Advertising is the activity of producing
advertisements for commercial products or services. Marketing is the
action of promoting and selling products or services, including
market research and advertising.
Advertising
Why you should advertise your organization
Your market is constantly changing
We all rely, in part, on repeat business and
referrals. Old customers both external and internal, are the key to
both. When old customers don’t hear about you, or directly from you,
they tend to move on. Cutting your advertising is a negative signal
to those who actively patronize you.
Advertising maintains morale
You will always have overhead; bills,
telephone, rent/equipment, your time. Advertising creates the AIR
overhead breathes! Advertising is the portion of your organization's
business responsibilities that rejuvenates and draws new life
(revenue) into the process.
You have invested money that you stand to lose. If you stop advertising, everything you’ve invested becomes lost, as the consumer’s awareness you’ve purchased slowly dwindles away. Sure you can buy it again, but you’ll have to start from scratch
Marketing
Marketing takes time, money, and lots of
preparation. One of the best ways to prepare your organization is to
develop a solid marketing plan. A strong marketing plan will ensure
you’re not only sticking to your schedule, but that you’re funding
your marketing wisely and appropriately.
What can a Marketing Plan do for an
organization?
A marketing plan includes everything from
understanding your target market and your competitive position in
that market, to how you intend to reach that market (your tactics)
and differentiate yourself from your competition in order to make a
sale.
Your organization’s marketing budget should be
a component of your marketing plan. Essentially, it will outline the
costs of how you are going to achieve your marketing goals within a
certain timeframe.
Once you have developed your marketing budget,
it doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone. There may be times when you
need to throw in another unplanned marketing tactic -- such as
hosting an event or creating a newspaper ad -- to help you reach
your market more effectively.
Ultimately, it’s more important to determine
whether sticking to your budget is helping you achieve your
marketing goals and bringing you a return on investment (ROI) than
to adhere to a rigid and fixed budget.
That's why it's important to include a plan for
measuring your spend. Consider what impact certain marketing
activities have had on your revenues during a fixed period, such as
a business quarter, compared to another time period when you focused
your efforts on other tactics. Consider the tactics that worked as
well as those that didn’t work. You don't have to cut the tactics
that didn't work, but you should assess whether you need to give
them more time to work or whether the funds are best redirected
elsewhere.
Granted, some tactics are hard to measure --
such as the efficacy of print collateral (brochures, sales sheets,
etc.), but you need to consider the impact of not having these
branding staples in your market tool kit before you reign in your
graphic design and print funds.
Marketing plans should be maintained on an
annual basis, at a minimum. But if you launch a new product or
service, take time to revisit your original plan or develop a
separate campaign plan that you can add to your main plan as an
addendum.
At the end of the day, the time spent developing your marketing plan, is time well spent because it defines how you connect with your customers. And that's an investment worth making.
Some of our successful Advertising and Marketing campaigns:
Link to other services and solutions
Besides seeing problems from a different perspective than internal staff, BST provides a fresh viewpoint without being concerned about what your workers might think about.
Having special skills and knowledge, BST passes on that knowledge on to your organization. It is very important to stay abreast of advances and developments in technology.
Let's face it, no one wants to be the person who has to make the tough decisions in. BST is impartial to handling the unpleasant and tough tasks in any work environment.