NBC has said that it still has eight 30-second spots advertising spots still open for the 2009 Super Bowl. Most of the 67 spots were sold in September, but the spots that weren’t picked up then are still open. Super Bowl ad regulars FedEx, Garmin Ltd. and General Motors Corp. won’t be seen during next year’s game held February 1 in Tampa, Florida.
NBC says it is negotiating with other potential advertisers for the open spots. Of course, at a time when many companies are struggling to keep budgets afloat, the nearly-$3-million spots are hard to fit into the budget. Brian Walker, senior director of communications at NBC Sports in New York, said “This is a time to show strength and confidence in their brands in a challenging economy.”
Check out this video for last year’s Super Bowl Commercials:
Of course, everyone knows the time to unveil your greatest, funniest ad is during the Super Bowl. The NFL championship is considered to be the “premier advertising event” of the year. Walker doesn’t seem worried – the spots can be sold up to the last minute before the event. He didn’t comment on whether NBC is facing any pressure from advertisers to discount rates.
GM has reported that although it has bought ad spots for almost 10 years now, the current economy and request for federal funds is not the reason for not buying a traditional ad spot. GM is saving the ad money as part of a restructuring plan that has been in place for a while now – before the request for bailout.
FedEx didn’t give a reason for not buying a spot for the ’09 Super Bowl. FedEx has been a Super Bowl advertiser for a dozen years and has plans in place to grow revenue by 10 percent and earnings per share 10 to 15 percent per year. Is the $3 million part of that 10 percent? FedEx isn’t saying.
Garmin’s spokesperson Ted Gartner said that although Garmin bought ads in the past two Super Bowls, it won’t in ’09 because its strategy has changed, not because of the tough economy.
Among returners: Monster, Inc. and Anheuser-Busch. Monster hasn’t bought an ad in the Super Bowl since 2004, and A-B keeps on buying – it bought 10 30-second spots for ’09, some of which will run back to back, to run as 60-second spots.
According to CNNMoney.com, the United States is obsessed with Super Bowl ads. Many people hype up the new ads just as much as the game. USA Today has the most well-known Super Bowl ad critique. But a study by Los Angeles-based consumer research firm OTX found that consumers that watched what they were told were Super Bowl ads commercials were not “very informative about the company,” although the consumers felt more emotionally connected to the ads just because they were told they were Super Bowl ads. Super Bowl ads are expected to be funny, outrageous and better than any other ads viewed at other times of the year. If you don’t have the budget for a Super Bowl spot, it might not be such a bad thing after all – you’d have to have a homerun, or I mean, have a touchdown of an ad for it to even be worth it.
If you choose the wrong color for your marketing materials or Web site, it’s possible you could be turning potential customers away before they even read a word. There’s much psychology behind color, and knowing how to use colors to get the feelings you want people to experience will help you get the marketing results you want.
Understanding Color All color comes from two basic colors: red and blue. Browns come from a mixture of both. Purple, indigo, green and others on that side of the color wheel come from blue. Orange, yellow and pink all stem from red tones. The eye focuses on blue colors in front of the retina, which means blue tones move away from the eye. This makes them seem non-threatening and can make people feel drowsy or relaxed. The eye focuses on red tones behind the retina, which means red tones move toward the eye. This makes red tones seem energetic, aggressive and excited.
Color Psychology
So, from how we see color, it’s easy to speculate that blue tones will make people relaxed and red tones will energize people. And that’s exactly what color studies have found. In one study that was featured on the ’70s show “The Human Body”, colicky babies in a hospital room lit by red lights cried more often and more intensely than when the same room with the same babies was lit by blue light. The researchers switched the lights of the room from red to blue and back again, and when the lights were red, the babies cried more than when the lights were blue. The blue lights actually quieted the room.
Blue shades and tones emanate feelings of stability, logic, relaxation and professionalism. A spa or a doctor’s office would do well to create a blue motif in their marketing materials. Since red tones get people excited, red would work well in marketing materials created for a sports items, money, motivating products and cars.
Of course, each color on the color wheel can produce different feelings. For instance, black is seen as a color of authority and seriousness. White implies cleanliness, which is why surgical gloves, and doctors and nurses wear a lot of white. (Notice white, blue and green scrubs and items in many hospitals? This combination produces a feeling of cleanliness and calmness.) You can check out more color meanings at InfoPlease.com or do an Internet search for “color psychology.”
As you can see, colors can mean all the difference in whether your marketing materials are read with an open calmness or a distrusted aggression. The right color for your marketing materials depends on your brand message and what you want consumers to feel. There is no right color for everyone, but there is a right color for your brand and your product.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Jerry Della Femina, but I hadn’t until today. As I was perusing through advertising articles (as is my usual), I came across an older Wall Street Journal article that asked Della Femina to list the top five books on advertising. I was thinking, who is this guy and how is he qualified to answer that?
Turns out the guy has been named as one of the most influential advertising people of the century by Advertising Age (#71, by the way). Interesting. He called himself a “publicity slut” – even more interesting. He has made other outrageous comments throughout the years that’s gotten him some headlines. (Good work for the ad guru!). He also wrote an anti-establishment book in 1971: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor, which was a best-seller. He’s owned a few advertising agencies since 1967 and is still going strong.
So, now that I’ve established for myself and for you what Della Femina’s credentials are (and someone should probably shame us both for not knowing) let’s move on to his expert opinion.
1. The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958 (Julian Lewis Watkins, Dover, 1959)
A collection of the best print ads that produced remarkable results, such as spots from Coca-Cola, “The Pause That Refreshes” and RCA Victor “His Master’s Voice.” It opens with a classified ad published in London in 1900: “Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success — Ernest Shackleton.” He got a ton of responses! And yet, we can’t get enough recruits in the U.S. Army, which spends millions on advertising that promises an education and a future.
2. Confessions of an Advertising Man (David Ogilvy, Atheneum, 1963)
And of course, no list would be complete with a book by David Ogilvy. This is the ultimate how-to book on advertising from the “Father of advertising” who reigned from the 1940s to the 1970s.
3. Bill Bernbach’s Book (Bob Levenson, Random House, 1987)
Written by Levenson, whom Bernbach mentored, about “the man who changed the face of advertising.” Bernbach earned Advertising Age’s top spot of the most 100 influential advertising people of the century. Bernbach changed the way ads were designed and influenced the advertising world into what it is today.
4. A Technique for Producing Ideas (James Webb Young, Advertising Publications, 1940)
A short read at 60 pages, this is a great resource for learning how we get ideas, and the steps everyone “must take to stimulate their minds and produce ideas.” As Della Femina says, “Without ideas, there would be no advertising.”
5. Reality in Advertising (Rosser Reeves, Knopf, 1961)
You’ve heard of a USP (unique selling proposition). Here’s a book by the man who created the term that helped his ad agency, Ted Bates, to sell more candy, cigarettes, toothpaste and breath mints than any other agency in the world. Ever heard of this one? “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” Reeves was a serious man in his ad agency, but he allows some humor and flair into his book.
When it comes time for business owners and CFOs to cut budgets, marketing and advertising are often the first places they turn to. As a marketer, you need to be able to recognize why this isn’t such a good idea and be able to voice your reasons. It’s tempting for businesses to try to cut money from something in which they don’t see immediate results, but doing so could spell disaster for the business in coming months and years.
By evaluating how effective your marketing is, you can present a strong argument to the CFO about why marketing and advertising budgets are not where cuts should be made. Or, maybe you can at least lessen the cuts and allocate the marketing budget into areas that will prove to be stronger than others (like moving money into the successful direct mail budget from the unsuccessful billboard budget). But evaluating your marketing is hard to do if you don’t first do research into who makes up your target market. Once you know that, you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign more accurately.
Do Your Target Market Research
Traditionally, marketing involves four broad steps, which all have their own sub-steps: planning, creative development, execution and measurement. I’d like to talk more about the planning step, because I think it’s most important. Good planning sets the stage for the rest of your marketing campaign.
The insight you get from knowing your customers and their preferences will impact your marketing position and distribution channels, your media selection, the price of the product or service and your advertising offers.
Of course, researching your target market could go on for months, and can get as detailed as you want (and as detailed as you can afford!). But there are three absolute basics you must know about your customers:
Demographics: This consists of age, gender, occupation, education, income level, location and family circumstances (kids, single, married?). Lifestyle factors can also be included here. Do people have a long commute? Do they spend a lot of time outdoors? What roads do these people generally drive on?
Behavior: Is your target market full of people who love the outdoors? Are they spenders or savers? Do they like to watch TV or read magazines? What do you they like to do and what do they spend their money on?
Needs: What do they need? Why would they need your product or service? Do they know they need your product or service? Do you need to have late hours for those that work or can you be open during the day for stay-at-home moms? How can your product or service fulfill a need?
These three basics will help you create a rough sketch of what your target market looks like. Knowing these basics will allow you to create and product effective print brochures and color posters, choose the right colors in your logo and choose the right distribution channels for your marketing efforts. You have to know your audience before you can create a product or service that they’ll want to spend their hard earned money on.
When it comes time to map out a new ad, whether for a billboard, brochures, a magazine spot or any other multitude of media, it’s hard to come up with something creative that people can just look at and instantly “get it.”
And creating a creative ad doesn’t automatically mean success. If your target audience doesn’t understand it, or if the content isn’t relevant, no amount of creativity will bring in sales. It’s easy for designers to forget that the purpose of the ad is to bring is sales when all they want to do is be creative. Likewise, it’s easy for the ad account managers to see the positive attributes of a really creative ad if they don’t see the sales potential right off the bat.
But, a creative and effective ad can be done. There are plenty of successful, creative ads out there that prove it. Get inspired by this Exposed SEO blog post that showcases 23 interesting, creative ads that don’t need to be contemplated to be understood. Many of these use the environment or an existing venue to play the ad off of (check out the bus exhaust coming out of a person’s mouth like cigarette smoke). Creative, clear and motivating.
And creative ads don’t only come from pros. Students show just as much, if not more creativity, in these ads on Advertnews.com. These feature an ad for Toblerone using what looks to be a bike rack and an ingenious, yet so simple, Windex ad.
To get a creative idea, you have to look outward, I think. Yes, inward is where the creativity flows, but you have to look outside yourself for ideas. And not stealing other ad ideas, but just looking at a tree and seeing it as a palette for something bigger, like a landing spot for a blown piece of gum (see the Exposed SEO blog).
There are four key elements of making an effective, yet creative ad:
1. It must be relevant to the customer.
2. It should contain a promise to the customer.
3. It should be well understood by the customer, yet not talk down to the customer.
4. Always put the product in the center of the ad.
Many creative ads get the creative part down almost too well, which means the product gets ignored. A number of studies have shown people remember a certain TV commercial, but they can’t remember what product the ad was selling. This is referred to as vampire creativity. If your ad is too entertaining or too involving, it obscures the product.
As you can see, there’s a fine line between being effectively creative and obscurely creative. By having your creative mind(s) working with the business-oriented mind(s), you have a better chance of achieving the right balance for a great ad. Teamwork is what it’s all about, just as in any other business.
The Washington Post article “Direct Mail Ads Have Become Mostly Negative, Experts Say” caught my eye, what with me being in marketing. I must say I was disappointed when I read the article and it was all about political direct mail ads. No mention of politics in the headline, just something interesting that marketers and advertisers would all want to read. If I would have seen the word “political” somewhere in the article’s title, I would have thought, “yeah, what’s new?” Which I’m sure is precisely why the newspaper left it out.
But, hey, it’s still interesting to me even though I feel bamboozled thinking it was an industry-wide theme.
A review of 24 direct-mail ads sent from Obama’s campaign and McCain’s campaign shows a “below-the-radar battle in which the public message of the candidates becomes something more spiteful, more exaggerated and often more ominous.” The candidates are trying to get the swing states on their side, obviously. That’s where all of these direct-mail ads were sent to. The Democratic Party warned voters that McCain is “hiding something he doesn’t want us to know.” The Republican National Committee sent the message “Barack Obama: Not who you think he is” to 6 swing states.
Both candidates say the other is being unfair with all of the lies in the mailings, even as they approve their own direct mail attacks. Direct mail has a 30-year history of swaying voters late in elections, so it’s not likely that they are going to slow down in the next few days.
Direct-mail ads can be more alarmist, more negative because they aren’t produced for the masses. Direct mail is more focused, you know the neighborhoods and the way certain counties have voted in the past, so the direct mailers can choose a well-placed negative ad to give that county or that city the slightest push it needed to vote red or blue.
Direct mail has been used in campaigns since the late ’60s. And now it’s becoming more influential. Candidates feel like they can be more candid in direct mail because it’s proven to be less damaging to their image to attack through mail than on TV or radio.
The North Carolina Republican State Executive Committee sent out a picture of Obama next to the quote “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Most people would assume that Obama said that, but in fact it was Bill Ayers, a ’60s radical whom Obama later met in Chicago. Of course, the brochure didn’t attribute the quote. That’s just plain out lying if you ask me.
But, unfortunately, some court decided long ago that political ads were part of political speech. And political speech is covered under the First Amendment, so it’s okay to have lies in political ads. Is that ridiculous or what?
Obama’s camp has sent out flyers saying McCain’s campaign is run by “seven Washington lobbyists.”
The Wisconsin Advertising Project conducted a study that found that McCain’s ads are 74 percent negative while 60 percent of Obama’s ads are negative. (These numbers are for all ads, not just direct mail.)
And the reason they keep sending out the negativity? Because that’s what people remember. They don’t remember the good deeds. People don’t even want to hear about the good stuff; they just want to hear the bad. That’s why newspaper headlines are always negative; people complain, but negative headlines are what sell newspapers and are what people respond to.
How can we break this negativity cycle if that’s what the people want?
What is it about certain ads that make you remember them? A great jingle? “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!”
Or is it a great saying: “Whassup?” The Budweiser commercial featuring the Whassup guys has been updated and remade by 60Frames, who makes original Internet programming.
Now though, it’s turned political (surprise, surprise!). The commercial shows the same guys, but the economy has gotten to them and one guy is watching a political commercial or speech on TV. It’s a sad update of what’s taken place since the commercial aired 8 years ago. The thing is, even though I haven’t thought about that commercial for years, as soon as I saw “Whassup” I knew exactly what commercial was being referenced. So the first thing to make your ad memorable is to make up a word or someone change a word so that everyone wants to copy you.
There were no cute animals, like in the other Bud commercial with the talking frogs. Now, I’m not a beer fan, but Bud seems to have some pretty good commercials. The Bud-Weis-Er frogs came on the scene during the ’95 Super Bowl and ranks at #5 on the MSNBC list for best Super Bowl ads ever. So, include talking animals. That almost always works!
The Federal Express commercial featuring fast talker John Moschitta Jr. is ranked #1 on New York magazine’s list of “The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold.” And isn’t Moschitta Jr. lucky – his fast talking got him at least 10 spots on VH1’s “I Love the ’80s” show. This is memorable because it still applies today to everyone’s “hurry up and wait” mentality. Plus, it aligns quite well with Federal Express’ brand. So, pick an idea that brings your brand to life. (If only it were that easy, right?)
And we love little old ladies who don’t act like little old ladies. Maybe you should add one to your next ad for some memorability. I’m sure you remember the old lady asking “Where’s the beef?” in the 1984 Wendy’s ad. I was just a little kid then and didn’t even know what Wendy’s was and I know that saying. “It’s arguably the best line in a commercial over the past 25 years,” says David Apicella, a vice-chairman at Ogilvy. When Homer Simpson repeats your slogan or quotes your commercial, you know you’ve got a winner!
Even though this is a logo and not an ad, I couldn’t leave out the “I [heart] NY” logo. And what about the “I [heart] NY” T-shirts that are still all the rage? I didn’t know the logo was over 30 years old, but believe it or not, it was created in 1977. And, it was created for free. That’s right, Milton Glaser created the logo for New York tourism for free. New York magazine says the logo “is among the world’s most recognizable, initially concocted to boost tourism to New York State as the city teetered on the brink of insolvency.” So that goes to show you that you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to create a great logo. Just give it a simple design with lots of meaning. You can do that, right?
In a rough economy, the time to increase (or at least, maintain) marketing and advertising is now. I know it seems counterintuitive, but you need to keep up your presence with the public and your customers so that when the economy rebounds, they’ll be right there at your door.
Even if you have to cut back on your marketing budget, that doesn’t mean you have to cut it out completely. There are still many cheap marketing techniques you can use until you get more money in the bank. And these marketing techniques will be part of the reason why you get money in your bank – because you keep on marketing!
Here are some ideas you can use that won’t cost you thousands of dollars. Most won’t even cost hundreds of dollars!
Start a Web site or blog. You should already have a Web site, but if you don’t, now’s the time to start one. If you do have a Web site, you should start a blog. You can get them for free from WordPress.com or Blogger.com. There are plenty of other blogging sites, but these are the most popular and easiest to use. Blogging is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and prospects because you can start a conversation with them.
Participate in forums. Here’s another free way to get online. You can give out your expertise for free on forums and direct people to your Web site. People like to buy from experts. Also, you get a dialogue going with customers, who will get to know you, and then want to be loyal to you and your business.
Give something away. Something else that seems counterintuitive, but what you give away doesn’t have to be expensive! It just has to have value for the customer. If you have an auto repair store, you can give away an inexpensive tire gauge. A dentist could give out a free teeth cleaning (which is how I found my current dentist!). Give away something that is low cost to you, but is of high value to the customer. That will get them in your store so that you can build a relationship with them. And that’s what it’s all about.
Host a charity event. If a charity is looking for a venue, what better place than your store! If you don’t have the room, sponsor something in the charity event. A DJ could provide the music for free, or a caterer could provide the snacks or dessert for free. This gets your name in the program or on a sign at least. You could also provide a door prize or a bigger prize in lieu of holding the event at your place. Get your name in there somewhere! People like to do business with companies that help out charities.
Remember that customers buy from people they know and trust. That’s what your marketing campaign should do during tough times – remind people that they can trust you. You probably have many competitors with similar products, so establishing a relationship is key to having people spend their money with you over your competitors. Competing on price alone won’t work, even in a recession.
According to an Advertising for Peanuts blog post, ads should be entertainment. The author, Jim Morris, even comes up with a new definition of advertising: “n. Entertainment with some commercial message or agenda of some sort in there somewhere.” Morris believes that the advertising industry should stop trying to fight the fact that ads have to be entertaining first.
But I say, if advertising is firstly entertaining, how does that translate into higher sales? Isn’t the point of advertising to get info out about a product, and to sell the product? I’ll agree that entertaining people is a good way to help them remember info about a product, but I think that selling a product should be the first goal of advertising, not entertaining people. That’s what sitcoms, drama shows, books, magazines and movies are for!
In a CNNMoney.com article, Paul R. La Monica states “It’s a disturbing trend for many large corporations, who may find that instead of boosting sales, they are wasting millions of dollars on advertising campaigns that simply boost the egos of marketing executives and ad agency types who dream of being the next Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Advertising is increasingly morphing into another form of entertainment, and not as something that effectively conveys a company’s brand message.”
Why Advertisements Need to Be Entertaining
In an age where people can TiVo their favorite shows and skip the commercials, people need a reason to watch the commercials, and entertainment is that reason. Others argue that people see all kinds of media on the Internet and on TV, so to really stick out, you have to be funny, which is what “entertaining” translates to in this conversation.
But some people take it too far in this YouTube era where all entertainment all the time reigns. “There are some spots on TV where people say, ‘Gee, that was really cool. But what was the product?’” Neal M. Burns, professor of advertising at the University of Texas at Austin, told CNNMoney.com.
Why Advertisements Need to Be Informative Ad agencies are taking the entertainment factor too far that their message is totally lost. If there was even a message at all. After the 2007 Super Bowl, CareerBuilder’s new entertaining, funny TV ads were poorly rated. For the sake of entertainment, CareerBuilder’s ad agency, Cramer-Krasselt, changed CareerBuilder’s lovable monkey motif ads to a jungle themed ad. The ad flopped and was poorly rated in many Super Bowl commercial reviews. CareerBuilder put its ad account up for review, which angered Cramer-Krasselt, which also created the monkey ads. Peter Krivkovich, president and CEO of Cramer-Krasselt said he was disappointed with CareerBuilder and told CNNMoney.com: “People have gotten confused between what is entertainment for entertainment’s sake and what is actually smart marketing messaging. The YouTube generation of advertising has forgotten that,” he said. “You can have a brilliant, unique, funny ad, but if it’s not coupled with insight it will be forgotten.”
We Need a Balance of Entertainment and Info
All entertainment ads don’t work because people don’t know what the ad is for. All informative ads don’t work because they’re too boring for people to pay attention to. So, as with just about anything in life, moderation is key. Add a moderate dose of entertainment and a moderate dose of information that people can use about your product, and there’s your magical dose of the “just right” ad.
For you to be able to achieve success in business, 4 things must not be neglected:
A great product/ service
A decent ad copy
The right targeted market
Repeat!
When you are out to explore avenues in marketing for your business, one of the core basics is to have a good ad copy. Once you are sure that your product or service has been perfected for a release in the market, it is vital that you put up an ad that is “unmissable”. Most businesses already know this, right? But do they know the ingredients for an excellent classified or ad copy that can show results. NO! The following tips shall give you insight as to how wonderful classifieds can be created for a deeper impact on your audience:-
Any classified in the world has to have 3 basic things in it:-
The Heading
The Body
Call to Action
Let’s take a closer look at how all of them can be effective!
The Heading: This is the single most important factor in an ad. Headings are the first thing that will strike your audience’s attention. Ether it will grab enough attention that they go ahead and read the rest of what you have to say or just step out of it without bothering at all. So make sure your heading has some strong words / symbols depending upon the space you have. Only if there is a spark between the ad and the customer, will he move forward to take an action. It should be strong but also believable. Some examples:
“Earn $5000 from your home, now!”
“Save $X on daily shopping”
By the end of your heading, you must have created enough interest in the customer that he reads the rest of your ad. Once you get this done, have the work is over!
The Body: This part will explain and expand on what you have offered through your headline. Make sure you don’t stuff it with a lot of heavy nerdy terms and words. This might take off the interest of your potential customer. Try not to exceed more than 25 words. Apply the KISS rule: Keep it Simple, stupid! What makes it worse is the use of abbreviations. Try not to use them as your message should come across very clear. If our ad has been designed well, it will provoke the customer to make the next move.
Call to Action: This is the final stage of your ad. It is the last line of your ad where the basic motive is to provoke the reader into taking an action. This can be achieved easily with coupling your contact information with action words. To get a solid response, you must put some use some action words like “call now” along with your telephone no. or web address. It has been researched a no. of times and has been proven, that for customers to respond or react to the ad, they must be enticed with the help of words. Some foolproof examples like these can really work :-
“For FREE information, call now! 1-800……”
“Call Toll-Free! 1-877….”
“Visit our website for a free demo of….”
Remember the purpose is to invite your potential customers to try out what you are offering if not ordering at all. To achieve this, you can also apply one of the oldest strategies of all, which is to give out a special offer or a discount. When people realize that NOW is the best time to call, they will do it, at least pay a visit of not much. For better results, make the offer a “limited time” one or a “week only” offer. Mission accomplished!
Apart from having great content on your classified ad, it is vital that it is published at the right time and at the right place. Make sure you use your local directories well. There are plenty of options available. Buying a space in the local yellow pages in bulk can save you a great deal of money. Following these tips before printing your ad can double your response in no time.
Branding is one of the most crucial aspects of a business. In fact, clothing for humans can very well be compared with branding for businesses. It hardly matters if your business is big or small, what really matters is to have a unique identity in the market so people can recall easily. You have to reach the stage where people see your logo and instantly connect with the business or the company name. Remember everything that the public sees is your brand. The small businesses often lose help thinking, they can never match the grounds like big ones. But this is an absolute misconception. They just need to follow a few simple rules to make it happen like the biggies. Some of them which are essential are as follows:-
1. The design of the logo is not all: A coffee lover will not prefer Barista over Starbucks, JUST because of the logo! Its not that logos are not important but it is not really required that you spend a fortune on it. You can hire a professional if needed but don’t be misguided by the fact that it will have a strong effect on your sales as well. Your logo is great as long as people get the message of your company and can recollect the name of it. Feel free to put it wherever you can, including business mails, business cards, yellow pages, local directories, websites etc.
2. Do not underestimate the power of a good website: It is important that people understand the importance of a good, professional website that can carry the message of the business well. There will be infinite instances where you will be approached by people through your website and the last thing you would want is to spoil the impression through your website. So make sure you change as the world changes, and keep your website new & updated. In terms of time, make sure you update the features and the look at least every 2 years.
3. Don’t forget to blog: Well, looking at the statistics, this is one form of marketing you cannot afford to miss in the current scenario. If you cannot continuously provide content you might just lose out on valuable customers. There are information-hungry people out there and they NEED experts. Blogs will help you maintain that image of an expert. It is simple to publish blogs and with the help of a little SEO and tweaking here and there, you can reach out to a lot of people you might miss had there been no blog. This way, the conversation would not just be one sided as the customers will be able to follow the company more closely.
4. Be seen, heard and felt: A recent survey proves people need to be shown the brand (logo, face of the company etc.) at least seven times before they actually buy the product. So don’t single out your marketing strategy with blogs and move in and around different circles as well. Trade shows, events, conferences, unconferences, sponsoring local events etc. will ensure more visibility followed by more “talking about”. If you are not keeping yourself active like this you may probably be wondering why you’re not getting the results.
5. Quick overview: The only reason why people may not be interested in your company could be because of lengthy paragraphs just mentioning the highs and lows of it. Adopt the KISS rule here: Keep it simple, stupid. Make sure that the page with your company’s overview is not overflowing with words. Use short paragraphs and sentences. Just give a small intro with your value proposition, target audience benefits etc. with a case study. All of this should be done with in one page, so your customers do not have to flick in between a lot of pages.
6. Stick to your words: You may already be aware that brand loyalty can exist only if the customers are given a consistent experience. Make sure you fulfill what you say. If you give people a date, make sure you stick to it. Be professional. Unfulfilled expectations can leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouths. But if the same customers have had a good experience, they might just refer to others. Although this comes with no guarantee. But still increases your chances of being heard.
There are several other things that you one can do to get your brand give tight competition to the already famous ones. McDonalds is just one example for a crowd of thousand others. Devise a strategy to understand your customers well and give them what they want. Your brand and image will go down the drain if you fail to provide what you are considered to be the “best” at. Remember, experts are not good at a lot of things but the best at one. So stick with it.
Many companies are taking advantage of the fact that catalog printing can reinforce and boost online sales while reducing other costs across the company. Catalog printing puts your products and services in front of your customers while the internet provides ease of access for ordering and further research. This one-two punch of catalog printing while also making your catalog available online has been generating increased online sales for companies who use both catalog formats.
But there are some important pitfalls to avoid. Both catalogs have to be tightly integrated across a number of levels. How can you avoid these potential catalog catastrophes? Read on for an overview of some areas where your online and printed catalogs must be closely connected.
Product information
The information you provide in your printed catalogs must be identical to the information you provide online. That is not to say the words have to be exactly the same, but there should be no contradictions. This is an especially easy mistake to make with technical specifications. When catalog printing, take extra special care to maintain this equivalence across your printed and digital catalogs.
Product pricing
When including prices in printing catalogs, you must be careful as your customers may also check your online catalog. If there is a price discrepancy, then this can cause confusion for your customers. One way to avoid this issue while catalog printing is to put a “call us for pricing” note instead of an actual price. This can be especially effective if some of your products and services are subject to volatile pricing.
Branding
Finally, your branding efforts must be similar across your physical and digital catalogs. Branding includes logos, color schemes, font types, and page layout, to name a few. Branding across both physical and digital catalogs works to reinforce your brand and reassure your customer that they are working with the same company.
A logo is one of the first things you should design when you start a new business. Your logo is what customers look to when they remember you or identify your business. Your logo also gives customers more faith and trust in you as a business. A business that doesn’t even have a logo is not yet a business in many people’s eyes. That’s why you gotta get a logo first!
A logo contributes to your credibility, memorability and visibility. You might want to put off designing your logo until you get more money, but the longer you wait, the longer you’ll have to wait to create marketing materials, including your Web site. That’s because your logo needs to go on every piece of marketing material and your product packaging too. That’s how important it is.
Your logo should be unique and heaven forbid, please do not use ClipArt! ClipArt screams amateur and unprofessional. Besides, if you use ClipArt, your logo could end up looking just like your competitor down the street.
The first step: design or text? The first thing you want to decide on is whether you’ll have a design represent your company, your company’s name as your logo or a combination of both. There’s no right way to design a logo: all of these choices are equally good. It all depends on what’s needed for your company.
Design
If you decide on design, try to think of a way to incorporate your industry or your product into the design. I saw one clever logo for an airline called Peace Air, and its logo looked like a peace sign – the plane’s body was the vertical line that makes up the middle of the peace sign and the plane’s wings made up the two smaller lines that go out to the side of the peace sign. That’s pretty clever if you ask me.
Of course, you can’t always incorporate something from your industry into your logo. But it’s always nice if you can!
Text On to text. If you decide to use purely text as your logo, here are some font tips:
1. Choose a font that fits your business’s personality. Serif fonts, the ones with “feet” give off a mature and established feeling whereas a sans-serif font (without feet) looks more modern and young.
2. Use a font that no one else uses. You can buy fonts online and download them, and some you can even download for free. I’d advise against the free ones, because those are the ones everyone else will be using. Buy a good, wide-ranging set of fonts so that you have less of a chance of looking like some other business. You can also create your own font by hiring a designer or buying software that lets you create fonts, like CorelDRAW. There are plenty of other software options out there, so just Google “create fonts software.”
3. Modify the font if possible. If you choose a font that looks similar to others, or if you just want to add a little bit of flair, modify your font just a bit. You could add longer serif “feet” or stretch the font to make it look wider. You could even just modify one letter of your logo to make it look different. A slight modification can make your logo look unique and add visual interest.
I have bad news for people who think they can slap their company’s logo on a product and call that branding. A cow might be “branded” just by slapping a name on it, but a product that looks like all others needs more than a logo to be considered branded.
Customizing Products Nowadays, consumers can customize almost anything. From cars to clothing, you can design the product you want online. And then you can order it. You can “have it your way” anywhere, not just at Burger King anymore. Nike has been allowing consumers to design their own Nike kicks on their Web site since 1999. Jones Soda offers customization of their labels. Even kids get to design their own lovable companions with the Build-A-Bear workshops where kids can customize their new furry friends.
All this customization means that businesses can’t rely on their logos as their only brand identity. Once everyone starts customizing products, the product itself is what needs to shout to world “I’m a Mac” or “I’m a Nike.” The apple and swoosh just won’t cut it. That’s why Apple and Nike have built other brand recognition into their products so that they don’t need that logo recognition.
The Brand Function
Your brand is people’s perception of your products and company. Branding is the marketing effort of telling people about your company and your beliefs. Branding doesn’t only include your logo. It includes
• Colors (brown=UPS; red=Coke)
• Slogans (“Have you driven a Ford lately?” “I’m lovin’ it.” (McDonalds))
• Fonts
• Promise (“We try harder.” (Avis))
• Packaging
Basically, anything that consumers see when they look at your product is branding. So, if people are customizing everything about your product, how does it stay yours? How does your brand stay recognizable?
iPod: Good Branding
I hate to use Apple yet again in a branding blog, but darn it, the branding minds there do such a good job that I have to. The iPod is a great example of branding without the logo. Where’s the logo? On the back. Which goes against everything that is taught in Logo 101. You always put the logo on the front of a package where it has the greatest chance to be seen. But the key with the iPod is that the whole product is branded – from the click wheel to the shape – you know it’s an iPod without having to see the logo. No one would confuse a portable CD player made by Sony with an iPod. But people might confuse that CD player with one made by Samsung or Panasonic. If Sony removed the logo from the CD player, you wouldn’t be able to tell it from other brands. With the iPod, you can take the logo off and everyone will know it’s an iPod because the design is part of the brand.
So when you’re thinking of how to brand your product, think about how your product looks or feels different from competitors. What can you offer as part of your brand that others don’t and can’t? When consumers customize your product by altering the color or accessories, what’s left? Can you still tell it’s your brand?
It’s no secret that many marketing venues are online that were once exclusively offline. Everything from television to brochures are online now. But does that mean that print marketing is dead? Hardly. It might not be as big as it once was because people now have multiple outlets, but that just means print marketing has to share the spotlight with its online counterparts.
People typically do their initial research about products online by checking out forums, review sites and the product manufacturer’s Web site. Some people do all their research online, but many still request brochures, catalogs and other printed materials from the manufacturer. People like to be able to relax on the couch without a hot laptop on their lap and just look through a catalog. The glare from looking at a computer screen all day is not appealing.
All of this means that you must integrate your print marketing strategy with your online marketing strategy.
Here are a few ideas on how to do that:
Use your print marketing to direct people to your online marketing. If you use postcards to draw people’s attention to your product and then direct them to your Web site for more information, you’ve just drawn people in with the information that would have been on a brochure for the price of a postcard. Since Web site hosting is cheap, you can put as much info on your site as you want and not have to worry about paying for an extra four pages of content like you would a brochure.
You can also cut back on catalog printing costs. Send out a 40-page catalog with your best products instead of your usual 56-page catalog and direct people to your Web site for more catalog selections. You save money on printing and people can still see all of your products on your Web site. You can focus your catalog on your best moneymakers and feature the not-so-popular items on your Web site only.
Create an e-newsletter. Include info that your customers crave, like how to save money on products in your industry and info on the best products on the market. If you already have a print newsletter, include a link in the newsletter for consumers to sign up on your Web site to receive the e-newsletter. You can build your email database this way and also keep in touch with consumers in the way that they prefer. Older consumers prefer to get their news in print while younger consumers would rather get their news online.
Include an interactive copy of your brochure or catalog online. Make it searchable so people can browse to exactly what they want online. Many people will note what they want from your print catalog and then get on your Web site to make their purchases. Make it easy for them by including a search box for the online catalog and making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.
Brochures are the paper ambassadors of your business. They represent your company, your products, and your brand on your behalf. With that in mind, the design and layout you choose for your brochures becomes essential.
There are a few fool-proof methods for designing brochures that you can use to your benefit. The father of modern print design, David Ogilvy, put as much emphasis on research as he did the artist side of layout. His tried and true methods can serve as a blueprint as you design your brochure.
Pictures
The first thing that people look at when they pick up your brochure is the pictures. As Ogilvy notes, the eye finds the graphic elements the most interesting and typically goes there first. You can use this to your advantage by doing two things: use pictures and print in color. Just because you do not have a picture on your brochure does not mean that a customer will not look at it, but using pictures will only help. Knowing that this will be the first place customers look will aid in selecting pictures that guide the customer through the rest of your presentation.
Captions
After the pictures, the customer will look at your captions of the pictures. Captions can be omitted, but using captions to highlight features of products or to emphasize key points of the brochure will only help to drive your ideas home. Keep captions short and to the point. Make sure they also are relevant not only to the images but also to the brochure as a whole.
Headlines
The next place that Ogilvy states the customer’s eye will go is to the headline and sub-heading. Headlines should always be included any time there is more than a few sentences of copy or content. This helps the customer decide whether or not they want to read the “fine print” or details of the brochure. Headlines should highlight the main point of the following copy in a few words. Sub-headings give you the opportunity to expand on the headline and divide the content into smaller pieces.
Copy
The last thing a customer will read is the copy. This is not to say that the actual descriptive text is unimportant. Unless the other elements of the brochure (pictures, captions, headlines) guide the customer to the copy, then the customer may never get to the point where they actually read what you have to say.
Advertising comes in all forms, from TV commercials to brochures. But it would be nice if most advertising came from people we knew and trusted, wouldn’t it? In one way, with word-of-mouth advertising, it kind of does. We see some cool shoes on our friend, she says they’re comfy so we go out and get ourselves a pair.
In another way, we see something on a celebrity and we immediately want to go out and get a knock-off since we can’t afford the real thing. Similar kind of concept – it’s almost like word-of-mouth, but more like picture-in-tabloid advertising. Either way, we like what we see and it’s not directly from the advertiser, which makes us like it even more, although some would argue that point when it comes to celebrities getting free stuff and wearing it to make us common folk want it.
Chris Brogan has a video on his blog (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-way-i-wish-advertising-worked/) from John Chow that shows Chow eating at a crab shack in Washington state. This kind of advertising is what Chris would like to see more of instead of newspaper ads or banner ads on a Web site.
I think the concept is good – people advertising for places that they thoroughly enjoy, without getting paid to tout it, but I don’t think this particular video is that great. It doesn’t make me salivate and want seafood the way a Red Lobster commercial can. There’s something to be said for staging and good lighting, I think.
And, sometimes ads aren’t all that bad. Some are downright funny (hello, Super Bowl) and there are even shows dedicated to showing the funniest TV commercials all over the world. Sad, but true – I’ve actually watched that show and I think I laughed out loud more than I ever did watching many sitcoms.
Besides, what would ad writers and production crews do if we took away the ad? They’d starve to death and we can’t have that! We’d have to live with the guilt and knowledge of wiping out an iconic pastime in America: the poor ad. And anyway, as people continued to make their own home video-type of ads, those people would become the ad actor and actresses and then they’d be hiring their own production crews and ad writers, and then we’d be back to square one.
So, I agree that word-of-mouth advertising works, or word-of-video or whatever you want to call advertising on the ‘Net, but I think we shouldn’t shun the traditional advertiser. When would we go to the bathroom during TV shows if we did?
Once you are on top of the corporate world, you don’t have to do much work to get good gigs. They just come to you. Of course, you have to work your way to the top to … not work. Or at least not work for your gigs. Here are some ways to claw your way to the top at work or just in your professional life to boost your career.
Att-i-tude
You have to have some attitude to get those high-roller jobs. Don’t be afraid to give others your opinion, but state them in a non-condescending way. You want to be authoritative without belittling others, especially the higher ups. When you’re in a meeting, don’t be afraid to speak up or to disagree with management. Just make sure you have sound reasoning and facts to back up your position. People that speak up are seen as leaders and will often be chosen as leaders later on when a new project comes up.
Create some controversy
Call out your boss or another company by criticizing something they’re doing wrong. Only do this if you know how to do right and you have the confidence and know-how to do it better. It seems counterintuitive, but by calling someone on their mistakes and telling them how to fix them, you’ll be seen as a fix-it person, a go-to kind of employee. Many people have been hired for telling a company what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. If you can argue your point effectively, you’ll stir up the waters but then you’ll have the power to calm the waters back down.
Get involved
If there is some kind of industry event going on, ask your boss if you can attend. If you’re your own boss, go to as many industry events as you can to hobnob with the higher-ups at other companies. Get your business card out there, along with your face. By going to events, you also get to impart the info you learned back to your boss or your colleagues. You might even get interviewed for the company newsletter or company Web site. This could lead to the CEO of the company calling you for a briefing or for lunch to discuss what you’ve learned.
Another way to get involved at work is to sit on committees and actually contribute to ideas and events. This is a great way for other departments to get to know you and vice versa. The more people that know you at work, the more authoritative you seem. Why else would everyone know your name?
Stand out from the crowd
Whether this is a crowd of peers or a crowd of job seekers, you need to differentiate yourself so that employers take notice. You can differentiate yourself through your clothes, actions or thought process. Elvis was famous because he was doing something no one else was at the time. Try to channel your inner Elvis and find some way you can stand out that makes you better, not weirder.
If you’ve never worked with a freelance copywriter, you might not have a clue as to where to start looking for one. Your marketing materials can make or break your profit margin this year, so it’s vital that you pick a competent copywriter that can get your message across effectively. So how do you choose?
First, Google “freelance copywriter.” You’ll get about 500,000 results on any given day from that phrase. You’ll see Web sites and ads for advertising copywriters, B2B copywriters, catalog copywriters and many other variations on the word “copywriter.” So now what?
Here are a few questions to ask to help you wade through the different types of copywriters to choose the right one for you:
1. Identify what kind of copywriter you need. List the projects you want the copywriter to complete for you. Brochures? Web site copy? Will you be doing any catalog or booklet printing? (Yes, all those catalog descriptions are generally written by a copywriter.)
2. List your short-term and long-term objectives. What is it you are hoping your copywriter can help you achieve? Do you want to start a monthly newsletter or just build a start-up Web site? Or do you just need a few tweaks to your Web site? Knowing whether you need work done for a one-time occurrence or as an on-going thing will help you pick the right copywriter.
3. Do you need an expert? Many copywriters have found a niche for themselves. Some specialize in direct mail copywriting or catalog copywriting. That’s all they do and they do it well. There are other copywriters who can write everything from posters to television commercials to magazine ads. Do you need someone who can do it all for you?
Also consider whether you need a copywriter who is an expert in your field. This type of copywriter might be more difficult to find, depending on your industry. Someone who has worked in the fashion industry for years will be best for writing your fashion-related marketing copy. This goes back to #2. Knowing your objectives will help you decide on a copywriter.
4. Do you want to work with an agency or with a single freelancer? Some people are more comfortable working with an established agency and having other resources you can call on if your copywriter isn’t top notch. Others would rather work with just one person. Do you want to build a long-term relationship with someone who will know your business almost as well as you do?
5. What is your copywriting budget? Can you afford to work with an experienced freelancer or a copywriter at an agency? Fees will vary depending on your region and on the freelancer’s experience. You could end up paying $25 per hour for a copywriter with little-to-no experience, or up to $200 or $300 an hour for a copywriter with 20 years of experience. Many copywriters will set a budget for each project: for instance, a brochure will cost $600 no matter how many hours are spent writing it. A press release could cost between $200 and $500. A set price for the project could be the way to go if you’d like to know your costs upfront.
6. Pick a few candidates and review their work. Copywriters should have samples of their work to show you. If they don’t, you should probably move on. Even copywriters straight out of college should have at least one sample to show you. You can get a taste of each copywriter’s writing style from the samples and choose the one that best suits you.
Advertising with posters can be a very successful venture if done correctly. Much of the success comes from careful planning and preparation before the actual creating process takes place.
First, decide on the target market you are trying to reach. Pull some demographics of the area to see if a large percentage of the population matches your target. If not, then you may want to reassess either your target market or the location.
Next, do some research on local posting laws. Some cities allow posters to be placed on telephone poles or street corners. Many businesses allow posters to be placed in windows or a bulletin board, especially if the poster topic relates to the business.
Now that you know where to post, begin planning for the design. Use clear branding on your posters. Passers-by should be able to recognize your company when glancing at the poster. For new companies, or when a company alters its brand, posters are a great way to publicize an image.
Choose a style for your poster design. The style should be based on the audience, or target market. For instance, if your company advertises a new line of clothing to middle class teenage girls, the poster headline, font, colors, and image would need to send a message that this clothing line promotes youth and popularity.
Once you have displayed the posters, keep track of the response. When prospects call the number, ask how they heard of your company. If results are unsatisfactory, do some more research. Try changing the design or location.
If possible, check your posters regularly. If your poster has been removed, any testing will give you false feedback. Also, a good marketing campaign will display a timely new version of the advertisement. Replace posters with updated information regularly. For instance, if the poster is advertising the release of a new product, alter the announcement. Change “Coming Soon” to “Coming in July” to “Coming in 2 Weeks,” as an example.
When preparing for poster advertising, avoid skipping quickly through the planning stage. The more solid your plan, the better results your company will see in your poster campaign.
With technology ever-evolving, some of your old marketing strategies may not be working quite as well. Direct mail postcards, brochures, television ads and radio ads don’t have the same punch if people aren’t looking or listening to these avenues for information.
You’re competing with streaming video on a personal computer, television shows sans commercials on a cell phone and online news sites that have their own advertising avenues. How can you keep up with hippest technology to make sure you’re getting to your target market?
One word: podcast. Podcasts are video or audio files that are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players, like the iPod, or computers. The term is a mash up of the words “iPod” and “broadcast” since the Apple iPod is the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasts were developed. These scripts are downloaded and then transferred to a mobile device to listen to or watch.
Podcast topics are as varied as the Internet – news, industries, trends and anything else you can think of have been podcasted. There’s even a For Dummies book on podcasting! Podcasts can last from a few minutes to a few hours (although the longer ones are less popular).
Podcasts appeal to people because
• they allow people to multitask. Many customers and clients are busy people. They don’t have time to read your latest book or your magazine article. But they can listen to your podcast while driving to work or while they’re exercising.
• people can get advice and info that feeds their self-improvement needs. Clients enjoy listening to CEOs and other experts that they can learn from. Podcasts are like their own personalized lecture.
Podcasts are great for establishing yourself or your CEO as an expert. Podcasts that share industry info, advice and insights create an impression that your business is filled with people the public can turn to for advice. Podcasting only takes a few hundred dollars to start for the equipment and distribution costs, so it’s a marketing strategy that can bring in a high ROI.
To create successful podcasts, your broadcasts must be concise, casual, clear and consistent.
Concise: Focus on one topic for each podcast. Remember they can be a few minutes long to a few hours long. Shorter ones have better success because, well, if people had a few hours to read a book then they would! Don’t get too longwinded in your discussion, but keep it chatty and …
Casual: Use real-life examples and simple language to get your point across. Don’t use jargon that people will need to look up in a dictionary or online. Don’t use too many statistics and “academic” talk. Talk like you’re talking to your best friend.
Clear: Make sure the volume of your recording device is up high enough to capture your voice and nothing else. Be sure to record in an area where you are free from distractions (a bar or a kid-filled living room is not a good idea).
Consistent: Pick a podcast schedule you can stick to. If you can only get to it once a week, fine. Just make sure you do it once a week, preferably on the same day each week. If you can only get to it monthly, that’s fine too. Just make sure you’re on a consistent schedule so that your listeners know when to expect you.
Once you create a podcast, you need to make sure to promote it. Include a link on your Web site and add a link to your email signature. You can also include your podcasts in your print advertising in magazines or newspapers. Just get the word out because people can’t listen if they don’t know it exists!
Brochures aren’t always for the faint of heart or for those who don’t have enough time to adequately design something that will work.
Brochures also aren’t the cheapest form of marketing. You can get plenty of great advertising for your buck if you do them right, but you still have a larger initial investment when compared to other kinds of marketing.
But one thing you can do to help ease the financial burden is be aware of what goes into designing an effective brochure. If you have the right kind of software like In Design, you might even be able to start designing brochures yourself.
The first thing to look at is the brochure layout. How many pages do you plan on having and how do you plan on having your brochure folded? There are all sorts of different methods for folding brochures, and each carry a certain advantage. I won’t list every kind of folding method here given how many there are.
Once you do know what kind of folding method you plan on using decide the right progression for your information. A brochure should have a strong linear feel to it. Make sure yours flows along a single line of thought from beginning to end. You can have several points that you’re making, just don’t jump around from topic to topic. People will get confused before they bother to finish reading your brochure.
After the writing is decided on, pick up some good visuals to go along with it. A color brochure will always be more appealing than a plain black and white one. Think about the brochures you’ve seen, and I’m guessing most had a strong visual appeal. They had bright pictures and images on the cover to get people interested in reading what else the brochure had to say.
The brochure design will be a combination of the writing and the images. Some topics are simply going to have more that you need to say about them whereas others will center on the images. Most travel brochures are loaded with pictures because this is the most important selling point for them: letting people see where they’ll be going.
Think about the reason you’re writing your brochure and you should know exactly how much writing you’ll need and how many pictures will best compliment it.
Designing a brochure can be a rather daunting task, especially if you’ve never done one before. Make sure you take things one at a time. Do your writing first, pick out the style of folding you want next, and then decide on the number of images that will work best.
So long as you don’t let all of it bog you down, you can write brochures that are more than worth the money it took to make them.
Trade shows can be both fun and lucrative. They present a great forum for generating sales along with networking with the industry. Smart business owners realize that this second component is almost as important as the first. Say you owned a brochure printing business. Networking with peers allows all to compare underlying costs, regulations and other common interests.
There are some simple rules when selling at a trade show. Unfortunately, many reps don’t follow them. The first is to understand where you are. Most usually it is a warm beach town during winter. The prospect in front of you at your booth has other things on their mind. Keep the presentation focused and efficient or your prospect will quickly become annoyed.
Do not engage in tricky pricing. Keep it simple. Give one clear price without making the prospect do mental gymnastics while calculating discounts and rebates. Extend this thought to the rest of your presentation. As indicated, many have other things on their mind like getting out to the beach or golf course. The quickest path there will be taken. If your process is twice as long as a competitor who’s booth is across from you, then you will see your traffic head their way.
The trade show doesn’t end when the booth is packed up. Follow up is critical after the show to pursue closing all the leads generated. Follow these simple rules for trade show sales success.
If you want to draw new customers into your business, it’s essential to learn how to advertise. Whether you’re advertising in the media with radio and television or placing ads in various publications, the key issue is to be able to write a compelling ad that is going to jump out at people and show them what they want to see. You have to be able to write ad copies that will jump out and grab those prospects and bring them to your door. It may sound simple, but the truth is that many people do not know how to write an ad that is dynamic enough to bring new customers into the business.
The key to increasing your advertising results is knowing how to develop an ad that will gain people’s attention. Do not feel badly if you are one of those people who just can’t write effective ads thus the reason some companies hire advertising agencies to do all of their work for them. If that is not in your budget you may want to look and listen to some of the ads that other companies use in order to get an idea what may work for you.
You and your business are very much alike in many aspects. For example, both would end up lonely and unfulfilled without any friends. A company builds its group of friends through networking.
Networking can come in many forms and fashions. Most popular today are the various networking opportunities existing online. There is a long list of possibilities in this arena. Some include cross promotional arrangements, newsgroup participation and social networking site membership. The Internet can provide for a large and rapidly developed network.
However, just like you, your business needs to also step out into the real world. A popular venue for flesh and blood interaction is trade shows. They often present a great forum to distribute your color business card far and wide. Business card printing rates allow for you to be quite liberal in their distribution versus other possible marketing materials.
After you have developed a wide network it is critical not to ignore it. Just like with friends in your personal life, your business friends need attention as well. Build and nourish your company’s network and the dividends will quickly become evident.
Many moons ago a cavemen probably agreed to tout how warm his friend’s woolly mammoth furs were. In return, his friend would tell everyone about the sharpness of the shark’s teeth he was hawking. Hence was born the first cross promotional arrangement.
Today’s interactive world obviously entails far more sophisticated arrangements. However, the core concept remains the same. Your company has a universe of customers. Another company has a different grouping of customers. Both sets could have the proclivity to buy products from either company. Assuming you are not direct competitors, it becomes a win-win situation to leverage each other’s customer base.
Being an exchange, the arrangement takes up neither party’s cash flow. Enhanced marketing exposure with no corresponding expense is a rare opportunity that should not be passed up.
As with all relationships, it is important to be careful of the company you keep. Assume you own a commercial printing service. You probably would not desire to host ads advocating the increase of postage rates. That would most likely not sit well with your customer base.
Like always, do your research. Know all the details of the cross promotion arrangement you are about to sign. Assure you are dealing with reputable partners. Done right, cross promotional arrangements can bring your company to the next level.
I, along with many others I’m sure, like to find those good deals. Who doesn’t, right? It’s also nice to find that new place to go when it comes to a type of product you like.
For me it’s usually good deals on movies. But looking through every store in town isn’t always a practical solution, and quite often I just don’t care enough to do it. That’s why it is kind of nice to have that advertisement in the mail show up, handing me a look at certain good deals coming up at a store I had never heard of. Finding a new movie store is always a nice thing.
I’m aware too that this kind of direct mail strategy, what many call junk mail, isn’t always going to be a wonderful success. I’m thrown my share of it into the trash I’ll readily admit, but when the right kind of postcard lands in my mailbox, I’m more than willing to give the store a chance. And this is what the direct mail strategy is supposed to be, targeting the group that is most likely to have interest in shopping at your store. It’s the ones who don’t know what a target audience is that gives the whole practice a bad name, and those are the ones I’m most likely to just toss right in the trash.
How important is customer trust? Let me elaborate -
The more centered around a service a company is, the more I’m going to want to know what the people working there are like long before I walk through their door.
If I’m going to go shopping for a new computer, I’m going to want good service too but if the place has a really good deal on a certain model then I might still end up grabbing it for the savings alone.
If I’m going to a dentist, for example, how well he cleans me teeth isn’t necessarily as important as how much he puts me at ease.
I’ve never been a big fan of the dentist, and I admittedly put it off for longer than I should. So when the day comes and I finally do pick a dentist, the additional bonus of knowing I’m going to get a follow-up greeting card from them in the mail and receive a thank you note afterwards does wonders to relax me and lets me be confident in the service I’m being provided.
Sorting through the mail is rarely a particularly exciting point in my day. Unless I know something is coming I typically don’t put any thought to what I might find, which is the very reason why a colorful postcard can be so successful. I’m not prepared for it, not expecting it, and it can be nice to take a moment to pause and absorb it. The fact that I wasn’t expecting it is part of what makes it so nice to see. I kind of like having the routine of my day momentarily put on hold, and few things can make me appreciate a company more than the ability to put a smile on my face when I least expect it.
I’ve always been involved with various short story magazines. Who knows how many monthly newsletters I get, or other information on how they’re doing. Knowing how well they’re issues sell or what they’re planning to do next is such a simple thing. I know they aren’t spending much money printing all of those newsletters and business brochures given how small most of these companies are.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve looked at a magazine only to forget it a few weeks later. I might’ve even enjoyed the issue, but if I take in too many things at once, remembering isn’t always the easiest thing. But one thing I know: when I get those newsletters, I know exactly what magazine I’m dealing with. If I’m close to a place, I like to know how they’re doing and if I’m looking at so many different companies it isn’t easy to remember who they all are. Given the affordable nature of it, it just doesn’t seem to make much sense for a company not to take advantage of keeping their customers up to date. I’m always going to remember the magazine that took the time to write up a nice looking newsletter than the one who doesn’t seem to care either way about the business I bring them. I can only hope more companies come to realize how much this works. It would be nice to feel a little more appreciated.
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