How To Waste Your Money on Advertising

A lot has been said and written about how to design a good marketing strategy. The internet is replete with articles and references on how to effectively use advertising strategies to achieve defined targets. But have you ever encountered any article on how to throw away your advertising money? If you haven't then this is your chance to know how to lose all of your advertising money in one go. Read and hopefully learn from the mistakes of others.

We know for a fact that small businesses don't really track and measure the effects of their advertisements on their customers. Once they have successfully distributed their flyers, custom notepads or brochures, they do not care anymore about the results. For them, having these marketing tools is enough for people to know their product or services. What they often miss, either deliberately or not, is the effect their advertising collaterals have on their customers. This is too bad because it is no different from throwing their small business advertising money down the drain.

What small businesses do not know is that good marketing takes a bit more than just having your message viewed and heard. There are issues that should be considered to have a more effective advertising strategy.

First, small businesses must understand that advertising is not a one shot deal. This means that their advertisement should be seen and heard more than once, because it takes several times before consumers can even consider acting on the impulse.

Secondly, the action of the consumer to buy or avail of the service is the most important step in the process - whether it is grabbing the phone or looking through their notepad printing to retrieve the business phone or address,

The most important factor in small business advertising is how the marketing tool could turn the desire into positive action. And since this is so important, small businesses should be tracking it as closely as possible. The old approach to just leave things be and to let things follow its natural course is obsolete. Businesses should take a more pro-active stance in understanding and learning the effects of their advertising strategy on their business.

Most surveys or feedback forms ask about the source of the information about the business. For instance, you would often see the question: 'How did you hear about us?' or ‘Please check how you found us' and then a series of possible sources. This is one way of assessing which marketing collateral is doing its work effectively. Those that are not doing their job are, well, wasting your money.