Advertise for Less.

Nathan Hall,

When you begin to advertise your small business you must track and record your results. Without accurate records it is very difficult to determine how well your adverts are performing.  

This is not hard to do; there are several ways of doing it in a simple and straightforward way. 

Two of the most basic methods require a tracking code on your advert, when you give your contact details simply include a code in the address.  

Example 1. Include code in address 

Any Business 

Dept xxx 

Any Street, 

Any Town 

Example 2.  Include code in Telephone no as Extension no 

Any Business, 

Any Town, 

Telephone xxx-xx xxx, ask for extension xx 

Or you can simply ask them where they saw or heard of your product or service. 

Whether you adopt and use any of the above methods or use something of your own design, it is very important that you record the results. 

With records of the cost of your advertising and the value of business that it brings in you will see if it is cost effective or not. 

If your results are mediocre, look at your ads and try to make them more appealing. Include a strong call to action by your contact details. E.g. "Call us now for your free xxx” 

Xxx can be advice, or a price quote, a product sample etc. 

If your adverts return very poor results, for example the advertising cost exceeds the value of the business it generates, then you seriously need to consider pulling your ad, and looking for alternatives. 

Only by trying different types of ad in different places/mediums AND recording the results, will you find the most cost effective way to advertise your business. 

You may discover that most of your business comes from "word of mouth", personal recommendations, and from a loyal group of local customers.

 It is not uncommon for a long established small business with a good reputation to get most of their income in this way. 

In this situation, some small businesses have stopped their advertising and saved themselves hundreds, and have seen no decline in their level of business. 

If this sounds scary to you, experiment with it, do a small trial, for instance you could pull your ads for a week and see what happens. 

As a rough guide, in a normal mainstream small business, if you are spending more than 2-3% of your yearly turnover on advertising and not getting the results you expect , you should be asking yourself why and investigating further. 

If every ad you place proves to be cost effective then you will not be wasting your hard earned money.

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