If there is one mistake small town businesses make more often than any other it's, "What ever is left over, we'll use for advertising."Marketing and advertising is an investment, not an expense. I know it sure seems like an expense to me when I'm writing the check, but trust me it's not.
Without enough money put aside for advertising your sales can go down and you suddenly have less and less for promotion.
When do you advertise the most? For most businesses it's the first day of business. Don't you have a Grand Opening, balloons, flyers, ads, on-site radio stations, contests, and prizes? Did the income from sales pay for that? No, it didn't. You advertise most when you need business. You advertise more when you don't.
An average cost of advertising is usually 1 to 5% of gross sales, which can vary according to location, local advertising rates, and industry. Car dealers need more advertising than funeral homes.
Before we get to the 25 tips let's look at the basic strategies of successful advertising.
* In order to be successful, your advertising must provide a consumer benefit or solve a problem.
* That benefit or solution must be wanted by the consumer.
* The product or service you are offering must be tied directly to that benefit or solution.
* The benefit or solution must be distinctly communicated through medial advertising. In other words, be clear, forget the advertising glitz and make sure the message isn't lost in the ad.
A small-budget advertiser doesn't have the ''deep pockets" to develop big advertising campaigns. Some time you need to break the rules to be noticed. Avis did it by admitting they were "Number 2" in the car rental business and that campaign took them from 6th place to second place. When they stopped that campaign they dropped back to 6th again. In the past year they have gone back to it.
Budget conscious advertisers must achieve top results for their advertising dollar. Expand your dollars by adopting some creative techniques.
Here's 25 tips I hope will help you.
Radio, newspapers and magazine specialists will frequently give free help in developing an advertising strategy. Things like demographic information, money-saving ways to produce your ads etc.
Place your ads in off hours or in unusual locations for less. Many times you can still reach your target market with these spots.
Instead of a one-time big splash ad, be consistent with frequent small ads that work.
Monthly magazines sometimes have unsold ad space at the end of the month they will sell at a discount.
If you have an 800 number, put it in every ad for immediate response and feedback.
Try advertising consistently in the classifieds. These ads may draw more customers than more expensive display ads.
Can you barter for the cost of ad production? Maybe the newspaper needs painting in exchange for an ad about your paint store.
Piggyback advertising are the ads you receive with your Mastercard bill. Is there someone in your town that sends out a lot of bills? Can you put a small flyer in with their bills and split the postage? Or pay a small fee?
Split advertising costs with the people who sell to you. Vendors and manufactures are always looking for exposure. Let people know you carry their products and have the vendor pick up part of the ad cost.
Are there up front advertising discounts for cash?
Consider advertising in regional issues of national magazines. The costs are lower and you can still reach your target market. TV Guide is a good choice. It stays around for at least a week. Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report may stay in local doctors offices for years.
Share ad costs with neighbor business. Video stores and Pizza parlors are natural partners. Have coupons to each others stores or share the cost of flyers.
Try reducing the size of your ad (not in the Yellow Pages) or length of your radio spots. A 60 second spot is not twice as much as a 30 second spot but you won't get twice as many customers for a 60 over a 30. Going with small ads or shorter spots will allow you to do more ads which normally pulls more customers. It's better to be there every day with small ads than every month with one big one.
Develop tight production controls to minimize the need to reject finished ads. The message is more important than the messenger. Don't try to produce ads that win awards, produce ads that sell.
Who are your very best customers? Aim your ads to talk directly to people like them.
What will suppliers give you in the way of point-of-purchase materials. Posters, stand ups, handouts, etc. Some have excellent display racks you can use.
Some national chains like Coke and Pepsi provide outdoor signs for businesses. There are also indoor lighted signs you write on with special markers to advertise your special offers.
Can you sponsor a community event? A fun-run, golf tournament, or other event that will be well publicized in the community. Your name may not be prominently displayed but sometimes the positive exposure in the community will bring in new customers.
Small businesses can seldom afford saturation advertising. You must be selective in the media that reaches your customers. Pin your ad reps down and make them show you exactly how their media reaches your target audience.
Exploit the media you choose to the fullest. If your message is verbal, you don't need TV. Use radio, billboards and newspapers to the fullest.
Consider direct mail. A letter and brochure before customer contact can increase business. An IBM study concluded that selling time can be reduced from 9.3 to 1.3 total hours with direct mail advertising. A Sales and Marketing Executives International Study showed salespeople went from eight orders per 100 cold calls to 38 orders per 100 when direct mail was used.
Try an editorial style ad. These are ads that look like actual stories in the newspaper. They will have "advertisement" at the top of the article. Develop a good headline, and 50% more people will read the article than would read an ad of the same size.
You can't match larger competitors dollar-for-dollar but, you can use unusual approaches (like the Avis idea above), color, music, slogans, humor (be careful here), or media selection to win your market away from the big guys.
Due to the high costs of conventional advertising on, radio, TV, newspapers, many cost conscious business have been forced to look for lower cost methods. Can you advertise on parking meters, taxi boards, balloons, blimps, and grocery shopping carts. Community bulletin boards, movie ads, and weekly newspaper shoppers.
Key your ads. Put something in the ad that will let you know which media it came from. On coupons, put a code that will record the paper and date of the ad. In radio or TV, have them mention the ad to get the discount. Ask every customer how they found you.
Plan for a rainy day. During the year put a small amount aside each month for emergencies. You never know when you'll need to react quickly to whatever the competition is doing. You must be able to capitalize on breaking national events or news regarding your industry. If negative things happen in your industry you may need to respond quickly to make sure the right message is presented.
Always give the customer more than you promised and more than they expected. This is tip number 27 of the 25 we advertised. Maybe this last one is the one you needed.
I hope these tips will help your business grow. Not all may be relevant to your particular situation. Hopefully, they will illustrate the importance to plan and control your advertising budget.
So, social media. It can be pretty confusing, right? After all, one person tells you one thing about it while another person tells you the complete opposite not 5 minutes later. And then the day after, you have someone else telling you it’s something in-between the previous two explanations! No wonder social media is so confusing. So what does it mean?To be honest, social media is exactly what you want it to be. You want it to be a way of finding cool and interesting websites that you would never have found before? Sign up to Stumbleupon. You want to know what blogs are popular? Get yourself a Technorati account. History of all the comments you’ve ever left? Backtype. And the list goes on.
For me, however, the true meaning of social media can be found in the way that people who would normally be business competitors offer support, knowledge and different expertise to those who need it.
I’ll give you an example. On my Twitter account, I’m probably connected to around 40 or so people from the PR and copywriting industry, whether it’s through me following them or them following me (or both, even). Now, in the “normal” business world, they would be competitors so you’d think the last thing we would want to do is help the other out.
Yet instead, Twitter sees any request for help or advice answered almost immediately, and often with information that would offer a distinct advantage if kept private. Now to me, that’s social media at its finest.
Yes, we’re all in business and we all want to succeed, but gone is the “at all costs” attitude of the last decade and beyond. With the Internet opening up a whole new world of commerce and potential customers, there really is enough to go round for everyone. And people are realizing that.
Not only that, but people are also encouraging others to succeed and offering up the tools with which to push for that success. You can’t get much more of a truer meaning of social than that, media or otherwise. Perhaps we should get the leaders of the world into social media? After all, they could use all the help they can get.
Go to Facebook.com/advertisingClick "create an ad" above the ads on the right side.Decide where to send peopleEnter the Web address for the page you want people who click on the ad to go to.
For the purposes of this example, we'll pretend we need to entice people who work at Google's office in New York to read more SAI (they already read it!), so we've entered the URL for our story "The Google Brain Drain Goes On And On."
Write a clickable headline
Use 25 characters or less. Don't be too spammy.
Write the ad copy
You only get 135 characters, so bring your Tweet-writing skills to bear.
Remember: Because of Facebook's impressive targeting, you can address your audience specifically. Here, we address Google New York employees directly.
Find an image for the ad
Don't waste time with photoshop.
Just take a screen grab of your logo or use a picture of your product already on the Internet. Make sure you own the image rights. We're using the "Google Brain Drain" logo we already created for the post.
Upload the photo
Click "browse." Find your image. Then click "open."
Proofread your ad
If it looks good. Click "continue."
Target by Geography
You can target your ad by country, state/province, and city.
We're targeting our ad to New York and Mountain View, where big Google offices are.
Target by…a lot!
You can target your ad to users based on age, sex, education, workplaces, relationships, sexual preference, language, group membership, page membership, and application usage.
We're targeting everyone who work at Google, so we filled out the workplaces box and left the rest blank.
Check your scope
Facebook tells you about how many people you're targeting.
Is the number way too big or way too small? If it's too small, target more people. If it's too big, make your targeting more specific. If it's a fine size, click "Continue."
Set your budget
We're going to spend $2 per day on this campaign because its just a demonstration.
But spend as much as you like…there's no maximum.
Decide your schedule, bid and metrics
We're going to run our ad indefinitely, though this screen grab shows how we could have set it to run for a month.
Since this campaign is more about raising our awareness among Googlers in New York, we decided to pay per impression. Keep in mind, it'll be easier to track ROI if you choose to pay per click. Either way, Facebook will estimate how many clicks or impressions your ad will get each day. Click "create."
Enter your credit card
Please don't use our number to buy stuff on the Internet! Click "place order."
All done!
Facebook will review your ad and throw it up ASAP.
Bookmark this page to track your campaign.
In today's time, people want information instantly at the click of their fingertips.They are come to the Web to find products, services, and information. We first have to create our own foundation by defining how Internet marketing works for our Business, and identifying its distinctions and components. Then discuss planning and Internet marketing strategy, as well as determining our target audience, and measuring the results of your marketing efforts.
Planning and building a Web site is crucial to the success of Internet marketing strategy.
The key elements for establishing a Web presence, including creating compelling online content for Website, in the form of articles, social media posts, online press releases, and even e-mail newsletters.
Great Web site content can only take us so far without having an audience, so we have to reach and grow our audience through successful search engine marketing, including search engine optimization, and paid and local search.
Use the power of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as blogging to keep our audience updated, informed, and engaged.
And finally, we have to jump into online advertising, as well as e-mail marketing, to help gain valuable sales and exposure.
If you are looking for marketing your service or product in the online world, the best course of action to pursue in today’s competitive scenario is articles marketing. No doubt, other means of marketing your articles including online marketing too exist and people have been trying various strategies including email marketing, sharing through social media websites and word of mouth to promote their services and products. However, it is a fact that article marketing is the true competitor that has emerged over the block.
The reasons for article marketing being the true competitor to online marketing are unique too. Below are listed some of these reasons that will help you realize as to why article marketing is considered a challenge to online modes of marketing that exist today.
Great combination of Keywords
Article marketing is the viable way of having the right combination of keywords and keyword phrases for promoting your venture. The dominance in SEO world is all about correct portrayal of keywords in the most appropriate places. Have the correct combination of keywords and half of the work will be done.
If you decide to go in for article marketing chances are bright that you will have the desired audience for your articles as the same will get highlighted owing to correct and adequate presence of the keywords. This cannot be said with certainty about other mediums of online marketing as not much emphasis is paid there to adequate and correct use of keywords.
Helps one use Keyword Rich Anchor Text Effectively
If you decide with article marketing, an added advantage comes in the form that it helps one use keyword rich anchor text effectively. This is itself makes your article or content more readable and acceptable. Increased visibility will ensure and your ideas will reach across to more people than you might have thought.
Additionally, you will be able to provide your readers with quality content and help them connect with you in a better an organized manner. This in no way is possible with other means of online marketing as sharing through social media or email marketing. Through these means, you might be able to reach the customers but will never be able to make a mark in their hearts as they will merely know about presence of your business venture. With many others in your niche vying for making a mark with readers, you are not likely to make a mark with the readers. This happens owing to the fact that you would not be using Keyword rich anchor text in any of its form.
Article marketing helps one get over these limitations as your efforts will naturally get focused on creating keyword rich anchor text, helping you maintain a lead over others in the market who would be trying the online marketing mode for making their presence felt among readers.
Focus on Quality Articles
This might not have struck your mind but if you decide to go in for article marketing for promoting your venture, your focus will shift to quality instantly. You will want to make a mark with your readers and this will encourage you to write qualitative content that is well researched.
The readers will appreciate you for your seriousness and earnest efforts that you have put in to make your venture a success. This can never be thought about in other means of online marketing as merely your presence will get reflected in the market and they will never realize the true intent of your ideas. Quality always counts and this holds true in the creative field. Go for article marketing and realize its true benefits.
Better Way of Reaching Quality Conscious People
Article marketing is a better way of reaching quality conscious people. Those who prefer quality tend to do deep rooted research on various concepts they are looking for. Article marketing helps to reach such people effectively. You will be able to increase the reach of your business effectively, as such people rarely care for joining an email list or checking out social media websites for buying a product. This makes article marketing a viable option for business owners who wish to better their prospects in the competitive online world.
Helps develop Personal Bond
Article marketing help one develop personal bonds with potential customers. Serious customers rarely connect through social media, therefore taking the idea of online marketing, a step behind.
Go for article marketing for promotion of your venture and see the difference it makes to your online presence. Your hold in the niche area will not only get strengthened but you will be able to reach much more people that would have been possible with online marketing.
From Best Buy to Old Spice, these 11 great spots show why Madison Avenue is still a $70 billion businessI was having dinner with friends the other evening, and one of the guests made a familiar statement. "I am not influenced by advertising," she said.For those of us in marketing, this is a familiar thing to hear. I often respond by pointing out that U.S. companies would not invest $70 billion (yes, that's the size of TV's ad market) in something they thought didn't work. Companies expect advertising to produce returns, just like any other investment. The reason that my friend -- and, I'm guessing, many of your friends -- think advertising doesn't "work" is that they think advertisements are trying to make them do something immediately.
They're wrong.
Successful advertising rarely succeeds through argument or calls to action. Instead, it creates positive memories and feelings that influence our behavior over time to encourage us to buy something at a later date. No one likes to think that they are easily influenced. In fact, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that we respond negatively to naked attempts at persuasion.
Instead, the best advertisements are ingenious at leaving impressions. Consider my dinner party friend, who, after claiming to be immune to marketing, proceeded to describe an erectile dysfunction ad with impressive detail. She then intoned cigarette ad slogans ("Cal-l-l for-r-r Phil-lip Mor-ray-ssss") from the early 1950s when Philip Morris sponsored the "I Love Lucy" show. You can check out that clip, and other favorite advertisements hand-selected by me and the Atlantic staff, in the gallery below.
In sum, the best advertisements use images, jingles, and stories to focus attention on the brand. They are not just creative for creative's sake.
FROM CATCHPHRASES TO CASH
Of course, as tickled as advertisers are to know they're writing catchy jingles, they don't make TV commercials for the honor of giving us free new music. They want us to buy something. The crucial challenge for marketers is: What's the best way to translate these memories into actions?
Some imagine a debate between two groups. The first group believes in raw persuasion. Its focus is on crafting a compelling argument that will encourage you, with the delivery of "new news," to buy something right away. The second group believes in the power of engagement. Its focus is on creating a positive experience that will influence you over the longer-term. Here, the objective is to seed positive ideas and memories that will attract you to the brand.
But this distinction is largely a myth. Advertisers have little control over how audiences receive their message. New news might appear relevant and credible to some ("Geico can save me 15 percent or more? Let's call!"), while others consider it unpersuasive ("Allstate's cheap enough"). Similarly, a TV commercial designed to engage the viewer might cause you to buy the brand immediately, simply because it reminds you of how much you enjoy the product ("Cute Coke spot. You know, I am kinda thirsty...").
Once in a blue moon an advert might leave you thinking, "Just what I need!" and send you running out the door to buy something. More often, however, you barely attend to the commercials you see. You do not reflect on the scenes and messages unless triggered by something else at a later date: seeing the advertised brand on the street, when you need to buy the product or, in the case of my friend, talking about it at the dinner table. Even then, it is not the ad that matters. The ideas, impressions and positive feelings about the brand that matter. Any memory that will predispose you to view the brand in a more positive light than its alternatives is a plus.
ALL ABOUT GOOD VIBRATIONS
As demonstrated by my friend, advertising memories can last decades. But my friend's discourse on advertising also touched one of the biggest pitfalls to creating successful TV advertising. Crafting a compelling message or creating an engaging impression is not easy (particularly when trying to reach an increasingly digitally distracted and time poor audience). It is equally difficult to make sure that the intended memories stick to the right brand.
My friend correctly identified the brand in the erectile dysfunction ad as Cialis. Why? Because the ad ended with a couple sitting in separate bath tubs. Bizarre? Yes. But also memorable. And, by dint of repetition, easily linked to the right brand.
So contrary to many people's beliefs, advertising does influence them. But advertising's influence is subtle. Strident calls to action are easily discounted and rejected because they are obvious. But engaging and memorable ads slip ideas past our defenses and seed memories that influence our behavior. You may not think advertising influences you. But marketers do. And in addition to millions of dollars, they have something else most people don't have: Access to data that proves their point.
Just because marketers are moving campaigns onto mobile devices, as well as Twitter and Facebook, doesn't mean the government will give them a pass when it comes to making sure ad disclosures and disclaimers are clear and conspicuous.But figuring it out could be a challenge. The long-awaited updates to the Federal Trade Commission's Dot-Com Disclosures offer a lot of helpful advice, but add up to more "don’ts" than "do’s"—leaving it up to marketers to put the guidance into practice. “The FTC won’t relax enforcement just because the ad is in a constrained space. Marketers will need to figure it out,” said Linda Goldstein, a partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which represents advertisers.
Since the FTC released version 1.0 of the disclosures in 2000, screens on which ads (and disclosures) run have gotten smaller, which can inhibit the consumer's ability to see the disclosure—rendering it potentially deceptive. "Disclosures should not be an add-on but something that is designed to be in every message and work across all devices," said Tom Chernaik, CEO of Cmp.ly.
