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Business Advertising – Taking a Considered Approach

You want to generate leads and brand awareness for your business through advertising, but like so many other time-poor business owners, you just don’t know where to start. Like a lot of things in business, a considered and practical approach is the best way to push through the initial planning phase and develop a solid advertising strategy. Different types of media channels demand different budgets and creative output, and can deliver different results, so here’s how to break down your approach into achievable steps.

Review Your Current Position

Before you jot down all the different business advertising routes you could take, start by stepping back and taking stock of your business as it is now:

• What is your core service offering?
• What problems does your business’ products or services solve for your customers?
• Why should customers come to your business first?
• Who is your target demographic?
• Does your current brand reflect the above?
• Is your current advertising strategy hitting the mark?
• Do I have a consistent brand identity and messaging?
• When did I last review my logo and branding suite?

Once you have these answers clear, you can start thinking about what you want to achieve with future advertising. This is where developing short and long-term goals based on your budget can be helpful. You may have a short-term goal to bring in 100 new customers through a targeted social media campaign. A long-term goal could be to completely overhaul your logo, digital assets and printed collateral to future-proof your brand. Irrespective of where your marketing budget will be allocated, consider what needs to happen first and execute each item in the right order.

Business Advertising Leverages Your Brand Identity

Your brand is the public face of your business and sets the tone for how your business is perceived by potential new consumers. Maybe when you first started, the logo you threw together using a free online service was sufficient, but several years on it might be overdue an update. A tired old logo gives the impression of a tired old business, whereas a new logo is an excellent reason for a total brand refresh.

A brand is made up of a number of tangible elements, such as logo, tagline, and colour palette, but it’s more than that. A good brand represents the voice and essence of the company – who you are, what you offer, what you value, and what a consumer can expect when they use your products or services. Importantly, your brand is an essential part of all company advertising, acting as the cornerstone around which the advertising is built, whether it be print, digital, or multimedia. Consistency is key in branding and should remain so no matter which avenues of advertising you choose to pursue for your business.

Websites: Don’t Set & Forget

A crucial element for any business is their website, and in this day and age a website should be non-negotiable. You don’t need the flashiest site on the web that costs tens of thousands of dollars to create – but having no website at all is no longer an option. A website is often the primary means by which new customers & clients research your business and gain their first impression of your company. While your current website may be serviceable, they go out of style or lose their functionality as technology advances. Consider all the times you’ve landed on a business’ website and thought “far out – who’s looking after this?!”. If you’ve ever asked yourself that question, the answer is probable “nobody”. Consumers have very short attention spans and if your website is difficult to use, slow to load, or fails to provide relevant information, your competitors are only a few short clicks away.

Rather than viewing your website as a static piece of business advertising, it is important to stay on top of changing website trends and regularly update your web content, both to improve its Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) credentials, and to let your clients know you are still active in your field. Your website should have relevant and timely content in an easy-to-access place, as well as showcase your brand to maximum effect. Now that you know all of that – is it time to refresh your website?

Exploring Other Media for Business Advertising

Print, press, social media, TV, Google Ads, outdoor advertising – which works for your business and puts it in front of the right customers? In a perfect world, you would trumpet your brand from all advertising mediums for maximum exposure. In practice, however, this is not viable from a financial point of view, nor does this scatter-gun approach help you find YOUR ideal customers. Advertising on print, press and social media all have their positive and negatives and reach different demographics. Some studies show that the multisensory experience of reading in print leads to greater retention of the information; social media tends to be more cost-effective, while allowing you one-on-one interaction with your consumers; and press advertising can add credibility to your business lacking in the other forms. These are just a short example of the available detailed arguments backed by statistics which champion all of these mediums. The trick is – finding your business’ marketing mix.

A balance between different media is important and, again, comes back to knowing your target demographics and the advertising medium most likely to expose them to your brand. If you are unsure what combination would be best, then seek out a marketing professional to ensure your advertising budget is working most effectively for your business and its goals.

Business Advertising – What Now?

Unless you work in the marketing industry, it can be difficult to create a comprehensive advertising campaign without help. Instead of struggling to stay on top of the trends, contact a company whose business it is to know all of the options and how to best apply them to your business. You don’t need to have all of the answers, as personalised marketing strategies can be created for your company. If you would like more information on branding and advertising services, please reach out to our Brand Plus team online, or call us on 08 9301 2200 (Joondalup) or 08 9325 2411 (Perth).

written by:

Ben Hart

Ben joined the McKinley Plowman team in 2017 as a Marketing & HR Assistant, after completing a Bachelors degree in Marketing & Management from the University of Western Australia. Ben has since stepped up to the role of Marketing Manager and oversees the marketing activities for MP+ and many of our clients.

Ben enjoys helping clients take their businesses to the next level with thoughtful marketing strategies, innovative solutions, and timely reviews to ensure great outcomes. When he's not in the office, you'll find Ben playing football (soccer), watching it, or reading about it.