1. Awareness = Existence. Little to no advertising means you are generating little to no awareness about who your company is and what you offer. FACT: Buyers are always more aware of the companies with the most aggressive marketing. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is if nobody knows about it! Basically put, if you don’t advertise, and do it frequently and effectively – you don’t exist.
2. Your image defines you.(TM) Your advertising puts you in a unique position to personally design your own corporate identity and create how the outside world views your company. Your company’s brand relies heavily on your corporate identity and advertising. If designed correctly, you can use your advertising to position your company as a leader in your industry, neutralize negative publicity and PR, and expose your competitors weaknesses while highlighting your strengths.
3. Potential customers are ready to listen. Are you talking? About half of consumers buy an item within one week of deciding to make the purchase, but the actual purchase time is typically unplanned. As an example, say you decide to buy a new refrigerator. For the next week, you are not only willing to listen to advertisements but eager to in order to see what your options are to find the best deal. They will soak in your advertising like a sponge in order to help them decide where to buy.
4. If you’re not First – You’re Last. Simmons Research concluded that consumers believe buying a familiar brand usually guarantees approval while buying unfamiliar brands is risky… Keep in mind also that a large percentage of consumers postpone buying and spend a lot of time comparing prices, quality, and service. For these consumers, you want your advertising to consistently reach them throughout their entire decision-making process. Your goal is to become the First Familiar brand that comes to mind when they are ready to buy.
5. INTENTION is nothing without ACTION. An occasional advertisement may help in terms of generating some awareness but it will do little in terms of creating sales. Potential customers may know who you are, and may intend to use your products/services one day, but that’s not going to keep you in business. Consistent advertisements designed with a call-to-action such as limited-time sales, coupons, and promotional codes that expire give consumers in the “I’ll have to do that one of these days” phase an incentive to act now.
6. Advertising creates traffic, which increases sales. Advertise to drive traffic to your store, website, or any service location. Once your prospective customer is present you can us limited-time promotions and other call-to-action advertising locally to increase impulse and point-of-sale purchases. A National Retail Federation survey found that for every 100 items consumers plan to buy, they make an additional 30 unanticipated purchases!
7. Advertising SAVES you Time and Money. A significant number of sales are lost simply because the consumer didn’t have enough knowledge of the product and all of their available options. You can use your advertising to educate the consumer about your service/product’s features and its benefits. Knowledgeable consumers save you time and money by comparison shopping first and often already know what they want reducing your direct selling costs, the costs associated with hiring additional salespeople, and the time spent selling it to them.
8. Invest in your success. Consistent advertising gives you an advantage over competitors who reduce or eliminate their advertising. A survey of more than 3,000 companies found that advertisers who expanded or at least maintained a steady level of advertising over a five-year period saw their sales increase an average of 100%, whereas companies that reduced advertising grew at less than half that rate.
9. Learn from the pros. Copy Success. Simply put, effective advertising works. Successful businesses are usually consistent and aggressive advertisers. A common excuse from small business owners is “The BIG businesses can afford to advertise, but we’re just a small company.” Our response is this – What came first, the chicken or the egg? Sure, some of these big businesses started out with large investment capital, but consider this perspective: Perhaps they were small, gained momentum, and continued to grow because they understood the importance of and utilized their advertising. They out-advertised their competition in order to gain their position, and then have continued to advertise to maintain that position.
