There are four important steps in advertising that you need to be aware of if you want your advertising to be effective.

In this blog post, I'm going to give you insight on what to look for when you want to advertise your product or services. You'll learn some of the best tips and tricks to embrace while you're trying to make decisions on how to market your business. Effective advertising is essential for businesses and organisations that want to get noticed, gain customer loyalty, and generate leads and sales.

1.     You need a big idea.

Most advertising experts agree that good creative concepts rate high on the must-have list. If your creative concept, or the “big idea” as it’s often referred to, is lacking, then no amount of marketing or brand development will help your business.

The big idea is what captures your potential customer's attention in the first place. It gives you a chance to build your brand recognition with them and convey your message — which can lead to greater customer loyalty!

So, how do you know if your big idea is any good?

1.  Do people understand it?

If you look at the concept and think, “I don't get it”, then this is most likely the case for most other people too. The big idea should have told a story or given the user an insight into how to use the product or service. If there are no clues in the concept, it's probably not very good.

2. Does it make you feel something?
Good advertising concepts should give you an emotion; happiness, fear, excitement – something to stir the blood! If the concept doesn't leave you feeling anything at all, then it’s time to start again.

3. Is it memorable?
Memorable concepts tell a story, often with subliminal messages and symbolism. If yours is boring and uninteresting, then people will forget about it after ten seconds of looking at it.

4. Does it create an experience?
Experiences make people feel something, whether they have gone through something similar in their own lives or not. Good concepts touch on experiences that everybody can relate to in one way or another.

 2.     Understanding your customers.

Next on the list is understanding what people want and how your product or service can solve their problems. People don't want to buy products; they want to solve the problem the product or service will solve.

Both advertising and marketing methods should be focused on the benefits and needs of customers. Understanding why prospective customers need your product and what it will mean for them to buy it versus another similar option – that's real marketing.

But customers also need to understand how important the benefits are — is it something customers really want? For example, consumers might like the idea of buying free-range eggs because they believe that chickens enjoy better living conditions. However, they may not be willing to pay much more for this benefit.

 3.     Tell better stories.

The way you tell a story will ultimately determine whether your audience will listen to you or not. There's no such thing as "bad" advertising, only bad storytellers. It's all in how you tell the story that makes it effective or not effective.

Why storytelling works:

1. People have always loved stories. The best way to get your point across is to start off with a good story, even if it isn't directly related to the product you're selling.

2. People don't care about your products; they care about themselves. If you want people to pay attention to your advertisement, make it about them and not about you or your company.

3. Advertising should be entertaining and educational at the same time. If people are enjoying themselves, they'll pay more attention to what you're saying, and if they learn something new, they'll remember it for a long time.

   4. Measure the effectiveness

Advertising is expensive and the only reason to advertise is to get results. Selling products and services is the true measurement of the success of an advertising campaign.

There are several ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising. Among them are:

1. Increase in sales. This can be measured by several factors, including gross sales, increase in market share, and increase in profits.

2. Increase in customer traffic. This can be measured by monitoring foot traffic into a retail location or website traffic for online stores.

3. Increase in brand awareness, recognition, and recall. There are many techniques that can be used to measure these factors, including simple name recall techniques and brand association techniques.

In conclusion, do great work. Measure your success. These are lessons almost any creative director will tell you and it's a testament to how valuable measurement can be for businesses.

Most types of marketing can be quantified in some way, even if it isn't easy. Sales leads won't magically generate on their own every time you advertise, so don't only use that as a barometer of success.

Find ways to track goals (e.g., sales leads, web traffic, brand reputation) and then hold those metrics up against ROI projections to see if you need to make changes or reallocate your budget going forward.

When putting together an advertising campaign, remember why Seth Godin calls marketing a real job because it is one that requires measurement and discipline.