Developing an Advertising Plan

How a company advertises for a grand opening is completely different from day-to-day awareness campaigns. An advertising plan is similar to a business plan in that it should be structured to accommodate:

• Various stages of growth.
• Sales goals.
• Obvious heavy sales cycles.
• Product/service promotion.
• General awareness.

A well-formed advertising plan considers all these objectives, and outlines them by month, year or sales cycle.

Plan It, Then Work It

It is important to draft a plan that will conservatively meet your goals. Be sure not to overly forecast your projections or failure could be a possiblity. Your goals must be obtainable and achieveable in every aspect of the advertising plan or unsatis-factory results may prevail.

A completed plan should be followed and maintained on a daily basis. Your advertising plan is your daily guide of achieving financial growth and high profits year after year.

Measure the Results

Advertising without measurement is like throwing confetti into a tornado. But measurement vehicles differ as widely as the objectives and goals for a business, so when developing an advertising plan, have a direct form of measurement that correlates to the purpose for advertising.

Measurement may be simple, such as how many new customers responded to a coupon, or more complex, like did a competitor’s market share drop significantly once your product was introduced. No matter the size or type of your business, measuring the results of your advertising helps you establish goals for successful growth.