Many business owners mistakenly believe that advertising is purely about ensuring as many people as possible are exposed to your brand. While this may work for international brands with a monopoly of their sector, it’s neither cost effective nor practical for smaller businesses.
In order to make the most out of any advertising that you can afford on your budget, you need to truly understand the people that you are selling to.
There are a few ways to go about this, the most effective being targeted market research. This will give you information regarding the demographic you are catering to. This could include their age, disposable income, interests, use of competitor brands, location, and recreational activities. Once you know your customers, you can focus your advertising appropriately.
Here are a few ways to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to your marketing campaigns.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (otherwise known as SEO for short) is a truly effective way to encourage clients and customers to see your brand without employing pushy sales techniques.
This is essentially the start of an organic development between your business and your audience. Once you know what kind of things your intended customer base are searching for online, you can use search engine optimization to match up the keywords that your audience frequently use in their web searches with the appropriate pages on your site.
The apter the match, the higher your website will appear in their search results. This is absolutely necessary, as most consumers don’t tend to go past the second or third page of their search engine results when they’re looking for a product. The higher you appear, the more clicks you will get and the larger the volume of traffic that will be directed to your site.
Remember, more traffic generally converts into more sales, which at the end of the day, is the aim of the business game. If you would like to know more about SEO, this website explains the whole process, as well as its potential benefits.
Sponsored Advertising
Use market research to find out what kind of individuals your customer base tend to follow on social media. This can be Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. If certain people keep cropping up, consider contacting them for a sponsored marketing deal. They may be willing to post a subtle advertisement of one of your products or your brand in general.
The exposure from this can be huge, depending on their number of followers. Instagram is perhaps the best platform for this, as it is inherently visual, which makes product placement much more discreet and effective. If your customers are highly active on social media too, you could always consider setting up a brand social media feed, which they can follow, show their support for your company and consequently make unspoken public recommendations to others.
These are just two ways in which gaining information about your potential consumers can be used to shape your advertising campaigns. This is just a start and there are plenty more options out there. Undertake your research as soon as possible to start profiting from the results.