Summary: Advertising is essential to make your small business grow. Read Mikhil Nayyar’s take on why you should advertise your business and his explanation of some of the fundamental terms of online advertising.

Advertising is the most important tool that you have to help customers find you, and access the service or product that you offer. Never underestimate the power of advertising, even on a limited budget. Moreover, networking with other businesses could help increase your consumer audience while lowering advertising costs.

Five reasons why it is imperative to advertise are:

1. Gain exposure - Does your potential consumer audience know that you exist? Advertising is the way to break the ice with your target demographic and gain exposure to your business.

2. Foster familiarity - Advertising puts your company’s name in the mind of your potential consumer. Seeing your message, logo, or product will foster familiarity and build a sense of trust in your company over time and will be in the consumer’s memory when in need of your product or service.

3. Reinforce messages - A well-timed ad campaign can reinforce events or sales offers that you might be offering. You can also use advertising in conjunction with other marketing strategies, such as social media marketing campaigns, to reinforce the message and reach a broader audience.

4. Reach potential consumers -  Save time and resources by singling out only the individuals that are looking for or that are potential candidates for what you have to offer. Advertising lets your consumer audience know that your business exists.

5. Assert control - Advertising provides a platform for you to convey messages and information to your audience, and can increase traffic to your sales, promotions, or events with ease by having a controlled message and perception about your product.

Be sure to include advertising platforms in your marketing plans and dedicate a budget to reaching your potential clientele.

When you first start a business, it may seem like there are a host of marketing terms that you may be unfamiliar with. The following are some of the terms you should understand before starting an online marketing campaign.

Analytics: This refers to the results of all forms of marketing, such as email, banner ads, and testing of your website’s landing page.

Click Through Rate: This is the percentage of people who viewed your company’s ad or email and clicked on the link to learn more.

Conversion Rate: This is what you are ultimately after as an online marketer. Conversion means that a visitor to your website became a qualified lead or made a purchase. A percentage calculated by leads or purchase/total number of clicks on your ad.

Customer Persona: This is a compilation of the typical demographics of your customers. You can include attributes such as age, gender, income, education level, and others that are even more specific depending on the magnification of your marketing campaign.

Engagement: In the world of marketing, engagement means the user took an action such as liked a Facebook post, shared a blog post, or re-tweeted something on Twitter.

Organic Listing: An organic listing refers to search results that no one paid for to obtain their specific rank. You definitely want to show up in organic search because it means that your website is popular enough on its own without the need to pay for results.

Web Crawler: You may also hear this called a bot, spider, or robot. They all refer to the act of search engines crawling a website to rank it on several different factors. The higher the score, the higher the ranking in search engine results.

Online advertising is an efficient, cost-effective and convenient method for promoting your business. Do share in the comments section below, your tried and tested tips for online advertising. 

To explore business opportunities, link with us by clicking on the 'Invite' button on my eBiz Card.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.