Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2010; the banner traffic range it cites (2,000–100,000 visits a day), its mentions of Tuenti and Myspace, which are no longer relevant social networks, and its view of online advertising as the up-and-coming channel reflect that year. Google AdWords was renamed Google Ads in 2018.
A business, whatever its size, needs advertising to increase its sales or simply to become known. Without question, the cheapest and most effective form of advertising is word of mouth, although other routes are needed before you can get that kind of advertising. Below we explain all the types of advertising that pay off when it comes to promoting our business.
1. Print advertising: This is advertising that consumers are not, in principle, looking for, although they may need your services. You can get it through:
- Local or national newspapers: Depending on your business’s reach, you should advertise in the newspapers with the most readers in your province or state, either by buying space on the inside pages or by buying space on the front page (the most read and also the most expensive).
- Direct advertising: This is the advertising that reaches our homes in the form of leaflets. It is one of the cheapest forms of advertising: producing the leaflet and hiring a distribution company involves an upfront cost, but it can bring us potential customers. This form of advertising will be even more effective when we are sure we have included a great offer that sets us apart from our competitors.
- Trade magazines: There are all kinds of magazines specialising in a specific area. Appearing in one shows that we are professionals in our sector: furniture magazines, interior design magazines, and so on. In the customer’s eyes, simply appearing in a specialist magazine gives us a reputation for professionalism.
2. Radio advertising: Radio spots need a very attention-grabbing advertisement. You need to achieve what marketing calls a lasting advertising effect. You should announce a specific event, or discount days on a particular range of products or services. Often, to attract potential customers through radio spots, businesses feature products on which they have cut their profit margin.
3. Television advertising: It is obviously the most effective, although most companies cannot afford it because of the high costs involved. The mere fact that a company advertises on television is a sign that it has already earned substantial revenue to cover the heavy investment on the channels with the biggest audiences. That is why a brand starts to become a top brand the moment it advertises on a leading channel.
Advertising on local channels is cheap precisely because they have no audience. It is not the kind of advertising we recommend.
4. Internet advertising: Cheap and profitable. That is how I would describe it, since lately it is the one delivering the best results for small and large businesses alike. These are the ways we can advertise online:
- Banner advertising: This consists of placing a banner on a website with reasonable traffic (2,000–100,000 visits a day). This kind of advertising is usually priced by the month. It is getting fewer and fewer results, because internet users are getting used to looking for the relevant information and ignoring the ads placed in banners, unless you include something very eye-catching in the ad.
- Advertising with Google AdWords: We covered this type of advertising in a previous article. It is still undoubtedly the most profitable in terms of value for money. You set the price. You pay only when someone clicks on your ad. This is the form of advertising that can attract the most potential customers to your business, because whoever clicks on your ad is genuinely interested in what you offer. Your ad will appear only on websites related to your company’s sector. For more information about Google AdWords’ conditions, you can visit the Google AdWords home page.
- Free advertising online: This consists of exchanging links or banners with websites on a similar subject or in a sector that is compatible with and complementary to yours. It may be more or less profitable, but it clearly won’t cost you anything.
- Social media advertising: Facebook, Tuenti, Myspace, Twitter and others give you the chance to promote your company and keep your customers and friends well informed for free. There are also options for more visible advertising on social networks, though these are paid. To begin with, register your company and create a page for your business on social networks.
Further reading
- 5 ways to grow your business
- How to be a successful entrepreneur in business
- The mindset of an entrepreneur
- The Art of War in business
Featured image: Yle Archives – Yle Arkisto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
