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What comes to your mind when you hear about the term advertising? Could it be the posters you see in the subway stations or the billboards that are along the highway? It can also be the super bowl commercials or the banner ads you see on websites.
Even though most people know what advertising entails, it can be hard to define its meaning. Providing a precise description of advertising is not easy. The other challenge of advertising is that it keeps changing over time.
Despite all these changes, the need for advertising remains the same. The best practices and techniques that produce high-quality advertising also remain unchanged. You will learn more on this topic as you continue to read this guide.
Meaning of Advertising:
Advertising entails the creation of messages to motivate or persuade another person to take action. Good advertising is memorable, influential, and, at times, risqué. Advertising breaks through the noise and clutter of everyday life. It also disrupts the attention of the viewers and calls for their focus.
Whether the back of a restaurant’s menu or a billboard, advertising can work for your brand in several ways.
Benefits of Advertising to the Company:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Driving potential clients to the company
- Promoting sales for both the existing and new clients
- Introducing a new service or product to the market
- Differentiating your products from those of your competitors
How to Execute Advertising Campaigns:
There are several ways of executing advertising campaigns. Social media endorsements, branded t-shirts, billboards, and radio commercials all makeup advertisement. Some of the channels and formats that advertises use include;
- Social media ads
- Search engine ads and online pop-ups
- TV commercials
- Sponsored web content
- Radio
- Sponsorship of TV events and shows
- Public transit ads
- Outdoor ads and billboards
- Magazines and newspapers
- Posters and print advertising
Advertising is a broad term that looks at so many things. This guide will guide you through the process of advertising on all these Media.
Advertising vs. Marketing:
Marketing is the bigger picture that looks at how a company plans to increase its brand awareness and convinces clients to make a purchase. On the other hand, advertisement refers to the process of creating a persuasive message around the broad goals of marketing.
It means that advertisement is a subset of marketing. We can say that marketing is an umbrella terminology for communication with your target audience.
Marketing makes use of various channels like paid advertising, SEO, public relations, email marketing, and social media, among others. Advertising is just a single component of marketing.
The overarching marketing strategy of a company includes the advertising plan. Advertisement narrows down to the specific process brands use to create and publish persuasive messages. The most important thing is to have customers take action.
Brief History of Advertising:
Apart from trade and currency, advertising is among the oldest business segments. When products and services came into existence, the need to make them known also arose.
The oldest piece of advertisement dates back to 3,000 B.C. It was an ancient Egypt print ad that promoted the capturing and return of a slave who has escaped. The ad also incidentally mentioned the shop of the slave owner (a rug business).
It was a way of advertising his storefront. Even though the slave was not caught, the rug business owner discovered advertising as a new technique to bring in traffic. From then on, advertising has gone through several stages of development.
We can track the development of advertisement from 1402 to date. There are so many stages, and this guide may not cover all of them. It is good to take the time to read them to get a better understanding of this term.
From history, you will learn that the concept of advertisement keeps on changing over time. It is like shopping habits that show where and how consumers spend their time. One hundred forty years ago, the newest advertisement mode was postcards.
Modern-day brands are now integrating artificial intelligence and using Chatbots for Facebook Messenger. You will find these platforms on their sales and marketing platforms. It confirms that things in the advertisement world are moving pretty fast. We can still expect significant developments in this industry in the future.
The Modern Age: Online Advertising
Currently, more than four billion people are using the internet. The number of people who use the internet continues to skyrocket and there are no signs for the trend to change.
If you are not using online adverting, you could be the only one lagging behind. The internet gives you access to more than 50% of the global population. It has several channels that you can use to advertise your products or services.
You will have the flexibility of reaching to your target audience in multiple ways, fonts, and budgets. Several tools can also help you to execute your advertisement strategy. Some of the common ways to advertise online include;
1. Paid Search Advertising:
All search engines (Bing, Yahoo, or Google) have their paid advertising. We refer to this as PPC or pay-per-click. It entails bidding on keywords and then placing ads at the sides or top of the search results.
When a person uses the search engines to perform a query, the advertiser displays ads above the organic search results. Therefore, PPC is so powerful because it places you in front of people who are searching for relevant keywords.
2. Social Media Advertising:
have valuable content. As a result, they give users the option of boosting or sponsoring posts. Social ads will put your message in front of your audience and encourages them to buy, click-through, and engage.
Most social media platforms prioritize the ad space over organic content. The reason is apparent because the ad space generates more revenue. Both new brands and budding businesses can run a social media advertisement.
Apart from advertising your products and services, the platform will also promote your social media pages and help you to grow your following. All the social media platforms have their unique version of Ads. The common ones include Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, among others.
You can explore to see how each of them appears in the feeds. Social media advertising is one of the most effective modes of digital marketing.
Read more: 10 Advantages of Social Media Advertising for Your Business
Sponsored Content and Native Ads:
Sponsored content has been in the market from 1922 when a business could sponsor a whole radio show. Currently, sponsored content refers to native ads and article or blog content that is subsidized by brands.
For instance, Buzzfeed article that heavily references or recommends a brand could sponsor a particular product or service. The primary purpose is to inform and entertain the reader, but it references the brand a few times in the content.
Therefore, the content will not deliberately promote the services of the company. People shy away from sponsored content; hence, you have to be careful while using sponsored content and native ads in advertising.
Banner & Display Ads:
Display ads and Banner are an extension of the search ads and follow the same PPC model. However, instead of using text-based ads, the consumer will see a more visual advert.
These are basically the horizontal pages that are at the top of web pages. Besides, display ads are small and appear on the side. Whether you go for traditional or modern ways of advertisement, you need to follow some guidelines. Some of them are in the next section;
Best Practices of Advertising:
There are some tricks, tips, and practices that will take your advertising campaigns to the next level. The secret is to make sure that you implement these practices properly. These include;
i) Appeal to emotions:
Adding an emotional appeal to your advertisement entices people to take action. Most people don’t like to watch the images in commercials. According to studies, people rely on emotions more than information to make decisions.
The emotional influence of an ad influences the intent of a person to purchase more than the real ad content. You can create appealing emotions by trying to evoke anger, fear, sadness, or happiness. It will help your audience to feel your message and not just hear or read it.
ii) Creating Positive Associations:
It is good for consumers to associate your products with the feelings of state of achievement, happiness, or goal accomplishment. It increases their chances to take notice, remember the product or service, or make a purchase.
You could have gone through this without noticing. You could see a celebrity on Instagram posing with a product, and you feel like you want to be like him. Creating subconscious connections associates positive feelings with the products or services you are advertising.
You can also use a catchy song to create positive associations in advertising. You should consider goals, desires, and feelings when creating your adverts. Use stories or videos to weave the goals and feelings into your adverts. Look for influencers who align to the demeanor and core values of your brand. Including them will help to promote a positive association.
iii) Establish the Bandwagon Effect:
It is human nature for people to desire to fit, and this makes the bandwagon effect effective. Everyone wants to be among those who are using the greatest and latest products. Once you understand this idea, you can take advertising to your advantage.
Use shareable content, survey data, and customer testimonials for advertising your business as one that is worth following or buying. Give clients who share your products or services a discount to encourage them to sell for you. You will end up creating an inclusive environment that everyone will want to join.
Focus on Benefits and Not Features:
Features and benefits are two distinct things. Features refer to the product details while benefits explain why a person should buy your products or services. Advertising should focus on the benefits of your products or services and not explaining what you are physically selling.
Don’t waste a lot of your space on service details or product specification. Talk about how the purchase can positively influence your buyers. If you get it right, the creative and benefit-packed advertisement will inspire the audience to research the features by themselves.
Using Story Telling:
All people also want to listen to good stories. Telling stories will assist in building a big picture of your company or brand. When a story resonates with your target audience, it becomes easy to motivate them to take action.
It is good to infuse storytelling in your advertising. Therefore, it is the right time to begin to craft the overall story of your brand. The best story will illustrate your brand as integral, believable, and necessary. Such stories are effective in influencing and engaging customers.
You can use videos that feature the real story of your brand. The videos should not promote your products directly but tell a story about your brand. Once you determine the story of your brand, you will find the best ways of discussing your brand in all your marketing efforts.
Such an approach goes beyond mere advertising. You should look for the best ways of putting these practices into action.
Conclusion:
Advertising helps your brand to grow. It is one of the most important tools for your brand. The opportunities to advertise your business are endless. Some of them include social media promotion, TV commercials, radio sponsorship, and print ads.
The best way to engage and connect with your audience is by speaking their language. Also, you need to appeal to their emotions and tap in the desire to join their community. Lastly, create an authentic and clear story that will illustrate how your brand aligns with your business values.
These are true and tried practices that will take your advertising to the next level. It will help you in building a magnetic brand name that attracts clients, generates revenue, and establishes a great following.
Once you do this, your brand will develop into a household name that can stand the test of time. [email protected] will help you come up with the best advertising strategy for your brand.
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Mashum Mollah
Mashum Mollah is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO at Viacon, a digital marketing agency that drive visibility, engagement, and proven results. He blogs at BloggerOutreach.io.
