Advertising hasn’t changed so much as it has evolved.
The advertising industry has been in existence far longer than anyone reading this could possibly imagine. According to Mashable. com, the earliest records of advertising date back to 2000 BC, when Egyptians would carve public notices into steel structures for many to see. Fast forward about 4000 years and advertisements come to us through our phones, computers and other mediums.
It wasn’t terribly long ago either when flyers stuck to light poles was the norm for advertising a party, a missing animal or property for sale. As testament to the growth of the industry, ads of this nature are more common on Instagram, a strictly photo/ video platform. On a much larger scale, we’d see billboards with a variety of business types all grabbing commuters’ attention. Even those have evolved from the static billboard to dynamic digital ones with multiple ads, all rotating throughout the day.
Regardless of what the time period is, small and large businesses alike engage in some form of advertising, often times, more than one at a time.
So you have a killer product or a life-changing service to offer to thousands of potential customers. The problem is, you’re not sure where to get started with putting the word out there.
Without a doubt, one of the avenues that’s quickly becoming crowded with every business is social media. We’ve done a ton of articles on social media in previous issues of Dazzle Magazine, but in summary it’s an inexpensive way to reach a specific audience, both near and far if used well. It’s important to keep in mind that each platform requires a different style of management to be effectively used. Example; Facebook would require different phrasings and could make use of a bigger word count than Twitter.
Compared to other forms of advertising, social media is fairly new. More traditional forms, including TV and radio, are still more than relevant in the scheme of things today. Countless people sit on public transports and are often drawn to what’s playing on the radio. Furthermore, with the growing number of TV sets in households, you (the business owner) already have a huge potential audience. However, you can already expect several other businesses to grab that opportunity, which means that your ad need to be even more captivating for the audience that you’re targeting.
Evidently, the audience is a huge factor in where and how you advertise your business. With print, it’s easy to reach a very specific audience through a brief newspaper or magazine ad. Although not as dynamic as an electronic billboard, they do possess a lasting quality; people can carry print media home and share the ads with others.
With that being said, before you start planning your next advertising campaign, keep in mind who your audience is, their travel habits, age, income and so on, and what medium of advertising is best suited to grab their attention and keep them.
