I've seen a number of businesses go under recently and they all have one thing in common.

Sure these businesses may have had a number of reasons why they weren't successful, but a lot of problems could be overcome just by letting people know you exist and reminding them of what you do. Yep, I'm talking about advertising, but don't go away just yet, you might learn something.

Let's excuse the fact that I'm in radio. I'm also involved in many (huge) Halloween groups online and the topic of advertising frequently comes up. As I tell them over and over it's about "reach".  Now by "reach" I mean how many likely consumers will my message get to per dollar spent.  It's a really simple formula. As I often tell them, there's no bad advertising, there's only bad reach for your dollar.  If you can buy a banner at your kid's ballpark and enough people notice it and come into your business, then you got a good deal.

In radio and digital we specialize in reach and really honing in on the type of people you want to hear your message (the quality of that message matters too, but we'll save that for another time).  Let's again move away from my personal interests though.

If your business is moving into a crowded field, like you're the 25th business to sell hamburgers, then you better plan on spending a lot of time and money on telling people why yours is better, where you're at, or why people should come to see you. Businesses that rely solely on word-of-mouth are a very rare breed and are frequently somewhat exclusive in their product category. Those same businesses are also very vulnerable when some comes in with a similar product and a nice advertising budget.

I'd also like to mention that I recently went down a major Lubbock street for the first time in a long time. I saw about twenty-five businesses that I did not even know existed. That's twenty-five places that never "asked" me for my business through advertising. Two of those businesses were already closed.

This isn't something that really can't be put off until "the economy is better", or until "the students are back in town", you have to fight for your market share now. If you need some help, then email us, but find some way to let people know you exist before it's too late.

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