MESSAGE BEFORE MEDIA

Here is what happens when most people start their small businesses.

Let’s say they open a dry cleaning outfit. The next thing they do is to look for how to advertise which to an extent is a reasonable thing to do. Different people will come with different
advices. Advert agencies will knock on your door.
They will give you different advices and make you different offers.
- Why don’t you print fliers?
- Why don’t you hire sales people to go around marketing for you?
- You should run jingles on radio
- Let us run Facebook ads for you
And the list goes on…
To the uninitiated, the above sounds like decent points. Usually, I get asked by business owners which of the many advertising models should they adopt? My answer is always the same. My answer is…

None of the Above!

At least not for now.
Let me explain. You see, I believe a business owner should consider these options only after he has answered a very important question. Before I tell you what the question is, let me explain further. All those suggestions and advices are only telling you about the medium of advertising you can use. There are different kinds of media. Newspaper, Radio, Television, Internet and so on.
Before you choose media, you must ask yourself what message are you trying to pass across? It is only after you have determined the message you want to put out, that is when you now decide on the best form of media that will help convey your message.
Hark unto me.
When “lesser mortals” start their small businesses, they are immediately seduced by the most exciting media. They instantly decide they want to do a radio ad or an Internet ad or any kind of ad. They then start thinking of what to say in their advert. No no no no no. What you should do is come up with a message first, then you decide on the media.
If you open a small eatery and you want to announce that you offer low prices, you should think of how to reach out to those in your neighbourhood. You can share your sales material from door to door. If you have a community newspaper, you can place adverts in it. You can expand from there. No need for facebook ads.
If you launch a sports betting website and you offer some games like no other, you should make some noise about it on Facebook as we have a lot of youths there. No need for door to door marketing. And so on.
What you are selling and what you want to say about it should come first and not the media. When next someone comes with media, remember this lesson.