I'm a 29 year old Account Executive currently employed at a nationwide advertising company. Six years (and counting) of outside sales experience in Bergen County, NJ. It's grueling. It's not pleasant. Quite frankly, it's torture. My job is to knock on local business owners' doors and ask for an appointment so that I can prevent them from driving their business into the ground. Ultimately my job is to help local businesses grow and prosper so that they won't go under, like many others have, especially in the past year or two.
Let's face it, many business owners are great at what they do, but horrible at marketing their business into a local success. Time and time again have I walked into a florist and he/she shushed me out the door one year, only for me to return the following year and the store is either out of business or replaced by yet another nail salon.
Understanding the two types of advertising is essential to a local business owner and if combined correctly, extremely rewarding. What are the two types? Creative & Directive!
How many times has this scenario happened to you?
You and your wife have had a busy workday and return home to find out that nobody's in the mood to cook dinner. So what do you do? The both of you decide on ordering out. So now what? The eternal quest begins to find the menu to that local pizzeria. You scream back and forth at each other for misplacing that local flier that is supposed to be in one of the kitchen drawers and magically disseminated. Right? How in god's name are you going to find that phone number now? Guess what?
Let's face it, many business owners are great at what they do, but horrible at marketing their business into a local success. Time and time again have I walked into a florist and he/she shushed me out the door one year, only for me to return the following year and the store is either out of business or replaced by yet another nail salon.
Understanding the two types of advertising is essential to a local business owner and if combined correctly, extremely rewarding. What are the two types? Creative & Directive!
- Creative Advertising consists of TV & Radio commercials, Highway/Roadside Billboards, Newspapers, Direct Mailers/Coupons, just to name a few. The purpose of it is to let the local consumer know: "Hey! I have a business in your area, come check me out!" Is creative advertising alone successful? The answer is "yes", but it's also very costly. This method is useful to brand you business and to create awareness in your area.
- Directive Advertising is the type that when a potential customer has a need this is where they will be looking to fulfill it. Print yellow pages, Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), and Search Engines such as Google.com & Yahoo.com. I'm also going to include smart phones in this category because they have access to search engines and IYP's.
How many times has this scenario happened to you?
You and your wife have had a busy workday and return home to find out that nobody's in the mood to cook dinner. So what do you do? The both of you decide on ordering out. So now what? The eternal quest begins to find the menu to that local pizzeria. You scream back and forth at each other for misplacing that local flier that is supposed to be in one of the kitchen drawers and magically disseminated. Right? How in god's name are you going to find that phone number now? Guess what?
- You're going to pick up that phone book you have and search under the pizza heading for your favorite pizza parlor.
- You threw away your phone book and instead search online at yellowbook.com or (if you remember the name of the place) use Google or Yahoo to get the number.
