All businesses should advertise regardless of their size. Even the smallest business should consider the possible benefits of advertising at a neighbourhood level.

Every business should ask themselves these questions:

• Would it help us to advertise locally?
• Would it help us to advertise nationally and internationally in the trade and technical press?
• Would it help us to advertise in a national or international directory?
• Can we achieve any of our advertising aims with our own website?

Advertising is an important potential component of your marketing mix, along with direct marketing, PR, exhibitions or a website.

This guide discusses how advertising could help you and gives advice on where and how you can advertise. And, if you decide to go ahead, it shows you how to manage the process and make sure you get value for money.

Advertising can:

• Provide basic facts about the existence of your business' address and contact details - as well as any changes that take place.
• Increase sales by telling possible customers about your product or service.
• Tell customers about changes to your service, product launches and improvements.
• Back a sales campaign with a specific one-off message - informing people of a special offer or a particular benefit of your product.
• Prompt specific action - getting customers to visit your premises or use, say, a gift voucher by the end of a specific period of time.
• Increase general awareness of your business, making it easier to sell in the long term.
• Remind existing customers about your business.
• Change people's attitudes towards your business.

Remember advertising isn't solely about sales and marketing. You can also use it to:

• recruit staff - and remember a recruitment advertisement can also say something about your business
• recruit suppliers and contractors - this also helps to position you as active and expanding
  
  

Decide whether your target audience is local or regional, national or international, or a mixture. Remember that a local business might benefit from national trade press advertising even if it's just selling to other businesses in its area.

You can advertise in a wide range of different media and you may wish to use more than one type. Advertising can be anything from your shop sign or a postcard in the post office to an advertisement in a trade magazine or a 30-second radio slot.

Remember you have a duty to ensure your advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

Local advertising
Even the smallest business should consider the benefits of local advertising. For example:

• At neighbourhood level: a supermarket board or postcard in a shop.
• Advertising space rented out at railway stations, leisure centres or doctors' surgeries.
• Publications such as residents' association newsletters, fete programmes and parish magazines.

It can all start right outside your own premises with your sign, advertising board or even nameplate, provided you conform to planning regulations. Check the planning regulations for advertising through your local authority.

Local and regional newspapers
Weekly, evening and morning, paid-for and free local papers provide a variety of ways to advertise:

• Classified advertising.
• Display and semi-display; display advertisements are bigger and more sophisticated, appear on editorial pages and can use pictures and design devices.
• Display ads and listings in special supplements - for instance, on local shops, health clubs or restaurants.
• Advertisement features - laid out like editorial pages but just featuring you and your business - perhaps your new premises; you pay for them and may also be given advertisement space - your suppliers might advertise as well and offset the cost.
• Loose inserts, supplied by yourself that are placed inside the newspaper ie buying the paper's circulation for your flyer.

Ask the advertisement department at the newspaper for a media pack with readership breakdown and rates for different types of advertisement. The quoted rate is only a starting point - always try to pay less.

Local magazines
Many areas have a county or lifestyle magazine - useful for certain types of upmarket consumer advertising.

Directories provide local and national coverage, and are often backed up with online versions. They can be a cost-effective way of getting your name, product and service in front of both private and business customers.
Popular directories include:

• Classified phone directories that offer basic entries and display advertisements.
• Chambers of Commerce and other organisations, that often produce local business directories.
• National directories for business, industry and specialised sectors in which you could place an entry - or advertisement. Again, many of them have an Internet version.
• The Directory and Database Publishers Association provides information on its member firms.
  
  

Web advertising can be cost-effective - and gives national and international coverage you may otherwise not be able to afford.
There are three main types of Internet advertising:
Your own website:

• Ensure you design and position your website for maximum effect. You also need to know how to exploit search engines.

Advertising on other people's websites:

• Use banner and pop-up advertising to promote your business and link through to your own website.

Getting into an online directory:

• You can get an online entry with directory companies such as Oloja.Com, as well as getting links from these online directories to your own website.
  
  

There are hundreds of trade, technical and professional magazines read by your customers, suppliers and businesses in the same sector as you.

If your business sells to other businesses, advertisements in these publications - and editorial mentions - can be a powerful way of gaining sales, product enquiries, higher profile, trade partnerships and even potential investors.

You can also use them for recruitment and to source suppliers. Trade magazines provide a variety of ways to advertise:

• Classified advertising - particularly for recruitment and gaining suppliers.
• Display and semi-display; display advertisements are bigger and more sophisticated, appear on editorial pages and can use pictures and other design devices.
• Display ads and listings in special supplements on particular sectors or activities - an engineering magazine may be featuring actuators, a building magazine putting the spotlight on fire safety.
• Advertisement features - they're laid out like editorial pages but just feature you and your business - perhaps your new product; you pay for them and may also be given advertisement space - your suppliers might advertise as well and offset the cost.
• Loose inserts that you supply yourself to the magzine publisher for them to insert into the magazine - ie you buy the publication's circulation for your flyer.

Ask the advertisement department at your chosen publication for a media pack with a readership breakdown and rates for different types and sizes of advertisement. The quoted rate is only the starting point - always try to pay less.

If advertising on local radio, you'll need to do research the market into the type of audience and cost per listener - ask the local station for details. Do you also need non-radio back-up advertising, for example in the local press?

Your local station will often produce your commercial for you. But radio advertising will probably be part of a marketing mix and you may be using an advertising agency already.

Local cinemas may be right for your niche. Ask the cinema for audience profiles and case studies of satisfied clients. You can possibly advertise in the foyer as well as on screen.

Outdoor advertising

• Roadside - from phone kiosks to large billboards and banners.
• Transport - railways, airports, inside and outside buses and taxis, lorries.
• Retail - sites at shopping malls and supermarkets, trolleys, posters.
• Non-traditional and ambient - shop signs, leisure centres, washrooms, tickets, petrol pumps, takeaway lids.
  

If you're considering advertising through these outlets it is recommended to get professional help from an advertising agency.
However, with some national classified advertising - say holiday cottages - you may be able to arrange your own advertising. Your local library's Willings Press Guide gives details of national newspapers and consumer magazines that you may wish to use.

Get a media pack with readership analysis from the publication's advertisement department so you know the advertising for your holiday cottages is reaching the right audience.

The best time to advertise is when your target audience is most likely to buy your product or service. Sometimes this can be seasonal - a toy retailer, for example, will focus its advertising efforts around the run-up to Christmas.

If you're selling to other businesses, it's worth identifying when your customers and potential customers will have the budget to spend. And remember that the summer holidays can often be a slow time for business-to-business sales.

The reasons behind a campaign
Many businesses launch advertising campaigns simply to boost sales.

The launch of a new product is often a good time to step up your advertising.

New businesses may want to consider some form of advertising just to let people know they exist. This might be as simple as taking out an advertisement in a local paper. You could combine it with an introductory offer to give people an incentive to visit or call.

Can you plan the campaign yourself?
You need to think carefully about what you want to achieve and the message you want the reader, viewer or listener to take away. Remember - advertising is only effective if you reach people with a message that makes them want to find out more.
You may be able to produce in-house a straightforward advertisement for printed media

If you plan on spending more than, say, =N=1,000,000 or your advertising needs are more demanding than an occasional, low-priced local advertisement, it may be worth outsourcing the campaign to an advertising agency.

Work out a maximum budget. Identify which options give the best possible return.

An expensive advertisement may be worthwhile if you get a good response, manage it and monitor the campaign.

If it's your first campaign, perhaps try a relatively inexpensive advertisement first, thus reducing your risk.

Get information about the media you're considering - particularly figures for the audience or readership and how close they are to your target market.

Estimate how many people are likely to respond. You can work out how much it costs to reach each one. If an advertisement costs N2,000 and you expect to reach 20,000 people - 50 per cent of whom are potential customers - it is costing 20 Kobo to get your message to every potential customer.

Don't be afraid to negotiate
You may get a price reduction, a repeat that's free or discounted, or a better position in the publication if you:

• Mention your budget, but appear undecided about who to spend it with.
• Mention rival media you're considering.
• Book last minute as trade publications often accept low prices at the last minute if there's ad-space to be filled. You may get a poor position, though, which could cut responses.

If you're advertising to build your business, it's a good idea to use advertisements several times. You can get a discount for booking multiple advertisements - but don't be persuaded to buy more than you need.

Ensure your advertisement is in the best possible position. For example:

• Right-hand pages catch the reader's eye most.
• An advertisement selling greenhouses should be on a page devoted to gardening.
• The most effective page for a newspaper advertisement is page three. Generally, the nearer the front, the better - unless you sell sports goods.
• If your advertisement has a coupon - for readers to cut out and send in - place it at the edge of the (preferably right-hand) page.
  
  

A good advertising campaign can pull in the orders - but make sure you can deal with the response.

Determine the expected response level and check you have enough resources to meet it.

It may not be a good idea to plan a campaign at popular staff holiday times. If this can't be avoided, consider temporary cover to deal with responses.

You may need a system to ensure leads aren't missed. For example, you could design a standard enquiry form to be used by people fielding calls. The main aim is to find out as much as possible about what the caller wants.

If they just want further details to be posted, the enquiry can be dealt with straight away. If the query is passed to a salesperson, give the customer an indication of when they can expect a response.

Monitoring a campaign
Each time you take an enquiry or make a sale, ask how the customer heard of you. This reveals whether any individual strand of your advertising or other marketing campaigns is particularly effective.

If you include vouchers in print advertisements, use a different code for each publication they appear in. This allows you to pinpoint where incoming vouchers have come from.
You might find some advertisements generate many enquiries but no actual sales. These cost most because they take up staff time without generating revenue.

It's also worth looking at the kind of sales each advertisement generates and whether they have a good profit margin.
Bear in mind that some advertisements may have delayed results. One person may order the next day, another might wait a few weeks.

A good advertisement should have:

• an interesting headline
• clear design
• well-written copy

Headline:

• A good headline should catch the reader's attention and make them want to read on. It might ask a question or inspire curiosity. For example: a bed manufacturer might ask if readers want to know the secret of a good night's sleep.
• Don't overplay the actual message - people will feel let down if they read on and their expectations are not fulfilled.
• A headline will also encourage people to read on if it offers a clear benefit - such as "buy one, get one free".

Clear design:

• The way an advertisement looks plays a big part in attracting and retaining the reader's interest.
• Avoid small or fancy typefaces that are difficult to read. And don't mix too many typefaces in one advertisment.
• Don't clutter the layout - keep plenty of white space in the advertisement - avoid the temptation to say too much.

Well-written copy:

• The amount of text you include depends on the purpose and size of the advert. Businesses that want to advertise a sale might have a very limited amount of text accompanied by a headline and a picture of some of the items on offer.
• If you're writing a sizeable amount of text, it should follow on logically from the headline, build a convincing case and prompt a response from the reader. It's a good idea to back up any claims with facts.
• All the reader wants to know is "What's in it for me?"

Remember that businesses have a duty to ensure their advertisements are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

Michael Welch started his business, Black Circles, in November 2001. The company, based in Scotland, links more than 700 independent tyre fitters across the UK. When contacted through its call centre or website, it locates the customer's nearest and cheapest tyre fitter. Here, Michael explains why advertising is so important to his business

What I did Find the right media
We needed to start advertising from day one to attract customers. I started by looking for places to advertise which I thought would reach our target market, such as car magazines like Revs and Max Power. The readers of these types of magazines are a captive market - as fast-car enthusiasts and owners, they need to buy tyres regularly.
I got the circulation figures and the demographics of the people that were reading these magazines. This included information such as their salary, age and the type of car they drove. I then broke our potential customers down into similar categories and decided which magazines would target them best. With advertising, your approach should always be targeted, never random.

Make the most of the budget
At the moment we spend around £25,000 to £30,000 a month on advertising and our turnover is £3 million. We manage to convert about 70 per cent of our advertising spend into sales.
After a few months of a particular campaign we analyse how it is working and then either pull it or continue to do more. Our sales team always ask each new customer how they heard of us so we can tell which advertisements work.
When they start out, many businesses don't think they can compete with larger firms when it comes to advertising, but they can. As long as you're clear about the message you want to get across and know which media is right to reach your target market, a small business' advertising can be as successful as anyone else's.

Write a good advertisement
We use an advertising agency but I oversee all of the work they do. In the early days I thought that they were the professionals and they would know best but ultimately you need to have control of the advertising messages and your brand image. In the beginning our unique selling point (USP) was that we were cheap but we wouldn't sell at those prices now. Our USPs now are excellent customer service and value and all our marketing is designed to reflect this.
Our strapline is "Think tyres, think Black Circles" and all of our advertisements are black and white. We try to keep it simple because in general the industry is synonymous with being a bit of a rip-off. We did have some campaigns that weren't as successful in the beginning because we didn't have much experience. Now we have the luxury of having the time, money and knowledge to be able to experiment and find out what works. The key is not to bet too much on one campaign but to build up slowly. I would definitely like to do some radio and TV advertising in the future because it will expose us to a much bigger market. 

What I'd do differently
Perhaps I would have extended the magazine advertising sooner and thought about brand development earlier. However, the cost of advertising means that what you would do in an ideal world isn't always possible in the beginning.

Michael Welch Black Circles

Michael's top tips:

• Don't get carried away without analysing which media people are responding to
• Focus on your customers' requirements
• Make sure you have good financial controls in place to get the best value from your advertising spend