Advertising Tips-Stop Wasting Your Advertising Dollars

I am not a fan of junk mail. However, there is a HUGE difference between junk mail and direct mail. Direct mail brings in sales, junk mail gets tossed in the garbage. I want you to learn the difference and how direct mail can be created and used to bring you new sales opportunities from a narrowly focused target market that it up to 15 times more likely to buy your product or service than if you were using the shotgun approach.

One of the most common sales tactics that any media representative will use when trying to sell you advertising is the number of people who read their publication, hear their radio station, watch their shows, etc. What they don't tell you is how many of these people have no interest in what you are selling. The vast majority of people who will see or hear your ad in these types of media are not in the market for your product or service at all. You are reaching many that you never intended to reach…thus the term shotgun approach.

With direct mail, you can target your message to very specific age groups, income levels, whether they own their own home or rent, exact locations, gender, wealth levels, bankruptcies, or just about any other criteria you can think of.

There really is no other type of advertising that gives you the advantage of being able to target your market so effectively. And all for the cost of a simple postage stamp. Compare this with the cost of sending a sales rep out on cold calls. Add to that the ability to reach hundreds and/or thousands with a single mailing. When you add in all of the costs associated, you can easily spend 100 times the cost of a stamp just to reach one prospect.

Because most of us don't like junk mail, we tend to dismiss direct mail as not being a "proper" way of generating sales. Make your mailing stand out from the rest and you won't be lumped in with the other "junk." Instead, you'll be depositing more money in your bank account as you deal with the avalanche of new sales that will come from a well thought out and well executed direct mail campaign. There is simply no better ROI for your investment dollar.

About the Author:
Greg Beverly, CPA, MBA has been helping others increase sales for more than 22 years. Find out how he can help you take your sales from mediocre to amazing today. Visit: http://www.leadgeneration.yougethelp.com right now.
Article Submitted On: November 24, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How To Create And Promote A Web Site That Works

A search is carried out on Google - the most used search engine currently on the internet - every 0.003 of a second, searching over 8 billion Web pages. If your Web site does not match the searchers' enquiries your chances of trading successfully and your business 'making it' on the internet are low. The World Wide Web is like one huge shopping mall, every Web site offering products and services; some 'shops' are well lit and easy to access, however, the majority have the lights turned off, their shutters down and the 'closed' sign on the door.

Making your company Web site attractive and popular is more than just putting a picture of the product or a description of the service onto a Web page and publishing it on the Web. There are a host of issues which need to be addressed to ensure success, but before a Web developer is even contracted, the bigger picture of strategic marketing needs to be addressed. It is important to understand that marketing is not sales, strategic marketing provides the structure to help us collate information and through it understand our customers. This is information that we need in order to sell successfully.

Applying this to a company Web site, before any development work is carried out on the Web site we have to be clear on who the customer is and why they are likely to buy. In describing the target customer, such factors as gender, age and socio-economic group are essentials while further information such as technical capability and language level can also be useful.

By carrying out primary market research - and this means not just reading reports or looking at statistics, actually get up from your desk and go and ask your customers - we will be able to find out most of this information offering a greater understanding of the customer profile. Including this information in your design brief puts the Web developer in a much better position to produce a site that the end user will feel affiliated to and comfortable with.

What is the objective of the site? Is it to provide information, to produce direct sales, or just a brochure-ware site showing the company and its capabilities? Is it intended to generate enquiries from new customers or to keep existing customers informed? Objectives will include the detailed information on any existing brand identity and the image the company wants to portray to the world at large. Remember your Web site is now the first port of call for a potential customer. Recent research has shown that viewers will make a decision on the suitability of a company in 20 milliseconds based purely on the image they are seeing on their computer screen. What is your Web site saying about your company? Make sure your Web developer is fully informed.

It is also important to identify the gender of your client base. This has been much ignored to date, possibly to the detriment of many businesses. A recent survey reported that women were 'Dunces of the dashboard': many of those surveyed did not understand the purpose of most of the switches or lights on their own car dashboard (BBC Breakfast 3/3/06); no comment was made in the report as to why this is, although it just might be because most cars are designed by men. Much research and writing exists on how communication differs between genders; since a Web site is by its nature a communication, it should make sense to have a Web site targeted at female buyers designed and developed by a female designer or team. The same obviously applies to a male audience, if this is your target then contract a male designer to build your site. Recent research at the University of Glamorgan supports this; it has shown that gender makes a big difference in the perceptions of the viewer. According to their research over 77% of Web sites showed a predominantly male design, reflecting the higher proportion of male designers in the marketplace. An interesting statistic when according to Judy Hoyt Pettigrew (author of Women Mean Business: The Secret to Selling to Women), as much has 80% of purchases are made by women.

Another consideration is geography and culture. Is the Web site going to be used to target a particular community or sector? Make sure that this is your focus and provide information that is of value to your viewers. Data that helps the decision making process can be the difference between a sale and no sale. In a recent survey from AOP over 80% of business decision makers use the internet and the content of Web sites to help make a decision on a purchase. Over half of the respondents also cited their trust in information supplied on Web sites.

Once we have a Web site that represents the business effectively in terms of image, content and functionality, what else needs to be addressed? Major considerations in the promotion of the site through search engine listings (not paid or sponsored) are the keywords and key-phrases. Over the past eight years it has baffled me that so many sites are missing this meta-data and have no appropriate page titles. These are essential if potential customers are to find your Web site and offerings. Although it is not obvious to the viewer, the purpose of this information is to provide the search engine with the data they need to place the site in the correct category in the database, which in turn helps the search engine respond to search terms entered by users.

To achieve successful ranking in search engines the title and meta-data must reflect the content of the page it belongs to. Keywords and phrases need to be researched thoroughly, what exactly are your customers likely to enter as search terms into search engines. When writing the content of the page remember that whilst conveying information about the products and services you should include your keywords and phrases - those terms which you have identified are used by your potential customer. It is possible to repeat the keywords and phrases a few times but not too often as the search engines treat this as spam!

Use useful and appropriate page titles - the common use of generic page titles such as "home page" and "contact us" is a waste of keyword opportunity. No-one types "contact us" into a search engine, why would they? Carry out a Web search on these two phrases and see how many there are out there (at the time of writing this was 3.1 billion & 6.2 billion respectively).

Once completed the search engine submission process can start. Whilst time consuming review the search engine you have selected and ask if it is relevant to your industry or whether it is likely to be relevant to your target market. Start with your own country search engines and submit to them - ensuring you are following their terms and conditions. Use of free submission services online is not recommended, consider how they make their money! Local regional and national directories should also be used. Many are free for basic listings but there is often a charge for enhanced listing.

In summary the biggest part of the Web site is in the preparation. If you carry out your research into your customers and understand them then you can build a Web site which they will find useful and will purchase from. Remember who the Web site is for - your customers!

About the Author:
Obono John Obono Is a Six Figure Income earner online
http://www.butterflymarketzone.blogspot.com , The Biggest No Brainer
This article was posted on December 01, 2006
Article Source: articlecity

Advertising Balloon Signage For Promotion

A hot air balloon has the ability to create a lot of excitement. It can immediately attract and hold a lasting impression on people. Millions of spectators annually attend the hundreds of balloon events nationwide. It is more than any other outdoor summer activity, and that includes baseball games.

An advertising balloon signage in such events can effectively carry your message over the surrounding populace and not just the people on the event itself, increasing the exposure of a brand or company to millions of people more outside, just like a gigantic, colorful, living, moving billboard.

Advertising balloons are attention getters and they are very effective at it. They can also come in many different sizes making them a very flexible advertising medium to work out. Some advertising balloons are made to be as gigantic as possible and can be as big as a small plane.

Some advertising balloons are designed to be tiny on purpose. Some advertising balloons made to float long distances while others are designed as a kind of unique signage and hung in different targeted locations like walls, poles or flagpoles.

On being used as signage, advertising balloons can attract people passing by your location and most likely can be your next customer. That is because advertising balloon signages never fails to draw attention among passersby. They provide a form of effective brand awareness that can remain on people's consciousness for years and years. The more uniquely shaped they are, the better.

It is therefore no wonder that most popular kinds of advertising balloons today are those that are shaped like different characters. You will see some of these advertising balloons shaped like giant gorillas or even objects. There are some advertising balloons that are formed as popular cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse or Garfield.

These types of advertising balloons are becoming increasingly popular as they never fail to catch the eye of any spectator young or old from down the road. By floating on seemingly endless skies, these large advertising balloons can even be noticeable from miles and miles away, having a wide reaching impact at any one time.

One advantage of following an advertising balloon campaign is that it can be easily managed. You do not have to follow and go through a lot of procedures just to have your own advertising balloon going. All you will need is having your own balloon with your logo or brand made or rented all you are all good to go.

Another advertising balloon advantage that you can enjoy is that they are cost effective. These balloons can be used over and over again numerous advertising campaigns and they are pretty mobile that you may be able to use them anywhere.

And most important of all, advertising balloons have real impact on people that conventional advertising methods often lack. All these make such balloons a very valuable advertising tool that businesses just cannot lay by the wayside.

About the Author:
Low Jeremy maintains http://Advertising-Balloons.ArticlesForReprint.com. This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included.
Posted: 14-11-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com