The Importance of Advertising

Advertising is one of the pillars of a successful marketing strategy. It is one of the most effective ways to communicate information about your business to your target markets. It is also the method that gives you the best control over messages sent to your target markets. It is the surest way to reach potential customers exactly when, where, and how you choose.

How to Craft an Effective Advertising Campaign

An effective advertising campaign will help build your customer base and increase brand awareness. There are many possible ways this can be accomplished. Power Marketing suggests three principles to keep in mind as you develop your advertising campaign in order to give it maximum effectiveness: Plan It Out, Mix the Media, and Track Your Investment.

Plan It Out

How do you decide what advertising method works best for your business? Should you be advertising in magazines and newspapers, on the radio, or on television? Should you be advertising more frequently, or less frequently? Before you invest in any advertising method follow these five steps:

1. Create a list of the media in your target geographic area.
2. Obtain pricing for all of these media. Ask the media for information about their target markets, reach, and audience profile.
3. Decide which medium will be used by your customer.
4. Conduct a test set of ads in each medium.
5. Evaluate the results of the ads and repeat your success.

Mix the Media

Many businesses will concentrate their advertising efforts in one medium, say the Internet. That may work for some types of businesses, but most should be thinking about using several different media. Think like a customer when you buy advertising. Will your customer use this type of advertising to learn about your product or service? Do they trust this medium? Does it reach your demographic and geographic targets? More often than not, you will need to advertise in a variety of media in order to reach all of your target markets.

Track Your Investment

When your business places an ad you are reaching out to your current or potential customer base with a paid message. You control where, when, and how often the message appears and what it says. This allows you to track your expenditures and return on investment with great reliability. There are many methods for tracking advertising, including cost per lead, cost per promotion, and return on promotion.

Advertising vs. Public Relations

You may have read recently that PR can replace traditional advertising. Although public relations is an important part of a well-rounded marketing campaign, it should not totally replace advertising. PR messages can sometimes be more effective than advertising, depending upon your marketing goals. However, press releases do not always result in placement, whereas advertising always does. When you pay for an ad it is guaranteed to appear. Also, the ad will say exactly what you want it to say. Press releases are subject to editing and alteration by the publishing entity.

A well-rounded marketing campaign will include both public relations and advertising components.

Power Marketing's Advertising Services

Power Marketing offers a full range of advertising services, including:

• Advertising planning and strategy
• Ad testing via research
• Print advertising
• Radio spots
• Television ads
• Direct mail campaigns
• Online advertising
• Media buys and planning

Power Marketing can help you choose the optimal advertising media and frequency for your business. Your customer's demographic profile is the foundation upon which your advertising should be built. Using the profile we will determine the best media through which to reach your target market. Then we'll design an effective ad campaign that accurately reflects your branding in a clear, consistent manner.

We'll also help you choose advertising that's measurable so you can gauge its effectiveness. We take a personalized approach to creating advertising that works for you.