Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget

by: Stone Evans

When you are starting out in a new home business and no one
knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face
is how to drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that
you knew who needed your products or services, you probably
would not have started your business to begin with. But, once
you have talked to those who you personally knew who needed your
what you offer, then your next task is to find others who will
help keep your doors open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some
point in the future, but they hope that day will be long down
the road. For some, this utopian concept will come to fruition.
But for the rest of us in the real world, we must come up with
creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising
needs while working within our budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of
money in order to advertise their home business. When you start
out, you honestly will not have much money available for
advertising, and if you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, let me
share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this most
important topic.

LESSON #1

It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to advertise your home
business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test.

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising.
If you jump in and start dumping tons of money in to advertising
without first testing your advertising, you might find yourself
broke and without sales at the end of the road. Most people who
commit this error write off their failure on the home business
they chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses.
But, if they are unwilling to take responsibility for their
mistake, they will never learn from their mistake. Don't let
this be you.

LESSON #2

All testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise
simultaneously in newspapers, radio and television, how will you
know which advertising is bringing people to your cash register?
You won't. All you will know that something might be working,
but you will not know what is actually doing the trick.

Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they
found you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people
ever will tell you anything --- and those people who do may not
even get the facts straight! You cannot rely on your customers
to tell you what advertising is working for your home business.
You must put in the extra effort to know for yourself.

LESSON #3

Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio
should you venture to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign.
Even then, you should be careful to keep further measurements to
determine how much the maximum advantage of an ad would be.
Sometimes you might be able to reach ten times as many people,
but depending on the kind of media and other factors, the
additional exposure will only generate twice as many sales. Keep
your eye attuned to situations like this to get the most from
your advertising dollars.

LESSON #4

As Lesson #3 illustrates, sometimes your best advertising
investment may actually cost you less money. When you are first
starting out, whether you are running a home business or a
business outside of your home, you need to be able to get people
talking and thinking about your business.

If you are busy testing ads in media's such as the newspaper,
magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways of
promoting your business that do not require large cash
expenditures. A few examples are:

· Word of Mouth
· Business Cards
· Press Releases
· Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television

Here is more information about each type of low-cost advertising:

WORD OF MOUTH

This of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on the planet
--- it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they
know anyone who could also use your products or services. When
they are happy with your offerings and service, they will be
willing to tell you whom you can contact, and they will pass the
word for you.

BUSINESS CARDS

You can usually pick up 500 business cards for about $20. When
you do, hand them out. Do not give more than a couple of cards
to each person. If they need more cards from you, they will ask.

Some people are known to network with others on a regular basis.
Some of these people are also known to be always looking for an
extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that
if they write their name on the back of one of your business
cards and the card is presented to you, then you will pay a
referral fee to them. You do not have to offer much ---
sometimes one dollar is enough. Look at your home business and
your offerings and decide how much would be a good referral fee.

PRESS RELEASES

Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your
home business. The business editor at your local newspaper is
always on the lookout for a good business story to fill the
business news section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of
running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you
buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print
stories for special events and openings.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it
must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are
a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a
third person format: John Doe said, "Your quote here."

A Press Release should pack the most important information at
the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the
end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a
simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often
the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will
enhance their take on your story.

To learn more about creating Press Releases, you may check out
Rusty Cawley's site: http://www.PRrainmaker.com/

NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION

Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and
television are on the overnight and non-primetime venues. These
target times are not a total waste as they can easily keep the
infomercial people in business.

These off-hours are just less populated than the primetime hours.

Don't be afraid to check your local radio and television rates
for non-primetime hours to see what bargains may exist. With
television, primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is
8am to 5pm. This sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to
advertise your home business at discount rates!

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about
advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat,
everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your
bank account.

About the Author

Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where
you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow a
home based business at: http://www.Home-Business.com

Advertising Consulting Services for the Internet

by: Randy Wilson

Advertising Consulting Services: Advertising is one of the most important expenses a business can have. Businesses large and small, have some form of advertising, be it word of mouth referrals or multi million dollar television campaigns. Business owners of all types will pay good money for the right kind of advertising. That is why advertising consulting services on the Internet is becoming so popular.

There are two key things you need to know when considering starting out as an internet advertising consultant. The first of course is advertising experience. If you have done advertising in the past and enjoy the work, then that is the first step.

Secondly, you need to know about the Internet. Your Internet knowledge needs to be updated constantly to keep abreast of the current trends. While contemporary advertising - television, radio, and print, are still effective means of advertising, the Internet needs to be approached a bit differently.

When watching television or listening to the radio, people don't generally have a choice about what they see and hear in the line of commercials. Those commercials of course are advertising. Even when reading the newspaper or a sale ad, people only see what is in front of them, not all the options available. If one grocery store buys an ad in the local newspaper and another grocer does not, the consumer is only seeing one ad.

The Internet has changed the face of this kind of advertising. Anytime that someone opens a web page; they are looking for something specific. People who surf five or six web sites are likely to see hundreds of ads without really knowing they are seeing advertising. Banners, affiliate links, tool bars and the like are all types of Internet advertising, revealing products or brands in front of the consumer.

If a consumer is looking for a product online, and does not know where to find it, or there are multiple sources to find it, the savvy Internet user generally goes to a search engine. Searching for the product by typing in the general name or brand that they are looking for, the consumer can then choose from a list of sites that offer that product. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a system of strategic placing of certain words or keyword phrases on a web site that will allow the search engine to select that site if someone types in that word or phrase. The key to SEO - the first sites to pop up are the ones that are hit on the most often.

Knowing these concepts and expanding on them allows internet advertising consultants to guide and direct business owners in the most effective line of advertising for their products. Many people who run successful Internet businesses are people who don't know much about the differences between Internet and other forms of advertising. You are the link that these business people need to market their products.

Internet Advertising Consulting Services are quickly becoming a specialized field. There are so many aspects of the Internet that business owners, especially those new to the web as a market, will not know and will be grateful to you for showing them. Knowing how to get those companies names and brands out their on the web will give you an edge over advertising companies that are still focusing on contemporary methods of advertising.

The Internet is not a fad or a passing phase. The challenges and changes that are coming with this relatively new market are going to be both exciting and profitable for anyone who embraces it. Open your own advertising consulting services business today and step into the future.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Randy is owner of Profitable Home Businesses, How to Plan a Baby Shower and Weddings Information.

Advertising Business Opportunity Reaches New Levels

by: Randy Wilson

An Advertising business opportunity on the Internet is just exploding with possibilities. This is one of the most profitable endeavors available in the field of Internet advertising. If you have advertising experience and know even the basics of Internet, you have potential to start your own advertising business on the Internet.

There are many areas of the Internet that need to be learned before starting your advertising business opportunity. Multi level marketing, or MLM, is one way of generating advertising and sales at the same time. MLM is a system that allows someone to collect commissions on their own sales as well as on people they recruit under them. This used to be known as pyramid schemes.

MLM has become very popular with product sales, helping the organization build wealth by paying commissions on multiple levels. The concept from an advertising point of view is great, the more motivation you have to recruit people to sell your product, the more your product is out there on the market. Some examples of companies that use MLM are nutritional product lines, make up product lines, and home decoration lines.

Multi level marketing has been around for years and not likely to go away anytime soon. Focus needs to be clear however on what the drive is for the company. If your focus is only on recruiting people to recruit more people, then your product sales are going to suffer. When your product sales suffer, your business as a whole suffers and then no one wants to be a part of the industry. Keep your focus when dealing with MLM with your advertising business opportunity.

Ezines are another emerging way to get a product or service out to the public. Ezines, or electronic magazines, are usually specialized to a certain areas of interest. This is very much like conventional magazines. However, advertising in ezines is low-cost and even occasionally free. Another advertising business opportunity that is wide open.

Ezines in themselves will need advertising to get their word out. A perfectly written ezine does no one any good if no one knows that it is out there to be seen. Finding an audience for your ezine may be easier than you think. Make sure when going into ezines that you know your material and that the writing is concise and accurate.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a proven method of advertising on the Internet and a field, which is very much in demand at this time. SEO is a system of writing web content that uses specific key words and phrases that will pull the page up when that keyword or phrase is typed into any of the search engines. Knowing how to effectively use keywords to get a site recognized is critical for small businesses on the web.

When you open a search engine such as 'Yahoo!' or 'Google', and type in the phrase Internet advertising, you will get a list of results. Those results are formulated by the words Internet and advertising. Sites that have those two words incorporated consistently throughout the site will come up on the list. These lists are in order by the most hit on sites at the top of this list. Of course, that is where you want your advertising business opportunity clients to be.

Educating your self on these concepts and a few more will allow you to start marketing your Internet advertising business. Becoming an Internet business advertising consultant to companies who are looking to expand their presence on the web is a first step in building your reputation and presence in this field.

You must have a well-written profile centered on your Internet advertising experience and an up to date resume'. Businesses today are being inundated with new, and sometimes bogus, advertising opportunities and you need to stand out above all those other offers. Keep your presence, online and in the field, professional at all times and make sure you can deliver what you promise. With those things in mind, you should be successful.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Randy is owner of Profitable Home Businesses. Randy owned and operated a very successful storefront/mailorder business from 1988 to 2003. Currently full time owner/operator of several online businesses.

MSN PPC Advertising Network Finally Debuts

by: Joel Walsh

MSN PPC Advertising Network Finally Debuts

MSN is launching its own PPC advertising program with new demographic and behavioral targeting features in France and Singapore in mid-late 2005.

2005-03-17

Joel Walsh

MSN PPC Advertising Long-Awaited Debut Announced

You probably already know that there are really only two major players in the world of PPC advertising: Overture and Google Adwords. By the end of 2005, there will likely be a third: Microsoft's MSN Search.

Microsoft recently announced that it is launching its new MSN PPC advertising engine in Singapore and France by mid-late 2005. Smart marketers are probably already planning how they might justify advertising their products or services in Singapore to get a taste of the new service. The service's introduction into Canada, the UK, and the US may very well come before the end of 2005.

The new MSN advertising program has been long awaited. MSN is Microsoft's leading website property, and perhaps the web's most visited "portal" (website with both search and content such as news) after Yahoo! MSN's search engine accounts for one in five web searches, putting it in third place behind Google and Yahoo!
Search engine advertising mostly a two-player game

Currently, MSN shows advertising that comes from Overture, the web's largest online advertising network in terms of revenue. Overture was bought by Yahoo! a number of years ago. Since Yahoo! is the direct competitor of MSN in every way, plenty of people have been wondering why MSN didn't take its advertising program in-house long ago. It seems especially strange considering that even Lycos, whose search engine now accounts for a small fraction of total web searches, has its own advertising network.

In many minds, the fact that Microsoft would go to Overture only demonstrated how excellent an online advertising program Overture was, and just how hard it really is to set one up. Before going to Overture, MSN was getting advertising from LookSmart, an advertising network that does not own any websites that compete with Microsoft properties in any big way. Even before it had lost its largest advertising outlet, LookSmart was widely seen as a subpar second-tier engine, in a category with FindWhat or even Kanoodle. The fact that LookSmart had seemingly squandered a chance to make inroads into an online advertising market dominated by two big players cast a lot of doubt on whether there would ever be a serious challenger to Google Adwords and Overture.
What Microsoft's new advertising network means for the future

Will the new MSN advertising network succeed where so many have failed? Or will it become a bloated, relatively uncompetitive product only supported by Microsoft's vast bulk? (Not that Bill Gates has ever fathered such a bastard child.)

There's a very good reason to believe that the new advertising program bears the seeds of its own destruction, thanks to a typically Microsoftian act of overreaching and obliviousness to public opinion. That bad seed is the same bad seed that has spoiled the fruits of so many internet marketing labors: behavioral and demographic targeting, which always seems to disagree with some people's stomachs, no matter how delicately it is arranged in the bowl. (Editor's note: too extended a metaphor? Well, website copywriters have egos, too, you know, just like the rest of the web dev. community. At least you didn't have to sit through five minutes of flash animation to read this.)

Next: MSN PPC Advertising to Incorporate Demographic & Behavioral Targeting: Killer App. or Achilles Heel?

Microsoft's press release announcing the new MSN advertising program is also worth reading if you're that into this.

Joel Walsh is the head writer at UpMarket, internet marketing services, online copywriting services, & website content provider focusing on small and medium-sized businesses and those who serve them. Website: www.upmarketcontent.com

Where is online advertising going?

by: Peter Prestipino

Discusses t he brief history of online advertising through specific ad strageis and discusses where online advertising is headed.

Is there such a thing as “traditional” online advertising? If there is, it started with banners, moved to FFAs, took a step backwards with SPAM, a hard right with classified advertising and then shot forward with pay per click search engine. So how do you know where to spend your advertising budget in the current market? If you’ve been responsible for your company’s web advertising efforts over the years you might agree that the traditional means of advertising worked; as least for a little while. So as new types of advertising penetrate the market with increasing frequency, what do you do with those proven stand-by methods of generating links and traffic? Throw them out? Keep them around for posterity? Maybe give them a facelift? Let’s review those traditional ad models then look at some experimental models. TRADITIONAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS

Banners

Banner ads in the form of animated gifs are the most common and widely used form of online advertising today. Banner ads reach the widest possible audience because practically 100% of Internet users can view them without any special plugins. Web marketers, advertisers and promoters have quickly realized that banners under 12k in file size puts the ad in front of the visitor as quickly as possible, increasing the chance of click-through even though surfers are growing increasingly immune. New styles and shapes of banners (such as skyscraper ads) have grown in popularity recently, which is addressed in the “Experimental Advertising” section below. SPAM

What does SPAM stand for? It’s not “Stupid Pointless Annoying Message” (which in some cases it could be) but rather “Sending and Posting Advertising Messages.” It’s hard to believe SPAM is effective, but unarguably, it is. While click-through rates continue to fall and legislation begins to rise, it is a savvy advertiser’s best bet to stay away from it, unless of course you’re selling Pasta Pots or Viagra. Rich mail – “Fancy SPAM”

Most likely, the e-mail messages you receive on a daily basis are text only. Rich mail, on the other hand, allows graphics, video and audio to be included in the e-mail message. When you open up a rich e-mail your e-mail client automatically calls up your Internet connection and launches an html page in your browser. E-mail clients that are offline will invite you to click on the link when you have your Internet connection open again. If your e-mail client does not support graphics you will receive the e-mail in text only. While SPAM is still SPAM, rich mail has proven to be much more effective than standard text messages. Pop-Ups/Pop-Unders:

This creative, yet completely obtrusive and annoying means of advertising was once celebrated in some circles as the most innovative ad concept since banners. It only took a short time before many users, sick of being trapped in a never-ending onslaught of such ads, voiced their rejection. One can only wonder when advertisers will recognize the public dissatisfaction and move on to another more effective means to promote their companies. Institutional Advertising:

While institutional or “in-house” advertising has been available since the inception of the Internet, few companies have made an effort to utilize the many different aspects of online advertising in one format as has 7Search.com with its Direct Pay-Per-Text advertising. 7Search, a leader in the pay per click search engine arena, has recently introduced this program which enables its advertisers to advertise outside of its search return lists using the same titles and descriptions seen on its search engine. The pay-per-click model enables interested advertisers to leave behind the CPM impression model and focus on the click conversions. Direct Pay-Per-Text is a patent-pending concept from 7Search which will be released to the general public in the coming months. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

It’s hard to think of PPC search engines as a “traditional” means to advertise online, but the ratio of those advertisers who do versus those who don’t is staggering; in fact the majority have at least tried their hand at leasing traffic. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. The response on ads with well-written titles and descriptions targeted to the users query pull response rates unseen in the ad industry previously. The greatest advantage arguably is the ability to measure precisely the rate of return versus your investment. Some of the most popular PPC search engines are FindWhat.com, 7Search.com, Ah-ha.com and the industry leader Overture. EXPERIMENTAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS Traffic Exchange Advertising:

Hit exchanges, actually a form of banner exchange, are a recent phenomenon on the Internet. You will visit the site of a member of an exchange, and in exchange, another member of the exchange will visit your site. The recent explosion of hit exchanges on the web has diluted the effectiveness of such a method of advertising. There have also been many instances of cheating, in which a script is used to generate visits to a site. However, if you have a product that is of interest to webmasters, and is low cost or has a free version, there is no harm in giving hit exchanges a try. Shockwave ads

Shockwave is best suited for campaigns that want to utilize out-of-banner real estate, such as applets, trading cards, and games. Director and Flash provide the ability to embed interaction, video, and audio within the file, making Shockwave files some of the richest ad units on the Web. Viral marketing and strong brand interaction are two of the key strengths of Shockwave ads. As these ads are typically “bandwidth monsters” the adoption has been slow and will most likely remain that way. Other downsides include development costs and the fact that it just won’t work without the Shockwave plug-in, which (though downloaded by millions of users) is far from being a mainstay. Interstitial ads

Interstitials are ads that play between pages on a website, much like television ads play between sections of a program. There are several variations on the interstitial model: some play in the main browser window, while some play in new, smaller windows; some are pre-cached, while some stream ad content as it plays; some provide the ability to create very rich ads, while some focus on smaller, faster-loading ads. Whatever the format, nearly all interstitial ads perform very well if measured by both click-through rates and brand recall. Floating ads and DHTML

Types of floating ads include DHTML sponsorships, in which advertising objects "fly" across the page on a preset course; cursor sponsorships, in which the cursor turns into an advertising image; and scrolling ads, in which an advertisement moves up and down the edge of a page as the user scrolls up and down. Floating ads give the advertiser and publisher the flexibility to achieve nearly any effect. However, as this is one of the more daring types of online advertising, advertising and content must be balanced on any given page. Floating ads (especially DHTML and cursors) are best run for short periods to create brand awareness—running them for longer periods can bring negative user feedback. It is important to understand that online advertising is only effective if it generates significant response and this applies to both traditional and experimental ads. Unfortunately, the only way to discover the efficiency of your campaign is to test in every format at least once with as many ads as you are able.

About the Author

Pete Prestipino is the founder and CEO of SCG - Swirling Circle Group, a consortium of online marketers, promoters, SEO's, web designers, and Internet consultants. For more information visit: www.SwirlingCircle.com

Online Advertising Traffic and the First Law of Web Surfing

by: Joel Walsh

Hint: don't send send your online advertising traffic to your homepage.
How do you convert online advertising traffic into customers? The key is a phenomenon of human behavior that only comes into play on the web.

You won't read about this phenomenon in books or articles on general principles of advertising or direct marketing. In fact, traditional advertising professionals and direct marketers often create only so-so online advertising campaigns simply because they've never heard of this phenomenon, even though it's essentially the first law of human web surfing behavior.

How to convert your online advertising traffic into customersReady to find out what that all-important first law of web surfing is? Prepare to be not very amazed. You see, everyone who surfs the web already knows about this phenomenon of human behavior because we all do it--even you.

So here it is, the first law of human web surfing behavior, which you absolutely must take into account when marketing your website: While surfing the web, almost everyone will hit the "back" button if they think there's a chance--even a small chance-- they've come to the wrong web page.

The corollary to this law of web surfing behavior: Anyone who clicks through to your site via an online advertising link needs to know they've arrived at the right place as soon as they get there.

Immediately. Within a second. From a click glance. Without having to read anything. The average human attention span on the web has been measured at eight seconds, and you'll have already lost a few seconds while the page downloaded.

The Key(word) to Converting Advertisement-Clickers into CustomersHow do you make absolutely sure visitors feel like they've arrived in the right place?

Make the title and first heading of your landing page (the page on which a visitor "lands" after clicking on an advertisement) the same as the headline of the advertisement that brought your visitor there. If the landing page links to a banner (image) advertisement, use the same pictures and color scheme as the advertisement.

The landing page absolutely must immediately remind the visitor of the advertisement.

The advertisements, in turn, must flow logically from the keywords they are targeting. Even if your advertisements are appearing on websites rather than search engine results, you need to be thinking in terms of the keywords people are using to search for your product in order to speak the language of your prospective customers.

That's why it is very important both your advertisement and landing page incorporate the target keyword prominently, in headings as well as the page body. That's also why it's so important you don't send your visitors from online advertising to your homepage--it's unlikely you could optimize your homepage for all your possible advertisements. Visitors who arrive via advertising need to land on a special "landing page," or they may crash and leave your site.

Conversions: your advertising campaign's goalBut what happens once visitors land on your site and decide to stay more than ten seconds? It's no use if they just hang around. They need to convert.

Important definition: In online advertising parlance, saying a website visitor "converts," means he or she has taken a desired action toward becoming a customer, either 1) buying something or 2) contacting you for more information, thereby becoming a lead.

The percentage of visitors who convert out of the total number of visitors who arrive at your page is the conversion rate. Your goal is to get this rate as high possible. You do that by finding the right message to display on your landing page, and also by targeting the advertising so you are getting visitors who are most likely to convert.

In order to get your visitors to convert once they arrive, you need to make sure they have a clear path to conversion from the landing page. The simpler the path, the better--a winding road might lose some potential customers. This conversion path could be as simple as a "buy now" button or a contact form, or as complex as a multi-step shopping cart with required registration with required email confirmation to scare away those who are not truly devoted buyers.

Targeting your trafficWhat you show visitors who arrive at your site is only half the equation. The visitors themselves are the other. As with everything in life, you can't convert a sow's ear into a silk purse. In this case, the sow's ear is paid traffic that is not targeted, or is coming from popunders or other forced viewing, or is just plain faked (there is software specifically designed to emulate human visitors so fraudsters can sell the "traffic").

Even in the best of cases, some traffic converts better than others. Generally speaking, visitors who are looking for you are the likeliest to convert, so conversion rates tend to be highest from advertising on search engines. Conversion rates tend to be lower from advertising on websites (so-called "content" or "contextual" advertising).

Conversion rates are lower still on advertising on website popups, and lowest of all on so-called adware (programs that display popups on a user's computer; the people who sell this advertising often label it "targeted traffic"). Sending emails that consist of nothing but your advertisement, even if you've skirted the legal definition of spam, is not worth the bad will and damage to your brand.

Preaching to non-converting online advertising trafficA significant percentage of visitors, maybe a majority, will never just click "buy now." How do you reach them?

Many people simply will never make a purchase without speaking to a salesperson first. For them, provide a convenient contact form, as well as a live chat option--if you can afford the time and expense--your email, and a telephone number. A telephone number is especially important since there are some visitors who will never convert without hearing the voice of someone on your end.

For visitors who are not ready to convert immediately, you should have informational articles, "about us" pages or FAQs ready to help them make up their minds.

For visitors who simply will not be ready to convert today, give a reason to bookmark your page. Good articles. A special offer. A newsletter to sign up for. Free advice.

Just make sure you don't place these alternative non-converting options in too prominent a position, or you'll risk distracting prospective customers. A few paragraphs up from the very bottom of the page is a good place to catch people who are interested in you enough to read the entire page, but still haven't converted. The very bottom of the page should be reserved for a conversion option for all the prospective customers accustomed to scrolling to the bottom of the page to get a quick overview.

After all, if you want your visitors from online advertising traffic to convert into customers, shouldn't you at least make it easy for them?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joel Walsh has written as a staff writer for St. Martin's Press and Barnes & Noble, as well as numerous online publications. He is the head writer for UpMarket, a website content provider and online advertising resource for small and medium-sized business websites. You can get a template guide for writing a landing page, with samples, at: http://upmarketcontent.com/landing-page-template.htm

Cross Cultural Advertising

by: Neil Payne

Culture is a like dropping an Alka-seltzer into a glass – you don’t see it, but somehow it does something.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Culture affects everything we do. This applies to all areas of human life from personal relationships to conducting business abroad. When interacting within our native cultures, culture acts as a framework of understanding. However, when interacting with different cultures this framework no longer applies due to cross cultural differences.

Cross cultural communication aims to help minimise the negative impact of cross cultural differences through building common frameworks for people of different cultures to interact within. In business, cross cultural solutions are applied in areas such as HR, team building, foreign trade, negotiations and website design.

Cross cultural communication solutions are also critical to effective cross cultural advertising. Services and products are usually designed and marketed at a domestic audience. When a product is then marketed at an international audience the same domestic advertising campaign abroad will in most cases be ineffective.

The essence of advertising is convincing people that a product is meant for them. By purchasing it, they will receive some benefit, whether it be lifestyle, status, convenience or financial. However, when an advertising campaign is taken abroad different values and perceptions as to what enhances status or gives convenience exist. These differences make the original advertising campaign defunct.

It is therefore critical to any cross cultural advertising campaign that an understanding of a particular culture is acquired. By way of highlighting areas of cross cultural differences in advertising a few examples shall be examined.

Language in Cross Cultural Advertising

It may seem somewhat obvious to state that language is key to effective cross cultural advertising. However, the fact that companies persistently fail to check linguistic implications of company or product names and slogans demonstrates that such issues are not being properly addressed.

The advertising world is littered with examples of linguistic cross cultural blunders. Of the more comical was Ford’s introduction of the ‘Pinto’ in Brazil. After seeing sales fail, they soon realised that this was due to the fact that Brazilians did not want to be seen driving a car meaning ‘tiny male genitals’.

Language must also be analysed for its cultural suitability. For example, the slogan employed by the computer games manufacturer, EA Sports, “Challenge Everything” raises grumbles of disapproval in religious or hierarchical societies where harmonious relationships are maintained through the values of respect and non-confrontation.

It is imperative therefore that language be examined carefully in any cross cultural advertising campaign

Communication Style in Cross Cultural Advertising

Understanding the way in which other cultures communicate allows the advertising campaign to speak to the potential customer in a way they understand and appreciate. For example, communication styles can be explicit or implicit. An explicit communicator (e.g. USA) assumes the listener is unaware of background information or related issues to the topic of discussion and therefore provides it themselves. Implicit communicators (e.g. Japan) assume the listener is well informed on the subject and minimises information relayed on the premise that the listener will understand from implication. An explicit communicator would find an implicit communication style vague, whereas an implicit communicator would find an explicit communication style exaggerated.

Colours, Numbers and Images in Cross Cultural Advertising

Even the simplest and most taken for granted aspects of advertising need to be inspected under a cross cultural microscope. Colours, numbers, symbols and images do not all translate well across cultures.

In some cultures there are lucky colours, such as red in China and unlucky colours, such as black in Japan. Some colours have certain significance; green is considered a special colour in Islam and some colours have tribal associations in parts of Africa.

Many hotels in the USA or UK do not have a room 13 or a 13th floor. Similarly, Nippon Airways in Japan do not have the seat numbers 4 or 9. If there are numbers with negative connotations abroad, presenting or packaging products in those numbers when advertising should be avoided.

Images are also culturally sensitive. Whereas it is common to see pictures of women in bikinis on advertising posters on the streets of London, such images would cause outrage in the Middle East.

Cultural Values in Cross Cultural Advertising

When advertising abroad, the cultural values underpinning the society must be analysed carefully. Is there a religion that is practised by the majority of the people? Is the society collectivist or individualist? Is it family orientated? Is it hierarchical? Is there a dominant political or economic ideology? All of these will impact an advertising campaign if left unexamined.

For example, advertising that focuses on individual success, independence and stressing the word “I” would be received negatively in countries where teamwork is considered a positive quality. Rebelliousness or lack of respect for authority should always be avoided in family orientated or hierarchical societies.

By way of conclusion, we can see that the principles of advertising run through to cross cultural advertising too. That is – know your market, what is attractive to them and what their aspirations are. Cross cultural advertising is simply about using common sense and analysing how the different elements of an advertising campaign are impacted by culture and modifying them to best speak to the target audience.

by Neil Payne
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/cross-cultural-communication.html

Digital Advertising

by: Nash Ville

Business establishments are busy places. People rush here and there. They are either waiting in line at the concession or in the lobby at intermission. Merchants try to attract customers using different kinds of advertising materials, static posters to be specific. How long will they look at these posters and get jaded? How can your message deliver the exact message and stand out from the crowd? The solution - put your advertising message in motion. With this, you’ll stop shoppers in their tracks with an exciting and attention-grabbing digital advertisement. Consider the fact that the visual appeal of moving or changing images is a proven to be very effective.

Digital Advertising via plasma display panels, liquid crystal displays, computer monitors, and televisions are used to enhance traditional advertising. Using computer-generated images for print advertising and large format graphics can be a unique way of showcasing your products. Is this the end of traditional advertising? Not at this point, maybe. There are still several enhancements that advertising experts are trying to generate about digital advertising.

Why do leaders in the printing, publishing and pre-press industries join forces to push the acceptance of the digital delivery of advertising materials and to document and demonstrate the advantages of the comprehensive digital advertising environment?

Digital advertising has been widely accepted because of its myriad advantages such as dynamic creative elements and interactivity, guaranteed delivery and scheduled display, multiple advertisers with no clutter, co-op revenue opportunities, instant digital changes for season, price, or promotion, rapid ability to update content, timely insertion of trailer loops with advertising content, instant digital programming with informative and entertaining content, and the ability to deliver specific messages to specific audiences in specific locations. It also helps to combine the industries of advertising networks and point of purchase display merchandising.

The impact of digital advertising is sensational - whether the presentation is on a single stand-alone floor display or a giant multi-screen format - messages can be delivered with energy, focus and entertainment. When digital advertisements are deployed in public spaces, they present compelling alternatives to traditional media. Digital advertising allows multiple clients to share valuable advertising space at reduced cost per exposure. It also drives them to search out new media alternatives to compliment their existing marketing plans. This tremendous versatility gives operators the option to choose the large format displays of their choice for the greatest impact in their venue.

The objective of the Digital Advertising Project to have its students recreate the effects in an interesting advertisement with a manipulated photo using their own images is a simple yet very valuable and timely means of promoting digital advertising. With this concept, they will be able to realize the importance of digital advertising in making our world a better place to live in. They will also be informed about the purposes of these advertisements in helping us out in choosing from a wide range of products that we need in our everyday existence – from the clothes we wear, the foods and the vitamins we eat and take, the best mobile service providers and banking institutions we use, etc. Truly, digital advertising is an innovation destined to become important.

The technology media cycle has really fascinated many advertising experts. Technology drives media, media drives societal growth, and marketers track societal growth in an attempt to take advantage of the advertising opportunities that new media presents. The commercial implication of a shift in media consumption patterns leads to a change in advertising spend patterns that turn into big money. Simply, the medium is what advertisers make of it – digital advertising offers a fresh set of opportunities.

This article is supplied by our team to propagate the advancement of poster printing technologies out in the market and may refer to other existing articles.

About the Author

For comments and questions about the article and the author you may contact The Large Format Posters Moderator at 888 888 4211 or visit http://www.largeformatposters.com

The Future of Advertising

by: Jon Wuebben

Advertising is a medium that constantly evolves. It changes with the times. It adapts to new technologies. It is unrelenting in its desire to find new and better ways to reach an ever-growing consumer marketplace.

But its not simply advertising that evolves. Consumers and consumer behavior are changing too. As we look at the future of advertising, it's important to look at how the two interact and change together over time.

Without a doubt, the Internet has revolutionized the industry. It has taken the world - and the advertising world by storm. And it has only just begun to make an impact. The Internet has become a global medium with massive potential. Forty years ago, television was considered new media. Fifteen years ago, it was cable. Today, people spend increasing amounts of time online at the expense of other media. The first evidence of this audience migration appeared in 1998 in a Forrester Research report.

The researchers asked PC users which activities they were giving up to spend more time on their computers. 75% of the respondents said they gave up television.

Interactive. That is the real key behind the power of the Internet in advertising. The Internet is really the only medium where we see true interactivity. In addition:

• It means greater viewer involvement.
• It means users can access services according to their interests and their tastes.
• They can request and receive specialized product information, make an instant purchase, all the while saving time and expense.
• The effectiveness of Web advertising appears to relate to the fact that surfing the web is an actively engaging experience, similar to reading magazines.

Consumers also have the choice to "opt-in" to receiving additional information on a particular product or service. In Seth Godin's groundbreaking book, Permission Marketing, he said, "By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness- and greatly improve the chances of making a sale."

All the Rage: Pay Per Click and Natural Search Using SEO

It's no secret what has taken over the business world, in industry after industry. Pay Per Click and Natural Search Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword phrase is like having the most memorable prime time television commercial in 1973.

Pay per click advertising on search engines allows you to choose keywords you would like your site to appear under when a potential customer engages in a search. You decide how much you are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. But it can be competitive – and expensive if you are trying to use keywords that are very popular.

Natural Search or Organic Search is the non-biased, non-paid results that come up when you do a search. This can be influenced heavily by what's called "Search Engine Optimization" – the complex and time consuming practice of ensuring that your website is doing all the right things in order to rank high for certain search terms. In this arena, smaller companies can out maneuver large corporations, so there's a lot of excitement generated because of this.

Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going. It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become more important over the next ten years. If you can get on that coveted first page organically, well then, more power to you!

Web Sites, Banner Ads, etc..

The other forms of on-line advertising vehicles are of course, web sites, banner advertising placed on others sites, newsletters, ezines, and email. They are used in many different combinations, for different purposes at different times. But most savvy companies are using all of them. The value of banner ads has been hotly debated for a number of years. Opponents argue that the click-through rates have gone down so much, that banner ads are nothing but wasted money. But research clearly shows that banners are very effective in building brand awareness. On-line users may not click on a banner, but if they see it enough times, the company's name is drilled into their head. When its time to shop, that product or service is first in their mind. Simply being exposed to the brand as one surf's the web is enough to make a big impression.

The impact of banners on brand awareness was tested for the first time in fall 1996 by Millward Brown International. Three brands were tested including a men's apparel brand, a telecommunications brand and a technology company. The findings were significant and conclusive for each brand. Awareness was significantly greater among the banner-exposed (test) group than the non-exposed (control) group. Specifically, exposure to the ad banners alone increased brand awareness from 12% to 200% in a banner-exposed group.

The study also compared the impact of the banner ads in this test to television and magazine norms from prior Millward Brown studies. The findings were remarkable: Single exposure to a Web banner generated greater awareness than a single exposure to a television or print ad. Rather, the effectiveness of Web advertising seems to stem from the fact that Web usage is an actively engaging exercise.

Newsletters and Ezines

Most smart marketers out there have either a newsletter or ezine nowadays. These types of customer communication and advertising tools will only continue to grow in use and importance. It goes back to the whole "what's in it for me?" issue. The customer wants to be part of the process. They want to learn something. Or keep themselves updated on the latest news. Most of all, they want to get something out of the relationship. They want to do more than buy something, they want to improve their lives in some small way – and they want you to help them do that.

Email Advertising

Email is another of the big three Internet advertising mediums. Companies like Got Marketing, OptinBig.com, and N5R are providing new and exciting email marketing solutions for thousands of progressive firms. Their results are impressive. Consider response rates that average 10 to 20 times those of traditional direct mail. Or campaign Network marketing referral rates as high as 40%. The bottom line is that programs they put together have produced millions of leads for clients. And it's surprisingly affordable. This means that almost anyone can now utilize this advertising medium. But it has to be done smartly, because you don't want your emails to end up in spam filters. That is one inherent problem with email advertising, especially in the past two years.

N5R in particular is now one of the leading direct marketing agencies in North America. They develop innovative one-to-one marketing campaigns that drive a measurable, positive ROI on behalf of their clients by driving acquisition and conversion to trial and purchase for their clients. They have developed award-winning strategies in five major industry sectors. These include Internet Marketing and Online Contests/Promotions, Permission Based Email Marketing, Text Messaging, Success Based Email.

In Internet Marketing and Online Contests/Promotions, marketers can gather and compile behavior and preference data from prospects and customers and use this information to send targeted and relevant information. Developing ongoing programs of one-to-one communication is cost effective and measurable. Contests are the quickest and most effective way to gather this data and build relationships with customers. It's very possible to build a permission-based database of over 50,000 prospects in only 6 weeks, increase web site traffic by 900%, improved online sales revenue by 1,000%, and achieve $40 million in sales from leads generated by an online promotion.

With Permission Based Email Marketing, loyal clients are just an e-mail away. Where traditional marketing campaigns fail, e-mail can shine through. E-mail marketing allows companies to speak one-to-one with their audience in a respectful, intelligent and creative way. It is extremely cost-effective, provides the foundation for future marketing initiatives, and delivers measurable results.

Text Messaging or SMS (Short Message Service) is a technology that allows people to send and receive short (up to 160 characters) written messages on cellular phones. It is already hugely popular in Europe and Asia and is growing rapidly in North America. SMS marketing offers the following benefits:

One-to-one communication with your target group, anywhere, anytime reach, low campaign cost, and very measurable data. Imagine if your mobile phone received an email message, "You're only a block from a Starbuck's; stop in for a 20% discount on your latte." The data is available and marketers are starting to tap into these resources.

Success Based Email is free email deployment where companies only pay for results. This "pay-per-click" approach is based on the premise that companies will only pay for each email that receives a "click-through" from the recipient. Not only does the new approach enhance the value of marketing dollars spent on such campaigns, the move will likely trim total dollars spent.

For example if 100,000 emails are sent, 70% are opened and 15% of the recipients actually click on a link in the email then clients will only be charged for the 15,000 people that clicked on the link, not for the other 85,000 that didn't. The return on investment (ROI) or cost savings inherent in this new approach will be very appealing to permission-based marketers. The bottom line is that marketers will now pay for real, measurable results.

The Next Step

Compared with other media, the Web is still limited in its bandwidth offerings. But it's getting better every day. With the continued improvement of bandwidth development, we will soon be positioned well to create full-featured multimedia advertising on the Internet. Once a majority of consumers have DSL capability and the computer power to access it, there will be some incredible things happening. Sites like tvtonic.com are already offering some very compelling visual and audio imagery in the form of movie trailers and music videos.

Market researchers, futurists and industry experts predict that interactivity through multiple technologies and devices will change how consumers interact with marketers. Interactive advertising will soon be everywhere. So, in effect, it could be considered the age of mass customization in advertising. Advertisers will have the tools to narrow their targets and address Web ads to individuals and not to a demographic or psychographic group. Why market a commercial to 1 million people, most of who aren't in the target audience, when the same ad could be shown to 10,000 people who are very interested in the product or service? Most of those will even give their name and address.

Interactivity will also be a part of television. Interactive TV will be the norm in the near future, and this too is another exciting opportunity. There will be total integration between TV channels and advertisers web sites. While we are watching TV, we will be able to interact with what we are seeing, ordering hamburgers from the McDonalds down the street or communicating with the local car dealer that we are interested in buying a car. Clicking on products we see in TV shows and ordering them will be easy. Your TV will keep track of what you are watching. Your TV will even know what kind of car you own because you'll tell for the free oil change you're offered in exchange. The oil change will be compliments of DirecTV, and it is only good at Jiffy Lube, which has paid to be the official oil-change provider for DirecTV." That's the way it will work.

Service Initiative Advertising

Another major trend is what I call "Service Initiative Advertising". Let's face it; consumers are tired of advertising as usual. Many people say they hate commercials. The success of Tivo and satellite radio can attest to this. They want more from their advertising. And who could blame them? People are inundated with advertising today- every where they go. Service Initiative Advertising takes the whole process one step further. Essentially how it works is that it requires advertising to offer some value to the consumer.

For example: Kraft Foods creates a website that offers busy mothers a source for quick recipes for the family evening meal. The idea isn't to push Kraft products, but to promote Kraft as a brand that offers a service to customers. There have been companies who positioned their entire marketing strategy on this tenant. Now, it will become a key part of advertising for almost everyone. The consumer wants to know you care.

It's important to realize that advertising mediums of the past will still be here. But, they may look a little different in the future. Direct mail will always be around as long as people like to receive mail. And despite external challenges, the U.S. Postal service will still be around. TV and radio will be here too.

But the future is here. And advertising will never be the same.

One thing that is certain is that it will continue to be as exciting and dynamic as it has been in the past. But now, the consumer is a part of the process.

Copyright © 2005 Jon Wuebben

About Jon: Jon Wuebben is a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter and Advertising Copywriter with 10 years experience in B2B & B2C copywriting and marketing. He has provided copy for a number of organizations including Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors America, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Infinity, Advertising Agencies, small and medium sized businesses and pro bono for a variety of non-profit groups. He can be reached at (909) 437-7015, or online at http://www.CustomCopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have or if you would like more articles or a Complimentary Website Copy analysis. Need a custom newsletter or e-zine article written? Call Jon Today at (909) 437-7015 or email jon@customcopywriting.com for a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter, or Advertising Copywriter.

Online Advertising for Dummies

by: Daegan Smith

Whether you are checking your email, shopping on a website or just searching for information, online ads are everywhere! A new marketing landscape, the Internet offers a new and cheaper advertising space, as compared to traditional spaces like print, television, radio and outdoor advertising. It’s a revolution of sorts and small and home business owners are making the most of it.

For a home based start up, online advertising is a potent tool that can maximize visibility, drive traffic to the company’s website, up the sales and build a solid brand in the process. Going to an expensive advertising agency to run your campaign would most definitely burn a hole in your pocket. The good news is you don’t have to do that. Just remember the twin mantras of focus on what you want and a strong dose of imagination; and you’ll be on your way.

Take the guesswork out of online advertising

Online advertising is not a function of elaborate guesswork and a myriad of hits and misses. Like the traditional offline version, online advertising must also follow some basic rules. Know what you want your advertising to do, where to get it and what to do with it once you have it. Here are some guidelines to get you started.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/preview.asp?file=/2/honabach1.asp

1. Define your advertising objective: Shut the door, switch off the lights, take a deep breath and think why you need to advertise. Clearly define the goals you want your advertising program to achieve. Is it generating new leads, increasing the number of hits on your website, making your company visible in the market place or to increase on/off -line sales? Each goal will have a different advertising path. You can only expect your program to maximize returns, if you know for sure what you want your advertising to do.

1. Decide “where” you want to be seen: It makes a difference to be seen in the right places. Like in offline advertising, the placement of your ad is very crucial to success. Advertising (Co-advertising for higher benefits) on websites that are most relevant to your line of business would be the best place. Also consider top Search Engines, Online Yellow pages, Service Provider directories and large sites or networks. Explore trade –specific websites for a more focused audience

1. Tailor the message for your target audience: when you want the caveman to listen, beat your chest! Craft your message to appeal to the target audience. Your message for a visitor on a trade forum’s website would be different from what you say to the guy clicking on your ad on a home business site. The trick here is to align your message to the mindset of your audience. Equally important is that the message should convey the promotional goals your advertising desires to accomplish. So if you are selling ice to an Eskimo shopping in an Internet mall, don’t forget to mention the discount on your season sale!

1. Be Creative: In a marketplace teeming with new ads you can easily get clobbered on the head with run-of-the-mill ad copy. Your most valuable asset in this crowd is your creativity, which will make your ad stand out. Be creative not only in the copy, but also in the placement of the advertisement. An online contact lens clinic pulls hundreds of people every day to take an eye test with a simple ad. The small 1” X 2” banner says, “ Think You Don’t Need an Eye Test?” in the same format as you see on the reading sheet in an optometrist’s clinic, with alphabets running vertically in a decreasing order. This is a classic example of a simple but creative idea getting the desired results.

1. Add more depth to your advertisement by using rich media like HTML, DHTML, Java and layered ads. Use animated messages doubled with pull down menus for better use of space and for expanding possibilities of response.

1. Choose the advertising medium well: They say, “Well Begun is Half Done”. If you are going to spend a sizeable amount of money on creating and placing ads, they should do more than just wiggle and pop. To maximize response, choose the advertising medium carefully. You have several choices like banner ads, contextual advertising, ezine advertising etc. Research and read on various formats and the factors for each one’s success. Then decide on what format works best for your campaign. Once you have decided on the format, it is equally important to choose the vendor. If you have decided on banner advertising, research and list the websites that would give you the maximum exposure to the right kind of audience. Check out the option of using advertising networks and the pay-per-click options as well. http://a1portal.com/

1. Once your campaign has been set in motion, take care to monitor response and be ready to change or completely redo your copy and the advertising vehicles you use. Keep a track of the ROI (Return on Investment) for every advertising purchase that you make. This way you can figure out which forms of advertising are working for you and which ones aren’t.

All online advertising is aimed at inducing “action”. Every online ad that you see is built to make you act: ‘Register for a free newsletter’, ‘buy now and save dollars’, ‘get a quote on your requirements’…the list goes on. The thing to remember here is that once the prospect has been pushed into an action, there should be real value for him at the other end of the pop- up. Unless you can fulfill the promise your brand is making, your online ad has been wasted.

A well-planned and well-executed advertising campaign can fuel the growth of your home business tremendously. Use online advertising following some simple guidelines and see how it impacts your sales, visibility and brand building, all at the same time.

Also see: http://www.web-source.net/internet_advertising.htm Daegan Smith is the Ex-NCAA Wrestler Turned Webmaster of Perfect Home Based Business Opportunities - The Net’s Top Growing Source for Home Business Information.

Attention: Webmasters & Web Publishers Make Money with our Free Home Business Content for Reprint at Free Web Site Content

Advertising Made Easy

by: chet holmes

How You Can Make Advertising Pay Big Dividends (source: www.chetholmes.com)

McGraw Hill once commissioned an extensive study to determine what marketing weapons make a company famous in it’s market or community.

The study went on to show that advertising created more product, service, or brand awareness than all other marketing weapons combined.

The fact is, we know that Coke is “The Real Thing” because Coke advertises, not because it has good salespeople or does great direct mail.

Advertising stays in front of your prospects when you can’t be there. While a handful of salespeople can only be in front of perhaps a hundred or so prospects per month, advertising can reach thousands of potential buyers each and every month, week, or day.

Studies also show that advertising inspires confidence from your current clients. When current clients see your ad, it reinforces their belief in you.

It makes them feel like they made the right decision to be your client. But advertising can also waste money if you don’t use it properly.

To avoid wasting money, keep these three tips in mind. Don’t spend money on an advertising vehicle if the majority of its listeners/viewer/readers will never buy your type of product or services.

For example, let’s say that you own a commercial real estate company or a business bank. In both cases, you are only interested in business people.

Broad-reaching television or radio stations or general-interest daily newspapers base their rates on how many consumers they reach.

An examination of their audiences may easily show you that a high percentage of their listeners or readers are not business people, yet you will have to pay to reach all of them.

Conversely, there are more specialized advertising vehicles that target a far greater percentage of your potential buyers.

A business radio program or a business publication will offer you an audience comprised mostly of your potential buyers.

If you do advertise, do not expect that a single ad, or even a few ads, constitute effective advertising. Effective advertising needs to be consistent and steady.

However: If you don’t have the budget to take a full advertising schedule, I often recommend that my clients buy one, well placed ad in the ideal magazine and then use that piece for years sometimes with a banner that says: “As Seen In Industry Today.”

This ad then works very hard for you as a direct mail piece, promo piece, or even a hand out at a trade show.

Don’t spread your advertising too thin. Some years ago, a corporate training company launched its services by buying a few spots per week on seven different radio stations.

Since it was not on any one station long enough to give its message a chance to take root, the advertising was a total failure.

The company should have taken its entire budget and sunk it into one or (at the most) two primary vehicles. Each advertising vehicle has a loyal audience.

You are far better off having a heavy schedule in one vehicle, where you have a chance to break through the clutter and get noticed, than to take a few spots in a half-dozen vehicles in which you get lost in the commercial clutter.

Today, repetition and concentration are the keys to successful advertising.

Another important point along the lines of advertising smart is that cable TV today can virtually change your life in a week. I know a fellow who has an electronic repair business.

He would fix VCR’s, TV’s, Toasters, etc… and he also would come to your home to hook up your entire entertainment system if you needed him to do that. The name of the business was Mr. Tim’s Home Electronic Repair and Installation Service.

First, on my advice, he took an insert in the newspaper. (An “insert” is a flyer that is printed separately and “inserted” into the newspaper as a loose piece of paper).

This is generally a very good way to go with B2B in a trade journal or B2C in a newspaper.

These are good because they fall out of the magazine or newspaper onto your desk or kitchen table and they are less expensive to buy than printing your ad right in the vehicle of choice.

When I ran magazines and newspapers, we discouraged them because we NEEDED ads in the magazine/newspaper, but when we had a client we were going to lose over lack of response, we ALWAYS recommended the insert because they almost always worked.

So Mr. Tim’s Home Electronic Repair and Installation Service took the newspaper insert in the local newspaper and bought, specifically, the major neighborhoods where he felt they have more time than money.

That’s the other beauty of newspaper inserts is that you can generally buy a small piece of the circulation to test the idea or to concentrate geographically. This worked for months for Mr. Tim, as people kept the insert around until they needed him.

But one of the people that spotted that insert was the local cable salesperson who told him he could make him famous. Mr. Tim thought TV would be WAY too expensive, but, as it turns out, in some markets, you can buy just a neighborhood. You can buy by zip code.

So for $200 per week, Mr. Tim was on TV like 60 times per week, spread all over 50 different cable channels.

It was amazing. You’d be watching re-runs of Seinfeld and there would come this Mr. Tim’s Home Electronic Repair and Installation Service ad and his phone would ring. It worked great.

Then one day he walks into a bike shop and someone recognized him from his TV ad. He was becoming famous from this mere $200 per week.

Not for everyone, but if you sell B2C, look into local cable and concentrate with a lot of spots.

Every business action requires some kind of cost justification. Does the effort justify the cost? Company X advertised its professional educational materials.

When it seemed as though the advertising was not working, the company was going to cancel its ad campaign.

Then it discovered a startling correlation between its advertising and its direct-mail efforts: Its direct-mail response went up by 30% in the months it advertised to the same audience.

This is typical. The more penetration you can get to the same audience, the better the possibility that you will get noticed.

In the ’90s, getting noticed is everything. In today’s commercial clutter, you get noticed only by continually reaching the same potential customer with a consistent theme, message, look, and feel.

If you advertise in a print medium (magazine, newspaper, etc.), you will find that most publications will rent you their mailing lists.

This means you can direct mail to the same audience to which you are advertising! This is a very smart usage of marketing dollars.

Look at the lifetime value. If you have an inexpensive product, your advertising has to deliver a high number of leads, or every lead has to turn into a repeat customer.

For example, say your average customer spends $25 with you. If you are spending $1,000 per month on advertising, you will need to attract 40 new customers per month to break even on the ad, not counting any of your other costs, such as product costs and overhead.

If those customers are one-time buyers, then you have to find a way to make your advertising more effective or less expensive. If they become regular buyers, then you can accept lower response rates.

The key here is to look at the “lifetime value” of a customer. A customer who spends $25 a month and comes to your store only once is only worth $25 to you.

But if you can get that customer to be a repeat customer, then that customer is worth $300 a year, or $1,500 over five years!

Most business people do not understand the power of advertising; they do not realize that each new $25 customer is potentially a $1,500 customer!

Advertising brings in the customers, but it is your job to keep them buying from you.

Advertising promotes word-of-mouth

Often, a loyal customer will see your ad while with a friend or business associate. Your customer will show your ad to the friend and say, “Hey Joe, now this is a really great company/product/service.”

Joe will come into your business, and you will ask him how he heard of you. He will say that his friend referred him and never think to mention that it was your advertising that prompted the friend to open his mouth in the first place.

I headed up a Neilson study that tracked hundreds of ads and the response rate each ad generated. Each month, a computer printout listed the ads and how much response each had generated. The first printout came and it looked like this:

• X Company…………22 responses
• Y Company……...….20 responses
• Z Company………….23 responses
• K Company………..223 responses
• J Company……….….26 responses

In the midst of all the other ads generating responses in the low 20’s, one ad was generated more than 200 responses!

Turning to the ad, we expected to find some totally new or unique offer, product or service.

Instead, we found that the product advertised was nearly identical in price and features to four or five other products in the same publication.

Thus, it wasn’t the product that made the response jump so significantly, it was the ad! After a year of tracking the highest response generating ads, we learned that, for the most part, the ads that pulled the greatest response followed four primary rules:

Rule No 1: Is it distinctive? You must design advertising that is so distinctive looking (or sounding, if you’re on the radio) that it pops out of the clutter.

In print, the first goal of high-response-oriented advertising is that it be visually distinctive. On radio, the audio must be distinctive. Naturally, TV has both visual and audio possibilities.

I ran a TV spot advertising a free seminar I’m doing with Jay Abraham. Among other images we used in the spot, I put a shot of me throwing a double side kick (I have 23 years of karate training) to the head of a business owner (we’re both in suits).

What’s the point of that? One point. It makes you want to find out “what the heck is going on there?” Today, 70% of TV watchers are muting out the commercials.

But if you see something really intriguing, you will UN-mute just to see what the heck is happening there.

There’s a spot running right now where this kid sprays his mother with a squirt gun and she pulls the hose out of the sink and nails the kid with it.

I saw that spot several times and it finally got my goat. I wanted to see what they were advertising.

So make your ad distinctive. Something that makes it STAND OUT.

Rule No. 2: Tell me what you want to tell me. If you page through a magazine, you will quickly notice that you do not read the ads that make it difficult for you to figure out what they are selling.

“Clever” is only better if it is “super clever.” Clever headlines that do not tell you what they are trying to sell are simply not effective.

Most ads in most publications today don’t have headlines that tell you what they are trying to sell. In the information age, don’t hint around; say what you want to say, right in the headline.

A good headline follows these four criteria:

• It tells you what the product or service is.
• It starts with the word you or your (not always, but mostly).
• It contains a benefit to the reader. Most companies brag about themselves, rather than talk about the benefit to the reader (prospect).

• High-response-oriented advertising focuses like a laser beam on the benefit to the customer.
• It makes the consumer want to read on.

The headline is the ad for the ad. If the headline isn’t good, no one will read the rest of the ad. Responses to ads have jumped ten fold by simply changing the headlines.

Rule No. 3: The body copy should…

Be curiosity driven, unfolding the story you want to tell.

By highly benefit oriented. So many ads talk about features, when it is benefits that motivate buying.

Give you a reason to take action now! Can you offer something for free that will help you engage the potential customer?

Rule No. 4: Ask for the order. Too many ads do not give explicit instructions as to what action you would like the customer to take: “Order today and save,” or “Call us today and receive this free….”. You must always ask for the order!

Summary

Advertising is a powerful tool for becoming a well-known player in any market.

Even if you take a small schedule and a small ad, by consistently letting it run in an appropriately targeted vehicle, over time that ad will have an impact. People will see your logo and it will register.

Advertising supports everything else you do in your business. But it is only part of a total package.

You must have other marketing, and you must make sure, ultimately, that you are treating the customer like gold. Happy customers will spread the word faster, and advertising will help facilitate that. Happy advertising!

Chet Holmes is President and CEO of Jordan Productions, an international training firm that helps companies accelerate growth using Chet’s proprietary techniques. See www.chetholmes.com to attend a webinar about Chet’s concepts.

About The Author

Chet Holmes is author and creator of the popular business series Guerrilla Marketing Meets Karate Master with Jay Conrad Levinson, Business Growth Masters, and Zero to $100 Million.

Chet charges $5,000 an hour and has been paid fees up to $1 million dollars from a single client. He's personally had 50 Fortune 500 clients and has 60 products selling in 19 countries.

16 Methods for Getting Free Advertising

by: GSET Publishing

The acne products that are sold in stores are full of chemicals that you may not want to apply to your skin. Many people prefer more natural products, and often look for home treatments for acne. Home treatment for acne, in many cases, has proven to be as effective, if not more effective, than the products that you purchase in the store.

Home treatment for acne begins with proper skin care. Make sure that you wash your face, with a pure soap such as Ivory, at least twice each day. If you live in an area that has high air pollution, you may want to wash more often. You should also wash your face after activities that cause you to sweat. Wash your face with warm water, and do a final rinse with a splash of cold water to close the pores.

It is also important that you drink plenty of water to keep your body and your skin hydrated. The proper amount of water intake helps to promote healthy skin, and will keep your skin looking younger for a longer period of time, helping it to retain its elasticity. You also need to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

While no food has been scientifically proven to cause acne, any food that you have an allergy to will cause an acne breakout. You can have food allergies without realizing it - the only sign of the allergy may, in fact, be the acne breakout. For this reason, you should pay close attention to the foods that you eat, and keep records of what you have eaten when your skin breaks out. You might also want to visit an allergist to find out what you are allergic to. Most people are allergic to at least one food, even if they don’t realize it.

Home treatment for acne also includes exercise. Most people don’t realize the overall effect that exercise has on our minds and bodies. Exercise relieves stress, and stress can cause acne breakouts. Exercise builds our immune systems and makes us less susceptible to infections - acne is a skin infection. Exercise causes us to sweat, which rids our bodies of toxins. Toxins can cause acne as well. Make it a habit to exercise at least three times each week for at least thirty minutes.

Home treatment for acne continues with natural products to prevent or clear up acne. For instance, Evening Primrose oil can be used both internally and externally to clear up acne. For internal treatment, take between 3000 and 6000 milligrams per day. For external treatment, apply the oil directly to the acne. Leave it on overnight, and then wash it away in the morning. An herbal tea, made from the petals of the Evening Primrose plant will help prevent acne, if you drink it regularly. Crush the petals, or the leaves from the plant, and mix one teaspoon of the herb for every one cup of boiling water. Avoid using a metal pot or cup, as the metal can destroy the medicinal properties of the herb.

Other herbs that are useful for the prevention or cure of acne include lavender, rosemary, patchouli, eucalyptus, sandalwood, bergamot, tea tree, and clove. Lavender, bergamot, clove, and eucalyptus are all anti-bacterial herbs. Rosemary can be used as an astringent, and sandalwood is used as an antiseptic and astringent. Patchouli is very powerful, as it helps to regenerate skin cells, and has antiseptic, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial properties. Tea Tree is known for relieving skin irritations.

You can make soap out of any of these herbs by mixing one ounce of bees wax, 1 ½ tablespoons of water, and a ½ cup of sweet almond oil or sunflower oil. Simply use a double boiler, and heat the wax and oil over boiling water until it is melted. Heat the water separately, and then add it to the mixture. Stir the mixture as it cools, then add 20 - 30 drops of essential oil of the herbs that you choose, or use a teaspoon of ground herbs.

When purchasing herbs or herbal oils for home treatment for acne, make sure that you look for products that have been organically grown. You don’t want to use herbs or oils from plants that were chemically treated with pesticides or other dangerous chemicals, as this actually defeats the purpose of home treatment for acne.

About the Author

Acneteam.com strives to provide you with the latest information with regard to acne, the best acne treatments, the "old wives' tales" and info about home treatment for acne (http://www.acneteam.com/home-treatment-for-acne.html). Don't blame the blemishes, we love to help! See for yourself at: AcneTeam.com (http://www.acneteam.com/)