Medium WellReach your customers with the right medium.

Which would you prefer: to reach 1,000 of your top prospects allat once or to meet with them one by one over time? Advertisinggives you the opportunity to communicate your own unique message toany group of prospects you choose by the hundreds, thousands oreven more. Yet many entrepreneurs shy away from advertising forfear of making costly mistakes. So here's a crash course inchoosing the right media to build a customer base for your newbusiness. Just follow these three time-tested rules:

Rule 1: Select the media that reach your target audiencewith the least amount of waste.Define as closely aspossible the characteristics of the audience you want youradvertising to reach, as well as the geographic area you plan tocover. If you're marketing to businesses, for example,determine which types, where they're located and any otherimportant criteria. Or if your advertising will target consumers,write a description of your best prospects that includes theirapproximate age, gender, the areas where they live and any othercharacteristics. Then match the description you've created withthe readers, listeners or viewers of the media you'reconsidering.