Why Is Advertising Important?

Advertising is an important component of any successful business, regardless of its size or industry.

An effective advertising campaign can do more than just increase sales; it can also draw attention to your business, create a positive brand image and establish customer loyalty.

Is Advertising Important?

Yes. In today’s hyper competitive market, advertising is essential for businesses to remain competitive and be seen by potential customers. Whilst many companies do it instinctively, few seem to ask the question 'WHY is advertising important?'

If you're a small business, then advertising, particularly in these turbulent financial times, might be something you are starting to think about scaling back on, but that's often a false economy.

Advertising done well can actually bring you numerous additional benefits besides the obvious. Let's take a look at 5 of them in more detail.

1. Gain New Customers

There has never been a better, or more important time to attract new customers to your business. Businesses large and small are battling over every penny consumers are going to spend, so finding ways to bring new customers into your business is key for growth.

Advertising is a critical factor for growth as it helps you reach those all-important new customers within your target audience.

This approach tends to work better with digital, rather than traditional print media as being able to accurately appeal to particular groups provides a much better return on investment (ROI).

Whether you're utilising social media ads, search engines via pay-per-click (PPC) or directories like Thomson Local, Yell or Yelp, being able to reach people that perfectly match your target demographics is a huge advantage in attracting new customers.

The other benefit of digital ads is that you don't pay for impressions, only when people actually click on the ad itself so you know the money you do spend is being used effectively.

Understanding your target market means that the money you do spend on advertising to attract customers to your business isn't wasted.

Putting an advert in a newspaper or magazine can be misspent as you're advertising to everyone, including those who may not be interested in what you do reducing your overall ROI.

2. Stay Ahead

In this incredibly competitive marketplace, no matter the industry you work in, you will have competition trying to beat you to every sale, every contract and every order.

No matter what you do, where you do it or what size of business you are, you will be vying with your competitors for every one of your collective customers.

It's this fundamental truth that demonstrates why the worldwide advertising industry is worth $600+ Billion annually.

Staying ahead of the competition is tough, but here at P45 Consultancy, we like a challenge which is why we understand the strength of advertising. If you're not putting your product or services in front of those consumers, then chances are your competition will be.

If you're avoiding standing in the spotlight and shouting about how great you are because of a reluctance to advertise, then you'll spend time in the shadows and disappear from the consciousness of those consumers looking to buy from you. You'll become irrelevant and that's going to hurt you.

Building a brand, selling a product or delivering a service is all about continuous exposure, something advertising can really help with.

They will help you reach people organically through word-of-mouth, as well as through paid ads.

Make sure your business is advertising in all the places you can. These include sites like Yelp, Yell, LinkedIn, ThomsonLocal, MyLocalServices, InYourArea and NextDoor; the list goes on!

If you're not advertising on these sites (most of which offer a free listing), then your competition will be, so you need to stay ahead before you fall too far behind. They'll also help with your SEO efforts.

3. Educate and Inform

The internet has changed the way we live, the way we work, how we find love, what we can buy and how we learn. You can use the latter to educate consumers about your business, the products you sell and the services you offer. In other words, use it as a way to help them through advertising, rather than sell to them.

Whilst most advertising is aimed a selling something, it can also educate and inform customers to help them understand who you are and what your brand stands for.

A vital component if you're looking to build brand awareness and showcase a deeper understanding of your company and its ethos.

The more your target market understands you as a brand, the more trusting they'll feel and the stronger the connection that will exist between you.

You may have heard the term 'people buy from people' but it's an often shorted from a quote by author Bob Burg which, in full, is:

"People buy from people that they know, like, and trust”"

In other words, building a strong connection between brands and people generates trust which ultimately gets you closer to making a sale.

Advertising in this context can also help you educate consumers about a range of topics that are relevant to your industry.

There is a multitude of 'special' event days, weeks and months throughout the year, some serious and some more light-hearted, but you can use these to run ads on social media that help you communicate why you do what you do.

Not only does this increase your visibility, but it also helps to solidify you as a leader in your respective field as people begin to know you, respect your knowledge and want to do business with you.

4. Retain Customers

Now you've managed to attract some new customers, that's only half the battle. Getting them is one thing, but keeping them is quite another, but thankfully great advertising can do that too.

Retaining customers is the foundation of business growth. Loyal customers that are fully engaged with your brand are more likely to return to you and more likely to spend more money with you.

Any effective advertising campaign should always attract new customers, but its real power is when it drives repeat business by keeping your existing customers engaged with you.

As customers return and buy from you repeatedly, you'll begin to learn more and more about them. You'll understand their buying patterns, their purchasing power and how (and where) they engage with you.

With this data, you can use it to drive new advertising campaigns, targeting new consumers, but also retargeting existing customers.

Offer them different deals to reward their loyalty or early access to new products. If they feel engaged with you, they'll reward you with their loyalty, rather than buying from your competitors.

This isn't just good salesmanship, it means you'll need to invest less in marketing to make a sale.

Engaged customers are, on average, 23% more likely to spend with you than those that aren't, so it's easier and cheaper to build relationships with them, rather than advertising to those who may never buy from you in thre first place.

5. Make Sales!

It probably won't come as too much of a shock to you, but one of the key reasons why any business advertises is to make sales!

As we've touched upon, we're currently living and working through a tough economic climate. Small businesses particularly need every penny just to survive, let alone thrive, but that's something advertising can give you.

In 2021/22 in the UK, for every £1 spent on advertising, it resulted in a return of £6 on average.

Ad campaigns, whether online or offline, can directly help you to drive sales by bringing more people to your shop, online store or specific products on your website, but it's not just the sale of one item you need to think about.

You can increase the value of your advertising spend by utilising cross-promotion, recommending other products that are connected to it and upselling other services.

They may come to you for one thing, but see you offer so much moer. As customers are become aware of your full range of products and services and, more importantly, how they will benefit from buying it, the greater the chance you'll have that they buy, not only that one 'thing', but more supplementary goods and / or services.

Conclusion

Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory. - Proverbs 11:14

Advertising works to amplify your wider marketing efforts to help you reach the right audience that is designed to convert potential customers into paying customers.

As much as advertising helps you drive sales, it also helps you drive growth. Whilst that might be hard to achieve in a stable economy, it's even more challenging at the moment.

Challenging, for sure, but remember, at P45 we LOVE a challenge, so if you're ready to make a difference and believe in success, then so are we! Let's do it together.

---

Which methods of advertising have worked best for you? Have you reduced or even increased your advertising budget in the current climate? What worked for you? Let us know in the comments below.

We hope that we've helped highlight why advertising is important to your business, or any business for that matter.

For those of you who have found something of value in this post, please consider buying me a virtual coffee to support us as we grow. We'll be posting blogs every week so anything would be appreciated. Simply click the button below. I won't affogato it.

If you need any help with your advertising campaigns, whether it's direct mail marketing, copywriting or even video production, we can help. Get in touch with us using the form below and let's have a conversation. #BelieveInSuccess