“It is not about selling – It’s about creating value for your audience.” – Jerry Allocca
Where do 90% of your customers live?
The answer is: LOCALLY
Where does 90% of your advertising budget go?
The answer should also be locally.
Why is it so important to advertise your business?
It is a fact that we are as the human race naturally suspicious and our trust has to be won. Once gained we are loyal.
It is a matter of gaining that trust and one of the best ways for any business to be recognised and trusted is by advertising. But advertising is so expensive and so diverse where do you advertise? The answer is far easier than you might imagine. You advertise to your clients.
Gateaux Cream Creations is not going to advertise in a slimming magazine but they will target local media who deliver their message directly to all the family. The use of colour photos of cream and chocolate cake and happy smiles will play their part. The family will influence the shopper.
If your product appeals to youngsters or those with time to be on social media all day then there is an excellent range of media platforms to display your wares. You can spend very little putting your message out there. Be warned time may be stolen while you create and post all day for maximum visibility.
Being part of a wider community is an excellent way to be seen. Gillingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry already have a good social media presence and membership means you are being promoted as a business and part of the wider community. The Chamber cannot guarantee member businesses but expect a certain responsibility in joining and committing to being a visual part of the local community that credits members a level of respectability and trustworthiness.
Another method of advertising your business is to promote it through local media that will deliver it to the very people likely to become your clients. A national or even county-wide method will give your business brilliant exposure but if you are a gardener in Gillingham, a weekly contract for an hour in Poole or Bristol will not be the best use of your time or your small advertising budget.
Gillingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry are lucky to have members Gillingham and Shaftesbury News who deliver timely news online to the local community and provide online advertising potential alongside their regular news updates. Gillingham and Shaftesbury Guide is a monthly hard copy magazine delivered right into the homes of potential clients as well as an online copy. Both offer the means of building up that repeated confidence for readers to use their advertisers.
With the world as unstable as it is at the moment. Confidence and trust are the most important attributes a business needs to encourage new clients. You can join Gillingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry here. Some of our members offer discounts including advertising discounts and our social media programme will give your business free promotion as well as a place in its annual directory.
“Trying to do business without advertising is like winking at a pretty girl through a pair of green goggles. You may know what you are doing, but no one else does.” Cyrus McCormick