Dec 06

Successful Business Advertising

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As print media advertising seems to be taking a back seat to other forms of advertising, strategies for your business may change. Many articles on the Internet are written for a third grade level of reading whereas typical print media is written to a seventh grade level. While a direct mail marketing strategy still works, this can be a relatively expensive proposition compared to Internet advertising.

Another form of strategically buying and merchandising the products in your store is by paying extreme attention to the bottom line. If it’s not selling get rid of it. Slash your inventory and move on. Business to business direct marketing is another place where you can pay attention to the bottom line. While courting certain clients may necessary in the long term, pay special attention to your paying clients now.

Different forms of advertising can of course target certain customers. Electronic bill board advertising and mobile billboard advertising bring attention to your product in specific areas. In the case of mobile advertising, the message travels throughout a town or region.

Mobile event marketing tells people about a particular event in a certain region. This is an excellent way to bring attention to a special sale or a grand opening. Outdoor billboard advertising is a great opportunity to target a specific audience. This links well with LED displays on billboards.

Advertising on radio is a tried and true method of advertising that if done correctly can not only bring people to your place of business but also succeed in helping you make sales. Remember advertising on radio does not have to be pretty; it just has to get you sales.

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Dec 06

Receive a New Car With an Attractive Advertisement

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Nowadays ad companies are so powerful that all kinds of different product and company advertising have been seen on the sides of busses, subways, or trucks. Vehicle marketing of the largest companies is so skilled and developed. The better places that make advertising explore you find, the more money from advertisers you get. Luck people living in the countries that automobile industry is developed have a chance to drive free cars. That means ad companies provide you a car, and when you drive it the car payment and car maintenance is the company’s responsibility.

But people must know about what your sponsoring company want you to do and not to do. When you get a free car, you should drive it frequently, choosing to accept payment for driving your own car. You should pay attention to have your car wrapped by advertising seen frequently.

A man older than eighteen years with a valid driving license can apply with ad companies though accessing to database of the companies. Taking about 30 minutes to make a application, some questions will be asked. Those questions are related to how much you drive, where you park your car and what your hobbies and interests are. What makes a man a member of this kind of plan depends on our driving patterns, lifestyle and car availability.

You can either choose to receive a new vehicle wrapped by an attractive advertisement, or you could get paid for displaying advertising on the side of your vehicle. The average payment is from $200 – $1,000 per month. The car belongs to the Sponsoring Company. Most free car programs usually last for two years. At the end of your contractual agreement (usually 3 to 5 years), you may have the option of purchasing the car you have driven at a discounted price. That is usually a great price.

There are hundreds of thousands of people already take part in this kind of business. Many of them accept driving a rolling billboard well, even if they don’t like it much. However, when people check with ads companies, they will know drivers do have the right to refuse advertising they object to.

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Dec 06

Aerial Advertising Campaigns – Very Affordable For the Budget Conscious

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In an age of high-speed internet, online marketing and other advertising media, one might ask what the relevance of airplane advertising is. But truth be told, it is still the most cost-effective form of advertising. Online ads maybe appealing but the hidden costs are more than in any other form of marketing. Coupled with the fact that online ads are subject to ad-fatigues and tend to wear out faster than other ad media and it has to be refreshed more often which increases the expenditure. Television and radio ads are obviously much more accessible and much more expensive. But nothing comes closer to a company’s message being towed behind a small airplane, in the clear blue sky, over thousands of watchful eyes. The cost is astonishingly low and the impact is palpably intense.

Imagine a group of teenagers on spring break, people stuck in traffic, or even a crowd relaxing on the beach. Just visualize their amusement when they see a plane towing a huge, brightly colored banner and envisage the impact that the banner would have on them. Indeed, a recent survey has revealed that 30-minutes after viewing any aerial banners for as little as 17 seconds, 88% people remember seeing the banner go by, 79% could maintain information of the product or service being advertised and 67% retained at least half the message from the ad.

The initiative behind advertising of any kind is to get across your message or promote your products or services to thousands of prospective customers, at the lowest costs possible. Aerial advertising fits the bill completely. It also opens up the road to otherwise inaccessible locations like distant towns and villages on hills. The messages can be flown anywhere across the entire USA over crowded beaches, rush hour traffic, ballparks, race tracks, festivals, rock concerts, theme parks, parades… the list is seemingly endless.

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Dec 06

Small Business Marketing Advertising – Making Print Advertising Work For Your Business

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Print advertising has always played a key role in small business marketing advertising. Newspapers, magazines, yellow pages, even yearbooks all have advertisements printed on them. If you have made an advertisement for printing before, your advertiser may have given you specific prices for different standard sizes. This is what they call display ads.

While display ads may be a good advertising tool for your small business marketing, if you just follow the most common and “standard” procedures of advertising your product, then you will likely end up with a boring, bland, or worse, bad, advertisement. Your ad will just end up blending and looking very much like the ad of your competitor.

How can this be?

The answer is really very simple. Because people tend to copy what the majority are doing. So plumbing services all have pipes in their ads, electrical hardware stores all have the same layouts, hotel ads have the same pictures and your small business may have incorporated what your “peers” in the business are using also. In the end, you are just another tree in the forest. And in this age of information overload, people have already learned how to ignore advertising.

Unfortunately, most so-called experts in print advertising really have no training in advertising at all and will probably just give you an offer on what the standard layouts are. And you can rightfully assume that these layouts are just based on what they have been receiving from their clients. The main purpose of having a standard layout is so that your ad will have the same look and feel as the other ads printed on the paper and therefore blend nicely with the others. But that’s exactly the problem! Your ad will just look and feel the same as any other ad.

So what you should do?

Simple. Be original. Make your ad stand out from among the other trees in the forest. Part of the strategies you will always hear in small business marketing is to keep your advertisements interesting and original so that your target audience will be interested in what you have laid out and printed. So what if your ads don’t look like the usual ads. That’s exactly the point here. You want your ads to be different and original.

Think outside of the box. There are literally thousands of great advertising ideas out there which have not yet been tapped and can give you an edge among your competitors. There is always a better way of delivering your message across your target audience aside from the traditional methods of putting your name, what you do and how “fair” you are with your “quality” service and “affordable” price. This could be true to your small business, but always remember that the words “fair”, “quality” and “affordable” or “cheap” have been used so many times that most customers have learned to be skeptical of them.

Have you ever tried monitoring your ads?

Here are a couple of good question for you: Have you ever monitored the success or failure of your print advertisements? How do you determine if it’s effective or not? If you have a small business and you want to keep track of your expenses, then you should be able to track advertising expenses also. So try maximizing direct response techniques in your small business marketing.

While it is a good idea to put your name on the ad, make sure that it is not the first thing people will see. In direct response advertising, a headline that catches the attention of the viewer should occupy the biggest space in the ad. Make a headline that would require a customer to make a decision within a few seconds after seeing your ad. And the most important decision would be: Should I go on reading this ad or not? Do not overly emphasize the name of your product in print advertising and making it the biggest part of your ad. This is because customers do not really care about the name of the product, they care about what they can get from the product. Instead of giving them the features, emphasize on the benefits!

What has this got to do with monitoring? You can simply ask your customer where they got their information. If you have already done an ad with your product name as the biggest headline, you can compare the customer response with your new ad which emphasizes the product benefits. If this is your first time to go on print advertising, then you can easily monitor the results.

Print advertising is an investment in your small business marketing advertising. You should carefully study your strategies in selling your product via print media. By simply following the tips above, then this investment need not become an unnecessary expense.

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Dec 06

Postcard Printing – Small Companies Advertisement Dream

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These days, both small and large businesses have discovered a successful way to target their prospective and existing clients is by using postcard advertising. Postcards can be an efficient promotional method. Several of the positive features include the economy of printing and sending, and they are easy to manage.

Business postcards are simple to make. Using plenty of color, displaying images, and using both sides of the cards will grab the attention of your potential customers. Because of this, they often work more efficiently than using letters or brochures.

A number of small companies utilize printing of postcards in order to do their promotions. Others use this type of postcard to mail out a response, conduct a survey, or provide specifics on their goods. Ordinarily, companies utilize printing of postcards to send out vouchers, or to promote their business and provide information on their goods.

This is sometimes used as payments or renewal cards for newsletters and periodicals by some companies.Both brand and company recognition is offered by the postcards.The benefit for a consumer is that postcards can be suitable for order and reply.

You may have observed that a number of postcard making businesses favor direct mailings, determining themselves whether to use bulk mailouts or choose first class delivery. It has been shown that a number of printing firms use an offset type of press. This gives them the option of colors, among them ordinary color processes and customized colors. The logo for the business, for example, will need to be custom colored and printed.

You get postcards in a range of sizes. The printing costs differ according to the kind of card stock utilized. It is seen that heavier the stock, it will be more long lasting and more costly. Some other card stock alternatives include coated as well as uncoated ones. You will see that coated stocks are more durable. They also present a soft and sleek finish. If you are artistically inclined, then you can design your own business cards aswell. If not you will find lots of business cards online. You can select one which meets your requirements.

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Dec 06

Aerial Advertising Campaigns – Very Affordable For the Budget Conscious

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In an age of high-speed internet, online marketing and other advertising media, one might ask what the relevance of airplane advertising is. But truth be told, it is still the most cost-effective form of advertising. Online ads maybe appealing but the hidden costs are more than in any other form of marketing. Coupled with the fact that online ads are subject to ad-fatigues and tend to wear out faster than other ad media and it has to be refreshed more often which increases the expenditure. Television and radio ads are obviously much more accessible and much more expensive. But nothing comes closer to a company’s message being towed behind a small airplane, in the clear blue sky, over thousands of watchful eyes. The cost is astonishingly low and the impact is palpably intense.

Imagine a group of teenagers on spring break, people stuck in traffic, or even a crowd relaxing on the beach. Just visualize their amusement when they see a plane towing a huge, brightly colored banner and envisage the impact that the banner would have on them. Indeed, a recent survey has revealed that 30-minutes after viewing any aerial banners for as little as 17 seconds, 88% people remember seeing the banner go by, 79% could maintain information of the product or service being advertised and 67% retained at least half the message from the ad.

The initiative behind advertising of any kind is to get across your message or promote your products or services to thousands of prospective customers, at the lowest costs possible. Aerial advertising fits the bill completely. It also opens up the road to otherwise inaccessible locations like distant towns and villages on hills. The messages can be flown anywhere across the entire USA over crowded beaches, rush hour traffic, ballparks, race tracks, festivals, rock concerts, theme parks, parades… the list is seemingly endless.

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Dec 06

Selecting a Display For Digital Signage

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Choosing your first digital signage display can be a daunting prospect given the huge variety of displays available ranging under 2″ to over 100″ and with differences in brightness, contrast ratio, aspect ratio, viewing angle, display technology, connections, mounting options and, of course, price.

In general you want the largest, brightest display with the greatest possible viewing angle but often you can’t find everything in one display and you have to chose which attributes to favor. This article discusses each attribute and helps you decide what to purchase.

Although bigger is normally better, sometimes a smaller display may be better suited to a particular location like counter top in a doctor’s office, pole-mounted mounted next to a cash register or attached to a shelf in an aisle. Sometimes it can be more effective to put multiple smaller displays closer to the products they are promoting rather than having one larger display trying to promote multiple products.

LCD display

Most modern screens have an aspect ratio of 16:9 (widescreen) although 4:3 monitors are still common and many computer monitors have slightly different ratios like 16:10. Some display manufacturers are starting to create novel displays with unusual aspect ratios like the LG M3800S-BN display which has a very wide format making it ideal to squeeze into a narrow space on a wall such as above a bar or cabinet. The most important thing is to ensure that your chosen display type and orientation is supported by your digital signage software so that it can create content that fills the display with no black bars and no distortion.

Most digital signage software also supports displays that have been rotated 90 degrees to the left or right. This can be a great way to maximize screen space on a narrow wall like in an entrance lobby. It also makes for a good poster format for content more suited to an arrangement like that, for example, a menu. But before you try mounting a display in a rotated configuration you should make sure it has good viewing angles in that orientation (more on that below).

A high-brightness display is particularly important if your chosen location is subject to sunlight or bright lighting. Many consumer-grade displays simply aren’t bright enough for the average retail or storefront location and you’ll want to look at brighter industrial-grade displays for such locations.

Contrast ratios and black levels are important but less critical for digital signage than, say, a screen to show movies on. Typically you will design your content to ensure that your text has very high contrast against the background image or video and that makes the absolute blackness or final contrast less important than a screen for watching movies.

Viewing angle, on the other hand, is much more important for digital signage than for regular TV watching because your audience will often be off-axis and moving around rather than sitting still directly in front of the screen as they would be at home. You want as wide a viewing angle as possible to ensure that people can read your messages even if they are viewing the screen at an oblique angle. 180 degrees is clearly the theoretical best viewing angle possible since it means anyone in front of the screen can see it but typically you’ll find screens claiming around 140 to 160 degrees. The quoted viewing angle is however somewhat meaningless as most manufacturers use the angle at which the contrast ratio is 10% of the on-axis contrast… that’s barely enough to see let alone to communicate your message clearly. Most LCDs have a ‘realistic’ viewing angle for digital signage of around 30-40 degrees from either side of on-axis.

Viewing angle is normally quoted only for the horizontal direction because screens are typically mounted at eye-level and everyone in the room is at the same level. But if you are mounting your screen high up, or if you mount it in a 90 degree rotated orientation (portrait instead of landscape) you need to worry about the vertical viewing angle. Since this number might not be available for your chosen screen the only way to find out is to try it or to ask before purchasing.

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Dec 06

A New Wave in Advertising & Promotions

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Companies and organizations seeking a unique venue for marketing their products or messages might want to look seriously into the video games venue which in a sense have just the opposite reach process of traditional media advertising.

AN UPSIDE-DOWN PENETRATION MODEL

Consider first the model upon which traditional media are based. Print and broadcast media are quick to offer the maximum exposure instantly with sharply diminishing returns as time progresses away from the date of introduction. However, the ability to produce the promised exposure instantly make these media the venue of choice for most marketers.

In very similar fashion to the instant market penetration afforded by traditional media the internet, through high-traffic sites, offers similar instant results for those willing and able to pay for the cost of that exposure which like traditional media advertising can be graphically presented as a pyramid… wide at the base and narrowing with each move upward in time.

On the other hand, like many of the exposure models being played out on the internet through websites, blogs, and articles whose presence is magnified as search engines find them presents an inverted penetration model in which the initial exposure starts almost unnoticeably then increases over time.

Most marketers would tend to steer clear of any models which represent more of a seed-planting approach rather than a megaphone to get their message out but when one considers the cost and ultimate potential of a somewhat viral-marketing process over a one-way ad-to-consumer process, the idea of video games as a marketing tool can be a unique way to cultivate a new audience with the potential to grow rather than diminish over time.

AN OPPORTUNITY – OLD AND NEW

The idea of giving out video games, or any freebie for that matter, is certainly nothing new in the promotions and advertising area. But what makes the concept novel is today’s technology to incorporate one’s message within the game interface itself rather than on the cover or accompanying literature that often gets tossed in the first place.

Unlike most advertising items… frisbees, pens, bags, and the whole spectrum of products on which is based the enormous specialty items industry, video games truly connect with the consumer while providing an opportunity to present a message that will definitely be seen and heard. The very nature of a game which involves getting others to participate, allows for a type of viral-marketing in which users pass on the message carrying venue from one to another a process that lends itself to increasing reach over time.

So when you really think about it there’s nothing new about giving out a free game… it’s a practice as old as promotions itself. But to give out something that folks will share with others is definitely something the marketing world can stand a bit more of!

SO, WHY NOW?

Game developers until now have had to invest major amounts in the development of games possessing the level of playability and graphics sufficient to appeal to the average players. However, like everything else in the digital field, game development software and programming-savvy types have burgeoned to create a very good amount of product on the market. This new technological venue combined with the cost-effectiveness of producing and delivering CDs and DVDs to target markets have literally created a new option for advertisers to disseminate messages to recipients more likely to keep and utilize the promotional piece.

Most of us have received complimentary CDs with an advertiser’s name on the cover. But beyond that, once the CD was being enjoyed (if played at all!) there was absolutely no reference to the benefactor of the “free gift!” By their very nature, games are intended to be played and, given a good enough game, they will be played over and over. By personalizing the game – placing messages that emerge on certain events during the course of play, advertisers now have a means to stay in front of their intended audience… over and over.

A CASE IN POINT

The “Waikiki Surf Challenge” is a recent offering of a surfing video game created for play on computers. Personalized messages can be placed via banners at the open and close of the game as well as in the background that appears in between the rise and fall of the waves. Even more impactive is a talking surfer (using the customer’s provided face) that comes out speaking every time a wipeout occurs. Just imagine on every wipeout, the president of Allstate appears saying “aren’t you glad you’re covered by Allstate?”

Using a game to put out one’s message might be a little trickier than opting for the traditional media but if you’re looking for a unique way to position yourself in your market, take a look at the horizon. Your wave might just be rolling in!

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Dec 06

Advertising On A Shoestring Budget

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An effective marketing plan doesn’t need to be elaborate and expensive. You don’t need a huge budget just to get the most successful catalog marketing campaign. In fact, even on a shoestring budget, you can always come up with an effective one if you just put your mind to it.

Often, it’s the personal touch that makes your custom catalogs really worthwhile. When you want to seal the deal, create a marketing piece that any catalog printing company would be proud to have. Here are some suggestions to help you make the most of your marketing budget however small it is:

The Power of the Press Release

Just like a press release, use your products and services in your marketing tool to come up with a newsworthy piece that can be reprinted by most dailies and news publications. If you want to get attention, write a strong marketing piece on one of your catalog product and let the reporters spread the news for you.

Be Unique: Think Differently

Draw the media to your business by cooking up an event that would attract much attention. If you’re a catalog printing company for example, you could run for the Guinness Book of World Record for the fastest printing time in history. Or if you’re in the sandwich industry, you can prepare the biggest sandwich in the country and have people lining up to get a taste.

Put A Face In Your Marketing Collaterals

A photo in your marketing collateral makes it more personal and human. It puts a personality in your business that makes it easier for your target readers to remember you.

Use Testimonials

What makes your promises and benefits more effective to your target readers is if you have somebody who actually tried your product and was happy about the results. Include testimonials to your marketing package. It helps a lot in marketing your product or service if somebody in fact benefited from your business.

Think Big

You don’t have to always outdo your competition; you just have to think big for your business. Although it sometimes gives you a great feeling when you can be better than your business adversary, it makes a world of difference if you can think of a way to actually offer something that your clients won’t find anywhere else.

Ever heard the cliché, ‘think out of the box’? This just proves that in order for you to stand out, you have to add something extra to what you already have. If you have a pet grooming shop, you might want to add a café for the owners while they’re waiting for their pets to finish.

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Dec 06

Subliminal Messages in Advertising – Overwhelm, Overdeliver and Overload With Free Bonuses

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There are many powerful subliminal messages in advertising. We are only going to deal with one of those messages which I think is probably the most powerful one. And that message or emotion is greed. No one likes to admit this particular emotion but it courses through each and every one of us.

One of the best ways to get through the barriers that people put up in order to protect their finances is through the emotion of greed. People love to know that they are getting more than they are actually paying for. They love a freebie, or another word for it is bonus.

If you give them free bonuses that are worth $100, but the product that they are purchasing only costs $7, then you are well on your way to capturing their $7. Mind you, the free bonuses have to be something of value. They also should be closely linked to the product that is being purchased.

It doesn’t make sense giving $100 worth of Internet Marketing material to someone who you are trying to sell knitting needles to. Obviously, your bonuses should be in the area of maybe wool or even an ebook teaching different knitting patterns. Gifts like these show the power of subliminal messages in advertising.

When you give gifts like these, it is like putting bait on a hook that lures their finances by way of greed. In order to get them to spend they must perceive that the free bonuses you are giving them contain great value.

Bundle those free bonuses. Lock them into your main product. Overwhelm, overdeliver, and overload. Then watch as these silent salesman go to work for you. You will not be disappointed.

I usually let the free bonuses do all the work for me as opposed to giving discounts. Anytime you give a discount you eat into your profit margin. So stay away from discounting your prices.

Sometimes I like to give a bonus before we get going. For instance, before I even get into the act of trying to sell something, I give a gift. I generally call this a gift of encouragement. It is designed to encourage my visitor to continue through to the sale.

When I do something like that I always let them know upfront that there are more gifts at the end of this selling cycle. They usually carry on through to the end. Using subliminal messages in advertising can yield very positive results. The buyer gets more than what they bargained for and the seller is able to make a sale.

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