How to get the most from your advertising dollars

Used to be there were a handful of advertising venues for business owners- print, radio, TV and billboards. With the digital explosion there are now so many opportunities, including Facebook and Google, that it can quickly become overwhelming and confusing. Throw in the constant drone of “print is dead” from those industries who would love to see it die and you really begin to question your choices.

As a newspaper and website owner I am biased toward those two. But my bias is supported by numerous studies including one conducted by Scarborough Research. In a recent survey they found that 81% of adults with an income of $100K or more read a newspaper or visit a newspaper website at least weekly. Niche publications, like GA Voice, who serve a very targeted readership, are outstripping the pace of big dailies when it comes to advertising. The big boys may be suffering but the little ones are not. Loyalty to and trust in a publication are paramount in readers actually taking some form of action when seeing an ad.

So how can you spend your precious advertising dollars and get the most bang for your buck? Whether you choose print, web, mobile, TV or anything else the magic word is CONSISTENCY. A long campaign pushing out the same message will be much more successful than an occasional big splashy ad unless that ad is for a specific event. If you are like the majority of business owners, however, you advertise to get people to walk into or call your store, office or showroom. The most effective way to make that happen is to push out your message to the same place (the same readership) over and over and over again until every time a reader thinks of needing a chiropractor or going to a new restaurant or hair salon- they can think of nobody but you.

Your ad does not need to be particularly large to achieve this goal but it does need to be compelling. Make sure your ad is pleasing to the eye, not cluttered with too many images or words and offers a call-to-action message that is both intelligent and succinct. A tall order perhaps and if you want help with that contact our super-talented Art Director, Bo Shell (bshell@thegavoice.com), or talk to your sales executive. Even if your ad is not running with us currently we will do our best to provide you with the guidance you need to create a killer ad campaign that will bring results for your hard-earned dollars.