OK, you've planned your promotion, designed your ad, prepared your staff and gotten all of your other sales materials in place. You are ready to promote your product or service and generate sales.
So, you place the ad in your local paper and wait for the phone to start ringing or the front door to start swinging with new customers.
But, your ad has run for 3 days now and little if anything has happened. No sales, no ringing phone, no swinging door. Your staff is disappointed and concerned, your checkbook is lighter, and you have missed other selling opportunities in preparation of this promotion.
Has this ever happened to you?
This or something similar probably has. Most businesses go through these frustrating and expensive experiments. One of the most important keys to having a successful promotion is selecting the right advertising medium to use.
If you don't select the right advertising mediums you are wasting money, missing opportunity and severely impacting your bottom line.
Business owners and managers, unfortunately, select advertising mediums for all the wrong reasons. By selecting the right mediums, you can often reduce your advertising expense and increase your profits.
Here are some of the common reasons business owners and managers select advertising mediums: The publication/medium was offering a great deal It's the local newspaper The ad sales rep was helpful and answered all my questions
While sometimes, these reasons make sound decisions, there is much more that needs to be taken into consideration before you open your checkbook and place an ad, run a commercial or use any advertising medium.
You need to evaluate if the medium reaches your target market, if it offers a good value, how it stacks up to the other options in the marketplace, and make a determination if the medium matches your product or service.
The first step is to evaluate whether your target market reads, listens to, watches or sees the medium you are considering. Secondly, is the price right. There are likely several mediums that your target market reads, listens to or watches. By doing your homework you can decrease your expense and increase your return on investment. Finally you need to consider if the medium matches your product or service and your sales process. If your product or service really requires demonstration you will want to investigate visual mediums such as TV or magazines. Similarly, if you sell a product or service that has immediate recognition or understanding, radio and newspaper would likely be a good choice.
Regardless of whether you sell a product or service that's simple or complex or that's new to the marketplace or commonplace, you need to go through the same process to determine which mediums are the best for your business.
By taking the time to investigate options, evaluate costs and the medium's reach you will begin to place advertising that works and has a positive impact on your bottom line. Following these guidelines will help you turn expensive experiments into successful science.
Copyright 2002. All Rights Reserved. www.7stepmarketingplan.com
Nicole Shields is the author of 7StepMarketingPlan.com, which helps business owners/managers stop procrastinating writing their marketing plans. She also offers teleseminars on topics such as Advertising Medium Selection. You can visit the site and/or sign up for a free marketing course at: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=14020
