How to advertise? A guide to effective marketing, tailored to your budget and brand

With the right advertising, you can create a favourable showcase for your shop and reach a wide range of consumers with your offer. How do you show yourself to your audience, attract their attention and encourage them to make a purchase or do something else? This can be done either online or through offline marketing activities. We suggest how to advertise and where to advertise.

How to advertise, i.e. available ways to promote your business

The world of marketing is extensive and offers extremely many forms of promotion. What is more, it is also quite dynamic in nature. This means that it changes very quickly and offers ever newer ways of reaching your audience.

No less advertising methods can be divided into two, most basic groups. These are offline promotion and modern forms of online communication. Which type of marketing is worth choosing and how to take advantage of the opportunities it offers?

How do you find an effective form of advertising?

Effective advertisement is one that reaches and influences the representatives of the target group and thus produces the expected results (e.g. increased sales or brand awareness).

In order to find an effective form of advertising, you must first of all specify your target group well. The distinguished section of society must then be understood. This involves exploring their purchasing preferences, consumer habits or lifestyles in general.

On this basis, you will be able to decide which communication channel is the most appropriate solution for promoting your services. However, it is worth remembering to revise your decisions based on the data that analytics tools provide. After all, consumer habits can change and you need to keep up with them.

Therefore, if, after a certain period of time, the chosen form of communication ceases to yield positive results, then new solutions can be considered to broaden the reach and more effectively encourage the audience to take advantage of the company's offer. Minor changes after an in-depth analysis are also advisable.

Online marketing - where and how to advertise online?

There are plenty of platforms on the internet where one can advertise. Online promotion is mainly associated with activity on social media. This is not surprising, as social media marketing is indeed very popular.

The interest in this form of advertising activity stems from the fact that it offers many options for reaching customers - both potential and regular ones. After all, the latter also need information about promotions, new products or events organised by the company.

Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that social media is not the only space for online marketing. Where else to advertise your services or products? In the web browser itself. Promotion on Google is one of the best ways to reach users who are searching for information on a topic of interest.

If you want to know how to effectively advertise online on different platforms, then we have some advice for you. See what you should be doing in each communication channel.

How do you advertise on Facebook?

Facebook is one of the primary platforms on which to conduct marketing activities. However, it is important to be aware that this medium is currently used mainly by middle-aged or older people. Young people are looking at this portal less and less, but this does not mean that they are not there at all.

In the context of Facebook, it is also important to note that it is possible to carry out marketing activities through Facebook in several ways. The first involves creating a company profile and the second involves opening a shop within the platform.

On a classic brand page, you can build a community, increase brand awareness and carry out marketing activities through:

• publishing posts (as well as promoting them);
• creating events;
• running advertising campaigns.

However, it is not possible to sell products or services on a company profile. This option is only available through a Facebook shop. When setting up such a sales platform, you can synchronise your profile with a partner website such as Shopify, WooCommerce or PrestaShop. However, there is also the option of selling directly from Facebook.

You will easily be guided through all the steps of setting up such a shop by the Sales Manager, a tool for assortment and trade management on Facebook.

How do you advertise on Instagram?

Instagram is a platform that is largely linked to Facebook. Therefore, some marketing activities look similar here. To confirm this statement, it is worth mentioning that setting up a shop on Instagram is also carried out using the Sales Manager.

The basic form of promotion on a platform that stands for photos and videos is to promote posts. In doing so, you can identify the most important characteristics of your target audience quite precisely.

Once you enter your data, such as age, gender, location, interests or in-app behaviour, Instagram selects the users who will be shown the sponsored post. In this way, it does the work of creating an audience base for you, thus speeding up the entire campaign.

Within Instagram, you can also create advertisements in rolls (Reels) or testimonials. In addition to this, you have formats such as a collection or product carousel. With these publications, you are able to showcase many different products at once and assign each one its own link that sends you back to the shop page.

How do you advertise on YouTube?

Marketing on the web can also be done using YouTube. This platform offers two basic ways to reach an audience. In the first case, the shop owner (or someone on the shop's staff) steps into the shoes of the creator.

This means setting up a channel and recording content. The videos do not have to be directly related to the products the company sells. They can simply relate to the industry in which the company operates.

When the content is interesting, there is a chance of gaining a large audience. Such viewers later often become customers. However, it must be stressed that creating content for YouTube is not such an easy matter and requires the dedication of certain resources - especially time.

If someone does not want to record or does not have the space to do so, they can treat YouTube as a site to advertise themselves with short spots that are shown before or during other creators' videos. In addition, YouTube offers the possibility to promote oneself using graphic forms - in-video banners, displays or sponsored cards.

In addition, it is worth remembering that it is possible to advertise on YouTube by collaborating with influencers. Among the most popular forms of advertising with the help of well-known creators are videos that focus on unboxing or reviewing goods.

Videos that do not directly discuss the brand's articles, but contain product placement, are also a good way of credible promotion. We are talking about not too pushy recommendation of a particular product during a vlog or other form of influencer-specific content.

How do you advertise on Pinterest?

Facebook, Instagram or YouTube are the most popular platforms for advertising a business. However, there are other social networks that allow you to run your campaigns in interesting ways.

One such medium is Pinterest. This site provides a space to share images and videos that include pinned links to various places across the web (including online shops). With this format, Pinterest is treated as a place to find inspiration in the context of fashion, interior design, cooking and many other topics.

Pinterest's popularity makes it worthwhile to take advantage of its paid advertising. Sellers can plan promotional activities here using a three-level structure. First of all, they need to go to the segment called 'Campaign' and select the purpose of the promotion there, as well as an optional spending limit for it.

After that, you need to move on to the 'Ad Group' section. There, you need to make decisions about where your adverts will be displayed within Pinterest, the budget, the date of issue and the targeting (targeting) options.

Finally, it remains to create a Pin that will act as an advertisement. Care must be taken to ensure that it contains unique material and a URL that will take users to the shop's website.

How do you advertise on Snapchat?

Social media advertising can also take place using the Snapchat app. Within this platform, there are several interesting formats for promoting business.

The most popular solution is the Snap Ad, which is a full-screen graphic or video ad. This type of promotion is displayed between other users' stories, official stories and also on premium publishers. The ad can include attachments that extend its functionality (e.g. web view, app install or deep link). All promotional material must be between 3 and 10 seconds.

Another solution offered by Snapchat is the Story Ad. This type of promotion takes the form of a collection containing between 3 and 20 Snap Ads. The materials are displayed in the Discover section and work especially well for messages that use storytelling (telling longer stories) or showcase multiple products.

Among the interesting forms of advertising on Snapchat, it is also worth pointing out promotion through filters. These are overlays that users can apply to their photos or videos. Original filters make it possible to create funny and attractive content, which is then sent to the snapper's friends. In this way, advertising through filters brings the brand closer to different audiences and creates positive associations with the company.

How do you advertise on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is another platform that allows you to reach many consumers and effectively present your company to them. This medium has a business focus, so the content you post should be a little more serious than other social networks.

When deciding to promote your business on LinkedIn, remember that even simple activity on the platform has an impact on creating your company's image. Networking, posting, commenting on publications or responding to other users' posts allows you to build brand awareness and reach new audiences that revolve around similar market segments.

However, LinkedIn also provides the opportunity to take advantage of paid advertising (LinkedIn Ads). Within the platform, there are several formats that are used to promote business. We are mainly talking about sponsored content with a single image, carousel or video.

Through LinkedIn Ads, it is possible to create conversational or native ads that are sent in the form of private messages to users of the platform. It is also interesting to promote job offers on LinkedIn. It is then easier to attract employees.

How to advertise effectively on Google?

Advertising through social media should be complemented by search engine activities. How do you promote yourself on Google, the most popular browser? This can be done in several ways. Among the basic solutions, one should point out the use of Google Ads, i.e. paid advertisements.

However, it is good to remember that it is also possible to promote on a search engine at no cost. How do you advertise on the internet for free? The best way to make your business stand out from the competition is to take care of the positioning of your shop page.

With SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), you can adapt your website to the requirements of search engines. In this way, you can ensure a high position in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), i.e. the page that displays results for a specific user query. As a result, your website will be selected more frequently by internet users searching for information on topics related to your industry.

What forms of offline advertising are worth including in your company's marketing efforts?

Online promotion is important especially for companies that are active in e-commerce. However, offline advertising also seems to be very important, as it allows you to reach older consumers or carry out 360-degree marketing (multi-channel communication) activities.

One of the most popular forms of offline promotion is outdoor advertising. We are primarily talking about billboards, posters at bus or tram stops and other solutions that make it possible to gain the attention of the recipient when he or she is away from home.

Indoor (indoor) advertising is also a proven way to attract consumer attention. This involves promotional elements such as:

• stands and displays;
• so-called stumbling blocks;
• roll-upy;
• window, wall or floor stickers.

In addition, television and radio advertisements continue to be very popular. Spots distributed through these traditional media mainly reach older audiences and are therefore a good way of promoting offers aimed at senior citizens.

How do you advertise with InPost?

InPost advertising is an offering that includes a number of options for promoting a business. As part of this service, the entrepreneur has the chance to benefit from both online and offline marketing activities. Our solutions include:

• the possibility of wrapping Paczkomat® machines;
• the option to display advertising on the screens of sending and receiving machines;
• the opportunity to introduce product sampling for customers who use InPost deliveries.

The above suggestions are examples of offline activities, but what are the solutions for online marketing? For those who want to promote themselves online, we offer, for example, the possibility of presenting advertising banners on our website inpost.pl.

In addition, business customers get the chance to communicate with their recipients via banners or PUSH notifications from the InPost Mobile app. In addition, businesses can include a marketing message in the InPost newsletter, which has a sizeable audience! Want to know more? Go to inpost.co.uk/advertising or apply for cooperation right away via the form below and specialists will present an offer that is ideal for your business.