Advertising is all about reaching as many customers as possible and maximising your return on investment. In order to make your advertising as effective as possible, you need to make sure you know your audience and where they are consuming media.
It all comes back to the business plan. This should detail who your potential customers are, and the key demographics you are trying to reach. Once you identify those customers, you can then start looking for where they spend most of their time.
It could be television, online or in magazines – maybe all of these at different times.
Your advertising channels will also be dictated by your budget. With little money, you want to maximise your return.
This is why social media is so popular among start-ups – it costs practically nothing to start up.
For instance, you can start a blog and use social media (Twitter or Facebook are good examples) to start promoting your business to customers online. You could start producing videos and upload them onto YouTube. There are plenty of ways to advertise with a low budget if you do your research.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
