Getting the word out about your new business: Top tips

It can be easy to forget one or two things if you’re about to start a new business. There’s so much to get sorted in relation to finance, working space, building relationships with those first few clients and, of course, publicity. Getting the word out about your start-up is imperative if your new enterprise is to succeed, but how can it be done?

Today, you have a myriad of options when deciding how you want to advertise your services, products and any job vacancies that may open up. You could choose to advertise via print, on the web or, if your budget stretches far enough, on TV and radio. The first two are the most popular, especially for small businesses who have limited funds to work with.

Print or Click?

Sometimes, it can be tempting to put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to advertising, but if you do, which is more effective? Both print and online advertising have their uses, but they outweigh each other in different ways.

Print:

• Printing flyers and leaflets is great for publicity stunts or handing out in busy town and city centres. They reach local communities easily too.
• Print can be better for showcasing a range of products, especially if trying to reach a specific demographic.
• Print adverts can last a lifetime, especially in magazines and newspapers, but can be expensive to pay for.
• Printing any publicity material can be expensive, with some runs of brochures costing thousands of pounds at a time.

Online:

• Online advertising is best for recruiting new employees – responses can be received almost instantly.
• It’s possible to sell products directly online, something that’s not guaranteed with print media.
• A strong social media presence can be arranged for next to nothing, while also allowing your firm to connect directly with the wider world.
• You can reach a wider audience when advertising on the net, especially if you target the right sites to advertise on.
• Online ads tend to be much cheaper – it’s possible to get a 30-day ad for less than £50 if you shop around, much less than the print equivalent.
• It’s possible to run promotions online, especially competitions via social media sites.

Best of both:

Ideally, when advertising your start-up, you should combine print and online advertising. Print is most effective for dealing with clients directly or trying to raise their interest in a physical shop (catalogues, for example, are especially handy) while online is best for reaching a large audience for a relatively low price.

Some successful firms started out publicising themselves by using print before using the internet as its relevance grew. Catalogue-based firm Truck Locator are a good example of that, as Focus Business Media’s MD Colin Medwynter explained:

“Our printed Truck and Plant Locator Weekly Magazine continues to generate great responses for advertisers – if it didn’t work, there wouldn’t be 128 advertising pages each week packed with trucks and plant for sale. We mail 10,000 copies a week to truck operators – when the magazine lands on a truck operator’s desk and they are considering a new truck we know that they read it”, he said.