How to advertise a new business effectively

One of the most important things to consider when starting a new business is how you’ll promote it. Without advertising, you’ll not be able to attract customers. Without customers, you’ll not be able to establish much of an income to continue your business.

In this article, we’ll provide you with a guide on how to advertise a new business effectively. We’ll provide a variety of advice, including:

• Create a logo
• Advertise locally
• Establish an advertising budget
• Use digital advertising
• Ask for reviews and feedback
• Spread the word
• Content marketing

How to advertise a new business effectively

Logos make it easier for customers to identify and remember a brand or business. Here are a few tips to help you create an effective logo:

• Make it simple. Avoid incorporating too many details or ideas into your logo, as simple logos are much more memorable.
• Make it relevant. Customers should be able to get an idea of your brand identity or what your business does or based solely on the logo.
• Make it unique. This is difficult, but having a unique logo is essential if you’re going to be memorable to customers.
• Make it versatile. Versatility means making sure your logo is as identifiable on a huge billboard as it is on a t-shirt or business card.

Unfortunately, advertising isn’t free. It’s smart to set aside a certain amount for advertising to avoid overspending. 

There are lots of materials online that can help you work out a good advertising budget for a small business, but it’s vital that you consider your finances as well. Online resources might recommend spending £2,000 on advertising, which isn’t much use if your new business only has £1,000 to spare.

That said, for a brand new business, you may want to invest a large amount in advertising to help you develop your initial customer base.  

This is a great advertising idea for small businesses because digital ads are normally quite cheap and can reach a large audience.

There are two types of digital advertising that you’ll want to consider as a new business: 

• PPC advertising: The basic idea of pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising is that you don’t pay for the ad until someone clicks on it, meaning it’s a very cost-effective option. PPC can also be targeted, meaning they’ll only appear to certain demographics.

• Display advertising: These are visually focused ads that help interest and attract new customers. Display ads are particularly useful if you’re trying to advertise a sale or event, as display ads are hard to overlook.

While you can approach individual websites or advertising agencies to purchase display and PPC adverts, new businesses might want to try Google Ads first. As well as offering reasonable prices, Google Ads has an advanced level of customisation and a huge potential range. 

Since it’s difficult for a brand new business to attract customers from far away, it’s a good idea to focus your advertising on your local area, at least at first.

There are tons of different ways you can advertise locally, such as having a stall at local community events or putting ads in local newspapers or newsletters.

If you’ve invested in digital advertising (as we advised above) you can use tools like Google Ads to target your digital ads to a specific area. This means that local people will be more likely to see your ads when they’re online.

One of the most effective ways to demonstrate the quality of your products or services is by having customers talk about them for you. You can achieve this by requesting feedback from customers and then posting their responses in a visible place.

There are quite a few ways of requesting feedback, so look into the best customer feedback technique for your business. Different methods will achieve different results, which means it’s important to find the right one for you.

For instance, requesting feedback on social media messaging may be very helpful but might not create content suitable for advertising. But having a section for reviews on your website ensures that you’ll be able to prominently display customer feedback.  

Learning how to network effectively is a hugely important part of starting a business. If you’re trying to advertise your new company, consider using your network to advertise your products through word of mouth. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean advertising your company solely through business connections. Even something as simple as telling your friends about your business can attract new customers.

Word of mouth advertising doesn’t need to be literal, either. By posting about your new business on relevant social media groups and pages, you can generate interest and get people talking about your business. 

Making and posting content about your business (or the industry you operate in) has two benefits. Firstly, it advertises your business and helps make the public more aware of your brand. Secondly, it establishes you as an expert in your field.

By posting informative or entertaining blogs, you’ll demonstrate that you know what you’re doing. Blogging is particularly effective if you can write a guest blog, which means creating content for someone else’s website.

Keep in mind that content marketing isn’t just about written content. Experiment with video and photography in your advertising to see what works best.

Effective advertising means you’ll increase your sales revenue, but it also means having to do more financial admin. You can avoid spending hours on bookkeeping tasks by using accounting software like Countingup.

Countingup is the business current account and accounting software in one app. It automates complicated bookkeeping admin for thousands of self-employed people across the UK. 

By using Countingup, you can spend less time on financial admin and more time promoting your new business. 

Start your three-month free trial today.