THAN THE MINIMUM
Next, work on going over the expectations of your clients. You do not
want to do the bare minimum or to get the basic level of acceptance.
Rather, you want to focus on beating their expectations so that your
business can flourish when they come back repeatedly so you can take
advantage of what you have to offer.
9 SATISFY THE UNHAPPY CUSTOMER
The customer is never wrong, even when you know they are wrong. It
happens within every business. A misunderstanding leads to a
confrontation. You do not want to stand down or to lose business. How do
you handle the angry, unhappy customer? Do what you can to satisfy
them. In fact, many studies show that when an unhappy customer is
satisfied, they become a lifetime customer of the business, simply
because the business listened to them and fixed the problem.
10 AS FOR REPEAT BUSINESS LATER, TOO
At first, you may ask for a customer’s repeat business when they are
leaving your establishment or even through your invoice online. However,
in a week or so, give them a call. Send them an email. Send them some mail. Ask them to come on back to experience what you have to offer
again.
11 LOOK THEM IN THE EYE
When you are working with customers hand in hand, shake their hand,
look them in the eye and let them know how important they are to you.
This establishes a bond of trust and it helps to develop customer loyalty.
Reach out, ask for their business and thank them for visiting you. This will
make a difference.
As you will notice, virtually all of these word of mouth advertising
methods are free or inexpensive. They make sense. They should be part
of your advertising plan without fail. If they are not, add them in to the
mix to ensure that your business has the foundation it needs to excel in
2021.
FREE WAYS TO ADVERTISE
YOUR BUSINESS
We just spent a chapter working on word of mouth advertising. It is what
people need to know and need to use as the foundation of their business
success. However, every business needs to do more than that to get into
the eyes of the customer. However, most businesses, especially the startups
will find it hard to pay for these advertising methods.
If you could afford to hire a professional advertising company, you would
still see some of these free methods for promoting your business.
However, many people do not put in enough time to learn them.
The following are a few free ways to advertise your business. Some are
offline while others are online methods. Use as many as makes sense for
your business.
12 GOOGLE LOCAL
Google Local is a local listing service on the web for local businesses. You
do not have to do much but contact Google Local and provide your
company name, address, phone number and website address. You will
need to verify this information through a postcard but it is easy and gets
you listed on Google easily.
13 GOOGLE COUPONS
Have you considered coupons? Why not mesh coupons with Google. If it
sounds like something that is interesting to you, the good news is that it
is easy to do. You are able to bring in new customers and bring the old
customers back to you. All of this occurs through Google’s free coupon
tool that you use to get your business on local searches that are relevant
to your website.
14 CHECK OUT YELLOW PAGES ONLINE
While it does cost a fee to get your website listed in the big Yellow Page
it is free to do so on the web. Remember, people come to the web
to learn about stuff long before they actually buy from a business.
Therefore, being in the online Yellow Pages makes sense.
15 GET ON YAHOO LOCAL
Just like Google Local, Yahoo Local offers the same type of benefit. Of
course, it benefits those who are using the Yahoo search engine instead of
those who use Google. Yahoo is the second largest web search engine and
highly important to any online search. It is free to get listed on Yahoo
Local, too.
16 GET REVIEWS ON YAHOO LOCAL
One of the things that Yahoo local does that Google Local does not is to
allow customers to review your service. It takes only a few minutes to set
up this process, but encouraging your customers to visit the website and
to write a review is an important step in advertising local businesses. It is
free to do and takes moments, but it could mean the difference in a
customer choosing your business over another company’s business.
17 SEND OUT PRESS RELEASES
You can send a press release to a news organization. This is a better
option than sitting around and waiting for them to come to you. Be sure
that what you have to say is newsworthy, and it should not be a blatant
advertisement of your business. For example, it could be a press release
announcing your collection of food for a local charity. It could be your
special fundraiser for a sit child. You can use online press releases in the
same manner, but be sure they are newsworthy before you try to have
them sent out.
18 TRADE WITH OTHER BUSINESS
OWNERS
Is there a business that will compliment your own? When you find one
that is you should trade services with them. Alternatively, trade
advertising with them. For example, perhaps your business is a spa. You
know that those that come to your spa are concerned about their fitness.
You collaborate with a local fitness club and trade advertisement flyers at your establishment for their business while they do the same for your
own.
Now that this chapter has gotten you started with a few free ways to
advertise your business, we will move on to methods that are more
specific. However, many of the other activities within the rest of this aerticles
are low cost or even free. They are well worth your time investment!
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