|
|
Benefits Of Corporate Gift Giving Can Never Be Understated.
Why purchase corporate gifts? The benefits of corporate gift giving can never be understated! Highly successful businesses understand the importance of branding. To achieve that well sorted after branding, resources are poured into marketing, which...
Determining the Best Web Site for Your Business
The First Step towards making your web site work as an important marketing tool. Establish your web site’s purpose and function The Internet is an ever changing, global marketplace and library. People research and purchase products or services,...
Harness the Power of the Personal Touch
Gone are the days when a company could hope to succeed by
offering a good product and backing it up with respectable
customer service.
In today's overstocked, cutthroat global economy, consumers
demand a superior experience from start to...
Selling on eBay
There are literally dozens of eBay ebooks on the market, which
provide professional insight in starting an online business
using eBay as your storefront. Some of the best selling eBay
ebooks at Fizziebooks will help you start a profitable...
Want More Money and Less Stress?
At 2pm last Wednesday, I got a call from one of my clients. Before I could barely utter my "hello," she launched headlong into her story - "I am so frustrated! I have this client who has been dragging her feet at every stage of our...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Understanding the Different Methods of Offline Promotion
No business can survive the long run without some form of consistent advertising. As a result, most business owners will eventually consider using advertising to promote their business.
The toughest part of the advertising equation is in determining where and how to spend your advertising dollars. If you do it wrong, you could plunk down your entire advertising budget and receive absolutely no return on your investment. But, if you do it right, your advertising could continue to bring a nice return for years to come.
HOW DO I MAKE THE RIGHT ADVERTISING DECISIONS
In order to make good decisions concerning how to spend your advertising budget, you must first have a good understanding of the different types of advertising and promotion available and what can be expected to be achieved by each.
· You must understand which markets the different media's can reach. · You must understand the demographics of the media's consumers. · You must understand the buying habits of the consumers reached through the media.
WHAT OFFLINE ADVERTISING & PROMOTION MEDIA'S SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
The media's that people think of most often are television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising. Of course, these are the big boys that big businesses use regularly.
Other methods of promotion include trade shows, press releases, direct sales, telemarketing, word of mouth, branding and billboard advertising.
CONSIDERING THE BIG MEDIA OUTLETS
The big boys of advertising media's generally cost big bucks. Given certain circumstances, the big media's can be bought for very little money.
Take for example, television, radio and newspapers cost big bucks during their prime times, but can be bought for pennies on the dollar during non-primetime hours.
Television primetime is between 7pm and 10pm. Radio primetime is between 7am and 6pm. With newspapers, the primetime is Wednesdays and Sundays.
If you intend to hit a media during prime time, get ready to drop some bucks. Primetime means that you will be able to hit more consumers during these times. So, in most cases, a primetime buy will enable you to reach more people with your advertising.
Non-primetime hours can still deliver a lot of eyes and ears to your message, and sometimes, these off-hours can be bought for a bargain basement price.
GETTING MILEAGE FROM EVENTS
Trade shows and press releases are more event-driven. The trade show is the event, while the press release generally exploits an event.
Trade shows are an exceptional tool when you deal directly with potential sellers of your products or services. Other shows are directed at the consumer, and those can be very valuable avenues for sales as well.
The press release is aimed towards gaining attention for a business by distributing newsworthy information about the business.
Sometimes the appearance of a business at a trade show or other show can provide the necessary angle for a press release. But most often, a successful press release will actually require more noteworthy information than the appearance of a business at
a show.
Yet, even the most mundane of information could be spiced up to give the real air of importance necessary to get your press release read and printed.
The great thing about a press release is that might permit you to get relatively inexpensive promotion on television, radio, newspapers and magazines; for far less than what it would cost you to buy advertising in those same outlets.
UTILIZING A SALES TEAM
Depending on what type of business you run and the consumers you are trying to reach, you might find direct sales and telemarketing to be very lucrative ways to drive sales to your business.
Both are very similar in nature. Direct sales can be very expensive, as it requires a great investment of time to accomodate. Telemarketing seeks to minimize the time expenditure, but it often leads to a smaller degree of respect and attention.
Depending on your product or service --- and always depending upon the people you employ to the task --- each method will be more suited to each business on an individual basis.
BRANDING YOUR BUSINESS
I grouped branding and billboard advertising together in my original list for a reason. I did this because billboard advertising serves most businesses best by helping to support the process of branding.
Branding is the process of establishing your business as the supplier of a certain product or service, or in emphasizing a certain USP (Unique Selling Proposition) as it pertains to your business.
If branding and USP seems to be a confusing concept, think about Wal-Mart and their tag line: "Always Low Prices, Always."
Think about Ford Motors, "Quality is Job One."
Think about the Visa Card, "It's Everywhere You Want To Be."
You see, these top corporations have managed to make their USP part of their branding.
Even if you are only competing in a local marketplace, your USP can and should fit snugly into your branding strategy.
NO MATTER THE MEDIA OR METHOD
Whichever method or media you should choose to employ in your advertising and promotion, you should become knowledgable about your market, and the consumers reached by each media. It is important to understand which consumers can be reached by a certain media, and in what quantities.
However you choose to spend your advertising dollars, you should always track the results of your promotional efforts. Failing to track successes and failures will ultimately lead to the failure of a business.
When you know whom you are trying to reach and how you think you might be able to reach them, you will begin to learn how to use advertising and promotion to make your business successful. That is a good thing --- after all, that is why you got into the business in the first place, isn't it?
About the Author
About the author: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow a home based business at: http://www.Home-Business.com -----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Brand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
The brand, and "branding" and brand equity have become increasingly important ... From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Branding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Livestock branding, the marking of animals to indicate ownership; Human branding, ... Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branding" ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
AllAboutBranding.com : Home |
Provides resources and opinions on branding. Includes brand development, management and communications. |
www.allaboutbranding.com |
  |
brandchannel.com | branding resource produced by Interbrand | brands |
An international online exchange and resource about brand marketing and branding. |
www.brandchannel.com |
  |
Branding Company Corporate Branding Internet Brand Identity ... |
Brand Identity Guru Inc. creates, develops and promotes powerful brands. Our clients enjoy an array of innovative, creative and powerful branding solutions ... |
www.brandidentityguru.com |
  |
Branding Blog |
Branding and positioning news and opinion. |
www.brandingblog.com |
  |
Branding Asia |
Free articles, news and columns on branding in Asia. Market research and Asian marketing. |
www.brandingasia.com |
  |
Pages tagged with "branding" on del.icio.us |
All items tagged branding ??? view popular ... industrie./design and branding consultant specialists./ · save this. by kittim to design branding graphic ... |
del.icio.us |
  |
The Brand Called You |
Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here's what it takes to be the CEO of ... |
www.fastcompany.com |
  |
Branding: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with branding on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
  |
Mozilla Branding |
The purpose of this document is to describe mozilla.org's branding strategy during and after the release of what has generally been called Mozilla 1.4. ... |
www.mozilla.org |
  |
What Brand Are You? A branding viral by The Design Conspiracy |
What Brand Are You? has since been picked out as Site Of The Day by the likes of the Financial Times, Yahoo, USA Today and BBC News, and has received more ... |
www.whatbrandareyou.com |
  |
Julie & Company: Affordable branding, web design, graphic design ... |
Julie & Company creates stellar branding, integrated marketing, advertising, web design, web development, Flash, trade show booths - all at affordable ... |
www.julieandcompany.com |
  |
Forty Media - Web Design, Web Development, Branding, Great Websites |
a professional web design agency based in Phoenix, Arizona. |
www.fortymedia.com |
  |
Branding - Yahoo! Small Business |
Find information to help grow your online business with business plans, Thomas Register, news articles and more. |
smallbusiness.yahoo.com |
  |
Lexicon |
Lexicon Branding appears on KTVU News; Lexicon Branding creates Ridgeline for Honda, Viiv for Intel, and GameTap for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. ... |
www.lexicon-branding.com |
  |
Branding and Usability |
We're finding that a site's usability can dramatically affect branding. ... There are two basic techniques for branding: direct experience and indirect ... |
www.uie.com |
  |
iMedia Connection: Research & Metrics - Branding |
Majority of marketers feel branding opportunities -- online and offline -- aren't ... IAB case studies prove real-world power of online in branding mix. ... |
www.imediaconnection.com |
  |
Small Business Marketing And Branding |
Small business marketing and branding advice and how-to guides for small business owners. Learn how to start and grow your own successful business. |
smallbusinessbranding.com |
  |
Beyond Branding |
Beyond Branding, published in hardcover in 2003 and paperback in 2005, presents innovative business models for the survival of 21st century organizations. |
www.beyond-branding.com |
  |
|