With so many media options out there these days, from the Internet to outdoor advertising to old-fashioned print products, you may very well be asking yourself which platform is the best, most cost-effective, and most visible means of advertising your business.

Aside from doing costly market research or hiring an ad agency to create a sophisticated media plan, there are a few simple ways to figure this out for yourself:

• When it comes to selecting an ad medium, the most important factor, of course, is who is looking at or hearing those ads? As you yourself are both a business operator and a consumer of advertising and media in your market, you may be your own best test market, as are the customers, colleagues, and family members whose opinions you value. Just think for a minute: What is your own favorite media? Which do you find you spend the most time with or are exposed to the most, be it Web sites, newspapers, radio or TV stations, or billboards?
• Next, seek out information directly from the media venue you’re curious about doing business with. If it’s a TV station, contact the local sales director to check on rates, information about producing TV ads, and demographic data. If it’s a newspaper, check the paper’s Web site or give the sales department a call to obtain what’s known as a rate card, which details basic advertising information, including pricing and guidelines. Any Web site, naturally, is going to include a tab whereby users can obtain basic information about advertising as well as contacts for further information or placing an order. A quick check with the venue itself will provide basic answers that may be valuable in deciding whether that medium is for you.
• Looking to do even deeper research on your own? A host of directories is available at any local library, which will contain useful information about most local media. Seek out directories published by the newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher, for example, if you want data about a particular newspaper. The E&P Year Book (as the name suggests, published annually) is a rich resource for background about every daily newspaper in every market in the United States.
• Other than who is looking at an ad, another important thing to consider is the advertising environment of the medium you’re looking at. That is to say, which other kinds of businesses are advertising in that medium? If you are a retailer, for example, you’re in good company if you use the daily newspaper to promote your business. In fact, depending on the type of business you’re in and who you’re competing against every day, a particular medium may in fact demand that you embrace it. Even though newspapers’ reach has diminished as consumers in larger numbers turn to the Web for their news, the local daily remains a powerful and highly effective means of getting the word out about your business to a receptive and relevant audience. Just check out any morning’s paper and there you will find pages upon pages of ads for department stores and other retailers.
• The content of the proposed medium is also an important consideration. Depending on your type of business, you may choose not to advertise alongside the personals listings in the local weekly. You may or may not want to promote your business during morning “shock jock” radio programming (suitable perhaps for a nightclub, but maybe not for a funeral home). A billboard or bus-shelter ad for a financial-planning company likely would reach its target more effectively in a downtown business district than in a beach town popular with day-tripping teenagers. Much of this may seem common sense, but as you’ve probably noticed, a lot of local ad placement (much of it placed by ad agencies or the vendors themselves) doesn’t make much sense at all, which is why oftentimes you, as the business owner, are the very best judge about how and where to promote yourself.