How do I Develop a Good Advertising Strategy?

When it comes to cultivating and maintaining a solid client base, developing a sound advertising strategy is extremely important. By using the right tools at the right time and in the right place, an advertising campaign will build demand for products and services, leading to increased sales as well as consumer awareness. If you are charged with the responsibility of putting together an effective advertising strategy, here are a few basic points to keep in mind.

In order to begin the process of creating advertising, it is important to determine which consumer markets that the campaign should reach. Your product may have broad appeal, but it is still necessary to identify what will be the primary focus of the effort. Ideally, your primary market is that sector of consumers who will become the foundation of your client base and provide stability to the sales effort. It is fine to also identify a couple of niche markets that are likely to respond well to the same sort of general advertising information you will use in the campaign, but without that primary market to anchor your efforts, the opportunity for the campaign to flounder is greatly increased.

With your primary market focus established, begin to identify specific demographics within that market. This further defines the focus of your advertising campaign and makes it easier to determine which tools will be most effective. Your demographics may have to do with location, age, gender, or some other characteristic that would apply to an appreciably large customer base.

Evaluate the potential for profit within this primary or target market. This is important at any time, but it is especially key if the marketplace is dominated by two or three highly visible brands that have achieved a high degree of name recognition and an excellent reputation for quality. Study what it is that makes those brands so successful within the market and how those brands go about reaching the core audience. This will provide you with not only some ideas on advertising copy but also point the way to determining what type of media you should use in your advertising strategy.

At one time, print media was the cornerstone of every advertising strategy. That is no longer the case. Along with newspaper and magazine advertising, there is also the option of radio and television commercials and general promotions. More recently, Internet advertising has become the ideal way to reach a number of consumer markets with relatively little expense involved. Which and how many of these options you will use in your advertising strategy rests on how well you know the habits and preferences of your target audience.

Keep in mind that effective advertising copy is essential to the success of the campaign. Your advertising strategy should make use of cultural references, current buzzwords, and in general, verbiage that your target audience can connect with immediately. You would not use the same type of wording in fashion advertising as you would in a campaign to advertise garden tools. This is another area where all the hard work to learn about the targeted client base pays off. You will know what words to use and what they mean so the text will immediately grab and hold the attention of prospective buyers.

In like manner, any visual elements that will allow the products to connect with the core consumer market is extremely important. Snow capped mountains with people skiing is great for selling snow shoes and ski jackets, but it is not likely to stimulate attention in a company that sells swimsuits. When the visuals and the texts make it easy for consumers to imagine themselves using the product, the connection is much more likely to stick and eventually bear fruit.

Good advertising strategy is intended to help a company reach specific goals in terms of market share and specific types of consumers. Identifying that audience and targeting the elements of the campaign to connect with them is vitally important. Unless these aspects are taken into consideration and applied properly, even the most attractive, funniest and most informative advertising strategy will fall short.