Before you pick an adverting medium, ask yourself these questions, it will help you make an informed decision and give you a better ROI

Who is your target market or markets?

This is crucial that you have a very clear idea of whom you are targeting the advertisement towards before you can choose the right type of media. A good idea of who your best target market(s) is, you should start by analyzing your customers and draw some conclusions about who and what type of person is already buying or will buy from you in the future. For instance, you might find that over-50s make up a large part of your customer base. You may therefore consider advertising in media that specifically target this age group, such as local publications, trade directories and magazines aimed at older readers.

Which media can give me the biggest bang for my buck?

Obviously this is perhaps the most important issue for the small business owner. To address it you need an objective tool to compare the relative marketing investment of one medium with another by measuring what you get for your marketing dollar. A commonly used media-buying measurement is the cost per thousand (CPM) people that view or receive your advertisement. CPM allows you to break down your media investment into cost per 1,000 ‘exposures’. If the advertising medium you are considering does not enable you to determine CPM, or some other simple form of measurement, you should think twice before investing in it.

What are your advertising objectives and how well does this medium help you to accomplish them?

It is important to be clear about your aims and to distinguish between strategic objectives (which aim to raise awareness of your business and develop image over the longer term) and tactical objectives (which aim to encourage specific market segments to buy a certain product or service) often at a particular time. You should determine what your objectives are at a very early stage. Do you want more people to visit your shop? Do you want potential customers to ring a telephone number? Do you simply want more leads or do you need to generate more hits to your website? You should decide exactly what you want to get out of the marketing activity and match this to the media that can best achieve it.

How well will this medium allow you to measure the return on your marketing budget?

Try to choose a medium or develop an advertisement that allows you to track precisely and calculate your results. Don’t make the mistake of relying on asking your prospects where they heard about you. Studies have shown that people can’t answer this question accurately and if you rely on this type of information to measure the effectiveness of your marketing spend; you might be making a big mistake. In the end, if you can’t measure the response to an advertisement accurately, you’ll never be able to track it. If you can’t track it, you’ll never know which media are working for you and which aren’t. If you don’t know which media are or aren’t working for you, you’re probably wasting a lot of money on advertising that simply doesn’t work.

Springboard Ad/Design provides a full spectrum of advertising solutions including free advertising consultation. Give us a call today and let’s get started. 954-655-8368