In broad terms, advertising is buying space in promoted media, or someone else’s space. But what if you wrap your vehicle? Or put up signs where you’re working? Is that advertising?
You could think of advertising as “any display promoting a business.” Again, very broad terms. A book or DVD in a case can be used to promote your business – actually, they’re highly effective if given to members of your target market. Are they the same as an ad in a newspaper or magazine? Not really. I’d say those hand delivered items can be much more effective.
Is an advertisement something you put in public, available to a wide audience? Possibly. Is an advertisement space you rent to put up a message about yourself? Yes. Does it matter what you call these promotional tools? In my opinion – no.
What matters is your ability to control the medium, and the message. If you advertise your own business on your own vehicle, you can wash it when it gets dirty. If the image or message gets damaged, you can repair it immediately. If you put up a sign on your customer’s lawn, they could take it down. If you put it on your lawn, chances are it will stay up unless you remove it.
Any time you turn control of your time, effort or cash over to someone else, you’re essentially gambling. Even if they’re not intentionally evil, anything could go wrong. My feeling is, I’d rather things go wrong for me without paying a middle man for the privilege.
But I’m going off the tracks.
This is a long winded way of discussing advertising. I advise my clients that the last thing they should do is advertise.
Read that again. I am not telling clients, “Don’t advertise.” What I’m telling them is: there are a million things you can do that you control yourself. Make sure you do a number of those low-cost and no-cost things, as well as setting up a system to handle prospects, before you give money to someone else and promote your name in or on their media.
With advertising, you often turn over control to the publisher of the media. Many mediums offer advertisement design and production services. They decide when and where your ad will appear to the public. Very often, you have no idea who has been exposed to your ad. I think it is essential to spend your time, energy and money on putting together messages that you control, and which will help you to directly build and grow your prospect list.