I know that half of advertising doesn’t work, the problem is I don’t know which half – As a small business owner does this quote ( paraphrased) by retailing tycoon John Wanamaker, resonate with you? Do you want to know where to advertise your business? Knowing how, what & who to advertise with was bad enough when the options where limited.
where are you going to place your advertising dollar?
Not so long ago the options were television, newspapers, radio, mail outs, flyer’s, and a small amount of others and now? The internet is fast being a superhighway of advertising. What with Google ads and other pay for click advertising, internet marketers advertising everything including the kitchen sink, our own business website, Facebook ads, Facebook offers (on the way, see below), Twitter ( and soon twitter ads), pinterest, You Tube ads, and next, you tube ads for small businesses. Don’t forget all those fantastic coupon deals and loyalty schemes our businesses must be a part of that will drive thousands of buyers to our stores, services or websites…
An issue facing all small business owners – where to advertise your business
Basically the whole web and most social media is becoming advertising driven. Now I’m not saying that that is wrong, it’s just the way it is. There was always going to be a price to pay for the mega load of information on the web. Someone, somewhere needs to be paying to support the infrastructure and on going maintenance of websites of, for example, charities and other social causes, craft forums, pet information etc. Facebook is going public, and as such will need to generate a return for it’s investors from what? from businesses advertising on the platform.
What worries me most, as a small business owner is, where do we place our advertising dollar? What is going to give us the most return? Who do we trust for advice on what to do? And ….. isn’t the advertising market saturated. Are consumers even seeing the ads and using them in their decision making? Or are they switching off, just like we do when watching tv adds.
And our compeditors, if they advertsing on a social media channel, will we follow suit? How many dollars are we willing to pay out to cover all the bases?
No doubt there will many experts coming forth on what to do, but my opinion is from my own experience, no one can tell you what advertising channel is going to bring in a return on investment.
I know that half of advertising doesn’t work, the problem is I don’t know which half – my guess is that with all these extra channels, it will be way more that half of advertising not working!
ARRGGGHHHHH
What do you think? are you as frustrated as I am? or is it just me? Do you have a advertising/marketing plan for your business? & what channels will you be concentrating on? Do you have a plan on where to advertise your business?Let me know what you think, leave a comment by clicking on ‘leave a comment’ under the heading of this post….. thanks, I would love to hear your views.
info on new facebook offers:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-announces-offers-mobile-ads/9760
info on you tube ads for small business:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/your-ad-as-seen-on-youtube/
info on twitter ads:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/technology/internet/13twitter.html
I’ve bought ads on radio, in magazines, in the newspaper. I’ve done direct mail and email marketing. I’ve done Living Social and Groupon. I’ve bought “window clings” on every door going into the shopping mall. I paid for a “street team” to do guerilla marketing. I’ve bought google ads and facebook ads. And I cannot tie PROFITABLE business back to any of it. Ya, almost all of them made my phone ring. Ya, I even made some sales. But none of the sales ever paid for the advertising campaign.
What works for me is word of mouth and “I found you on the web.” So my marketing dollars go into rewarding those who recommend my business and keeping my website fresh with current, unique content.
And now when an ad sales rep calls me and says the reason the ad didn’t work before is because “the creative was wrong.” I say, “tell you what, YOU design the creative and for every customer I get from your marketing vehicle I’ll pay $x.” Well, that’s not how THEY charge. Well, that’s all I buy anymore!
You got me going on this one!
Thanks Stacey, It’s good to know that I’m not the only one…even half way around the world we all face the same issues! You should of heard me when I got a phone call a few weeks ago how I was going to get ‘thousands’ of sales from advertising on a kids website that promotes discounts to gain customers….as far as I am concerned that was a lose/lose situation.
Where to advertise, and how to promote your business is a tough nut to crack. We have limited time and dollars and need to put both to best use. I wish I had the answer!
If only there was an answer, thanks Louise