You may have the hottest product on the market, but unless you make your prospective buyers aware of it, nobody will buy it. Advertising is a double-edged sword for many small businesses. Although the glitzy ads in big-name magazines give you advertising exposure, they also thin out your pocketbook fast. Most small businesses can’t afford to buy display advertising space. Other options open to you are desktop publishing and computerized drawing programs for creating your own brochures or direct mailers, and getting your product reviewed in a trade magazine.
Think about these questions in describing your advertising and promotional plans:
What is your advertising campaign?
What will be your three biggest promotional expenditures in the next year?
Through what media do you plan on advertising–three examples are electronic, print, direct mail?
Have you thought about public relations campaigns?
How will you develop credibility in the marketplace?
Have you thought about sales aids for your dealers?
Are you telling your local media, such as newspapers, radio, and television about your new business?
If your product is OEM or industrial, do you plan on going into trade shows, trade magazine advertisements, direct mailings, product sheets and promotional literature, or advertising agencies?
How will you promote your product in the future?
Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you’re doing, but nobody else does. Stewart Britt.