Advertising is simply how you encourage consumers to buy your products, services or ideas.
Having said this, people have different reasons for which they advertise.
I’m going to discuss four reasons why people advertise their businesses, but before I begin, you should note one thing.
These reasons have been extracted from Akin Alabi’s Small Business Big Money book. If you haven’t read this book yet, then it’s high time you read it.
The book has what it takes to turn your business into a cash minting venture, hence why we added it to our list of 13 Great Entrepreneurial Books.
Now, let’s look at these four reasons why people advertise below:
1. TO GET RESULTS: SALES, PROSPECTS, CONTACTS ETC.
With this, when you place an advert, be it on TV or in the papers, you are expecting instant response.
Let’s assume you are in the seminar business and you put up a seminar and then spend money promoting it.
You will want people to respond to your advert. You will want them to pick up their phones to ask for more details. You will want them to send you emails signifying their interests. You will want them to pay for the seminar.
This is called direct response advertising.
2. TO CREATE VISIBILITY AND BUILD A BRAND
This means you want people to always have you in mind so when they need a product like yours they come to you.
For instance, if Samsung pays Chelsea millions of pounds so they can have their names on Chelsea’s shirts, Samsung is not expecting people that watch Chelsea to go right out to the shopping malls to buy Samsung electronics.
What they are doing is staying put in your mind so that when you need electronics, you will think about them. And this is because they can afford it.
The problem with this type of advertising is that it’s not good if you have a small advertising budget, you will go broke before seeing results.
3. BECAUSE EVERYONE ADVERTISES SO THEY HAVE TO
Inasmuch as you may be thinking if people actually advertise because of this reason, trust me they do.
Some people don’t even have an idea why they are advertising. Or should I say they have no advertising goal. They started their business and heard (or have always heard) that it is normal to advertise so they take out money to spend on the most enticing advertising medium.
4. TO FEEL REALLY COOL WITH THEMSELVES
This is unarguably the silliest group of all. They say things like;
“Did you see that ad on DSTV? That is our ad”
“Make sure you buy The Punch Newspaper tomorrow. You will see our nice ad on page 14”
“Don’t you think our ad is really really cool?”
Having talked about the four reasons why people advertise, the advice is that;
As a small business owner, go for the first reason. When you begin to make money, add the second.
Never ever try advertising just because others are doing it or you want to feel cool with yourself. Never!
READ: Elements of Effective Advertisement
