816-373-7601

Teresa Nevels

Owner / Marketing Consultant

Merchant Circle Marketing Advisor

“Marketing is not an event,

but a process…

It has a beginning,

a middle, but never an end,

for it is a process.

You improve it, perfect it, change it,

even pause it.

But you never stop it completely.”

~ Jay Conrad Levinson

For the Kansas City Small Business owner it is necessary to plan advertising

in detail.  To be effective, advertising and communications must meet

specific measurable objectives. Your choice of media, strategy, overall

budget and lead times will all depend upon your objectives.  Overlooking

any of those details could weaken the effectiveness of your

advertising campaign.

These of course are just guidelines.  We represent a lot of Kansas City advertising companies and different media from interent, print, radio, TV & Billboards.  For a complimentary review, please call or email me.

1) Define your Target Market

Who is your advertising aimed at?  An understanding of your target will influence the media you select and the creative treatment of your advertisement. To define your target marketing, you should ask questions like these:

a) who buys your type of product or service?

b) Who influences the purchasing decision?

c) In business buying, who are the important decision makers?

d) Do you need to communicate with the actual buyers or those who influence the purchasing decision?

e) How many potential buyers are there?

f) How many users are currently buying your product and what is your share of the market?

g) Which prospects do you want to reach with your advertising and where are they located?

h) What are the characteristics of these people for example, age, sex, income, job title, etc.

i)  What does research tell you about their attitudes toward your company, products & industry?

j) How do they currently receive information about your products?

k) What is the role of advertising in reaching the target audience?

2) Select Media

There are four important components to consider in selecting advertising media:    see more:

a) How closely the audience profile of the medium matches your target audience.

b) The comparative costs of reaching the target audience through different media.

c) Whether the frequency of the medium matches the timing of your campaign.

d) The creative opportunities of the medium for the communication of your message.

3) Plan Campaign Timing

You have to consider a number of factors first in relation to the purchasing pattern of our products.

a) When are your customers making their buying decisions?

b) Do you know when your customers hold product/purchasing review meetings?

c) If you are launching a new product or your product is seasonal, when will the product be available?

d) Does your advertising campaign have to tie in with the timing of any other marketing activity, for example, an exhibition, direct marketing campaign, or sales fore call?

e) How quickly will you be able to follow-up the advertising?  Also need to take into account production time.

f)  What is the next available publication or broadcasting date?

g) When does the publication or media owner require your advertisement?

4) Decide Campaign Frequency

Advertising raise levels of awareness with each appearance. They also move individual respondents further along the decision making process and maintain contact during an extended process. Advertising reinforces the impact of the message by repetition and provide an opportunity to communicate multiple or complex messages about the company or the product range.

5) Plan Creative Treatment

The main elements are:

a) Campaign objectives

b) Description of the target audience

c) the main concerns of the target audience: why they buy, what they consider, how they view different products and services.

d) the main benefits of the product or service: why the product is different from competitive offerings, what is new, why the benefits are important.

e) The core message  -- what the prospect is being offered: the opportunity to sample or buy, further information, an incentive, discount or sales visit.

f) The next step -- should the prospect contact the company, send off an order, wait for a phone call, or simply absorb the information?

g) the media -- what form of advertising best fits your needs to reach your market.

h) The supporting activities -- telemarketing, advertising, sales follow-up, etc.

6) Develop a Response Mechanism

Making it easy for your prospects to respond.  What action do you want them to take?

a) Place an order

b) Arrange a sales meeting

c) Request further information

d) Visit your Web site.

e) Visit a retail outlet

f) Try the product.

7) Set a Budget

Clients who have a new business should be looking at anything up to 30% of forecasted sales. This would then scale back from year to year for the first five years when the company should be well established. From this stage it should be rolled back to 7-10% of gross sales.

Some dos and don'ts -- Don’t spend all of your budget on one medium only  -- Do spend your budget across various media -- Don’t spread your budget too thin over various media -- Don’t over expect – just because you spend $1, doesn't mean you’ll get $ 1 back!

8) Set Schedules

Work back from the launch date and work out how long each individual activity will take.