Marketing Manner

Poster printing can be a great way to promote your business. For the new business owner, self-made posters are simple and inexpensive and can be very effective. For well-established businesses with vast marketing campaigns, posters offer the exact same benefits. And since posters can range from a small 8.5″ x 11″ to huge billboards, the advertising possibilities are endless. Need some more convincing evidence on the power of poster printing? Here’s exactly why (and how) you should incorporate posters into your marketing plan.

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Advertising a fundraiser is a large task, but it can be accomplished successfully if you are deliberate. Since there are many avenues to take when advertising, it can be difficult to know which ones are right for your event: flyers and posters make great advertisements, but mailers and phone calls are also effective. Here are some great tips for advertising your fund raiser that will help you to know what methods of advertising are right for you. Continue reading »

As a small business, it is recommended that your advertising budget be 5% of your gross sales. The challenge for most small businesses is using these limited resources successfully. Small businesses can realize a return on their advertising investment by following a few simple rules. Here are the keys to successfully advertise your small business. Continue reading »

With the economy now officially in a recession, the outlook for print advertising budgets looks grim. But according to Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, advertisers are “slowly returning.” Thomson told the Reuters Media Summit in New York: “You’re starting to see them emerge in the sunlight after this period of darkness.” Thomson believes that advertisers are looking to use more conservative, comfortable outlets to communicate with consumers.

With the instability of the Internet, “People are looking for a safe harbor in times of turbulence.” If this is true, newspaper and magazine publishers would welcome the news, since they’ve had so many cutbacks in advertising budgets in the past year. The advertising budgets were already scarce enough before this sluggish economy.

Newspaper and magazine circulations have been declining since people get their news online anymore. So many advertisers have cut print budgets in favor of the Internet that some analysts think that some U.S. newspaper may even fold in 2009. (I know I’ve seen headlines just this week about weekly newspapers folding, so dailies might not be too far behind.)

Digital information is still big business for many companies, including WSJ parent Dow Jones & Co. But at the same time, print advertising is still a valuable moneymaker for many companies. Although display ads on Web sites are reaching a lot of people’s computer screens, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people are paying attention to them. Thomson believes that advertisers are starting to recognize that people ignore display ads because they are looking at other parts of the screen that sap their attention. Newspaper and magazine ads may be more valuable because you can’t click out of them like you can online ads. Print ads aren’t as intrusive as many Internet ads. It’s easier for people to get distracted, surfing from page to page and it seems that if they notice the ads at all, it’s only because they’re annoyed by them.

Advertising in the luxury market haven’t been hit too bad, but it’s inevitable according to Nick Brien, who is the CEO of Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands, a holding company for media buying and planning agencies. Even millionaires and billionaires are losing money, which doesn’t mean much to the average Joe, but going from having 1 million to half a million is still a loss.

As a result, advertisers will be hitting print – it’s been the reliable advertising venue for years and in this unstable economy, advertisers don’t want to take too many risks.

I’m not sure whose idea it was for publishing and creative professionals to do work “on spec” before getting a job, but I’ll betcha it wasn’t a creative pro! It was probably a greedy CEO who didn’t want to pay for something that he might later regret. According to Answers.com, “spec” has been used to mean speculation since the 1700s. “On spec” describes “work, such as advertising that is done for a client without a contract or job order, for which the client will pay only if the work is to be used. When a job is done on speculation, the person doing the work takes the risk in the hope of making a profit, gaining a valuable credit, or for some other reason. In the advertising business, creative talent will often work on spec in order to establish a name in the industry.”

Why is it that anymore, it seems like the creative markets are the only ones expected to produce work on spec? Why can’t doctors or lawyers all take time to draw up plans for our wellness or our legal matters and then we just pick whoever’s got the best plan? Well heaven forbid we take up a doctor’s or lawyer’s valuable time! That’s horrible that some pros’ time is considered more valuable than others. We are all people. We all produce something that someone else wants or needs. We should get paid for that, even if we’re just asked for a sample. It’s our right!

Whenever I see a job that says it requires an unpaid, original sample, I always walk away. My time is too valuable for someone who’s not paying me to get! Someone I don’t even know for that matter! Who do these people think they are?

I know designers are upset; I’ve seen plenty of blogs about them being asked to create a design on spec for many clients. Some clients even come to expect it, it seems. It’s just a big scheme many times for companies to get free, fresh ideas from people whose work they never intended to use anyway.

I know that newbies need to build up their portfolio, and when I was in college I did write for free. But, it was an internship and I knew I wasn’t going to get paid. I did get some good contacts from that internship though, as well as good experience. But, please, to all the creative pros out there: don’t do anything on spec! There are many more horror stories than there are success stories. And, the more people do work on spec, the less creative pros get paid down the road. Every time someone produces work for free, that lowers the bar for what is a decent wage. And that doesn’t exclude those that are doing work on spec; it’ll come back to you too. Our time is just as valuable as any other profession so treat it that way!

The latest idea of how to market to people online? Inserting ads into empty spaces of online videos. Keystream, a California-based company, launched the SmartAd November 10, which is “an SaaS platform that enables publishers and advertisers with falling ad revenues to start inserting advertisement overlays into Web videos right into its ‘empty spaces,’ meaning any area on the screen where the action isn’t taking place.” In other words, any wall, sky or other background in a video can be bought for ad space.

Nice footage of a romping deer in a field? Nice, that is, until he’s romping next to an ad in the grass, or under an ad in the blue sky. This is getting ridiculous people! I understand the need for ads in videos, because that has been until now, a largely untapped source of advertising venue, but I think these ads will interrupt and disgust the viewer more so than a pop-up ad or even one of those ads that slide in from the top or bottom of the screen. At least with those kinds, people know it’s an ad and they can click to get it off their screen.

SmartAds has been getting some negative publicity on the blogosphere, mainly because of its intrusiveness. An ad every two minutes? Well, Keystream CEO Schuyler Cullen commented on a TechCrunch blog that the “Web video publisher can control the frequency with which ads appear taking into consideration user demographic and geographic information and their monetization strategy. They also have control over the general location where ads can appear on the video, forbidding, for example placements in the center 9th.”

Keystream says that its SmartAds “offers dramatic improvement in user experience” and that the ads are “non-obstructive” and “increase audience engagement.” I don’t see how intrusive ads will increase my experience of a video. I don’t watch online videos now, thinking “something’s missing here…I need to see an ad!”

Cullen has a comment for this too: “the publishers who are deploying our platform have seen a big increase in user interactions (roll-overs and click-throughs) as compared to pre-rolls and banner overlay ads and no negative feedback. As an example, ITV, in the UK hasn’t received any complaint from viewers about our ads, whereas in the past they received a lot of complaints about pre-rolls and banner overlays.”

I must give Cullen kudos for staying in touch with what people are saying about his company’s product. A lot of CEOs would just hope it goes away. But still, I think these SmartAds are too intrusive for them to work. If I watch a video that gets stalled for an ad that I’m forced to watch, I either: close out the video and not watch the ad; get up and get a drink or something while the ad is playing; or go to another Web site until the ad is through. If I watch a video with a SmartAd, I’m going to think negatively of the advertiser and the SmartAd itself, which will probably be enough to close the video entirely. Wow – how effective!

A study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that when consumers see numbers, especially higher numbers that are related to a positive product experience, like higher mega pixels on a digital camera, they are more apt to buy that product.

The study, conducted at a Chinese university with students, found that there’s a gap between how we perceive an item based on experience and how we perceive an item based on what we know about it. For example, you might have a great digital camera that takes clear pictures, which in marketing jargon is called “hedonic preference,” which the study authors also defined as “liking.” But not only do you know your camera takes great pictures, you also know if it is 5 mega pixels, or 2 mega pixels (specifications). Both of these factors contribute to purchasing decisions – liking and specs, or numbers – and the authors tested students to see whether liking or specs contributed most to their buying decisions.

The study tested the students on five items: a digital camera, sesame oil, towels, cell phones and potato chips. I won’t go through the details of all, but I’ll go through their process for the digital camera to give you an idea of what they did, since their methodology was the same for each type of item.

The authors took a single 10-inch photo of Tiananmen Square, and used Photoshop to create one version that was sharper and one version that was more vivid. They told the students that the two photos were taken with different cameras, which the students were supposed to pretend were their two narrowed-down choices for purchase. The two models of camera were alike in all aspects, including price except for the sharpness and vividness. The authors told one group of students nothing else about the cameras, and the about 25 students liked, or would have purchased, the camera that had made the sharper image. But when the authors gave another group of students specs about the other (vivid) camera, their decisions were reversed from the first group. More than half picked the vivid photo’s camera. (The specs were the total number of dots, and another group was told the diagonal number of dots, much like how a TV is measured diagonally in inches.) The number of dots was made up for each group, but each group chose the “vivid” camera over the “sharp” camera, whereas the control group given no specs chose the “sharp” camera based on experience because there were no numbers presented.

The authors had the same types of groups for each of the other four items, and each time, the groups that were given the specs said they would purchase whichever item had the higher specs. The authors conclude with some advice to marketers and consumers: marketers, if your product doesn’t have some kind of numeric measure attached to it, try to find one and include the number in your marketing message. Consumers, don’t get too hooked on numbers and make your purchasing decisions based on experience.

When you’re first starting out in your business, it’s easy to jump at whatever advertising opportunities come your way. Discount magazine ad? Sign me up! Free month of radio ads when you buy one month? Where do I sign?

But you have to research all advertising opportunities. If the medium doesn’t have your target audience or doesn’t have the reach you need and want for the money you’re shelling out, then it’s just a waste of money. Not all advertising is good advertising.

Guidelines When Considering Advertising Opportunities
1. Don’t advertise in a newspaper, magazine or other medium that you haven’t read with your own two eyes. No one knows your product like you do, not even your well-intentioned family member.

2. Ask the advertiser for a complete media kit. If they don’t have a media kit, that’s a huge red flag that you do not want to do business with this advertiser. Ask for a sample copy of the publication and circulation numbers. The media kit should also include articles about the company, published elsewhere than their internal newsletter; a fact sheet on the company; and ideally, testimonials from others who have advertised with the company.

3. Don’t buy radio time in the form of ads or as a special guest unless you listen to the radio station yourself and you know it and its audience. Some people pay for radio time, thinking that they can become a radio talk show expert or add that title to their resume. The cost for all that radio time to become an “expert” is not worth it.

4. When you order a mailing list from a list broker, be sure to stipulate that you require 95 percent accuracy of addresses that are deliverable. Some addresses are naturally going to be old or incorrect, but the majority should be deliverable. Make it a condition of your contract that you’ll get your money back if only 94 percent or less of your direct mail pieces are deliverable. Be sure to get this in writing beforehand so you have a leg to stand on if it happens. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book – a list broker claims to have thousands of names in your target audience, but then only a hundred people actually get your ad. Don’t fall for it!

5. If a product review site asks for your ad, and then promises a review, run away. Your review and ad shouldn’t appear in the same issue, no matter what the salesperson says. People can see right through this and will think that your product was only reviewed because you bought ad space (and essentially, it’s true in this scam).

And finally, make sure to get everything in writing. It’s easy to let a salesperson sweep your thoughts away to a magical land of your product flying off the shelf once people see your new ad, but be sure you read all the fine print before signing your name.

I don’t have anything against Google, per se, but its AdWords program is getting worse. People just aren’t making more than beans off of most of their AdWords ads. When it first started it was easy, but now it’s gotten complicated and people aren’t clicking as much as they used to. And what about those people who don’t even know that they need your product, much less know that they need to search for it? Those people aren’t even aware of your Google ad.

Depending on what kind of business you have, AdWords may just not be right for you. You can do all your homework and research your customer and targeting that customer. You can even make sure that customer needs your product. You can create awesome marketing materials and an eye-catching Web site, but AdWords won’t help if your target customer doesn’t know your product even exists!

Yep, that’s a big problem (understatement of the year, I know!).

If Google AdWords isn’t working for you, then it’s time to get back to basics, or traditional advertising methods. Why? Because Google AdWords targets people who know what they are looking for and many people don’t know what they’re looking for because they don’t realize a solution exists. That’s where traditional advertising comes in – it reaches the people who don’t know there’s a solution for them out there.

Direct mail – this is a great choice when you have a very targeted consumer, especially a targeted regional consumer. Even if people throw away direct mail as junk mail, they at least look at a postcard or brochure to see who sent it. And, the fact is, many people read their “junk mail.” A 2006 U.S. Postal Service survey found that 80 percent of people skim direct mail. A letter may not work in this case, but if you have a solution right out in the open on a postcard, who’s not going to look? And if the consumer doesn’t even know there is a solution, you’re the first one to reach out to them!

TV ads – more people may be watching TV on the Internet, but not everyone is. Many people can’t afford to buy a nice big 30-inch computer monitor to watch “their” shows on. And many people still have “their” shows that they watch every week without fail.

Billboards – who doesn’t drive to work? Not very many people. And even those that work out of their homes or don’t work at all have to drive somewhere eventually. That’s why billboards won’t ever stop working. Until people can zap themselves from place to place, billboards will be a great way to reach thousands of local consumers.

Magazine and newspaper ads – Although the circulation numbers have gone down for each of these mediums, they’re still pretty good. And research has shown that Web site visits go up after advertising the URL in a magazine or newspaper ad. That means people are still reading and these ads still work.

If you aren’t getting the response you want from Google AdWords or any other type of Internet advertising, give it a break and try traditional again. Everything from handing out business cards to hanging flyers counts. It doesn’t have to be expensive or high tech to be effective advertising.

If a company runs a TV commercial or magazine ad with the slightest hint of untruth (that can be proven, of course), then that company gets hit with a fine and the ad is pulled. The Federal Trade Commission required four diet-pill makers to pull their ads that included false claims in 2007, and fined them all for a total of $25 million.

Kentucky Fried Chicken tried to claim that eating their fried chicken could be part of an “effective diet program” in 2004, and they also got a fine, along with the punishment of having to submit all advertising to the FTC for the next five years for review before publishing.

And yet, Obama and McCain can run ads that obviously twist the words of others and selectively pull out parts of bills that the senator once voted for or against. No fines, no barring of the ads. Why? Because KFC and diet-pill makers don’t have the First Amendment on their side.

“It’s perfectly legal for candidates to lie to voters in commercials or other advertising,” states a Time magazine article.

That’s right – the “truth in advertising” standard doesn’t apply to all advertising. Political advertising is exempt because their ads and statements are considered to be “political speech,” which is protected under the First Amendment. It’s a good idea in theory: voters should have a right to uncensored information so that they can base their decisions on both candidate’s truthful past and actions. Of course, we all know that the system is distorted and that’s not what has come from this First Amendment loophole.

Another weird thing is that under the Federal Communications Act, broadcasters have to run these ads, even the ones that they know are false. A station can enforce a blanket policy of not running any ads from political candidates, but they can’t single out one candidate or even one ad. If they run one political ad, they have to run them all, no matter how filled with lies.

The thing is, is that the candidates know they can lie, they know journalists will dig to find the truth, and then their lie will be exposed. But they also know that the original false ad, the one with the lie, is what will stick in voters’ minds. People remember the outlandish lie more easily than they remember the truth that came out afterwards. Consumers can even fact check the lies out themselves at Web sites like Factcheck.org and Politifact.com.

Unfortunately, the lies will just keep coming because they work, and they’ve always worked. Even back in Lincoln’s time, someone was slandering him when it came time to vote. But look on the bright side – at least we don’t have much longer to listen to these ugly untruths!