Using media you can afford

I get into the meaty parts of media negotiation, planning, and buying in Buying the Different Media. But for now, I help you consider a few of your options as you formulate your budget strategy. This section may give you some pleasant surprises, or at least dispel some of your beliefs about media affordability.

Online

One way to advertise your business is, of course, on the Internet. You can build your own Web site, or you can hire someone to do it for you — and the Internet itself provides guidelines. Just type “creating a Web site” into a search engine and you can find loads of resources to either walk you through the process or to find people who can create a Web site for you.

Most companies — even small businesses — have found this format is an inexpensive way to make their presence known to potential customers. A well-designed Web site increases your credibility, makes it easier for potential customers to discover the products and services you offer, and allows you to sell directly on the Internet.

You can also advertise your business on other companies’ Web sites in a variety of ways that match your needs and budget — for example:

• Banner ads: The rectangular ads that appear on a Web page inviting viewers to click on the banner, which then takes them to your Web site.
• E-mail lists and newsletters: Send a quick e-mail to customers who have expressed interest in receiving information from your business. Be careful not to send an e-mail to just anyone: You don’t want your business to be viewed as spam or junk e-mail!
• Links to your Web site: When consumers are searching the Web for information on a particular topic, they find links to other Web sites promoting products or services related to that topic — such as books, magazines, and other publications, as well as associations and organizations of users of that product, service, and so on. These links are called sponsored links.
• Interstitial ads: This fancy name is for something you now see all the time on the Web — the pages or pop-up boxes that appear mysteriously after you click on a link but before you get to the place you clicked to get to. An interstitial page may open and close automatically, and they can be highly effective if done well. If these ads are interesting, consumers may allow them to remain on screen for far longer than the usual banner ad, so the CPM (cost per thousand) should be quite high.
• Pop-up ads have a drawback. As you probably know from your own experiences surfing the Web, pop-up ads can also be quite annoying, so if yours isn’t interesting or relevant to what the consumer was originally looking for, many consumers will shut it down immediately.
• Rich-media ads: These ads include drop-down boxes, moving images, sound, or music that starts when consumers move their mouses over the ads, small games, and other forms of multimedia advertising. In general, both customers and the Web sites that offer rich-media ads like them because consumers don’t have to actually leave the site to interact with the banner, and clickthrough (which is when a consumer actually clicks on an ad to visit the Web site being advertised, instead of just viewing the ad but not going further) can be quite high.
• Keyword advertising: This Internet form is where you pay a search engine, directory, or some other Web site to have your ad or the link to your site pop up first when someone does a search on the keywords you buy. For example, if a consumer is searching for information on knitting, she may type “knitting” into an Internet search engine. Because your business is designer knitwear or knitting instruction (and you’ve paid that search engine for keyword advertising), your ad is among the first to appear to the customer.
• Word-of-mouth advertising: The Internet is also the perfect place to take advantage of this form of online advertising via message boards, online clubs, blogs, chat rooms, and the list goes on — and most of it is free.

These types of online advertising are just a few you should consider for your business. Spend some time surfing the Web to see what type of ads are being run by other companies that offer the same type of product or service as your business, and decide what works best for you (and your budget — don’t forget the budget!). Don’t be hesitant to think outside the box to see what other businesses that don’t compete with yours are doing, because you may also want to borrow some of their approaches to Internet advertising! Flip to Online Advertising and Investing in Internet Advertising for more information on advertising on the Internet.

Newspaper

In the area of print, you don’t need to buy large ads in order to be noticed. Take a look at your daily paper and you can see that, in most cases, the smaller ads are placed at the top of each page — they sit atop the large space ads. The newspaper’s layout department just does it this way, for some reason. Now, while I can’t deny that the eye may be first drawn to the largest ads on a page, it stands to reason that if your message is clear enough, presented in a clever way, and positioned near the top of the page with a good headline and an eye-catching graphic element, you can get as good a response as the guy whose big, fat ad is sitting beneath yours and contains none of the above. See Using Print Ads and Buying Ad Space in Print Media for more information on advertising in print.

Radio

Advertising your business on the radio varies widely in price, depending on the time of day you want. For example, WXTU 92.5 country music in Philadelphia charges $425 for a mid-day ad but only $75 to $100 for an evening ad. So think carefully about when your target audience is most likely listening and what works best for your budget. Want to find out more? Check out Radio.

One of the top-rated news- and talk-radio stations in the Bay Area sells primetime ads (during the morning and evening commute) for prices in the $1,000- to $1,500-per-spot range, but its late night (midnight to 6:00 a.m.) ads can be had for as low as $100 a spot. I actually know of one local business that buys the late-night time slot on this station and pays for the commercials with $100 bills. The beleaguered station sales rep has to schlep over to his office to collect the money this guy pays in advance for whatever number of spots he can afford on any given week. This strategy may sound a bit hokey, but advertising on this station during the late-night time slots really works for this guy. He has a presence on a major station, which gives his business an aura of prestige, and he gets it on a surprisingly low budget. So, what is the moral of this little story? On radio, you don’t need major ad bucks in order to sound like you do. 

Another affordable way to buy radio is by taking advantage of the package deal, which includes a certain number of prime spots, a few mid-days, a few overnights, and a few rotators (spots that the station may run anywhere it likes). Radio stations usually tell you that they’ll sell these packages to you for only “$50 a spot!” or whatever the amount — referred to as an average spot cost. And that’s true if you look at the average cost of the ads when grouped together. But because you reach a lot more people during the morning commute than you can hope to reach at 3:00 a.m., an average spot cost isn’t the best way to analyze the cost effectiveness of package deals. You’re better off asking the station rep how many gross impressions the spots in the package will generate — that number tells you how many people will actually hear the ads, which in turn helps you decide whether the package is all that it’s cracked up to be.

Cable TV

Cable television is an affordable media, but if you use it, you need to be diligent about a few details. Here are some questions you need to ask before you buy:

• On which of the cable channels will my spots run?
• At what times will the spots run on those channels?
• In which zones will my spots run?

Sound confusing? I can tell you how confusing it really is: Cable TV has been known to reduce a professional media buyer to tears. And a seasoned ad agency’s accounts payable manager once said that he’d rather schedule a root canal than try to decipher a cable station’s invoice. Here’s why: Every cable company is selling ads on a hundred or more different channels; each channel is programmed to reach a separate and unique market segment and is broadcast into various zones within the overall coverage area. So, although eminently affordable, particularly at a paltry two bucks a spot in some cases, make sure you know precisely what you’re buying. Demystifying TV Commercials and Getting Your Ads on Television explore cable TV in more detail.

Broadcast TV

TV advertising prices vary widely depending on the time of day. For example, at the time of this writing, Channel 6 (ABC/WPVI) in Philadelphia charges the following prices at different times of day:

• $1,000 for a 30-second commercial that runs during its weekday local news at 5 a.m.
• $1,400 for a 30-second commercial that runs during weekday local news at 12 noon
• $3,300 for a 30-second commercial that runs during weekday local news at 5 p.m.
• $5,000 for a 30-second commercial that runs during weekday local news at 6 p.m.

Of course, these prices vary from week to week and season to season. The total range of prices is anywhere from $500 to $50,000 — the high end being the price for a 30-second commercial during, say, the finale of a popular TV drama or national sporting event.

But broadcast television can be affordable in certain time slots. One chain of auto-repair shops for which I have done work buys one or two 30-second commercials daily on the early morning news show (6:00 a.m.) and the early fringe news program (5:00 p.m.) on the local ABC-TV station. Because he’s on these local news shows every day, and because these shows are very reasonably priced, he has a substantial television presence (at least with the people who watch those shows) for less than $5,000 a month. 

Late night, early morning, and even midday time slots may offer just the kind of programming that your target market views. And these time slots are priced within the budgets of most local advertisers (so that’s why you see all those car dealer ads at those times).

National magazines

Yes, unbelievably, you can afford to buy ads in big-time magazines like Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and the like by buying advertising in what’s called their regional editions. You can place your ad in one of these publications, or a predetermined group of publications that is sold as a package, for relatively small amounts because all the big magazines break down their circulation (and actual printing) into zones or regions. For instance, you can buy an ad for the circulation of the entire Bay Area, or break it down to just your city. Some magazines will also sell you a cover wrap, sort of like a book’s dust jacket, which can be a fairly prestigious way to get the word out there! 

Although magazine advertising is a rather dramatic vehicle for a local business to use, it doesn’t cost nearly as much as you think. When you can buy a big-time publication that allows you to pay only for the area from which you can reasonably expect to attract business, you can afford to at least look like a major player. So, if you want to impress the neighbors and keep up with the Joneses, pop a full-page ad into Time magazine. That ought to get their attention! For more on national magazine ads, turn to Using Print Ads.

Bottom line: Go bargain hunting

You want an advertising presence in media that gives you your best chance of attracting large numbers of customers. The various media options listed in this part are only a few of the many ways you can save money and still buy media that does you the most good. In Buying the Different Media, I provide even more information on the various forms of media and how to buy them. 

Concentrate your available dollars in good, solid media — even though you may not be able to afford to buy prime-time TV commercials or fullpage magazine ads. Don’t toss away your money on cockamamie “deals” offered to you by off-the-wall media that no one will pay attention to. In other words, don’t buy a rotten egg when you can afford a lovely omelet.

Go bargain hunting. Your local media, even some of the national media, have some great deals.

Getting the most out of your creative and production

Creative and production are areas that, with just a bit of good writing and skillful execution, are perfect places to save money without sacrificing effectiveness. Your ads can look and sound like champagne, even though your budget can only afford beer. You don’t need to spend a small fortune producing a television commercial to sell something that could easily be explained in a well-written and cleverly produced radio spot. Nor do you need to buy a full-page, four-color newspaper ad when a small-space, black-and-white ad with a killer headline and graphic will likely attract as much or more attention. And you needn’t waste money on a so-called celebrity spokesperson to pitch your business on radio if you can hire an actor who simply has a great voice.
You can save money on advertising production if you begin with a clever concept and good writing that take cost-effective production into consideration from the very beginning. In other words, don’t write a TV spot that must be filmed beneath the Eiffel Tower if you can’t afford to send a film crew to France. Putting together a radio spot by using French music, European traffic sound effects, and an actor with a believable French accent may be a bit more cost-effective. If you do it right, the listener will add the mental image of the Eiffel Tower for you, free of charge.
Okay, so you’re not planning to do a full-blown commercial shoot in Paris, but you may be tempted to write and produce a TV spot because you feel your product is so darned visual that the consumer simply must see it to appreciate it. Here are two truths to ponder before you bite off more than you can chew:

• Television production costs more than radio production.
• Radio can conjure visual images in the mind of the listener if you use it correctly.

Armed with this information, why not write a radio commercial that’s filled with visual imagery and costs only a pittance to produce as compared to a TV spot? These mental images (the theater of the mind, as I call it) can be more effective than showing the actual product. For example, a chain of furniture stores my agency handles hasn’t done television in years because we proved to them that radio can effectively paint mental pictures of the various furniture pieces they’re selling. With the same amount of dollars they were spending on one or two broadcast or cable TV stations, they’re now buying time on a half-dozen radio stations — and their business has never been better.
Begin by planning a creative concept that can, at the same time, be produced inexpensively and is clever enough to be heard above the roar. Easier said than done, you say? Perhaps. But it’s not impossible, and it can be quite a bit of fun. Besides, why would you want to do boring advertising? Consumers don’t want to see or hear any more boring advertising — they’re already saturated with it. They’d much rather see or hear clever, funny, memorable ads that, more often than not, will jolt them into responding. This type of advertising is what you should be shooting for.
Want a voice for your radio spot or TV commercial? Call your ad agency, or look in the Yellow Pages under “Talent Agencies & Casting Directors.”

Maximizing Your Budget

You need to spend enough money on advertising to make an impact in the marketplace. You need to make some noise — be heard above the din of other advertising messages. But you don’t want to spend more on advertising than you can comfortably afford. Making the most of the money you have can be a difficult tightrope act.

One of my clients, whose advertising budget remains steady from month to month regardless of ups and downs in sales, preaches consistency as the number one rule in his advertising plans. His philosophy is simple: In order to compete, you must be heard. You want consumers to think of your business when they’re in the market for the products you sell, so you should at least have some advertising presence at all times. His thinking is, over the year, it all averages out.

On the other hand, not everyone can afford to have an advertising presence year-round. You may not even need to be out there every day. By virtue of your unique product or service, you may be able to do a fine job by only advertising special events or sales on an as-needed basis. This kind of advertising requires a bit more planning and creative-media buying in order to get the job done, but it’s a workable option for many businesses.

Finally, many businesses simply don’t have enough money to do much more than advertise when they absolutely have to, such as at Christmas or back-toschool times.

No matter what group you fall into, keep in mind that you can save big bucks in many different ways, several of which I outline for you in the following Maximizing Your Budget.