How Political Advertising Relates to Your Small Business Advertising

Elections are a great chance for small business owners like you to see how advertising works in a rather short time frame. With three weeks to go before elections here across the USA, you have the opportunity to observe local and state political races.

Consider the candidate "the product" and his / her campaign advertising and public relations campaigns.

As you try to predict the winners, it's a great opportunity to observe how various politicians communicate their messages to specific groups of voters.

Compare this to your own small business advertising.

Of course, candidates have been working their audiences throughout the campaign, but what media they use and how is worth watching in these final weeks.

Sure, there will be upsets and predictable wins and everything in between. You'll be able to observe whether or not those "dirty campaign tactics" worked or not on election eve. (P.S. most don't!)

Using combinations of different media makes the candidate appear to be everywhere,

You'll find each politician strives to stimulate personal referrals, debates / forums (you use seminars to educate), and different media such as direct mail pieces, newspaper ads, lawn signs, radio, tv as the budget allows.

The political advertising season once again hammers home the need for advertising to repeat, repeat, repeat. Studies show it can take from 6 to 9 impressions before your ad gets the attention of your potential customers (i.e. the voter).

The repetition factor came to mind one recent weekend here in Connecticut when - all of a sudden - almost overnight, literally - yard signs appeared for a new candidate for State Senate, running for his very first time. Not only did he have a difficult to recognize last name, but he was pretty much unknown in some of his district towns.

But this was no amateur effort. It seemed as if suddenly the distinctive yard signs appeared. You could see them from one yard to the next as you drove down some of the main streets, Very hard to miss. Not one sign here and there. It was repetition of lawn signs superbly orchestrated.

Some people love to watch the politicians battle it out and pay fairly close attention. At the other end of the specrtum, some voters sort of listen and make vague emotional judgements. Just goes to show how different people often react differently to the same message.

So whatever your political persuasion, remember you still need to promote your small business with advertising. Learn from what you see happening in political campaigns in your town or city during these last few weeks.

© 2006 Jon Sinish

This article may be reprinted and distributed as long as the resource information remains intact.

Small Business Advertising Secrets for Serious Business Owners

Many business owners are surprised when I tell them small business advertising doesn't usually work. I'm pretty sure most of them don't believe me, either. After all, if it doesn't work, why does everyone do it? Well, that's a good question. And part of the answer of why it doesn't work is precisely that: because everyone does it. But they all do it the same way... and that's the wrong way. And they all do it the wrong way... because... that's the way everyone does it. See, business owners copy their ads from other business owners... who are copying in turn from them. The fact is, though...

Small business advertising

Does work and it can work incredibly well... IF and ONLY IF you do it the right way. Let me show you that now.

How To Make Your Advertising Pay

First, stop all your advertising, unless you know beyond reasonable doubt it's making you money. The only way to know this is if you can track purchases to the ad. If you can't, then stop doing it, right now. I don't care how good a deal you've got or how "cheap" the ad seems: if it's not making you any money, then it's a very expensive piece of small business advertising indeed. Every ad must pay its way.

The second thing to do is cut the cost of your advertising and increase the responses you get from it. In fact, a much-overlooked way to increase your Return on Investment (ROI) is to pay less to run the advertisement.

The third thing you can do is...

Choose Your Battles Carefully

Your ad being seen by thousands of people is not by itself a good enough reason for placing it. Some years ago a client of mine placed a full-page ad, against my advice, in one of the British national newspapers. It was likely seen by (literally) millions of people, and cost over £15,000 in fees.

From it she got 35 responses and no sales. Not one. There were several reasons for this: first, the ad was rubbish; and secondly, she totally misunderstood her target market. She was, in effect, advertising sausages to vegetarians. Metaphorically speaking.

So bear in mind your local newspapers and media might not be suitable for your business to advertise in. For example, most business-to-business small business advertising is wasted in local newspapers because while your readership might be high, the blunt truth is eyeballs are not buyers. You can make much more money with a publication having a vastly smaller circulation but with a much more tightly defined demographic.

Learn What Makes an Ad Successful!

And, of course, what doesn't.

Your ad should follow the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Seems like a very simple formula (and it is!), but it's one even the great copywriters and marketers use -- because it works. And to get the attention people you're interested in doing business with, all your small business advertising should start with an attention getting headline. It's the first thing the reader sees. Your name and logo will just bore them.

Once you have their attention, you've got to get their interest. A list of services and product features won't do that. They have problems they want solving. So get their interest by telling them what you can do for them.

Arouse Their Desire!

Interest alone won't prompt them to dig their hands in their pockets and give you their money. It's not even going to be enough to make them call you or visit a website to get more information from you. To arouse their desire, small business advertising has to really drive home that knife and twist it. It's not enough to tell them a fire alarm will save their home!

You've got to make them imagine what it would be like to lose their family - wife, kids and the family dog! You have to engage their emotions to make them desperately need what you have to offer.

Get Them To Take Action!

Finally, you've got to get them to do something. Just ending your ad with a pathetic "and perhaps come in and see us if you think we can help you". If you're feeling especially ineffectual, you can promise you won't be beaten on price. Clue: virtually no one really buys on price all the time (and the few who do make lousy customers and clients).

So your small business advertising must have a specific thing you want them to do. Go to a website, call you, post a coupon... what? Generally, the more ways to respond you give them, the better your response will be.

Conclusions

Small business advertising works. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of businesses prove this every single day. BUT the difference is the business owners whom it works for have gone out of their way and put in the time and made the effort to learn the essential skills they need to make it work -- marketing is a learnable skill, and not a particularly difficult one to master, especially in a local market.

Small Business Advertising Solutions - 3 Killer Methods To Accelerate Your Profits

Advertising Is The Catalyst For Accelerating Your Profits!

Perhaps you have seen a hot dog stand with the owner trying to ring a bell or calling out to people walking by to get some business. Of course, this is a vague example of a small business and I will not elaborate further.

Actually what you would certainly think is that he definitely has customers probably on a regular basis but what if he also had customers from out of town? You see, this exciting momentum of profits usually stems from advertising.

That is our basis for discussion today. Without further ado here are 3 ways you can utilize small business advertising solutions to your benefit. Keep an open mind:

Killer Method 1: Harness The Power Of Mailbox Inserts

Its quite simple really. You just need to work out the cost of printing small handy flyer's which comes with a few colors and have them distributed to your local neighborhood.

Having them distributed is not a problem either. You can find some eager part-timers or students who are more than willing to distribute them for you at a small fee. Provided you do a check to ensure the work was done.

Killer Method 2: Give A Free Gift For Potential Mass Profits

Probably this is one of the most overlooked method for most small business advertising solutions. You could have something like $700 in your hands right? Make a call to your local gift manufacturing company.

Then request for a quote on how much it would cost to print your business label with your business contact details on any item. It could be on a pen, mug or even daily planner booklets. Give them out freely and watch your business grow!

Killer Method 3: The Deadliest Method You Can Use

Okay, this is not dangerous as in 'dangerous' but it really is a very effective advertising method in the right hands. You may have heard about online advertising. There is one way you can really take everything off your shoulders and go to Hawaii for vacation.

Get one Internet advertising website to be your main resource. Budget a monthly allowance for using their services. If you can get many prospects to your business or website then stick with it. Soon, you will be pretty familiar with your advertising skills. Go massive on this one.

While I've laid out all 3 methods here, my highest recommendation would be to give method 3 a try out. You may be new to it and things may not seem familiar at first but in time you will enjoy it. Keep your momentum for advertising and you will soon see the fruits of your persistence.

Big Money in Small Business Advertising

One of the biggest challenges for a small business is advertising. Unlike large companies and corporations, small businesses do not have the large budgets and seemingly bottomless bank accounts to fund large advertising campaigns. However, the fact remains that in order to survive and remain competitive, they need to advertise and have an advertising campaign running.

If a business cannot afford at least 20% towards their advertising budget, then they are forced to be even more creative. This is where you come in as a Small Business Advertising agency. You can provide a solution for those with little money to invest. Although they might prefer to do it themselves, in order to save money, your sales pitch will need to include removing this challenge and providing them with a headache free solution.

Businesses that are struggling as well as those that are currently successful will be looking for ways to solve their problems and advertising always feels like a worthy investment. It is easy for a business owner to get excited about advertising and how they might increase their sales. As a professional small business advertiser, your job will be to help bring this dream alive. Since small businesses cannot afford to waste money on advertising that does not work, they can really use a person that can focus on their company.

You will want to come up with creative advertising campaigns for each company and sell them the dream based on this campaign. A campaign that will reach the target market / demographic, be affordable and produce a result in a short period of time. If your campaign is measurable, affordable and successful, you can repeat it over and over again to make big money in small business advertising.