A Guide to Identifying the Best Advertising Method for Your Business Goals

Marketing has become incredibly precise. Thanks to data and social media, it is easier than ever to produce bespoke, efficient advertisements that reach your core demographic. And yet, with all of the options out there, it can be difficult to determine how you should put your message out there via best advertising method.

In this article, we take a look at some of the most prominent best advertising method and identify how you can use them to drive your business goals.

Think About the Type of Advertising You Want to pursue

Advertising is simply the art of getting people’s attention. While there are about one million ways to do that, in this article we highlight a few common methods used by marketing departments all over the world.

Native Marketing 

Native marketing is essentially advertisements that look like consumable content. For example, a roofing company might post an article on how to replace a shingle. A helpful how-to? Except that the tone of the article emphasizes the idea that you should probably give them a call and let the experts handle it.

Social Media Among Best Advertising Method

Of course, you know this one. Your company has social media accounts. When you use them to appeal to customers, it is a form of advertising.

Print

Print advertising isn’t even close to what it used to be, but there are still successful examples of this method. There’s an advertising message you want to put into the world. You look for print mediums like newspapers or magazines to get the job done.

Broadcast Advertising

Televised or broadcasted ads are also a little bit antiquated, though that’s not at all to say that businesses no longer use video in their marketing campaigns. It’s just that this content is now uploaded in different places. Social media. YouTube. Those disruptive Hulu ads that you hate but aren’t willing to pay a few extra dollars a month to avoid.

Display

Display advertising is particularly good for local businesses. Think billboards, park benches, etc. Public spots that can also double as a vehicle for getting the word out about your business.

Most businesses will use multiple avenues for getting their marketing messages out there. You may try all of these approaches at some point, though the key to selecting the right method is the same as any other marketing success metric. Ask yourself— what are my existing customers looking at? What about the customer groups I want to expand into?

Which brings us to our next point….

Put Yourself in Your Target Customer’s Shoes to Find Best Advertising Method

In marketing, there is a concept known as the “ideal customer.” A business’s marketing division will sit down and make a “profile,” describing the people who spend the most and tend to remain the most loyal. This document is called the “ideal customer profile,” or “ICP.”

Basically, the ICP helps you target advertisements so that they net customers who bring in the most profit.

Because “ideal,” customers spend the most, they give you the highest ROI on your marketing campaign. They can also lead to the most organic growth. Statistically, devout customers are the most likely to recommend your business to their friends.

With an ICP, you might learn that your ideal customer is a middle-aged upper-class woman who tends to be online between the hours of 7-9 PM. Using that information, you may decide to recalibrate your advertisements to increase your appeal to that demographic.

Or, you can….

Identify Markets You Would Like to Grow Into

While the ICP is a great way to maximize your earning potential and as best Advertising Method, you don’t have to use it only as a way to appeal to your best customers. Those middle-aged upper-class women are great, sure. You appreciate the way they have helped drive your profits so far.

However, you’ve always felt that fifteen-year-old boys who recently quit playing Zelda because they found it too hard would also be a good fit.

Isn’t that a little—

Specific? Yes. And perhaps slightly more specific than current marketing practices dictate. But not that much more specific. That’s the thing you need to realize about today’s advertising: It’s extremely granular and customizable.

Anyway, your marketing team goes over the numbers. They’ve pinpointed that 7-9 PM slot, which is great. But they also found out that the group of teenage boys who reliably respond to your ad campaigns are online between 8-11 AM.

School hours?

Hey, you aren’t their parents. Using that information, you can decide to expand into that market and focus more of your marketing efforts on teenage boys.

Let Data Show You the Way for Best Advertising Method

Where marketing used to be the art of throwing things against the wall and seeing what would stick, it is now much less dependent on guesswork. Why make assumptions about what your customers want when you can take a look at your numbers and get a precise idea?

Modern business technology produces an enormous amount of data. Your marketing division will have its data sets, and your employees should be all too familiar with how to take advantage of them. However, for truly effective marketing, don’t be afraid to use multiple data streams.

For example, customer service, billing, etc. may all have number sets that help you fine-tune your marketing, and improve the overall experience that you provide your customers. The more specific you make your messages, the more of a resonance they will have with your future customers, so don’t be afraid to dig deep when it comes to data implementation.

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