Where, When, How ?

Where, when, how? Three important questions when devising any kind of marketing plan, whether big or small. First thing you need to do is establish who you are trying to reach. What age group, income, ethnicity, geography, and job status? Answer these five questions, and then continue reading.

Now that this is out of the way, next let's look at the types of media. For this entry let's focus on print, and the following entries will focus on other types of media. Print-which of course I love and according to studies is still a very effective medium of communication and a great option for small business owners. From the classified sections, to small picture ads, to full scale graphic ads finding the right publication that serves your niche market takes a little bit of time and research but isn't anything you can't do. Most towns have their own paper that circulates free of charge to homes and businesses. If you are small and just starting out, targeting a specific town may be the way to go when you are trying to reach a mass market in a specific geography. Breaking it down further into niche reader groups, you get into more specialized publications and magazines that serve that specific group, ex. Thrive :), ok I am biased but the fact is an established brand in magazine specifically, sometimes with newspapers, gives your brand the same clout the magazine has. It immediately puts your name in front of readers that identify with and follow a magazine brand. Plus there is data from Simmons’Multi-Media Engagement Study in 2009 that find magazines continue to score significantly higher than TV or the Internet in ad receptivity. When your product or service lines up with the content of the publication, there is almost always a win-win relationship because,

1) You have well written content.

2) You have an engaged audience.

3) You have an ad that compliments the content.

4) You have readers that respond.

Next week we will continue exploring mediums to communicate your message.