Page 147 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

101 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

58 Booking quality television, newspaper and
radio advertising space

Booking quality advertising space is an art that many
people specialise in. There are companies established that
do nothing but book media. If you go to the expense and
the time to produce advertisements, it is critical that you
show them to the public in a way that will bring you the
best results. I often see businesses spend months producing
a television commercial that ends up being aired to three
people at 2 a.m. Why bother?

Whenever you book any television, newspaper or radio
advertising you will normally deal with a sales repre-
sentative from the company. It is a good idea to strike up
a good relationship with these people as they can really
help your business.

Sometimes small business operators tend to feel that
because they only book a small amount of media they are
not as important as larger companies. This is not true and
it is a part of the ‘small business syndrome’ discussed in
the introduction of this book.

The main aim when booking media is to get the best
results for the money you intend to spend. For this reason
it is important that your media representative really makes
an effort to provide you with the best possible schedule (a
proposal for the placing of your advertisements) for your
business. If you feel that the representative you have is not
looking after your best interests, ring the company and
request another rep. This may be harsh, but the success of
your business is at stake. If they recommend a schedule
and it doesn’t work, they still get paid but you may not.

The first question that any media sales representative
should ask you is, ‘Who are you trying to reach?’ This
simply means who are your potential customers? If they are
not asking you questions along those lines, how can they
possibly book media that will reach your customers?

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