Advertising works, it’s not something to “try”, it’s something to “work” and the companies that know how to work their advertising are the companies that will jump out ahead in 2022.

Here are 3 things advertising cannot do:

• Can’t magically make a business grow overnight.
  
• Can’t change an in-person or online bad experience.
• Can’t explain everything a company does or offers in one ad.

What can advertising do?

• Tell the world what your company is all about - brand awareness.
  
• Create excitement about your company.
• Direct people where to go to buy your goods or services.

When working on budgeting and planning for 2022, usually a team is involved. All size companies have teams, but typically, there’s more than one person involved in making and finalizing marketing plans.

Before hunkering down on where you’re going to place your advertising, be sure the entire team has realistic expectations of what advertising can/cannot do, otherwise, there will be internal struggles and disagreements from the get go. Review the lists above, is everyone in agreement? Great, let’s move on to advertising campaigns!

The most effective marketing and advertising looks at it two ways:

• What is our overarching brand statement?
  
• What is our current goal? What do we want to achieve in the short run: 1 month, 3 month, 6 months, etc.
  

The brand statement will be the advertisements that promote your brand, and brand statement. Look at them as “Top of Mind” ads, like:

• Sponsoring the weather on the radio on a station your customers would listen to.
  
• Running tens of thousands of digital banner ads with a logo, great images, and link to home page directed at your target audience.
• Have a 15 second video pre-roll campaign with Name, Logo, Brand Statement placed to target audience.
• Sponsoring a sporting event
• Organic social media posts
  

Branding campaigns can be budget, or expensive, but most of all, they must be consistent. The ROI on these will be difficult, if not impossible to track. This is where Advertising and Marketing is an “art” not a “science” comes into play. Budget for the long haul, like, 12 months in one place, and just let it work. Make a goal for your branding campaigns. Put some starting numbers down and look at: website visitor growth, Google reviews growth, overall company financial growth, name recognition, etc.

Next, you want to create a track-able advertising campaign. You have to shed the mentality of “trying” advertising - you are here to “work” advertising! (tv stations, radio stations, streaming services, apps, etc. operate with advertiser dollars. If advertising didn’t work, non of these would be available. So… advertising very clearly “works.”)

Assuming you have a plan for your brand awareness, now you can create a buzz about a product or service for short-burst campaigns:

• What is new?
  
• What gives you the best margin?
  
• What can you sell at cost or lower just to get someone in the door? (or on website)
• What’s happening right now you can build on? (ice storm coming? big sporting event coming?)

Where do you place these campaigns? Wherever your key customers are, and however your key customers are gathering information nowadays.

If your customer is a 17 year old male, you have no business advertising on regular tv. They don’t even know what that is! If your customer is a 45 year old yoga mom with 3 kids, you have more options to find them - they still watch tv, they love social media, they also listen to radio, and then again they binge-watch streaming shows. Determine your budget for this campaign, and dive deep into one channel targeted at them, and get the word out. Never try to be everything to everyone in all places, that’s just a recipe for wasted dollars.

Advertising isn’t about being perfect, it’s about making decisions, having confidence in what you’re doing, having clear understanding and expectations on what it can actually do for the long or short haul, and measuring what you can measure.

So, make 2022 the year you “Work” your advertising, and get past the “Try” your advertising mentality: It works, so hunker in, have some fun, and watch the results!


Article Copyright 2021 Anne Flinn Advertising, LLC, written permission required to reprint or share.

Keeping up with marketing lingo can been head-spinning. And this is for people IN the industry! I can’t even fathom what it’s like to be a small business owner looking for trusted information.

There’s CTR, SEM, SEO, CTV, OTT, AVOD, CPM, CONTENT, INFLUENCER, CREATOR, just to name a few.

Before you pull your hair out, let me simplify this all for you: Good marketing and advertising sticks with some basic principles, no matter the new lingo.

When it comes to advertising, messages should be like a rhinoceros and have: ONE POINT. Then, once you pin-point the message, you’ll need the right mix of FREQUENCY + CONSISTENCY to get results, no matter where or how you advertise.

So… if you want to “try” a new way to advertise, let’s say: OTT (Over The Top, aka, Streaming TV) you can’t just dip your foot in for a few weeks, or even only three months. Like ALL advertising, it’s going to take time (frequency) and repeating the same message over and over (consistency) inn the same place, to the same audience, to see REAL results. And by real results I mean, serious sales growth - not just a bump in traffic.

Let’s look at GEICO: how many crazy ads have they run over and over and over? We know them all! We know what GEICO is, how much time it saves, and who it’s spokes-lizard is. How did this happen?? With: consistency (same funny messaging, same spokes-lizard) and frequency (can’t get away from their ads) and just one point: “15 minutes will save you $.” I am quite sure the marketing team at GEICO is sick of this campaign, but likewise think GEICO is making money hand over fist.

How can you apply this strategy to a small local business? You have limited funds, you don’t have a creative team, and you’re overwhelmed by the options and sales pitches that have come your way.

Figure these out:

What is your ONE important message? (avoid “best prices” unless you’re a full on discount store) avoid “best service” avoid “the best” - too generic.) How are you really different? In one sentence.

How much can you afford a month for pure advertising? (Not website development, not salaries, not organic social media, not printed fliers…) but pure advertising like traditional TV, Radio, Direct Mail, or new media like, Social Media advertising, Display Ad campaign, or Streaming TV.

What can you buy for that money? Start in ONE place for a good 6 months, and then add more. Trust your seasoned ad reps with your budgets, they know what works. Don’t try to have lots of ads going in lots of places - they will all get watered down and not work much. Put good money into advertising campaigns, and sit back and let them work, by adhering to the basics: One Point - Consistency - Frequency.

Most of all, don’t get overwhelmed by the new language of marketing. Stick to the basic principles, clarify your messaging, and trust that advertising WORKS!