Kim T. Gordon on Entrepreneur.com offers some great tips for marketing smarter:

Polish your marketing smarts with this handy quiz. Just answer true or false to these eight questions, then read the answers for important insights that’ll help you improve your marketing in the coming year.

1. On a small-business marketing budget, it’s smarter to advertise a few times each in numerous print publications than to advertise often in just one or two.

False. Advertising with low frequency in numerous publications is like throwing your money away with both hands. Effective advertising requires frequency for your message to be remembered and acted on. It’s much smarter to choose targeted publications that contain content that’s closely read by your core group of prospects and to buy larger-size ads with considerable frequency. In marketing terms, you should go for frequency first with the right prospects, even if that means using just one or two publications. Then expand your reach into other media as your budget grows.

2.When shopping for broadcast advertising on a tight budget, you should look for the media proposal that offers the greatest number of spots for your money.

False. Beware of any media outlet pitching a proposal based on a high number of spots. Chances are, many will be ROS (run of station) and can air during the middle of the night or during other less-desirable hours or programs when spots are typically free or sold at an extremely low cost. Instead, focus your buy on the programming that reaches your core target audience with appropriate content, and run your spots with sufficient frequency during those programs or hours.

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