Photo thanks to Omar Omar.
So, your business made it. You’ve built a reliable customer base, ample cash flow, and the staff to handle the business you have, plus a little more.

The best part: you’ve done it without advertising. It’s all been word of mouth and sales calls. Now that you have some extra dinero you’re looking to get into the advertising market.

Unless you’re an übertalented marketer-by-nature, you’re probably not an expert at converting a budget line into a brand new customer base. You know the world of office furniture or computer networks or custom knives much better than you know advertising.

Many people jumping into the local ad pool for the first time think that billboards, yellow pages, and eventually TV and radio spots are the ticket to success, mostly because when you think of “advertising,” those mediums immediately come to mind.

If you have the funds and drive to launch a full-spectrum assault on the local market, a combination of the three or four mediums could work for you.

But if you do it even a little wrong you’re bound to fail. And it’s not necessarily your fault, or even the fault of the mediums: more often than not it’s the ads themselves that are ill-conceived.

Each individual piece of advertising has a different purpose. Here are the three general categories of advertisements, what their purpose is, and the pitfalls of choosing incorrectly:

Direct Response Advertising

Direct response advertising has one goal, and one goal only: to make you take action right now! “Yeah! You! Get up and call! Now!” or “My three-step Webimizer will quintuple your traffic in 15 minutes! Sign up! Don’t think!” Like

· Infomercials

· QVC and HSN

· Local car dealership commercials

They’re not interested in your perception of their company; their only objective is making you take a specific course of action. Direct Response advertisements use a few classic sales tactics:

· Time sensitivity (Call within the next 5 minutes and you’ll get another amazing _____ absolutely free!)

· Testimonials to build credibility (”Well my husband and I just love our new _____!”)

· Very loud voices (OR BIG TEXT!!!)

Although these advertisements get annoying, they are extremely effective at doing what they’re designed to do: sell things. QVC’s website has one of the highest conversion rates on the internet, and I’ll bet you own at least one useless gadget you saw on an infomercial or a shopping network and couldn’t live without.

Brand Building Advertising

Although Direct Response ads work at making consumers take action, most smaller businesses prefer image-laden, cool-looking advertising.

Mostly because that’s what they are most accustomed to seeing in magazines, in the paper, on billboards, etc. That, or they don’t want to annoy their customers and be “that kind of business” that puts out direct response advertising.

But the fact remains, (and I’ve witnessed it firsthand) that a few brand-building advertisementss here and there don’t work.

You need to flood the market and really pound home the association in the customer’s mind that Kevin’s Karpet Kleaners Klean Karpets Kwickly (or whatever association you’re going for).

One TV commercial that airs once a day, or one billboard, even in a high-traffic area, doesn’t have the necessary firepower to reach enough people to bridge the gap in the consumer’s mind and convert her into a customer.

Viral Advertising

The internet has created a new kind of advertisement - viral advertisements. They’re usually brand-building ads made for TV or publicity stunts that are just so cool that people need to tell their friends and family about them. A couple examples:

· The Sony Bravia Bouncy Ball ad

· Honda Accord Rube Goldberg ad

· Lego Man on a Danish beach

· Most of the advertisements on this site

Their design oozes creativity; you feel good after looking at them and want your friends to feel the same way too.

Every small business would benefit from having a viral advertisement circulating around the internet. Alas, the funds to employ a world-class film director, or spend the time and money to completely disassemble your product and make a Rube Goldberg machine usually aren’t available to the average entrepreneur.

But you might have a truly novel idea, and once put in media form it can create huge buzz, and maybe even land you a spot on Letterman.