The first is the area you're looking in.

This isn't necessarily a matter of a physical area, though it certainly can be. If you're going to put up a bunch of posters or print brochures to hand out to people, you'll need to know the physical area that you'll need to be in. Instead I'm talking about the type of customers that you're going to look to.

What part of the marketplace are they in, and where are you going to look in order to find them. Is this about finding some solid mailing lists to send them things, or finding the right TV shows they watch to advertise during? Maybe finding the right places to put up a poster or finding the right corner to hand out your flyers on. You have to know where you're going to be in order to know how you're going to reach them.

And this leads to the second thing, which is the format of the message.

Now, this is closely linked to the third thing, but for the moment I'll hold off on that. The format of your message is going to deal with what your message is and who you're sending your message to. If you do print brochures than you have to have a message that is long enough to work well with brochures, and a target audience who is going to be willing to read through your brochures.

The more expensive an item is the better the chances are that brochures will work well for you. Cheaper items, or marketing that focuses purely on sales is going to benefit more from shorter formats such as postcards or posters. But you have to know who it is that you're marketing to if you want to know the format to use.

Lastly you have to look at the message you're sending out. Yes, this is once again close to the format, but there are some specific things to be aware of. Sales are often used as a way of getting people into your store, but don't let that fool you into thinking this is always going to be the best message to send.

Sometimes a sale will work and sometimes you need to talk about how reliable you are or how experienced you are in your field.

I'm sure you can see that all three of these are close together. If you know who your customers are you'll be better and knowing the format and the message, just as if you know the format you'll be able to figure out the best kind of message to you, and so on. Still, if you aren't focusing on all three you won't have effective marketing on your hands.