Advertising Your Biz
Advertising is vital to your success

How you advertise and promote your goods and services may make or break your business. Having a good product or service and not advertising or promoting it is like not having a business at all.

Many business owners operate under the mistaken concept that the business will promote itself, and channel money that should be used for advertising and promotions to other areas of the business. Advertising and promotions, however, are the life line of a business and should be treated as such.

Advertising Your Goods and Services is Imperative
After you've determined your target market, you must advertise to let that market segment know what products you have to offer; what services you provide; and how you compare to the competition. How you advertise and promote your goods and services may easily make or break your business.

Your must translate all of your objectives into a specific advertising message to meet your goals. Your advertising strategy will need to address the attitudes and actions you want to provoke in your audience.

Your advertising strategy should portray your product or service in the right light and bring to mind the right image. Make sure that you have a description of your advertising strategy in your marketing plan, and include the following:

• Your advertising promise - The promise you are making to your audience in your advertising
• How you'll support your promise - Statements that support your claims
• The advertising tone - The emotional images conjured by your message that are appropriate for both the product and your audience
• Rationale - Statements referring back to your research that back up your creative strategies

Identify Media Types You Will Use
You will need to identify which types of media you will be using to carry your message, which can include radio and TV spots, magazines, newspapers, billboards, Web banners, directory listings, product packaging and inserts (tip-ins), posters and flyers, and in-store displays.

If you are running on a shoe-string budget, begin with a plan that uses printed ads and networking as a means to promote your business, and use power advertising (see next page.) In your ads, develop short, descriptive copy (text material) that clearly identifies your goods or services, its location and price. Use catchy phrases to arouse the interest of your readers, listeners or viewers.

Make sure the advertisements you create are consistent with the image you are trying to project. And try to run them as much as possible and in as many various mediums as possible (we speak more about printed ads and promotional material throughout this section.)

Keep your strategies clear and focused on what you are trying to achieve.
Remember, the more care and attention you devote to advertising and your marketing program, the more successful your business will be.

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