How to start an Advertising agency? : The best way to start an Advertising agency is mentioned here. Advertising is an essential element in the marketing mix. Everyday we come across millions of advertisements that inform us about various new products that have been introduced in the market like detergents, shampoos, face creams, handbags, shoes, perfumes, soft drinks as well as services such as insurance policies, hotel/flight bookings and so on. Nobody can undermine the importance of advertisements in bringing the information about different products and services to the knowledge of the prospective consumers. It is these advertisements only that bring vital information to the forefront.

Modes of Advertising

The most prominent modes of advertising are newspapers, televisions, magazines and radio. These days, social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are becoming an emerging platform for advertising purposes. For instance, Facebook aides business promotion and helps reach target audience. Ad breaks of about 25 seconds can now be merged into live videos as well.

Important Features of Advertising

There are 3 important features of Advertising (that is a speedy mode of communication with a wide target audience and reaches numerable people simultaneously):

1. Paid Form

Since the marketer has to bear the cost of communicating with the prospective buyers, advertising is said to be a paid form of communication.

2. Impersonal Method of Promotion

Advertising does not involve any direct/personal contact between the prospective consumer and the advertiser. In other words, we can say that advertising is not a dialogue, but a monologue.

3. Identified Sponsor

Advertising cost is borne by a particular identified individual/company who wishes to promote its product/service.

Role of advertising in business

Let us now understand the role of advertising from the point of view of business organizations:

1. Helps in Creating Demand

Advertising plays a crucial role in creating demand for a product/service by informing them about its features, new users, brand quality etc. It also helps in promoting sale of the product by attracting attention of the customer.

2. Makes Shopping Easier

Advertising has made shopping far more easier today. It educates consumers by providing valuable information about new products and new features of existing products.

3. Enhances Consumer Confidence

Advertising helps in building a brand name and quality for consumers. They feel assured that they are buying a trusted product.

4. Facilitates Introduction of New Products

Introduction of new products is easy because of advertising. Interesting features of newly introduced products can be communicated to consumers in an effective manner.

5. Benefits of Economies of Scale

Since Advertising creates demand for the products of a company, it leads to large scale production. As a result, economies of scale leads to a decline in per unit cost of production.

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5 M’s of Advertising

After having discussed enough about the role of advertising, let us now focus on the 5 M’s of Advertising. These are discussed below:

1. Mission

An advertisement must be in accordance with the objective that needs to be fulfilled. It may be sales promotion, building goodwill, making the product successful or developing a brand loyalty.

2. Money

Make sure you incur advertisement expenditure within the allocated budget. This can have an impact on the effectiveness of advertisements.

3. Message

The message to be conveyed through advertisement must be attractive, catchy, crisp, precise and clear. This is what will ensure positive results.

4. Media

This involves selection of an appropriate medium of communication with the prospective buyers.

5. Measurement

If the advertiser thinks that the advertisement is not effective in meeting its purpose, it will either be modified or withdrawn.

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How to start an Advertising agency?

It is now time to turn to 7 vital steps that you need to follow to open an advertising agency. To understand “How to start an advertising agency?” read the below points mentioned below:

1. Set your business goals

First and foremost, it is very important to identify the goal of your business. This will serve as a roadmap for running your agency, hiring the right staff and making budget decisions.

2. Take up some professional courses

Although, you don’t need an educational degree to start an advertising agency, there are certain courses you can opt for. Apart from taking advertising classes, you can also build up your skills by taking Management/Accounting/Financial/Graphic Designing classes.

This may help you save on the costs of hiring professionals. Moreover, these skills you learn will come in handy while dealing with day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of running a business.

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3. Be Aware

You will need to keep yourself updated with the latest developments and improvements in the field of Advertising so as to stay in the competition. Reading relevant journals and magazines will help you a great deal in knowing about all the recent changes in this particular industry.

It is very essential that you attend several meetings, conferences and exhibitions so as to gain some exposure. This way, you can even get to know about the strategies of your competitors and then you can accordingly plan yours.

4. Drawing a business plan

Now, you must have a proper business plan in your hand that will serve as a roadmap for your business venture. This document highlights the essential basics about your business, products/services, target market. It also provides information regarding the goals that you have set for your business and how you plan to achieve those goals. Apart from a business plan, you must also have a marketing plan and a financial plan. Depending upon the scale of business (small scale/large scale), you must explore your financing options like small business loans, angel investors, crowdfunding or borrowing from friends and family.

You must plan your finances keeping in mind the entire cost of starting up the business (for example, take care of market research costs, licences and permits cost, branding and promotion, having the necessary stock of inventory, payment of legal fees and taking care of the grand opening events as well) and meeting the initial operating cost needs like transportation, rent, salaries and wages of employees, travel and transportation costs etc.

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5. Create a Portfolio

All your past work and the efforts you have put in for your ex-clients must get reflected in your portfolio. It must be a strong portfolio so that it helps you get big contracts. Incase you don’t have past experience in this field, you don’t need to worry. There is a solution to this as well.

All you need to do is to take up different small jobs that can be added in your portfolio and is a good reflection of your work. You can even consider the option of working as an employee first to gain some work experience.

6. Building a Website

If you do not make your presence felt on the online platform, then you are sacrificing a large share of your prospective clients. In order to avoid this, it is extremely crucial to make a great website providing details about your firm and its previous assignments.

Do not forget to provide your contact details as it will serve as a link with your consumers. I is usually advisable to go for a professionally designed website.

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7. Hire Employees

Staffing is very integral to running your business successfully. Since there are multiple tasks that you need to perform, you will need professionals to fill in the posts of a copy editor or an IT specialist.

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I hope you find this article useful. Thank you.

Author: Manasvi Nagpal