Use TV Commercials To Promote Your Business
I’ve been on both sides of the advertising table, first as a model, and then as a project manager. When I was modeling the price for being talent in a local commercial averaged a few thousand dollars, and the price for producing them was in the tens to hundreds of thousands. A local 30-second spot was expensive. Imagine my surprise when, as an entrepreneur, I found out that you can advertise on tv for about the same cost, or sometimes even less than you’d pay for a website (but get that website first, you gotta have someplace to send the consumers to).
Two types of advertising are available: Broadcast and Cable. The name is as it implies. Broadcast is when you want to have a spot on a major network, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX and cable, well, obviously, it can run the gamut. There are regional cable channels, local channels, (like your community college may have) and regional channels. What’s great is that most cable channels have reached an agreement with the government where they MUST offer low cost advertising to small businesses. That means the supply greatly exceeds the demand.
Don’t you just love secrets? Me too, but more than that, I love exposing industry secrets that shouldn’t be. How you produce your spot is up to you; you can have your local cable station create it, you can use a freelancer who can put you in front of a green screen or set up a special set or even shoot you in your office, or you can call in a favor and use a top level production company. It totally depends on the current stage of your business.
There are many ways to use television for marketing. You may not be able to afford a commercial spot during the Superbowl, but if you’re already planning on traditional advertising (such as print ads, billboards, flyers or a PR agency) you’ll be delighted to know, you can afford television! (And before we examine a few facts let me start by saying this article is only an introduction to get you moving forward, this topic is much to extensive for this platform.)
There are a few things you’ll want to be solid before you get in front of the camera and they are:
- your story line
- your goal (is it number of calls, recognition, sales?)
- your target audience and
- your budget
Once you know what you want to do and why, the costs vary, and are more affordable than you think (I told you you’d be surprised):
- Production for a short 30-second TV Spot can start at just $499.00
- Advertising that spot on your local cable channel can be just a couple hundred dollars with insertions starting at just $3.00 per insertion (generally per 1000 people, in multiples of people and days)
- A National Network spot can be had for under $1,000 at just $20 per insertion (again, with a set number of people that it’s broadcast to)
The time that it takes to shoot your commercial and then have it on the air ranges from 2 weeks to 2 months. Finding a reputable production company takes research (I have a good referral if you need one in NJ) and isn’t as hard as you’d think. You can always start by hopping on Google and looking up “local tv commercial production” or “low cost commercial production” or call your local cable network.
If you have a special event, a product, or a service that needs media attention and there are cable programs that your ideal client watches often, investing in a commercial may be a good way to build your brand awareness. Add this task to your market research and if you ever decide to produce a commercial, reach out to me and let me know how it goes, ok?
