Advertising agency is also known as ad agency. It's one of the businesses you can count on in Nigeria. In as much as human beings exist, they must do business and those businesses need the service of advertising or ad agencies for promotional activities, this is where your service comes in.
Some companies prefer to employ advetising or marketing personnels to handle thier advertising activities within the organization. This method is capital intensive, the cost of maintening such a department is quite high, while other companies prefer to outsource advertising or ad agencies to handle thier advetising programs. This method is cost effective since they won't be tied down to regular wages and salaries
There are different kinds of advertising agencies such as full service agency, in house agency and media buying agency.
*Full house agency; this agency create advetising campaigns, buy media space, placed adverts and monitor the performance of those adverts. They handle advetising programs from beginning to end. They have many subsidiaries and experts such as video producers, graphic designers, media buyers, content creators, copywriters etc. They also offer other specialized Services such as business analytics, sales promotion, marketing of Service etc.
*Media buying agencies; these agencies focus on media buying just like the name implies, media planning, scheduling slots and monitor if those adverts are broadcast appropriately.
*In-house agency; these agencies are employed by an organization and operates within thier ambient.
What is advertising?
Advetising is a paid form of non-personal presentation, communication and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor. Advetising simply means informing the public or creating awareness about a product's existence, educating the public on how to use the product as well as its benefits and most importantly, persuading them to buy the product through paid form. Paid form here means an adverting must be paid for, it must not be done free.
Advetising is done in order to create more sales, add to the product qaulity and also maintain company's image. It's the best way to promote your brand.
What is advetising or ad agency?
Advetising or ad agency is an auxiliary or business service firm that provides advetising and other related Services such as branding, marketing, research and development, promotion, consulting, business analytics for business organizations. They plan, create, handle and implement advetising campaigns for clients. They
are responsible for production and provision of advetising materials, supervision and monitoring of adverts performance. In short they set advetising objectives, determine advetising budget, develop advetising copy and message, selecting and scheduling media and measure advetising effectiveness.
Types of advetising media used in Nigeria
They are many advetising media used in Nigeria such as television, radio, newspaper, catalogue, magazine, journals, bulletin, posters, banner, flyer, billboard, internet, social media, circulars, direct mail, t-shirts, caps, sign boards etc.
How do advetising or ad agency make Money?
Advetising agencies make money in two different ways depending on the nature of adverts, some charge thier clients directly why others earn commission when they buy or sell a media space e.g newspaper, television, radio etc. Ensure you charge a competitive price so that you won't run out the business. If your price is too high, your clients won't come back for more, if your price is too low, you can't meet up with the cost.
Step by step guide to start your advetising agency in Nigeria
1. Obtain the certificate
Advetising agency business is a professional business that need expert Services, it's not a business for everybody but those who obtained first degree in business management, marketing, finance, ICT, public relation, accounting or any related courses, these agencies offered beyond advetising Services to research and development, business analytics, marketing of Service and lot more. These foundation process is expected to equip you with business management skills needed to implement effective campaigns
2 . Gain experience
Before you start any business, it's advisable to gain sufficient experience required in such a business. The experience and exposure will enable you succeeding, the rate of disappointments and frustrations will be minimal.
You can run internship, partner or get employed in any existing advetising agency this will position you for success when you start your agency.
3. Learn ICT skills
All businesses are done using ICT nowadays. Both NGOs, government organizations, civil society organizations are into ICT in one way or the other "the world is a global village indeed" any business that doesn't intend to adopt ICT is planning for failure.
ICT greatly impacts advetising, advetising is a communication targeting audiences intending to persuade them in order to buy your products or ideas. The communication is done using Information Technologies such as graphics, videos, network etc, while audiences are also found on Information Technologies such as social media, internet, email etc. Advetising is rooted in ICT nowadays, if you want to your adverting agency to succeed, you must have deep knowledge of ICT and keep up with the trends.
Some of the skills you need to learn include; digital marketing, website design, blogging, AI marketing, branding, business analytics, graphic designs, video production etc. Digital marketing is a must, you must have good knowledge of digital marketing ( social media marketing, Google marketing, Email marketing, SEM, SEO etc.)
4. Meeting the financial requirements
One doesn't start a business with empty hand, if you are sourcing for this information, you might have a start up capital already or planning towards it. Well, the good news is, you don't need much to start an advertising agency. With your smart phone, laptop, good network you can start as a freelancer (working from home). If you have enough capital to rent an office, you just need office chairs, tables, secretary, printer and some other few office gadgets, ensure your office is located in strategic location.
5. Deciding an organization
Choose the form of business organization e.g sole proprietorship, limited liability companies etc for your business. Each one of them has advantages and disadvantages, analyse them all before you decide
6. Register your agency
Apply to Corporate Affair Commission (CAC) to register your business, also apply to Advetising Regulatory Council of NIGERIA (ARCON) to become a member. This will give your business legal protection, easy access to finance and other benefits.
7. Build your social media platforms
Most businesses are done online nowadays. Good online presence will help you reach large numbers of prospective customers, build engagement and maintain relationship with your customers. Before you make a move, you can start by creating professional business platforms (Facebook, Instagram etc.) And start building followers, you can covert your followers to your clients when you fully start up.
8. Get your Team ready
It's important you get more hand to work with you, only you cannot do everything. You can either give some of them a regular employment or outsourcing depending on your financial capacity. Since you are just starting, it advisable to do outsourcing. When you have a contract that deals with graphic designing, contact your graphic designing team to get it done, apply the same strategy to video production, music or record production etc.
9. Start up with a well prepared business plan
It's advisable you should commence your business with a business plan. The essence of business plan is to help guide you through. State clearly your vision and mission statement, your goals, objectives, marketing strategies, your start up capital, the source of your business fund and how to spend the fund etc. Align your business operations with the plan.
10. Promote your business
If you really want your business to be noticed, you will never get tired of promoting your business. Do not hesitate to use money in promoting your business. Run Facebook and Instagram ads, they are very affordable and a big opportunity for small business owners to harness. Tell your friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues about your business. Join your local business groups, attend business seminars and build a strong network.
ALSO READ; How to make customers patronise you
Terms used in advertising services
Just like any other fields , they are professional words or jargons used in advertising. It's important you get conversant to them before you starting your agency.
- Slot: this is the period of time and advertising takes to broadcast on radio or television. The advertising media charged according to the period.
- Prime time: this is the best time for an advertisement to run.
- Copy: it's the entire message of adverts written, design or recorded.
- Target: the intended audience or public.
- Reach or coverage: the numbers of audience that saw or listened to the advert.
- Frequency: the number of times an advert is delivered.
- Classified advertising: this is the type of advert that displays on a full page of a paper and displays regularly on a web page.
- Display advertising: this is the type of advert that on a full page of a paper and display occasionally on a web page.
- Airtime: an advertising space bought from media.
- Insertions: newspaper advertising team
- Creative artists: a person that creates advertising content e.g graphic designer.
- Medium: it is the medium through which advert is placed.
Conclusions
There is huge opportunities in advertising services to drive. Firstly, the business does not require much capital to start up, Secondly, it's not a kind of business that will tie you down to one location, you can cover many service areas as much as possible. Thirdly, advertising service will continue to be relevant as long as human beings do business. Social media has the largest numbers of audience, get yourself knowledgeable on social media space and updated with trends in technology as well experience in traditional advertising media and make a move today.
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