http://www.integralseminars.org Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:55:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 http://www.integralseminars.org/five-characteristics-of-highly-flawed-small-business-advertising.cfm http://www.integralseminars.org/five-characteristics-of-highly-flawed-small-business-advertising.cfm#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:36:40 +0000 ewwink http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=293

Behind every disappointing small business advertisement there is at least one reason for its failure. The good news is that any flaw with your advertising can be corrected, if you are willing to try new ideas.

Unless you are in the advertising business, chances are your strongest skills are not in advertising. If you are like many small business people, your small business advertisements are likely guilty of at least one of several common flaws.

Identifying what is wrong with your advertising is the first step toward making corrections that will result in greater response, increased revenue and stronger profits.

Following are descriptions of five common characteristics of highly flawed small business advertising. There are more, but correcting these will make for a great start.

Unfocused Market

Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking a bigger market is a better market when choosing where to run their ads. The result is they spend their advertising dollars to reach a larger but less focused market.

Are the places you choose to run your ad laser-focused on your market?

When your ads are focused squarely on your market you increase the likelihood that the readers who see your ad will actually have a need for your service. The more effectively you place your advertising in front of an ‘already interested’ market the more likely they will be predisposed to noticing and reacting to your ad, which is what you want.

For example, imagine your company specializes in helping law firms reduce the cost of prosecuting long, ongoing cases. If you choose to run a series of full page ads in the New York Times instead of the New York Law Journal you will likely be disappointed by the response to your campaign; despite reaching the considerably larger audience of the New York Times you would be missing the focused attention of the legal minded readership of the New York Law Journal.

How can you tell whether or not you can focus your advertising on a more receptive market?

Lack of Distinction

The next most common problem with small business advertising is that advertisements for companies in the same industry often fail to distinguish themselves from their competition.

How can you expect to win the lion’s share of your market if your advertisements pretty much look the same and contain the same elements as those of your competition?

Furthermore, distinguishing your company from your competitors is often made more difficult because, within a given advertising vehicle, advertisements for companies in similar industries appear virtually on top of each other. This scenario is particularly true for yellow pages listings and pay-per-click advertising. In order to succeed with your advertising your ads need to stand out and above those of your competition.

For example, if you are the owner of a pet supply company and your ads simply say, “We Sell Pet Supplies” they will be passed over along with every other bland advertisement for Fido’s food.

On the other hand, your ads will stand out and attract much more attention to your shop if you state that you sell, “King Sized Bones and Bowls for the Royalty in Your Family.” By focusing your ads on the owners of large breed dogs you distinguish yourself from the crowd of pet shops that simply sell pet supplies and make it clear to the owners of large dogs that you sell what they need.

Be sure the copy of your ads has the effect of making what you offer unique. Your highly targeted prospects will reward you by noticing the difference in your ads and buying from you.

Do your ads distinguish your business clearly above your competition?

Failure to Demonstrate Value

Another property of flawed advertising is that it fails to demonstrate the value of any products or services provided. By failing to demonstrate value in your advertisements you give your prospects only a foggy idea of the benefits you provide and no clear reason to buy from you. Demonstrating value will also help you set yourself apart from you competitors.

How can you change your ads to demonstrate the value you provide?

Too Much Focus on Products and Services

Consumers buy products and services because they fill a need or solve a problem. If your ad copy focuses too much on your company and the products and services you provide you miss your opportunity to demonstrate to your prospects that you provide the solution they need.

For example, imagine you are recovering from knee surgery and need to work with a physical therapist to regain your full range of motion. Would you be more likely to choose a therapist who advertises his new and modern equipment or the one who advertises that she will have your knee working and feeling like new again in just three weeks?

What should you focus your advertising on instead of your products and services?

Lack of a Clear Call to Action

A fifth characteristic of a highly flawed advertising is a lack of a clear call to action. An ad without a clear call to action is like calling 911 and not telling the operator where you are. Why bother calling?

Don’t assume that your prospects know what they should do once they’ve read your ad. You need to tell them to be sure they know.

If you’ve gotten their attention, demonstrated your value and shown them that you are the solution to their problem, don’t waste your good work by neglecting to instruct them to take the next step and contact you.

Move Your Marketing Forward™

Stop wasting money on ineffective advertising. If you are disappointed with the business your advertising generates why not take action to correct your dysfunctional ads?

]]> http://www.integralseminars.org/five-characteristics-of-highly-flawed-small-business-advertising.cfm/feed 0 http://www.integralseminars.org/creating-online-advertising-business-opportunity.cfm http://www.integralseminars.org/creating-online-advertising-business-opportunity.cfm#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 08:48:41 +0000 ewwink http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=294

Within this article on creating online advertising business opportunities, we’ll look at ways that you are able to build your online business through online advertising.  There are many different ways that you can go around this so we will look at a couple of very good and low-cost ways to do this.

One of the best ways that you’re able to market online at a low cost is through giveaways.  You can do this in many different ways but one the best ways is to go to free forums and post that you have free giveaways at your website.  You will want your giveaway item to be very low cost. By keeping costs low, you can post to these forums on a regular basis and receive steady traffic which can help you build your website. You’ll be generating a great deal of traffic for yourself at a very low cost. There are many different ways to run a sweepstakes or a giveaways contest but many websites will have giveaways pursuant upon the fact that you sign up for their newsletter.  Make sure that the people who sign up are ones that you want to target because your newsletter can be your greatest source of advertising.

Another great way that you can bring about more traffic to your website is through Adwords. Adwords is a form of advertising that is run by Google where you are allowed to bid on certain keywords that people search for.  You can run your advertising using a budget and you’ll know that you’re getting the target audience that you want towards your website.  One of the ways that you can work at saving and maintaining a budget using  Adwords is to log into your Google account every day to see how much it is costing you to use your keywords.  By looking at how much it costs for keywords, you can make sure that your advertising budget is right on track with what you should be. You can also get an idea as to trends developing with the costs of Adwords.  

Hopefully this article on creating online advertising business opportunities will help you out.  The first part of this article focused on online advertising business opportunities and how to build your business. A different angle on creating online advertising business opportunities is spotlighted now. There is a great deal of unused advertising out there which could be bought up at discounts on what online advertising firms normally charge.  If you were able to find a great deal of this unused advertising and buy it at a discount, you could resell it to other companies looking to put more of their advertising out online and charge them a higher price.  This is often known as advertising arbitrage where you buy the ad spots at a discount and then resell them at a slightly higher price but making sure that the people who ultimately by your ads are getting a very good discount.  All parties win in this particular engagement. This gives you something to think about the next time that you see empty spaces on a website’s home page.

]]> http://www.integralseminars.org/creating-online-advertising-business-opportunity.cfm/feed 0 http://www.integralseminars.org/savvy-advertising-business-internet-marketing-2.cfm http://www.integralseminars.org/savvy-advertising-business-internet-marketing-2.cfm#comments Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:19:53 +0000 ewwink http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=302

Savvy advertising – business internet marketing depends on it is the key to a successful internet business. Considering how many competitors are vying for your customers credit card number, it is not surprising that advertising, business internet marketing, and online promoting have become buzz words that every entrepreneur who took a home based business to the Net has become familiar with. Stellar goods and services are not enough to attract customers and clients, but spreading the word of where these can be had is just as important.

In the earlier days of advertising, business internet marketing took the form of banner ads. Many of these banner ads sought to attract customers by being brighter and more colorful than the competition. This soon translated into neon green banner ads that would make your eyes ache. Soon this color war was not enough, and movement was added to the banners. Thus, banner ad advertising – business internet marketing at its worst in some cases got a bad reputation and many a webmaster took down many of the more obnoxious ads. Clearly, this left merchants clamoring for other avenues of advertising their wares and services.

Those who were ad savvy toned down their banner ads to be tastefully constructed and pleasing to the eye. Rather than going for shock value they enlisted the help of affiliates to spread the word about their products.

Additionally, these internet entrepreneurs looked to other media to spread the word of their wares, and quickly these leaps of faith paid off. Print ads are now routinely taken out for online businesses, and in many cases a website takes the place of a telephone number. Savvy advertising – business internet marketing at its best has once again reclaimed the world wide market place and made it a friendly place for consumers and a competitive environment for merchants.

Advertising your home base internet business is not as hard as it sounds. As a matter of fact, more and more savvy methods of advertising are cropping up that help entrepreneurs to not only get the word out about their home base internet business, but to provide useful services to the community while doing so. Sure, in the early days of internet marketing it was customary to design banner ads that were full of neon colors and moving characters. Webmasters soon discovered that customers did not appreciate this kind of advertising and soon eliminated much of it from their pages.

This left those with a home base internet business scrambling for new solutions. While banner ads are still around, they have undergone a great change. They are now tastefully designed with an eye to wittiness rather than shock value. Additionally, generous affiliate programs ensure that many webmasters are once again working hard to spread the word of any home base internet business that is willing to share a bit of the profit.

Yet there are also other modes of advertising your home base internet business within your own community. For example, if you own a doggie biscuit business that relies on internet orders, why not pass out fliers in your community with the web address? Additionally, you will be able to attend pet shows and spread the word there. Print ads in major dog fancier magazines will target an audience most likely to purchase your product, while sponsorship of local events such as toy drives during the holidays will not only benefit your community but also your business! If you have a family that is very supportive of your efforts, you may even get the kids involved a little dress up fun in a nice costume is a definite perk handing out samples of your doggie biscuits.

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