Advertising can drive sales, but it can also be expensive.
Advertising is just one part of a business development strategy. It can be an effective way to make potential customers aware of your business, but it can also be very expensive. Therefore, any advertising campaigns need to be properly managed and analyzed for their return on investment. Advertising methods should be chosen carefully to ensure they are reaching your target market and attracting the customers you want to your business.
Print Advertising
Print advertising can be very expensive and often reaches only a limited market segment. If you choose print advertising for your business, make sure the publications you list with are being read by your target audience. Ask questions before placing an advertisement to find out who reads the publication, what the distribution is and what audience the publication is trying to reach. If their audience is similar to yours, it may be worthwhile to advertise with them.
Web Advertising
Web advertising can go hand-in-hand with print advertising, since most publications now have associated websites and some even sell advertising packages for both Web and print. However, other forms of Web advertising, such as Google AdWords, can be a cost-efficient way to drive traffic to your website and raise awareness about your business. Ads show up when people use search engines, and you pay either for the number of times your ad appears or for the number of times someone clicks on your ad.
Social Media
Social media advertising takes advantage of the network effect to help you develop your business. When people read your social media updates and share them with their online connections, those connections might share with their connections, and so on. It's a free way to reach potentially thousands of people, but you must remain active on social networking sites to get results, and that takes commitment. A social media strategy for business development is very cheap and if done well, very effective.
TV and Radio
Advertising on television reaches a large audience.
TV and radio advertising have a broad reach, but are also very expensive. Companies usually pay for TV and radio advertising per 30 seconds of broadcast. Advertisements during premium times when more people are listening or watching will cost more, as will advertisements that reach viewers and listeners in large geographical areas. For this reason, many small businesses will not use it for business development. However, television and radio advertising can be an effective method for larger businesses and corporations.
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