Freelance Business: Embracing advertising

A study – rather grandly named The Media Prominence Study – has revealed public relations are more important to brand value than advertising. Unsurprisingly, the study was conducted by a PR company! We embrace advertising, shout its virtues and offer a couple of outdoor options.

Shout it from the rooftops .. and bus sides .. and grassy lawns

I do not doubt the value of PR when it comes to marketing your company and yourself. It is sage advice to make friends with the media and keep them supplied with entertaining and informative press releases. Online marketing also has its place with Search Engine Optimisation speeding you up the search results ranks and the potential to meet potential new customers via online social networks.

But all this activity should not deter you from investing in a bit of good old advertising. Good news is, there’s a growing number of advertising options within the budget reach of a small business.

Now every small business can have a big poster

This is the strapline from www.signposter.com – a company that has made poster advertising easy. With Signposter.com you can search for poster sites in your area, create campaigns and agency quality posters – all in a few clicks.

Your posters will appear on the back of a bus or on a billboard and the price depends on the area in which it’s displayed. I ran a couple of searches to compare results:

To display a 6 sheet poster on Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury, with recorded audience footfall of 38,040 people, the cost is £314 for 2 weeks

To display a 48 sheet poster on Tottenham Court Road in London would cost £934 for 2 weeks

These prices include the printing, production, delivery and display of the poster.

I appreciate that no home business will be rushing out to book blanket coverage of UK poster sites but I can’t help thinking that for a special promotion, taking a poster ad in your local area is not a bad idea. See www.signposter.com for more info.

A message underfoot

Street Advertising Services offer a host of ways to place your brand in mind’s eye and at street level.

The company employ what they call ‘operatives’ to walk specified locations and advertise brands with huge banners strapped to their backs. Or why not try out Grass Branding; a way of advertising on a field, pitch or lawn with a paint that causes no harm to the grassy place. There’s also the staple product of street advertising that involves using water to spray logos on to dirty parts of the street. Cost quotes come courtesy of making contact with the company. See www.streetadvertisingservices.com.

There are many cost-effective ways to advertise your brand to the public but if these are still slightly out of your reach, consider hiring a busker to sing your company message on the streets of town. It’s simple, effective and the busker may make a few pounds too!

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up’

Image by (michelle)