Business advertising

On a growing business, there can always be a need for advertisement, full color printing can be a viable option to get the best color reproduction possible. But with a little disadvantage of full color printing to be a little more expensive compared to its digital counterpart, there are also ways to get them at cheaper prices.
Full color printing has been very widely used for a long time now. Along these times, often there are printers that put expensive price tags on printing projects with this type of printing. But There are also some workaround on this matter. This can all be affected when you select the right printer for the job. This idea also covers all types of print projects such as full color poster prints, brochure prints, flyer prints, post card prints, and other full color printed materials.
The issue here is that there is usually a marginal difference when choosing the right printer. These different prices may give you the opportunity to select the best out of the bunch, it can all depend on how credible the printer is.
1. Also, a print shop can have an individual method of doing their production. Their capabilities can vary, this is very evident on the equipment they are using. You may feel cheated if you knew that your printing project doesn’t have the capability, instead they send other projects off to another printer. These can have a variable quality on your prints as they will no longer come out to according to your preferences.
2. Another issue is that printing is also considered to be a perishable commodity. They can be comparable to food which can be perishable, if the print house is not producing a project within some time, they aren’t making any money. This can lead to your project to be more expensive due to being idle.
3. On the real target, the key to get full color printing at cheap costs is to select high volume printers which can give your discounts. A good 5,000 business cards in full color with added extra coating can just cost to as low as 99 USD. Another example is a 10,000 four by six flyers won’t cost you more than 350 USD, and if you are a little lucky, they might give you extra coatings and other free enhancements.
4. High volume printers, there can be some cost-cutting ideas which you can benefit from. An example are flyers, they can give you a lot of discounts if you include their advertisement within. This can lessen the costs dramatically. You can easily bag 5,000 flyers for below 100 USD.
There are a lot of ways to get better prices on your full color printing needs. Study a local printer or an online printer especially on their deals on your custom printing needs. You can easily compare deals on the internet to get the better view and convenience, just a little research and comparison can give you rewarding results even within the comfort of your desktop.
As to know the best possible printer, full color printing can be cheaper if you know the trade secrets and how they produce your project. There is simply no reason to pay more for full color printing when other high-volume printers can do the production at a fraction of the cost.

There are 2 different kinds of popular catalogs used for merchandising. There are online catalogs that provide easy access using the internet, and there are printed catalogs that are used for mail-orders. Mail order is a means of purchasing products and services through mail. Though online catalogs are cheaper to set-up, there are many disadvantages of using this method of advertising. First of which is that it poses security issues. There are many cases of online theft and hacking; customers might be wary and hesitant to order given that this form of thievery is rampant. Dial-up users will have difficulty with trying to access these online catalogs. This might frustrate customers and end up causing losses in potential customers for the companies. Customers will not be able to test products. Online catalogs are impersonal and it fails to make the same kind of impression as a printed catalog would. Printed catalogs show the effort that a company has put behind trying to advertise and make an impression.
Catalogs are a convenient way to showcase your products and provide your customers with the convenience of browsing through the offers in the comforts of their own home while trying to initiate a more personal relationship with the customer.
Designing and printing your catalog must be thought of properly. The placement of your products, the colors and typefaces you use, the size of the photographs and also having a consistent layout is essential to the success your catalog has with attracting buyers. It's advisable that you place your best products on the right hand side because when browsing through a catalog, most eyes fall on the right hand side and not on the part closer to the catalog's spine. It is also advisable that you are not to use too many different typefaces or fonts because this will end up making the catalog look inconsistent and confusing. Limit the typefaces to 2 or 3 at the most. Consistency will give the impression of formality and quality.
The layout of your catalog should be simple and uncluttered. The layout should be consistent on every page. The catalog should show the necessary information about the products and services being offered. A full color catalog will attract more attention than a duo tonal catalog. It is better if the photos of the services and products included in the catalog be shown in full color so as to provide a more honest impression with the potential buyer. Black and white catalogs attract far less responses than full color ones.
After designing your catalog, do not forget to include a well designed order form that can be filled out easily. Do not include unnecessary questions. Limit the questions to the customer's contact information and delivery method of choice. Make the customer feel like everything will be taken care of by the company without having to ask too much from the customer.
Now decide on how you are going to print your catalog. Choose a company that is well reputed for quality prints. Consider the size of your catalog and your target market. Do not make an oversized catalog that will hassle your audience with the difficulty of trying to read it. Similarly, do not make a catalog that is too small to view the details of your product. Catalog printing requires the expertise of professionals. Usually online printing companies offer lower prices than local printing companies. Plus, it will be much easier just uploading your images and leaving all the designing to these companies. This will ensure that your catalog has a more professional look.
If you have designed and printed your catalog with success, this is where you will see if your catalog is a keeper or not. A catalog that has a longer shelf life will save you more marketing money and increase the chances of more people browsing through your catalog.

Newsletters are a means of communication between a company and its employees, clients, patrons and customers. These are periodically printed updates about products, events and other news about your company. This is a good means of increasing your market exposure. By regularly reminding your market of your presence, you give an impression of consistency and stability.
Regular communication builds consumer-producer intimacy. It helps build trust and improves customer relations. By regularly promoting your products, the improvements and updating customers of your services, you give them a sense of reliability. This makes your market more aware of your brand. This is called brand awareness. Brand awareness is a good form of publicity because it attracts more attention and increases the number of your potential clients.
Certain things should be taken into consideration when designing a newsletter. Since this will be distributed on a regular basis, it is best if the newsletter's appearance remain consistent. The design should be simple and easy to remember. Think about the articles and the content should be worth reading. The headlines of these articles should also be attention catching. Now, the layout of the newspaper should have a flow. Consider where you are going to place the articles and the ads. Take into consideration that people will read your articles depending on their positions in the newsletter.
Newsletters wouldn't be complete without photographs or your latest offerings. Newsletters look best in full color, but some prefer a simpler, duo tone design. The photographs, whether black and white or in full color should be of good quality. Include captions mentioning a few things about the photographs. Placement of the photographs should be done carefully. This shouldn't be done randomly. Strategic placement helps improve the overall look of your newsletter.
The fonts and sizes of your characters and text is also important. Limit the fonts to two at a time. Having too many typefaces on one page will make the newsletter look cluttered. Choose fonts that make the newsletter look official and professional.
Colors should also be chosen well. Choose if you want your newsletter in full color or black and white. Make sure the color combinations you use when printing in full color complement the content of the magazine. Colors should be bold and confident but not irritating and mismatched.
Printing your newsletter is a cinch. It is better if you choose a professional printing company rather than doing the printing yourself. Make sure that your prints are of good quality. Hiring professionals to do the job will lessen the chances of committing errors. There are many online printing companies that would more than welcome your printing projects. Now that technological advancements have paved the way to easier internet access, you can send your files directly to the printing company and they will take care of it for you from the editing stage up to the finish. Another good thing about hiring online printers to print your newsletter is that they offer lower prices compared to local printers. They deliver your orders quicker too.

Calendars have a standard form. The months are always placed on top and then underneath it, there are columns of days, starting from Monday to Sunday. The dates or numbers are then arranged accordingly.
At times this format can get boring. There are calendars that make these numbers so close together that they are dizzying to look at. The sometimes plain and dull calendars may serve its function as having the ability to tell the exact date, but we often forget that the calendar is even there, hanging on the wall. And this is because the design simply lacks the luster, that striking stance, which makes it easy for us to forget about it.
Calendar printing may observe the standard format. But it doesn’t mean that it can’t be colorful or exciting. What makes calendar stand out and sell itself are its designs and its quality.
Calendar printing is a very creative exercise. To some, calendar printing can and may pose as a challenge. Nevertheless, it is one printing project that can be truly a joy to make. Look at the hundreds and thousands of calendars produced ever year. Each and every one of them different, yet only a few are made well enough for people to patronize or buy.
How do you make a design that will surely be a hit? There are plenty of ways to do this. Here are some calendar printing and design ideas that will fire up your creativity and encourage you to make one yourself.
1. Design calendars that would appropriately liven up a specific space or room. There are various places in your house which you frequent and need the calendar for specific purposes. Moreover, there are places in the house where your calendar can easily be accessed when and where you need it.
Create calendars that are consistent to a particular area. Design calendars that can add as a motif to the interior style of the area. Calendars too may be designed to liven up a dull or boring space.
Opt to make calendars with themes of food or cooking if you want them to be placed in kitchen areas. Make activity or game themed calendars if you want to put one in the kid’s bedroom or play area.
2. How do we transform repetitive landscape themes and seasonal themed calendars? Although the pictures may be different, the elements are the same when it comes to nature inspired calendars. Why not place a constant object that can be seen throughout the different seasons? One that transform or morphs into something different each and every month? This creates a more connected theme that can or may tell a story in the process.
3. In this day and age where everything has been done before, you don’t have to really crack your head open to come up with new ideas. The trend is integration. Try to see which elements and theme work well with what. Consider taking inspiration from music which combines punk and rock, indie and pop. Try experimenting with different genres, from music, movies, the arts and the like.

Jack Mitchell was my first boss advertising boss. He was a funny adventurous sportsman. His idea of a vacation was getting lost in the high mountains of Peru. He could spend the rest of the year holding the interest of all of us in the palm of his hand as he told his latest adventure stories.
Jack was the Director of Advertising and Sales Promotion at Remington Arms Company and his four questions have helped me get my ideas focused in every advertising challenge I have ever faced.
After all, some say 85% of all advertising does not work. But when it does, it is pure magic. Let’s see if his four questions are your magic wand.
The Mitchell Four Questions.
Question 1: Who is your best or prime prospect?
The surest way to put your new business in the bankruptcy court is to think everyone is going to beat a path to your door. They will not. You will have a small group of customers who will account for most of your bread and butter business. That is what is meant by the 80/20 principle. Eight percent of your business will most likely come from twenty percent of your customers. Start to think and plan with that key fact in mind. If you do not, you will not have a clue who is buying from you and the media folks will be all over you like buzzards on a dead water buffalo. Get to know that prime prospect like you know your best friend. Develop a mental picture of that prime prospect. When you do, you will focus your efforts at those folks most likely to keep you in business rather than making large donations to the ad of the week club.
To paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln, you can reach all of the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time; but you cannot reach all of the people, all of the time.
Not even the giant Wal-Mart attracts everyone but you can bet they know who their prime prospects are and aim most their approach, right at them.
So where do you start? How do you find out who is going to be that best or prime prospect?
Start at the same place your business idea started. Why in the world did you want to start your business in the first place? Who encouraged you to take that giant step? What did you plan to do different that would attract customers in the first place?
If you have competition, go shop them. Get copies of their advertising. See who they are trying to persuade to come use their products and services. Go to your local community college and university and offer to let their marketing students do a research project on your business. Do online surveys.
Here’s another way to gather information. Create a drawing with a significant prize. Money. A trip. An I-pod. Something cool. If you have a store, do the contest in the store. Encourage everyone who comes through the door to fill out an entry. Do the survey twice a year.
We are looking for demographics in the survey. Demographics are numbers we can measure. How old is your prime prospect? Is the prime prospect female or male? Married or single? Does your prime prospect have a family? How much education? White collar or blue collar? White or minority? How wealthy? Is fitness important? Do they like pets? Member of a church? What is their favorite type of transportation? (Yes pickup drivers and different that Lexus drivers.) Do they drink? Smoke? Play sports? Choose questions that apply to your business and what you offer.
If you haven’t opened your doors, head for the chamber of commerce office and in some cities, your local newspaper. Both can and often do have lots of demographic information on your prime prospect group.

It is easier than ever to build your practice with effective marketing techniques. Recent studies conducted by the I/H/R/ Research Group have clearly determined that most people prefer drug-free treatment for back, neck, and pain-related issues. The survey, commissioned by the American Chiropractic Association also showed that more than 64 percent of the respondents said that they would consider seeking the health care services of a Doctor of Chiropractic to provide their drug free care. However, the survey showed that only 13.8 percent of respondents were currently seeking health care from a Chiropractor. It is critical for chiropractic business decision-makers to market their services to prospective clients who desire a safe alternative to medication, but who do not actively seek chiropractic treatments.
The most effective way to build your practice is through newspaper inserts and other forms of print advertising. Newspaper inserts, flyers, and postcards create not only drive new patients to your office, but the advertisements lend credibility to your business as well. Through the power of print, you can make an immediate impression on your prospect while simultaneously creating an identity and credibility for your business. Dr. Greg Iacono, Clinic Director for a Spinal Rehabilitation Center located in Atlanta, Georgia, has found print advertising to be his main method of practice building. The practice owner recently spoke about the importance of effective marketing. "I have built my entire business with full color print inserts. Other things I've tried haven’t produced like my weekly print advertising materials. The response is amazing."
When asked what type of measurable results his newspaper inserts produce, Dr. Iacono remarked, “We get about eight to ten new calls per week, often more. Those same calls turn into customers, and my practice grows each week as a result.” His rapidly growing practice runs 20,000 full-color inserts each week in the local area newspaper."Frequency is everything," said Dr. Iacono. "People need to see the ads on a regular basis, customers need to see our name on a regular basis...we noticed early on in our advertising endeavors that when we missed just one week's worth of print inserts, calls dropped dramatically. Practices must gear up to do this long term and plan their marketing budget accordingly."
How to Track Marketing Dollars and Evaluate Advertisements
Print advertising is an exciting and fast-acting solution for practices in need of more clients and monthly volume increases. However, it can be a daunting endeavor for those who are new to the print advertising scene. One of the most common reasons that chiropractic businesses choose not to take advantage of print advertising is the lack of ability to track their marketing dollars. This notion of print advertising being "untrackable" is simply false. There are great ways to increase your business and track where it came from at the same time! Here are some suggestions to improve your print advertising campaigns.
Include a coupon on your flyer or newspaper insert. By doing so you will be able to track which ads generate business, and it will also function as an incentive for the customer to call.
Advertise in full-color and create color-coded special offers. For example, create green package, blue package, and red package promotional discounts.
Include a ‘trackable’ contact method on your print advertisement. Some good examples of this would be a webpage or unique phone number associated with one particular flyer or print insert.
Grow your practice today with smart, cost-effective marketing techniques.

Everybody shops on line today since the launching of Ebay, Amazon.com and other companies. iAdvertising your business online is probably the best way to reach a large audience when you are marketing on a budget. The following are a few cleaver and unique marketing ideas to promote your product or business:
Yellow Pages: The Yellow Pages directories are good sources of advertising. Almost every business can benefit from advertising in the Yellow Pages of the telephone directory. Listing your business in the Yellow Pages will inform clients of the location and services that you provide.
Radio: Contact your local radio stations for their advertising prices. The best prices are usually offered during non-peak times.
Television: The best times to advertise on television are non-peak times, usually late at night. You may contact the television station in your area to find out more information on their advertising prices.
Newspapers: Contact the classified department of your local newspaper regarding placing an advertisement with them. Before placing the advertisement, you must decide who your target audience. For example, if you only want to reach Maryland residents in your local area, you might want to advertise in the paper that serves that local area.
Brochures: You may also use brochures in the company's presentation package. This package should include the company's stationary, brochure, and business card.
Business Cards: The personalized business cards can be used as a form of advertising that will give others information about the business. The information on the card will give them the name of the company, type of business, location, telephone number, and the contact person.
Ezines and Newsletters: Circulating Ezine-newsletter is another a way of getting the word out about your business. These are informational pieces that inform potential customers what your business is doing, and they can be as small as one page.
Direct Mail: There are companies that will send you a mailing list for a small fee. Check your Yellow Pages for a list of the companies that produce mailing lists. Contact the company to get copies of their current lists. The price of the lists varies from company to company.
Organizations: Joining several organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and trade associations in your area and actively participating in them is also a way of getting the word out about your product or business.

There are so many success stories you will hear about businesses making it good in the internet. The troubling thing is, there are maybe a tenfold or even a hundredfold of stories contradictory to theirs.
Many have unsuccessfully launched a business enterprise that is internet based but only a handful
shall succeed.
The Very Basic
Traffic is “The #1”. Without traffic, all your effort would just go to waste. Every business needs
customers, without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products to. In the internet world traffic is the walk in customer. The more traffic you have the more people would be able to sell your products to. But like any business that’s in every corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products.
It is a simple and known fact.But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.
Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying others. Yes that’s right; you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that your site exists; the more people would of course go to your site, that’s common sense.
While there are many ways that can get you advertising for free, this do not generate the same high volume as those methods that are getting paid. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes by Google and Yahoo.
The Value of Searches
The search and will be the easiest and fastest medium in finding what a person needs in the internet.
Search engines have been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity, they get many visitors and clicks that they are the most common sites that people go to. It is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.
Search engines provide information to the millions of users that they have each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your sites link pop up in the high ranks of the search results page, you get a great chance that they will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top ranks.
When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. This may sound like not such a good idea, but the payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site. You will never go with an empty sales day.
Paying for your Traffic
Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some search engines, you will be charged with the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment.

Although it has been around for many centuries, “wild posting” is the current rage for product offerings and events that have a need for an “in-your-face” style of promotion. You have no doubt seen wild postings as you walked through an urban area where construction site barricades are plastered with the dozens or even hundreds of posters for a rock concert. Or, you might have seen hundreds of posters for the movie “Spiderman” displayed on the side of a building. Yes, that is wild posting.
For hundreds of years posting signs along highways or on the side of buildings was a common way to advertise. Sometimes people opposed it; you might know the expression “post no bills” which was often seen on the side of buildings. I guess these posted signs were considered an early version of graffiti.
Recently, this technique has been used for technology products such as cell phones and high speed internet services. AT&T posted banners for the “fastest internet in town for $14.99 a month” on an overpass in downtown Los Angeles. Microsoft used wild posting for its MSN “butterfly” by using a “static-cling” style poster, which was easily removed and did not harm the surface where it was posted.
Mainstream companies are turning to wild posting because it is inexpensive; all it requires is printing and minimum wage labor. Also, it is demographic-specific since you can pinpoint the exact city block where you want the posting to go. For instance, you can post near a football stadium or an amphitheater where people walk by after a major sporting or music event. Wild posting works 24/7 or, at least, until someone takes it down or posts something on top of it.
Could it work for your business? If your customer walks a certain route or drives by a certain location frequently, it just might.

Squeeze Pages
Usually when potential business associated meet they shake hands, exchange business cards and discuss their businesses. On the internet, however, it is very different. Potential customers can view your website and all your contact information without even meeting you. This is where you may want to use a squeeze page.
When someone views your squeeze page it prompts them to leave their contact information behind. If this is not done you may end up losing a lot of profitable business relationships because you do not know the prospects name or know how to contact them. In order to develop that one on one relationship with a prospect a squeeze page is a great solution.
In order to get people to leave their information, so you can get to know them, you should offer something of interest. A free e-book is a good choice to offer as a gift for leaving their contact details. People want to know that they are getting something in return for leaving their names and email addresses.
There should not be any out going links on your squeeze page. If you do have any, they should be in smaller print at the bottom of the page. Entering contact information should be the only thing a prospect can do on your squeeze page. Putting banners, pay per clicks or pop ups on the page should be avoided. Provide enough information to peek the interest of the prospect and offer a free e-book download.
Auto Responders
Most auto responder services come with an option to design an opt in form so that makes it a lot easier to make one. Make the submit button compelling enough to get the customer to act. You can change it when designing the form.
In order to create your opt in form for your auto responder follow the directions or video tutorials provided by your auto responder service. After you have created the form add it to your website so that you can begin building a list. Some people may prefer to sign up using email. In that case have an option for them to send a blank email to a certain email address. As the saying goes, the power is in the list, so have a couple options available in order to get as many subscribers as possible.
An opt in form is a great addition for any website. You can offer a newsletter or e-course if the prospect provides their information. Set up the auto responder with information, articles and freebies to be sent out at regular intervals. As long as the prospect stays subscribed you can offer them anything you want without being accused of spam, just make sure there is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each e-mail.

When you’re first creating advertising for your small business, it’s very tempting to go for the flashiest, cleverest, artiest adverts. But adverts with impact are those that actually generate customers.
Brand advertising tells you how great the company is, how old and established they are, or a quick reminder of their product which you already know very well and don’t have to think too hard about. Great if you’re Coca Cola or BMW, not so good if you don’t have those kinds of budgets.
Direct response advertising is designed to create an immediate response or action – a visit, a call, a click. It tells a complete story, with factual, specific reasons why your offering is superior at meetings the needs of your audience. It is salesmanship in print. It overcomes sales objections, it answers all major questions, it promises performance or results, and it backs those promises with warranties or guarantees. This is the only advertising your money should go anywhere near.
• Remember 'AIDA' - Attention Interest Desire Action. The Attention part is the banner or headline that makes an impressive benefit promise. Interest must relate closely to the way that the reader thinks about the issues concerned. Desire relates benefits to the reader so that they will want them. Finally you must prompt an Action, which could be to call, click, or visit. Be very clear what action you require.
• Your main message must be the most prominent. Don’t be tempted to devote half the space to a striking picture. The biggest part of the advert must be your main benefit statement. This is the part that entices the audience to read on.
• Offer a single impressive benefit, quickly and simply. Research proves that the best adverts are those which offer an impressive, relevant benefit to the reader. This 'promise' should ideally contain the business brand name, take no longer than about 4 - 8 seconds or about eleven to fifteen words, and be clearly the most striking part of the advert. You must keep it quick, simple and to the point. Think about the vocabulary and language you use - know your target audience.
• Your message must be quick and easy to absorb. Use a clear layout, clear fonts and clear language. Don’t distract the reader from the text with images or fancy fonts. Use simple language, avoid complicated words, and keep enough space around the text to attract attention to it. Use simple traditional serif fonts in ten, eleven or twelve point-size for the main text in magazines and newspapers; smaller or larger are actually more difficult to read and therefore less likely to be read.
• Involve the reader in your writing style. Refer to the audience as 'you' and use the second person ('you', 'your' and 'yours' etc) in the description of what your business does for the customer to get them visualising their own personal involvement. Describe the service as it affects them in a way that they will easily relate to it.
• Develop an offering that is special or unique. Why should people be interested if your proposition is no different to your competition? Emphasise what makes your service special and new. Unless your code of practice prevents you from claiming superiority over your competitors, you should put as much emphasis as you can behind your USP (unique selling point), and either imply or state directly that you are the only company to offer these things.
• Your offer must be credible and believable. The Advertising Standards Authority would prevent you from making overly extravagant claims anyway, but you should make your offer seem perfectly credible. Explaining 'why' and 'how' you are able to do the things you are offering overcomes huge psychological barriers in the prospective buyers mind.
• Use lower case type - word-shapes are lost when capitals are used. People read by recognising word-shapes not individual letters, so don't use capital letters for text, and ideally not for headlines either, as it takes longer to read and reduces impact.
• Headlines should be three-quarters up the page or advert space. Position your headline statement where it can be seen quickest. Do not put headlines at the very top of the space. The eye is naturally drawn to between two-thirds and three-quarters up the page or space, which is where the main benefit statement needs to be.

Online advertising is the buzz word now-a-days amongst advertisers and businesses trying to appeal to masses and it ought to be, with 1.14 billion people worldwide having access to the internet and number continuously growing day by day, online advertising provides an unlimited potential for businesses of all kinds to expand their client base and boost their profits. From a kid to a teenager and from an adult to a sixty year old man everyone uses internet to access relevant information about various products and services, thus internet allows a opportunity to market your product to the masses and the only way you can tap into this is by online advertising.
A major factor contributing to the rising popularity of online advertising is the fact that compared to traditional media; online advertising is far cheaper and can produce almost immediate results. And in online advertising you get to appeal to people who are interested in your products by placing your ads on the sites offering products/services relating to your field and also you can select keywords for which your ads will appear on search listings and optimize your site according to the keyword specific to your business, so that it features in top search listings.
Compare this to the traditional media where you can just make a blind guess as to whether the product you are advertising for reaches intended audience. Take for example a television advertising, there are good chance that you are appealing to audience in which majority are not interested in your product or cannot afford it or even they changed the channel while your ad was telecasted or perhaps no one was present when your ad appeared. In fact according to Greg Stuart of Interactive Advertising Bureau, every year around $220 billions of advertiser's money worldwide, is spent on ads that reach wrong audience or no audience at all.
Now on the contrary if your ad appears on the websites and relevant to your field of business and in search listing for keywords relating to your field, then you can be sure that at least you are targeting the audience that has already shown interest in the product/service related to your field. This could be the biggest plus offered by online advertising as it allows you to select the criteria for which you ads appear and that too at a lower cost compared to traditional advertising.
Some may argue that the cost advantage held by online advertising will not last longer as it becomes more popular marketing tool and an increasing number of businesses take plunge into online advertising. They might be right but online advertising has many other factors that make it more of a viable option. In online advertising arena you can appear to specific audience not only on the basis of keywords but also on the basis of geographies. Thus you can have your product appeal only to the audience in a particular geographical region in the world. So online advertising not only allows you address a broad audience but it also allows you to address specific audience in a particular geographical region.
Online advertising reveals right information to the relevant audience instead of just blindly targeting a broad audience. Also unlike traditional media where advertisements are considered nuisance by user, online advertisements tend to be considered more of a source of information. Thus propensity of an user clicking on your ad is higher if your ad appears to be a source of relevant information an user is looking for.
With more efficient and constantly improving internet technologies you can realistically track the number of users visiting your sites after clicking on your ads, Google adwords is a very good example of this. Thus instead of empty guesses you can have realistic estimates about the effectiveness of your advertisement. So now a company can allocate their advertising budget more appropriately rather than just allocate an arbitrary amount, not knowing whether it can produce measurable returns or not.
And all these factors are contributing to rising popularity of online advertising and increasingly more and more companies are looking towards increasing their spending on online advertising. In fact according Interactive Advertising Bureau online ad spends hit $17 billion in 2006 and are set to rise even higher in 2007, so for those of you thinking that online advertising is hot, its set get even hotter.

Without testing you will never know how good or how bad your ads performed. Before the advent of internet, advertisers used to test classified ads quality using certain techniques. However, there were no such things called free classified ads then.
Free or paid, you are spending your time with classified ads and you need results from paid or free classified ads. Even in case you are getting an opportunity to list your product for free, you still need to test the effectiveness of the free offline or online classified ads.
The techniques that advertisers employed to test the success rate of an ad were quite simple. To test the effectiveness of the words used or to test which paper give maximum mileage to the ad, advertisers use specific telephone numbers or post box numbers.
By noticing which extension phone ringed the most and which post boxes filled up, they could measure the effectiveness of the ad. For each specific ad, they used to give a telephone number with a certain extension number. The extension number is their code for an advertisement that appeared on a specific newspaper.
With free online classified ads, it is easier to trace the effectiveness of an ad. Checking the server statistics, one can identify which ads performed well and which sites were good for classified ads placement.
Always have two sets of classified ads copy. Continuously test both the copies under similar conditions. Identify the one that performs better.
Don't throw away the less performing ad. Give the second classified ad copy some modifications. Again test the two ads by exposing both of them before the prospective customers. This kind of testing never ends and you continue to better your ad campaign.
Equally important is channel testing. Which online free classifieds are giving you the best results? You can borrow the same technique that newspaper advertisers applied to test the effectiveness of classifieds ads even today. Have separate toll free numbers to give your prospective customers. Monitor the number of times each toll free number rings. This way you test the effectiveness of your ad quite efficiently.
Which are the common classifieds ad copy writing techniques that bring the best results? Over time it is noticed that the classified ads that describe the product without adjectives convert best. However, it is also OK to use occasional adjectives like 'excellent quality'. Otherwise avoid exaggerations that people may not believe.
One thing to keep in mind while writing classified ads is that people actually are looking for the product. Otherwise they will not be looking at the automobile classifieds section of local newspaper.

For decades, local mom and pop businesses could rely on word of mouth and traditional print services to garner customers. If the local businesses had a good or service that they wanted to promote, they could just call up the local newspaper and ask for an advertisement. However, as media has evolved towards more sophisticated routes such as the Internet, it has become increasingly more difficult (and oftentimes prohibitively expensive) for local businesses to stand-out against the crowd by advertising in both newer and older types of media.
Yet, local businesses continually find themselves facing a problem. As potential customers become more Internet savvy, local companies could be doing themselves a great disservice by not having some sort of exposure on the Internet.
According to Kelsey Research, 70% of US households now use the internet when searching for local products and services. In fact, it is projected that over 20 billion searches for local information will be made in 2007. 75% of Internet users have looked for services and products within an area close to their home or business. Moreover, recent Internet studies have found that some of the most searched queries in search engines such as Google or Yahoo are words such as local business, free, discount, cheap, and other terms bearing the connotation that the searcher is looking for something to purchase.
Although many may be trying to look for cheap electronics that can be shipped to their homes, it is also extremely apparent that consumers are searching for businesses in their local area that they can patronize. Most consumption on a day to day basis is not on items such as electronics that can be purchased online. People need automotive services, tutors, daycare, lawn care, restaurants, grocery stores, salons, plumbers, and much, much more within a few miles of their house. These daily rituals that we all engage in are all predicated on knowing where to find business. And as mentioned above, with an abundance of people turning to the Internet to find out where well priced, convenient goods and services are located, even a small Internet presence can skyrocket a business.
Unfortunately, the typical local business doesn't have a lot of money to spend on Internet exposure. Even if they do have the finances to build a website, the process can be cumbersome and somewhat daunting for the generations of small business that aren?t well-read in the ways of cyberspace. If the typical website can run anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, is it still worth creating? Even if you get the website up and running, how will people find you? How high will you be ranked on search engines? If you are like me, all the worry involved takes away time from all the daily customer service issues that come with the territory of owning a business. Why should you spend an inordinate amount of money when there is no guarantee of getting more customers for your trouble? Many are pushed away because the return on investment just doesn't seem worth it.
If this is what you think, perhaps you can consider many other low cost options for your small business to get attention and some exposure on the web. Something as simple as a Facebook or Myspace account can be used to garner advertisement for your business. The Internet is all about content and link popularity, and having even a little bit can help. However, there are services that are beginning to expand the range of possibilities for local businesses and cater explicitly to them. Websites such as www.Cityslick.net and www.Merchantcircle.com allow companies to create local listings whereby customers can put basic contact information, slogans, product descriptions and photos, customizable coupons, appointment generators, documents, social bookmarking, and much more. The terrific part about websites like these is that they are not static; companies do not simply post a listing and hope for customers to show up. Consumers can browse, request deals, request appointments, chat with other consumers and businesses in the forums, and leave reviews.

Among the many advantages of marketing your business with promotional items is the visibility you gain when your gifts are used. If increasing brand awareness and recognition is part of your intent in using promotional gifts for marketing, then visibility should be high on your priority list when you choose which items or gifts to use. Of course, visibility is – if you’ll forgive the pun – in the eye of the beholder. There are many different kinds of visibility. Before you make your choice of promotional giveaways, you should decide exactly what you hope to gain from them and the type of visibility that you want. That will help you choose promotional gifts that most closely achieve your objectives. Here are a few for instances to help you in your own planning.
Maximum Visibility If you’re gunning for maximum visibility for your brand because your market is nearly universal, then you can’t go wrong with big visibility items. Among the best promotional gifts to get your name and logo seen all over town often are umbrellas. The cost is a bit higher than printed pens, but you’ll get enormous return on your investment, especially if the umbrellas and your logo are eye-catching.
B2B SellingIf your main market is other businesses, then choose products that will be where your customers are. Most often, that means that you’ll want to choose promotional items that are used in the office or at the desk, in the workplace. That’s where and when you want your customers to be thinking of you – when they’re getting ready to place an order for supplies or need your services. Post-it notes, pens, desk calendars and mouse mats are all excellent choices for this type of marketing gift.
Targeted VisibilityAre you aiming your product or services at a particular market segment? Then you’ll want to choose promotional items that will give you high visibility with that market segment. For a diaper service, that might be promotional bags that serve as diaper bags – imprinted with your logo, of course. For a company that sells sporting equipment, t-shirts with your logo or golf umbrellas might be a good choice.
Specialized EventsPromotional gifts and items have a special place at marketing events like trade shows and conferences. You want to choose giveaways that serve two purposes – attract people to your booth, and remind them of your company after they leave the conference. Sometimes, it’s better to choose different items for each purpose, but there are some items that can serve both needs. Promotional bags and water bottles are examples of those. Both will be useful immediately, so attendees will carry them around with them, advertising your booth. Both will also be useful after the conference, so your recipients will take them home and use them, spreading the word about your business and product.

Attending a trade show can seem like Christmas – all those wonderful booths and exhibitors giving away free goodies. Attendees flit from booth to booth and pass on hints of who’s giving away the good loot. In all the hustle, bustle and excitement, it’s easy to be overlooked by the crowd in favor of a flashier, cooler or louder exhibitor. How do you get potential customers to stop by your booth – and stay long enough to become a customer?
The answer lies in choosing the right promotional items and gifts and tying them into your overall theme. According to one trade show publication, people attending a trade show are 52% more likely to stop by your exhibit if you have an appealing promotional gift to give them. Keeping that in mind, how should you go about choosing great promotional gifts AND using them to their best effects?
Here are some key questions that will help you to choose effective promotional items for your trade show exhibits.
1. What gifts will fit your company or image? Pens, key rings and little trinkets are a glut on the market at trade shows. Besides being ‘what everyone else has’, they seldom have anything to do with your business. Choose items that complement your main business – USB flash drives for a software company, for instance.
2. Can you imprint your contact info on them?Since one of the major reasons for your promotional giveaway is to encourage your potential customers to contact you, imprinted items are a great choice. Depending on the items that you choose, you may decide to make your imprint discreet, or very very visible.
3. Would you like to get one for free?If it’s not something that appeals to you personally, how can you expect it to appeal to others? When you’re shopping for promotional gifts start with an open mind, and narrow the field by the “wow” factor. If you see something that you’d LOVE to get, add it to your list of possibilities. Later, you can winnow out the items that are too expensive or don’t otherwise suit.
One important thing to keep in mind when designing your trade show strategy is the perceived value of your promo items. People respond best to promotional gifts that they feel are valuable to have and to give. One way to impress people with the value of your promotional gift is to choose an expensive item, but it’s not the only, or even the best way. What’s far more important is your gift-giving approach.
1. DON’T just lay your promotional items out on a table for anyone to take as they pass. Not only does it deprive you of the chance to make a personal contact or sales pitch, it devalues the promotional item itself. How important is it if you don’t have to do anything to get it?
2. DO design your exhibit to highlight your best promotional items to attract attention. Create an attractive display on your table. If the item is one that’s an attention getter, detail one of your booth sitters to wander around the exhibit area using the item and directing people back to your booth.
3. DO consider first impressions. Station someone near the entrance to the trade show with an armload of attention-getting carry bags with your logo. Hand them to everyone who enters for a highly visible advertisement for your booth. Be sure that your booth also displays the same logo or colors so that it can be found easily.
4. DO consider having drawings and raffles for higher value promotional items. These little “event within an event” can raise excitement and bring people back to your booth multiple times over the course of a day.

The art of giving promotional items can be nearly as important as the art of choosing the right promotional gifts. Some would even say that it is MORE important. Let me share a little story with you.
Years ago, I worked as the administrative assistant to a busy CEO who was often plied with the little trinkets that salesmen use as promotional items. After one visit by a salesman, my boss stopped by and carelessly dropped a cardboard shipping box of about a dozen pens on my desk. “Take these home to your kids,” he told me. The pens inside were of decent quality, and each was imprinted with the name of a local company that serviced office machines. We found them very useful at home – but since I have no office machines at home, the promotional gifts did the salesman and his company little good.
Not long after, a salesperson from another company stopped in to make an appointment with my boss. He pulled a pen out of his pocket to jot down the appointment time, then held it up for inspection. “Like these?” he asked my boss. “We just got them in. Here, why don’t you keep it? I’ve got another in the car.”
THAT pen got tucked into the CEO’s pen tub on his desk where he used it often. When another colleague stopped by and needed to sign a document, my boss pulled it out of the tub. When the colleague commented on how nicely it wrote, my boss told him, “Keep it. I’ll get another the next time Bob stops in.”
Here’s the rub – the second pen was identical to the carton that my boss sent home to my kids. What made the difference? The answer is obvious – the presentation made all the difference.
The first salesman devalued the company’s gift by handing over a whole box of them, still in the shipping carton. The message in that was “we have these by the dozen. There’s nothing special about them.” By contrast, the second salesman treated the promo pen as something with some value. It was an item that he thought enough of to use himself, and to compliment. When he handed it over, he didn’t make it sound like a throwaway freebie. His attitude said, “Let me give you something that I like.”
When you’re designing a promotional gifts campaign or choosing marketing gifts, keep the two salesmen in mind. It’s not enough to choose the right item. It’s also important to consider how it’s presented. Use your presentation as a way to say “We think highly of your business”. That may take the form of individual packaging for your direct mail marketing items, or in personally handing each gift to its recipient at a trade show. Even if you’re giving away thousands of the identical item, take care to make each one personal in some way, and you’ll see far better returns on your investment.
If you’re looking for ideas for promotional items, you’ll find many companies online that specialize in unique and unusual promotional and marketing items. Take advantage of their expertise to help you choose just the right items for your marketing campaign.

When you invest in promotional items, you have a goal in mind. It may be to increase your market visibility, or to increase your sales, or to prospect for new customers. They may be meant as a thank you or an enticement, or more commonly, as both. No matter the reason that you choose to give promotional gifts to your customers or prospective customers, it’s important to choose items and gifts that reach your target market. Here are some tips on effectively choosing and using promotional gifts to get the reaction you want from the right people – those that will buy your product.
1. Define your target market first.It’s impossible to hit a bulls-eye when you don’t know where you’re aiming. Before you ever start a marketing campaign, you need to sit down and define your target market, and do so as specifically as possible. The more specific your target, the more effectively you can take aim.
2. Research your target market.In order to be useful to you, the promotional items you choose have to be useful to your recipients. Take some time to learn what they need and want, and what gifts would be most welcome and likely to be used. The perfect gift for a busy executive isn’t likely to be the same as the perfect gift for a new mother. Tying your promotional gifts into your product and your target market is a surefire way to be sure that your marketing campaign will fly.
3. Stay in the loop with competitors. Keep an eye on the promotions being run by your competitors and avoid duplicating. You don’t want your company to be confused with theirs, nor do you want to be considered an imitator. On the other hand, you may learn something from a successful marketing strategy being run by one of your competition.
4. Choose a delivery method that will reach your intended target.No matter how carefully you choose your marketing inducement, it won’t have any effect if it doesn’t reach its intended market. Blanketing every house in the borough with direct mail may get you widespread coverage – but will it reach the customers most likely to buy from you? It may be far more effective to take a booth at the local mall during the hours that your potential customers shop. You’ll hand out far less gifts, but those you do hand out will be far more likely to bring you customers.
5. Require some action from your intended recipients.It’s also important to evaluate the results of your marketing strategy. The best way to do that is to require some follow-up action on the part of your gift recipients. That follow-up could be as simple as ticking off a checkbox in an email and returning it, or as complex as hunting down a whole list of clues to find their final gift. The important thing is that you be able to mark off how many people actually responded to your marketing gift.