Page 151 - Duct Tape Marketing

Chapter 10

Mastering Advertising Basics
and Media Planning

In This Chapter

ᮣ Using advertising to move the market to action
ᮣ Choosing the best media for your business
ᮣ Creating ad schedules

Advertising is the stand-in mouthpiece for your business in the market-
place. It goes where you can’t — carrying your message into the homes,
offices, televisions, computers, mailboxes, and car radios of your prospects
and customers. When it is successful — when it is creative, entertaining, under-
standable, and compelling — advertising goes even farther. Great advertising
goes right into the minds and hearts of customers, which is where brands live
and thrive.

Contrary to popular belief, though, great advertising rarely makes the sale for
your business. Advertising paves the way, but the sale happens later, after
your prospect is motivated by your ad to call or visit your business, request
more information, or buy your product.

This chapter offers the information you need to set reasonable expectations
for your advertising and to make wise media selections and placements. The
field of advertising is baffling and complex, but the following pages should
make it feel a whole lot less foreign.

Moving the Market through Advertising

Ask any small-business person what advertising is and you’ll probably hear
the word expensive somewhere in the answer. That’s because advertising is
the means by which businesses, organizations, and individuals buy their way
into prospects’ minds.