March 26th, 2008
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Typical methods of advertising-newspapers, radio and television are effective if used properly, but there are other, less expensive ways to get your company’s name out.
Local or cable television is an inexpensive alternative to the traditional forms of advertising. Even if you have no experience advertising in this medium, there are companies who specialize in lending a helping hand. Even if finances are a concern (as they are for most of us), you’ll be surprised to discover a 30 second spot television ad can cost as little as a few hundred dollars.
Many areas have public auctions on local stations that will advertise your product, if you donate up to a certain dollar amount. The number of advertising spots will depend on how much you donate.
Remember also to send press releases to your local television and radio stations. Many times they will come out and do a story on you, if it is of interest to the public.
We volunteered to do resumes for people out of work and sent releases to all the radio and television stations. One of the three major networks in our area, sent someone out to interview us, and we were on the 6 and 11 o’clock news.
As for radio advertising, check your local stations for rates. You’ll be surprised at how low some of them are. Again, if you send press releases to the stations, sometimes they will call you as an expert in your area, or for an interview. We sent releases to all the stations in our area when we started our support group, and this generated three times the number of people we expected for our first meeting.
Since most major newspapers are expensive to advertise in, check with the smaller local papers. You can advertise in many of these for as little as $25 a month. You could also offer to write a column for these publications, as an expert in the area, if appropriate.
We all need to advertise in one way or another. Which medium you choose will depend on your particular business.
Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2000
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You Are WrongIt appears that most gurus if you want to call them that represent themselves as experts. In several statements that Ive read, they refer to other marketers as making mistakes. Yet, when they make the same mistakes, they call it testing.I read a quote one time about a child learning to walk. […]
Business Ethics: Would You Buy From You?You can never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl BaileyAT the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it seemed that business ethics had become an oxymoron, that integrity was for suckers and that profit was the singular force driving business.Then, as mega-corporations collapsed and scandalized companies fell, we witnessed the fragile framework of […]
When and How Do I Track My Advertising?Each and every time it runs!That’s the easy answer. After all, it’s your money and your business at stake. You should be learning from every campaign. Here are some basic questions:(1) How many customers did you reach?(2) Why did they pick your business?(3) What was in the ad that made them call or […]
Advanced Tips for Advertising OnlineAdvertising online is really important for the online business. It is also very effective. You can use different types of online advertising methods to get the desired result.Place all your online advertisements in a website that has the maximum visitors a day. This is important because more visitors will ensure that you get good numbers […]
Written by info on March 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on accounting.
There are plenty of rights and wrongs, dos and donts in business card design. And it can get pretty confusing trying to remember all of them by heart.
Business cards are your allies in making your business thrive. It is the vantage point that connects clients to you and to your business. It pays to invest on quality business cards that will effectively draw clients towards you.
Business cards are made to attract attention. Thus, designing your business cards must be based with the intent to lure clients and make an impression on them. One should design business cards with the intent of communicating certain values and ideas to clients. The reason being is that business card designs can relay messages to clients ?borne out of impressions on the design itself.
Build Up Your Image
Image is an important factor for it builds up confidence, trust and security to clients. An image should always be a good reflection of you and your business to inspire clients. From top to bottom, even the littlest details such as the business card can demonstrate what measure of standard you and your company observes.
Simply put, a bad design is comparable to an applicant, dressed in a lousy suit for a job interview. Then and there, anyone can make negative assumptions and generalizations based on appearances alone. Thus, discouraging anyone to take you seriously or do business with you.
Imitation
Imitation they say is the sincerest form of flattery. This may be true but it is useful as well.
Scan business cards that you have collected thus far and screen which ones are the most appealing. You can also look up to you competition and see what makes its business card design noteworthy.
One does not have to duplicate another companys business cards. However, it is useful to note which elements work together. You can also study how the business cards appeal to you and why. You can use these ideas when you finally design you own business cards.
Originality
As what has been done before, you can use the strong points of popular business card designs and give it with your own twist. Integration is a key element to produce designs you can call your very own.
It is wise to remember that you should be able to express your own style or express your company identity in your business card design. Use fonts that are distinct to your company brand or image. Use colors too that can easily be associated with your company.
Thematic Business Cards
It is also practical to align your companys image or your nature of business in your business card design.
Observe templates and you can see how categories contain images that are easily associated with real estate, banking, information technology and the like. This directly and easily identifies your business card and your nature of business from others.
Logo
To give your company more prominence, it is advisable to include your company logo or emblem on your business card. The logo can be a powerful symbol that readily indicates your products and services It also projects a more professional appearance to your business card, without cluttering it with other images.
Quality
Entrust your business card printing and design to experts. Leave it to online printers who have years of extensive experience and knowledge in the printing industry. Choose an online printer who guarantees you quality business card prints, from paper stock, ink and printing equipment.
Designs can effect how the clients perceive you and your company. It can say a thing or two about your companys standards, product quality and the like by simply the way it looks. This is why both planning and execution is important in business card printing. Keep in mind these following ideas and youll be on the right track.
Business Cards Design tips can be found at U Printing: Business Cards Printing Services
Business Ethics: Would You Buy From You?You can never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl BaileyAT the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it seemed that business ethics had become an oxymoron, that integrity was for suckers and that profit was the singular force driving business.Then, as mega-corporations collapsed and scandalized companies fell, we witnessed the fragile framework of […]
You Are WrongIt appears that most gurus if you want to call them that represent themselves as experts. In several statements that Ive read, they refer to other marketers as making mistakes. Yet, when they make the same mistakes, they call it testing.I read a quote one time about a child learning to walk. […]
God Bless The Refrigerator Magnet!Ah, my very favorite promotional product of all, the refrigerator magnet. They are my favorite, because they are so extremely inexpensive, and extremely effective in getting your company name seen in countless locations.They dont make the greatest commission for a salesman of advertising specialties, but I cant stop myself from recommending these little beauties […]
Local Classifieds Convert BestWith internet taking over the whole business transactions, the focus of advertising re-shifts to the power of words. Local classifieds used to have a stigma as being read by only people in the lower income strata. The runaway success of real estate classifieds in real estate magazines, auto classifieds in auto classifieds section of newspapers […]
Written by info on March 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on accounting.
If you are trying to promote your business now, you can move in one of two directions:
You can take the conventional route to promotion and mount an elaborate media campaign, spending a considerable amount of money.
You can let your creative juices flow and mount a low-cost promotion effort, using a potpourri of attention-getting strategies to bring your message to the buying public.
Now, to be sure, conventional advertising is valuable. If your enterprise is large enough or if you’re selling numerous product lines, you may find that a full-fledged media campaign is the most efficient and cost effective way to promote your business.
If money is tight, however, or you’re not sure you can amortize the heavy cost of a media campaign over a period of time, the following is a assortment of low-cost techniques you can try. Not all may be appropriate for your particular business, and certainly it would be costly to try them all. But you’re sure to find some ideas that will work for you.
PARTIES. Everyone loves a party. Why not celebrate the anniversary of your business or some special holiday by offering baked goods and beverages? If you’re running a service business, perhaps you can offer an open house or obtain a small banquet room in your community. Besides refreshments, be sure the place is brightly decorated.
GREETING CARDS. Do you send out greeting cards to major customers or clients? Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries make nice greeting card occasions. Greeting cards create enormous goodwill and keep your name in front of people.
SEMINARS. In this information hungry age, people love to receive advice, especially about their personal needs and hobbies. If you sell health foods or run fitness classes, perhaps you can offer “wellness” seminars during lunchtime to your area’s business community. If you’re an interior decorator, perhaps you can offer one-hour decorating workshops to any group of ten people who will gather in someone’s home. If you’re running a printing business, perhaps you can offer tours and layout seminars at your plant.
MAGAZINES. For free advertising space, many publications will write an article about you or your product if you purchase advertising space with them. One way publications sell advertising space is to agree that if the advertiser purchases the ad, he will also receive a certain amount of free editorial space. This free editorial space essentially doubles the amount of space you get for a given amount of money. This editorial space is devoted to an article about the company or individual or product, and it has the added cachet of seeming to be work of an outside source. The editorial company be written by the publication staff, or the advertiser may provide the copy.
GO WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE. Can you open sales information booths at community fairs, festivals and swap meets? This promotional technique can work for gift retailers, craftspeople, and personal service firms. If you have the people and the time, can you handle regional fairs or even trade shows?
COMMUNITY SERVICE. Nothing brings you to the attention of the people faster-or more favorably-than community service. Ask yourself how your enterprise can be a “good neighbor” to your community. If you’re running a lawn care and gardening service, perhaps you can offer one season’s services at no charge to a needy charitable organization or nursing home in your area. Hundreds of people will hear about your work in the process. Volunteer for various community causes. If appropriate, you can step in during community emergency, offering products and services to help an organization or individuals in need.
BADGES AND NOVELTIES. You can easily and inexpensively produce badges, bumper stickers, book covers, and other novelty items for distribution in your area. You can imprint your business name and the first names of the customers on many of these products at little cost and distribute them for free. Or you can tie your novelty program into a contest: once a month, you can offer a prize to any individual whose car happens to carry one of your bumper stickers or badges with peel-off coupons, redeemable at your place of business.
CELEBRITY VISITS. With a bit of persistence, you may be able to arrange to have a local media celebrity, public official, or entertainment personally-even a fictitious cartoon character or clown-visit your service. The celebrity can sign autographs, read stories to children, perform cooking demonstrations, or perform any one of a hundred other traffic-building activities.
By all means, advertise in the media if you can. But don’t neglect your greatest promotional asset-your mind. Ponder the products, services and events you can offer the community and devise a creative promotional strategy around them. You’ll have to invest a bit of time and energy in the project, but the payoff will be worth it. You’ll save hundreds-or even thousands-of advertising dollars and better yet, you’ll travel a well-worn shortcut to profit.
I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions
David Bell
# 1 Internet Marketing Agency -Online Advertising Agency
Advertising research and development center
Post-Katrina Role Of Property Insurers Threaten Consumers NationwidePrediction is very hard, especially when its about the future. Yogi BerraGiven the focus on the recent one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by the media and government officials and its label as the most costly catastrophic disaster in United States history, there has been little focus on the nationwide impact the property and […]
The Only Bad Advertising Is No Advertising - Or Is It?Depending on whom you ask, you will get told many truths?about advertising. The question I have for you today is this ?Is the only bad advertising, no advertising??/p>Before we begin, it might help us to agree on what advertising is, so heres one definition:Advertising is the non-personal communication of an individuals paid persuasive information regarding […]
You Are WrongIt appears that most gurus if you want to call them that represent themselves as experts. In several statements that Ive read, they refer to other marketers as making mistakes. Yet, when they make the same mistakes, they call it testing.I read a quote one time about a child learning to walk. […]
God Bless The Refrigerator Magnet!Ah, my very favorite promotional product of all, the refrigerator magnet. They are my favorite, because they are so extremely inexpensive, and extremely effective in getting your company name seen in countless locations.They dont make the greatest commission for a salesman of advertising specialties, but I cant stop myself from recommending these little beauties […]
Written by info on March 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on accounting.
Can it be???
Is there advertising that people actually love?
You bet there is! And you are already very aware of it. The type of advertising I’m referring to is promotional items, also known as advertising specialties. It’s anything a company would put their logo and contact information on, and then give away. They are used by many businesses all over the world to help maintain, and increase the amount of business they do with their customers every day.
Why do people love it? Because we view the item more as a gift from the giver instead of an advertising tool. Have you ever been handed a logoed scratch pad, coffee mug, pen, coaster, calendar, etc. and then said THANK YOU? Of course you have. We all have.
When you accept it, an emotional (almost an obligation to do business with) type of attachment is created in you. A kind of warm & fuzzy feeling if you will. For a long time they’ll remember the gift you gave, and in order to show their appreciation to you, almost instinctively, they’ll try to do more business with you. That’s the secret behind this type of advertising!!!
And that’s why it’s The ONLY type of advertising people love.
AND it’ll work powerfully for you too!!
The next time you’re pondering ways to increase your business, consider using promotional items.
Scott Rauber
Advertising People Love - http://www.TheJavelinPen.com
Business Ethics: Would You Buy From You?You can never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl BaileyAT the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it seemed that business ethics had become an oxymoron, that integrity was for suckers and that profit was the singular force driving business.Then, as mega-corporations collapsed and scandalized companies fell, we witnessed the fragile framework of […]
Business Ethics: Lesson Plans, Knowledge Management, Ethics and Capitalism CollideRecently I read of a new website where teachers can post and sell their lesson plans to recover the time that they had spent in developing these plans. On the surface, this sounds reasonable and why would anyone object to teachers making a little more money through such a capitalist venture and leveraging their […]
The Only Bad Advertising Is No Advertising - Or Is It?Depending on whom you ask, you will get told many truths?about advertising. The question I have for you today is this ?Is the only bad advertising, no advertising??/p>Before we begin, it might help us to agree on what advertising is, so heres one definition:Advertising is the non-personal communication of an individuals paid persuasive information regarding […]
Writing Effective AdvertsAdvertising ?Who Needs It? - Who doesnt!Most people who read information about business or advertising are doing so because they are trying to make some kind of positive change in their life. Perhaps get a job, make money, and increase their customer base ?whatever. Thats the central purpose of a classified ad. […]
Written by info on March 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on accounting.
Alex Tews Million Dollar Home Page was unique for probably a completely different reason than just making the million dollars. It has spawned an immense number of competitors and there are probably many more on the way. Googling presently returns 1.5 million search results for pixel ads?
The problem is many of them are just clones-with nothing to distinguish them from the growing pack other than perhaps limited specialisation- e.g. pixel ads for Christians, countries, towns. Its made kind of easier as you can even download free scripts to do this- for example from http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/722486
So a couple of questions have to be asked.
?Is this viable long term? Has the novelty worn off and will anyone really be interested in looking at pixel adverts
?Are there any innovations that can make pixel ad sites stand out- ie rejuvenate the genre?
My answer is yes it can be a viable business for a few well run sites but then as Ive just developed a site, Im probably a bit biased. Alex Tew had First Mover?advantage, made his money and ran. However there are something like 30 million websites in existence, and I’d guess a large number of those, perhaps 2- 5 million are commercial and badly need web traffic. Word Tracker reveals 359 searches for pixel ads?and nearly 200 for Million Dollar Home Page?over the last 90 days so there is still some interest.
Lets examine the present crop and see in what way can they be improved upon. Note these are my own opinions and I could be (probably am) very wrong!
The premise on which a pixel ad website is offered is that it brings traffic to your site if you advertise there. To do that of course it must have a lot of traffic itself. Its a chicken and egg situation. There are scores of sparsely populated websites that will never go anywhere and will eventually quietly die. Their owners have spent a bit of money preparing the site but thats where it ends.
Creating a website is easy but getting eyeballs there is not. Here are some principles that I believe provide one way forward.
1. Why stick with a monolithic block divided into 10 x 10 pixel blocks? Quite frankly it is both confusing and ugly. I think a future innovation may lie with smaller blocks, less intrusive in web page, just as google ads dont take over a web page but enhance it by offering context sensitive adverts.
2. Why stick with just one page? My own site http://logoadz.com has a home page and anyone paying for an advert there can choose any six tags? each of which has a page of its own.
3. Why pay by the pixel? Be flexible on pricing. Why not pay by the block- conceptually they are the same price but the look of the site can be enhanced by offering pages of bigger adverts all the same size. Ten 100 x100 pixel ads looks much more attractive than the hotch potch you get normally.
4. Advertising has to be far more flexible than buying a space for 5 years etc. Why not offer advertising by the week, the month or any number of days? Advertisers can then test the site and see if they are getting the traffic they expect without a big financial commitment.
This needs the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.
5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel theyre getting value for money. Tracking clicks isnt rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.
6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the layout, fonts and colours. Theres enormous scope to be innovative here and some sites have done this.
Have I succeeded with my own site? Well I have applied nearly all of these principles but as the site has not gone live yet it is too soon to tell. Its the first part of a package Im producing for advertisers. Watch this space!
Business Ethics: Would You Buy From You?You can never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl BaileyAT the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it seemed that business ethics had become an oxymoron, that integrity was for suckers and that profit was the singular force driving business.Then, as mega-corporations collapsed and scandalized companies fell, we witnessed the fragile framework of […]
Business Ethics: Lesson Plans, Knowledge Management, Ethics and Capitalism CollideRecently I read of a new website where teachers can post and sell their lesson plans to recover the time that they had spent in developing these plans. On the surface, this sounds reasonable and why would anyone object to teachers making a little more money through such a capitalist venture and leveraging their […]
Advanced Tips for Advertising OnlineAdvertising online is really important for the online business. It is also very effective. You can use different types of online advertising methods to get the desired result.Place all your online advertisements in a website that has the maximum visitors a day. This is important because more visitors will ensure that you get good numbers […]
You Are WrongIt appears that most gurus if you want to call them that represent themselves as experts. In several statements that Ive read, they refer to other marketers as making mistakes. Yet, when they make the same mistakes, they call it testing.I read a quote one time about a child learning to walk. […]
Written by info on March 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on accounting.
