Advertising

Since most of us are always online and our business is online, we often forget the importance of advertising our business offline. Print advertising can be one of the best forms of advertising for your buck. Why? Well, with print advertising it's in the form of hard copy and is always in view of your potential customers. Thats just one small example. Think about your daily newspaper...try hiding that in your email box! The following are just a few hints and ideas for you to consider before you place an offline advertising campaign....

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More about advertising by BIG Mike McDaniel Advertising is not a substitute for good salestechnique and superb customer service. Insertingan ad in a handy newspaper to call attention to aline of goods will not sell those goods unless youcan back it up with intelligent, well directedsales efforts in the store. Sales technique andservice must follow advertising and unless it doesadvertising is a failure. The function of advertising is to bringprospective buyers into the store; nothing more. How you advertise, how much you advertise andwhere you advertise, can all contribute toadvertising's success or failure....

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The ability to lead, persuade and influence are integral skills for effective leaders. The capability of telling a story that inspires, motivates and informs is an essential part of this process. In an age of convergence in the media and increased scepticism over traditional communication methods, a new breed of leader is emerging that sees the media as an opportunity and not a threat. They use the media in a pro-active way to build their community or organisation's image, reputation and identity....

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Do you know about the distinction - and it's a useful one - between communication that tries to reinforce and communication that tries to get change? If you follow politics you'll already be familiar with this idea: Incumbents send messages that reinforce existing voter behavior, while challengers call for changes. Any thoughtful marketing communication (and political communication is marketing communication) will be strongly influenced by this distinction, which affects not only the content, but also the presentation, and perhaps even the medium....

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Media Planning for Smarties You say you're ready to advertise. How are you going to choose whether to place your ad in the local newspaper or a national magazine? Why not do a radio spot or place a banner ad on a related company's website? Understanding the benefits and pitfalls of these different forms of media will help you get the most out of your advertising budget. Do you believe that simply placing an ad in the newspaper or a commercial on the radio will drive customers to purchase your product or service?...

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If you've been searching around for business cards that will best represent the image you want to portray for your business, then you've no doubt encountered many options. The Big Two, as I like to think of them, are "Raised Letter" and "Full Color." What are the differences in raised letter and full color business cards? What are the price differences? What looks best for how I want to represent my business? These are all questions I hear on a daily basis. 1. The difference between Raised Letter and Full Color printing is in how the ink is applied to the card stock....

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Aggressive business card marketing isn't about handing your business cards out to everyone you see. The card itself must have a new use, an innovative design, or something other than the usual contact information printed on it. To make your little card stand out, try these other ideas. Print something other than a business card on biz card-sized cardstock. Print a short survey on a card. Offer an incentive for people to return the card to you with the survey answered--they can get a free gift or a discount just for answering a few simple questions....

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Quality Care Options is an established company advocating for the right of all seniors to receive excellent service and product. The organization recommends Certified Senior Approved Services to its elderly clientele. Through its highly visible web sites and monthly ezines, Quality Care Options (QCO) attracts both the senior and the businesses that serve the senior population. Barbara Mascio, Founder of QCO, has been inundated with requests from healthcare businesses for recommendations towards resources that would further promote an elder or healthcare related business....

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Most small businesses don't have a high poweredadvertising agency to produce selling radiocommercials for them and end up with somethingakin to a high school play, or with the businessowner reading tired copy. The radio salesperson knows that by suggesting theowner be the star, visions of Dave from Wendys orthat guy with the talking dog who says "roll thatbeautiful bean footage" come to mind. Worse, most businesses don't have a plan tocoordinate all advertising to the same message. The newspaper ad says one thing, yellow pagesanother and the radio commercial is off in its ownworld....

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The title of this article also happens to be one of the "20 Greatest Headlines Ever Written." Did you know, just changing the headline has been known to dramatically improve the effectiveness of an ad or sales letter by up to 1700 percent? Yes, headlines are that powerful--and that important! However, over the last few years, I've noticed a proliferation of badly written--or just plain weak headlines--both online and off! Particularly disturbing is the copycat syndrome. I can't even begin to tell you how many variations I've seen of the "Who Else" headline....

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