Advertising … a Problem for Small Business
Several years ago we had a client who was spending a heap of money on advertising his small business - a tourism related business in a town that relies heavily on tourism.
He spent a small amount on having us build his website … but then spent nothing more on promoting it. He spent up big on advertising in glossy magazines produced locally for the the tourists. He did some local television advertising because what he offered to tourists was also appealing to the local population. He also spent a reasonable amount on brochures and leaflets as well as a very small amount each month on a newsletter that went out to all the motels and resorts in town.
The one problem for this client was that he had no idea which form of advertising was the most effective and claimed to be too busy to find out. We even designed a short, simple questionaire that would have identified what form of marketing had attracted them to his business. He could have given to each client who came into his business but that was too much trouble for him or his staff to hand out.
At the time we parted ways he still had no idea which form of advertising was giving him the best return on investment.
In today’s tough economic times, when money is in short supply and advertising is so important you need to know which form of advertising works for your small business. Don’t think that doing a little simple research … something as simple as just asking new customers where they saw your business advertised … is a waste of time.
Sometimes it can mean the difference between surviving times like these and watching your business go down the drain because you’ve wasted your advertising dollars.
