No matter the size or reach of your company, advertising is an essential component of any successful marketing strategy. To help ensure you align your ideas with the best practices for promoting your product, there are a few key roles that can help structure your marketing efforts. Whether you are marketing online, in print, or in person, these strategies can help you increase your audience.
1. Use Advertising to Inform
The first main role of advertising is to inform the public about what it is you’re promoting. In other words, you want to create awareness. When advertising your brand, your goal should be to inform your audience about your services, programs, products, brands, or ideas. Be sure to include concise and to-the-point facts and statements about your product or brand. You don't want to provide too much information, as it can be overwhelming and discourage your audience from reading it all. Let them know what it is that you're promoting and why it's important.
When advertising a brand, product, or service, it is beneficial to start with the “why”. Why should someone buy your product? Why should someone invest in your company? Organizations that start with why are more likely to succeed than those that don't. This will catch people’s attention and help them to tune in more. For instance, take St. Jude’s commercials. They latch onto peoples’ heartstrings, tell a story, and strike emotion. This is why they have so many donors. They showcase their cause of funding for children’s cancer research, striking a cord that hits home and alerts the limbic system in the brain. Humans care about other humans, and we want to be there for each other. After striking emotion, St. Jude’s provides statistics to further promote itself.
2. Use Advertising to Promote
The next main role of advertising is to promote. Understanding your audience is an important factor in promotion. When aiming your advertisements, consider who your target audience is – the specific group of people likely to invest in your products or services. You can reach your target audience through demographic, geographic, behavioral, or psychographic means.
Promoting your product can be accomplished through various means. Boosting your company's presence on social media is a great way to draw people in. Search engine optimization (SEO) can also be beneficial for targeting the right audience. Print, broadcasting, videos, and product placement can also be utilized, but online marketing may be the best option, as it offers the possibility to reach a global audience.
3. Use Advertising to Add Value
Adding value to your product or service starts with bringing out emotions in people, and making them understand why they should invest. Your vision statement is a great way to share your brand's values and goals. For example, Jane's Fund has a vision statement that conveys how they want to bring light and love into the community by providing financial support to families in times of hardship. Their website adds extra value by sharing the Harrells' personal story of hardship, and their daughter Jane's story. After reading it, it's impossible not to be moved and want to contribute to the cause.
Auburn Advertising Is Here to Help Your Business
Auburn Advertising is passionate about the Auburn community and its success! As a public service of Inner Spark Creative, a full-service advertising agency and marketing partner, we strive to inform the community of ways to boost their business and brand. Inner Spark Creative can help you develop a strong marketing strategy that can give your business that next big boost in revenue. For more information about Auburn Advertising or Inner Spark Creative, contact us today!
