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Who you’re going after is one of the most important parts of advertising. If you want to appeal to a certain audience, it is important to find a way to set yourself apart from the competition. Additionally, you need to show that you are uniquely qualified to provide the type of products or services that your target audience needs. There is sometimes a temptation in small business advertising and marketing to try to be everything to everyone. But the problem is that your target audience may not be able to tell that you’re here for them using the “one size fits all” marketing approach.

It is almost a given that your product will not appeal equally to everyone. Advertising to those that aren’t interested is a waste of your advertising resources. Believing that your have a larger target audience than your actually do is a big mistake that a lot of small businesses make. Rather than aim their advertising more towards a specific niche, a lot of small businesses go the brand awareness approach, where they try to attract customers that may be interested in their product in the future. Although this approach can sometimes work for large corporations, because they have the enormous advertising budget to properly take on this type of effort, small businesses cannot possibly compete at this level. Instead of raising brand awareness, advertising resources which could have effectively reached a targeted audience are simply diluted in their effectiveness.

As a common rule, customers only care about what benefits them when it comes to advertising. If they are currently interested in a certain type of product or service, there is a good chance of attracting them as a customer. Then again, people that aren’t interested will most likely ignore the advertisements. If you spend your advertising funds on trying to attract the second group, then you’re throwing away your money.

Finding out who your ideal customers are is the first step towards maximizing your small business advertising attempts. Whoever most benefits from your product or service is the ideal customer. They’re the ones that you’d most enjoy doing business with, as well as bring in higher profit from. And even though most targeted advertising is aimed towards a niche, finding your “ideal customers” can put a face on your target audience, which helps to find out the best advertising methods to deploy.

For example with print advertising. Instead of advertising in all magazines, you should focus on the ones that best balance out between what appeals to your audience and your product. If you’re wanting to use direct mail advertising, then use demographics to target households and businesses that meet certain customer criteria. Internet marketing can also be fine-tuned to specific audiences by developing different landing pages for different types of audiences.

If you use this targeted marketing approach, your small business advertising can be a lot more effective. There’s always a chance that you’ll attract someone outside of your target audience. But there’s a much bigger chance of attracting your ideal, targeted customer.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Customers only care about one thing, WIIFM (“What’s in it for me?”) and yet small businesses often commit the sin of advertising about themselves or their business. This is usually because the owners and their advertising executives that help them make their ads, don’t know the difference.

The thing is, you’re not alone. You are not the only one in your small business advertising that’s committing this “sin”. Actually the majority of your competitors are also. This is why you would fail to achieve the results you’re looking for when you mimic your competition’s advertisements.

There is hope. You can make your small business advertising much more effective by turning this way of advertising away. Also you have to change the way you deliver your message, and the message itself to “steal” your competition’s customers away! They probably won’t even be able to identify why their customers are suddenly switching to you, because the difference in your advertising can be very subtle, but also extremely effective.

The key to successful small business advertising is telling the customers what’s in it for them. Tell them why they should turn towards your businesses product or service as opposed to any other business advertising. Many small business owners think they answer this question in their advertising, because they tell customers that their service is the “best” or the “cheapest” or the “fastest” but often that just comes off as bragging and being self-centered.

Nobody likes to listen to others brag, business or not. They don’t care why you’re so awesome. What will they get from your business?

Subtle changes to your advertising to where it explains the benefits to the customer is all you need. Let’s say a home supply store’s advertisement doesn’t say “we’re the cheapest!” Instead, they tell customers how they will benefit with their slogan “You save big money!” They show their focus is on the customer that’s reading or listening to the advertisement. They see that it’s personalized for them.

Changing that focus through subtle changes in the words you use in your small business advertising is really very simple. Instead of using “we” and “I” and “our” – you should use – “you” and “your.” Speaking directly to your clients to where they easily understand that you’re offering them the things they want through what you’re selling. But word it in such a way that says, “Your dreams will become reality with xyz.” Of course, “xyz” is your product or service!

Examining your small business advertising messages, and changing them when needed takes some practice.. As you make these changes, you will see an increase in your business. They may not be able to directly tell the difference, but you’ll know that it was because you focused on them, and not yourself.

Advertising plays a major role in the success of a business. small business advertising has to be efficient and costly, while big business can afford to spend high dollar on its advertising. Most small business heavily relies on marketing techniques to gain more customers.

Thanks to the current recession, small businesses have been suffering. Their competition has risen, and are battling over the resources. While big businesses have larger cash flows and hence a bigger safety net, it’s the small business that is usually forced to shut down. A lot of novice entrepreneurs try lowering their prices thinking that it will increase the number of customers coming in. What they fail to understand is that only 5% of the shoppers base their decisions on price alone. Small businesses end up with less wages, cut back marketing costs, and often throw away quality as a result of lowering prices. By doing this a small business ignores the remaining 95% shoppers that base their shopping preferences on quality, service and most importantly, advertising. Because small businesses usually don’t handle the vast amount of customer flow that large corporations do, they can’t benefit from a price drop in the same way.

Don’t forget that it’s effective advertising that pulls in your price concious customers. If you’re decreasing what you put into your small business advertising, then you’ll end up with less customers. Rather than lowering prices, any small business should focus on how it’s in a specialty market in order or ensure a steady profit. This in turn calls for effective small business advertising. First you need to stand out from your competition. Better customer support, unique services, error free orders, etc. are just a few ways to show off your business’ special niche. You can actually demand better prices for your company, and still attract more and more customers because your unique advertising should have told them that you’re company dares to be different. Gaining your customer’s trust and loyalty is hugely affected by your small business advertising. It should be able to tell them why you’re the ideal choice towards their needs, and should focus on your company’s unique and special service

When a small retailer decides to compete on price, he is on risky grounds. Only one retail company can win the battle of pricing, and typically large chains such as Wal-Mart have that spot. They can’t be beat when it comes to prices, so instead of hoplessly throwing a price out there and praying someone bites, you should instead focus on promoting brand loyalty. Never lower the value that you put into your small business advertising, because it’s what grabs your customer’s attention and keeps them coming back to you.

What makes a customer purchase a product or service? One way could be from a salesman using classic salesmanship with a customer. And what does classic salesmanship entail? Classic salesmanship includes getting to know the customer and discussing how they can benefit from a product or service. The salesman then moves the customer to the product or service using the features the customer needs in order to gain the benefits.

A good salesman does things that most small business advertising don’t. It makes a personal connection with the customer and elicits an emotional reaction. Then they back up that emotion with reasoning and logic that supports what they want to do based on that emotional response.

Most small business that advertises using print and other media simply tout the features of a product or service instead of explaining to the customer how they will benefit from those features. Customers don’t really care about features unless they directly benefit them.

For instance, one feature of a vehicle might be that it can fit seven passengers. But if I have a family of three, I have no reason to want or need this feature. It has no benefit for me. But if a good salesman discovers that my only child always has a bunch of friends over to our house and I am shuttling them around between activities frequently, classic salesmanship takes over and this salesman suddenly recognizes how that feature can be a benefit to me. That vehicle with room for seven can make my life easier because I can fit everyone into the vehicle and be the great parent because my child can spend time with more friends.

In order to create effective small business advertising, it is important to know your customers or potential customers and to know something about them. Once you know enough about your customers to describe them, you can make small business advertising that directly speaks to the customers. You can show how they’ll benefit from your product or service.

The key to small business advertising could be summarized in three words: Features, Benefits, and Emotion. But the response you want to get and the order of these words and concepts matter to potential customers is backwards.

Emotion is the first that your small business advertising must elicit. An emotional response or reaction must be created. They need to desire and feel connected to your product or service.

Next, you must justify the emotional desire from your customer by showcasing the benefits in your advertising. People are looking to purchase a product or service that they desire, but they must first justify the expense. To help your customer justify their expenditure on your product or service, you need to describe the benefits.

Showcasing the features of a product or service comes last. But remember, features only matter if they actually demonstrate real benefits that support the customer’s emotional reaction and desire to purchase in the first place. So never start in your small business advertising by focusing on the features.

Remember, if you want your advertising to result in actual business, then you want to elicit your responses in the proper order. First, get your emotional response. Second, describe the benefits that will justify the purchase. And last, showcase the features that provide the benefits.

Interested in losing all the money you’ve put into small business advertising? Just keep spending your advertising dollars and don’t track how your customers are learning about you and your business. Just keep putting money out and out and out and don’t bother to figure out how your advertising dollars are bringing customers (and their money) in.

The majority of small business owners would never admit to wasting company funds, but that’s exactly what they’re doing when they don’t track and measure the results their advertisements gain from customers. Advertising executives use the small business advertising, such as the internet, on fliers, and other advertising space to read the numbers they produce. Advertising executives often push towards the demographics, readerships, and all around “hits” that your advertising has been receiving. It’s simple to believe that with all these numbers being spread around the advertising world, that your advertisement is being seen by many.

But good advertising takes a bit more than just having your message viewed by customers. First your customers do need to view your message multiple times before they’ll act, that’s a given. Second step that matters is the customer’s action. Whether that action is walking through your business’s front doors, or a simple phone call, to buying your products or services. And finally, you have to record which advertisements received the best actions taken by customers.

Ultimately, action based on your small business advertising is the only thing that counts. You need to be counting these actions as closely as you would the cash that your company brings in. You need to be recording and calculating every penny that you’ve put into advertising venues and promotions. This being the best approach to making sure that your advertising funds are being used effectively.

Some business owners ask, “How did you hear about our business?” to their old and new customers, but many do not.. Of those that do, there is often no subjective measurement or analysis made of the data. In fact, the data isn’t even completely collected.

Don’t spend any more money towards your small business advertising, at least until you’ve studied the techniques that profitable businesses use to track their advertising results. Then study ways to take those results, and calculate into them the return off of your investments. Discover how different variations of your small business advertising is being productive towards your business. Figure out which customers that advertising is attracting-in terms of specific demographic groups. Study which advertisements are getting the best results out of your customers, based on your return.

Good advertising executives that know their way around the market and their businesses will teach business owners how to compare the data from your best advertisements. There are many simple but effective ways to do this. Polling your customers doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and can be quite simple to do.

Piece of cake. If you don’t want the fate of many small business advertising that waste their funds on under-effective advertising, then learn how to measure the effectiveness of your own small business advertising. Then jump on the next advertising executive that comes near you and ask: “How can I measure the results of your advertising to see if it’s as good as you say?”