How can advertising increase sales

This guide gives advice on where and how to advertise, and what advertising can achieve. It also shows you how to manage the advertising process and ensure you get value for money.

Decide whether your target audience is local or regional, national or international, or a mixture. Before selecting a type of media, you should find out from the media business and other independent sources about their circulation or audience figures.

Basically, you need to know how many, where and who to. Figures can normally be broken down into age groups, average income and other useful indicators. Remember you have a duty to ensure that your advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful. The Advertising Standards Authority has information on advertising codes. Advertising locally can benefit any business, especially small businesses and sole traders. Examples of local advertising include:.

Advertising on the internet can be cost-effective and gives national and international coverage that you may otherwise be unable to afford. Examples of internet advertising include:. If your business sells to other businesses, advertisements in these publications can be a useful way of gaining sales, product enquiries, higher profile, trade partnerships and even potential investors.

Most people listen to the radio for music or comment - often while doing other things - and so your advert will rely on repetition to have any effect. You could consider sponsoring certain features, such as the weather or travel news to make your adverts stand out.

Local cinema advertising offers a captive audience with a long dwell time for your advertisements. Outdoor advertising includes every outdoor medium from static billboards to moving adverts, eg on buses. You may need planning permission for some types of outdoor advertising, ie most posters and some types of signs. These can be costly but can help you reach a wide audience.

You should get guidance on readership and audience figures before deciding to advertise nationally. Advertising can increase sales by telling potential and current customers about your new product launches, special offers and improvements. Apart from reminding current customers about your business, advertising can also help to create or develop a distinctive brand for your business. Many businesses launch advertising campaigns to boost sales, increase brand awareness or launch a new product.

You could consider an introductory offer to give people an incentive to visit or call. However you will need to decide whether your target audience is local or regional, national or international, or a mixture. This will affeect the type of media you select.

You should find out from the media business and other independent sources about their circulation or audience figures.

You should think carefully about what you want to achieve and the message you want the reader, viewer or listener to take away. Advertising is only effective if you reach your target audience with a message that makes them want to buy or at least find out more. You may be able to design and produce an advertisement for printed media yourself. But if your advertising needs are more demanding than an occasional, low-priced local advertisement, you may want to outsource your advertising to an advertising agency.

This is only suitable if you are prepared to pay the extra cost, but having your adverts professionally designed can improve their success. Work out a maximum budget. Identify which options give the best possible return - it could be one or two adverts in a more expensive medium, or several adverts in cheaper outlets. If it's your first campaign, reduce your risks by seeking advice from other people in your industry and finding out what works for them.

Get information about the media you're considering - particularly figures for the audience or readership and how close they are to your target market. All advertising media companies produce rate cards - information on the rates they charge for advertising. But it is usual to negotiate on the final price, according to the type of campaign you want. Negotiating could get you a price reduction, a repeat that's free or discounted, or a better position in the publication.

A good advertising campaign can pull in the orders - but make sure you can deal with the response. You should determine the expected response level and check you have enough resources to meet it. You may need a system to ensure leads aren't missed. Changes in the creative, medium, target segment or product itself sometimes lead to change in sales, even though increases in the level of advertising alone do not. When advertising is effective, it is effective either early on or never.

When advertising does affect sales, its impact is not large and is much smaller than that of price. In fact, research shows that the elasticity of sales to advertising is.

For more on advertising, read this tutorial. Work Email Address. Already a member? Sign in now. In some instances, discounts give the customers the ability to try your products. The promotion can give way to attract more customers and at the same time maximize the number of existing users. In some instances, you can offer free samples.

Marketing is a definite way that helps to boost sales. Through marketing, the products and services, which are unique and of high quality mainly capture the attention of customers and in the process, make them esteemed consumers. The customers are the only options that can help you boost the sales. Marketing can also involve rewarding of the customers. Credibility is the one of the key factors that makes the customers trust and feel comfortable with your products and services.

Use techniques such as advertisements to enhance your credibility in your sale. For example, use of customer testimonials and online marketing aid in raising customers trust on your products. In the process, you boost your sales. Search form Search. You are here Blog Customer insight. June 19,