Entrepreneur

Advertising Checklist

Advertising

• Overview 

• Have your defined your advertising objectives and written them down?

• What exactly do you want to communicate to your potential customers?

• How will you measure the effectiveness of your ad?

• Are you communicating buyer benefits?

• Have you strategized an advertising campaign?

• Is the timing right?

• Do you have a planned advertising budget?

• Are you prepared for a successful response?

• Have you asked suppliers about cooperative programs?

• Have you made sure that employees (if any) are informed of your goals?

• Have all appropriate employees reviewed your advertising and approved of it?

• What is your lead time for ad placement? Some newspapers require only a few days; some magazines require two months or longer.

• Specifics

• Does your ad present a central idea or theme?

• Does your message require a response?

• Have you told customers where and how to reach you?

• Is your ad clear and concise? 

• Is your ad consistent with your desired business image?

• Files

• Are you keeping files on all aspects of each ad?

• Where did the ad run? What were the results? (Number of sales? Sales increases?)

• Have you reflected/brainstormed/evaluated?

• What variables (weather; competition, etc.) have your targeted for further study?

• Competitors and Customers

• Are you watching competitors? (If advertisers repeat ads, try to determine why.)

• Are you listening to your customers? What do they want? What\'s important to them?

• What media are most cost-effective to reach your customers?