Home > Advertising and Small Business: Should You?

I worked in an advertising agency for 5 years and then in the advertising sales department at a radio and television station for another 4 years, and believe me, every client wanted to be on the front cover, above the fold, on during the Super Bowl, or air during rush-hour traffic.

For the bigger multi-national companies advertising was a no-brainer in many cases - it's what they needed to do to keep up awareness of their brand and keep top-of-mind.

The answer for small business owners was a bit different. Some advertising opportunities were a good fit and made sense but many times, spending money on traditional advertising just doesn't make sense. This is especially true if you provide your products and services to a large geographic area - not just a local location.

In reality, there are several things inherent in advertising that just do not make business and money sense for small businesses and service professionals.

1. Advertising is usually a mass medium

This means that advertising is usually aimed at everyone - it's hard to just "talk" to a niche market with advertising. Because of the large focus of TV, radio, newspaper and magazines, small business owners can spend a lot of wasted money - advertising to people who aren't in their niche target group.

2. Advertising is expensive

Because of the larger audience available via traditional advertising (think of all the people who watch TV and listen to the radio!), the costs associated are usually quite high. To produce, create and run a television commercial can run you in the 6 - 7 figures; ads in national magazines can costs in the tens of thousands and even radio commercials can be several thousand dollars.

3. Advertising doesn't allow for frequent exposure

Due to the high cost of advertising and the limited space and time to purchase, it's very expensive to advertise enough times to get noticed. We had a saying in the advertising world that you needed to have a 3+ frequency - this meant a person needed to see/hear your advertisement at least 3 times before they even barely noticed it.

In this media-saturated world we live in, where we're bombarded with thousands and thousands of messages each day, advertising doesn't get our attention like it did in the old days. If you can only afford to run one magazine ad or a handful of radio commercials, you're really just throwing your money away.

4. Advertising doesn't have the ability for strong follow-up and call-to-action

Getting someone's attention is only the first step - you then need them to take a specific action, such as visit a website, pick up the phone, visit a location, and so on. Because many times small business owners can only afford a small ad, there isn't the space or size to outline a clear call-to-action and next steps. Many prospects can be left not knowing what they should do next if they're interested.

As well, follow-up is key to converting prospects into customers and the expense and lead time of advertising doesn't allow for much follow-up at all. Again, prospective clients are lost due to advertising's inability to provide follow-up.

Advertising has its place and can work for small businesses, but there are many more cost-effective and high-impact marketing strategies that you can employ to get a return on investment much quicker, effectively and consistently.