If you are a business owner and have ever asked yourself the question, “How and where should I advertise?” then you are in good company. The scary thing about that question is that there are so many answers and almost all of them come from the very people who will benefit from you spending money on advertising. You face the same delima when wanting investment advice or medical advice. More often than not, the people providing the answers are the ones who have a financial interest in the outcome of your decision. Search engines (Google, Bing!, Yahoo, etc), Yelp! (Oh god Yelp’s sales teams are like zombies… they never stop trying to get a hold of you. No matter what you do or say!), social media companies (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc), TV companies, billboard brokers (I could keep going and end up at the kid who spins the sign at the corner signal light) all claim that you should advertise on their platforms because they claim your customers are there or they go to a tried and true sales tactic, fear. “You won’t be found!, Your competitors are there!, You cannot grow without advertising online!, You cannot reach your audience without advertising on social media! Radio is a forgotten medium that businesses are starting to use again!” And each one stands to make a ton of money off of you, even if your sales do not improve.
I am here to tell you that some of you can grow your business without “them”. I am also here to tell you that some of you will really benefit by starting a partnership with an advertising platform (radio, online, tv, etc). The main point that I will share with you in this post is that there is not a silver bullet for all business types when it comes to advertising. You need to think about who your customers/clients are (We as business owners spend a lot of time thinking about what service or product we are selling rather than who will buy it. Not good if we are hoping to attract new business), where they are, where they will most naturally come into contact with your business (Unnatural contact with you business can be bad for you because who wants to buy headstones on Facebook while they are trying to relax and catch up with family and friends? It can be a major turn off) and most importantly, how much are you willing to spend on gaining one new customer? You might be surprised by how much you should spend. This blog series will tackle these questions and more over the next few weeks so relax, grab a notepad and get ready to learn the truth about advertising.
