Advertising is one of the keys to making your new business a success. Building brand awareness, establishing trust, attracting new customers, and encouraging repeat sales are just a few of the benefits of a well-planned and effective advertising strategy. To maximize success, it’s important to spend your budget wisely, ensure you have a solid branding plan, and be well-informed about your industry and the market. We’ve put together a list of 10 questions to ask yourself before you advertise your new business.

Your business:

1. Have you defined your branding?

Your branding strategy should clearly define your company and what it offers your customers. Defining your brand helps you develop your business goals and ensure that your marketing plan is in alignment with those goals.

2. Do you have a logo?

Your logo is the face of your company, a way of visually expressing your company’s identity. A good logo tells the story of your brand’s culture, behavior, and values, and provides customers with their first impression of your company. A professional-looking logo will help you build trust, attract customers, and stand out from the competition.

3. Have you defined your budget?

It’s important to ensure that you know how much you can afford to spend on advertising. Some experts suggest that, when advertising for a new business, you should plan to spend 20% to 30% of your annual budget, but it’s important to analyze what you can realistically afford to spend on marketing before you launch your campaign.

4. Is the product or service you plan to advertise in-stock or ready to be delivered?

First, consider whether your product is ready to be launched. Then ensure that you are ready to deliver the product or service you’re advertising. You need to have a sufficient inventory of product to meet anticipated demand or a plan to efficiently and effectively deploy services. Customer service and server capacity must be sufficient.

Your target audience:

5. Do you know who your target audience is?

Your target audience is based on a number of factors that help you determine who is most likely to use your product. Considerations such as age, geographical location, marital status, and buying power are things you may want to include in your analysis.

6. Do you know what your target audience likes to do?

Your customer’s lifestyle, interests, and activities have an effect on their buying behavior. Knowing whether your customer enjoys being outdoors or tends to spend their time watching TV or on the internet may be important. Perhaps your customer is the type that enjoys the nightlife your area has to offer, or they may be more interested in family-friendly activities. Analyzing this type of information can help you drill down on the specific market segment you should target with your advertising.

7. Do you know where your target audience spends their time?

Consider whether your target customer is someone who spends an hour or more commuting each day, which could affect the advertising channel you choose. For example, to reach customers who commute by car, radio advertising is the perfect choice. It might be important to understand whether your customer is a stay-at-home mom or a mom who works outside of the home. Where your customer likes to shop — in-store vs. online — is also be important.

Your business goals and success:

8. What are your goals?

Ensure that you know exactly what your goals are before launching an advertising campaign. For a new business, you may be seeking to build brand awareness or achieving short-term revenue goals. Perhaps you’re more interested in establishing your business in the community and focusing on long-term goals of building trust. How you approach your advertising strategy will be different depending on whether you’re looking for an increase in store traffic or an increase in website traffic.

9. How will you track your efforts?

Once you’ve established your goals, you need to have a plan for tracking the success of your advertising. There are a number of ways to track your efforts. For example, you can set up a unique toll-free phone number or URL that allows you to know how your customer heard about you, or you can ask, either in person at your store or on a website form, how they learned about your company.

Keeping it fun:

10. Are you ready to have a successful business?

When you know your product or service is ready to be launched, one of the best ways to enjoy the business you’ve created is to ensure you’ve answered the questions above and have a solid advertising strategy. Determine your target audience, set your goals, and track your results.

Gathering the information you need will help you develop an advertising strategy that maximizes your results while staying within your budget. As with any task, having the right tools can mean the difference between wasting your time and being successful. You don’t have to do it alone. Team up with a professional advertising partner to help you choose the right channel and the best approach for your advertising.