One of the aspects about the Web is the amount of creativity that is available to any business online. Take advantage of some of the online tools to tell your story. Whether you are looking at a making a video or a short advertising segment, tell a story that captures the imagination.
What are you waiting for? Do you want more customers today?
Get your business found online. Get to the top page of search engine results pages for your keywords. Don't get left behind.
Everyone knows that advertising is essential to growing a business. One problem that small business owners have always faced is the high cost of marketing. Most, however don't realize that there is an effective way to reduce the cost of your advertising while - at the same time - increasing its reach.
Advertising co-ops are nothing new. Usually they are a "perk" offered by major manufacturers to encourage retailers to promote their products. Because the retailer has direct access to customers that would want to buy certain products, it only makes sense that they should do joint advertising. You've seen it - McDonalds mentioning Coke in their commercials, Dell stating that you get a free Epson printer with purchase and so on.
The retailer doesn't make the product the manufacturer is providing, but it IS a great match with what they DO offer. Nobody would want to eat a Big Mac without something to drink, and a computer wouldn't do a lot of good without a printer.
Now you can use this same strategy to create your own advertising co-op to increase the reach of your ads and drastically reduce the cost, too.
--- How It Works
Generally speaking, the cost of any advertisements (bulk emailings, ezine ads, banners, newspaper, etc.) would be split equally between all participants. If you and two associates decide to purchase a solo ad, you would each receive equal mentions in the ad and you would each pay equal portions of the cost.
So if the solo ad were going to a list of 200,000 and cost $150, each of the three would pay $50. You get to reach 200,000 people for 1/3 the cost you would have normally paid. And, because this ad relates you to other types of businesses, you actually expand your advertising reach.
--- Getting Started
So who would be qualified to enter into an ad co-op with you? It depends on the nature of your business. Think of others that reach your same target customer and make a list. If you design Web sites, you might approach hosting companies, graphic artists, copywriters or programmers. If your business is landscaping, you could invite yard maintenance companies to join you.
Once you have a list of one or more business types, think of current associates you know who belong to those groups. Also, ask others if they know of any reliable businesses that fall into the categories you've outlined.
--- Making the Approach
When you have a list of businesses to approach, simply write or email them with your offer. Be sure to point out the benefits such as:
* a win-win situation * reduced cost of advertising * expanded reach of advertising * larger, more prominent ads for a fraction of the cost
Also, be sure to ask about the advertising outlets these businesses currently use. You will likely find new avenues that lead to greater exposure.
--- Finalizing the Deal
You'll need to work out payment arrangements with your partners prior to placing the ad(s). The best way I have found to handle the finances is for each party to pay me for their portion of the cost with a credit card. I then place the ad order with MY credit card. This way, you are assured of receiving the dollar amount due to you; and your partners have the assurance that - should you default on your end of the deal - they have recourse for getting their money back.
Working in cooperation with other businesses can lead to tremendous successes with advertising. When like-minded companies pool their resources to reach one target audience, the impact is doubled while the cost is reduced by at least half. That's the best advertising bargain around today!
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Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com
FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane
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Professional Web Services * Online Marketing Strategies
The online market place is very unique in the marketing and advertising aspects of the business. Marketing and advertising are on a convergence course. Doing one disciplinary, without an understanding of the other disciplinary could be limiting your bottom line sales. I have said many times that it is getting more difficult to judge whether a web page is first an online marketing concept or a creative advertising force. The reasons for the difficulty in differentiating between advertising and marketing are many because of how the Internet is structured.
The Internet is all about links. In its simplest form, that being a two page web site, or simply two key words linked together from one page to another has in effect created a small internet. By having two pages linked together; this is the foundation to form the simple Net. Now, multiply that by millions or hundreds of millions of websites, each of which may have hundreds, or thousands of pages all linked in a web network, one can quickly see how the Internet was formed. Taking the links one step further, and instead of having a text link, people now have picture links. Wow, what an online advertising concept! In this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words. While the picture is displayed on a website, many times with words written in the graphic, it can cause visual stimulations and drive the emotions of the viewer to cause an action. Thus the online advertising click through was born.
Prior to the Internet, advertising took substantially longer to inspire an action. Many times products would have to be shown repeatedly before a buyer would go to the store in order to purchase it. Now, online advertising takes on a whole new dimension in that it still many times requires repetitive viewing before an ad is clicked on, but it has a major advantage over any other form of advertising; a direct connection. No other form of advertising is at the finger tips of the target audience to provide instantaneous feedback to both the advertisers and the businesses or consumers being targeted. The advertisers can view statistics on click through rates and conversions. Likewise, the consumer or business that clicks on the ad can just as easily click the back button if they are not interested in it or like what they see.
While we're on the road to comparing advertising to marketing with pictures and images, we have not really addressed the body text and actual words in the web pages themselves. For example, having a call to action item at the end of an article, is simply a great place to advertise your business. You've set the groundwork for your product or service in a web page of your site, why waste the opportunity and not have a call to action item. Yes, this is a marketing concept, but it is also an advertising opportunity. Don't let it go to waste.
Set your business on fire, with an online presence that will produce more sales for your company. Contact Professional Web Services for a free Internet marketing report of your website.
Stop searching and get your B2B or B2C business found online now!
So now you are advertising your business, and are bringing in people but hardly any of them are becoming customers. What's the problem? Is it the advertising message, the targeted audience, or the sales conversion process?
Chuck McKay, an advertising and marketing consultant, who wrote a book titled "Fishing For Customers" and also writes in a blog by the same name Fishing For Customers, wrote an interesting article titled, The Flaw in the Advertising Plan.
The insightful article takes a look at the other end of the advertising and marketing spectrum; the sales conversion process as possibly being the problem in converting leads, visitors, and inquiries into paying customers.
The understanding of the linkage between sales, marketing, and advertising is fundamental in developing good advertising strategies for your business today. The chain linkage between S. M. A. shows that if any area is weak, the chain breaks, and sales are missed.
Learn how Professional Web Services can build a strong link for your business on the web today. Reach new customers and gain quality leads today. Contact us for a free marketing evaluation. Get it now!
There is an advertising solution for your business that can start generating leads and sales almost immediately. The solution is to use Pay-per-click, PPC advertising. This form of advertising can be highly selective, and you only have to pay for the budget that you set forth.
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Search all have similar forms of online advertising programs that can be targeted to select groups of individuals based on various criteria.
The main criteria used is the keywords themselves. Essentially you start an account and bid what you are willing to pay for a click to a particular page of your website. A business can set up a daily or monthly advertising campaign budget of a not to exceed amount. The budget can be spread out over the entire month or more aggressively advertise, displaying ads more often until the budget is used for the month.
One of the keys to successfully running an online advertising campaign is making sure your business has the proper landing pages that will produce sales conversions. A business must optimize all aspects of the ad campaign, from the ad copy, the landing page design(s), the keywords used in the ad, the keywords used in the landing page, and the call to action items, all to maximize the best return on investment.
Good advertising is a natural extension of marketing. Marketing and advertising go hand in hand. Doing one without taking into account the other is like eating a steak without a good baked potato. Edgar Watson Howe, an American novelist and a newspaper and magazine editor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries put it this way, "Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does."
Professional Web Services provides PPC campaign management, landing page designs, website optimization, and a professional marketing service. Start off on the right track, target your audience the right way, and maximize your ROI. Contact us for marketing and advertising help now.
Ethics, honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness in advertisements are a factor to driving sales, maintaining customer trust, and building brand loyalty. What is represented about a company in an Internet ad can help a brand, or if you are not careful, it can just as easily hurt a company's brand image. Sure, there might be short term gains in using unethical advertising techniques which distort or are blatantly misleading, but in the long run not following good ad ethics, a customer will remember, and if you are not the only game in town you may find yourself in another ballpark. So, do the right thing and follow good ethics in advertising and marketing.
Browse our site, kick back, stretch out the legs, slip-on those reading glasses, open your mind, and start clicking the mouse. Grow your business, generate leads, convert them into paying customers, and improve sales with great advertising resources.
Three Questions to Answer BEFORE You Spend One Cent on Advertising
I worked my way through college employed at a termite and pest control company. Pretty humble beginnings for an aspiring leader!
In California, where I lived, a home cannot be bought or sold without a clean bill of health from a termite and pest control company. As they look for these wood eating insects, termite inspectors also report any dry rot and structural flaws in the property.
Which is how I spent a month one summer in Redwood City.
Our company had inspected an imposing turn-of-the-century home that was being put on the real estate market for the very first time in its storied history. The home rested, not on a foundation, but on a dozen or so stacks of concrete block. We had been contracted to bring this building into the 20th century by putting a suitable foundation underneath it.
The crew I worked on jacked up the house with a house jack, cut the floor joists from the posts that rested on the concrete blocks, dug a trench around the circumference of the house, poured concrete, and lowered the house onto its new foundation. What an ordeal!
It is far easier and less time consuming, to put a foundation in first, and then build a house.
When it comes to advertising, most small businesses are like this old house. Instead of doing the groundwork necessary for success, they go out and build their building: advertising here, advertising there, with varying degrees of success. Thousands and thousands of dollars later, most small business owners have no idea if any of this expensive advertising had any impact at all.
Time spent on your foundation can solve this problem. Here are three questions to answer BEFORE you spend one cent on advertising:
1. Who is your target audience?
Who is the person most likely to use your products or services? This is a counterintuitive practice called narrowcasting. Instead of trying to reach everybody, narrowcasting aims at a very specific, identifiable group of people. Narrowcasting is essential for success in today's crowded marketplace. If you are everything to everyone, you are nothing to no one.
Take the time to know EXACTLY who you want to reach and learn everything about him or her.
One of my small business clients did this by tracking all the people who came into his store during a typical week. From that exercise he was able to determine the age range and gender of his primary target, professional women in their late 30's and early 40's. This group comprised almost two-thirds of everyone who came into his store. Surprisingly, he also learned who was NOT his primary target, young males 18-30, who comprised less that 5% of foot traffic on a given week.
Then he went one step further. This small business owner took 10-15 minutes with 25 of the women in his target and asked them a dozen questions. From their responses he was able to craft a profile of his target complete with likes, dislikes, buying motives, children's ages, daily habits and shaped his advertising by it.
2. What does your target audience read, listen to, or watch?
One of the questions you MUST ask your target audience is what media outlets they read, listen to, or watch. Without knowing this information, your advertising odds are no better that the lottery's.
The dirty little secret in advertising sales is that most buys are ego buys and have nothing to do with targeting. A business owner likes the radio station, or drinks beers after work with the ad rep, or wants to be a TV star in a funny commercial.
If you want to be a star, go to open mic night and the nearest comedy club. Don't gamble away your hard-earned dollars on speculative advertising. Again, find out EXACTLY what your target audience reads, listens to, or watches and place your advertising ONLY on those mediums.
Here too, though, you must be strategic. Don't do something one month in the newspaper and switch to the radio the next month and then try a direct mail coupon book. Dominate a medium that connects with your target.
If there is one secret to successful advertising, it is this: repetition.
This means having your advertising run and run and run on one medium so that it appears like you own that medium. When you are sick of seeing or hearing your ad, GREAT, your prospects are just now noticing it. Once you have dominated a medium in this way, add a new advertising medium only when you can dominate it as well.
3. What is your compelling benefit?
What do you say in your advertising now that you've defined your target and are ready to dominate a medium that speaks directly to them? Here, too, is where small businesses go awry.
Recognize any of these words?
- Quality service
- Lowest price
- Serving the state since 1982
These slogans, and hundreds like them, mean nothing because they don't say anything. A compelling benefit, however, grabs your prospects by the throat and demands their attention.
To craft your compelling benefit, you must first know your competitive advantage. What do you do better than anyone else in the business? Focus on that one thing and state it in a powerful, succinct way. Sure you do other things, and people will get to know that in time, but first you need a clear, simple focus to your messaging.
Now take your competitive advantage and state specifically how you will make a person's life different when they experience it. Will you make them money? Keep them safe? Bring greater health? Increase quality of life?
Here are two examples:
The Kingston Training Group specializes in teaching sales people how to set first appointments. Their six word slogan, all beginning with the letter M, is this: Make More Meetings, Make More Money. Note the competitive advantage, setting appointments, and the compelling benefit, increasing income, stated in a memorable way. Perfect!
The benefit statement I have for my business is this: A BETTER Business, A BETTER Life. I specialize in helping small business owners build their business in a systematic way that allows them to live the life they wanted when they started it in the first place. Again, stated in just six words.
This best part about this tool is that it is absolutely free because words are free. Work on your words. Make them simple, short, and powerful. Then build all your advertising around them. Bill Zipp, President of Leadership Link, Inc., is a seasoned small business specialist. Bill has spent thousands of hours working with hundreds of business leaders, and his proven program, The Business Fitness™ System, provides a step-by-step plan for building a strong, self-sustaining small business. For a FREE Special Report, The 3 Biggest Killers of Small Businesses Today (And What YOU Can Do About Them!) visit www.LeadershipLink.net. Target your target markets online directly with online advertising today. Get your business on the web, in front of your target markets now. Contact Professional Web Services for Online advertising campaign management. We can help you build a quality website foundation with landing pages that will sell your business. Start gaining new sales almost immediately.
Name: Warholic Home: San Ramon, California, United States About Me:Jim said: Never settle for mediocrity. Life is about change, new growth, and making a difference in the lives around us. No matter what direction life takes us in our new thinking, always striving to do it to the best of our abilities is key to success. Actions speak louder than words. B2B, B2C, and C2C Internet marketing services, ethical SEO, search engine optimization, online advertising strategies, professional web site customizations, website branding solutions with Professional Web Services, marketing business solutions. See my profile...
