All the answers to your unique business lifestage questions

Market your offering
It all starts with leads. If you cannot generate enough valuable leads, your business will not grow. So how do you get leads? The answer is simple – market your offering.
One of the key elements of marketing is advertising. Most entrepreneurs however, say that they do not have money to market and advertise. You should always set money aside for marketing. Allocate at least 5% of your business’ running cost to marketing and advertising.
Related: 10 Ways to quickly generate leads
Identify your target market
If you indeed do not have a lot of money but you have to advertise, what do you do?
Start by identifying the people you want to reach and then determine which marketing platform would most likely reach them. If your market is millennials you can use social media, but if it is farmers in rural areas, a radio station would be more appropriate.
Let research guide you

An inexpensive way of creating and placing an advert, is in the classified ads of your local free newspaper. It is a good place to start as research confirms that people reading the classifieds have already made up their minds that they need something. The principles for creating a classified ad are valid for all other ads.
What makes your advert stand out
- Eye catching visuals. Infographs can say a lot in few words.
- A Unique Selling Propositionthat is really unique. It should be important to the target audience and be affordable.
- A guaranteethat is powerful and credible, very specific and impressive. The client must feel that you trust your product/service if you offer a guarantee like that.
What you should not have in your advert is a discount! It is better to give away something of low value that will add value to the customer, than to give discount.
How to build your advert
It is important to incorporate the following key elements:
- Big heading – the unique promise of your business e.g. The dentist where kids walk in smiling
- Subheading - substantiate the heading e.g. We at The Smiley do not inject or drill – we use 21st century technology that makes everybody smile
- Explain the Unique Selling Proposition – e.g. No person is born with a fear for a dentist, it is learnt behaviour. Our treatment…
- A call to action – e.g.make a smile call to 086-346-6789 to make an appointment that will make you smile
- Visual of a smiling dentist and family
- Address and practice number.
Related: Converting leads into sales
Measure your success
How would you know if your advert was successful? Place one ad in one platform that you know your target market will use. Run it for a month and note every day what the increase in leads are. Also note if it is the right calibre of leads and how much business you gain as a result of the advert.
If you do not get the response you want – do not place the ad again. Decide what you want to measure the next round – the medium or the ad. Change only one aspect and measure the response again. Soon you will know which ad really stands out in the crowd. Know your numbers!