No matter what industry you’re in, marketing is important. Consumers want to be able to find products and services that match their needs and wants – and your marketing materials must reflect this need. When advertising in print media (i.e. magazines, newspapers, or books), you’re limited by the amount of space you have. TV and radio are more expensive to produce than printed matter, and the same goes for digital (online) marketing. So, if you want your ads to stand out, you’ll need to try something new.
There are a variety of ways you can market your products and services to the public. Some business owners prefer to focus on one medium, such as magazine or newspaper ads or internet banners, while others want to try out a mixture of methods. What’s important is that you select the tool that works best for you and your budget.
Budget Considerations
The first thing to consider if you’re looking to market your products is your budget. With most marketing methods, you’ll need to decide how large of an investment you’re willing to make. Just because you have a small budget doesn’t mean you need to limit yourself to one form of marketing. You can use different methods – sometimes called “channels” – to reach different audiences. For example, if you have a small budget but want to target upscale women in your marketing material, you could produce a high-quality, full-page ad in a magazine that’s expensive to sell (i.e. Vogue or Elle). Or if you’re looking to attract more consumers to your product, you could produce a short video commercial and run it on social media platforms like YouTube or Facebook.
Budget is only one of many considerations when selecting the best marketing materials for your business. You also need to think about the type of audience you want to reach, the medium (i.e. channels) you want to use, and what you want your materials to look like. We’ll discuss each one of these considerations in turn.
Audience Considerations
Your second consideration is your target audience. Just as we discussed in the last blog post, your customers —or potential customers—make up the audience you’re trying to reach with your marketing materials. So, it’s essential that you select the right target audience for your product or service. There are three important things to consider here:
- Your product’s Main Target Audience
- Your Product’s Secondary Target Audience
- Your Product’s Tertiary Target Audience
The first two considerations, your product’s main and secondary target audiences, are fairly self-explanatory. Your product’s main target audience is the group of people you’ll be marketing your product or service to directly. Your secondary target audience, on the other hand, is a group of people you’ll be marketing your product or service to indirectly. Think of your secondary audience as the person you’re marketing to, but on a more general level. Your tertiary target audience, like your secondary audience, is a group of people you’ll be marketing your product or service to, but on a more specific level. For example, if you’re producing a new line of children’s clothing, your primary audience might be parents. But, to get the word out about your clothing line, you might want to consider marketing to teachers, librarians, or children themselves.
The more specific your target audiences are, the more you’ll be able to tailor your marketing materials to appeal to them. If you don’t have specific audiences in mind when selecting your marketing material, it’s often because you don’t know much about your product or service – which is understandable, because you’re just getting started. Once you do know more about your product and have a better idea of who the ideal customer is, you can start to think about what kinds of materials will be the best for them.
Media Considerations
Your next consideration is the type of media you’ll use to disseminate your marketing materials. The most common forms of marketing, magazine ads, newspaper ads, and billboards, have all been around for a very long time. The advantage of these older forms of marketing, as well as radio and TV ads, is that they’re very affordable. You may want to consider using one of the many online marketplaces, like digital magazines or newspapers, to reach your customers.
If you want to attract consumers to your product or service, it’s best to use online channels to do so. The reason being is that people are more likely to discover your product or service if they’re searching for it online. According to HubSpot Blogs research, 88% of consumers say that they’ve discovered products and services they were looking for online. Just remember: not every online channel is created equal. Some platforms just don’t work as well as others for advertising. For example, Snapchat isn’t the best platform for reaching adult audiences, so you may want to avoid using it for advertising. YouTube is great for driving traffic and engagement to your blog or website, and you can use this channel to promote products you’re already selling – but, keep in mind, you’ll need to have a sizable audience before you start charging advertisers. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms, and while they’re great for driving traffic to your site, remember that everyone has a social media account and it’s often hard to get someone’s attention if you don’t have a large enough audience already.
When selecting marketing materials for your business, it’s important to keep the above suggestions in mind. From a marketing perspective, what’s important is that you find a tool that works best for you and your budget. And, as always, don’t forget to measure the results of your efforts!