Return to basics: advertising

Sometimes marketing and advertising are regarded as one and the same thing. They are not. Advertising is just one of the marketing communications tools but because it is so visible, in some cases this important distinction is not made. And in a recession it is relatively easy to cut. But interestingly in the Internet era some of the basic rules of advertising are worth revisiting. Recently a client was starting the relaunch of his business with a new web site. But his business proposition used a new - and in his market - generally unknown business model. It raised the obvious question as to how people looking for the type of service he could provide would know how to search for him? What search terms would they use? Would his site be discovered by his target audiences?  Advertising aims to move people through a process starting with 'unawareness'. You can't sell to someone who is unaware of you or your solution that might meet their actual needs.  So stage 2 is to make the target audience aware of your existence and product or service.  The next step is actually to explain what it is, in short to generate comprehension. Not only to understand the product but to recognise the benefits as well. The game then is to move on to create a conviction that this product is good for them, it is something that has benefits for them. Finally to prompt some response - a 'call to action'. By then the prospect and advertiser should be in some form of contact and the lead progressed to sales closure. So although a web site has become a marketing hub it needs other marketing techniques to bring prospects to the site, a logical path through awareness, comprehension, conviction to an action that leads to contact.