Elements of a Good Advertising Campaign

Know Your Audience and Your Competitors Before You Campaign

The elements of a good promotional advertising campaign require a well-planned strategy. It requires constant focus to succeed in advertising! Obviously, the goal of advertising is to make sales, and the only way to do that is to target a narrow group of customers and fulfill their needs. Companies must create brand awareness to stand out from competitors unless they want to fade away very quickly.

Before starting an advertising campaign, you must know your target market. You need to have a fairly good idea of the age, sex, marital status, and income bracket of your target audience. The goal is to identify a need and provide a solution for customers. For example, it's probably not wise to market a high-ticket item to people who are living paycheck to paycheck. It is also essential to know who the target market is before you allocate advertising dollars because certain age groups and income brackets respond differently to print ads, Internet ads, TV ads, and direct mail.

You must also know your competition. What products are similar businesses offering and what advertising strategies are they using? Try to make your product distinguishable from other brands so that clients can easily tell the difference.

Create Brand Awareness Through Consistency

Once you have identified who you are targeting and how your brand is unique, you're ready to plan an advertising campaign that will emphasize the unique benefits of your product.

One of the most important elements of a good advertising campaign is creating brand awareness. The goal is to embed the company’s name and logo into the subconscious so that people remember you and all that you offer. One very successful form of brand-awareness advertising is the use of promotional products such as pens, calendars, and refrigerator magnets. This is a great way to increase brand awareness! Everybody loves a freebie, and when customers constantly have your company’s name and logo in front of them it serves as a constant reminder of your brand.

Brand awareness is created and maintained through consistency. Use the same logo, the same fonts, and the same colors on all of your promotional materials! This includes all flyers, sales letters, and promotional products. Also, having a catchy slogan or a jingle can make your company stand out. If you need help, hire a professional copywriter and/or a graphic designer to create something unique! Be sure to include a sense of urgency to give the buyer incentive to make a quick decision. There should be a call-to-action with a deadline and repeated reminders of features and benefits.

Don't Get Discouraged

No matter which form of advertising you choose, remember that the process is often based on trial-and-error. You must continually analyze the results to determine how many potential customers are responding to each advertisement. Experiment with different forms of advertising and different sizes and placements of ads. Tweak print ads and sales letters and track results carefully. Sometimes small changes can have very dramatic results!