Small businesses seek to enhance their business quickly and efficiently, grow the number of their clients and raise the awareness of their brand. To reach these goals and boost their business they use several types of advertising tools. The advertising types include both traditional advertising and modern advertising tools. According to the latest research, 36% of small businesses use printed advertisements, 22% of them prefer TV. The modern mediums, particularly Social Media, are preferred by 64% of small business owners. According to the overall picture around 87% of small businesses advertise in one way or another.
Clever investments in advertising can bring higher benefits and provide more revenue. Among the wide range of advertising types, we separated 7 most common channels to promote your business growth.
Print Advertising
Before the development of the digital world, print advertising was the most common. It includes newspaper ads, magazine ads, flyers, and brochures. As it’s impossible to count the real number of the people who saw the print ads or became a client due to print advertisement, the wide usage over the years decreased.
However, for targeting the older generation, who are not engaged with the digital world, print advertisement is the best version.
Outdoor Advertising
There are several traditional and innovative ways of outdoor advertising. This refers to any type of advertisement which reaches people when they are outside. Out-of-home advertising includes;
- Point-of-sale displays advertising.
- Billboard advertising.
- Construction advertising.
- Retail outdoor advertising.
- Vehicle advertising (bus shelters, train ads), etc.
Outdoor advertising can be expensive but it may reach thousands of people daily.
Direct Mail Advertising
As time goes by, we receive fewer and fewer letters per mail. Whenever we receive something, we are thrilled to open. Direct mail advertising includes all forms of print ads that you can deliver per mail, for instance, catalogs, newsletters, brochures, etc. It allows you to deliver your message directly to the customer.
Make sure you don’t bombard your customers with letters every day. Create some catchy design and deliver the letters only from time to time.
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertisement is a popular choice for small and big businesses. You don’t spend much money compared to the other advertisement channels, besides measuring the results is quite easy. Social media increases the targeting opportunities. You can choose your audience based on different criterias; age, gender, living place, interest, etc. The most popular social media channels that small businesses advertise are Twitter (41%), Instagram(47%), Youtube(51%), and on the top of them is Facebook (86%).
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
More than half of small businesses (53%) prefer the Google search advertising channel. Google gives the entrepreneurs a great opportunity to show their ads to clients, but as soon as the client hasn’t clicked on the ad, the company isn’t charged anything. The most common PPC advertising platforms are Google ads and Bing ads. This is a great option for small businesses with a limited advertising budget.
Mobile Advertising
Mobile phones are the most effective tools to reach your customers. There are 4.78 billion unique mobile users and 73,2% of them own smartphones. The increasing mobile media consumption lifted mobile ads engagement up to 15%. Mobile advertising ads include;
- Mobile app ads
- Mobile display ads
- Mobile videos
- Mobile search ads
- Social media ads targeted to appear on mobile devices only
People don’t lose any opportunity to check their phones whenever they can. At the end of the day, they spend an average of 4 hours with mobile phones. This information should already prove to you that they will see your ads regardless of time and distance.
Broadcast Advertising
Broadcast advertising includes TV and radio advertisements. The costs might be not affordable for many small businesses, if a larger audience is targeted. However, the local TV or radio stations could offer cheaper prices to promote the local business development. The price of broadcast ads depends on the length of the ads, frequency, broadcasting hours. These factors could be challenging for some small business owners. But they should not give up.
Although small businesses mostly have limited budgets for advertisements they should make an effort to raise their brand awareness in public. They should choose more cost-efficient, modern and traditional advertising channels for the digital society and for the people who are not online.
About the Author:
Nara Nazaryan is the Content Manager at Digital Growth Formula. She is a digital marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience in the field and more than 10 in the banking and finances spheres. She is an obsessed reader and content writer. Her hobbies include coding, astronomy, physics, and following the latest scientific discoveries.
