The Price of Advertising: How to promote your business

A 30- SECOND spot during the Super Bowl LV will costs would-be advertisers US$5,5million. Now that’s a lot of money and while it might sound like disproportionately large sum but you will be surprised to learn that the ad spots for the showcase event are oversubscribed months in advance. So sought after is the attention of consumers (the last Super Bowl is estimated to have had a viewership of 103 million) that the world’s largest organisations will pay a premium to place their content during the event.

“Stopping advertising to save money is the same as stopping your watch to save time”.

So does this mean good advertising is expensive? Not necessarily. You see, paid advertising is a shortcut. Generally speaking, you pay because someone else has worked before hand to gather an audience and you want to ‘rent’ their platform and communicate with the already gathered viewers. The shortcut being necessary because you do not have the time, platform or expertise to round up your own audience.

For most fairly new organisations in Zimbabwe, the premium price of traditional advertising is out of reach. This does not mean however, that they can or should go without promotion at all. In fact, it might be argued that the Zimbabwean context make advertising even more essential as a decreased consumer spending capacity means there is greater competition in the market place. Henry Ford summed it up saying: “Stopping advertising to save money is the same as stopping your watch to save time”.

So how do you advertise economically? Firstly, create happy customers. No one will advertise as passionately or as convincingly as a satisfied customer. Research has shown that referrals are four times more powerful than email marketing and seven times more likely to result in sales than internet leads. So add real value to clients and create walk-ins, talking billboards for your business.

Secondly, become an expert. Submerge yourself in your area of expertise, do research and learn as much as you can about your industry or a niche it encompasses. People are always ready to listen to an expert. So whether you are being invited to give a short talk, onto a radio show or to contribute to an online publication if you can add value as an expert you will likely always have a ready audience.

Third, register with the classifieds. The online market is huge (and probably deserves its own stand-alone article). Websites, while optimum, come at a cost. As do many other online methods of advertising. By registering your business and using smart copy choices by including relevant key search words in your description you can capture traffic from search engines such as google. So when a person googles an item within your scope you should appear amongst the top search results.

Fourth, join the right communities and more importantly aggressively pursue partnerships and collaborations. By associating with likeminded people you open yourself up to more opportunities. Webinars for example, are available in most fields. The vast majority are free. Use these to network and to begin building your brand.

Fifth, use social media. Social media has the potential maybe more than any other channel to put you in direct contact with your target market. It’s worth noting however that most social media platforms are congested and it will take creativity, persistence and patience to crack the social media marketing code.

However, with over four million Zimbabweans active on social media, it’s worth the punt. If you are going to spend even the smallest amount on advertising, this is the place to do it. For every dollar spent on social media you can reach up to one thousand people. In addition, the fact that the advertisements are ultra-targeted means there is a higher chance your content will end up in front of the right eyeballs.

For any business it is important to remember that obscurity is your worst enemy. How will anyone ever trade with you if they do not know who you are or what value you offer? The ideal scenario would have you market through an expert for optimum results but where funds do no permit there is no reason you cannot promote your own business for next to nothing. By Jerry Nyazungu

Nyazungu is the founder and Managing Director of M&J Consultants. A seasoned Accountant and Entrepreneur