Advertising
Building an online advertising plan
Advertising online without a plan is like switching on the satnav without knowing where you are going: you move, but you do not arrive. It starts with three questions, not with tools.
An online advertising plan starts with three questions, not with tools: what you want to achieve, who you want to reach, what you can spend. Everything else grows from there. Then it goes in five steps: objective, competitors, investment, message, measurement.
Before the tools come three simple, awkward questions: do you know who you are, what you do, and why you do it? They only look trivial. Almost nobody can answer in one sentence, and that is precisely the point: until you know it yourself, you will never say it clearly to a customer. If the answer does not come immediately, that is not a problem: it is the first job. Everything grows from there. Then you start, in five steps.
Before the tools come three questions: what you want to achieve, who you want to reach, what you can spend.
1. Define the objective
«I want to double my customers», «I want to sell abroad», «I want to be known locally». Those are different objectives, and each calls for different tools: selling in one specific area is not the same work as opening a new market overseas. That is the whole of the rule: the objective picks the tools, not the other way round. What matters is being realistic — not about the size of the goal, but about the time and resources to reach it. Then break it into stages: it becomes your compass when things get complicated, and it tells you whether you are on track while there is still time to correct.
2. Look at the competition
Study who is in your field, or in neighbouring ones if what you have is new. Which channels do they use? What is their site like, how do they behave on social, what do they say? Not to copy them, but to work out what works and, above all, what to avoid. Half an hour of proper observation is worth a thousand meetings.
3. Decide how much to invest, and where
Communication costs money, and the return is proportionate. Online campaigns have one enormous advantage: they are cheap, measurable and adjustable while they are running. Offline — leaflets, billboards, print — is harder to measure, but you do not rule it out on principle: it depends on your audience. There is one rule: every euro has to trace back to the objective from step 1.
4. Build the message
To reach people, do not talk about your product: talk about the problem you solve. It is a shift of perspective that moves the attention from you to the person listening, and it is the reason they then listen. And do not fall in love with the first idea: talk it over with colleagues, customers, people outside the circle. The best message is almost never the one that came first.
5. Measure and correct
Money spent on communication is not an expense, it is an investment: and an investment is judged on what it returns against what it cost. That is the difference between putting money into a channel and following it to see where it went. Compare the results against the objective, halfway through and at the end, and adjust. What worked? What did not? What can you move to where it returns more? A campaign is not carved in stone: the beauty of online advertising is precisely that you can correct it while it runs. Without measurement, though, you are just spending with your eyes shut.
The missing ingredient
With any successful business you always know the ingredients, never the exact recipe. Here you have the five ingredients; the quantities you find as you go. And the most important one is missing: time. Too much and you lose momentum; too little and you leave the results to luck rather than to work. If you would rather not measure them out alone, lead generation is what we do.
- The objective picks the tools, not the other way round: start there.
- Do not talk about your product, talk about the problem you solve.
- Without measurement you are spending with your eyes shut: every euro has to trace back to the objective.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I start?
With the objective, not the channel. Do you want sales, enquiries, visits? Settle that and the rest follows. Starting from the tools — «let's do social» — is the fastest route to throwing money away.
How much should I invest?
Enough to measure. Too little tells you nothing, too much too soon burns without teaching you anything. Start with a figure you can sustain, read the results and move the money to where it returns.
How do I know if it is working?
Look at enquiries and sales, not likes. A campaign posting handsome numbers but bringing no customers is working for vanity, not for you. Measure what actually counts.