Visibility on Shoestring Budget

In my first post on this series, How to Get Your Business Found by Your Target Audience, I emphasized that you need to get your skills, products and business known among those you target to sell to. I also made it clear that failure to make efforts to get your business found is like having water for sale in the desert but hiding in a cave.

For academic knowledge, the act of getting your name out there in the mind of your target audience is what is called brand awareness. Brand Awareness efforts are important because for someone to think of you when they need your service, product or skills, they must know that you exist and can offer such service, product or skill.

Anyway there are people that may mistakenly find you; but being mistakenly found is not a smart business strategy. Believing that God will send people and lead them to where you are hiding doesn’t seem to me as a proper walk with God.

Jesus Christ told His disciples whom He had given light to let their light shine before men that they may see… In the same way, I believe God wants you to show your product or expertise that your target audience may see your skills, product or service, enjoy your good handwork and thank God for what you sold to them.

At the risk of sounding like a Reverend, I believe God expects you to make effort to let the world know your skills, talents and products you can use to make them better.

Unless you a scammer, every real business is solving someone’s problem or satisfying their need and desires. I believe it’s wickedness of some sorts not to make noise about that your business so that those who need what you are offering will be made better by patronizing you.

How will you feel if you didn’t see that signpost, “Food is Ready” that day you were very hungry. What will be of your dresses if you didn’t see that Facebook advert or flyer of a fashion designer in your area who not only make good dresses but doesn’t tell ‘tailors tales’?

I used to be shy of talking about my expertise and business because I don’t want people saying that I am hungry or ‘this one dey hustle’. For all the while I did that, people in my circle went elsewhere to get their websites, blog etc designed and some they got charged exorbitant price. Some that would to publish their books never made the move because they didn’t know that I have the skill design their books with a registered company to professionally publish their books.

Not anymore! You say whatever you wish to say while I focus on serving those I have been equipped to serve. So, if you are like me those days, it’s time to wake up. Make noise about your business the same way you do about politics, entertainment shows and trends on your social media account.

My guess is that when God allows you to have certain skills, knowledge and talents He wants you to do business with it until He comes. Just so, you won’t fall God’s hand, take the step to let your business so shine before your target audience that they may see your skills and expertise and thank God for buying from you.

This is sounding like preaching already. My apologies. Just couldn’t resist the nudging to bring you that necessary clarification.

As I was saying…In that earlier post, I pointed out that using traditional media channels to create brand awareness for your business may be more expensive than your budget can carry especially if you are a startup.

As an example, if you want to use radio to advertise your business, you need to play the advert many times for many people to clearly understand your message before taking action. For those who understand your message they may need a reminder before they finally act. That’s why you hear adverts from multinationals play again and again on your radio and TV.

You think it’s a disturbance to the programme you are enjoying, but they know it’s about the best way to make sure you get their message and take action. That costs lots of money. As at 2019, you pay nothing less than N2,000 to play your advert 60 seconds advert on a standard radio station.  To get real result you may need to burn 20k daily for about three weeks. That’s a lot of money which you may not afford to spend on advert if you are just starting.

Just for clarity, I don’t have any qualms with paying for adverts. In fact, I believe money spent on marketing campaign is actually an investment not an expense. If for instance you spend N5,000 to advertise your handbag business and get 7 customers who buy your N4,500 bag. That’s N31,500 in revenue. Let’s assume your production cost for the bags is N14,000 + N5,000 (your marketing budget).  You would have made N12,500 profit.  If you do that four times in a month, that’s N20,000 investment for N50,000 profit.

So, if your calculation tells you that the cost of printing poster and pasting it around town, producing radio advert and airing them will generate profitable sales, please go for it. However, if you have found that it can’t, drag a chair, sit down and get a cup of something. I want to show you a way out.

The way traditional media works is that it is poorly targeted. Your marketing message is sent to a mixed audience many of whom may not care about your products or services. You, as a single guy, must have heard or seen adverts on radio to buy certain beverages for your child or why you should get the nurse to give you your baby within the first hour of delivery for breastfeeding. It’s best targeted to married women; but you also get it.

How do you even measure the impact of your marketing communication? How many of your target audience saw your advert? How many of your new customers came because of the advert? It costs lots of money to carry out effective marketing research in our clime. So, you can’t say for sure.

So, here is the issue with traditional marketing communication channels. Your message gets to a mixed audience who may not care about what you are selling and you can hardly measure the real impact of your campaign. As a result of these limitations, you need huge budget to expose your message to a very large audience before you can get a reasonable return on your investment.

To get your business found by your target audience with a shoestring budget, you need to be more scientific and strategic. Don’t get it twisted: traditional marketing communication channels still work. Otherwise, you won’t find multinationals still spend millions every year in newspaper, magazine, radio and TV adverts. They make it because they have large budget and have reasonable profit margin.

To the best of my knowledge, the best channel you can use to reach your target audience with minimal expense is what is generally called New Media. That’s the terms used to describe communication channels that involve the use of the internet—Social Media, Blogs, Website, Podcasting, Infographics, eBooks etc.

This works best because unlike other channels, you can target your audience based on their age, gender, location etc and you can measure your conversation to know many people actually reacted to your marketing message.

As an example, if you are selling handbag, you can set up your advert to be seen only by women within age bracket that will need and can afford your handbag and if you can only deliver in Lagos State, you limit the advert within the state instead of playing a Radio/TV advert which get listened to by those that have nothing to do with your bag.

Even if you don’t get direct sales from digital marketing in the case of high end products and services, you can actually generate leads which you follow up with calls and personal selling.

My point?

To get your business found easily and quickly by your target audience at an affordable rate, you should use Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Corporate Website, Corporate Blogging and eBooks.

In the next part of this series, I take them one after the other and explain to you how they work and how you can deploy them in creating awareness for your business and making sales.

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Have a question? Drop it in the comment section or shot it to joseph@frateemedia.com or 08070701380 (WhatsApp). To ensure you don’t miss any of our posts, subscribe to Media Insight Blog HERE