Advertising, even for a small business, is important for increasing awareness of your products and services. When done correctly, it can increase your sales and profit. Because of this, it’s important that you make the best of it. A small company usually has a limited budget for advertising costs. A well-planned marketing effort using a coordinated advertising strategy can be highly effective. Here are some tips that might help.

Target Your Market

Rather than promoting your business to the world at large, analyze the market of customers you want to reach. For example, if you sell senior health products, you will want to focus your advertising on older people. If you feel that everyone can benefit from your business, start by marketing to a select segment of the population and see how it goes. If you want to spend a little bit more money on your advertising campaign, then consider making different campaigns to target different parts of the market. Continuing with the senior health products example, you may want one campaign that targets the seniors directly affected by the health product and then a separate campaign targeting the loved ones of the seniors that may be responsible for their wellbeing.

Use Free or Low-Cost Advertising

Establish an advertising budget to avoid going overboard and extending your reach too far. However, there are some things that only include the cost of creating the advertising assets and not the distribution of them. For example, you can use free advertising like a community online or print bulletin board and local civic groups. Depending on your target market and the product or service you provide, distributing business cards or fliers at the public library or common areas frequented by those in your target market may be successful. Consider giving talks about your company or products to local organizations looking for speakers. Offer useful information and tips rather than just promoting your products. You can also write guest blogs in your industry to spread the word. All of these strategies take time, but they can help increase the opportunity of your target audience to find your business products and services. However, if your audience does not go to the library or doesn’t read those blogs, then it would be more of a waste of time than it would be useful.

Be Intentional

Conserve your advertising resources for initiatives that fit your marketing demographic and products or services. Review all the available advertising options in your area or that fit your budget and use those that will work best. Taking out full-page newspaper or magazine ads is expensive and not very helpful if your target niche doesn’t read those publications. A billboard typically reaches a certain type of viewer, so be sure it will get viewers to consider your business if you rent a billboard. Develop an advertising plan that will make the most of your budget and ideas to reach your desired customers. 

Leveraging Local Events

Advertising is a great way to promote a business and attract new customers. But it can be expensive and time-consuming, so small businesses often don’t invest in this. Participating in local events are an effective way to advertise for small businesses because they are more affordable and there’s less competition. It can also be easier for the owner to attend in person.

Local schools are also an excellent place for advertising because they have a large number of students who will see the advertisement, as well as parents and teachers who will share it with their peers. This is especially true if the school has social media accounts or newsletters which can be used to spread the word about your business. Sponsoring sports teams and school events is another great way to advertise for your business because it’s inexpensive, but still reaches many. 

This type of advertising is typically only beneficial if the majority of your customers are local. For example, if you are an online-based small business and you are targeting specific types of business owners around the nation, then you may not get the benefits from sponsoring or advertising at local events and local school sports. That being said, if your business is targeting homeowners or families in the area, then this can be a great way to reach that audience. Considering that school sponsorships and event sponsorships are usually inexpensive,  this can be a great option to test for one season before agreeing to be an ongoing sponsor.

Get a Professional Consultation

If you are not sure how to effectively promote your business to the clients you are seeking, schedule a consultation with a professional advertising agency like DX Media Direct. Their experts can advise you on the best ways to attract new customers by using the most efficient advertising options for your business. You may want to have a professional agency handle your advertising needs so that you can focus on other aspects of the business. That way you know your funds are being used efficiently and you don’t have to go through the learning curve of advertising. Advertising agencies do have a fee for their services in addition to the cost of advertising but the benefits of using an agency may be worth going through them instead of hiring an employee.

Keep your advertising efforts up to date to attract the customers who are looking for your products. Take a focused approach and use readily available methods to get the word out about your company.