Advertising talk by Mr Jim Heggarty

Mr Jim Hegarty addressed our meeting today and spoke to us about Advertising. One of the key points he made was that advertising is about two things:  Reach and Frequency.  It is important to reach as many people as possible and to do as often as possible to be effective.

 

Jim spoke of the evolution of advertising over the last number of years.  Traditionally, local newspaper ads coupled with flyers and spots on local radio were sufficient for a geographically based business.  The challenges now are that there are no local radio stations, local papers are not as effective and flyers are also not as effective as they would have been traditionally.

 

On the positive side, TV advertising for those that can afford it has become much more targeted and affordable. You can direct ads locally to your geographically area which was not possible before.

 

However, today advertising has moved substantially to the web.  If people are buying a car for example, they do their research online before they get to a car dealership.   They probably already know what the dealer paid for the car and are in a much better negotiating position than they would have been years ago.  Likewise for restaurants, they will have already read the reviews of a restaurant on Open Table or TripAdvisor.

 

So the bottom line is that it is crucial to have a web presence with as good a website as you can get.  For many blogging helps get the word out about their business.  It is important to invest in your web presence so that people can find you and understand what you are offering.

 

As many of us have our own businesses, his advice was timely and helps us to focus our efforts.

 

Side Note:  Interestingly Jim heard of our club from the series of ads that were run on CBS Radio over the last number of months.  He is now on the path to joining our club having visited us for several weeks.  We are currently looking for new members and would love to have you come visit us any Thursday morning at the Brick House at 7:30am.

 

Photo:  Jim with Club President Tom Madigan and President Elect Emmy Elliya