One of the most common questions that I receive regularly from business owners is about the methods of advertising and how many should be utilized at once.  While every business is different, there are common threads that can be seen from the larger scale between them all, regardless of industry, location, or size.

There are two primary ways to advertise your business - Passively and Actively.  Both are absolutely necessary if you intend to reach new customers or markets, and strong growth of your business is to occur.  Let me give you the highlights of each:

 •1.      Passive Advertising

The goal of passive advertising is to be visible to potential clients who are actively looking for you, your competition, or anyone in your industry to purchase a product or service.  This ad is positioned to make a case for why potential customers should come to you on an impulse level.  To be successful, this ad must grab the attention of readers who are not only looking at your business, but also looking at the ads of all of your competitors as well.

Examples of this type of advertising include ads in the Yellow Pages, your own website, and in online business directories.

 •2.      Active Advertising

The goal of active advertising is to position your business in “Top of Mind” with your potential clients, knowing that while they may or may not have need of your product or service today, they are still forming opinions and making decisions about who they will do business with in the future.  This type of ad also will generate new business to your business and industry by helping clients understand needs they didn’t even know they had.

Some refer to this “Top of Mind” state as building familiarity with your business and with your products/services.  As human beings are creatures of habit, we are also creatures of familiarity.  With all other things being equal, people will always do business with their friends, or people they feel they know.

Examples of this type of advertising include television, radio, and publications like the Good Morning News.

So Whats Best for my Business?

Passive advertising (like your phone number in the Yellow Pages) is necessary for your business, because even your existing clients still need to know how to contact you if they are looking for you.  However, in order for you to drive more potential business to look for you, you also need to take care to actively gain shelf space in the mind of your market and create familiarity.  To do that, you need to utilize active advertising methods.

A real life example I ran across myself recently was when my wife and I were looking to have our house cleaned before a dinner party.  We didn’t know any cleaners off hand, so we went to the Yellow Pages to find someone local. 

 Scanning down the list of cleaners, I read them aloud to my wife, “1891629 Alberta Ltd., A-1 Super Cleaners, Instant Service Maids, Molly Maid, Sani…” 

“Wait, Stop.  Molly Maid?” My wife asked, “I know them.”

“Really?” I asked, as I don’t know anyone with a maid of any sort.  “From where?”

“I don’t know, but I know their name so lots of people must use them….  Call them first and see what they have to say.”

At the end of the day, Molly Maid gave us a great impression when we called, and our search stopped there.  There wasn’t any need for us to keep calling.  Molly Maid had created this familiarity with their local advertising in small papers and their cute little cars that had driven us to recognize their name and pick them out of a crowd.

While Passive advertising is necessary for people to contact you, ACTIVE advertising is necessary if you want to grow your business, and DRIVE people to find you.  On its own, the phone book is NOT enough to do that.

Should I Advertise During a Recession?

Consider this ad from 1935 and how it affects buying today.

In 1929, rival cereal makers Kellogg’s and Post were in a close race to win the breakfast cereal market. When the Great Depression started, Kellogg’s maintained their advertising spending while rival Post cut back.  At the end of the Depression, Kellogg’s had achieved a category dominance that they maintain to this day.

Just because your customers are not buying at recent levels does not mean they have stopped reading, thinking, or formulating opinions about the companies and brands they buy from.

Advertising dollars spent during slow times are the best investment a company can make.  Your ad dollars work harder in slow times. If your competition is less active, this is a time to steal market share and share of voice.

A study by McGraw-Hill Research found that companies that maintained (or increased) their marketing throughout the 1981-82 Recession saw an average sales growth of 275 percent over the next five years! But those companies who cut their marketing saw paltry sales growth of 19 percent over the next five years.

Act now! Increase your Marketing…

Remember, the best reason to advertise in 2009 is….

2010.

UPDATE: MARCH 24, 2009

As marketers we are so often faced with the dilemma of having to cut advertising in times of economic softness.  Here is real data that supports the above comments regarding Post vs. Kellogs:

McGraw-Hill Research study of over 600 Businesses found that:

1981-1982 – business that maintained or increased their ad spend during this time

* Averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the following 3 years!
By 1985 – sales of the businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend during that recession

* Sales had risen 256% over those that had cut back on advertising
Likewise in 2001 – another study found that aggressive recession advertisers

* Increased market share 2 ½ times the average for all businesses in the post-recession
In 2002 – the Strategic planning institute illustrated that during economic expansion

* Although 80% of businesses increased their advertising spend there was NO improvement in market share

* Why? - because everyone has increase ad spending!

Full Disclosure: I got these stats from a paper called Innovating through a Recession by Professor Andrew J. Razeghi at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

On Dec 27th 2008, my wife and I welcomed Ashley Rae into the world!  8 lbs 10 oz and 20.5″ long - She must take after her dad here.  We are so fortunate as she is healthy, beautiful and perfect,  although Im sure all new parents say the same about theirs.

We have the good fortune to have a trusted friend who is a professional photographer (Sid Helischauer @ Dynamic Images), and he took some beautiful pictures of our baby girl for us at his new studio in Kensington.  We are waiting to get our albums from him now, but everything looks to have come out perfectly.  Sid showed us all the shots on a big screen projector (hes going to help me lose 20lbs with some airbrushing ), helped us select the best ones, and was overall a joy to work with through the whole process. 

I highly recommend him (you can reach him at his studio 403 291-9777, or visit dynamicimages.ca), and I’ve been told that if you tell him I sent you he will throw in a FREE wedding album for your wedding pictures if you book before Mar 31/09.

I just cant wait to get the professional ones to show her off, so this is one of my own.  Enjoy!

UPDATE! (Mar 4, 2009) - here is one of the professional pictures from Dynamic Images!  They are amazing!

We are currently undergoing construction!  A much needed facelift to www.goodmorningnews.com is in progress - We will now have some very cool features and content online, including advertising information, reader comments, jokes, games, and MORE!

Please check back soon for more exciting updates!

To Celebrate our 14th Birthday, we are giving all of our readers, customers and supporters a present - a Brand New Website!  Stay tuned for BIG news at goodmorningnews.com in the coming days!