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We have been helping small businesses get a grip on their marketing planning and execution for over 20 years. We have written the articles here with a particular outdoors flair to add some levity and some relevance. We are confident that they will benefit your business if you are prepared to give them a try. So draw a bead on a more profitable future and get prepared to haul in more trophy sized customers!

Marketing Basics Target Marketing Tradeshow Campaigns Marketing Budget Drip Marketing Online Marketing Look Professional Camera Plus Customers Referral Program Advertising Media Experts Social Media Secret Pay Per Click - written by: Galen Sonntag Sign up to receive our monthly Outfitter Marketing Tips notice. Overview of Advertising Media If you are involved in hunting, fishing, or any other type of outdoors business, your success is based on attracting new customers, as well as repeat business from past customers. Today's competitive businesses environment makes it essential to use some form of advertising to grow your business. Everyone competes for the business of your customers. We have prepared this overview to help you learn to determine what type of advertising media is best for you, and learn to identify guidelines you can use to obtain the advertising exposure you need. It will help you identify ways to make your advertising more effective. Think of choosing the right advertising medium in the same way you choose a weapon and ammunition, use the right combination for your target. Read to the end of this article for our recommendations based on whether you are a retail store, campground, fishing lodge, hunting outfitter. for each type of media, we include our lists of pros and cons as well as the On Target Tips to help you choose the right type of advertising for your outdoors business. Send this article to a friend. Recommend this article. Add a comment. This article has been recommended 58 times. Gear Shop Special Search Engine Marketing Made Easy YELLOW PAGES Pros: Year long coverage. Gives your customer a method of easily locating and contacting your business, even if they didn't initially know your name. You pay by the month instead of one large payment. Cons: There are no short term advertising options. You are immediately placed with a group of your competitors, making it easy for customers to comparison shop. Sometime your ad is buried and ineffective. Your customer must know what classification to look for. It is only useful in a specific geographic area. On Target Tips: The customers who have looked up your classification in the yellow pages are active buyers, so this means much of the ‘sell’ copy does not have to be included. The thing to be aware of when you write the ad is the other firms' ads within your classification. Your ad should be large enough to incorporate the vital information the customer needs to make a contact decision. Keep your ad clean, creative and eye-appealing. Include your website address and email. Do something unique or different. If no one else is using color, use color. Yellow Pages advertising is an important medium if your customers are concentrated in a specific geography. RADIO ADVERTISING Pros: The ability to easily change and update scripts. Station personalities have a good rapport with their listeners and can be influential in advertising. You can easily integrate radio and other media by saying in your commercial, "See our ad in the Outdoor Herald," which makes your message twice as effective. Radio is a relatively inexpensive way of reaching large numbers of people. Cons: If the customer didn't catch all the message, they can't go back and hear it again. Since there are a lot of radio stations, the total listening audience for any one station is just a piece of a much larger whole. That's why it's important to know what stations your customers and prospects probably listen to. People don't listen to the radio all the time...only during certain times of day. So, it's important to know when your customers are listening. Radio can only advertise or one or two ideas at the most and is a poor place for prices and telephone numbers. On Target Tips: If you're including your address in the commercial, simplify it. Instead of "1345 Oak Drive," say "at the corner of First & Oak, East of the river." It's easier to remember. Radio works better when you combine it with other advertising media. Be creative with your radio advertising, too. If it sounds like all the rest of the commercials, it won't stand out. Without getting complicated, here are two cardinal rules for radio advertising: 1. It's better to advertise when people are listening than when they are not. It's better to bunch your commercials together than to spread them apart. 2. Since you can't automatically recall the radio commercial and hear it again, may have to hear the same commercial two, four, or maybe six times before the message sinks in. Most of the time, radio advertising should be bought in chunks. High frequency over a short period of time is much more effective than low frequency over a longer period of time. If you decide to write your own radio scripts, remember these basic copy writing rules: 1. Get your listener's attention immediately. 2. Write in conversational style. 3. Avoid using buzz words or jargon. 4. Repeat your important points. 5. Make your ending strong and positive with call-to-action for response. TELEVISION ADVERTISING Pros: Television reaches very large audiences. Advertising on television can give a product or service instant credibility. Television is very segmented, with 100 of channels, so you can easily reach the audiences you have targeted. i.e. farmers during the morning agricultural reports TV offers the greatest possibility for creative advertising Cons: TV can be expensive, stations can charge more for commercials because of the large number of viewers reached. A poorly produced commercial could create a bad image in your customer's mind. The cost of a well-produced commercial can be very expensive. Even if your commercial is being aired, viewers may never see it unless it is creative enough to capture their attention. Television delivers the highest impact of any media, but unpredictable viewer habits make it difficult to reach the same viewer with enough repetition. On Target Tips: Remember, more than anything else, when it comes to making a TV commercial, you get what you pay for. And also, like radio, the message comes and goes...and that's it. The viewer doesn't see your commercial again unless you buy more placements. To obtain positive results from TV advertising you must have enough money in your budget to pay for the cost of producing a good TV commercial and pay for effective commercial time that will reach your viewer at least 5-7 times. NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING Pros: Almost every home receives a newspaper. You can reach certain types of people by placing your ad in different sections of the paper. People expect advertising in the newspaper. In fact, many people buy the paper just to read the ads. Unlike advertising on TV and radio, advertising in the newspaper can be examined at your leisure. A newspaper ad can contain details, such as prices and telephone numbers or promotional offers. You can often insert a new advertisement on short notice. There is a large variety of ad sizes newspaper advertising offers that can fit most budgets. Cons: Newspapers only cover a specific geography. Newspapers usually are read once and stay in the house for just a day. The print quality of newspapers is the lowest of all print media. The page size of a newspaper is fairly large and small ads can get lost. There are typically over a hundred ads in a single newspaper. Not every person who gets the newspaper will read your ad if they don't read the section you advertised in. On Target Tips: Newspaper circulation drops on Saturdays and increases on Sundays. Choose carefully what section you want your ad to appear, the newspaper sales agents should help you decide. Create short, descriptive copy for your ad. · Neat, uncluttered and orderly ads encourage readership. Don't try to crowd everything you can in the layout space. MAGAZINE ADVERTISING Pros: The print quality is very high so your graphic image can appear very crisp and strong. Magazines are usually weekly or monthly publications instead of daily and have a longer shelf life. Advertising messages are more image-oriented and less price-oriented. Advertisements involve color more often. Cons: A half page ad in a national magazine can cost up to $5000 Advance planning is required and once you submit your artwork, it's difficult to change. Magazine advertising does not create an immediate response. On Target Tips: Repeat the same ad 3-5 times within a campaign period to create brand awareness and recall. It makes sense to spend extra time and money to prepare a worthwhile ad that can be successfully repeated. Check the magazine demographics in the media kit which is usually available online to make sure you are targeting the right audience. The lead time for placing a magazine ad is usually at least a month in advance of their mailing date. Check if the magazine has regional advertising sections that allow your business to look like it purchased a national ad when it only went to a certain geographical area. This can be especially useful if you want to target only that region. Absolutely include your website in the ad. Most magazine readers will go from the ad to your website before they call you, or they may email you. OUTDOOR ADVERTISING Pros: Since it is in the public domain, people are exposed to it whether they like it or not. Since most messages stay in the same place for a period of a month or more, people who drive by or walk past see the same message a number of times. Particular locations can be acquired for certain purposes. i.e. A billboard located a block in front of your business can direct people to your showroom. Outdoor advertising is an excellent adjunct to other types of advertising you are doing. In fact, it is most effective when coupled with other media. Expensive signage (i.e. benches, posters, buses, etc.) at an intrusively visible business location is often the cheapest advertising your money can buy. Intrusive visibility is the quality that separates landmarks from scenery. You’re intrusively visible when the public sees you without looking for you. Billboards reach more people for a dollar than any other media and they’re geographically target able. Cons: Outdoor advertising is a glance medium. At best, it only draws 2-3 seconds of a reader's time. Messages must be brief to fit in that 2-3 second time frame. It becomes invisible after just a few sightings in the same location, so be sure to move your boards every 30 days. Additionally, the average driver is unwilling to look away from the road for longer than eight words. The nature of the way you have to buy outdoor advertising (usually a three month commitment) is not conducive to short campaigns. On Target Tips: Included in the "outdoor" classification are benches, posters, signs and transit advertising (the advertising on buses, subways, taxicabs and trains), and billboards. When you buy outdoor advertising, remember that location is everything. High traffic areas are ideal. A billboard in an undesirable area will do you little good. Keep your message concise (use only five to seven words) and make it creatively appealing to attract readership. Few words, large illustrations (or photos), bold colors and simple backgrounds will create the most effective outdoor advertising messages. DIRECT MAIL Pros: It can be relatively easy to coordinate a mailing with other advertising media if you are also using them in the same campaign. It can significantly increase the potential return. With a good list, you can send a very targeted message to a specific group. Cons: Direct mail is often considered "junk" mail. Response rates are often below 2% so you need volume to generate business. Acquiring a good list can be difficult, you get what you pay for. On Target Tips: Define your audience. Choose images and words that appeal directly to them. Don't try to design a direct mail piece that appeals to everyone. Locate the right mailing list. Do the research yourself and compile the information on a computer or purchase an "outside list" from a list house or magazine or tradeshow.  For addressing and mailing your piece you can do it yourself or use a printing company with a mailing service  to do it for you. Consider using a self-addressed reply card or envelope to increase the return rate. Attract the reader's attention with color and creativity. Use clear, comfortable writing and make your appeal easy to respond. INTERNET Pros: Reach the whole world. It is the fastest growing advertising media, it might be the only media that is growing. Chances are, 95% of your customers use the internet. The internet can be a way to extend all the rest of your advertising, "See us online at..", or "Read more online at…". Cons: The disadvantage of the internet is that you’re competing with the whole world. Managing a website can be extremely complex and time consuming. On Target Tips: If we recommend only one advertising media to use, it is the internet. Several of our clients have already made this decision and now have all the business they need. If your outfitter business regularly advertises in other forms of media, make sure you include your website on everything, your prospective customer need to get to know you online. If you do not have experience in web design, don't try to do it yourself. A low quality site that will turn more customers away.  Seek out a professional web design company such as S3 Outdoors Who Should Use What media: Retail Stores such as Tackle Shops and Sporting Goods Stores - Yellow Pages, newspapers, radio, outdoor, internet. Campgrounds - outdoor, internet. Fishing Lodges - magazines, direct mail (including email), internet. Hunting Outfitters - magazines, direct mail (including email), internet. CONCLUSION It is important to explore the various advertising media and select those which will most effectively convey your message to your customers in an effective manner. Always remember, advertising is an investment in the future of your outdoors business. Advertise on S3Outdoors.com Add a comment Comments:

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