Advertising: the basics | Business Gateway

4. Advertising campaign planning

Advertising can increase sales by telling potential and current customers about your new product launches, special offers and improvements. Apart from reminding current customers about your business, advertising can also help to create or develop a distinctive brand for your business.

Target your customers

Many businesses launch advertising campaigns to boost sales, increase brand awareness or launch a new product. You could consider an introductory offer to give people an incentive to visit or call.

However you will need to decide whether your target audience is local or regional, national or international, or a mixture. This will affeect the type of media you select. You should find out from the media business and other independent sources about their circulation or audience figures. Figures can normally be broken down into age groups, average income and other useful indicators.

Remember you have a duty to ensure that your advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful. The Advertising Standards Authority has information on advertising codes.

Can you plan the campaign yourself?

You should think carefully about what you want to achieve and the message you want the reader, viewer or listener to take away. Advertising is only effective if you reach your target audience with a message that makes them want to buy or at least find out more.

You may be able to design and produce an advertisement for printed media yourself. But if your advertising needs are more demanding than an occasional, low-priced local advertisement, you may want to outsource your advertising to an advertising agency. This is only suitable if you are prepared to pay the extra cost, but having your adverts professionally designed can improve their success.