If you just typed this question into Google, you’re probably asking one of two things:
- What type of business needs advertising?
- What types of customers is a business trying to reach with its ads?
What types of businesses need advertising?
In my opinion, every business needs advertising to stay relevant. No matter how well your “word of mouth” is performing… No matter how small your market is or how established your brand is… You need to remind people about what makes you unique.
Simple Google AdWords or a Yellow Pages ad may be all that’s necessary. Or, you may need to do a great deal of advertising. The amount of advertising that you do depends on your marketing objectives.
What types of customers is a business trying to reach with its ads?
The types of customers that a business tries to reach with its ads is called a customer segment. Some products have niche segments. Expert Reputation only targets medical professionals. Other products, like Kit Kat, are for everybody.
A followup question that you may have is, “why advertise?” There may be a variety of reasons to run an advertisement. Sometimes it’s for brand awareness, sometimes it’s to get the customer to redeem a coupon. On the internet, the goal is often to sell a product right then and there.
There is are an infinite number of reasons to advertise. Experience has taught me to reduce as many of them as possible. Focus on the top three. The benefit of advertising is being able to communicate at scale. It’s easier to do that when you have simple, broad objectives to accomplish.