The ABC's of Advertising for Small Businesses

Typically, advertising and promotion are vital to the success of a business. To successfully advertise you will need to allocate a portion of your budget for such purposes. The size of this percentage will depend on the size of your business and the scope of the market that you are trying to reach.

Proportionally, a small business and a multimillion-dollar corporation may spend the same percentage of their budget on advertising. If the advertising campaign is carefully planned to reach the target audience, the resulting increase in business may also be a similar percentage. For example a few well-placed billboards in a small town might generate a 10 percent increase in sales for a small business while a national commercial might produce the same 10 percent increase for a major retail chain.

Your focus, when advertising, needs to be on:

1. The type of media to reach most effectively your target audience
2. The type of advertising campaign you will run, e.g. to promote a new product, to place a familiar product or company name in front of the audience, or to promote a special service or activity
3. The advertising style that best suits your products and/or services
4. How can you reach the most people (within your defined market) for your advertising dollar

When you advertise, you are investing in your own business, and, as with any type of investment, there are risks involved. The major risk is that the advertisements will not generate enough sales to justify the costs of the campaign. As is the case with any investment, through due diligence you will determine the most appropriate and secure means of advertising before taking such risks.