Every small business owner has a dream and when that dream becomes a reality, you can be sure an enormous amount of planning and work went into selling the idea. And at the top of the planning checklist is advertising. Let’s face it; if the public doesn’t know about that fantastic product or stellar service, the business will fail. And advertising is the vehicle that sells the dream.
Online advertising is an important part of the small business marketing puzzle today, considering the pervasive use of mobile devices to search and purchase everything from books to cruises. According to Wordstream, 69% of digital media time is spent on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile tools and those shoppers are not merely doing research; they are buying, too. So, how do entrepreneurs tap into all that digital time?
Online platforms like PosterMyWall provide hundreds of free templates for graphics, video templates, and prints so that businesses can create online advertisements quickly, saving a small business owner both time and money. So, what do you need to consider first in developing online ads, the ones that will help your dream come true?
Table of Contents
Essentials To Consider
You have a great product or service, but how to set it apart from the rest is an essential question. Here are some techniques to consider as you think about your small business marketing plan.
Know Your Product, Your Audience, And Your Goal
You know your product better than anyone else. Now it’s time to articulate your dream to others by stepping back and putting a laser focus on the product, your target audience, and your goals with your digital marketing strategy.
Know your product. Why should any consumer buy from you, when there are other comparable products or services in the marketplace? You must be able to articulate this quickly through your online ads or the reader will move on.
There are a number of brainstorming techniques that will get the creative juices flowing as you build online advertisements. One such technique is the SWOT Analysis. The acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and is a good way to identify which aspects of your product to highlight in your ads. Out of these discussions, you and your staff will learn how to better convince your target audience to buy your product.
Know your audience. In the digital world, different platforms are popular with different audiences so you need to identify your target audience and where it resides on the internet before you design your digital ads. For example, if you own a daycare center, your audience will be young families, not senior citizens and those two groups gravitate to different parts of the digital world. The demographic analytics on your website can help you pinpoint who is attracted to what you’re selling and perhaps more importantly, who isn’t.
Know your goal. Do you want likes, followers, leads, purchases, the #1 spot on Google or something else? You need to clearly identify your goal with each digital advertising campaign. That will determine the text and imagery you want to use to raise your brand awareness and then ultimately lead viewers to make their purchase. A successful campaign will lead your potential customers every step of the way so they don’t divert to a competitor or lose interest.
So, once you do all this prep work, what is most important in creating your online advertising?
The Design of Your Online Advertising is Critical
It is tempting to put an ad together quickly with little thought devoted to the colors, headlines, text, or other details. But without attention to detail or some research, your dream will struggle to become a reality.
Eye-catching is the goal. According to Forbes, the average American consumer sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads per day. Your objective is clear: Whatever you create must be eye-catching in order to stop the viewer as they scroll through all the clutter.If you’re not a design expert and you’re worried that hiring an expensive designer to create these designs for you will break your budget, you can use a free graphic design site like PosterMyWall. It offers thousands of professionally designed templates with a variety of themes to choose from. You can simply pick a template, customize it to your brand’s and the campaign’s needs by changing text, colors, fonts and even imagery and have your perfect designs ready to go.
What’s exciting is that you can even create animated designs using their captivating video templates. This is important because in 2019, about 86% of marketers are focusing on video content to advertise, educate, and entertain. Video is a highly engaging and effective way to grab attention for your brand and is quickly becoming the consumers’ favorite type of content. With PosterMyWall, you can use video templates or change image templates to video in one click simply by replacing the image by a video from the stock video library or an upload.
Add text wisely. Make every word count in your ad; focus on the customer by using the words “you” and “yours.” Brainstorm words that evoke an emotional reaction in relation to what you’re selling: fun, comforting, relaxing, exciting, etc. Keep your headline length at 5 words, with ad text increasing to 19 words, according to an analysis of 752,000 of the best Facebook ads. And end your ad with a call to action: Take a Tour, Learn More, Shop Here, Sign up, etc.
Choose the right size. Once you choose the platform for your digital ad, do your research and follow their guidelines for size. You can create one stunning design that encapsulates the essence of your campaign and use it across platforms. For this, you don’t need to recreate the design in different sizes again and again – simply use the free resize feature in the PosterMyWall editor to create multiple copies in different sizes in one go. All suitable ad sizes–Facebook or Instagram, web banner, skyscraper, etc–as well as custom size capability is available in PosterMyWall. You can find many other guides to help with ad sizes, depending on your goals, as well as a free sample marketing plan to use as an anchor for your online advertising strategy.
Once you have your digital ad designed, how can you maximize its use?
Maintain An Active Online Presence
You’ve spent a lot of time, energy, and money on your digital campaign. It’s important to have a focused, consistent plan for the platforms you have identified to reach your target audience.
For example, post often and vary posting times by day of the week and time of day in order to saturate specific platforms as well as different time zones with your message. Consumers need to see your ads a number of times before they take notice, so push your ad on a number of platforms on a rotating schedule (social media, website, blog, banners) to achieve this saturation. Keeping up with such a schedule seems like a hassle for a business owner already pressed for time but there is a solution – simply schedule all your social media posts for later with PosterMyWall’s Premium plan and forget about it!
If you’re running paid ads, for example on Facebook or Google, use that demographic knowledge you gleaned from your analytics to tailor your ad audience according to your needs in order to maximize your brand’s reach. Make sure all your ads are the correct sizes to maximize effectiveness. The resizing feature, direct publishing, and scheduling tools at PosterMyWall can do much of the work for you.
Over To You
Online advertisement has become an integral part of marketing plans and can no longer be skimped on if you want to stay competitive. Creating an insightful, progressive marketing plan that incorporates online marketing is key to your success as a small business owner in cut-throat competition. But as you can see, it does not have to be something intimidating – with our simple tips and tools in mind, you can easily master the art of online advertising without causing a huge dent in your budget. So don’t put it off any longer and start designing your ads today!
