Articles

sudhamshu : flickr

"My mechanic told me, 'He couldn’t repair my brakes, so he made my horn louder.'” - Comedian, Steven Wright

We all want our websites to be more effective, and if you're like most business people you are constantly searching the Web for anything that will help. What you find is a cabal of experts armed with statistics, analysis, charts and graphs all pointing to how they can get you high-up on the search engines and drive more traffic to your site. The problem is that like Steven Wright's mechanic these guys are adjusting your horn when it's your brakes that need fixing.

There is little point in attracting more visitors to your site if your site has little of interest to say. Even if your site is jammed packed with useful products, services and solutions if it doesn't connect with your audience, they will never invest the time necessary for you to make your case.

When websites fail it's most often because they do not function effectively as your primary communication tool. The Web is overcrowded with options and unless you're prepared to deliver a compelling differentiating presentation you will be quickly dismissed as irrelevant. Let's face it; business is tough, probably tougher than it's ever been before.

Something is Missing

You've done all the technical tweaks and responded to all the research and analytics. You're blogging, micro-blogging, social networking, and search optimizing, but still something is not quite right, something is missing. What's the missing ingredient? You know it's out there, but you can't for the life of you figure out what it is.

You know the Web offers the potential to access new markets, find new customers, and reach new heights, but with all that opportunity, the results always seem just out of reach. If research and analytics were the answer you'd already be rich. Of course it was an over-reliance on research that brought us the Edsel, New Coke, and that wonderful Wall Street goody called Derivatives, one of the greatest investment boondoggles of our time.

There is something artificially comforting about putting your faith in seemingly logical yet unfathomable solutions based on indecipherable scientific modeling and over-hyped research analysis, all brought to you by computer scientists and mathematicians who never ran a marketing department or launched a new product or business.

Business leaders have adopted the attitude that, "It must be right, because I sure as heck don't understand it." And when it all goes wrong, or results are anemic, well, "What are you going to do? It's not my fault, it all looked good on paper." Ad agencies and Wall Street have been getting away with this kind of bunkum for decades, and look at the mess they've made of things.

 

Drafting, designing or laying out commercial or business advertisements is an important art to promote sales at a business establishment. Interesting and meaningful advertisements are used to convey the messages especially in holiday signs and banners. These special signs are used to attract the attention of the people in a community and tempt the readers to visit a particular promotional event or a sale in town. The message to be conveyed in these advertising media should be simple and catchy. The message should be brief and must be understood clearly by all the persons to whom it is intended for.

Advertising is very important for the achievement of your marketing objectives and is a useful communication tool that is used by both big and small businesses effectively. Campaigning through advertising should be worth the investment on the product. You should place these banners in specific areas that your customers are most likely to frequent. You must create awareness among the public especially when you are launching a new product line that appeal to specific sections of the market.

Advertising on a large scale using banners that are put up at all important locations in cities is one of the ways to highlight your products and promote sales. Posters and holiday signs communicate the benefits of a product and they also support special marketing events such as holiday sales or an expo. Striking designs and graphics are the hallmarks of good sale signs. A colorful and attractively designed poster captures the attention of passers by. The different messages that are displayed in these signs are given great importance so that people become familiar with the product or service that is being advertised.

 

Advertising is always considered as an important part of product promotion. But advertising usually costs a lot, so how to get the greatest return while with the minimum input? Get rid of the shackles of advertising agencies, you can now make in-house advertising video or DVD with your own effort easily, that is, creating video or DVD product advertisement based on PowerPoint – PPT advertising.

Before starting to introduce how to prepare PowerPoint advertising in a few steps, here I would like to list some main benefits of PPT advertising:

1. Creating video or DVD advertisement with PowerPoint helps store owners or companies save big budget compared asking video production agencies to do this.
2. PPT advertising enables users to form the content of the advertisement freely. Product pictures, descriptions, promotion details, and relevant video clips can be listed in a sequence in PPT according to the purpose of the advertisement.
3. The carefully designed PPT advertisement can be displayed on TV through DVD players or on digital signage.
4. You can easily change the promotion information only by updating the relevant product information and PowerPoint template. And then with a RW DVD disc, another video or DVD PPT ad will come out.
5. Grow your business with no weekly or monthly fees to update your promotion advertising DVD/video periodically.

Now that so many advantages we can take from PPT advertising, let’s see how to create a promotional advertisement with PowerPoint right away. Here I take an ice scream promotion for example.

Anirudh Koul : flickr

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you had the power to convince people that your product or service was exactly what they needed, and as a consequence your in-box was filled with inquiries and your e-commerce site was stuffed with orders. Wouldn't that be great? And isn't that exactly what you want to achieve with your website?

The problem is you are part of a giant online bazaar called The Web; and just like your local weekend flea market The Web is filled with crap, conmen, and contraband. Without understanding some of the underlying psychological principles involved in shaping audience preference you are in danger of being regarded as just another mangy flea market hustler, even if what you offer is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

The subject of shaping public perception, or in our case Web audience preference, is complex and convoluted but there are basic principles that if followed will help you achieve your business objectives, no matter how you define them.

The Four E-Essentials of Website Presentation

All the Google ads, search engine optimization, linking strategies, social networking, and Twitter twirping will be for naught if you don't implement four essential marketing communication techniques: engage, enlighten, embed, and re-enforce.

These four website presentation elements are easy to grasp but not always easy to implement. If you've read any of our other articles you will know that we think Web-video is the most effective way to implement these elements on your website and in your Web marketing. But just because you use video on your website, doesn't mean it's going to be effective unless you understand the psychology behind the e-essentials.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate how these elements work is to rent or find on YouTube a clip from the 1947 movie "The Hucksters" starring Clark Gable and Sydney Greenstreet. Now I haven't seen this movie in twenty years and I remember almost nothing about it except for one scene, a scene that illustrates better than anything, the four e-essentials of marketing and branding communication.

jm3 : flickr

As I was about to pay the wood carvings I bought in a souvenir shop in Bangkok, I came across this sign prominently posted on print booklets on top of the table:

“The customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption on our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” – Mahatma Gandhi

What struck me is how this establishment put value on the customers. The good thing is they walk the talk. How they handled me and the spouse was the exact embodiment of the words of Gandhi. Needless to say, they took care of everything from the selection process to the packaging to the shipping of the items back to my home country. The experience is indeed more than pleasant.

I’m sharing this experience to emphasize the point that customers are indeed number one. In any business, big or small, customers, both old and new, are important to ensure the sustainability of the business. No matter how well your business may be doing, you are most likely on the hunt for new customers. The only way to make your business grow is to continually attract new customers. Otherwise, if you were to lose your customer base, then your business may be in real trouble.

JohnHallAssociates : flickr

For your trade show exhibits to be a resounding success you need to make as high a return as possible on the money, time and energy you put into them. So it makes sense to cut your costs as much as possible. However, trade show exhibitions can be expensive events, so let’s take a look at ways you can save money on your trade show displays to help you achieve those high returns.

Keep to the basics and don’t be tempted to waste money on fancy, customized add-ons. Your aim is to have an effective exhibit at the best possible price, and extras such as tall sign headers, portable displays, and counters can be extremely costly. You can create a professional-looking display stand without spending lots of money . And a simpler booth, apart from costing less, will keep potential customers’ attention focused on your products rather than on the actual display stand.

Unless required, it’s best not to rent exhibits from the exhibition management firm. Why?... Well, first of all because their rental charges tend to be on the high side, and secondly, they’ll probably have been used many times before and will look a little tired. On top of that, your choice could be limited. You want your booth to be exactly as you want it - not what the management firm offers.

Following on from point 2, don’t use the management firm’s graphics either, for the same reasons. You’ll probably pay high costs for rather low quality work, and they may not offer just what you’re looking for.

Do prepare everything well ahead of time. Leaving things to the last minute tends to result in extra expenses, not to mention the stress of wondering if you’re going to get everything ready on time. Preparing well in advance means you won’t be forced into paying high transportation costs for express shipping, nor large amounts for ordering signs and graphics at last-minute, rush prices.

Dave-Coconuts-Kleinschmidt : flickr

Voice broadcasting is sending a prerecorded message to thousands of phones from a targeted dialing list. Voice broadcasting is a very powerful tool for marketing because it's based on some key marketing foundations. One of its most important elements is good voice broadcasting copy.

Voice broadcasting uses the highest form of communication media, the human voice, to deliver a highly targeted message to thousands of potential consumers. But the voice means nothing if the message it carries is poor. Voice broadcasting needs great copy. Without it telephones simply hang up on the message. With it voice broadcasting can shower leads and sales on your business.

Voice broadcasting cost a fraction of what some other mass advertising methods cost. But that affordability shouldn't mean you cut corners on the message. Good voice broadcasting copy needs to be crafted. Nearly every word in the voice broadcast message copy has a purpose, just like print copy. The entire voice broadcast is designed to promote the listener to take action. One sentence causes interest in the next, and each phrase leads to a predetermined reaction. Good voice broadcast copy sells every step of the way.