ShuBee Customer Care

Advertising budgets always seem to be the first to get cut when times get lean. In many cases, there's simply no budgeting for promotions; advertising is done sporadically and managed poorly. Either case is unfortunate considering that advertising is potentially the best investment you can make in your business!

Regardless of what media format you use for your advertising - print, online, radio or other broadcast media, e-marketing or some combination of them all - these pointers will help maximize your advertising impact without breaking the bank:

Plan - Effective advertising doesn't happen five minutes before your deadline. Allow yourself plenty of time for research, creativity, proofing and revision. Planning and preparing your ads ahead of time avoids any rush charges you could encounter by not having your ads ready by the publisher's deadline. In addition to avoiding extra charges, this will allow you plenty of opportunities to proof and correct your ads before they're published. The last thing you want is to find a typo in your ad that was overlooked because of a tight deadline.

Keep a calendar - This tip goes hand in hand with planning but deserves mention all on its own. Make an advertising calendar. Keep track of where and when you plan to advertise and use this to your advantage. If you know you can afford to spend X amount of dollars to advertise in a particular magazine, radio station or newspaper over a four month period, you can negotiate with your advertiser for a larger size ad or more placements since you plan to buy in bulk. Use this schedule to stay ahead of the curve and stretch your advertising dollars.

Research free advertising - There are a lot of free adverting tools available - Craig's List (www.craigslist.org) for example. Use these advertising outlets to expand your advertising online if you don't have your own website to do self-promotion. If something newsworthy is happening in your business, get the word out with free online public relations tools like PRFree (www.prfree.com) and Open Press (www.theopenpress.com). You may not get the same response or exposure as with paid PR services, but every bit helps. Use these resources to squeeze the most exposure out of your efforts.

Test your ads - You may not be able to afford luxuries like split testing or focus group studies of your ads before they hit, but at least ask for a few outside opinions about your ads before they're published. Use a small group of your ‘preferred customers' as your test group. Friends and family will work as well, just make sure they know you want unbiased, detailed opinions for your ad and not just "Oh, this looks great!"

Hire a professional - When you're sick, you go to the doctor. When you need legal advice, you go to a lawyer. It only makes sense then to use an advertising agency to help make your ads pop. Even if you have an excellent idea for an ad and are committed to using it in your campaign, consider using a designer or production specialists (if you're thinking of radio or television) to give your concept a professional visual appeal to match your unique advertising idea.

Recycle your content - Save samples of all your advertising pieces; make notes regarding which were most effective and why. Use the traits from your most successful ads as a springboard for ideas for new material. There's nothing wrong with using elements from past advertisements. In fact, this will help form a sense of cohesion throughout your campaign no matter what media you choose for your ads. Just because you're buying a new ad you don't have to build it from the ground up - don't reinvent the wheel!

Evaluate and update your ads - Keep a tally of which ads bring your customers in. Is it your phone book ad or a radio spot? What was special about the ones that were successful? Using source codes in your ads will really help if you're doing a large print or online campaign. Regardless though, don't wait for the customer to tell you how they heard about you, ask them! Use these notes to keep track of what works and what doesn't, then take that information and adjust your advertising accordingly.

Follow these pointers and you're sure to be on a fast track to a successful advertising campaign that won't cost you an arm, leg or worse! Using these tips will also help you to refine and hone your current advertising efforts to make your campaign become the lean, mean, dollar-generating machine it should be for your business!