Business Advertising Online
Business advertising online – what are the most effective tactics? It often amazes me that when businesses advertise online, they often scream CHEAP! LOW PRICE! and ON SALE!
But do buyers really always want the cheapest available?
When you bought your last car, did you buy the cheapest piece of junk you could find?
When you bought your last house, or chose your last rental home, did you go for the lowest possible price, in the cheapest neighbourhood?
What about shoes – did you buy the cheapest?
Or when you last ate out – did you only consider the lowest price item on the menu?
Probably not.
What you probably did, is choose the item that best met your needs. You chose the car that was the right size, make and colour, and had the right features.
You chose the home that was in the most ideal location you could afford, with the right number of bedrooms and other features.
You chose your last pair of shoes on fit, comfort, suitability for the task, possibly brand and colour.
And you chose the menu item that best suited your tastes at that time.
Business Advertising Online – Show the Buyer you have what they want
So what advertisers need to do, rather than engaging in a race to the bottom, is to show the potential buyer that they have what they need.
If the customer sees that the advertiser has what they want, they will ask about price. Eventually. By the time the buyer asks for the price, they are likely to already be convinced that the product is the right one for them. The price is simply the amount of money they need to fork out to get it.
But how do you know what it is that people are wanting?
That’s easy. You tell the right people what you have, and if they are looking for that product at that time, they will look at your offer.
For example. Let’s say you sell knitting needles. There are people who never buy knitting needles. My father, for example, never bought knitting needles in his life. So if he saw an advertisement for knitting needles, no matter what the features, price or whatever, it would not convince him he needed to buy them. If you were spending money advertising knitting needles to my father, you would be wasting your time and money.
But if you know your typical buyer, you know who to advertise to. I probably fit the description of a typical buyer of knitting needles. I am female, in my 50’s, and I enjoy knitting. That’s a start.
Business Advertising Online – Go Where The Buyers Are
The next thing you need to know is where to advertise. You need to advertise where your typical customer is looking. I would rarely read a magazine about, say, car repairs. And I would guess that a lot of the people who do read magazines about car repairs (e.g. my father), would not buy knitting needles. So an advertisement in a car repair magazine for knitting needles would be a waste of money.
Yes, this is obvious. But when it comes to online advertising, it is perhaps not so obvious. Would you advertise your knitting needles on, say, LinkedIn? Perhaps, but I would venture to say that while there are probably a number of women over 50 who enjoy knitting who are on LinkedIn (I am), when they are there they are not necessarily in the mood for buying knitting needles. Similarly, Tik Tok has a younger audience, and while I concede that there are a lot of younger knitters, if you are trying to appeal to people like me, that is not where we will be found.
Facebook, however, is a better place to advertise your knitting needles. It is quite popular among my demographic, and there are groups and pages dedicated to knitting.
Business Advertising Online – Conclusion
The bottom line is – don’t assume that the people who are looking for your products or services are only interested if they can get a bargain. There are a lot more things being considered than just price when a buying decision is made. Talk about THOSE features, and talk about them to the right people in the right places at the right time.
