Whatever business you are in, you will in all likelihood need to advertise yourself. Unless you’re busking on the street or waiting for other passing traffic, adverts will make or break your business.
Especially in today’s world, you need to get attention and attract potential buyers in a very crowded market.
Before we go on to discuss the best kind of advertising for your business, you need to know that advertising is a product that is bought. As such, you can judge for yourself the quality of the advertising that you eventually buy by reading reviews on a site such as reviewsbird.co.uk.
When you purchase an advertising product, then customer reviews are an important metric to validate your choice, just as when you purchase a physical product.
Brick And Mortar
If you own a brick and mortar establishment, then your advertising may also involve some techniques that virtual stores do not need to employ.
Very often, a physical location such as a shop means that you provide a service that is specific to your local space. You may for instance run a bakery or other food establishment. Advertising widely over the web would not be advantages to your success.
In this case, your advertising would need to be locally focussed.
Local advertising may involve insertion into local business directories, and local campaigns such as leafleting targeted audiences in your immediate area.
Other options that you may want to consider are registering your business with search engines such as Google and Bing, so that when people search for a service in a particular area, you can be found more easily.
Internet Advertising
This may seem obvious, but internet advertising only makes sense if your target audience are actually using the internet.
Take the bakery example above. Are your customers actually searching online for cakes and breads? You may find that they are not.
Likewise, you may have a product for children or the elderly that would require very specific targeting.
Targeting
Now, if you have an internet based business that sells a digital or physical product to a wide range of audiences worldwide, then this is where internet advertising comes into its own.
The possibilities are endless, and you have the ability to reach an audience that, just a decade or so back, were out of contact.
If you are prepared to ship your product to your customer, wherever they may be located, then you need to be advertising on the internet.
Your options are varied. Let’s take a look.
Advertising
Many think immediately of Facebook when they think of internet advertising. Facebook made great advances in terms of targetability, which, some may say, harmed their reputation. Still to this day, Facebook’s advertising platform gives you an astonishing level of granularity with your targeting.
Increasingly though, other forms of social media are being used for advertising. Your mileage will vary depending on your audience.
As always, you need to know where your audience hangs out. And advertising these days isn’t always about simply showing your product, it’s about interacting with your target audience in a way that resonates with them.
