When you’re a freshman in business owning, any new situation can be a challenge, no matter how many books you’ve been reading or how much experience you gathered in your field of activity.
Even for those who are starting their second or third personal project, switching to a new niche may be tough. Having your own business is both a blessing and a curse. And the benefits of being inspired and motivated to succeed on your own may be overlaid with the clouds of uncertainty and immense responsibility. But you did dream of this and you acted towards your purpose, so it’s still your duty to overcome the dares. And one of the first ones you’ll meet is creating the first advertising campaign for your brand new pursuit. So here’s some useful advice to start with:
Be selective with your allies
You can’t and shouldn’t rely solely on your inherent resources for doing them all. But it’s your mission to find the perfect allies for this exciting journey. So be picky with the advertising agency you’re working with, interview both the assigned copywriter and art director, and trust your gut and your previous experience when agreeing upon a dedicated account specialist. These three key people will make sure your copy is done right and well-aligned with your vision and tone of voice and the graphics reinforce the message you’re addressing to your audience. Also, the same resources may be useful when it comes to guiding you toward other great collaborators. For instance, when it comes to booking a billboard, they might direct you to a traditional advertising booking provider or to a digital out-of-home platform, such as TPS Engage, depending on your needs and availability.
Name your advertising campaign purpose
Maybe you need some awareness since you’re new in the business field. Or you already have a plan for gathering leads. Or maybe you’ve already grown organically and need to take the next step in order to increase your revenue and, of course, your sales. Consider your objectives and make them measurable with some specific key results. The accurately you can measure, the better you’ll be able to evaluate the results of your first campaign. Moreover, by having a clear objective in mind, you’ll be able to better brief your project to the advertising agency and partners, so you’ll simply streamline the whole process.
Keep up with your audience
What does your audience look like, in terms of age, sex, location, preferences, hobbies? Analyze your current customers and scale some buyer persona for your products and services. Use web analytics to get more insights. Don’t stop at the demographics – even though they’ll tell you if it’s already time to display a Nasdaq billboard or not there yet – and explore the most you possibly can. You need to know your audience if you want to make them see and hear you. Then look for those environments where it’s more likely to meet them, no matter if we’re talking about outdoor advertising, digital or print, just make sure you’ll reach them somehow.
Measure, analyze, adapt your strategy
In digital, there’s nothing you can’t track. And it’s important to have all the data if you want to make the right decisions. But for the other business backgrounds, you’ll need to test, question, and estimate, to figure out what brings you the most. Use all the insights you get to exceed your current state – after all, your main purpose is to grow your business and become successful.
How many users visit your website daily, weekly, or monthly? How many of them buy something for you? What’s their behavior and where do they give up? Is there anything you could do to improve the process and their journey? Is your ROI trend aligned with the customers’ long-term value? These are questions data can provide answers to. And those answers could easily turn into a predictable forecast for your next strategic step. So, rely on all available data and artificially create new measure pillars, if needed.
If most business books are written in such a manner that almost anyone could understand their main ideas, it doesn’t work the same when it comes to practice. When running your own business, the challenges won’t stop appearing. So be prepared for anything, by having a strong foundation and following the best practices both in your field, but also in marketing and advertising.
