Advertising involves paying to disseminate a message or promote a product or service to a public audience through various media channels or physical locations. Advertisers often invest significant resources in order to reach a wide audience, often for a brief period of time. Therefore, advertising strategies are often designed to capture attention, deliver a clear and compelling message, and persuade the audience to take some desired action. This may involve using eye-catching visuals, catchy slogans, or compelling storytelling to engage the audience and communicate the benefits of the product or service. Ultimately, the goal of advertising is to influence the attitudes and behaviors of the audience in order to drive sales or achieve other marketing objectives. Here are some advertising strategies that businesses can use to promote their products or services:
- Paid search advertising: This involves using search engines like Google to display ads to users who are searching for keywords related to the business’s products or services.
- Social media advertising: This involves using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to target ads to users based on their interests and demographics.
- Display advertising: This involves placing ads on websites and other online platforms that are relevant to the business’s products or services.
- Video advertising: This involves creating video ads that can be shown on websites, social media, or other online platforms.
- Email marketing: This involves sending targeted emails to potential customers to promote the business’s products or services.
- Influencer marketing: This involves partnering with influencers on social media who can help promote the business’s products or services to their followers.
- Content marketing: This involves creating and sharing valuable and relevant content, such as blog posts, videos, or infographics, to attract and engage potential customers.
- Traditional advertising: This involves using traditional media, such as TV, radio, or print, to promote the business’s products or services.
The following are common advertising strategies.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is the practice of iteratively comparing ads to optimize them according to goals such as conversion, brand recognition or brand awareness.
Above The Line
Above the line is a term for advertising that targets a broad audience, often using mass media. The term dates back to the 1950s and originated with accounting treatment of advertising costs that is no longer relevant.
Ad Tracking
The practice of tracking the performance of an advertisement according to factors such as media, target audience, context and behavior.
Advertising Campaign
A coordinated advertising effort that includes multiple messages and advertising channels often in support of a marketing campaign such as a sales event or product release.
Advertising Channels
A medium of advertising including media, direct communications and physical locations. For example, television, social media, internet, print, direct mail, games and billboards are common advertising channels.
Advertising Copy
The written content of an advertisement including slogans, advertising text, scripts for videos and lyrics for jingles.
Advertising Jingles
A short song created for a brand or commercial that’s designed to be catchy and convey a message.
Attribution Marketing
Attribution marketing is the practice of modeling events that lead to a sale or customer loyalty. Advertising may then be used to achieve events such as brand awareness.
Augmented Reality
The use of sound, video and graphics that integrate with real world elements such as physical spaces. For example, in-store advertising units may feature augmented reality features such as an interactive hologram.
Behavioral Targeting
The use of behavioral information to target ads.
Below The Line
A general term for advertising that is targeted in some way.
Brand Awareness
Advertising may be designed to build awareness of a brand as opposed to sales conversions.
Call To Action
Advertising that contains an instruction to the customer with verb phrases such as “select a color” or “call now.” Typically boosts engagement factors such as click through rate.
Cause Marketing
Advertising that doesn’t directly sell a product but supports a cause that a company or brand is championing. Improves brand recognition in a positive way that shows a firm’s values. For example, a bank may sponsor an event to raise money for a noble cause and promote the event in mass media.
Celebrity Branding
A celebrity can improve attention to an advertisement and demonstrate the social status of your brand. It is common for celebrities to appear in ads or act as a brand ambassador in a series of marketing initiatives.
Comparative Advertising
Directly comparing your product to a competitor or using vague comparisons such as “best in class.” Comparisons involve some risk of triggering tit for tat responses. Comparative advertising is also regulated in many jurisdictions.
Contextual Advertising
The practice of targeting advertisements to the content of media such as a webpage or mobile application.
Conversion Optimization
Conversion optimization is a process of experimentation, testing and tuning to produce ads and landing pages that result in customer purchases.
Copy Testing
Testing marketing copy for factors such as persuasiveness and memorability. For example, customers may be shown a commercial and than asked to recall information presented in the script.
Coupons
Advertisements may include coupons as a way of implementing a price discrimination strategy.
Direct Marketing
Sending ads directly to a customer such as a catalog in the mail or coupons in a newspaper.
Drip Marketing
A technique that involves targeting each customer with regular ads over a long period of time. The term implies that ads are communicated at a moderate pace.
Event Marketing
Sponsoring an event or event-with-an-event to reach a targeted audience and potentially benefit from publicity.
Giveaways
Contests with giveaway products may generate publicity.
Influencer Marketing
Identifying influencers in a particular niche and engaging them to promote or advertise your products.
Informative Advertising
Giving customers information such as features and specifications of your products. Informative ads may resemble articles or short documentaries and may cover topics such as how your products were designed or manufactured.
Interactive Advertising
Advertising that uses interactive media to be more engaging. For example, a game featuring your brand may obtain far higher user engagement than a video.
Interruption Marketing
Interruption marketing is any ad that interrupts flow such as a commercial break on a television show. The term has a negative connotation and is often used by relationship marketers who criticize the practice as being annoying. Nevertheless, interruption marketing is still a common technique.
Long Format Advertising
Ads that are longer than usual for their medium such as commercials that resemble music videos that run the length of an entire song.
Mass Media
Media that reaches a large audience such as a television show or newspaper. The term implies broadcast communications that push information out in a unidirectional fashion.
Native Advertising
Advertising that blends into its media such as a video advertisement placed at the start of a video. It is a standard practice to clearly identify native ads using an unambiguous term such as “paid advertisement.”
Overlay Advertisements
Advertisements that sit on top of media such as a small semi transparent box at the bottom of a video.
Persuasive Techniques
Advertising is designed to persuade the customer to buy or become a loyal customer with techniques such as appealing to emotion, logic or values.
Popular Music
In many cases, advertisements license popular music to appeal to emotion or attract the attention of a particular target audience.
Product Demonstration
Demonstrating your product at retail locations, conferences or in media such as videos.
Product Placement
Paying to have products featured in movies and other media. Placement is often used as an alternative to interruption marketing as it is completely integrated into a film. Some films have experienced a backlash and low ratings due to obvious and annoying placements. However, in some cases placements are well received and a product can become positively associated with a character or famous scene in a film.
Promotional Products
Printing your logo on products and distributing them, often for free, to build relationships and promote brand recognition.
Retargeting
A common behavioral targeting technique that involves showing a customer your ads after they visit your website. Commonly used by sites after a customer takes an action that indicated interest in a particular product or category of products.
Reverse Placement
Creating a product based on a famous fictional product that appears in entertainment such as a film or television series.
Samples
Free samples are a way to build momentum and visibility for a new product.
Slogans
As advertising is often short and expensive, a memorable slogan that communicates a unique selling proposition is a fundamental advertising strategy.
Targeted Advertising
A general term for ads that target a group of customers such as a demographic or niche market.
Testimonials
A persuasive argument for your product from the perspective of a customer.
Through The Line
A hybrid technique that includes elements of above the line and below the line advertising. For example, an advertising campaign may include a mass market advertisement for a sales event and direct mail coupons that are sent to identifiable customers.
