Why Advertise?

A lot of businesses advertise, but I often wonder if some of them know why they are doing it. Take the time to look around this week, as you do your grocery shopping, run the kids to hockey practice, and whatever else you do. Who is advertising in your area, and how? If you really pay attention, youll see some advertising done so badly it may as well not even be there at all. If you had to look to find it, or force yourself to read it, its probably ineffective.

Here are the top 3 reasons to advertise
Awareness
Differentiation
Image

Awareness is probably the most important reason to advertise. If people dont know who you are, what you do, or what your services are, then you arent going to have very many customers. You have to let people know that you are out there.

Differentiation. What makes you different from the guy down the street providing similar services or selling the same product? You have to work at motivating people to come to you, do business with you, rather than the competition. Show people the difference between your product/service and what the competition has on offer; give them a reason to come to you and to return later on.

The final reason is image. People want to do business with companies that they know and trust. Image is how others see your company, its products and/or services. Without a positive image, the previous two reasons to advertise dont matter all that much.

Keep these reasons in mind when creating copy for your business and get the most for your advertising dollar. Better yet, hire a professional. They can get you noticed, and get you the results you want.

Loralea Prentis is a copywriter currently living in Ottawa, Canada with her husband and two children. She is educated in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations and in the health care field. For more information, please visit her website at http://www.thewritingshop.ca