Advertising Cheaply and Effectively

Published on this site: November 17th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Advertising is the lifeblood of your business. To be effective you will need to advertise on a regular basis. One advertisement rarely brings instant results. Your potential customer needs to see your ads several times before purchasing.

In order to make an effective campaign, it is necessary to have an advertising budget. This would be money set aside especially for advertising. It is wise to start on a monthly budget. Start with a small but reasonable amount and work up as the business starts to grow.

What ads should you start with? Classified ads are the cheapest and will allow you to test your ads. Bear in mind that Classifieds have the least exposure, so even if you get 1-2 responses, you can consider that you have made an impact. Once you have ascertained the best ad to use expand it (adding benefits) and make into a Solo Ad.

A solo ad will give maximum exposure and will be how you can test the most effective Ezines and publications for your ads. Always remember to track and test every ad, and note down your results. In this way you can find out which ad is doing well and what ezines are producing the best results.

Some keys to success in advertising are:

1. The 2 T's Track and test every ad
   
   
2. Targeting is a must.
   
   It is very important to choose the right market for your advertising. This is a common mistake with advertisers to advertise to the wrong market and wonder why results are poor. For instance if you are selling golf clubs ads to a health magazine you may not get good response but advertising in a Golfing magazine would produce better results.
   
   
3. Bigger is not always better.
   
   I have had varying results from different Ezines/publications. Some quite small lists have produced amazingly good results. Others with far bigger lists had poor response.

The way you advertise is critical to your business. You need to carefully plan and list all the places that will be beneficial to advertise your business and target them one by one. Build on your successes and grow your campaigns as your budget allows. Good advertising will help you sell and build your profitable business.

Cathy Qazalbash: Cathy is an experienced freelance writer/copywriter and publisher of the A-Y-B free marketing newsletter
http://advertise-your-business.com
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