Create an Effective Advertising Plan

Product, Price, Place, & Promotion

Your marketing plan has positioned your company in terms of product, price, and place. You have made decisions about what market segment you will compete in. You have considered products and services, distribution, pricing, guarantees, quality, policies, etc. You have set objectives and goals.

Now it’s time to decide how you will promote your company to achieve those objectives and goals.

Define Your Customers.

The number one reason advertising fails is because it is poorly targeted. No advertising is going to be successful if its target audience is not well defined and understood. Talk to your customers and potential prospects. Listen to them. Understand them.

We have provided you with some excellent strategies for defining your customers. Please read the Market Targeting Strategy and the Generating Better Qualified Prospects chapters. These two chapters will give you insight into defining your customers, and knowing what they need, want, and desire.

There are a few things to note here about your customers. First, your target group does not include the whole world. If you try to advertise to the whole world, you will go out of business.

Second, in many companies, 20% of the customers account for 80% of sales, and often 100% of the profits. These are the high usage customers that you want to target. Define who they are.

Third, one out of ten people strongly influence the other nine. They are the movers and shakers of the world. They participate heavily in community and business activities. They interact with several different large groups on a regular basis. They can and they will influence your success. Define who they are, because you also want to get your message to them.

Make no mistake – your advertising plan needs a clear, concise, written