Who is your target audience?

By all means try out different forms of advertising – ads in papers or industry magazines, ads on radio, direct mail drops or newsletters to customers. But work out who are the people most likely to buy your products or services. What magazines or newspapers would they read and what radio stations would they listen to? You’re not going to advertise baby gear in a car magazine, but would you advertise cars on a teenage radio station? They might be interested in the cars, but is that your target audience?

Test the market by choosing one medium at a time rather than everywhere at once. If you include a promotional offer that is unique to a particular advertisement, then it’s easy to measure the effectiveness of the ad. Customers will call you or come to see you because of what they have seen or heard on the ad. You can then record the number of enquiries about that particular offer.

Next time try another medium – magazine, newspaper or newsletter – and see how that goes. You’ll quickly get an idea of the best advertising medium for your target audience. But that’s not the end of it. You have to be flexible to change tack the next time if a particularly successful campaign suddenly bombs.

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Test the Market and Measure the Results

If you’re operating in a competitive market, your best bet is probably a marketing plan which includes some kind of advertising. But dropping an ad in the local paper every few months is unlikely to bring the hoards to your doorstep.

To advertise in small business you need to keep ahead of the competition and be flexible. You have to be prepared to continuously change and evaluate how you advertise.

There is no correct form of advertising. There is no rule that says this type of advertising works best for this type of business. Different types of advertising suit different businesses, and even if it worked well one time it might not work the next time.

This means it’s up to you to test the market and evaluate the response to see which is the most suitable means of conveying your message to customers and potential customers.

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Writing a Great Media Release

Have you just launched a new business idea, created a new export market or sponsored a community event? This is news and the local media will want to know about it.

Positive news about your business in the media is fantastic advertising and it’s free.

But don’t wait for them to come to you. Start writing now. Reporters these days are far too busy to cover everything that’s going on. If they have words in front of them, there’s more chance the news will be used.

That’s where the media release comes in. This is a brief article which gives the pertinent facts about the new thing that has happened or is about to happen. Yes, reporters get flooded with media releases every day and many stories do not get a second look, but if the media release is well written and has some real news to report, chances are they’ll use it.

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Spend time on the important but non-urgent matters

In his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen R Covey talks about four quadrants in the time management matrix – those activities that are: 1. urgent and important, 2. not urgent but important, 3. urgent but not important and, 4. not urgent and not important.

He says people who constantly operate in a state of crisis management spend most of their time in Quadrant 1 – constantly attending to crises and pressing problems. Quadrant 2, however, is where you need to aim to spend most of your time.

Covey says: “Quadrant 2 is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are not urgent, but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long-
range planning, exercising, preventative maintenance, preparation – all those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they aren’t urgent.”

If you’re working in this quadrant of time management you have more time to work on your business. And by spending more time operating on the important but not urgent matters, you will, in time, reduce the problems and the time you spend in Quadrant 1.

The critical point here is that by spending more time on the planning you will begin to reduce the crisis points in your business.

To run a successful small business you need to aim for a smooth, considered approach on a daily basis. Obviously it won’t always be possible but, in most cases, success in business comes down to effective planning. And effective planning is only possible through effective time management, allowing you to work mostly in Quadrant 2, on the important but not urgent matters of your business and reducing the crises and problems of Quadrant 1.

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