Branding is no longer simply about visual appeal (or the cherry in the apple pie example, as given in my earlier article). Unfortunately, many graphic design firms who position themselves as advertising agencies believe that branding your corporate identity is all about developing great looking visual solutions.
However, there is much more to branding than just looking good. Particularly in this web 2.0 eras, where a powerful web presence has become a vital ingredient of your branding strategy, developing the right media mix holds the key to building powerful brand equity.
In other words, a right media mix would mean:
• Creative design solutions (the design, color, and content of your ads, marketing collateral and website enhance your brand equity, attract customers, and generate sales)
• Web development (every product/service worth its name has a web presence these days, some have truly interactive, animated sites encouraging customer involvement),
• Viral marketing (vitally important in today’s age of social networking, tagging, podcasting, blogs, forums, wikis and what have you)
• Television commercial production, print media advertising (traditional media cannot be overlooked)
• Strategic films (have become necessary elements of roadshows, exibhitions and other promotional campaigns)
• Corporate video production (a very important tool for branding your corporate identity)
• Direct marketing (marketing collaterals need to be just as effective and resonant with the overall branding scheme as the communicate directly with the customer)
• Outdoor advertising (hoardings, roadshows, participations in business fairs, exhibitions, etc)
There are some interactive advertising agencies that have recognized the need of the hour - developing creative design solutions that employ user-centric investigation and involve critical and systematic thinking. User-centric means understanding of needs and priorities of end user; the clients' customers, their channel partners, users, and brand communities.
So if you want to register your brand as one that is synonymous with customer loyalty, you must develop a complete package, keeping the customer as the prime objective and organizing product stories around the way they prefer to learn about, compare, select and confirm purchases, connecting brands and their experiences.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
A Look At One Creator Of Sports Logos
The members of every sports team wear an embroidered logo somewhere on their sports gear. That embroidered logo is a symbol of pride. The makers of those logos are equally proud of their creations.
Who makes those embroidered logos? Does each city with a professional team have its own set of embroidery experts? If one were to look at the logo for the Philadelphia Phillies, one would get that impression. Their logo contains a liberty bell. It looks like a logo designed by a present-day Betsy Ross.
Yet “Ross” was not the last name of the family that did the embroidery for that logo. That family had a different last name. Their name was “Moritz.”
Before the depression, the Moritz family had a business focused on the making of embroidered lace. Then during the depression, Carl Moritz, the founder of the company, and two of his sons changed the nature of the company’s efforts. They got the employees to start doing the embroidery for the emblems put on sports uniforms.
At the time of its founding, 1885, the Moritz’ company was located on Vine Street in Philadelphia. In 1970 the company moved to northern Philadelphia. In 1986 the Moritz’ company moved much further north. It moved to the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Moritz family has been an important part of the embroidery industry for five generations. Carl Moritz, Jr., the grandson of the company’s founder, took time off during World War II to serve in the Marine Corps. After three years of service (1943-1946) he got an honorable discharge, and then he returned to Philadelphia to help with the family business.
His son and grandson have also lent their efforts to advancement of the skills required for making embroidered logos. They have made sure that the company has stayed in tune with the times. The youngest Moritz has created a new line of offerings called QDT Products. Those products are computer hardware and software for use in the embroidery industry.
By using such QDT Products, embroidered logos can be made much more efficiently. Design changes can be readily added to the available software. That makes it easier to train the employees who will make the embroidered logos.
With computers as part of the logo-making process, it is doubtful that sports logos will soon go out of style. They will probably be an important part of professional sports for quite some time.
Who makes those embroidered logos? Does each city with a professional team have its own set of embroidery experts? If one were to look at the logo for the Philadelphia Phillies, one would get that impression. Their logo contains a liberty bell. It looks like a logo designed by a present-day Betsy Ross.
Yet “Ross” was not the last name of the family that did the embroidery for that logo. That family had a different last name. Their name was “Moritz.”
Before the depression, the Moritz family had a business focused on the making of embroidered lace. Then during the depression, Carl Moritz, the founder of the company, and two of his sons changed the nature of the company’s efforts. They got the employees to start doing the embroidery for the emblems put on sports uniforms.
At the time of its founding, 1885, the Moritz’ company was located on Vine Street in Philadelphia. In 1970 the company moved to northern Philadelphia. In 1986 the Moritz’ company moved much further north. It moved to the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Moritz family has been an important part of the embroidery industry for five generations. Carl Moritz, Jr., the grandson of the company’s founder, took time off during World War II to serve in the Marine Corps. After three years of service (1943-1946) he got an honorable discharge, and then he returned to Philadelphia to help with the family business.
His son and grandson have also lent their efforts to advancement of the skills required for making embroidered logos. They have made sure that the company has stayed in tune with the times. The youngest Moritz has created a new line of offerings called QDT Products. Those products are computer hardware and software for use in the embroidery industry.
By using such QDT Products, embroidered logos can be made much more efficiently. Design changes can be readily added to the available software. That makes it easier to train the employees who will make the embroidered logos.
With computers as part of the logo-making process, it is doubtful that sports logos will soon go out of style. They will probably be an important part of professional sports for quite some time.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
A Guide to using T-Shirts for marketing
Promotional T-shirts have been a part of business promotion and marketing of brands for a long time. Promotional T Shirts can be given to clients, to prospective customers, and also to your employees to give them the added feeling of belonging to a brand. You do not need be a world famous brand to benefit from promotional T-shirts. Even new busineses have used T Shirts to create awareness of their product, brand or business.
giving Promotional T Shirts to your employees is a great way for brand endorsement. You can design T Shirts with your company brand and marketing message for your employees and if you are hosting a conference, exibition or promotional event, make it mandatory for your employees to wear promotional T Shirts. It is a very inexpensive method to make your staff stand out from the crowd and you present an orderly unity among your employees, the same way in which a uniform serves.
Some businessesthink that it is too expensive to buy a t-shirt online but they are often incorrect. Purchasing t shirts online is a fast and easy process and the choice of online shops is very much better than you expect it to be with some allowing you to undertake the entire design process and payment online.
Corporate branding on T-Shirts can significantly improve the brand awareness of a business in a very short period of time and aside from the obvious marketing advantages branded T-Shirts and other clothing can enhance the perception of customers to your business. Considering the relatively low cost of purchase and printing T shirts against the length of time a good quality T Shirt can last makes branded T shirts one of the most cost effective methods of marketing for many businesses.
It is widely believed that DTG tshirt printing is more environmentally than screen printing. DTG uses water-based inks to print directly onto clothing, this means that there are no excess inks used in the actual printing and the only waste that occurs is from the occasional print head cleaning – it’s worth noting that head cleaning does not involve any external materials only ink. Then as long as waste ink is disposed of correctly, printing tshirts using the DTG method should have virtually no environmenal impact. Screen printing however has excess inks from parts of the stencil not printed to the tshirt and when screens are cleaned these excess inks are usually washed down the drain.
giving Promotional T Shirts to your employees is a great way for brand endorsement. You can design T Shirts with your company brand and marketing message for your employees and if you are hosting a conference, exibition or promotional event, make it mandatory for your employees to wear promotional T Shirts. It is a very inexpensive method to make your staff stand out from the crowd and you present an orderly unity among your employees, the same way in which a uniform serves.
Some businessesthink that it is too expensive to buy a t-shirt online but they are often incorrect. Purchasing t shirts online is a fast and easy process and the choice of online shops is very much better than you expect it to be with some allowing you to undertake the entire design process and payment online.
Corporate branding on T-Shirts can significantly improve the brand awareness of a business in a very short period of time and aside from the obvious marketing advantages branded T-Shirts and other clothing can enhance the perception of customers to your business. Considering the relatively low cost of purchase and printing T shirts against the length of time a good quality T Shirt can last makes branded T shirts one of the most cost effective methods of marketing for many businesses.
It is widely believed that DTG tshirt printing is more environmentally than screen printing. DTG uses water-based inks to print directly onto clothing, this means that there are no excess inks used in the actual printing and the only waste that occurs is from the occasional print head cleaning – it’s worth noting that head cleaning does not involve any external materials only ink. Then as long as waste ink is disposed of correctly, printing tshirts using the DTG method should have virtually no environmenal impact. Screen printing however has excess inks from parts of the stencil not printed to the tshirt and when screens are cleaned these excess inks are usually washed down the drain.
A Guide to Brochure Printing
Brochure printing can be easy if you first identify your needs and have a clear sense of your budget. Whether it is for is a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or another application, brochures are a great promotional tool.
Start with a layout that includes the text and images you will need to convey your message. Then choose the type of printing that best suits your brochure. Brochures are typically printed in more than one color.
There are two basic choices in printing: offset printing and laser or digital printing. Both printing processes are capable of producing large quantities of high-quality documents. Most high quality, full-color commercial printing is done on offset presses using the four-color process. Offset printing is a process whereby ink is spread on a metal plate with etched images, is transferred to an intermediary surface, and is then applied to paper by pressing the paper against the intermediary surface. Although set-up costs can be relatively high, the actual printing is generally inexpensive.
Laser or digital printing uses a laser beam to produce an image; this is also the way copy machines work. Offset printing usually produces clearer, crisper type and higher resolution images than laser or digital printing. However, smaller printing jobs can be done on a small low-volume laser or inkjet printer, or at a copy store, thereby eliminating set-up fees and some shipping costs.
Choosing paper is another very important aspect of brochure printing. Most printers will recommend a heavyweight, coated, or glossy paper to achieve a more vibrant, upscale look.
The folding of your brochure is another key consideration. Basic folding options include: the half fold or single fold, the tri fold (the left and right flaps open), and the “Z” fold (which opens up like an accordion). Almost all printers will give you a greater discount the more you print.
Brochure printing can be easy and fun and allow for a good deal of self-expression, so go ahead, what are you waiting for? Print that brochure.
Start with a layout that includes the text and images you will need to convey your message. Then choose the type of printing that best suits your brochure. Brochures are typically printed in more than one color.
There are two basic choices in printing: offset printing and laser or digital printing. Both printing processes are capable of producing large quantities of high-quality documents. Most high quality, full-color commercial printing is done on offset presses using the four-color process. Offset printing is a process whereby ink is spread on a metal plate with etched images, is transferred to an intermediary surface, and is then applied to paper by pressing the paper against the intermediary surface. Although set-up costs can be relatively high, the actual printing is generally inexpensive.
Laser or digital printing uses a laser beam to produce an image; this is also the way copy machines work. Offset printing usually produces clearer, crisper type and higher resolution images than laser or digital printing. However, smaller printing jobs can be done on a small low-volume laser or inkjet printer, or at a copy store, thereby eliminating set-up fees and some shipping costs.
Choosing paper is another very important aspect of brochure printing. Most printers will recommend a heavyweight, coated, or glossy paper to achieve a more vibrant, upscale look.
The folding of your brochure is another key consideration. Basic folding options include: the half fold or single fold, the tri fold (the left and right flaps open), and the “Z” fold (which opens up like an accordion). Almost all printers will give you a greater discount the more you print.
Brochure printing can be easy and fun and allow for a good deal of self-expression, so go ahead, what are you waiting for? Print that brochure.
Friday, May 8, 2009
A Guide To Advertising In The Media
The media is a powerful thing -- the average person spends an enormous amount of their life consuming it in one form or another, and will spend a significant percentage of that time looking at, listening to or watching advertisements. If you want to use the power of the media, though, you need to know what you're doing.
Advertising in Newspapers and Magazines.
There are two kinds of advertising you can get in newspapers and magazines: classified and display. Classifieds are the small ads towards the back of the publication, while display ads can be almost any size, from a small corner of a page to a massive double-page spread.
If there's a publication you're interested in advertising in, either go to its website (the rate card section) or call its advertising department to find out the rates it charges. Now pick your jaw up off the floor. Yes, advertising in the print media really is that expensive, and for most home businesses it probably just won't be that economical.
There is, however, an exception: niche and trade magazines. If you've ever looked around in a newsagent, you will have seen just how many magazines there are out there, filling every conceivable gap in the market. You need to find the magazine that people who are interested in your services might read. For example, if you're a wedding photographer, look for a magazine called 'Your Wedding', 'Bride', or something similar. Advertising in these magazines will be far cheaper than placing an ad in a general-audience publication, and far more likely to actually get some responses.
Advertising on the Radio.
Wherever you are, the chances are that there's a local radio station. Once your home business grows to a decent size, you might consider buying some time on it.
Really, though, the only kind of home business that can benefit enough from radio ads to justify the cost is one that does anything to do with cars. Since radio is almost entirely limited to use as in-car entertainment now, you know that almost everyone your ad reaches will be a car-owner, and so might be interested in what you're offering. If you offer something that people need cheaply or even for free, you can get a big response.
Unfortunately, that response could be a little too big -- thanks to the time-sensitivity of radio, you'll get mobbed the next day, and then everyone will forget you again. Radio advertising offers the listener no opportunity to keep your ad and refer to it later, or to find it again in the future. You will find that any ads involving a phone number are spectacularly useless.
Advertising on the Television.
Unless your business is getting pretty big, this would be quite a bad idea. You'd have trouble producing and airing an ad even on local cable channels for less than $10,000. Of course, if there's a market for your product and you've got the budget for this, you could take a gamble and make a mint. The home businesses that tend to do best out of TV ads are ones that have a 'unique and useful invention' product with easy-to-demonstrate benefits -- think infomercial. Research shows that you can sell almost anything given a 60-second ad, a free phone number and a price point of $19.95.
Advertising on Billboards.
Here's one that gets overlooked pretty often, but can be very effective if you do it right. Billboard ads are relatively expensive, but they do generally stay up for a long time, and they can be very specifically targeted to an area -- the one where they're physically located. You'll have the best results with this if you can put one near enough to your business that it could say 'turn left at the next junction', or something like that. Phone numbers are, again, pretty useless, although you could have some luck putting a website address up there.
Advertising at the Movies.
Finally, here's one that often gets overlooked. If you turn up to the cinema early, you might have seen that before the big-budget ads, ads for local businesses are run. This can be a great place to advertise relatively inexpensively in quite a high-profile way, and it works especially well for takeaway food businesses.
Advertising in Newspapers and Magazines.
There are two kinds of advertising you can get in newspapers and magazines: classified and display. Classifieds are the small ads towards the back of the publication, while display ads can be almost any size, from a small corner of a page to a massive double-page spread.
If there's a publication you're interested in advertising in, either go to its website (the rate card section) or call its advertising department to find out the rates it charges. Now pick your jaw up off the floor. Yes, advertising in the print media really is that expensive, and for most home businesses it probably just won't be that economical.
There is, however, an exception: niche and trade magazines. If you've ever looked around in a newsagent, you will have seen just how many magazines there are out there, filling every conceivable gap in the market. You need to find the magazine that people who are interested in your services might read. For example, if you're a wedding photographer, look for a magazine called 'Your Wedding', 'Bride', or something similar. Advertising in these magazines will be far cheaper than placing an ad in a general-audience publication, and far more likely to actually get some responses.
Advertising on the Radio.
Wherever you are, the chances are that there's a local radio station. Once your home business grows to a decent size, you might consider buying some time on it.
Really, though, the only kind of home business that can benefit enough from radio ads to justify the cost is one that does anything to do with cars. Since radio is almost entirely limited to use as in-car entertainment now, you know that almost everyone your ad reaches will be a car-owner, and so might be interested in what you're offering. If you offer something that people need cheaply or even for free, you can get a big response.
Unfortunately, that response could be a little too big -- thanks to the time-sensitivity of radio, you'll get mobbed the next day, and then everyone will forget you again. Radio advertising offers the listener no opportunity to keep your ad and refer to it later, or to find it again in the future. You will find that any ads involving a phone number are spectacularly useless.
Advertising on the Television.
Unless your business is getting pretty big, this would be quite a bad idea. You'd have trouble producing and airing an ad even on local cable channels for less than $10,000. Of course, if there's a market for your product and you've got the budget for this, you could take a gamble and make a mint. The home businesses that tend to do best out of TV ads are ones that have a 'unique and useful invention' product with easy-to-demonstrate benefits -- think infomercial. Research shows that you can sell almost anything given a 60-second ad, a free phone number and a price point of $19.95.
Advertising on Billboards.
Here's one that gets overlooked pretty often, but can be very effective if you do it right. Billboard ads are relatively expensive, but they do generally stay up for a long time, and they can be very specifically targeted to an area -- the one where they're physically located. You'll have the best results with this if you can put one near enough to your business that it could say 'turn left at the next junction', or something like that. Phone numbers are, again, pretty useless, although you could have some luck putting a website address up there.
Advertising at the Movies.
Finally, here's one that often gets overlooked. If you turn up to the cinema early, you might have seen that before the big-budget ads, ads for local businesses are run. This can be a great place to advertise relatively inexpensively in quite a high-profile way, and it works especially well for takeaway food businesses.
A Look at Brochure Printing Services
A brochure can be a wonderful promotional tool for a wide range of professionals, but getting them set up can be daunting. There are many brochure-printing services available that cater to both the amateur and professional. You can find them in a number of ways, including the phone book, the Internet, graphic design and advertising journals, or word of mouth.
Some companies will provide typesetting, design, color separations (four-color process), color proofing and proofreading service, while other companies just provide the most basic color printing, folding and shipping.
There are brochure-printing companies that will do everything for you; all you need is a clear idea of your brochure’s requirements and whether it is business, promotional or another application, and the brochure company will take it from start to finish. Brochure design can be a challenge, so you might consider working with the professional designer that many brochure-printing companies offer. Some companies even offer sales literature development assistance and strategic marketing plans. However if you do your own design, copy writing, typesetting and art placement, and use these services sparingly, you will save money. One thing to keep in mind if you choose to do so is that most basic brochure printing companies will warn you that they will not proof read your work, and that corrections cost extra.
If you simply start at the beginning with a step-by-step review of your needs, many companies will walk you through the features and benefits of their products and services. Because there is so much competition, many services (such as shipping) are offered at a discount or even free. Furthermore, most brochure printing companies will provide their own customer service representative who will work closely with you to make sure your job runs smoothly and efficiently through the entire process, from pre-press to final distribution.
You should investigate thoroughly each brochure printing company and the services they offer to make sure they meet your requirements. A well-designed brochure can work wonders, and are well worth the effort.
Some companies will provide typesetting, design, color separations (four-color process), color proofing and proofreading service, while other companies just provide the most basic color printing, folding and shipping.
There are brochure-printing companies that will do everything for you; all you need is a clear idea of your brochure’s requirements and whether it is business, promotional or another application, and the brochure company will take it from start to finish. Brochure design can be a challenge, so you might consider working with the professional designer that many brochure-printing companies offer. Some companies even offer sales literature development assistance and strategic marketing plans. However if you do your own design, copy writing, typesetting and art placement, and use these services sparingly, you will save money. One thing to keep in mind if you choose to do so is that most basic brochure printing companies will warn you that they will not proof read your work, and that corrections cost extra.
If you simply start at the beginning with a step-by-step review of your needs, many companies will walk you through the features and benefits of their products and services. Because there is so much competition, many services (such as shipping) are offered at a discount or even free. Furthermore, most brochure printing companies will provide their own customer service representative who will work closely with you to make sure your job runs smoothly and efficiently through the entire process, from pre-press to final distribution.
You should investigate thoroughly each brochure printing company and the services they offer to make sure they meet your requirements. A well-designed brochure can work wonders, and are well worth the effort.
A Good Autoresponder
How many free autoresponders have you tried? Really how many? And how many emails did you get through using them? How do you know? How many people opened your followup message?
My point here is that if you have no clue for the answers above you probably are not operating a followup campaign successfully. These are crucial element that must be explored when you are choosing an autoresponder.
Some good steps to take to ensure you are getting what you need out of a autoresponder include... Compare your autoresponder with those of top marketers, chances are they are using the best in the business. You can't go wrong with this step!
Other observations you might make are related to spam filters. Have you ever gotten an e-mail and seen something like this..."F`R`E`E" Yes this is a good way to beat the spam filters as they won't read Free they will read something totally different. However it can be time consuming going through your article and finding which words are "Danger" words. This can go along way in your marketing efforts. So make sure you find an autoresponder that has a spam rating feature... these features will automatically show you where in your article your "Danger" words are.
Another crucial element of e-mail marketing are your statistics. How many e-mails are being opened can tell you if your subject line is any good or if you did a good job branding your name. If you know your e-mail statistics you are one step in the right direction in optimizing your potential sales. Finding an autoresponder that shows in depth analysis with your followups are also key.
What should a followup contain? Good question... My personally experience suggests directing your subscribers to a full article located on the web. There are some good reasons for this. You can create an excitement teaser in the followup e-mail and beg your article to be read on the web. There is also the chance that since you have an article archive on the web many subscribers will often read more than just your original article. Your subscriber might not be interested in one article but they may find what they are looking for browsing through your previous articles.
Broadcasting! So your subscribers are finished receiving their original followup series... now what? Find an auto responder that allows you to broadcast an update or an offer to the entire subscriber list. Don't let your subscribers go to waste, this feature is a must!
Remember not to bore your hard earned subscribers. Present them with a problem and offer them a solution! Its that easy...
Find my recommended autoresponder on my marketing blog!
My point here is that if you have no clue for the answers above you probably are not operating a followup campaign successfully. These are crucial element that must be explored when you are choosing an autoresponder.
Some good steps to take to ensure you are getting what you need out of a autoresponder include... Compare your autoresponder with those of top marketers, chances are they are using the best in the business. You can't go wrong with this step!
Other observations you might make are related to spam filters. Have you ever gotten an e-mail and seen something like this..."F`R`E`E" Yes this is a good way to beat the spam filters as they won't read Free they will read something totally different. However it can be time consuming going through your article and finding which words are "Danger" words. This can go along way in your marketing efforts. So make sure you find an autoresponder that has a spam rating feature... these features will automatically show you where in your article your "Danger" words are.
Another crucial element of e-mail marketing are your statistics. How many e-mails are being opened can tell you if your subject line is any good or if you did a good job branding your name. If you know your e-mail statistics you are one step in the right direction in optimizing your potential sales. Finding an autoresponder that shows in depth analysis with your followups are also key.
What should a followup contain? Good question... My personally experience suggests directing your subscribers to a full article located on the web. There are some good reasons for this. You can create an excitement teaser in the followup e-mail and beg your article to be read on the web. There is also the chance that since you have an article archive on the web many subscribers will often read more than just your original article. Your subscriber might not be interested in one article but they may find what they are looking for browsing through your previous articles.
Broadcasting! So your subscribers are finished receiving their original followup series... now what? Find an auto responder that allows you to broadcast an update or an offer to the entire subscriber list. Don't let your subscribers go to waste, this feature is a must!
Remember not to bore your hard earned subscribers. Present them with a problem and offer them a solution! Its that easy...
Find my recommended autoresponder on my marketing blog!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
A Fold that’s worth a Thousand Gain
How much are you charged for an online ad? How much will you be paying for an advertisement space in a magazine or newspaper? Advertising and marketing can be a very extravagant business. Every second, space and word is paid accordingly.
If you have invested a large sum in your ads and promotions, how sure are you that you will get it back more than you expect it to be? How will you profit from it?
Some businessmen are having qualm about spending high on ads and promotions. This is because they are not sure that they will profit from it. Some perceive it as just throwing away of money. This may not be a serious bother to multinationals or big corporations and business. Nonetheless, to the point of starting entrepreneurs, spending high may mean ‘make or break’ endeavor or worst may result to future bankruptcy.
When talking about your business, everything matters – even the minutest details. One detail that must not be overlooked is effective communication. Therefore, promotions and advertisements are indispensable.
If you are this point worrying about expenses, worry no more. There are affordable alternatives in connection with marketing your business. Tiny pieces of paper can do you a great favor. Brochures for one are effective marketing materials.
Brochure may come in a fold or several of them. These folds can give you the edge in the marketing world. In fact, they may return as several folds of bucks. Imagine, you are hitting two birds at the same time. Brochures printing are affordable plus the aftermath of its distribution can be financially rewarding to business enthusiasts.
Brochures printing can be had in an easy and practicable manner. In fact, you can transact online. Brochures printing companies are rampant. All you have to do is select the best – the printer with outstanding reputation and credibility can do your printing job superbly.
Your friend’s personal recommendation is a good recommendation. You can also rely on reviews and goodwill. Just be sure that your printer will bring life to your folds of communication.
If you have invested a large sum in your ads and promotions, how sure are you that you will get it back more than you expect it to be? How will you profit from it?
Some businessmen are having qualm about spending high on ads and promotions. This is because they are not sure that they will profit from it. Some perceive it as just throwing away of money. This may not be a serious bother to multinationals or big corporations and business. Nonetheless, to the point of starting entrepreneurs, spending high may mean ‘make or break’ endeavor or worst may result to future bankruptcy.
When talking about your business, everything matters – even the minutest details. One detail that must not be overlooked is effective communication. Therefore, promotions and advertisements are indispensable.
If you are this point worrying about expenses, worry no more. There are affordable alternatives in connection with marketing your business. Tiny pieces of paper can do you a great favor. Brochures for one are effective marketing materials.
Brochure may come in a fold or several of them. These folds can give you the edge in the marketing world. In fact, they may return as several folds of bucks. Imagine, you are hitting two birds at the same time. Brochures printing are affordable plus the aftermath of its distribution can be financially rewarding to business enthusiasts.
Brochures printing can be had in an easy and practicable manner. In fact, you can transact online. Brochures printing companies are rampant. All you have to do is select the best – the printer with outstanding reputation and credibility can do your printing job superbly.
Your friend’s personal recommendation is a good recommendation. You can also rely on reviews and goodwill. Just be sure that your printer will bring life to your folds of communication.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A Catering Directory Helps You Find Local Caterers
Catering is one service where you are likely to prefer a local supplier. Very few persons would want to bring a caterer from some other country and risk a party disaster. Corporate parties might go for specialized and reputed catering organizations headquartered elsewhere. Even they might often find it necessary to go for local caterers when time is short.
Catering directories generally focus on the final consumers, listing vendors by food categories such as beverages, chocolate fountain, fruit, juice, etc; and by supplier categories like food vendors, caterers, mobile vendors, party organizers, restaurants, party shops, etc. There might also be sections on Health & Safety and Catering Tips.
Another catering directory might arrange vendors by such categories as caterers, event venues, entertainment, photography, transportation, wedding, event planners, florists, etc.
All are likely to provide the option to narrow down the lists to locations you select, such as a city or area.
Some might collect information such as number of guests, event type, services required (such as food, servers, liquor, chocolate fountain, decorations, tables/chairs, tents, etc), date and time, location and so on, and give you a quote based on your requirements.
Caterers might even help you select a menu depending on your budget per person or an event venue or other related matters. Services offered could include sit-in, food station and buffet type serving options, and also clean-ups, drop offs, beverages only service, etc.
Detailed Catering Directory Categories
A brief look at some detailed catering directory categories would help you understand what you could expect. A selection is listed below:
Catering Directories Are Not Only for Party Hosts
Another kind of catering directory focuses on the requirements of caterers by listing suppliers of catering requirements. The following sample list provides a look at the kind of requirements caterers typically have:
Regional Directories
You can find catering services providers near you either through regional directories, such as Chicago Caterer directories, or through national directories that lists caterers by cities and areas. Local catering can be arranged quickly and is ideal when you are short of time. For domestic parties, local catering would be the better option in most cases.
A local catering directory like a Chicago catering directory might list such local resources as banquet halls, buffet services, corporate party organizers, and so on.
Conclusion
Catering directories generally focus on the consumers of catering services, listing different types of caterers by their services or locations. Thus, you could find a wedding organizer in or near your town, or a restaurant that offers Chinese dishes in city you plan to visit.
Other catering directories focus on the caterers, helping them find cookware, tableware, furniture, refrigeration equipment, and so on. Some might offer kitchen planning and design services and other kinds of consultancy services.
This article looked at the kinds of information you could expect to find in a catering directory.
Catering directories generally focus on the final consumers, listing vendors by food categories such as beverages, chocolate fountain, fruit, juice, etc; and by supplier categories like food vendors, caterers, mobile vendors, party organizers, restaurants, party shops, etc. There might also be sections on Health & Safety and Catering Tips.
Another catering directory might arrange vendors by such categories as caterers, event venues, entertainment, photography, transportation, wedding, event planners, florists, etc.
All are likely to provide the option to narrow down the lists to locations you select, such as a city or area.
Some might collect information such as number of guests, event type, services required (such as food, servers, liquor, chocolate fountain, decorations, tables/chairs, tents, etc), date and time, location and so on, and give you a quote based on your requirements.
Caterers might even help you select a menu depending on your budget per person or an event venue or other related matters. Services offered could include sit-in, food station and buffet type serving options, and also clean-ups, drop offs, beverages only service, etc.
Detailed Catering Directory Categories
A brief look at some detailed catering directory categories would help you understand what you could expect. A selection is listed below:
- Corporate catering
- Personal Chefs
- Banquet Halls
- Yachts/Boats
- DJs
- Live Music/Bands
- Videographers
- Limousines
- Wedding Planners
- Wedding Financing
- Equipment Hire
Catering Directories Are Not Only for Party Hosts
Another kind of catering directory focuses on the requirements of caterers by listing suppliers of catering requirements. The following sample list provides a look at the kind of requirements caterers typically have:
- Refrigeration: Chilled display cabinets, Ice makers,...
- Beverages: Coffee Equipment, Beverage Jugs,...
- Bar supplies: Spirit measures, Bottle openers, Blenders,...
- Cookware: Pots & Pans, Cooks Knives, Chefs Clothing,...
- Tableware: Cutlery, Napkins, Tablemats,...
- Furniture: Bar stools, Tables, Outdoor furniture,...
- Kitchen planning: Assessing requirements, design, advice,...
Regional Directories
You can find catering services providers near you either through regional directories, such as Chicago Caterer directories, or through national directories that lists caterers by cities and areas. Local catering can be arranged quickly and is ideal when you are short of time. For domestic parties, local catering would be the better option in most cases.
A local catering directory like a Chicago catering directory might list such local resources as banquet halls, buffet services, corporate party organizers, and so on.
Conclusion
Catering directories generally focus on the consumers of catering services, listing different types of caterers by their services or locations. Thus, you could find a wedding organizer in or near your town, or a restaurant that offers Chinese dishes in city you plan to visit.
Other catering directories focus on the caterers, helping them find cookware, tableware, furniture, refrigeration equipment, and so on. Some might offer kitchen planning and design services and other kinds of consultancy services.
This article looked at the kinds of information you could expect to find in a catering directory.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
66 Ways To Promote Your product or Services
Some guru sells his program because he has 60 ways of marketing. One Dentist was asked about his marketing he said he had 100 ways and use them all. Well I came up with 66 so far. I will work on more sometime after tax season or you can email me with ones I might have missed.
The true is you can’t use them all. Some are too costly for many of us. Some won’t work. Try as many as you like and find the ones that work and work them till they stop working or you stop working, whichever comes first.
Here they are:
1. Direct to Consumers
2. Party plan
3. Rack Jobbers
4. Wholesalers
5. Mail Order House
6. Resident Buyers
7. Fairs and Exposition
8. Chain Stores
9. Discount Stores
10. Lease Departments
11. Supermarkets
12. Free Publicity
13. Sales People
14. Franchising
15. Co Party
16. U.S. Government
17. Direct Mail
18. Co-op Mailing
19. Trade shows
20. Advertising Specialties
21. PX’s
22. Premiums
23. Classifieds:
24. In Papers
25. In Magazine
26. On the net
27. In Special papers
28. Articles
29. Ezine
30. Emails
31. Sig files
32. Radio
33. Television
34. Seminars (paid to You)
35. Bill Boards
36. Flyers
37. Brochures
38. Seminars you give free
39. Telephone
40. Referrals
41. E.books
42. Free Search Engines
43. Paid Search Engines
44. Post cards
45. Yellow Page ad
46. Cross Selling with others
47. Joint Ventures
48. Telemarketing
49. Take out Boxes with ads on
50. Posters
51. Booth at Mails or stand at mall
52. Man or Women with sign about your business
53. Window Display
54. Outside Signs
55. Articles for directories on the net
56. Free downloads with ads about your business products or services
57. Free Recording
58. Free Video
59. Free CD
60. Free Report
61. Free Samples
62. Special Events
63. Contests and Sweepstakes
64. Column in a Newspaper
65. Editorial writing by you
66. Free Phone Messages
Let me know at Joetrevis@aol.com if you would like me to explain any of these in a report that your interest in. It will be at least 2 pages with a lot of information.
The true is you can’t use them all. Some are too costly for many of us. Some won’t work. Try as many as you like and find the ones that work and work them till they stop working or you stop working, whichever comes first.
Here they are:
1. Direct to Consumers
2. Party plan
3. Rack Jobbers
4. Wholesalers
5. Mail Order House
6. Resident Buyers
7. Fairs and Exposition
8. Chain Stores
9. Discount Stores
10. Lease Departments
11. Supermarkets
12. Free Publicity
13. Sales People
14. Franchising
15. Co Party
16. U.S. Government
17. Direct Mail
18. Co-op Mailing
19. Trade shows
20. Advertising Specialties
21. PX’s
22. Premiums
23. Classifieds:
24. In Papers
25. In Magazine
26. On the net
27. In Special papers
28. Articles
29. Ezine
30. Emails
31. Sig files
32. Radio
33. Television
34. Seminars (paid to You)
35. Bill Boards
36. Flyers
37. Brochures
38. Seminars you give free
39. Telephone
40. Referrals
41. E.books
42. Free Search Engines
43. Paid Search Engines
44. Post cards
45. Yellow Page ad
46. Cross Selling with others
47. Joint Ventures
48. Telemarketing
49. Take out Boxes with ads on
50. Posters
51. Booth at Mails or stand at mall
52. Man or Women with sign about your business
53. Window Display
54. Outside Signs
55. Articles for directories on the net
56. Free downloads with ads about your business products or services
57. Free Recording
58. Free Video
59. Free CD
60. Free Report
61. Free Samples
62. Special Events
63. Contests and Sweepstakes
64. Column in a Newspaper
65. Editorial writing by you
66. Free Phone Messages
Let me know at Joetrevis@aol.com if you would like me to explain any of these in a report that your interest in. It will be at least 2 pages with a lot of information.
Friday, April 24, 2009
15 Tips to increase your Adwords profits
1. Create a list with all possible keywords that fit to your product, service or business field. The more the better. So you will get also a lot of keywords which you must pay for only the minimal commandment of 5 cents.
2. Benefit from misspelling in order to find keywords which your competitors did not think of. For example if you have a emergency service , do not only bid for "emergency" but also for "imergency", "imergensy" or "immergency".
3. The first position on Googles search result page achieves usually most clicks. However this is also the most expensive position. Give it a try if the second to fourth display position gives you more visitors and more customers for less money.
4. The position of the Adwords-ad is determined not only by the maximum click price that you are ready to spend. Google evaluates also the relevancy of the displayed ad in order to position the Adwords-ads. The more clicks your ad receives, the higher it gets listed.
5. The headline in the Adwords-ad must catch the viewers attention. If you implement the keyword in the header line, you receive considerably more clicks onto your ad.
6. In the ad-text mention one or two reasons, why the internet user should click on it. Which problem solves your product or service? Do you offer a product at a cheaper price or do you ship without the dispatch charges?
7. Avoid price wars at which a competitor and you attempt to outdo the click price for a keyword continuously mutually. You only see to it that the click price fires into the sky. It is better to find search-terms which consist of several words and which are more precise.
8. Google AdWords offers keyword-options which you should absolutely study. If properly set up you can make sure that your AdWords-ad appears only for example if the internet-user has exclusively entered your term and no further.
9. Use "excluding keywords". Those ones are keywords for which your ad is supposed not to appear. In this way you do not have to pay for clicks, when somebody is searching for free stuff or only for a pamphlet.
10. Construct for every keyword and for everyone of your AdWords ads an own landing-page. There you can offer especially that which the internet-user searched for.
11. An own landing-page beside has also the advantage that you can measure exactly how many customers a specific Keyword and a specific ad brought in. You can optimize your displays continuously in this way and increase the purchase rate.
12. Update your AdWords-ads at specific events or holidays, for example to the New Year, Valentine, Easter or Christmas.
13. If you mention the price for a product or a service in the AdWords ad, then you can exclude in front the free- and all-free-searcher from clicking your ad.
14. Be conservatively in the selections of the countries and the languages' in which your AdWords ads are supposed to appear. If your product or your service turn only to customers speaking in a German manner, you should tune "Germany" and "Austria" as countries. With corresponding success you can try out also further countries, for example Switzerland, and areas close to the border. This method can also be applied to any other language.
15. The Google ads are also displayed on partner sites of Google, for example at Focus.de or T-Online.de. If your AdWords ad costs too much and/or goes for too little profit, then interrupt the option that lets announce your ad also on the partner sites of Google. Test wisely. Not all ads run well on the partner sites.
Here you got 15 powerful methods to increase your Adwords profits. All you have to do is to take action and apply them NOW!
Happy earnings!
2. Benefit from misspelling in order to find keywords which your competitors did not think of. For example if you have a emergency service , do not only bid for "emergency" but also for "imergency", "imergensy" or "immergency".
3. The first position on Googles search result page achieves usually most clicks. However this is also the most expensive position. Give it a try if the second to fourth display position gives you more visitors and more customers for less money.
4. The position of the Adwords-ad is determined not only by the maximum click price that you are ready to spend. Google evaluates also the relevancy of the displayed ad in order to position the Adwords-ads. The more clicks your ad receives, the higher it gets listed.
5. The headline in the Adwords-ad must catch the viewers attention. If you implement the keyword in the header line, you receive considerably more clicks onto your ad.
6. In the ad-text mention one or two reasons, why the internet user should click on it. Which problem solves your product or service? Do you offer a product at a cheaper price or do you ship without the dispatch charges?
7. Avoid price wars at which a competitor and you attempt to outdo the click price for a keyword continuously mutually. You only see to it that the click price fires into the sky. It is better to find search-terms which consist of several words and which are more precise.
8. Google AdWords offers keyword-options which you should absolutely study. If properly set up you can make sure that your AdWords-ad appears only for example if the internet-user has exclusively entered your term and no further.
9. Use "excluding keywords". Those ones are keywords for which your ad is supposed not to appear. In this way you do not have to pay for clicks, when somebody is searching for free stuff or only for a pamphlet.
10. Construct for every keyword and for everyone of your AdWords ads an own landing-page. There you can offer especially that which the internet-user searched for.
11. An own landing-page beside has also the advantage that you can measure exactly how many customers a specific Keyword and a specific ad brought in. You can optimize your displays continuously in this way and increase the purchase rate.
12. Update your AdWords-ads at specific events or holidays, for example to the New Year, Valentine, Easter or Christmas.
13. If you mention the price for a product or a service in the AdWords ad, then you can exclude in front the free- and all-free-searcher from clicking your ad.
14. Be conservatively in the selections of the countries and the languages' in which your AdWords ads are supposed to appear. If your product or your service turn only to customers speaking in a German manner, you should tune "Germany" and "Austria" as countries. With corresponding success you can try out also further countries, for example Switzerland, and areas close to the border. This method can also be applied to any other language.
15. The Google ads are also displayed on partner sites of Google, for example at Focus.de or T-Online.de. If your AdWords ad costs too much and/or goes for too little profit, then interrupt the option that lets announce your ad also on the partner sites of Google. Test wisely. Not all ads run well on the partner sites.
Here you got 15 powerful methods to increase your Adwords profits. All you have to do is to take action and apply them NOW!
Happy earnings!
Monday, April 13, 2009
12 Handy Tips for Generating Leads through Cold-Calling
Cold calling can be a great way to generate quality leads. You get to speak to the gatekeepers and stakeholders, and you get a great insight into their requirements and influences.
But cold calling is an art-form. It can be daunting, it’s always a lot of work, and you always need to make a good impression. So you need to do it right. Following are some tips which will help you do just that.
1) Record everything
Always write down all details of every phone call. Write down any names and titles you learn. Not just the name of the person you’re trying to contact. The receptionist's name can be vital to remember as they're often gatekeepers. Write down when you called, and when you said you'd call back.
2) Use a database or spreadsheet to record everything
You’ll never manage by hand, and Excel spreadsheets aren’t user friendly in the long term. If you’re prepared to invest in a real CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, that’s a great idea. If not, you there is a cheaper alternative. I created my own database using Microsoft Access. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com/downloads/contacts and jobs.mdb to download a 208KB working copy for FREE. You’ll need Microsoft Access 2000 to run it. I’m no database expert, so it’s not a work of art. It’ll certainly get you started though. (TIP: When using the database, press Ctrl + ; to enter today’s date.)
3) Always call back when you said you would
Don’t let them down. They may not even remember that you committed to calling back. But if they do, and you don’t meet your commitment, you’ll lose valuable credibility and respect. And wherever possible, work to their schedule. You're here to help them, not make things harder.
TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, ask to speak to the Marketing Manager (or if the person who answers the phone says they don't have a marketing manager, ask for "the person who looks after your advertising & website" - all businesses have that person - it's generally one of the owners).
4) Always try to get on with the gatekeepers
Receptionists and personal assistants have great influence, and quite often do more of the real work and decision making than the person you’re trying to contact! Make friends with them and you’ve got a foot in the door. (But don’t waste their time or crawl – they get a lot of that!)
5) Keep it short ‘n sweet
When you do get to speak with someone, keep it short 'n sweet unless they want to talk a lot. The purpose of the phone call is to get their attention, let them know you're there, get their name and contact details, and assess whether they have any requirement for your services. (TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, you might have called about brochure writing and then find out they need web writing.)
6) DON’T HARD SELL!!!
Don’t pressure people or make it hard for them to get off the phone. Tell them what you do and that you'd like to send them an email with a link to your website with samples and testimonials (or with an attachment containing samples), then leave them to it.
7) Follow up with an email
If you have permission, always send a follow-up email – and do so immediately. Be specific in your subject line. (TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, use the words "advertising copywriting" or “website copywriting” in the subject. Most people don't get many emails with this in the subject line, so it'll be distinctive and probably won’t be snuffed by their spam filter if they have one.) Address the email to them (e.g. "Hi Joe"), keep the email short 'n sweet. Include only the essential info, make it easy to read and conversational, and bold the important words or phrases as they'll probably only skim it. Include a link to your website, reference the day and date you talked on the phone (and thank them for that time), mention any names you learnt (e.g. receptionist's name, especially if the receptionist gave you an email address but you didn't actually get to speak to the decision maker), tell them that you'd like to follow up in a few weeks (assuming the conversation indicated that this would be a good idea).
8) Follow up with another call
If the lead looks promising, make sure you follow up. And when you do, always mention the day and date of the original call, as well as the fact that you sent an email. Give a quick summary of who you are and what you do, and say that you're just calling to make sure they got the email. Most of the time, you’ll find the lead will talk to you about your services, if only to remind themselves of what you do!
9) Don’t expect to make too many calls
On a really good day, I've made 80 cold calls. Most days, though, you should be very pleased to average around 40. You’ll spend a lot of time playing telephone tag.
10) Don’t leave message
Unless you absolutely have to (or you’ve just about given up on the lead), don’t leave messages. Most people have trouble returning phone calls from people they know and like; returning phone calls from someone who’s trying to sell them something isn’t high on their list of priorities.
11) Don’t expect to qualify too many leads
Depending on your business, if you get one good lead a day, you're probably doing very well.
12) Don’t expect immediate conversion
Unfortunately, most leads take a long time to come to fruition (up to 2 years). So you have to be prepared to be patient.
Good luck and happy calling!
But cold calling is an art-form. It can be daunting, it’s always a lot of work, and you always need to make a good impression. So you need to do it right. Following are some tips which will help you do just that.
1) Record everything
Always write down all details of every phone call. Write down any names and titles you learn. Not just the name of the person you’re trying to contact. The receptionist's name can be vital to remember as they're often gatekeepers. Write down when you called, and when you said you'd call back.
2) Use a database or spreadsheet to record everything
You’ll never manage by hand, and Excel spreadsheets aren’t user friendly in the long term. If you’re prepared to invest in a real CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, that’s a great idea. If not, you there is a cheaper alternative. I created my own database using Microsoft Access. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com/downloads/contacts and jobs.mdb to download a 208KB working copy for FREE. You’ll need Microsoft Access 2000 to run it. I’m no database expert, so it’s not a work of art. It’ll certainly get you started though. (TIP: When using the database, press Ctrl + ; to enter today’s date.)
3) Always call back when you said you would
Don’t let them down. They may not even remember that you committed to calling back. But if they do, and you don’t meet your commitment, you’ll lose valuable credibility and respect. And wherever possible, work to their schedule. You're here to help them, not make things harder.
TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, ask to speak to the Marketing Manager (or if the person who answers the phone says they don't have a marketing manager, ask for "the person who looks after your advertising & website" - all businesses have that person - it's generally one of the owners).
4) Always try to get on with the gatekeepers
Receptionists and personal assistants have great influence, and quite often do more of the real work and decision making than the person you’re trying to contact! Make friends with them and you’ve got a foot in the door. (But don’t waste their time or crawl – they get a lot of that!)
5) Keep it short ‘n sweet
When you do get to speak with someone, keep it short 'n sweet unless they want to talk a lot. The purpose of the phone call is to get their attention, let them know you're there, get their name and contact details, and assess whether they have any requirement for your services. (TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, you might have called about brochure writing and then find out they need web writing.)
6) DON’T HARD SELL!!!
Don’t pressure people or make it hard for them to get off the phone. Tell them what you do and that you'd like to send them an email with a link to your website with samples and testimonials (or with an attachment containing samples), then leave them to it.
7) Follow up with an email
If you have permission, always send a follow-up email – and do so immediately. Be specific in your subject line. (TIP FOR COPYWRITERS: If you’re an advertising copywriter or website copywriter, use the words "advertising copywriting" or “website copywriting” in the subject. Most people don't get many emails with this in the subject line, so it'll be distinctive and probably won’t be snuffed by their spam filter if they have one.) Address the email to them (e.g. "Hi Joe"), keep the email short 'n sweet. Include only the essential info, make it easy to read and conversational, and bold the important words or phrases as they'll probably only skim it. Include a link to your website, reference the day and date you talked on the phone (and thank them for that time), mention any names you learnt (e.g. receptionist's name, especially if the receptionist gave you an email address but you didn't actually get to speak to the decision maker), tell them that you'd like to follow up in a few weeks (assuming the conversation indicated that this would be a good idea).
8) Follow up with another call
If the lead looks promising, make sure you follow up. And when you do, always mention the day and date of the original call, as well as the fact that you sent an email. Give a quick summary of who you are and what you do, and say that you're just calling to make sure they got the email. Most of the time, you’ll find the lead will talk to you about your services, if only to remind themselves of what you do!
9) Don’t expect to make too many calls
On a really good day, I've made 80 cold calls. Most days, though, you should be very pleased to average around 40. You’ll spend a lot of time playing telephone tag.
10) Don’t leave message
Unless you absolutely have to (or you’ve just about given up on the lead), don’t leave messages. Most people have trouble returning phone calls from people they know and like; returning phone calls from someone who’s trying to sell them something isn’t high on their list of priorities.
11) Don’t expect to qualify too many leads
Depending on your business, if you get one good lead a day, you're probably doing very well.
12) Don’t expect immediate conversion
Unfortunately, most leads take a long time to come to fruition (up to 2 years). So you have to be prepared to be patient.
Good luck and happy calling!
Friday, April 10, 2009
10 Ways to Distribute Your Brochures
Copyright 2006 business-cards.com
Your business brochure is a ferociously powerful advertising and marketing tool. It pays to produce it tastefully. The biggest is not always the best and use it wisely if you wish to see your business grow. However, the best-produced brochure on the planet is going to be useless unless it is distributed effectively. So what is the key to effective distribution?
The first step often is direct mailing. You post out the leaflet to a mass of people usually using a mailing list you have purchased. Mass mailings are very inefficient and if you get more than 1% response you are doing well. This can be an expensive way of doing business.
Second, you could hire people to distribute the brochures in shopping mall parking lots. This can be even more wasteful than a mailing, with many of the leaflets tossed aside. The ensuing mess will probably irritate more people than it attracts.
Third, you could get your publication out to the masses by using a local newspaper whereby your brochures are placed in the journal and delivered to subscribers. This has a similar effect to advertising and probably has a comparable response rate.
Fourth, place the pamphlets in plastic holders and have them readily available to those who visit your site of work. Shame on you if you have not done this already.
Fifth, have the printed matter at hand in places where people have to wait in line for a service such as in the post office. Those waiting have nothing better to do than read your message and this could be useful publicity. The Post Office has already thought of this and will charge you accordingly.
Sixth, dentists’ and doctors’ waiting rooms have a similar trapped audience who might take the time to read what you have to say. Generally, the medical profession will probably only allow material that is somehow pertinent to their line of work. However, this one is worth a try.
Number seven – distribute your promotion material widely at trade shows and exhibitions. Assuming the show is relevant to your line of business, there is a good likelihood that this would be a great source for prospects.
Eighth. Place your brochure on your website so that prospects can instantly download it after supplying their contact information. This is a great way too of building up a valuable prospect list so that you can market to them over and over.
Ninth. Use the brochure in place of a business card. True a brochure is a lot bigger than a card and might get thrown away, but here is a challenge. Why not design something that contains your principal message in a smaller format?
Tenth: Surely you have a database of all your clients past and present? This is the seam of gold for your enterprise, so mail out a current brochure to all of them. If you have done a good job in the past you may be agreeably surprised by the response.
Your business brochure is a ferociously powerful advertising and marketing tool. It pays to produce it tastefully. The biggest is not always the best and use it wisely if you wish to see your business grow. However, the best-produced brochure on the planet is going to be useless unless it is distributed effectively. So what is the key to effective distribution?
The first step often is direct mailing. You post out the leaflet to a mass of people usually using a mailing list you have purchased. Mass mailings are very inefficient and if you get more than 1% response you are doing well. This can be an expensive way of doing business.
Second, you could hire people to distribute the brochures in shopping mall parking lots. This can be even more wasteful than a mailing, with many of the leaflets tossed aside. The ensuing mess will probably irritate more people than it attracts.
Third, you could get your publication out to the masses by using a local newspaper whereby your brochures are placed in the journal and delivered to subscribers. This has a similar effect to advertising and probably has a comparable response rate.
Fourth, place the pamphlets in plastic holders and have them readily available to those who visit your site of work. Shame on you if you have not done this already.
Fifth, have the printed matter at hand in places where people have to wait in line for a service such as in the post office. Those waiting have nothing better to do than read your message and this could be useful publicity. The Post Office has already thought of this and will charge you accordingly.
Sixth, dentists’ and doctors’ waiting rooms have a similar trapped audience who might take the time to read what you have to say. Generally, the medical profession will probably only allow material that is somehow pertinent to their line of work. However, this one is worth a try.
Number seven – distribute your promotion material widely at trade shows and exhibitions. Assuming the show is relevant to your line of business, there is a good likelihood that this would be a great source for prospects.
Eighth. Place your brochure on your website so that prospects can instantly download it after supplying their contact information. This is a great way too of building up a valuable prospect list so that you can market to them over and over.
Ninth. Use the brochure in place of a business card. True a brochure is a lot bigger than a card and might get thrown away, but here is a challenge. Why not design something that contains your principal message in a smaller format?
Tenth: Surely you have a database of all your clients past and present? This is the seam of gold for your enterprise, so mail out a current brochure to all of them. If you have done a good job in the past you may be agreeably surprised by the response.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
10 Headline Writing Tips That Will Instantly Boost Your Advertising Response Rates!
Copyright 2006 Brian Maroevich
Even the most powerful advertising copy on the planet is useless without an effective headline.
An effective headline determines whether or not your prospective customer will read the next sentence of your sales message.
You must grab your reader’s attention with something that appeals to them and forces them to want to learn more, otherwise you won’t make a sale.
Whether you have a successful headline or you are just starting to write your next ad or sales letter, here are 10 Headline Writing Tips That Will Instantly Improve Your Advertising Results:
1. Put your prospects name in your headline. Everyone wants to see their name in "The Headlines". This will definitely grab their attention and get them to read your ad or sales letter.
2. "Use Quotations" around your headline. Quotation marks create the perception that your headline is a testimonial and has credibility. And credibility, in turn creates more believability, and this can significantly increase response to your ad.
3. Don't make your headline to "BIG". Many advertisers believe that bigger headlines get a better response. Bigger is not always better. You want your headline to be in a readable and believable size compared to the rest of your ad. A big headline can reduce your credibility because it looks to “hyped up.”
4. Don't end your headline with a period. This creates a pause in your readers mind and they may decide to move on to something else. People have been trained to pause at a period. But if you end your headline with an "!" exclamation point you will ad excitement to it and your reader will want to move forward with your ad (this is a good rule of thumb, but it's not a law. I've seen and written ads with a period in the headline and it's worked.) Another technique is to leave your headline open ended or use "..." to get them to move into your body copy.
5. Use one, two, even three subheadlines. Subheadlines below your main headline can be very effective in building intrigue and excitement in your reader. Each subheadline should be smaller compared to the main headline and the subheadline before it; ultimately your reader will end up in the main body of your ad or sales letter before they know it.
6. There are many advanced techniques for producing great headlines but what I’ve found to be simple and effective is to use the best benefit your product or services provides as your main headline, and then ad “How To…” to it. For example, if your best feature as a web developer is getting websites built and online within 3 days, the benefit of that could be..."How To Attract New Business Worldwide While You Sleep Starting In 3 Days!”
7. If you use "$" dollar figures in your advertising use this tip: If you help people save or make an extra $2,500 with your product or service, attach a decimal point to it: $2,500.00. What looks like more money, $2,500 or $2,500.00? Conversely, if you are stating a price for your product, put as few "0's" in the price as possible. For example, if your product costs $2,500, you don't want to print, "$2,500", or "$2,500.00". You want to print something like $2,499. This looks less threatening.
8. Combine a grabber with your headline and you might get amazing results! Grabbers are small gadgets and trinkets that are attached to your letter or report that get your prospects attention like: million dollar bills, real money, string, magnifying glasses, pencils, fake checks, bubble gum, poker chips etc. The key is to tie in your grabber with your offer in a clever way. Also, if you combine a headline above and/or below your grabber you'll really ad power to your advertising.
9. Make your headline newsworthy. "How To Get Your Tax Refund In 10 Days!" is a pretty good benefit oriented headline, but you could test a newsworthy approach like..."Local Tax Planner Gets Clients Over $1,000,000.00 In Tax Refunds!"
10. Use a testimonial as your headline...Get the most detailed and specific testimonial you have and use it as your headline. For example, "I made an extra $32,000.00 In Six Weeks, and another $10,000.00 in Two Days!" is a prime example of a specific testimonial. This makes it very appealing because it's real, it's newsworthy, and I can attach a real name to it.
Even the most powerful advertising copy on the planet is useless without an effective headline.
An effective headline determines whether or not your prospective customer will read the next sentence of your sales message.
You must grab your reader’s attention with something that appeals to them and forces them to want to learn more, otherwise you won’t make a sale.
Whether you have a successful headline or you are just starting to write your next ad or sales letter, here are 10 Headline Writing Tips That Will Instantly Improve Your Advertising Results:
1. Put your prospects name in your headline. Everyone wants to see their name in "The Headlines". This will definitely grab their attention and get them to read your ad or sales letter.
2. "Use Quotations" around your headline. Quotation marks create the perception that your headline is a testimonial and has credibility. And credibility, in turn creates more believability, and this can significantly increase response to your ad.
3. Don't make your headline to "BIG". Many advertisers believe that bigger headlines get a better response. Bigger is not always better. You want your headline to be in a readable and believable size compared to the rest of your ad. A big headline can reduce your credibility because it looks to “hyped up.”
4. Don't end your headline with a period. This creates a pause in your readers mind and they may decide to move on to something else. People have been trained to pause at a period. But if you end your headline with an "!" exclamation point you will ad excitement to it and your reader will want to move forward with your ad (this is a good rule of thumb, but it's not a law. I've seen and written ads with a period in the headline and it's worked.) Another technique is to leave your headline open ended or use "..." to get them to move into your body copy.
5. Use one, two, even three subheadlines. Subheadlines below your main headline can be very effective in building intrigue and excitement in your reader. Each subheadline should be smaller compared to the main headline and the subheadline before it; ultimately your reader will end up in the main body of your ad or sales letter before they know it.
6. There are many advanced techniques for producing great headlines but what I’ve found to be simple and effective is to use the best benefit your product or services provides as your main headline, and then ad “How To…” to it. For example, if your best feature as a web developer is getting websites built and online within 3 days, the benefit of that could be..."How To Attract New Business Worldwide While You Sleep Starting In 3 Days!”
7. If you use "$" dollar figures in your advertising use this tip: If you help people save or make an extra $2,500 with your product or service, attach a decimal point to it: $2,500.00. What looks like more money, $2,500 or $2,500.00? Conversely, if you are stating a price for your product, put as few "0's" in the price as possible. For example, if your product costs $2,500, you don't want to print, "$2,500", or "$2,500.00". You want to print something like $2,499. This looks less threatening.
8. Combine a grabber with your headline and you might get amazing results! Grabbers are small gadgets and trinkets that are attached to your letter or report that get your prospects attention like: million dollar bills, real money, string, magnifying glasses, pencils, fake checks, bubble gum, poker chips etc. The key is to tie in your grabber with your offer in a clever way. Also, if you combine a headline above and/or below your grabber you'll really ad power to your advertising.
9. Make your headline newsworthy. "How To Get Your Tax Refund In 10 Days!" is a pretty good benefit oriented headline, but you could test a newsworthy approach like..."Local Tax Planner Gets Clients Over $1,000,000.00 In Tax Refunds!"
10. Use a testimonial as your headline...Get the most detailed and specific testimonial you have and use it as your headline. For example, "I made an extra $32,000.00 In Six Weeks, and another $10,000.00 in Two Days!" is a prime example of a specific testimonial. This makes it very appealing because it's real, it's newsworthy, and I can attach a real name to it.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
10 Great Tips On How To Design A Card
1. There are many types of cards you can choose from . Design the ones that you need or that sound the most interesting to you. Try birthday, anniversary, cards for children, wedding, sympathy, holiday or get well.
2. To begin the design you will need good paper. Look for pre-folded cards or use cardstock and fold your own. Using a bone folder is helpful here because it makes a very nice clean fold. There are several sizes to choose from, make sure you have an envelope to fit or be prepared to make one. There are templates galore for this type of thing.
3. Next choose a sticker or rubber stamp for the image on the front of the card. If using stamps, try different color stamp pads until you get the design and color you like. You can layer the stickers or stamped image on other paper to create a more pleasing design. Try using a combination of plain and matching patterned paper for this step.
4. There are embellishments you can use instead of a stamp or sticker. These are often dimensional and add a lot to the design of your card.
5. Make certain you have appropriate glue. Carefully consider the adhesive you want to use. A glue gun works well for heavy items but will wrinkle most papers. Glue dots and strips are handy for many design gluing jobs. I really like the glue stick that says"heavy duty" on the label, it is good for almost any paper and dries smooth and clear.
6. Design the words next. Think about what you want the card to say. Do you want the greeting or message on the inside or on the front of the card? You can use rubber stamps for this, stickers or computer generated greetings. There are so many fonts available that every card can be unique.
7. Lay your design out on the card before you attach the different elements. Check to make sure it all fits and that you like the design. Glue everything down and making sure all pieces are secure.
8. Now look at the inside of your card. If you are going to put a message there think about layering it on other paper to match the design on the front of your card. Attach these pieces to the inside of the card.
9. Check out the whole card now. Are you happy with the design? Does it need anything extra like colored brads or buttons? Is there part of the design that would look nice colored in with marker, colored pencils, chalks or watercolors?
10. I believe a card is not finished until the fiber is added, both inside and out. Matching colors from the design, take two or three strands of coordinating ribbon, yarn, metallic thread or wire and tie into a knot. Trim the ends so it looks the way you want it. Attach with your glue gun and you are done with the card.The envelop please! To put a final touch on your design decorate the envelop to match the card. Use your markers, chalk, stickers and stamps to create an envelop that is as gorgeous as what’s inside!!
In very little time you can create a special and unique card and envelop using your own design.
2. To begin the design you will need good paper. Look for pre-folded cards or use cardstock and fold your own. Using a bone folder is helpful here because it makes a very nice clean fold. There are several sizes to choose from, make sure you have an envelope to fit or be prepared to make one. There are templates galore for this type of thing.
3. Next choose a sticker or rubber stamp for the image on the front of the card. If using stamps, try different color stamp pads until you get the design and color you like. You can layer the stickers or stamped image on other paper to create a more pleasing design. Try using a combination of plain and matching patterned paper for this step.
4. There are embellishments you can use instead of a stamp or sticker. These are often dimensional and add a lot to the design of your card.
5. Make certain you have appropriate glue. Carefully consider the adhesive you want to use. A glue gun works well for heavy items but will wrinkle most papers. Glue dots and strips are handy for many design gluing jobs. I really like the glue stick that says"heavy duty" on the label, it is good for almost any paper and dries smooth and clear.
6. Design the words next. Think about what you want the card to say. Do you want the greeting or message on the inside or on the front of the card? You can use rubber stamps for this, stickers or computer generated greetings. There are so many fonts available that every card can be unique.
7. Lay your design out on the card before you attach the different elements. Check to make sure it all fits and that you like the design. Glue everything down and making sure all pieces are secure.
8. Now look at the inside of your card. If you are going to put a message there think about layering it on other paper to match the design on the front of your card. Attach these pieces to the inside of the card.
9. Check out the whole card now. Are you happy with the design? Does it need anything extra like colored brads or buttons? Is there part of the design that would look nice colored in with marker, colored pencils, chalks or watercolors?
10. I believe a card is not finished until the fiber is added, both inside and out. Matching colors from the design, take two or three strands of coordinating ribbon, yarn, metallic thread or wire and tie into a knot. Trim the ends so it looks the way you want it. Attach with your glue gun and you are done with the card.The envelop please! To put a final touch on your design decorate the envelop to match the card. Use your markers, chalk, stickers and stamps to create an envelop that is as gorgeous as what’s inside!!
In very little time you can create a special and unique card and envelop using your own design.
10 Easy Ways to Make Your Flyer Stand Out in the Crowd
Copyright 2006 Karen Saunders
A flyer is an inexpensive and highly effective way to grab attention in a very busy marketplace. How do you make your flyer stand out in the crowd? Here are some techniques that professional designers use to make flyers "pop."
1. Write a snappy headline or title.
Make it memorable, unusual or provocative using a few carefully chosen powerful words. Popular titles contain one or more of these words: Easy, The Secrets to, Unlock, Finally, Insider, Time Sensitive, How to, Free Bonuses, Now You Can, Discover, Proven.
2. Use colorful or striking graphics.
One large image will have more impact than many smaller images. A stunning photo or illustration grabs attention, creates a mood, and supports your story. This image is your "focal point" and will draw your readers in. You can purchase inexpensive but quality stock photos on the Internet. Download individual photos or purchase a CD with hundreds of images.
3. Focus on the benefits of your product or service.
Your prospects will ask the question, "What's in it for me?" Write from the their perspective using the words "you" and "your." Avoid using the following words: we, us, I and our. Be sure to keep your text short and to the point. Some of the most powerful words to use are: free, save, love, new, results, and guarantee. Break up long paragraphs with bullet points and place them in a separate box.
4. Use compelling testimonials and case studies.
Nothing strikes a chord like an endorsement from a happy customer, especially if it demonstrates the results they've had with your product or service. Be sure to include the first and last name, company name and location of the person providing the endorsement.
5. Organize your page with boxes, borders and areas of contrasting colors.
You don't need to fill your flyer with wall-to-wall text and graphics. Incorporate some white space to make certain elements stand out and to make the flyer easy to read.
6. Make your points easily identifiable.
Highlight titles and subtitles in bold, but avoid using ALL CAPS because they are more difficult to read.
7. Don't get too complicated.
Make it simple with two typefaces, and align items to a grid. Your page layout program will provide non-printing guidelines. Use the "snap to guidelines" function to align items easily to the grid. Be aware of printing margins. I suggest you create your layout with 1/2" margins on all sides, or add 1/8" for bleeds on items that print off the edge of the page.
8. Don't forget to proofread.
Have someone else proofread your work. Check your contact information. Dial the phone numbers on the flyer to make sure they are correct, and type in the URL of your website to make sure it is correct, too.
9. If you are on a tight budget, try this.
Select bright-colored or unique paper, and print with black ink. Use shades of grey to provide tones and contrasting background areas.
10. Offer a discount or special limited-time price.
Design a coupon on the bottom quarter of the flyer. Be sure to clearly state the deadlines and limitations of the offer. If it is a mail-in coupon, be sure to include the payment specifications with areas for filling out credit card information, mailing address, etc.
You don't need to re-invent the wheel when creating your flyer. Use these proven techniques and you will see big results in your marketing efforts.
A flyer is an inexpensive and highly effective way to grab attention in a very busy marketplace. How do you make your flyer stand out in the crowd? Here are some techniques that professional designers use to make flyers "pop."
1. Write a snappy headline or title.
Make it memorable, unusual or provocative using a few carefully chosen powerful words. Popular titles contain one or more of these words: Easy, The Secrets to, Unlock, Finally, Insider, Time Sensitive, How to, Free Bonuses, Now You Can, Discover, Proven.
2. Use colorful or striking graphics.
One large image will have more impact than many smaller images. A stunning photo or illustration grabs attention, creates a mood, and supports your story. This image is your "focal point" and will draw your readers in. You can purchase inexpensive but quality stock photos on the Internet. Download individual photos or purchase a CD with hundreds of images.
3. Focus on the benefits of your product or service.
Your prospects will ask the question, "What's in it for me?" Write from the their perspective using the words "you" and "your." Avoid using the following words: we, us, I and our. Be sure to keep your text short and to the point. Some of the most powerful words to use are: free, save, love, new, results, and guarantee. Break up long paragraphs with bullet points and place them in a separate box.
4. Use compelling testimonials and case studies.
Nothing strikes a chord like an endorsement from a happy customer, especially if it demonstrates the results they've had with your product or service. Be sure to include the first and last name, company name and location of the person providing the endorsement.
5. Organize your page with boxes, borders and areas of contrasting colors.
You don't need to fill your flyer with wall-to-wall text and graphics. Incorporate some white space to make certain elements stand out and to make the flyer easy to read.
6. Make your points easily identifiable.
Highlight titles and subtitles in bold, but avoid using ALL CAPS because they are more difficult to read.
7. Don't get too complicated.
Make it simple with two typefaces, and align items to a grid. Your page layout program will provide non-printing guidelines. Use the "snap to guidelines" function to align items easily to the grid. Be aware of printing margins. I suggest you create your layout with 1/2" margins on all sides, or add 1/8" for bleeds on items that print off the edge of the page.
8. Don't forget to proofread.
Have someone else proofread your work. Check your contact information. Dial the phone numbers on the flyer to make sure they are correct, and type in the URL of your website to make sure it is correct, too.
9. If you are on a tight budget, try this.
Select bright-colored or unique paper, and print with black ink. Use shades of grey to provide tones and contrasting background areas.
10. Offer a discount or special limited-time price.
Design a coupon on the bottom quarter of the flyer. Be sure to clearly state the deadlines and limitations of the offer. If it is a mail-in coupon, be sure to include the payment specifications with areas for filling out credit card information, mailing address, etc.
You don't need to re-invent the wheel when creating your flyer. Use these proven techniques and you will see big results in your marketing efforts.
Monday, April 6, 2009
9 secrets Mark Twain taught me about advertising
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
Advertising is life made to look larger than life, through images and words that promise a wish fulfilled, a dream come true, a problem solved. Even Viagra follows Mark Twain’s keen observation about advertising. The worst kind of advertising exaggerates to get your attention, the best, gets your attention without exaggeration. It simply states a fact or reveals an emotional need, then lets you make the leap from “small to large.” Examples of the worst: before-and-after photos for weight loss products and cosmetic surgery—both descend to almost comic disbelief. The best: Apple’s "silhouette" campaign for iPod and the breakthrough ads featuring Eminem—both catapult iPod to “instant cool” status.
“When in doubt, tell the truth.”
Today’s advertising is full of gimmicks. They relentlessly hang on to a product like a ball and chain, keeping it from moving swiftly ahead of the competition, preventing any real communication of benefits or impetus to buy. The thinking is, if the gimmick is outrageous or silly enough, it’s got to at least get their attention. Local car dealer ads are probably the worst offenders--using zoo animals, sledgehammers, clowns, bikini-clad models, anything unrelated to the product’s real benefit. If the people who thought up these outrageous gimmicks spent half their energy just sticking to the product’s real benefits and buying motivators, they’d have a great ad. What they don’t realize is, they already have a lot to work with without resorting to gimmicks. There’s the product with all its benefits, the brand, which undoubtedly they’ve spent money to promote, the competition and its weaknesses, and two powerful buying motivators—fear of loss and promise of gain. In other words, all you really have to do is tell the truth about your product and be honest about your customers’ wants and needs. Of course, sometimes that’s not so easy. You have to do some digging to find out what you customers really want, what your competition has to offer them, and why your product is better.
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
In advertising, you have to be very careful how you use facts. As any politician will tell you, facts are scary things. They have no stretch, no pliability, no room for misinterpretation. They’re indisputable. And used correctly, very powerful. But statistics, now there’s something advertisers and politicians love. “Nine out of ten doctors recommend Preparation J.” Who can dispute that? Or “Five out of six dentists recommend Sunshine Gum.” Makes me want to run out and buy a pack of Sunshine right now. Hold it. Rewind.
“Whenever you find you’re on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.”
Let’s take a look at how these stats—this apparent majority—might have come to be. First off, how many doctors did they ask before they found nine out of ten to agree that Preparation J did the job? 1,000? 10,000? And how many dentists hated the idea of their patients chewing gum but relented, saying, “Most chewing gum has sugar and other ingredients, that rot out your teeth, but if the guy’s gotta chew the darn stuff, it may as well be Sunshine, which has less sugar in it.” The point is, stats can be manipulated to say almost anything. And yes, the devil’s in the details. The fact is, there’s usually a 5% chance you can get any kind of result simply by accident. And because many statistical studies are biased and not “double blind” (both subject and doctor don’t know who was given the test product and who got the placebo). Worst of all, statistics usually need the endless buttressing of legal disclaimers. If you don’t believe me, try to read the full-page of legally mandated warnings for that weight- loss pill you’ve been taking. Bottom line: stick to facts. Then back them up with sound selling arguments that address the needs of your customer.
“The difference between the right word and almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
To write really effective ad copy means choosing exactly the right word at the right time. You want to lead your customer to every benefit your product has to offer, and you want to shed the best light on every benefit. It also means you don’t want to give them any reason or opportunity to wander away from your argument. If they wander, you’re history. They’re off to the next page, another TV channel or a new website. So make every word say exactly what you mean it to say, no more, no less. Example: if a product is new, don’t be afraid to say “new” (a product is only new once in its life, so exploit the fact).
“Great people make us feel we can become great.”
And so do great ads. While they can’t convince us we’ll become millionaires, be as famous as Madonna, or as likeable as Tom Cruise, they make us feel we might be as attractive, famous, wealthy, or admired as we’d like to think we can be. Because there’s a “Little Engine That Could” in all of us that says, under the right conditions, we could beat the odds and catch the brass ring, win the lottery, or sell that book we’ve been working on. Great advertising taps into that belief without going overboard. An effective ad promoting the lottery once used pictures of people sitting on an exotic beach with little beach umbrellas in their cocktails (a perfectly realistic image for the average person) with the line: Somebody’s has to win, may as well be you.”
“The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.”
We’re all part of the same family of creatures called homo sapiens. We each want to be admired, respected and loved. We want to feel secure in our lives and our jobs. So create ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your visual, headline and copy. Even humor, used correctly, can be a powerful tool that connects you to your potential customer. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling shoes or software, people will always respond to what you have to sell them on an emotional level. Once they’ve made the decision to buy, the justification process kicks in to confirm the decision. To put it another way, once they’re convinced you’re a mensche with real feelings for their hopes and wants as well as their problems, they’ll go from prospect to customer.
“A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.”
Ain’t it the truth. More money, more clothes, fancier car, bigger house. It’s what advertising feeds on. “You need this. And you need more of it every day.” It’s the universal mantra that drives consumption to the limits of our charge cards. So, how to tap into this insatiable appetite for more stuff? Convince buyers that more is better. Colgate offers 20% more toothpaste in the giant economy size. You get 60 more sheets with the big Charmin roll of toilet paper. GE light bulbs are 15% brighter. Raisin Brain now has 25% more raisins. When Detroit found it couldn’t sell more cars per household to an already saturated U.S. market, they started selling more car per car—SUVs and trucks got bigger and more powerful. They’re still selling giant 3-ton SUVs that get 15 miles per gallon.
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Who gets the girl? Who attracts the sharpest guy? Who lands the big promotion? Neiman Marcus knows. So does Abercrombie & Fitch. And Saks Fifth Avenue. Why else would you fork over $900 for a power suit? Or $600 for a pair of shoes? Observers from Aristotle to the twentieth century have consistently maintained that character is immanent in appearance, asserting that clothes reveal a rich palette of interior qualities as well as a brand mark of social identity. Here’s where the right advertising pays for itself big time. Where you must have the perfect model (not necessarily the most attractive) and really creative photographers and directors who know how to tell a story, create a mood, convince you that you’re not buying the “emperor’s clothes.” Example of good fashion advertising: the Levis black-and-white spot featuring a teenager driving through the side streets and alleys of the Czech Republic. Stopping to pick up friends, he gets out of the car wearing just a shirt as the voiceover cheekily exclaims, "Reason 007: In Prague, you can trade them for a car."
Advertising is life made to look larger than life, through images and words that promise a wish fulfilled, a dream come true, a problem solved. Even Viagra follows Mark Twain’s keen observation about advertising. The worst kind of advertising exaggerates to get your attention, the best, gets your attention without exaggeration. It simply states a fact or reveals an emotional need, then lets you make the leap from “small to large.” Examples of the worst: before-and-after photos for weight loss products and cosmetic surgery—both descend to almost comic disbelief. The best: Apple’s "silhouette" campaign for iPod and the breakthrough ads featuring Eminem—both catapult iPod to “instant cool” status.
“When in doubt, tell the truth.”
Today’s advertising is full of gimmicks. They relentlessly hang on to a product like a ball and chain, keeping it from moving swiftly ahead of the competition, preventing any real communication of benefits or impetus to buy. The thinking is, if the gimmick is outrageous or silly enough, it’s got to at least get their attention. Local car dealer ads are probably the worst offenders--using zoo animals, sledgehammers, clowns, bikini-clad models, anything unrelated to the product’s real benefit. If the people who thought up these outrageous gimmicks spent half their energy just sticking to the product’s real benefits and buying motivators, they’d have a great ad. What they don’t realize is, they already have a lot to work with without resorting to gimmicks. There’s the product with all its benefits, the brand, which undoubtedly they’ve spent money to promote, the competition and its weaknesses, and two powerful buying motivators—fear of loss and promise of gain. In other words, all you really have to do is tell the truth about your product and be honest about your customers’ wants and needs. Of course, sometimes that’s not so easy. You have to do some digging to find out what you customers really want, what your competition has to offer them, and why your product is better.
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
In advertising, you have to be very careful how you use facts. As any politician will tell you, facts are scary things. They have no stretch, no pliability, no room for misinterpretation. They’re indisputable. And used correctly, very powerful. But statistics, now there’s something advertisers and politicians love. “Nine out of ten doctors recommend Preparation J.” Who can dispute that? Or “Five out of six dentists recommend Sunshine Gum.” Makes me want to run out and buy a pack of Sunshine right now. Hold it. Rewind.
“Whenever you find you’re on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.”
Let’s take a look at how these stats—this apparent majority—might have come to be. First off, how many doctors did they ask before they found nine out of ten to agree that Preparation J did the job? 1,000? 10,000? And how many dentists hated the idea of their patients chewing gum but relented, saying, “Most chewing gum has sugar and other ingredients, that rot out your teeth, but if the guy’s gotta chew the darn stuff, it may as well be Sunshine, which has less sugar in it.” The point is, stats can be manipulated to say almost anything. And yes, the devil’s in the details. The fact is, there’s usually a 5% chance you can get any kind of result simply by accident. And because many statistical studies are biased and not “double blind” (both subject and doctor don’t know who was given the test product and who got the placebo). Worst of all, statistics usually need the endless buttressing of legal disclaimers. If you don’t believe me, try to read the full-page of legally mandated warnings for that weight- loss pill you’ve been taking. Bottom line: stick to facts. Then back them up with sound selling arguments that address the needs of your customer.
“The difference between the right word and almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
To write really effective ad copy means choosing exactly the right word at the right time. You want to lead your customer to every benefit your product has to offer, and you want to shed the best light on every benefit. It also means you don’t want to give them any reason or opportunity to wander away from your argument. If they wander, you’re history. They’re off to the next page, another TV channel or a new website. So make every word say exactly what you mean it to say, no more, no less. Example: if a product is new, don’t be afraid to say “new” (a product is only new once in its life, so exploit the fact).
“Great people make us feel we can become great.”
And so do great ads. While they can’t convince us we’ll become millionaires, be as famous as Madonna, or as likeable as Tom Cruise, they make us feel we might be as attractive, famous, wealthy, or admired as we’d like to think we can be. Because there’s a “Little Engine That Could” in all of us that says, under the right conditions, we could beat the odds and catch the brass ring, win the lottery, or sell that book we’ve been working on. Great advertising taps into that belief without going overboard. An effective ad promoting the lottery once used pictures of people sitting on an exotic beach with little beach umbrellas in their cocktails (a perfectly realistic image for the average person) with the line: Somebody’s has to win, may as well be you.”
“The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.”
We’re all part of the same family of creatures called homo sapiens. We each want to be admired, respected and loved. We want to feel secure in our lives and our jobs. So create ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your visual, headline and copy. Even humor, used correctly, can be a powerful tool that connects you to your potential customer. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling shoes or software, people will always respond to what you have to sell them on an emotional level. Once they’ve made the decision to buy, the justification process kicks in to confirm the decision. To put it another way, once they’re convinced you’re a mensche with real feelings for their hopes and wants as well as their problems, they’ll go from prospect to customer.
“A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.”
Ain’t it the truth. More money, more clothes, fancier car, bigger house. It’s what advertising feeds on. “You need this. And you need more of it every day.” It’s the universal mantra that drives consumption to the limits of our charge cards. So, how to tap into this insatiable appetite for more stuff? Convince buyers that more is better. Colgate offers 20% more toothpaste in the giant economy size. You get 60 more sheets with the big Charmin roll of toilet paper. GE light bulbs are 15% brighter. Raisin Brain now has 25% more raisins. When Detroit found it couldn’t sell more cars per household to an already saturated U.S. market, they started selling more car per car—SUVs and trucks got bigger and more powerful. They’re still selling giant 3-ton SUVs that get 15 miles per gallon.
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Who gets the girl? Who attracts the sharpest guy? Who lands the big promotion? Neiman Marcus knows. So does Abercrombie & Fitch. And Saks Fifth Avenue. Why else would you fork over $900 for a power suit? Or $600 for a pair of shoes? Observers from Aristotle to the twentieth century have consistently maintained that character is immanent in appearance, asserting that clothes reveal a rich palette of interior qualities as well as a brand mark of social identity. Here’s where the right advertising pays for itself big time. Where you must have the perfect model (not necessarily the most attractive) and really creative photographers and directors who know how to tell a story, create a mood, convince you that you’re not buying the “emperor’s clothes.” Example of good fashion advertising: the Levis black-and-white spot featuring a teenager driving through the side streets and alleys of the Czech Republic. Stopping to pick up friends, he gets out of the car wearing just a shirt as the voiceover cheekily exclaims, "Reason 007: In Prague, you can trade them for a car."
7 Ways To Advertise Your Business For Free
1. Free directories: directories are perfect for customers that are searching for a particular topic. What’s great about them is that you only have to post once and they are good for long periods of time. It saves a lot of your time when you don’t have to resubmit your information every week or every month. The bad news is most of your traffic won’t come from here. I still feel it is worth it to get your link out there. Just take one day and set it aside for posting to free directories. You won’t need to do it again for at least 6 months.
2. Classified Ads: These are great for work from home businesses. Think about it. Where do people go when they are looking for a job? That’s right-the classifieds. The only downside to classified ads is that you have to resubmit them quite frequently. Once you find which classifieds bring you the most traffic you can concentrate on them and weed the others out. So it is really more time consuming in the beginning, and doesn’t have to be later on when you get the hang of things.
3. Free article submissions/ezines: The best way to inform others about your product or service is to write an article about it. In your authors resource box, you can tell readers about yourself and where they can go to check out your product or service. This is also an excellent way to get free links to your site if you have one. There are a lot of webmasters out there who are looking for good articles they can post on their site. If they post yours, that is another site that is doing the advertising for you. All for free.
4. URL Submissions: Probably the quickest and easiest thing to do to advertise your site. Just type “Free URL submission” in your search engine. When you get a list just enter the URL you are promoting and click submit. That’s it. It only takes a few seconds and your done. Just set a day aside once every 3 months and do this.
5. Forum Posts: Put your product or service website in your signature file when you sign up on some forums. It will be displayed every time you make a post. Try to look for topics that you have some knowledge on, and can give a relevant answer too. Do not spam anyone, you will get kicked off the forum and you will get a bad reputation. Get involved asking and answering questions that pertain to your area of business. Forums are great because once you make a post it stays there forever. It will get moved to the archives eventually, but someone could still find it if they were searching the archives. Yes, there are many people who do.
6. Traffic Exchanges: Probably the most time consuming way to advertise for free, but definately the most effective. Most forums I have visited have said in many posts that they received a lot of their profit from traffic exchanges. If you don’t want to spend the time surfing for credits, you do have the option of buying them. I would look into a program that lets you surf multiple websites at once like crazy browser. There are others and they are free to download. That way you can just spend one hour a day and get all your surfing in at once.
7. News-groups: Become involved in a group that has to do with your kind of business. You can usually mail the group once per day, but I would encourage you to find something fresh to talk about each day. People will tune you out if they see the same message all the time. Remember to never Spam anyone. Only join groups with the same interests as yours. In other words, don’t sign up for a recipe swapping group when you are advertising shaving cream.
2. Classified Ads: These are great for work from home businesses. Think about it. Where do people go when they are looking for a job? That’s right-the classifieds. The only downside to classified ads is that you have to resubmit them quite frequently. Once you find which classifieds bring you the most traffic you can concentrate on them and weed the others out. So it is really more time consuming in the beginning, and doesn’t have to be later on when you get the hang of things.
3. Free article submissions/ezines: The best way to inform others about your product or service is to write an article about it. In your authors resource box, you can tell readers about yourself and where they can go to check out your product or service. This is also an excellent way to get free links to your site if you have one. There are a lot of webmasters out there who are looking for good articles they can post on their site. If they post yours, that is another site that is doing the advertising for you. All for free.
4. URL Submissions: Probably the quickest and easiest thing to do to advertise your site. Just type “Free URL submission” in your search engine. When you get a list just enter the URL you are promoting and click submit. That’s it. It only takes a few seconds and your done. Just set a day aside once every 3 months and do this.
5. Forum Posts: Put your product or service website in your signature file when you sign up on some forums. It will be displayed every time you make a post. Try to look for topics that you have some knowledge on, and can give a relevant answer too. Do not spam anyone, you will get kicked off the forum and you will get a bad reputation. Get involved asking and answering questions that pertain to your area of business. Forums are great because once you make a post it stays there forever. It will get moved to the archives eventually, but someone could still find it if they were searching the archives. Yes, there are many people who do.
6. Traffic Exchanges: Probably the most time consuming way to advertise for free, but definately the most effective. Most forums I have visited have said in many posts that they received a lot of their profit from traffic exchanges. If you don’t want to spend the time surfing for credits, you do have the option of buying them. I would look into a program that lets you surf multiple websites at once like crazy browser. There are others and they are free to download. That way you can just spend one hour a day and get all your surfing in at once.
7. News-groups: Become involved in a group that has to do with your kind of business. You can usually mail the group once per day, but I would encourage you to find something fresh to talk about each day. People will tune you out if they see the same message all the time. Remember to never Spam anyone. Only join groups with the same interests as yours. In other words, don’t sign up for a recipe swapping group when you are advertising shaving cream.
7 tips in creating publicity for corporate events
Organising corporate events can be exciting and interesting but simultaneously stressful and nerve-racking. This is especially true when corporate event managers are faced with a dilemma in balancing the need to create an enjoyable and beneficial event, and at the same time entrusted with the responsibility to create publicity for it.
Nevertheless, if the right approach is used, creating publicity for corporate events will become an easier task to manage. The following tips will provide you with an insight on some of the best practices used in creating publicity.
1. It’s always a good idea to work in a team, and delegate the task of creating publicity to a particular team member. This way, you won’t be caught up in the legwork, but rather be involved from an event manager perspective. Your responsibility then is to make decisions and guide others in getting things done for you.
2. Selecting the right person to delegate this task to is also an important factor in making your event a success. It is essential for this person to possess the necessary contacts with media companies, such as television stations and newspapers, way before the event kicks off.
3. Use short copywriting for direct mailers or newspaper advertisements. Good editing and good writing go hand-in-hand to create impact for your publicity pieces. Also, thick information packs are out of the question, unless specifically requested by the recipient.
4. Try not to use copywriting that may be a tad too creative or flowery. Your audience has no time trying to figure out your message, and it is best that you send them something direct and concise.
5. Although it may be common sense to include a contact number or an email address in your publicity pieces, you may be surprised that many corporate event organisers actually overlook this. Keep this in mind so that you can be contacted for further information.
6. No one wants to read outdated information. That is why your press releases should be kept as relevant and up to date as possible.
7. Always stick with the truth when you are answering questions from the media, or holding a press conference. Many corporate event managers tend to exaggerate and end up presenting an event that falls short of expectations.
Nevertheless, if the right approach is used, creating publicity for corporate events will become an easier task to manage. The following tips will provide you with an insight on some of the best practices used in creating publicity.
1. It’s always a good idea to work in a team, and delegate the task of creating publicity to a particular team member. This way, you won’t be caught up in the legwork, but rather be involved from an event manager perspective. Your responsibility then is to make decisions and guide others in getting things done for you.
2. Selecting the right person to delegate this task to is also an important factor in making your event a success. It is essential for this person to possess the necessary contacts with media companies, such as television stations and newspapers, way before the event kicks off.
3. Use short copywriting for direct mailers or newspaper advertisements. Good editing and good writing go hand-in-hand to create impact for your publicity pieces. Also, thick information packs are out of the question, unless specifically requested by the recipient.
4. Try not to use copywriting that may be a tad too creative or flowery. Your audience has no time trying to figure out your message, and it is best that you send them something direct and concise.
5. Although it may be common sense to include a contact number or an email address in your publicity pieces, you may be surprised that many corporate event organisers actually overlook this. Keep this in mind so that you can be contacted for further information.
6. No one wants to read outdated information. That is why your press releases should be kept as relevant and up to date as possible.
7. Always stick with the truth when you are answering questions from the media, or holding a press conference. Many corporate event managers tend to exaggerate and end up presenting an event that falls short of expectations.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
6 Powerful Tips to Creating Testimonials That Sell Your Products Fast
There are many ways to market a product or a service and providing the potential clients and customers with testimonials is one of the best ways to market.
The power of testimonials can never be underestimated. People, especially nowadays, will only purchase products or avail services which have been referred to them by people whom they know. But most of the times, this is not an option that is in the hands of the business owner, he has to do the next best thing, which is to get testimonials from his past clients.
Testimonials are living statements from past customers or clients which states that they were satisfied by the product/ service. Every business must have testimonials to be able to stand out in the ever crowded markets.
There are many benefits of having testimonials. Here are some of them.
Testimonials appease the target market
Testimonials usually lessen the doubts of the target market. There are a lot of scammers and con artists nowadays, and this has turned the market into a fearsome one. Credible testimonials provide security to the people who are eyeing at a certain product or service. The provision of testimonials gives people a much more relaxed attitude towards a product or service.
Testimonials assure quality
Aside from confirming the existence of a business and lessening doubts, testimonials provide assurance to potential customers and clients of the quality of the product or service. The fact that they took time out to be able to write testimonials about the product reflect their levels of satisfaction towards the product/service.
Testimonials give advantage
Credible testimonials provide a competitive advantage for the product/service. There are many products and services out there and one of the ways to stand out from the rest is the use of credible testimonials.
There are many types of testimonials. Testimonials are usually categorized according to the source. Here are a few examples:
a) Testimonials from satisfied customers
This is probably the most effective type of testimonial. Nothing beats a testimonial from a satisfied customer because it is a picture of what the product/service is all about.
b) Testimonials from experts
Experts can be credible sources of testimonials. If a renowned dermatologist writes a testimonial for a beauty soap, it will surely help in boosting its sales, wouldn’t it?
c) Testimonials from celebrities
In a world that is run by mass media, celebrities have become powerful sources of testimonials. Today, even infomercials are infested by testimonials from celebrities.
People may think that getting testimonials from celebrities will cost a lot, but if it’s a real testimonial, celebrities may even waive their talent fees.
There is much more to making a testimonial an effective tool for marketing than gathering them. Good testimonials are the ones which can be compressed into a few catchy words. “I lost 20 pounds in two weeks time!” is an example of an eye-catching testimonial. However, one must never rephrase or edit what the client had said. How to get the right kinds of testimonials will be discussed later.
Credible testimonials should also contain the complete attributes of the people who gave them. Their titles, location and age should be included whenever possible.
Visual appeal will also be a great help in using testimonials. If the clients are willing, one must insist in taking photographs or videos for their testimonials.
So how does a business owner get started with the whole testimonial thing?
Here are some steps on how to archive testimonials.
1. Before anything else, only products/ services with outstanding quality deserve testimonials, so one must make sure that his product/service possesses exceptional quality.
2. Ask the help of your customers. One must be able to communicate to his customers his need of getting their testimonials. If they are really satisfied with the product/service, they would be more than willing to participate.
3. Interview your customers. Ask them about what they like about your product/service, why they chose your product and other questions like these.
4. Ask them if they are willing to make a written testimonial. You can offer to make the testimonial yourself based on their responses during the interview but the testimonial is still up for their approval. You might want to make the wordings catchy and let them approve the testimonials.
5. Ask them if you could record the testimonial using a tape recorder or video cam. A video testimonial is better, but of course, many people are camera-shy and this can be a limited option for most.
6. Choose the best testimonials. Use the best ones so as to maximize the benefits that your product can get from the testimonials.
Testimonials are very powerful and this is the reason why every business should have them. They provide assurance and security and reflect the real essence of a product or a service.
The power of testimonials can never be underestimated. People, especially nowadays, will only purchase products or avail services which have been referred to them by people whom they know. But most of the times, this is not an option that is in the hands of the business owner, he has to do the next best thing, which is to get testimonials from his past clients.
Testimonials are living statements from past customers or clients which states that they were satisfied by the product/ service. Every business must have testimonials to be able to stand out in the ever crowded markets.
There are many benefits of having testimonials. Here are some of them.
Testimonials appease the target market
Testimonials usually lessen the doubts of the target market. There are a lot of scammers and con artists nowadays, and this has turned the market into a fearsome one. Credible testimonials provide security to the people who are eyeing at a certain product or service. The provision of testimonials gives people a much more relaxed attitude towards a product or service.
Testimonials assure quality
Aside from confirming the existence of a business and lessening doubts, testimonials provide assurance to potential customers and clients of the quality of the product or service. The fact that they took time out to be able to write testimonials about the product reflect their levels of satisfaction towards the product/service.
Testimonials give advantage
Credible testimonials provide a competitive advantage for the product/service. There are many products and services out there and one of the ways to stand out from the rest is the use of credible testimonials.
There are many types of testimonials. Testimonials are usually categorized according to the source. Here are a few examples:
a) Testimonials from satisfied customers
This is probably the most effective type of testimonial. Nothing beats a testimonial from a satisfied customer because it is a picture of what the product/service is all about.
b) Testimonials from experts
Experts can be credible sources of testimonials. If a renowned dermatologist writes a testimonial for a beauty soap, it will surely help in boosting its sales, wouldn’t it?
c) Testimonials from celebrities
In a world that is run by mass media, celebrities have become powerful sources of testimonials. Today, even infomercials are infested by testimonials from celebrities.
People may think that getting testimonials from celebrities will cost a lot, but if it’s a real testimonial, celebrities may even waive their talent fees.
There is much more to making a testimonial an effective tool for marketing than gathering them. Good testimonials are the ones which can be compressed into a few catchy words. “I lost 20 pounds in two weeks time!” is an example of an eye-catching testimonial. However, one must never rephrase or edit what the client had said. How to get the right kinds of testimonials will be discussed later.
Credible testimonials should also contain the complete attributes of the people who gave them. Their titles, location and age should be included whenever possible.
Visual appeal will also be a great help in using testimonials. If the clients are willing, one must insist in taking photographs or videos for their testimonials.
So how does a business owner get started with the whole testimonial thing?
Here are some steps on how to archive testimonials.
1. Before anything else, only products/ services with outstanding quality deserve testimonials, so one must make sure that his product/service possesses exceptional quality.
2. Ask the help of your customers. One must be able to communicate to his customers his need of getting their testimonials. If they are really satisfied with the product/service, they would be more than willing to participate.
3. Interview your customers. Ask them about what they like about your product/service, why they chose your product and other questions like these.
4. Ask them if they are willing to make a written testimonial. You can offer to make the testimonial yourself based on their responses during the interview but the testimonial is still up for their approval. You might want to make the wordings catchy and let them approve the testimonials.
5. Ask them if you could record the testimonial using a tape recorder or video cam. A video testimonial is better, but of course, many people are camera-shy and this can be a limited option for most.
6. Choose the best testimonials. Use the best ones so as to maximize the benefits that your product can get from the testimonials.
Testimonials are very powerful and this is the reason why every business should have them. They provide assurance and security and reflect the real essence of a product or a service.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
5 ultimate graphic design mistakes - Things that graphic designers should avoid at all costs
1. Using web graphics on printed material.
With many young designers coming from a pre-dominantly web design background the transfer over from web design to traditional design for print can bring with it a multitude of design sins. Images supplied at 72dpi and crunched down to load fast on a website are going to reproduce very badly in print you can get away with small thumbnails but blowing things up to any appreciable size is going to be pushing your luck. There are a number of online sites offering free or very cheap quality hi resolution images which are a good source for suitable imagery.
2. Forgetting about or not allowing enough bleed.
A very common error is to send to print a document or flattened image that has no bleed at all. Generally speaking you should allow at least 3mm around every cut off edge. Failing to do so will give the printers no leeway and will either crop off the side of the page or give you a white border. It is always a good idea when supplying image files to save layered psd files then if things need extending or cropping you can do this on the background layer and hopefully cut down your work
3. Using obscure fonts and not embedding or outlining them for output.
We've all been guilty of this at some point and things are generally fine if you are going to be the only person accessing your artwork or documents. However if someone else needs to amend the files or use your vector logo on one of there publications. Unless you package up the used fonts, they are not going to be able to open the files correctly and some software programs may replace any unknown fonts with a default. This is a particular problem when you need to dig out stuff that was created several years previously and you no longer have your old fonts installed.
4. Supplying print ready artwork using spot colours or rgb
There are valid reasons for using spot colours in artwork, logos that need to reference particular pantone colours for example. In general design work however most print is sent through on 4 colour presses CMYK with occasional 5th colour for luminoius or metallic colour or for spot UV varnish. It is very common for lazy designers to just place rgb images into files and expect the vibrant colours seen on screen to reproduce in print.
5. Allowing design illiterate clients to lead you round the houses
The customer is always right, goes the old adage. However it is often said with gritted teeth and a sense of patience that recognizes that these morons will at some stage be handing over a fat cheque for your troubles. It is often a good idea when first submitting visuals to throw in a couple of stinkers to hopefully get them to appreciate the design you would like them to accept. There is the very real danger of course of them loving the piece of absolute arsewipe that you knocked up in five minutes to make them think you've been earning your money. Still it's a living.
With many young designers coming from a pre-dominantly web design background the transfer over from web design to traditional design for print can bring with it a multitude of design sins. Images supplied at 72dpi and crunched down to load fast on a website are going to reproduce very badly in print you can get away with small thumbnails but blowing things up to any appreciable size is going to be pushing your luck. There are a number of online sites offering free or very cheap quality hi resolution images which are a good source for suitable imagery.
2. Forgetting about or not allowing enough bleed.
A very common error is to send to print a document or flattened image that has no bleed at all. Generally speaking you should allow at least 3mm around every cut off edge. Failing to do so will give the printers no leeway and will either crop off the side of the page or give you a white border. It is always a good idea when supplying image files to save layered psd files then if things need extending or cropping you can do this on the background layer and hopefully cut down your work
3. Using obscure fonts and not embedding or outlining them for output.
We've all been guilty of this at some point and things are generally fine if you are going to be the only person accessing your artwork or documents. However if someone else needs to amend the files or use your vector logo on one of there publications. Unless you package up the used fonts, they are not going to be able to open the files correctly and some software programs may replace any unknown fonts with a default. This is a particular problem when you need to dig out stuff that was created several years previously and you no longer have your old fonts installed.
4. Supplying print ready artwork using spot colours or rgb
There are valid reasons for using spot colours in artwork, logos that need to reference particular pantone colours for example. In general design work however most print is sent through on 4 colour presses CMYK with occasional 5th colour for luminoius or metallic colour or for spot UV varnish. It is very common for lazy designers to just place rgb images into files and expect the vibrant colours seen on screen to reproduce in print.
5. Allowing design illiterate clients to lead you round the houses
The customer is always right, goes the old adage. However it is often said with gritted teeth and a sense of patience that recognizes that these morons will at some stage be handing over a fat cheque for your troubles. It is often a good idea when first submitting visuals to throw in a couple of stinkers to hopefully get them to appreciate the design you would like them to accept. There is the very real danger of course of them loving the piece of absolute arsewipe that you knocked up in five minutes to make them think you've been earning your money. Still it's a living.
Monday, March 30, 2009
5 Tips To Make Money on Craigslist
Craigslist is one of the most visited sites on the internet today, with millions upon, millions of visitors a day. With this many visitors
daily, it is very easy to get a nice chunk of traffic with your postings. I have put some tips together for you guys, apply these, and you WILL
make money!
Tip 1: DON'T POST DUPLICATE POSTS!
Posting duplicate posts will do nothing for you but get your ads taken down. Yes, it is easy to just copy and paste, and make over 100 ads within minutes, but it won't do you any good.
Tip 2: USE DIFFERENT IPS!
Using different IPs is another way to avoid getting your ad flagged. One way Craigslist will know to flag your posts is by looking at the IP you are using. If they see multiple ads from the same IP, they will most likely flag your ad, thus your profits will suffer. (Wait, you won't have any.) One way you can
change your IP is by using a proxy. If you want a list of them, check out proxy.org. They have thousands of them.
Tip 3: DONT BE AN IDIOT!
Being an idiot is the easiest way to not make money on Craigslist. Do not post something, blatantly spamming your URL. This is an example of what NOT to do:
"HEY GUYS CHECK OUT MY SITE ITS THE BEST!!!! LOL11!!! http://myaffiliatelink.com LOL OK GO THER PLX"
Doing this is also a good way to get banned from your CPA network as well, which also is not a good thing.
Tip 4: CATCH THE CURIOSITY OF THE READER!
This is one of the most important tips of all. By catching the curiosity of the reader you have a much higher chance of getting an email from them, or getting a click on your link. Also, make sure to keep your ad short - this will help catch their curiosity.
Tip 5: DON'T GIVE UP, EVER!
That's it, DON'T GIVE UP. Giving up is the easiest way to not make money online. To make money you must stick with it. I know it will be hard, but when you finally do get that first sale, or that first lead, it's the greatest feeling ever. If you can do it once, you can do it a million times.
daily, it is very easy to get a nice chunk of traffic with your postings. I have put some tips together for you guys, apply these, and you WILL
make money!
Tip 1: DON'T POST DUPLICATE POSTS!
Posting duplicate posts will do nothing for you but get your ads taken down. Yes, it is easy to just copy and paste, and make over 100 ads within minutes, but it won't do you any good.
Tip 2: USE DIFFERENT IPS!
Using different IPs is another way to avoid getting your ad flagged. One way Craigslist will know to flag your posts is by looking at the IP you are using. If they see multiple ads from the same IP, they will most likely flag your ad, thus your profits will suffer. (Wait, you won't have any.) One way you can
change your IP is by using a proxy. If you want a list of them, check out proxy.org. They have thousands of them.
Tip 3: DONT BE AN IDIOT!
Being an idiot is the easiest way to not make money on Craigslist. Do not post something, blatantly spamming your URL. This is an example of what NOT to do:
"HEY GUYS CHECK OUT MY SITE ITS THE BEST!!!! LOL11!!! http://myaffiliatelink.com LOL OK GO THER PLX"
Doing this is also a good way to get banned from your CPA network as well, which also is not a good thing.
Tip 4: CATCH THE CURIOSITY OF THE READER!
This is one of the most important tips of all. By catching the curiosity of the reader you have a much higher chance of getting an email from them, or getting a click on your link. Also, make sure to keep your ad short - this will help catch their curiosity.
Tip 5: DON'T GIVE UP, EVER!
That's it, DON'T GIVE UP. Giving up is the easiest way to not make money online. To make money you must stick with it. I know it will be hard, but when you finally do get that first sale, or that first lead, it's the greatest feeling ever. If you can do it once, you can do it a million times.
5 Tips To Make Money on Craigslist
Craigslist is one of the most visited sites on the internet today, with millions upon, millions of visitors a day. With this many visitors
daily, it is very easy to get a nice chunk of traffic with your postings. I have put some tips together for you guys, apply these, and you WILL
make money!
Tip 1: DON'T POST DUPLICATE POSTS!
Posting duplicate posts will do nothing for you but get your ads taken down. Yes, it is easy to just copy and paste, and make over 100 ads within minutes, but it won't do you any good.
Tip 2: USE DIFFERENT IPS!
Using different IPs is another way to avoid getting your ad flagged. One way Craigslist will know to flag your posts is by looking at the IP you are using. If they see multiple ads from the same IP, they will most likely flag your ad, thus your profits will suffer. (Wait, you won't have any.) One way you can
change your IP is by using a proxy. If you want a list of them, check out proxy.org. They have thousands of them.
Tip 3: DONT BE AN IDIOT!
Being an idiot is the easiest way to not make money on Craigslist. Do not post something, blatantly spamming your URL. This is an example of what NOT to do:
"HEY GUYS CHECK OUT MY SITE ITS THE BEST!!!! LOL11!!! http://myaffiliatelink.com LOL OK GO THER PLX"
Doing this is also a good way to get banned from your CPA network as well, which also is not a good thing.
Tip 4: CATCH THE CURIOSITY OF THE READER!
This is one of the most important tips of all. By catching the curiosity of the reader you have a much higher chance of getting an email from them, or getting a click on your link. Also, make sure to keep your ad short - this will help catch their curiosity.
Tip 5: DON'T GIVE UP, EVER!
That's it, DON'T GIVE UP. Giving up is the easiest way to not make money online. To make money you must stick with it. I know it will be hard, but when you finally do get that first sale, or that first lead, it's the greatest feeling ever. If you can do it once, you can do it a million times.
daily, it is very easy to get a nice chunk of traffic with your postings. I have put some tips together for you guys, apply these, and you WILL
make money!
Tip 1: DON'T POST DUPLICATE POSTS!
Posting duplicate posts will do nothing for you but get your ads taken down. Yes, it is easy to just copy and paste, and make over 100 ads within minutes, but it won't do you any good.
Tip 2: USE DIFFERENT IPS!
Using different IPs is another way to avoid getting your ad flagged. One way Craigslist will know to flag your posts is by looking at the IP you are using. If they see multiple ads from the same IP, they will most likely flag your ad, thus your profits will suffer. (Wait, you won't have any.) One way you can
change your IP is by using a proxy. If you want a list of them, check out proxy.org. They have thousands of them.
Tip 3: DONT BE AN IDIOT!
Being an idiot is the easiest way to not make money on Craigslist. Do not post something, blatantly spamming your URL. This is an example of what NOT to do:
"HEY GUYS CHECK OUT MY SITE ITS THE BEST!!!! LOL11!!! http://myaffiliatelink.com LOL OK GO THER PLX"
Doing this is also a good way to get banned from your CPA network as well, which also is not a good thing.
Tip 4: CATCH THE CURIOSITY OF THE READER!
This is one of the most important tips of all. By catching the curiosity of the reader you have a much higher chance of getting an email from them, or getting a click on your link. Also, make sure to keep your ad short - this will help catch their curiosity.
Tip 5: DON'T GIVE UP, EVER!
That's it, DON'T GIVE UP. Giving up is the easiest way to not make money online. To make money you must stick with it. I know it will be hard, but when you finally do get that first sale, or that first lead, it's the greatest feeling ever. If you can do it once, you can do it a million times.
Monday, March 23, 2009
5 Simple and Easy Ways to Advertise Online
Some people say that advertising is everything! Regardless if you have a product, a service, a hobby website or just want to share pictures of your wedding, you have to advertise somehow to get the traffic to your site or blog.
But not all traffic is equal. There are services that can help you drive tons and tons of traffic to your site and it won't do you any good at all because it's not targeted traffic.
Take for example all of the many different 'surf for traffic' or 'traffic clicking' programs that are out there. If you have a website that is about your hobby, say model airplanes, then what good is this traffic really going to do you? Who's using these services?
Webmasters and marketers that want traffic on their own site. So they most likely won't spend any more time on your page than is required by the little timer these services use and then they are gone again. Even if your site is about these traffic services (this is about the only time you will see very much benefit from using such a tool) you will still have to spend a ton of time just surfing and clicking around to get a real benefit from these programs. Once marketers realized this they switched gears. They started promoting all the different programs to a lot of other marketers to get them in their downlines, so they could get some traffic as a bonus. This became their new focus. The problem is that everyone else did exactly the same thing, so not a lot of people were surfing the internet anymore.
Bottom-line is this. You need targeted traffic. So here are some tips on how you can generate exactly the traffic you need and bring the visitors you want to your website without having to chase after them.
1. Content
What is your website about? Do you just have a page with a lot of links and not much else?
If this is the case, think about adding some content to your website that will be of value to any potential visitors. You could write articles or find articles at one of the many directories that you can reprint on your site.
2. Talk about your experiences in your subject matter.
You don't have to put up some kind of resume (although that can work too), but rather try writing about what you are doing, as it relates to your topic of choice. Let's look at the model airplanes again briefly, you could talk or write about the latest plane type you built, how the last time flying your plane went, what challenges you run into or perhaps even post some pictures of your plane or of you flying it.
3. Forums and bulletin boards.
You could add a forum or bulletin board to your website where your visitors can interact with each other. There are a lot of free services available out there that you can use to either remotely host a forum for you, or even software you can install on your website's server. To find some of these, just head over to your favorite search engine and you will definitely find plenty to choose from.
And while you are visiting the search engine, why not run a search for any bulletin boards and forums that are already out there for your chosen topic? You could visit those and interact with the visitors there and since many allow you to post a signature or a profile, you could add a little line about your own site with a link (just check the rules of the forum first so
you don't violate any of them).
4. Start a blog.
Blogs are very popular and search engines love them because they provide constantly new and fresh content. Your blog would be a great place to talk about what you are up to that day. So if you spent some time today buying new parts for your plane you could write about where you found them, how much they cost you, why you chose those parts, anything really goes.
The really great part about this is that you can point links from your blog back to your website, so when the search engine stops by to grab and index your latest content, it will also stop by your website and you will start seeing very targeted traffic heading your way.
5. Write articles.
Writing articles isn't hard and can be a great source of fresh, new traffic to your website. There are a lot of ezines on any topic out there and there are also a lot of directories where you can share your article.
Basically, what you do is write an article and then add a small resource box that links back to your website (just like a signature) and then let other ezine publishers know that you are allowing them to print your article in their ezine. And many publishers go to the article directories to find new content for their newsletter and even their websites. And since there are
websites and ezine newsletters on any imaginable topic out there, you can't lose. Write an article every couple of days and post it in the directories (even one a week or every two weeks will start getting you traffic). Very soon you will find new traffic coming from search engines, newsletters and websites.
Best of all, these 5 simple tips will bring targeted traffic, meaning the visitors are coming to you because they are interested in what you wrote.
So there you have it. Whether you have a simple and basic Work at Home Business or a significant Internet Marketing enterprise you can benefit from these 5 easy and simple ways to advertise and drive traffic to your website at absolutely no cost.
Stephen Wright is President & CEO of InternetMarketingUSA.com
Looking for Internet Marketing Ideas, Tips, and Solutions? Get everything you need to make money online in "Dotcomology: The Science of Making Money Online". Absolutely Free at: http://www.InternetMarketingUSA.com/dotcomology.html
NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
But not all traffic is equal. There are services that can help you drive tons and tons of traffic to your site and it won't do you any good at all because it's not targeted traffic.
Take for example all of the many different 'surf for traffic' or 'traffic clicking' programs that are out there. If you have a website that is about your hobby, say model airplanes, then what good is this traffic really going to do you? Who's using these services?
Webmasters and marketers that want traffic on their own site. So they most likely won't spend any more time on your page than is required by the little timer these services use and then they are gone again. Even if your site is about these traffic services (this is about the only time you will see very much benefit from using such a tool) you will still have to spend a ton of time just surfing and clicking around to get a real benefit from these programs. Once marketers realized this they switched gears. They started promoting all the different programs to a lot of other marketers to get them in their downlines, so they could get some traffic as a bonus. This became their new focus. The problem is that everyone else did exactly the same thing, so not a lot of people were surfing the internet anymore.
Bottom-line is this. You need targeted traffic. So here are some tips on how you can generate exactly the traffic you need and bring the visitors you want to your website without having to chase after them.
1. Content
What is your website about? Do you just have a page with a lot of links and not much else?
If this is the case, think about adding some content to your website that will be of value to any potential visitors. You could write articles or find articles at one of the many directories that you can reprint on your site.
2. Talk about your experiences in your subject matter.
You don't have to put up some kind of resume (although that can work too), but rather try writing about what you are doing, as it relates to your topic of choice. Let's look at the model airplanes again briefly, you could talk or write about the latest plane type you built, how the last time flying your plane went, what challenges you run into or perhaps even post some pictures of your plane or of you flying it.
3. Forums and bulletin boards.
You could add a forum or bulletin board to your website where your visitors can interact with each other. There are a lot of free services available out there that you can use to either remotely host a forum for you, or even software you can install on your website's server. To find some of these, just head over to your favorite search engine and you will definitely find plenty to choose from.
And while you are visiting the search engine, why not run a search for any bulletin boards and forums that are already out there for your chosen topic? You could visit those and interact with the visitors there and since many allow you to post a signature or a profile, you could add a little line about your own site with a link (just check the rules of the forum first so
you don't violate any of them).
4. Start a blog.
Blogs are very popular and search engines love them because they provide constantly new and fresh content. Your blog would be a great place to talk about what you are up to that day. So if you spent some time today buying new parts for your plane you could write about where you found them, how much they cost you, why you chose those parts, anything really goes.
The really great part about this is that you can point links from your blog back to your website, so when the search engine stops by to grab and index your latest content, it will also stop by your website and you will start seeing very targeted traffic heading your way.
5. Write articles.
Writing articles isn't hard and can be a great source of fresh, new traffic to your website. There are a lot of ezines on any topic out there and there are also a lot of directories where you can share your article.
Basically, what you do is write an article and then add a small resource box that links back to your website (just like a signature) and then let other ezine publishers know that you are allowing them to print your article in their ezine. And many publishers go to the article directories to find new content for their newsletter and even their websites. And since there are
websites and ezine newsletters on any imaginable topic out there, you can't lose. Write an article every couple of days and post it in the directories (even one a week or every two weeks will start getting you traffic). Very soon you will find new traffic coming from search engines, newsletters and websites.
Best of all, these 5 simple tips will bring targeted traffic, meaning the visitors are coming to you because they are interested in what you wrote.
So there you have it. Whether you have a simple and basic Work at Home Business or a significant Internet Marketing enterprise you can benefit from these 5 easy and simple ways to advertise and drive traffic to your website at absolutely no cost.
Stephen Wright is President & CEO of InternetMarketingUSA.com
Looking for Internet Marketing Ideas, Tips, and Solutions? Get everything you need to make money online in "Dotcomology: The Science of Making Money Online". Absolutely Free at: http://www.InternetMarketingUSA.com/dotcomology.html
NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
5 Free Online Advertising Channels For Your Business
What a wonderful invention it is, this thing we call the Internet!
If you would just take your time to know your way around, you could discover a lot of premium products and services being offered for free. What's best is that there is a seemingly endless number of these wonderful finds, what with the Internet being a vast network of constantly evolving ideas and all!
Among these magnificent benefits is the chance to be able to promote your business, any business, online, free of charge! It doesn't matter if your enterprise is a purely online or offline venture, the World Wide Web is home to a great number of marketing opportunities that you could avail of, with no damage to your business' budget whatsoever.
Advertising can be a big problem otherwise. A lot of companies reserve a big chunk of their budgets to cover marketing expenditures. Sometimes, these gambles pay off, but there are occasions when they fail miserably, putting to waste some good money that could have been used in other areas of development for the business involved.
But with the many channels available online, marketing has become a less risky course of action. There so many avenues available online where you could advertise your business for free and attain more exposure for your products or services. Here are some of them.
1. You could advertise through your own website. Ordinarily, you should pay a nominal fee for web hosting and your domain name. A paid web hosting service is more reliable. Your own domain name would impress upon your visitors an immediate sense of professionalism. But if you don't want to spend for them, there are a lot of free web space providers on the Internet!
2. You could advertise through other people's websites. And you could do this in a lot of ways too! You could create a banner that would summarize your business' offers and have it displayed on existing pages. Or if you have your won website for your business, you could use the said banner to link to your pages, or you could even settle for simple links. Additionally, you could have other webmasters rave about your venture and they could talk about it in their own websites.
3. You could create your own affiliate program. By giving commissions as incentive, you could invite a lot of Internet users to become your affiliates. Each affiliate would work to help you make a sale. It's like having a battalion of sales representatives that you'd only have to pay if they manage to refer a willing customer!
4. You could try viral marketing. Viral marketing is the online equivalent of word o mouth advertising. By giving away something for free, for as long as that something has a link or a simple reference to your business, you're encouraging the recipient to spread the word about your business to the people he knows. This would result in the exponential expansion of your business message like wildfire.
5. You could advertise in online communities. Forums and mailing lists are popular venues that could likewise convey your business message. Membership to these groups is usually free. Additionally, you could also create your own mailing list and start capturing leads for future sales by doing some helpful follow-ups.
The Internet is a great place for promoting your business. There are five million people online at any given time and the world is, quite literally, your market. It would be best for your business to capitalize on this wonderful opportunity and expand your audience a thousand fold bigger!
And you wouldn't even have to spend a penny while you're at it.
If you would just take your time to know your way around, you could discover a lot of premium products and services being offered for free. What's best is that there is a seemingly endless number of these wonderful finds, what with the Internet being a vast network of constantly evolving ideas and all!
Among these magnificent benefits is the chance to be able to promote your business, any business, online, free of charge! It doesn't matter if your enterprise is a purely online or offline venture, the World Wide Web is home to a great number of marketing opportunities that you could avail of, with no damage to your business' budget whatsoever.
Advertising can be a big problem otherwise. A lot of companies reserve a big chunk of their budgets to cover marketing expenditures. Sometimes, these gambles pay off, but there are occasions when they fail miserably, putting to waste some good money that could have been used in other areas of development for the business involved.
But with the many channels available online, marketing has become a less risky course of action. There so many avenues available online where you could advertise your business for free and attain more exposure for your products or services. Here are some of them.
1. You could advertise through your own website. Ordinarily, you should pay a nominal fee for web hosting and your domain name. A paid web hosting service is more reliable. Your own domain name would impress upon your visitors an immediate sense of professionalism. But if you don't want to spend for them, there are a lot of free web space providers on the Internet!
2. You could advertise through other people's websites. And you could do this in a lot of ways too! You could create a banner that would summarize your business' offers and have it displayed on existing pages. Or if you have your won website for your business, you could use the said banner to link to your pages, or you could even settle for simple links. Additionally, you could have other webmasters rave about your venture and they could talk about it in their own websites.
3. You could create your own affiliate program. By giving commissions as incentive, you could invite a lot of Internet users to become your affiliates. Each affiliate would work to help you make a sale. It's like having a battalion of sales representatives that you'd only have to pay if they manage to refer a willing customer!
4. You could try viral marketing. Viral marketing is the online equivalent of word o mouth advertising. By giving away something for free, for as long as that something has a link or a simple reference to your business, you're encouraging the recipient to spread the word about your business to the people he knows. This would result in the exponential expansion of your business message like wildfire.
5. You could advertise in online communities. Forums and mailing lists are popular venues that could likewise convey your business message. Membership to these groups is usually free. Additionally, you could also create your own mailing list and start capturing leads for future sales by doing some helpful follow-ups.
The Internet is a great place for promoting your business. There are five million people online at any given time and the world is, quite literally, your market. It would be best for your business to capitalize on this wonderful opportunity and expand your audience a thousand fold bigger!
And you wouldn't even have to spend a penny while you're at it.
5 Easy Ways To Get Your Creative Juices Going
Writing an article doesn't just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.
The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can't seem to get their creative juices flowing.
Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.
So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.
1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone's ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it's the development of the idea that makes it unique.
2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.
Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.
3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn't make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won't be conducive in firing up your creative flow.
Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.
4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.
There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.
5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.
The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can't seem to get their creative juices flowing.
Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.
So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.
1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone's ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it's the development of the idea that makes it unique.
2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.
Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.
3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn't make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won't be conducive in firing up your creative flow.
Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.
4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.
There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.
5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.
4 Steps to Unbeatable Advertising
1. Negotiate
Have you noticed that some people seem to always get the best deals? Yeah, you pay full price and think you did OK until they show up with the same thing, only they paid several hundred dollars less. It really get your goat! How do they do it? They're not afraid to ask for an extra discount.
Yep, don't sell yourself short because you didn't ASK the next time your advertising rep makes an appearance! Even if you're already getting a discount, ask for a bigger one. You have not...because you ask not.
2. Trim
Bigger is always better...or is it? When it comes to advertising, don't be surprised if some of your short ads meet with more success than larger more expensive ads. Trimming down on the size and cost of advertising doesn't mean you'll be trimming the results!
3. Exploit the Freebies
What's the difference between advertising and publicity? ...who's doing the talking. Yeah, when you sell yourself, it's advertising. When someone else is selling you, it's publicity...and it generates credibility and interest that you don't want to miss out on.
Think about the different ways you can get your business in the spotlight. Do you have some news… write a press release? Write some "how to" articles with a short byline at the end and release them to ezines, magazines, newspapers, and other publishers. Why not promote the product of a non-competitor in return for them promoting yours...think of the totally different market they affect!
Yep, there are a lot of ways out there to get free advertisement that will benefit your business. Of course you won't be able to rely solely on the freebies, but hey, you can get a little extra for nothing!
4. Improve Your Offer
Is your deal too good to pass up? If not, you need to improve it. Hey, I'm not talking about cutting prices even more...you've still got to make a profit. You can make the deal sweeter just by increasing the readers knowledge of the value of the product, or adding bonuses that are perceived as valuable, but cost you little.
Motivate buyers with expirations. Yeah, an open ended offer encourages procrastination...which leads ...yep, nowhere. When the customer knows he has until Saturday to purchase an item he'll pay more for on Sunday, he'll make it a priority to head for your shop.
Advertising doesn't have to wipe out your bank account to be effective. When you learn to negotiate, know when smaller ads are as effective as large ads, ask for discounts, and create an irresistible offer, you're on your way to skyrocketing profit margins!
Have you noticed that some people seem to always get the best deals? Yeah, you pay full price and think you did OK until they show up with the same thing, only they paid several hundred dollars less. It really get your goat! How do they do it? They're not afraid to ask for an extra discount.
Yep, don't sell yourself short because you didn't ASK the next time your advertising rep makes an appearance! Even if you're already getting a discount, ask for a bigger one. You have not...because you ask not.
2. Trim
Bigger is always better...or is it? When it comes to advertising, don't be surprised if some of your short ads meet with more success than larger more expensive ads. Trimming down on the size and cost of advertising doesn't mean you'll be trimming the results!
3. Exploit the Freebies
What's the difference between advertising and publicity? ...who's doing the talking. Yeah, when you sell yourself, it's advertising. When someone else is selling you, it's publicity...and it generates credibility and interest that you don't want to miss out on.
Think about the different ways you can get your business in the spotlight. Do you have some news… write a press release? Write some "how to" articles with a short byline at the end and release them to ezines, magazines, newspapers, and other publishers. Why not promote the product of a non-competitor in return for them promoting yours...think of the totally different market they affect!
Yep, there are a lot of ways out there to get free advertisement that will benefit your business. Of course you won't be able to rely solely on the freebies, but hey, you can get a little extra for nothing!
4. Improve Your Offer
Is your deal too good to pass up? If not, you need to improve it. Hey, I'm not talking about cutting prices even more...you've still got to make a profit. You can make the deal sweeter just by increasing the readers knowledge of the value of the product, or adding bonuses that are perceived as valuable, but cost you little.
Motivate buyers with expirations. Yeah, an open ended offer encourages procrastination...which leads ...yep, nowhere. When the customer knows he has until Saturday to purchase an item he'll pay more for on Sunday, he'll make it a priority to head for your shop.
Advertising doesn't have to wipe out your bank account to be effective. When you learn to negotiate, know when smaller ads are as effective as large ads, ask for discounts, and create an irresistible offer, you're on your way to skyrocketing profit margins!
4 Simple Steps To Great Free Advertising
Advertising a product, service, or any undertaking, such as a website for example, has always been a pain in the wallet.
I have been a follower of the free advertising mode, incidentally.
I would like to share with you two of the strategies I've used in getting free advertising.
The first strategy is to advertise in free but well-visited web sites.
I have published some of the best web sites that accept free advertising. You can access these free ad sites by first going to internetmarketinglearningcenter.com/classified-ads.html.
The second strategy I used to post free ads is to buy a Free Classified Ad Course.
This is actually a brief course and I had to pay Clickbank $19.95 to avail of this ad resource.
The highlight of the Free Classified Ad Course is going to the download link of a free software that you will use to post and monitor your ads.
I would like to share with you this Free Classified Ad Course FREE.
You don't have to pay Clickbank $19.95, and you don't have to spend hours researching for this free software.
Just go to my web site listed on the resource box below, click the link on the sidebar menu entitled 4 Simple Steps to Great Free Advertising, and you are off to posting your free ads. Free.
Enjoy your success in ad posting!
I have been a follower of the free advertising mode, incidentally.
I would like to share with you two of the strategies I've used in getting free advertising.
The first strategy is to advertise in free but well-visited web sites.
I have published some of the best web sites that accept free advertising. You can access these free ad sites by first going to internetmarketinglearningcenter.com/classified-ads.html.
The second strategy I used to post free ads is to buy a Free Classified Ad Course.
This is actually a brief course and I had to pay Clickbank $19.95 to avail of this ad resource.
The highlight of the Free Classified Ad Course is going to the download link of a free software that you will use to post and monitor your ads.
I would like to share with you this Free Classified Ad Course FREE.
You don't have to pay Clickbank $19.95, and you don't have to spend hours researching for this free software.
Just go to my web site listed on the resource box below, click the link on the sidebar menu entitled 4 Simple Steps to Great Free Advertising, and you are off to posting your free ads. Free.
Enjoy your success in ad posting!
4 Key Points to Branding
Here are four things you should keep in mind as you build your company’s brand:
1) Own the “Significant Thing”: Dole tried to be all things to all people spend your time focusing on a single clear message. Mercedes-Benz owns “ Engineering “ in the car industry because it’s focused on that singular message for decades.
2) Consistency is key: consistent presentation will ensure that your customers recognize you. Be consistent in the use of logos, taglines, visual elements, tone, and ad copy. Coca-Cola it is one of the most recognized brands in the world because they haven’t changed in decades. Make sure your brochures, website, Direct mail, and all the other advertising have the same feel and message.
3) Make your message relevant: know your audience, know what they care about and how to speak to them. Make sure what you sell is what they need. Remember the conversation should always be about your audience, not you.
4) Use a strong offer to motivate: you want your audience to remember you and you want its members to buy from you. You need to move them to action. A strong offer should give them a reason to buy. Make the offer clear and appropriate for your brand.
Every time a customer comes in contact with your brand, they will have either a positive or a negative experience. Those experiences will add to their perception of your brand. Those experiences are recalled later when it’s time to make a purchasing decision. How do you want your brand to be remembered when the time comes for a prospect to buy? You need to start building that positive perception today and do whatever is necessary to maintain it.
Good luck.
1) Own the “Significant Thing”: Dole tried to be all things to all people spend your time focusing on a single clear message. Mercedes-Benz owns “ Engineering “ in the car industry because it’s focused on that singular message for decades.
2) Consistency is key: consistent presentation will ensure that your customers recognize you. Be consistent in the use of logos, taglines, visual elements, tone, and ad copy. Coca-Cola it is one of the most recognized brands in the world because they haven’t changed in decades. Make sure your brochures, website, Direct mail, and all the other advertising have the same feel and message.
3) Make your message relevant: know your audience, know what they care about and how to speak to them. Make sure what you sell is what they need. Remember the conversation should always be about your audience, not you.
4) Use a strong offer to motivate: you want your audience to remember you and you want its members to buy from you. You need to move them to action. A strong offer should give them a reason to buy. Make the offer clear and appropriate for your brand.
Every time a customer comes in contact with your brand, they will have either a positive or a negative experience. Those experiences will add to their perception of your brand. Those experiences are recalled later when it’s time to make a purchasing decision. How do you want your brand to be remembered when the time comes for a prospect to buy? You need to start building that positive perception today and do whatever is necessary to maintain it.
Good luck.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
3 Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories
To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills back.
With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is why article writing, submissions and publications are also getting popular.
There are already many tools that people can use to make the process of distributing their articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, which is only half of the story.
Let us take a look first at the common mistakes that some people make before submitting their contents to article directories:
1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.
In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.
But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them.
You need to figure out first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing better contents.
2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.
You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from that same articles?
Mention keywords at strategic places. Just be sure not to overdo them. Some are even using anchor texts which is also an effective method. But it is important to know that majority of the directories are not able to support this.
Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work. Better search engine results also are great benefits.
But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site.
Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.
3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.
Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine.
Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. Oftentimes, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.
You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight.
Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf.
In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents.
It will be your choice. You may not be aware of the fact that an article submitted on directories is not meant to have the same level of exposure as highly-targeted content ones geared on a narrow group of people.
Learn the difference between these two and it will surely help you know what kinds of articles to write and to submit.
With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is why article writing, submissions and publications are also getting popular.
There are already many tools that people can use to make the process of distributing their articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, which is only half of the story.
Let us take a look first at the common mistakes that some people make before submitting their contents to article directories:
1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.
In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.
But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them.
You need to figure out first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing better contents.
2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.
You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from that same articles?
Mention keywords at strategic places. Just be sure not to overdo them. Some are even using anchor texts which is also an effective method. But it is important to know that majority of the directories are not able to support this.
Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work. Better search engine results also are great benefits.
But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site.
Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.
3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.
Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine.
Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. Oftentimes, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.
You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight.
Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf.
In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents.
It will be your choice. You may not be aware of the fact that an article submitted on directories is not meant to have the same level of exposure as highly-targeted content ones geared on a narrow group of people.
Learn the difference between these two and it will surely help you know what kinds of articles to write and to submit.
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