When Should You Advertise?

Newspapers these days are nothing but one of the most overused medium of ads, the internet too is saturated with ads of god only knows how many products, apps too have adverts coming in between and so does the social media platforms, with consumer concentration span at all-time low, one thing is for sure, bombarding him or her with ads lead to no effect, simply because of the plethora of ‘other options’ available with next to similar packaging and all promising similar features and benefits. In such a market scenario, should you be investing in advertising? Even if yes, what are the reasons for it? Can you do away with it? I will try to answer these questions today.

When should you advertise?

1.       When your customers are primary users of that medium:

It is now a given that companies use Newspaper advertisements to promote its product, but one think that has to be kept in mind is how many of your target market is subscribed to it. If not given a thought over, you may end up spending big bucks and not get any attention let alone hoping for conversions. Majority of the traditional media have data of their readership according to the demograph and thus, before advertising, you should definitely give it a thorough reading and see as to how much are you spending per person who is in your target group. It has twin benefits. First, it helps you judge the viability of your investment and second that it gives you reasons to haggle for prices for the space that you are looking forward to advertise in.

Online Advertising gives the most transparent usage of your money. You can pretty well look as to where and how your last of the penny was spent and what benefits your investment lead to. Also, courtesy official and 3^rd party software’s, one can track different parameters of your advertisements.

Thus, the take away from this point is that you should play smart when you are advertise and look as to how your ad will perform and how did it perform when it has run its course.

2.       When you are a new establishment:

Unless your company has come up with something totally unique or ground-breaking that it will be subject to huge publicity, you should advertise to make sure that people start recognising you as an entity. Always remember, your company is backing the product and your name is what is lending credibility to your product. Thus, when new, tell the world what are you, what do you stand for, what change are you here to bring and how are you planning to do so. Majority are able to connect to one of the things and thanks to the power of internet and immense curiosity, people will try  to find what you are up to and hopefully look at your product range, either buy it or tell others about it, or the best, will do both.

3.       Advertise when your product use is easy to understand:

Many of the products out there require face to face pitch of what their product is and how should it be used. For such products, advertising doesn’t work because in all probability, the customer won’t be able to understand what the product is or worse, will become aversive to it if they think that the product is too complex for them to either use or understand. Thus, think as to the simplicity of your product use. If a lay man can figure out as to what it is, then go forward and advertise!

4.       Advertise when the competition is doing it:

There are segments which are highly saturated. Let us take affordable fast food as the example, McDonalds, KFC, Subway etc all advertise in all the mediums. Most around the globe are aware of them, so why advertise? The answer is simple, they do so to keep up with the competition. Of McDonalds stop advertising and Subway on the other hand is heavily advertising their new products, consumers are likely to Subway to try them out, that of course means less of people visiting McDonalds. Thus, if your segment is all over platforms advertising their stuff, you should do it too to stay afloat and not get forgotten.

These are the best ways to use advertising to the best of the use. Always remember that advertising is no longer an expense, it is an investment that reaps huge benefits if done right with the right amount of homework done to back it up. Do revert back if you have questions related to the same!