Advertising

1. What Are Your Aims?

1.1 Begin by establishing who your target customers are going to be.

• You need to have a clear picture of exactly who you are trying to reach (see Researching your market).

1.2 Before advertising, decide on specific goals. For example, you might want to:

• Create awareness of your new business.
• Tell people about a special opening offer.
• Build the image of a product or business.
• Upstage your competitors' efforts.
• Compile lists of leads for direct mail or sales calls (see Direct mail and Effective selling).
• Increase traffic through your shop.
• Make immediate sales, eg by mail order.

1.3 Plan your advertising in terms of results.

• Who are you trying to affect?
• How can you reach these people?
• How quickly do you need results?
• What is the one thing you want people to remember most from your advertisement?