How to develop an advertising strategy that works

Advertising is great in creating awareness about a product or a service which highlights the advantages to consumers. In order to advertise a product or service and to convince the buyers one has to develop an advertising strategy and develop a campaign to communicate ideas about products and services in the most simple and interesting way to the potential customers. Before developing an advertising campaign, one needs to think about the campaign in a logical fashion. Developing an advertising strategy will also reflect other business considerations like overall budget, brand recognition efforts and objectives like public image enhancement, market share growth as well.

If you have a small business with limited capital and can’t spend much to advertise your product or brand as a large organisation, with a great advertising strategy you can develop a highly effective advertising campaign. Creativity and flexible planning, based on an in-depth knowledge of the target consumer is the key to an effective advertising strategy.

6 Steps in constructing an Advertising Strategy:

Objective

First you need a clearly defined objective which you wish to achieve through the advertising campaign. Clear cut objectives/goals are vital for an advertising strategy development.

Define your Customer and target audience

While developing the advertising strategy you need to define clearly who are your customers? Are you selling in an urban, rural or suburban market? Ages, preferences, choices. To identify the target consumer, and the forces acting upon any purchasing decision, it is important to define three general criteria in relation to that consumer.

Demographics

It is about considering age, gender, income, ethnicity, and hobbies.

Behaviours

When studying the customer’s behaviour an advertiser needs to examine the customer’s awareness of the business and its competition, the type of vendors and services the consumer currently uses, and the types of appeals that are likely to convince the customer to give the advertiser’s product or service a chance.

Needs

An advertiser must determine the customer needs- functionality and self-image and the kind of message that will convince the customer that the advertiser’s services or products can achieve those needs.

Communication Media

Next step is to decide the media through which the message or the content will be reached. Here, media acquires importance even to the message development. A very strategic and creative message needs appropriate and well-placed media to reach out to the target audience.Media includes the entire media environment, both offline and online. 

Types of Advertising Strategies

Specific products or services can be promoted in multiple ways.

Traditional advertising strategies like television, radio ads and billboard advertising that target broader audiences can still be beneficial if carefully planned.

Advertising strategies that are part of a larger marketing strategy may also include: –

• Google AdWords (pay-per-click)

• Facebook/Social Media adverts specific to highly targeted consumers based on factors like age, income, gender, and location)

• Direct mail

• Cold calling/emailing

• Traditional strategies (television, radio, newspaper)

Understanding the function of advertising and marketing can ultimately help you achieve one important goal, reaching out to consumers likely to be interested in what you have to offer. It is a goal often made with thorough planning, insightful observations, ongoing engagement, and informed decision making.

Article by Creative Thinking Media

If you wish to discuss how we can develop your brand or provide a great advertising strategy for your business, then email us on info@creatvethinkingmedia.co.uk

Creative Thinking Media is a Creative Media Agency that is passionate about effective Marketing/Advertising Campaigns, Brand Identity, Logos and Web Design. ©

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Why Your Website is Your Most Important Marketing Tool

A website is one of the most important marketing tools in today’s day and age. There are multiple reasons for businesses to invest in their website. While many agencies will talk intensely about creative work that leaves a lasting impression on your customer through forward thinking design, or clever social media campaigns, we see the benefits of investing in your website at a simpler, homegrown level.

Legitimacy

At the very least, your website needs to legitimise your business in the market. There’s a time and place for highly creative or technical digital work, but first and foremost – users who find your website online need to understand, at a glance, that you’re a real business and smart enough to know that your customers are going to use your website as the first port of call in selecting you for any which product or service you’re offering.

Your website design doesn’t need to push design boundaries…

…but it should present your business as within the 21st Century (and of course, a design that does push boundaries is even better for your users to engage with). One thing is clear though – outdated designs will push customers away. Today’s users have formed habits from using websites and the user experience across dated websites clash with these habits. Your website should 100% be mobile optimised today as majority of users across most audiences will be using mobile to browse the web. Users will quickly exit a website that challenges them in usability and mobile user experience is a key consideration when considering a website design update.

Modern Design

A design that appears to be visually modern also acts simply as a justification that your business is in fact open and operating. Many customers today are fickle and will quickly turn away from your website simply because it doesn’t look like it’s been updated in many years. They’re quick to assume it’s closed or that the content itself is outdated and therefore unreliable (think product pages, price lists etc). It’s important to give your website a fresh coat of paint every five years at the least. General digital design best practice and trends change over this period of time, as do user expectations.

Keep your content current

This opens up another tip for ensuring your customers will use your website as justification that you’re legit – frequent content updates show that you’re actively using your website for marketing purposes. Current price lists, notice of upcoming sales and even blog content will show your customer that you’re considering them as a user, and not relying on them to contact your directly. Their trust in your content and overall offering will increase. Current content will also minimise the amount of general query phone calls your business receives – giving you higher qualified customers who do pick up the phone to speak to you.

Bonus SEO benefits

Frequently updated blog content will also do you favours in SEO. Search engines use algorithms that identify keywords within meaningful content, and rank this content higher within keyword search results. We all know how often we dive deeper into Google search results past page three – slim to none. Higher SEO rankings will attract more online traffic.

Your Online Identity is Crucial to Success

We’re not saying that your website needs to present a grand website design with a technical beast behind it, or that you need to hire a full time content writer to ensure you have blog content every second day – but you do need to take these tips into account and invest in your online identity to turn your website into the marketing tool it can become.

Article by Creative Thinking Media

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