How do I lawfully advertise my business?

Now that you’ve got your business up and running, it’s important to know how you can advertise to get the best bang for your buck and to make sure you meet any legal requirements.

Different forms of advertising

There are many ways to market your business to attract customers and keep them coming back. Some inexpensive ways to get you started can be placing an advertisement in a local newspaper. They are often read by a variety of local people at all age groups and can ensure you become known in the local area. This can be especially helpful if you are running your business from home or a small location that does not allow for clear signage on the premises.

You could also look at creating flyers and doing letter box drops or putting them up on local council and library bulletin boards. Even getting a company who can help you design and print fridge magnets to include in your flyers is a great way of ensuring potential customers remember your business, particularly when they are reminded of it every time they open the fridge.

Marketing your business online is another option that is a fantastic way to increase the reach of your business. Starting with an email marketing list is a great way to increase customer retention. You can promote competitions, specials and incentives to get customers to sign up either online or when they visit your business location. Creating a website and advertising on Facebook is a great way that you can target certain audiences. Have a look at our article found here, which explains some legal issues to consider when advertising on social media.

Legal Issues when advertising

Now that you have some ideas of how to advertise your business, you need to consider what you can put in your advertisements to attract customers while ensuring you do not mislead your customers.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has rules and regulations in place to protect customers from false or misleading statements. Some things to be mindful of are making sure you don’t make statements that can create the wrong impression about any aspects of your products or services. For example, things like quality, value and price must be accurately represented in all advertisements you create. You also can’t rely on fine print to protect you from being held accountable for a misleading advertisement.

The best things you can do to make sure your business is following the rules is to be clear and use simple language. Backing up your statements with evidence is also really helpful, as is considering the overall impression of your advertising message. You should include all of the relevant information and shouldn’t offer things you actually can’t deliver on. Wildly exaggerated claims such as ‘world’s best coffee found here!’ are not considered misleading, as the statement is clearly vague and exaggerated and no one would actually rely on it being true.

Conclusion

As always, it is important to get legal advice if you are unsure of any of your legal responsibilities, particularly if you are concerned about whether your advertising material complies with the requirements of the ACCC. Contact LegalVision today with any questions or concerns and we will be happy to assist you.