Advertising strategy · Marketing
Decide what the advertising is for before anyone quotes you a rate.
Media planning and buying picks the placements and argues the rate down. This page is the step before it, where you decide how much goes to advertising this year and what the money is meant to come back as.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Advertising strategy decides whether to advertise at all, which media carry the message, how the budget splits between them, and what each one is answerable for. GullySales writes that plan before any space is booked, so the buying that follows has a brief to work against rather than a rate card.
Most of the argument is one split. Money that harvests demand already there, like search and the enquiry portals, pays back inside the month and is easy to count. Money that creates demand, like a hoarding or a television burst, pays back later and never reports for itself.
So the plan fixes what each rupee is answerable for. Search is judged on cost per enquiry. A burst on regional television is judged on brand searches and walk-ins in that state, and judging it on the last click kills it in week two.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- Owners about to spend on advertising for the first time, holding three quotes for three different plans
- A business whose advertising budget is last year's figure plus a bit, with no reason under it
- Companies running ads on four platforms where nobody can say which one earns its keep
- Manufacturers and dealers planning a launch, where trade media and consumer media want the same money
- Anyone sold a package of a hoarding, a radio spot and a magazine page with no reason given for any of it
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- Businesses that have already settled on the medium and want the booking done, which is media planning and buying
- An owner whose enquiries sit unanswered for two days, because advertising widens that leak instead of closing it
- A budget that stretches to one insertion in one place, where the plan costs more than the media
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“The budget was fixed before anyone asked what it is for”
A number carries over from last year and gets split across whatever was pitched that month. No line in the split is answerable for anything in particular.
“Everything is judged on the last click”
A buyer passes the hoarding, hears the radio spot, searches the name and fills in the form. The form gets the entire credit, and the media that started the journey are the first to be cut.
“The message changes with the medium”
The newspaper advertisement says one thing, the hoarding says another, and the sales team says a third. A buyer who meets all three does not add them together.
“Every advertisement carries the same number”
One office landline and one home page sit under every medium, so nothing can be told apart afterwards, not even roughly.
What we do
Everything that is included.
Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.
The case for advertising at all
A straight read on whether paid media is the best use of the next rupee, or whether a faster reply to the enquiries already arriving would earn more.
Budget split with a reason on each line
How much goes to harvesting demand, how much to creating it, and what each half is expected to bring back.
Medium shortlist
The two or three media your buyer is genuinely in front of, with the rejected ones written down and the reason kept on record.
One claim the campaign repeats everywhere
A single line in your own words. Then the version of it that survives ten seconds of radio, a hoarding read at fifty kilometres an hour, and half a page of newsprint.
Burst calendar
When the money leaves. A builder buys the weeks before a launch, a coaching centre buys the admission months, and nobody visits a site in the monsoon.
A measurement plan per medium
A separate phone number, web address or code for each medium, and the yardstick it will be judged on, both agreed before anything runs.
What we are not buying
The media pitched to you and refused, in writing, so the same package does not come back in three months with a new cover page.
How the result is measured
- Share of budget by medium against the plan
- Cost per enquiry from the media that can report one
- Brand searches during and after a burst
- Enquiries and walk-ins from the burst area before, during and after
- Media pitched and refused, with what refusing them saved
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
How it works
How the advertising strategy work runs
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Start at the enquiry record
How enquiries arrive now, how fast they are answered and which ones ever became orders. We cover this ground before any media talk.
- 2
Agree the job
Being known in a new city, enquiries this quarter, or dealers whose phones ring. Those are three different budgets and three different media.
- 3
Split the money
The share going to demand you can harvest and the share going to demand you have to create are put on paper with a figure against each.
- 4
Choose the media and write the line
Media are shortlisted for the buyer rather than for the rate, and one claim is written that holds up in every format on the list.
- 5
Set the yardsticks
Each medium gets a response route of its own and a measure recorded before the first booking, so nothing is argued about afterwards.
- 6
Read the burst and change the plan
The report puts what arrived against what the plan expected, and the next burst moves money towards whatever held up.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How much should we spend on advertising?
Is this the same as media planning and buying?
Can you prove the hoarding worked?
What if the answer is not to advertise?
How is this priced?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
By industry
Advertising strategy, written for your industry.
Related services
Often bought with this, or instead of it.
Read before you buy
- How to create a marketing plan for a small businessA small business marketing plan can fit on one page: a goal in enquiries and orders, who it is for, the offer, two channels, a budget split and how you will measure it.
- The self-declaration certificate every advertisement now needsSince June 2024 no new advertisement may run on television, radio, print or online without one. It takes minutes, and campaigns still get held up because nobody owned it.
- How to cut channels from your advertising planMost owners never chose a mix, they accumulated one. Four eliminations to run before you add anything, then a decision about depth or spread.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.