Small Business Advertising Strategies

In days past, it was common practice to create what is known as an "image ad" and run them with high frequency in various publications.

The image ad had one goal in mind - to put the company's name and tag line in front of the reader on a regular basis. The hope was that these image ads would generate business. The problem is that most companies had limited means to measure the effectiveness of these ads.

Your small business advertising motto should be:

If you look through various trade journals from your particular industry, you'll still find plenty of advertising with no clear call-to-action. This is unfortunate as small business advertising can be a great way to generate a good number of qualified prospects.

Here are some ideas to help you formulate a small business advertising plan that works.

First, realize that any ad you place has one goal - to convert Suspects into Prospects. Because of this, your ad needs a compelling call-to-action that is easy for the Suspect to redeem. If your Suspects have to jump through hoops in order to redeem an offer, they may simply choose to ignore it.

The key to a successful small business advertising campaign is to give away something of value. In many cases, the best choice for a giveaway is simply information. Instead of trying to focus your ad on how great your company or brand is, focus on a solution to a compelling problem - and offer that solution free of charge. Well, not exactly free. The one thing you will request in return is the Suspect's contact information. Once you have this, your Suspect is no longer a Suspect. You have just converted them to a Prospect.

So here's how it works. You create an ad that poses a problem that your target market faces. You then offer a free solution in the form of a product sample, trial service or report, in exchange for the Suspect's contact info.

I call this concept Low Entry-Point Advertising. Your ad must exchange something of high perceived value for something that is easy for the Suspect to act upon - either a toll-free call or, better yet, a website URL where they can enter their name and email to access the free trial or special downloadable report.

Obviously, it is extremely important that your free giveaway item is able to clearly and compellingly demonstrate your ability to solve the Suspect's problem.

The reason why Low Entry-Point Advertising works so well is that you are not trying to go for the sale right away. You are offering useful information that requires very little risk on the part of the Suspect. Once the Suspect has completed the call-to-action, they have "raised their hand" and shown their interest in your business. You now have a Prospect that you can work to convert into a 1st-time buyer.

Tracking Your Advertising

• Use of a coupon code
• Use of a unique web URL that can be tracked

By creating a unique landing page for your print ad, Google Analytics tracking code can be used to monitor ad response. This is a great way to effectively automate the tracking and response of your small business advertising. The customer sees the print ad, goes to the URL given in the ad, fills out their name and email and then downloads their free report.

All you need to do is to periodically check Google Analytics to see the number of people that came to the page versus the number of people that redeemed the offer. You also learned how to set up goals in Google Analytics. Doing this will make your ad tracking even more automated. Of course, you can simply provide a coupon code in the ad that can be redeemed in your physical store or by calling a toll-free number.

Keep in mind that your free item (whether it's a free PDF report, tip sheet, article, tele-seminar, CD, DVD, sample pack, workshop or trial service) is designed to build confidence and trust. Leave the hard sell at home and concentrate on defining a specific problem and solution to help the readers of your ad. You have to build trust and confidence if you want to convert large numbers of Suspects into Prospects and then into 1st-time and repeat buyers.

How to Create a Compelling Ad and Offer

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The point is to create an attention-grabbing headline. I also highly recommend you attach a value to your free product and advertise this in your ad. For example:

When you write your ad, keep in mind the following points:

1. Create a compelling headline. This can simply be a shortened form of your tagline or value proposition.

2. List the benefits of your free item.

3. If possible, offer a testimonial.

4. Provide a clear low-entry call-to-action.

Once you have written your ad, the next obvious question is - where do you run it?

Where to Advertise

Newspapers
While newspaper ads are still a popular form of small business advertising, there is one large drawback - the inability to effectively target. My recommendation? Your money is best spent elsewhere.

Magazines
Magazines are an excellent choice to run small business advertising provided they are specifically focused on your target market.

There are many targeted consumer magazines as well as business-to-business journals. I recommend you stay away from the more general, less targeted magazines. I've given some examples of targeted versus non-targeted magazines below.

Non-Targeted: Newsweek, People, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated

Targeted: Home Business Magazine, Cat Fancy, Fine Gardening, Aquarium Fish Magazine, Outdoor Photographer

The best way to research whether you want to advertise in a particular magazine or journal is to call them and request a media kit. The media kit will provide you with subscriber information as well as ad costs. Check each potential magazine's website as some of them may have their media kits available for instant download.

Direct Mail
Instead of running your ad in a print journal, you can simply mail it out to a list of Suspects (and, if applicable, your list of Prospects.) In my opinion, targeted direct mail is one of the best choices for the small business advertising.

Here, you would simply print your ad on a postcard or flier and then work to rent a list of tightly focused Suspects. I'll talk more on list rentals in just a minute.

Internet
The Internet is a great place for small business advertising. Look for large websites devoted to your particular niche and contact site owners to discuss advertising opportunities.

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising such as Google Adwords can also be a very effective way to drive Suspects to your website in order to convert them into Prospects.

In my opinion, Google Adwords still offers the richest feature set with regards to PPC advertising. One advantage is the ability to test two ads against each other in order to determine which one performs better.

My bottom-line philosophy on Google Adwords is this. Use it wisely and target your ads. Build very specific landing pages and test them as well as the actual Adwords you create. As you increase your click-through rate via testing, Google will actually reward you by charging you less per click. It's an incentive for you to provide searchers with relevant results. Remember, Google's in the business of search relevancy. The more relevant you are with your small business advertising, the better they look!

Google Adwords does take some practice in order for it to start paying off. I highly recommend every small business owner learns how to run an Adwords campaign. You don't need to worry about runaway spending here since Google allows you to set your spending cap. There are people that run very small campaigns at $10 a month and people that spend over $10,000 a month.

Before you simply jump in on the Adwords bandwagon, you will need to educate yourself on the simple tools and strategies that will help ensure you make a profit on your adwords advertising. Review my 7-part Google Adwords Article to get started.

By the way, when you test your way to a good performing ad/landing page combination, the chances are good that this same offer would work well as a direct mail campaign!

Local Advertising

Step 1: Submit your website to various local search engines. To do this, just review the instructions provided at the link below.

Step 2: Add your business to Google Maps. Simply go to Google's Local Business Center and follow the directions.

Step 3: Submit your website to both truelocal.com and to citysearch.

Step 4 (Optional): If you have the budget, you can consider running your Low-Entry Point Ad in one of the following directories.

Coupon Packs
Local and small business advertising tends to work better if your product or service has a large general appeal (maid service, carpet cleaning, repair work, etc.)

If this is the case for your business, you might want to check out the neighborhood coupon pack. I'm sure you have received these envelopes in the mail containing advertising from a dozen or so local companies. All these companies split the cost of the mailing so that each individual cost is quite low. If your service had wide appeal, you should consider trying this as an effective small business advertising strategy.

So there you have it! Several critical strategies for ensuring your small business advertising program produces high conversion rates. Start incorporating these ideas into your small business today!