Inexpensive, effective contextual advertising for small businesses. The most effective advertising for small businesses – which one to choose? Expert opinion - Advertising in the banking sector

For small businesses, advertising is of great importance at the initial stage. A well-constructed campaign in this area will help you get your first clients and start making money. At later stages it is also of great importance. At a minimum, the audience needs to be informed about new promotions and offers. At the same time, the business will not refuse to expand its customer base at any stage of its development. What advertising is the most effective? This question is difficult to answer without considering a specific situation, but we can still give some assessment.

Offline advertising methods for small businesses

At first, a novice businessman is forced to deal with a lot of difficulties. As long as a small number of people are aware of its products or services, and suppliers and potential clients do not even know about your existence, it is impossible to talk about any kind of business.

Proper organization of an advertising strategy helps a lot at the initial stage. You should not choose expensive advertising methods if your budget is tight. It’s better to offer a better service (product) so that people start talking about your business and spread the word by word of mouth. The advertising campaign itself must be selected taking into account the characteristics of a particular business, because otherwise it will be necessary to carry out an unplanned one.

Telephone marketing

The very concept of telephone marketing implies making calls to contact the widest possible audience of potential clients of an enterprise. Whether they are private individuals or legal entities depends on the specifics of the business. The key goal is to inform you that certain goods or services can be obtained from you.

For skilled "telephone salespeople" it is not so difficult to even pre-close the deal on the first call. Positive results can be achieved with some communication skills. For entrepreneurs who are unsure of their abilities, a good solution would be to hire a special employee who will make calls through a database of numbers. The negative point is that the interlocutor may not have free time for communication or may not be interested in your proposal at all.

Distributing leaflets

This method is quite well known and is actively used to this day. Distribution of leaflets can be done effectively by agreeing with the management of the supermarket. In such cases, at the checkout, the buyer is offered a leaflet on which your offer is presented. Printing leaflets is a relatively cheap method of advertising, but conversion rates are usually not very high. To inform the audience at the initial stage, distributing leaflets is an excellent method.

You can hire street consultants who will not only hand out brochures to potential clients, but also answer a few simple questions. When using leaflets, it is important that they are made with high quality, since for an uninformed person they will become the “face of the enterprise.” The content should be concise, but succinct - it is necessary to clearly convey the essence of your activity.

Advertising signs on asphalt

This type of information dissemination is relatively new for Russia. Inscriptions on asphalt are a creative move, but not for everyone. At the preliminary stage, it is extremely important to understand where exactly your potential customers are concentrated. Sometimes placed inscriptions do not bring effect simply because:

• they are not visible due to the large number of people;
• potential clients do not use the route on which the inscription is placed;
• it was worn away due to precipitation and people walking;
• It is prohibited to place in specific places.

At the same time, high-quality, bright advertising on asphalt for a number of business areas can be an excellent tool for arousing consumer interest. For example, advertising will look great on the roads to preschool educational institutions.

Outdoor advertising on the streets

This includes all kinds of signs, banners, billboards, signs on the walls of buildings, plaques, advertising structures, car stickers and much more. They can be designed with or without LED illumination, in volume or flat form, etc. Almost every business that has its own retail space uses this type of advertising in one form or another. It is important to understand that while you can make a sign above the entrance to a store without spending a lot of money, placing your advertising banner on city billboards will often be expensive. The advantages of outdoor advertising include large coverage and a rapid increase in awareness.

Among the disadvantages is the high cost, which is quite a big disadvantage for starting a business. Difficulty of competition - many people use such approaches, which requires a lot of creativity to attract the attention of a potential client. Contact is usually quite quick, so your offer may simply not be remembered.

The most effective advertising on the Internet

Advertising your business on the Internet is almost a mandatory expense item for most entrepreneurs today. Its simplest direction is to create your own website to which visitors will be attracted. The web platform itself can serve both for information purposes and directly become an additional (or even the main) “sales floor” of your enterprise. It all depends on the specifics of your proposal. On your Internet resource you can post all the necessary information about your own business. Today it is a fairly cheap product, especially when it comes to online business cards.

You can attract visitors to your website using different methods, which differ in both cost and effectiveness, but we’ll talk about this below. Social networks have become an important aspect today. Will it be a public page, the use of advertising in other people’s communities or personal accounts to attract people to an online platform or directly to a store (office)? In each case you need to come up with your own decision. Statistics show that the cost of attracting one client on the Internet is one or several orders of magnitude lower than when using offline methods.

Internet advertising tools often need to be combined to obtain maximum results. Sometimes it happens that one of the methods shows low conversion, but if it is abandoned, the efficiency level of the other method also drops. Such things are difficult to predict, and can only be noticed in practice. The main positive side of advertising on the Internet is its speed of distribution. There may not be much time between launching an advertising campaign and receiving your first client.

contextual advertising

The fastest and most effective method of advertising on the Internet. Its main problem is the difficulty in setting it up for unskilled specialists. For this reason, you will need to contact a special agency that will conduct an advertising campaign. Fortunately, today such services are widely available, so they are cheaper than hiring a separate staff of “advertisers”.

The advantage of contextual advertising is its clear customization to specific user requests in search engines, which allows you to select the target audience as accurately as possible. Online stores use this when attracting customers for individual popular units of goods or product groups. This is a fairly universal tool that, if configured correctly, will quickly begin to bear fruit.

SEO promotion

This is a “long-lasting” method. Search Engine Optimization allows you to get customers for free when they search for something online. It is worth understanding that getting on the first page will require quite a lot of effort, since almost every niche already has a whole host of competitors. At the same time, not using SEO is definitely a bad option, since this method includes a number of engineering works on the site and its comprehensive improvement. The best time to start working on search engine optimization is during the development of your website. This will avoid a number of mistakes in advance. The main advantage of SEO remains the free transition of the target user to the resource, whereas in contextual advertising you will have to pay for each click.

Free notice boards

This is a rather controversial instrument in many respects. The main problems when using it are the high level of competition and low user confidence in the offers initially. Another aspect remains that, against the backdrop of an increase in the number of offers in recent years, the number of those who come in search of purchases is increasing more slowly. The good news is the versatility of such platforms - you can offer both goods and services on them. It’s worth focusing on the most visited message boards - using them definitely won’t hurt.

Public pages on social networks

The largest social network on the Runet in the Russian Federation today remains VKontakte. This platform offers the opportunity to create targeted advertising and conduct retargeting (appealing to people who were previously interested in your advertising). This is an effective and fairly cheap tool that is actively used by many advertising agencies today. Similar tools are available in other social networks, but starting to work with this platform is much more promising, since it has the widest audience and traffic.

Advertising can be purchased both in groups, whose members could potentially become clients of your business, and you can order its placement in the user’s news feed. Not every business will find this type of advertising useful, but those who offer products can find buyers here, and the created group can be used as a feedback board for your services. The most common problem when using this advertising tool is choosing the right groups. If you choose the wrong advertising location, you can simply waste money. – is a separate question, so we will not dwell on it in detail here.

For each business, the “best advertising” will be different, and it is impossible to provide uniform statistical indicators in this case. In conditions of a tight budget, you will have to choose “what is cheaper” and work out the strategy for attracting customers as clearly as possible. It is advisable to try as wide a range of tools as possible to evaluate what is most effective for your case.

The most effective advertising of services

To the question of which advertising of services is the most effective, the answer is clear - high-quality execution. Of course, you shouldn’t rely solely on word of mouth, but it’s important to understand that reviews are extremely important in this case. There are specialized platforms where people share their impressions about certain enterprises in a particular field. Statistics show that more than half of consumers, when faced with information about a new seller (service provider), look for more detailed information and reviews. If friends cannot give any advice, they ask questions on the Internet.

It is important to monitor such online resources and promptly respond to complaints raised. This will not only explain that you have already solved any existing problems, but also reveal custom publications left by ill-wishers. You need to collect reviews in text and video format from customers on your website. In return, it is better to offer a discount - the client will come back again to take advantage of it. This solution needs to be implemented to increase customer trust, but it alone will not be enough.

At the initial stage of work, while there are not many clients or no clients at all, it is necessary to use active advertising methods. If your business involves providing services in one city, leaflets and outdoor advertising will be the most effective methods. For those who provide consulting, accounting and other services that can be provided remotely, it is better to resort to contextual advertising and searching for clients on social networks.

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The main feature of advertising for small businesses is that it pays minimal attention to the brand, that is, the company itself. Unlike large multinational corporations such as, say, Coca-Cola, you can hardly afford to work on brand recognition, so you need an approach that .

Focus on specific offers and avoid using “general” words such as “a lot”, “cheap”, “profitable” and others. A quarter of a century ago, this approach was effective, but today's society gives preference to numbers. No one will go to a store that offers “the cheapest sofas in the city,” while in a store that sells “sofas for 10 thousand rubles,” there will be no end to buyers.

Carry out “promotions”

If your offer is not only specific, but also limited, the effectiveness of your advertising will increase: the less time you leave for a potential buyer to think, the higher the chance of making a sale. In addition, this will reduce the likelihood of a potential client leaving for a competitor.

When a person sees an advertisement for teapots for 500 rubles, he thinks about buying hypothetically, that is, he simply takes note that such and such a company has such and such a price for teapots. If he doesn’t need a kettle yet, he won’t buy it.

But if he sees that the supply is limited, and it is possible to purchase the product at the proposed price, for example, only until the end of the month, he begins to think about the purchase from a practical point of view: if he does not need the kettle today, but may need it tomorrow, then it is better to buy it now at a low price than paying twice as much later.

Special price

This method has been used everywhere for decades, but does not lose its effectiveness: indicate the “old price” next to the price. At the same time, the “regular” price should be noticeably higher than the “special” price - this will enhance the effect of “limited supply”. The principle here is the same as in the case of “general” words and specific numbers: seeing how much more expensive the product will become at the end of the “promotion”, it will be much easier for the buyer to part with the money.

The most effective types of advertising

The advertising format must be chosen taking into account the specifics of the business and the target audience - something that demonstrates high performance among men under 35 years of age may cause only a minimal response among women over 45.

And even if all your childhood you dreamed that when you had your own business, you would advertise it on TV, it is better to refuse this option: high-quality advertising on TV is expensive and for small businesses it is ineffective.

Instead, it is better to pay attention to other formats:

• leaflets: they can be delivered to mailboxes or handed out on the street. It is better to distribute, as this allows you to distribute advertising exclusively among the target audience;
• announcements in elevators and entrances: a very popular (and very effective) approach - the longer a person drives (or waits for an elevator), the higher the likelihood that he will read your ad, accordingly, placing such ads in the tallest buildings gives the best result;
• : advertising on the Internet is the cheapest, and for working with a young audience it is simply irreplaceable - be sure to create a community on a social network and place ads on several popular thematic platforms;
• in newspapers: It’s better to advertise business through newspapers - construction, education, cleaning, etc.;
• signs: It is best to place signs, banners and billboards in close proximity to your office or store.

How to evaluate advertising effectiveness

It's not about how much you spend, but how much you end up earning from it, so the most important indicator for you should be ROI, that is, “return on investment.” If you spend 50 thousand rubles, and the profit as a result of the actions taken increases only by 20 thousand, refuse such advertising. Remember that it is not you who should work for her, but she who should work for you.

As you can see, the most is the one that demonstrates good results for a specific business and a specific target audience, and costs less than it brings. True, to find a suitable format you will have to experiment a little. But it's worth it, no doubt about it.

In business, without advertising it is impossible to announce yourself, your services and products. There are dozens of varieties of successful self-presentation, and a sufficient range of prices allows business representatives to select suitable options for successful companies. But the question arises: where and how to advertise your business?

How to choose the best type of advertising

With a small audience, small sacrifices are sufficient. But without taking into account the features and secrets, it is impossible to achieve success in running a company.

Choosing a medium is not a matter of one minute. First, study all the indicators. Each type of advertising has both disadvantages and advantages. And when selecting a variety, the cost, location, and time of placement, as well as the number of contacts with the clientele, are important.

You should start by choosing the appropriate placement method. These are outdoor advertising, the Internet, the press, radio and television. If you can contact an agency, you don’t have to worry about selection: managers will complete this task on their own, although the outcome of the company will depend on their professionalism and the size of the budget.

The outdoor one is located on the streets. This type of accommodation is considered the most budget-friendly. For example, a cafe is open in the south of the metropolis. Place a billboard with outdoor advertising in this area - and every resident will know where to go for a get-together with friends on the weekend.

The cost increases as you get closer to the center. So no one will demand colossal sums for placing outdoor signs on the outskirts. But in the urban center, significant funds will be required.

• Billboards are placed along the roads. This option is effective, but it is difficult to remember contacts. Large font and memorable words are required. It is advisable to install several information boards. It is worth remembering that placement on the non-working side is cheaper, but ineffective.
• Stretching– advertising placed above the roadway on a poster with text. Both pedestrians and motorists take longer to see the message. Therefore, indicating contacts and addresses here is completely justified.
• Pointer– an arrow pointing towards the advertiser’s office.
• Signboard– a small shield in front of the office entrance. The advantages of this type are simplicity and low cost. The brightness of the design and large font size will attract attention from afar, so this is an effective business advertisement.
• Pavement sign– design indicating the name, telephone number and list of services of the company. Such a carrier is installed near her building.
• Sandwich Man– a person dressed in an original suit is guaranteed to attract the attention of passers-by.
• Pneumatic figure is an inflatable three-dimensional figure. Quite an original way, and effective advertising for business.
• Adhesive applications– posters and stickers. Similar advertisements are pasted on walls and placed in subways and entrances.
• A message about the company and the services it provides can be placed on a bus that travels through a certain area.
• Elevator advertising- the method is simple and effective. A person going home has nothing to do, and he involuntarily reads the advertisement and even writes down telephone numbers and addresses.

There are dynamic and static outdoor advertising. Dynamic people are moving past. There is little time to read it, and therefore the text needs to be clear, clear, concise, and written in large font.

The use of lighting, various combinations of font types and sizes, and bright colors increases the effectiveness of advertising. The more people pass by the ad, the more attention will be paid to it. This means productivity increases.

The placement price is affected by location, size, material, and manufacturing complexity. For some options, the costs are minimal, and if you choose the right one, you won’t have to regret the money spent.

What is the most effective advertising for small businesses? Online advertising is constantly evolving. Although it is still inferior to traditional methods, it has many advantages. The first and very significant one is the relatively low cost.

And secondly, reaching a target audience of any size. Typically, sites specialize in certain topics. If your clientele uses the Internet, then why not turn to online advertising. All that remains is to select the appropriate sites that are interesting to consumers and you can act.

On the Internet it is possible to combine all types of media advertising. So you can hear, see and read advertisements posted on the Internet.

• Banner, the most popular tool in the web space. Any information or image can be placed on it. A link to the company's website is possible. The banner size is unlimited. But the larger it is, the more expensive the price. To be published, the topic of the resource must be similar to the advertiser’s target audience.

To increase efficiency, it is worth finding out the direction of the site. Mandatory conditions are interesting text, suitable colors and location in the upper corner of the page. The banner should not annoy site visitors.

Just remember that a tenth of Russian users do not use graphics and turn them off. It is also true that small businesses cannot afford banners due to the high cost of advertising on the main pages of popular sites.

• A few lines close to the main text– text advertising. It can also present an entire article about the company.
• Video– the placement method is expensive. Such videos are similar to television ones. Large businesses actively use such advertising. Hidden advertising is sent or posted online for a fee. This is the main principle of viral advertising.

The first is texts and banners on pages similar in content to advertising. This method is less annoying for site visitors and is more useful for the advertiser.

The cost of online advertising is affected by the duration of placement and the number of impressions. If you pay for a week, then this is the first method, payment by the number of views is the second. That is, how many views the placement is designed for, that’s how many you’ll have to pay for.

Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is gaining incredible popularity. This is a very good option for small businesses. The costs are only temporary, and you won’t have to spend money. Social networks, blogs and forums have become real advertising platforms.

Here they exchange opinions. On forums, such statements are perceived as recommendations from independent experts that are worth listening to. The promotion is hidden.

mass media

It is profitable to place such advertising in printed publications purchased by reading people, since an educated audience is valued for its ability to pay. The traditional method remains in demand.

• Modular advertising– a brightly decorated part of the strip. It's immediately noticeable. Important information is indicated. Since reading is possible at any time of the day, the relevance remains throughout the week. I was interested in the proposal - just open the newspaper. It is advisable to place advertising three times on the first, second, penultimate and last pages, making it bright. Moreover, the larger the banner dimensions, the better.
• Classified ads cheap due to grouping by headings. Typically, only the necessary characteristics are indicated on the line. But this advertisement gets lost among other advertisements. But it is cheap, and small businesses can afford such a company.
• Text advertising praises a product or service to increase trust. The price is higher for other types, and not all consumers read such articles.
• Before posting, it is important to study the media to determine geography, audience and circulation. A positive reputation is also important: the credibility of publications in the “yellow press” is zero.
• A television– the most popular and accessible type of media. But this method is very expensive, and time is especially valuable. Therefore, small businesses are recommended to use local or regional TV networks. Placing a video there is cheaper, but the geography of the channel and product distribution must match.

The videos are shown in blocks, and the best option is the first one, before the channel switching starts, or the last one, when everyone has already switched back. Purchasing is forward, since sales are distributed over the year.

The radio audience is young people. In an audio message, the listener will not remember either the address or telephone number. In a music screen, information remains in memory for a long time. It is important to consider the time when advertising on the radio: evening or morning are the best options. It is better to place on non-local waves and select several frequencies to increase the likelihood of getting on an ad when switching.

There are many advertising options, and the main thing is to choose the right one. High-quality and original in any case will not go unnoticed. It is recommended to use budget methods, combining several types to increase efficiency. Don’t forget about monitoring efficiency and measuring the number of visitors a few days after the company’s launch. Only such measures can determine the best carrier that brings maximum benefits.

Today I propose to consider one of the most important aspects of running any business - advertising and talk about how what advertising is the most effective. For an entrepreneur, especially a beginner, advertising is often a kind of “dark horse”: he does not know whether it will work, whether it will give the desired effect, or, on the contrary, will only result in unnecessary expenses.

In this article I will consider the issue from the point of view of a representative of a small and medium-sized business, since large businesses are advertised according to slightly different criteria, posing other tasks for the advertising company.

3 rules for selecting the most effective advertising.

Rule 1. Your main goal is not to “promote yourself,” but to increase customer flow and sales. If a large business can advertise only in order to increase brand awareness, become more popular, and create a certain image for itself, then this approach will not work for a small business - advertising will be unprofitable, which is unacceptable. The most effective advertising for small businesses is the one that will actually increase the number of customer requests (visits, calls, website visits, etc.) and, as a result, the number of sales.

Rule 2. You should think of advertising as an investment. Namely, invest money in an advertising company, immediately calculating when it will return to you and what income it will bring. If, according to forecasts, your income from advertising does not cover its cost, then such an investment is simply pointless. And, conversely, the more you plan to earn thanks to a specific advertising company, the more effective it will be for you.

Rule 3. Consider the 3 components of effective advertising as a whole. The most effective advertising should correctly combine 3 key components:

3. Target audience.

If at least one of these components is selected incorrectly, the advertisement will not bring the desired effect.

Well, in conclusion, one more general rule:

What advertising is the most effective?

Surely every entrepreneur immediately wants to get an answer to the question “What advertising is the most effective?” and invest money in it. But, alas, there is no unique answer here. The choice of advertising company depends on a number of factors:

- The target audience;

However, no matter what type of advertising it is, you can always identify its key features that determine its effectiveness. It’s no longer a secret that the main function of advertising is to influence the subconscious of potential customers, encouraging and motivating them to take advantage of the promotional offer. Based on this, we can identify those components of the advertising offer that best have a psychological impact on people. These components have been determined through numerous studies and analysis of advertising effectiveness, so they can serve as a starting point for developing an advertising offer in any form, be it graphic, text or display advertising.

Next, I will present and briefly describe 5 key points that the most effective advertising should include, and give examples for each of them: in them you will probably recognize advertising offers that you encounter every day.

5 components of effective advertising.

1. There is a problem. First of all, in order to attract attention to advertising, it is necessary to identify the problem. It can even be quite negative in nature, since people subconsciously perceive the negative more than the positive. You can even “embellish” the problem in a certain way, imperceptibly increasing its significance. At the beginning of the advertisement, you need to show that there is some kind of problem that needs to be solved, and this will immediately attract the attention of those people to whom it is close - that is, exactly your target audience.

– Do you have bad breath?

– Tired of constant stress?

- To you ? Are collectors tormented?

A well-formulated problem already means that your target audience will definitely look/listen to your advertising, that is, at least, pay attention to it. This is already good! Go ahead…

2. Option to solve the problem. So, the target audience has been attracted, now it is necessary to competently “process” it. She should get what she actually paid attention to your advertisement for, namely, a solution to her problem. This should be a continuation of your advertising offer.

At the initial stage of creating his own business, an entrepreneur needs to make himself known and attract clients. Therefore, you need to figure out which advertising is the most effective for small businesses, taking into account a very modest and limited budget.

The role of a competent advertising strategy

At first, every beginning businessman faces a number of difficulties and problems. As long as his products and services are unknown to suppliers and potential customers, he will be treated with a certain amount of mistrust.

Therefore, the first priority should be to create an impeccable business reputation, which will be evidence of:

• solvency;
• responsibility;
• reliability.

It is very important that advertising works simultaneously in two directions: on the one hand, it emphasizes the most important strengths and advantages of your company, and on the other hand, it focuses public attention directly on the quality of the products or services you offer.

Advertising Tools for Small Businesses

Since one of the main distinguishing features of a small business is a very modest budget intended for various purposes, it is necessary to choose advertising tools that are at the same time:

• simple;
• accessible;
• effective.

To promote yourself and your company, you can try several methods, and then compare them and draw appropriate conclusions.

These include:

• telephone marketing;
• distribution of leaflets;
• printed advertisements;
• inscriptions on asphalt;
• creating your own website;
• writing press releases.

Telephone marketing

The concept of telephone marketing means nothing more than calling a wide audience of your potential clients. These can be both individuals and companies. The main purpose of such telephone calls is to convey information about your products or services, as well as to encourage a potential client to place an order.

To get positive results, you must not only sincerely love your job, but also have the gift of persuasion. This kind of business advertising has been used for a long time, but it has a significant drawback - even if the people you call have free time to listen to you carefully, there is no guarantee that they will become your clients.

On the other hand, your telephone interlocutors may turn out to be people who will be very interested in your products or services - and you will be lucky. In any case, this method is good only at the initial stage and in combination with other advertising tools.

Leaflets

Distributing leaflets is a long-known, popular and proven advertising for business, especially at the initial stage of its development. Printing leaflets will cost you very little, and will definitely bear fruit in the future. Such an advertising tool should be made on thick, high-quality paper, have a stylish and eye-pleasing design, as well as concise and clear content.

The distribution area for leaflets is any crowded places and streets, as well as mailboxes in apartment buildings.

In addition to leaflets, you can also use printed advertisements designed in a similar way.

Lettering on the asphalt

Speaking about the negative aspects of this method, it should be noted that it:

• can sometimes be taken lightly;
• is prohibited in some places;
• short-lived.

But there are also certain advantages. A bright, laconic and witty advertising inscription made with special paint in a crowded place will definitely not go unnoticed by passers-by. It is possible that some of them will become your regular customers.