Dec 06

Advertising Questions Answered

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1) If we accept that every business must have a mailing list. To me this is fundamental. The new business with one customer has a mailing list of one plus prospects?

That list is a means of communicating with the customer, verbally or in writing. Failure to communicate could mean losing the most valuable asset of the business, so your potential customers are just as important.

Cherish your customer(s) and grow your mailing list to consist of customers, lapsed customers, potential customers (qualified prospects), prospects and possibly new leads.

You can tailor your communications to the whole list or segments of the list. Learn how to grow and manage your list.

2) How do we grow the list? One of the most profitable ways is to use classifieds advertisements.

Classified advertising is best used to build a list of qualified prospects. A qualified prospect has been turned from a prospect (someone who may have a need for your product or service) to someone who has an identified need for your product or service.

Because they have responded to your advertising efforts they have indicated a possible need. Use classifieds to offer a free catalogue, booklet or report relative to your product or service.

3) Generally you can sell anything from classifieds so they are great for pulling enquiries with lines such as: Write for further information; free booklet offer, send for product or service information. Be creative in what you offer and have fun developing your advertising skills as you build your list.

4) Advertise all year round. Responses will vary, but by keying your advertisements

according to the month they appear, and by careful tabulation of your returns from each keyed advertisement you will find that steady year round responses will continue.

It has been known for enquiries and orders to still be coming as long as two years after the date of an advertisement! The media used for classifieds can lie around for a long time.

5) How can I decide where to advertise my product or service? Targeting! You have

to know your target market there are many sources of information. Public libraries, trade journals, the Internet and good old word of mouth.

In the UK we have BRAD (British Rate and Data). You are sure to have similar where you are.

BRAD contains information on nearly all journals and magazines in Britain. However you do it, make a list of the addresses, circulation figures, reader demographics and advertising rates.

Individual trade journals will provide a ‘media pack’ if you ask. The pack contains all of the necessary data.

Advertising costs money so at all times you must be sure that you are building your list profitably. The very best way to build your list for free is to get free advertising which you can do by offering an article to the journals.

The best free advertising is from the issue of regular press releases. Editors are always looking for news. Get to know the journals that cover your specialisation and issue a press release on a regular and repeating basis.

This keeps your name in front of your whole list, customers to prospects, and can offer information, free, this is what works every time ‘free information’. Don’t be daunted at the prospect of writing press releases. We show you [How To Write A Press Release] here.

Tip ‘The man who knows most is the first to want to know more’. Use press releases to offer him free information as part of your program of advertising.

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Dec 06

Advertising Methods Tips and Tricks

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When most people think of advertising they think of an ad in the local paper.

There is a lot more to it than that.

When you walk down the Street wearing a Coca-Cola shirt for example, you are in

fact advertising for Coca-Cola.

Advertising comes in many forms depending on what you wish to advertise.

I have found that the most powerful advertising cames from Word-of-Mouth.

If for example a friend was to tell me about a particular bad shopping

experience he had at a store, do you think I would shop there? No I wouldn’t.

There is Free Advertising and Paid advertising. So which would benefit a Business owner?

Free is always good and can achieve some amazing results. But Paid Advertising such as

Television Commercials and Magazine Ads can really maximize a Companies Profits.

To get some ideas about Advertising your Business have a look at some Magazines

and just note which ones catch your attention. Do any scream at you to buy whatever

they are offering?

If you are going to advertise in the Yellow Pages have a look through it and get

some idea as to what type of ad you want(the ones that stand out and you feel you

have to ring them).

Tell 10 people about your Business, the they tell 10 people and so creating the

Snowball Effect.

Blogs are good free advertising as so any social networking forms. there are many forms of Social Networking such as Myspace, Facebook.

Just remember in my opinion Word-of-Mouth can make or break a business.

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Dec 06

Advertising a Lawn Care Business With Flyers and Postcards

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One popular low cost method of advertising a lawn care business is to distribute promotional flyers or postcards around your targeted area.

A flyer is typically a one page advertisement on regular paper while a promotional postcard is printed on material similar in size and thickness to regular postcards.

While you can get a professional designer to design your flyers they can be made up quite easily at home by accessing some of the free templates available online or by using a word processing program like MS Word. If you make them yourself then you only have to consider printing or photocopying costs. Postcards on the other hand usually require a professional design and print.

Many people may tell you that flyers are no longer an effective form of marketing a lawn mowing business and this may be true in some areas but you should test this approach yourself before writing it off completely. Postcards are becoming more popular and many marketers feel that recipients are more inclined to keep them around instead of trashing them right away as they are smaller in size.

Below we set out some of the elements of postcard or flyer design for a lawn care business and we consider some of the ways that you could distribute them.

Lawn Business Flyer and Postcard Design

1) Headlines are important and will determine if your message is read or not. Grab attention right away with a headline featuring a great offer, something that arouses viewer curiosity or something that lets them know what it is that you can do to solve their problems.

2) Include a call to action such as a ‘limited time’ offer so that the reader will contact you right away instead of putting the flyer or postcard down and forgetting about it.

3) Use both sides. Put your promotion on one side and include more details about your services on the other side. It is not necessary to include price details.

4) Flyers and postcards should include all the basic details that you want to communicate and should be free or errors. Keep it simple and uncluttered by using only one font and separating key points with bullet points.

5) Test different flyers and postcards over a time period to see which variations get the best response

6) Staple your business card to your flyers to add a nice professional touch.

Distribution

1) Door to door still works in some areas but local ordinances prohibit this in other areas so find out what is permitted before you start. Door hangers can be slipped onto door handles or you can approach people outside their homes and offer your services.

2) Ask your existing customers if they wouldn’t mind passing on a few of your flyers to their friends and family if they have been happy with your service.

3) Look for notice boards in your community where you may be able to post your flyers, postcards or business cards for free

4) Slip flyers under the windshield wipers of cars parked in your local area.

5) Get together with other local businesses and do a joint promotion for several businesses on the same flyer. If all of the businesses involved put in the same effort into distributing the flyers then your message will get much more exposure than your own efforts would produce.

6) Hit consumers again and again with your advertising message as it can take a while for your message to sink in and for your service to be the one that springs to mind when they need a lawn care professional.

It is a crowded marketplace out there and consumers are inundated with numerous marketing messages every day so you must make sure that your flyer or postcard stands out from the crowd. However, with this form of marketing being reasonably cheap you only need a success rate of one new lawn care client per thousand flyers or postcards and your campaign will be worthwhile.

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Dec 06

Advertising With Free Product Samples

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Free product samples, everyone loves them. It’s seems a bit odd that so many people would make such a big fuss over a one ounce bottle of shampoo or a single sheet of a new type of paper towel but they do. There is something about the word free that instantly grabs the attention of most consumers. This is why free sample offers make such effective promotions.

Let’s say for example that you had just started a perfume company. You created a few different scents of perfume and where trying to effectively promote them. If you could find the budget to get a few thousand sample vials of this perfume you would be amazed at what type of benefits your company would see. or

The first benefit would be of course word of mouth. Many people who would never have heard of you are now telling their friends about this amazing new free sample of perfume they received. The could exponentially help to build your business though word or mouth.

Another benefit of free sample promotion is the effects it will have on your website. Lets face it there aren’t Many retail companies out there that don’t have a website. Websites are great to deliver information to your customers. If they want to know something about your company or it’s products they can simply log on to your site and all the information they need is right at their finger tips. A website can also help you to sell your products. Instead of having a localized customer base. You can sell products to anyone in the county or even the world.

When you offer a free sample on your website it will spread among various free sample sites and blogs like wild fire. Hundreds of websites will link to yours. Many of these websites completely revolve around free samples. That’s what they do deliver free sample links to their visitors. You may think this is a bad thing. If hundreds of websites link to you then thousands of possible customers will be requesting your free sample, within a few days your free sample stock will be depleted. This may be true, if this happens you simply need to post a not on your site stating that your stock has been depleted due to popular demand.

Whether you run out of sample products or not isn’t the point. With hundreds of sites,many of them older and having more authority with search engines, you’re site will begin showing up higher in search engine searches and therefore bring more customers to you via your website.

So you see free sample advertising has many benefits, some very obvious and some not so obvious. Either way, if done properly, using free samples can exponentially help your business to grow.

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Dec 06

Outdoor Advertising – Becoming an Integral Business Necessity

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Outdoor advertising is becoming a necessity for most businesses these days as it is considered as an effectual way to grab the attention of the customers while they are on a move. One can also experience an effectual amplification in ones brand presence. One main feature of this mode of advertising is that the viewers will at least spare a second to have a glance at the big billboards.

This mode of advertisement can come out as a nice way to promote ones real world business in a lucrative and interesting way. Some of the prominent reasons why the entrepreneurs are opting for this online mode of advertising are instant leads, and it is easy to remember the website for the customers or visitors. Customers can always have these in front of them as an interactive way of advertisement and the cost is comparatively less.

Another important type of advertising is airport advertising in which the airlines advertise about their services in a high tech and glamorous way. It includes wall wraps, lit signs, scrolling medias and digital signs. This type of advertising makes a lot of sense if the subject has a fair amount to spend and a good time to reach to the targeted audience.

Two other types of advertisement approaches are Media Outdoor Advertising and OOH advertising. Media outdoor advertising is considered as a strategic approach when it comes to brand promotion and the various ways in which this is carried out include billboards, vehicular advertisements and movie theater screens. OOH advertising is Out Of Home advertising that makes use of digital signage at airports, railways stations, cinema halls, shopping malls and even filling stations.

With the cost of all these advertisement modes becoming more and more affordable, the entrepreneurs have to make sure that they invest on the mode that relates to their services or products in a fine way. It can be said that these advertising modes are suitable for both small and large sized businesses, if utilized effectually and at appropriate time.

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Dec 06

Outdoor Billboard Advertising Banned In NYC’S Times Square – Imagine If This Were True

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What would it be like if outdoor billboard ads were banned in NYC’s Times Square? To me part of the allure of Times Square is the ads. The advertising, to me, is like artwork. Not only that, the lights and digital screens brighten up Times Square to make it almost seem as though it’s daytime, even in the middle of the night.

Would Times Square feel as alive as it does right now if there were billboards, no advertising, no flashing neon lights, and no television screens? The reason I ask is that Sao Paulo, Brazil has just recently banned all outdoor advertising in the city with the aim of bringing it closer to being a perceived urban ideal. The city government of Sao Paulo believes that a city without ads is better city.

Do outdoor ads really diminish the value of a city? What if the city has a bland architecture? Remove the ads and it might make it worse. I was in the formerly communist East Berlin a few years ago and I remember it being void of any color. All the buildings looked the same and were a bland color. I remember thinking that the city could use some bright billboards to liven it up.

Advertising is a mainstay in business and outdoor advertising is one avenue of the advertising pipeline. Some people hate ads because they are constantly inundated by them. Not me. I like ads and I like advertising, especially outdoor advertising. I shutter to think what Times Square would like without any ads.

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Dec 06

Advertising is Important, Make Sure Your Ad Sticks

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If you are in business then you already know the important role advertising plays in getting the word out there about your products or services. What you might not know is that some forms of advertising work better than others. I am sure by now you have sent out or are about to send out your press release. A press release is newsworthy article about your company that you send to editors of newspapers and magazine. This is a great way to get some free publicity. However why stop there. Why not turn that press release into your advertising.

Studies I have read show advertising done in a news article format has a higher return rate than that of its counterpart the regular advertisement. You know the box ad in your local newspaper that gives the business name, what they sell and how to get a hold of them.

Instead turn your advertising into an informative article. You are an expert at whatever it is your business sells. What you need to do now is write an article filled with real world statistics and relate that to your business. Remember if you make it sound like an ad people will take it that way and brush it off. If you make it sound newsworthy, interesting, educational and informative, people will be more likely to respond.

On your next advertising campaign give it a try. Write about 300 to 500 words of your very best news article related to your business. If you are not much of a writer, get a local college or high school student to do it for you for a small fee. They would love to get the experience and a few bucks on the side.

You could also use this same article as a later press release for even more publicity if you so wish. It is entirely up to you. But rest assured your advertising campaign should include this very creative way to reach your potential customers.

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Dec 05

Poster Printing Jobs – Make Ideas Bigger and Better

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All through life, we use signs and visual materials to ably guide us. Road signs, billboards, and the like are just some of the things that we find practical use for. This includes 18×24 poster printing, responsible for posters that can ably promote, attract and inform readers and various audiences.

Posters as an advertising medium can greatly increase your media mileage at such a cost-effective rate. Whatever your purpose may be, you can greatly increase its popularity through posters.

Advertising and 18×24 Posters

Through cheap poster printing and bulk 18×24 poster printing, you can make your products, services, and ideas more prominent by placing your posters in all places imaginable. Your audience’s repeated exposure to your posters can effectively make them remember your message better.

Increasing the quantity of your posters is a good tactic if you wish to be visible and as mentioned earlier, prominent. While 18×24 poster printing isn’t the same as your 5 minutes of fame, it can be better.

Even when you think of advertising using other materials, posters are definitely an indispensable print material which you shouldn’t go without. After all, it is as effective yet affordable alternative. So while you continue to invest heavily in your business, you can continue to advertise without it weighing down on you so much.

18×24 posters are just excellent advertising materials. They use both image and text to communicate messages. Like miniature billboards, they are a sight to behold with their wonderful designs and colorful schemes.

With high-impact colored images, it isn’t easy to turn away from posters which you can use for almost anything.

Posters can be used for a lot of things. Let us look at some practical areas where it could best be utilized.

• Electoral campaigns

Even if politicians do have a lot at their disposal for more expensive advertising mediums such as TV, posters still do earn their share in getting votes.

Posters can be used in campaigns for positions in organizations, clubs other than the public office. You can place them strategically, in events, motorcades, conferences and the like.

These can even be given away so that people or supporters can ably demonstrate their support for you.

• Events Promotions

Posters can excellently describe and promote any event or occasion. It can contain all the information needed for those who would like to attend the event, at the same time it can tempt and invite others who have no previous ideas. And so, it both serves as a reminder that people may not forget at the very least.

• Window Displays and Stand-up Displays

Posters can also make wonderful window displays since they can be mounted or plainly hanged up. They can fit wonderfully on store front windows. They can also be used as store or stand up displays where these posters can be put up on an easel or by other means.

• Instructional Posters

Of all the posters, instructional posters look as if they are the least appealing. Yet, instructional posters contain valuable information that people do care to read them. They are mostly found in schools and play areas directed to children. It can also be found in hospitals and in other public places.

• Movie Posters

Poster printing is notably known and used for movie posters. Movie posters along with trailers have earned their niches in the entertainment industry. Not only does it excite and hold people in awe, it effectively draws them in to watch the movie.

Posters, with its popularity have even been considered as a popular art vehicle. And so, more than ever, you can use posters as your new art material.

Reach a wider audience with eye-catching posters. 18×24 poster printing is a high-impact yet affordable means to promote your planned event, product or even movie. Contact an online printing company and see how you can transform your ideas into bigger ones with 18×24 poster printing.

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Dec 05

Advertising Before Mass Media – Vintage Signs

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Today we are inundated with advertising everywhere we go. From TV and radio advertising, to internet and billboard advertising, its almost impossible to go one day without seeing some form of advertising.

Before modern advertising, companies had to work with what they had in order to advertise. Broad media outlets either did not exist or were not used by many. Other than newspapers, companies did not have broad access to consumers as much as they do today.

So how did some of these old companies manage to grow so large before the days of TV and radio ads? Many chose the medium of tin signs. Today we know them as vintage signs or antique signs. These colorful painted signs advertised everything from soda and beer to oil and laundry detergent.

Antique auto signs have become popular to collect. Of course there are vintage signs made by Ford, GM and Dodge, but if you’re lucky you can find antique tin signs from companies that no longer exist.

Vintage and antique signs have become a very popular item to collect. For history fans, antique tin signs offer a glimpse into a simpler time and give insight into how business used to be.

Why Would Companies Choose Tins Signs?

Tin signs were a great form of advertising. People could hand them up inside or outside of business establishments and they did the selling. They could be mailed to places where they could be displayed and it would benefit both the company and the retailer. Obviously tin signs worked as an advertising medium since many of the signs still exist and many of the companies that used them are still in business.

Consider popular antique tin signs made by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, as well as Quaker State and Ford Motor Company. These signs still exist and many are in original condition, which makes them popular with collectors.

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Dec 05

Media Planning And Buying For An Effective Advertising Campaign

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This article will explore the principles behind media planning. After all the research and strategizing has been carried out by a business the next stage they have to face is to start promoting what they are offering to their potential new customers.

Certainly the most important weapon in any company’s bid to reach those new customers is a well-conceived advertising campaign. It is therefore essential that they spend time planning it.

When it comes to producing a well conceived media advertising planning strategy there are certain things that need to be looked at.

Today there are a number of different ways in which a business can get their message across to their customers. They could if they want use the television, newspapers, magazines as well as the radio.

Plus they may want to consider see what ways they can advertise their business on the internet. However which ever media advertising method they decide to do they will also need to be aware of their budget constraints.

In order to plan their advertising campaigns correctly there are 3 questions that any good media planner should be asking themselves.

1. What is the right mix of media to use for the campaign?

2. Which of any of the media available could offer them direct access to the customers that they are targeting?

3. How often should their advertisements be shown and when should they be shown.

Once they are able to provide answers to these questions then the media planners can start to look at the budget that they have and how to utilize it fully.

It is the job of the media planner who often works as part of an advertising agency or even for a specialty firm to device the right media planning strategy. The job of the media planner is to work closely with the people within the business in order to devise a plan and strategy that will bring that all important customer to the businesses door.

Unfortunately when it comes to devising the perfect media planning strategy for a business the best thing that any media planner can do is first learn about it. It is important that they spend time with their client learning as much as they can before they actually devise a strategy to bring the customers flocking to the company’s door. Once the media planner has devised the plan which they feel will work best for the company they then pass on what they want to happen to a media buyer, which could be someone else or the same person.

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