Creating a Successful Advertising Campaign

Great advertising campaigns don’t just happen. Hard work, the right advertising venue and repeating the message over and over again are what it takes to boost your brand higher than your competitors. Here’s how to make that happen.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Know Your Audience. Identify your ideal customer in detail. How old are they? Do they live near your business or far away? How far will they drive to buy your product? How much money do they earn? Can they afford to buy your product? Pro Tip: Every legitimate media source has both a circulation/readership audit by a third party and demographic information about their readers. Ask for that information; don’t even talk about pricing until you receive the information and make sure it matches your target customer.
   




2. Target Your Message to your customer. Once you’ve identified your target customer, make sure your message is targeted to that same customer.  And make sure whatever you’re saying in your marketing message is relevant to your target customer. Pro Tip: Don’t just talk about how great you are or your company’s features. Tell your target customers what sets you apart from your competition (believe it or not, customers often can’t tell the difference from one product or another, so they don’t know why they should spend money with you). Make sure every target customer knows “why should I care?” and “what’s in it for me?” when they are exposed to your marketing campaign.




3. Use Multiple Media Platforms to deliver your message. To interact with your customers and boost your brand awareness over time, take advantage of print, email, web and social media opportunities. Be strategic — reach your target customer wherever you can find her. And keep your message consistent — it’s the best way to build recall and trust.




4. It’s Going to Take More Than One Ad. You know it’s true: Increased exposure produces higher results. Research consistently shows that people require multiple exposures to an advertising message before they buy your product or service. “Even with beautiful design, superbly crafted copy, and a compelling call to action, a stand-alone (one-time) ad is unlikely to get the same response as a repeated one.” (b) Repetitive messages to the same target customer establish confidence and trust in you and your business. Limited budget? No problem: Purchase a smaller ad and run it multiple times to get your message across.

Sources: a) Harvard Magazine b) Wainscot Media Blog c) “Why Print Media?” printpower.eu d) “The Surprising Power of Print Marketing to Leverage Your Ecommerce Site” entrepreneur.com e) MPA Factbook 2016-2017 f) “New Study Shows Surprising Benefits of Print Media Advertising” boomm.com g) IPSOS Affluent Survey USA 2015 h) MPA Factbook 2016-2017 i) “10 essentials of a marketing plan” 2016/sba.gov