For small businesses to thrive, especially in a tight economy, it is beneficial to be recognized in the marketplace and to differentiate themselves from the competition. One way to accomplish this is through the use of advertising. An advertising agency can work with a business to develop a campaign that can help create name and brand recognition to potential customers.
Developing Campaigns
An advertising agency will work with the business to develop a campaign. This can involve everything from coming up with a promotional theme, determining the proper media to use, creating the ads, and even negotiating the prices for purchasing the advertising with the various media. This can be extremely beneficial to the business owner who has little or no advertising knowledge or has only used one type of media.
Creative Expertise
While business owners may be experts in their particular field, they may possess little or no knowledge of what makes an effective, attention-grabbing advertisement. Advertising agencies are staffed with people whose sole job is to come up with innovative ideas that can be completely original, or based on themes that have worked in the past. This can also help the business owner who is not inclined to think creatively.
Market Research
Business owners may not be strong in the area of market research. The advertising agency can perform much of the legwork in this area by helping to identify the business's target market as well as their key demographics. Thus, the advertising agency may be better suited to determine what type of advertising would be most effective, as well as to whom the ads should be aimed.
Save Time and Money
With many small business owners being pressed for time, it is often not feasible for them to carve the necessary time out of their busy day to create a full-blown advertising campaign, even if they possess the expertise to do so. Also, if they don't know what they are doing, they can end up spending a lot of money on advertising that proves to be ineffective. While hiring an agency can result in an additional expense, this can be offset by the return on the investment resulting from a well-planned and executed campaign.
Branding
An advertising agency can be instrumental in helping a business develop a recognized brand. Agency artists can develop logos and other design features that can become of a part of the business's advertising. It can also help with tailoring the brand so the business can meet the unique challenges of marketing the brand on the Internet.
