Effective FREE Blog Advertising

Effective FREE Blog Advertising Whether you’re searching for acceptEffective acknowledgment to body your cast or for just some accept Effective SEO (search engine optimization), Advertising is capital for a lot of us.

Frankly, I accept a aught Advertising budget. From time to time I can be begin purchasing a no-follow hotlink from a ScratchBack accoutrement but otherwise, I don’t absorb a dime on advertising.

Am I adage this is smart? No, not really. But I accept a lot of things to absorb my money on and putting my name out there appropriate now isn’t one of them.

So, due to the abridgement of Advertising budget, I anticipation I’d allotment with you some of the means that I get chargeless acknowledgment for I’m Blogging That (and my added blog, Katy In Las Vegas).

Let’s skip what’s been talked about 1,000 times. You apperceive about colonnade posts, hotlink allurement and amusing networking. These are all practices that a lot of bloggers have. But there’s added that you can do, even if you accept heard of it, maybe you haven’t approved yet.

Exchange Blog Reviews

Sometimes even the best bloggers charge anyone to abrade their blog with beginning eyes. Barter blog reviews with accession blogger that you know. Cover their absolute site. Hotlink to posts that you absolutely enjoyed, pump up some of their own Advertising that is chargeless (like Entrecard). Talk about their architecture and what you do and do not like about.

arrowsExchanging blog reviews can be fun, advice accretion some new readers, and accord you some of those all too important aback links.

I accept heard, although because I’m not an SEO Effective am unsure, that exchanging reviews should be done at altered times to accord aback links at altered times. How melancholia this, I’m not sure. But exchanging reviews is absolutely worth-while.

Find a blogger in your alcove and access them. The affliction that can appear is they analysis out your blog and say no. No worries, don’t yield it personal!

Technorati Favorites Exchange

One of Technorati’s abundant appearance is to accept the adeptness to become a fan of accession blog. By accepting admired blogs you’re allowance added bloggers to accretion acknowledgment if your Technorati contour is viewed.

This has become such the business apparatus that a baby affairs was created that will automatically accomplish you a fan of any blogger that has become your fan. You can analysis this out over at Internet Duct Tape.

Head over to Technorati and become a fan of every individual blog you love! Even if the added blogger does not acknowledgment the favor, it’s still abundant acknowledgment for your Technorati profile.

Banner Exchanges

The acceptance of the 125×125 banderole has added than tripled in the endure few years! It seems as admitting every blog has a 125×125 banner… to use for Entrecard or any added Advertising purchases.

Talk to your blogger accompany and ask if they’d be absorbed in exchanging banners with you. Be abiding about that the barter is fair. Obviously anyone like John Chow who commands a abundant accord for a banderole on his website wouldn’t acquisition it fair to abode a banderole on my site.

I'm Blogging ThatThe blog should be according to castigation and the specifics on how continued the banderole will run should be laid out advanced of time.

In accession to the accepted 125×125 banner, there’s abounding blogs who accept “Recommended Links.†Ask for an barter in this position. Generally a lot of bloggers will be abundant added absorbed in this barter than a banderole barter but it’ll never aching to ask!

And never discount the anytime accepted top sites. Getting a abundant accord of acknowledgment from these blazon of sites can be difficult as your blog has to be voted up abutting to the foreground page for best exposure. Votes appear from humans who bang from your website to the topsite (in a lot of cases… anniversary topsite’s voting anatomy works differently).

While I’m not anyone to ample my blog with topsite links to accept this plan for me, it may be something you’re absorbed in doing. Just today Jenny emailed me to acquaint me about her new topsite Mini Me and Mini Me and Mindy and I accept run WAHM Topsite for over a year now.

Guest Posts

Probably the ultimate in acknowledgment if you’re bedfellow announcement on the appropriate site, bedfellow announcement about is not for everyone.

I accept heard abounding altered reactions to an accepted aftereffect of bedfellow posting. Including Lori’s column about her bedfellow column on ProBlogger.

My advancement with bedfellow announcement to aerate your acknowledgment is to ensure you’re bedfellow announcement on a website aural your niche. You wish the admirers from the blog you bedfellow column for to accompany you at your blog. To do this, you should be on agnate capacity you already apperceive the visitors will be absorbed in.

Ensure that your bedfellow column is aboriginal and on topic. Be specific with the blogger you’re bedfellow announcement for to apperceive what you can and cannot include… like associate links, links to added blog posts, and how continued your columnist advice should be.

Conclusion

There are abounding added means than this to get Effective chargeless advertising. The key is to acquisition which is appropriate for you and plan it all that you can. Ensure that through networking you accept the access you charge to accomplish these suggestions plan for you and accumulate at them. No one can apprehend the best after-effects the aboriginal time out of the gates, accumulate at it!

How do you aerate your blog’s acknowledgment for free? Do you accept a approved and accurate address that works for you? Effective FREE Blog Advertising

Ezines Are Effective In Advertising Your Online Business?

'Ezines are the most cost effective way to advertise your business opportunity'. I'm sure you’ve heard that phrase many times if you’ve been marketing on the internet for a while. But is that a myth or a fact?

An Internet Marketer once advertised that he can guarantee $1,000 profit for the user within weeks if he used the techniques outlined in his ebook.

And the secret of the ebook - advertise in Ezines using $2,000 and you are guaranteed success unless your product is useless. Well I didn't try it at the time because I couldn't find $2,000 lying about in the house or in my bank account. However, it does show the belief people have with Ezines.


There are 3 types of ads in Ezines:


Classified Ads


These are small ads which you can find at the bottom of newsletters. There is limited space in these ads therefore your ads have to be eye-catching. Classified Ads in ezines are cheap and sometimes free due to its limited space and location which is at the end of the ezine.


Sponsor Ads


These ads are placed at the top of the newsletter and sometimes in the middle. Some ezines have more than one sponsor ads. Sponsor ads are more expensive than Classified ads and can contain more words so your ad can be more descriptive. Sponsor ads are more effective than Classified Ads as their position in the newsletter is better.


Solo Ads


Solo ads is the most effective way out of the three type of ads for generating response.


Solo ads fills up a whole email which only contains your advertisement. The newsletter is sent on your behalf to its subscribers. Thus your ad will have the biggest exposure. Solo ads are more expensive than Sponsor ads but more effective.


'Great. Super. Fantastic. So what's your advice Alan?' My advice is advertising in Ezines do work. And they work very well. Some people don't think so because after placing some ads and seeing very little or no response they think they have proven that Ezine advertising is a lie used by Ezines Publishers.


Well I can tell you now that they are getting poor responses because they have not followed the rules for advertising successfully in Ezines.


Rules in Advertising in Ezines Successfully


1. If you can, save money and advertise using Solo ads. They have the best chances of being read by the subscribers and they have no other ads distracting or competing against.


2. Work on your subject line. Even with Solo Ads, people will not open your email if the subject is of no interest to them. Subjects which promises massive fortunes in a few days will get deleted with second thoughts.


3. Work on your Content. After the subscribers open your email, your next task is to try and get them to read the content. So make damn sure your content is interesting and enticing enough for them to take some action. Believe the saying “Content is King”.


4. When you’re advertising other peoples’ products using affiliate programs do not send the visitors to the product’s website. I think people are crazy when they do this. The reason is that you are sending traffic to other peoples websites and if they won’t buy you’ve lost that lead for good.


Therefore the aim of you ad is to capture their email address so that you can advertise to them again and again. If they don’t buy product A then you can advertise Product B to them. Now don’t you think that makes more sense?


5. Advertise in well known Ezines and which are related to the topic you are advertising. Advertising stock recommendations to Golf enthusiasts will surely give you a terrible response rate.


6. For Classified ads, make sure you are advertising in large numbers such as 100,000. Not many people read Classified ads and you will be listed among other ads as well. However, you might get lucky if your headline is attractive enough.


To end this article I’m going to share a secret with you on what I think is the best and cheapest way to advertise in Ezines. That is to write your own articles and ask the Ezine Publishers if they are interested in sending out your articles in an issue of their newsletter.


Now let’s think about this for a moment. Your own article is published in ezines and placed on their websites. People who write articles are given more respect and are trusted more. Plus your articles will stay on some websites for years which also means that it will generate traffic for years. The traffic is generated with a resource box you can put at the bottom of your article. You can put your URL here and also write a little bit of background about yourself.


You are creating a name for yourself on the internet scene and you are also generating leads which you can email your recommendations to. There is no cost for you when Publishers decide to include your article so the only cost coming out of you is the time needed to write the article.


In my opinion, writing articles for ezines is the most effective way to advertise using ezines. Not to mention it’s cheap and will generate traffic even after many months.

Advertising effectively on the net is FREE

That's right. The most effective way of advertising your business on the net is FREE and mostly ignored. And yet it's so easy to see why it is so effective. We just need to ask ourselves two simple questions.

Question 1- What do most people use the internet for?

Answer - For email and to seek information to solve problems.

Question 2 - How do you get information from the net?

Answer - I go directly to certain web sites or I use a search engine like Yahoo or Google.

So shouldn't it be obvious that a free article on the net that mentions your business after providing valuable information free will be seen by hundreds of thousands of your eager prospects over time?

The biggest marketing mistake that many businesses have made and continue to make over the internet is treating this new medium as if it were just an extension or advancement of the last new medium to change the marketing world, namely Television. In Television, advertising is king. And therefore many assumed that the internet was the next big thing in conventional advertising with predictably disastrous results.

The internet is primarily an information medium. So is it any wonder that people get so upset when somebody tries to interrupt their search for information with an advertisement?

Being an information medium, it stands to reason that you will only attract attention by providing information - free, valuable information.

So the most effective way to advertise on the net is to give away free information of a very specific nature. The free information will of course have something to do with your product or service. But it should be written in such an interesting way and should focus on solving a problem or need of your potential clientele that it will be of great value without them having to purchase your product immediately.
For example, somebody selling anti-glare gadgets for computers or headache medication or whatever service or product that deals with the problem of headaches, can post the following useful free information;

1) An article about the different types of headaches caused by sitting in front of a computer the whole day.

2) He can post yet another article hinged on a case study of a headache that refused to go away despite medication etc.

3) How a deadly type of headache feels like e.g caused by a developing brain tumour etc.

In all the articles, no direct reference should be made to the product or service except in the resource box right at the end which should have your web-site, email and any other contact information.

An article on the web is a very powerful advertising tool that will do more for you than any conventional advertising or email list. Firstly you are guaranteed that many of your target market or people who may be interested in your product or service will read your article and the name of your business. Most so-called advertisements on the net, never get read at all, even by the people targeted - they get deleted long before.

Secondly, you create a very favorable image of a knowledgeable and competent person or business and you do this instantly. Offline this is rather difficult to do even over a longer period of time. In fact articles can't even be posted as easily as they can on the net. For example it will be virtually impossible for any newspaper or magazine with a decent readership to find the space for any of the suggested headache articles above.

There are various ways one can post articles on the net. You can do it on your web site or you can do it at a wide range of different sites. Actually the idea here is to get it posted in as many different places as you possibly can (remember it's an advertisment.)

The real power of the internet is in its' ability to reach a colossal number of people within a very short time, who are interested in the subject at hand.
Most of the people you reach may not be in the market for your offering right now, but they will have heard of you and will already have a very favourable image of you.

Some of the people who will benefit from your information will be in the market for your product and will request for more information, visit your web-site and so on - still they will not buy immediately. A fraction of these people may buy from you one day in the future. They may also like you enough to tell others about you.

The last group of people may end up being a very tiny decimal fraction of the total but these are the people who will become your customers shortly after benefiting from your FREE information. Still there will be a steady and constant flow of these wonderful people who put money in your bank account, as your articles get posted in newer web sites all the time.

Can you sincerely think of another marketing weapon on the web that even comes close to this one in terms of effectiveness?

Ezines Are Effective In Advertising Your Online Business?

'Ezines are the most cost effective way to advertise your business opportunity'. I'm sure you’ve heard that phrase many times if you’ve been marketing on the internet for a while. But is that a myth or a fact?

An Internet Marketer once advertised that he can guarantee $1,000 profit for the user within weeks if he used the techniques outlined in his ebook.

And the secret of the ebook - advertise in Ezines using $2,000 and you are guaranteed success unless your product is useless. Well I didn't try it at the time because I couldn't find $2,000 lying about in the house or in my bank account. However, it does show the belief people have with Ezines.

There are 3 types of ads in Ezines:

Classified Ads

These are small ads which you can find at the bottom of newsletters. There is limited space in these ads therefore your ads have to be eye-catching. Classified Ads in ezines are cheap and sometimes free due to its limited space and location which is at the end of the ezine.


Sponsor Ads


These ads are placed at the top of the newsletter and sometimes in the middle. Some ezines have more than one sponsor ads. Sponsor ads are more expensive than Classified ads and can contain more words so your ad can be more descriptive. Sponsor ads are more effective than Classified Ads as their position in the newsletter is better.


Solo Ads


Solo ads is the most effective way out of the three type of ads for generating response.


Solo ads fills up a whole email which only contains your advertisement. The newsletter is sent on your behalf to its subscribers. Thus your ad will have the biggest exposure. Solo ads are more expensive than Sponsor ads but more effective.


'Great. Super. Fantastic. So what's your advice Alan?' My advice is advertising in Ezines do work. And they work very well. Some people don't think so because after placing some ads and seeing very little or no response they think they have proven that Ezine advertising is a lie used by Ezines Publishers.


Well I can tell you now that they are getting poor responses because they have not followed the rules for advertising successfully in Ezines.


Rules in Advertising in Ezines Successfully


1. If you can, save money and advertise using Solo ads. They have the best chances of being read by the subscribers and they have no other ads distracting or competing against.


2. Work on your subject line. Even with Solo Ads, people will not open your email if the subject is of no interest to them. Subjects which promises massive fortunes in a few days will get deleted with second thoughts.


3. Work on your Content. After the subscribers open your email, your next task is to try and get them to read the content. So make damn sure your content is interesting and enticing enough for them to take some action. Believe the saying “Content is King”.


4. When you’re advertising other peoples’ products using affiliate programs do not send the visitors to the product’s website. I think people are crazy when they do this. The reason is that you are sending traffic to other peoples websites and if they won’t buy you’ve lost that lead for good.


Therefore the aim of you ad is to capture their email address so that you can advertise to them again and again. If they don’t buy product A then you can advertise Product B to them. Now don’t you think that makes more sense?


5. Advertise in well known Ezines and which are related to the topic you are advertising. Advertising stock recommendations to Golf enthusiasts will surely give you a terrible response rate.


6. For Classified ads, make sure you are advertising in large numbers such as 100,000. Not many people read Classified ads and you will be listed among other ads as well. However, you might get lucky if your headline is attractive enough.


To end this article I’m going to share a secret with you on what I think is the best and cheapest way to advertise in Ezines. That is to write your own articles and ask the Ezine Publishers if they are interested in sending out your articles in an issue of their newsletter.


Now let’s think about this for a moment. Your own article is published in ezines and placed on their websites. People who write articles are given more respect and are trusted more. Plus your articles will stay on some websites for years which also means that it will generate traffic for years. The traffic is generated with a resource box you can put at the bottom of your article. You can put your URL here and also write a little bit of background about yourself.


You are creating a name for yourself on the internet scene and you are also generating leads which you can email your recommendations to. There is no cost for you when Publishers decide to include your article so the only cost coming out of you is the time needed to write the article.


In my opinion, writing articles for ezines is the most effective way to advertise using ezines. Not to mention it’s cheap and will generate traffic even after many months.

Five Characteristics of Highly Effective Advertising

Have you ever spent a small fortune on advertising that generated disappointment rather than sales?

Many small business owners have been down the road of flat advertising results and are at a loss when it comes to developing new ideas to improve the response to their ads.

Whether you run ads in your local newspaper, your industry’s top periodical or on-line, you need your investment in advertising to pay for itself, and then some, in order to justify its cost.

If your ads aren’t generating the interest you want in your products and services they may be suffering from one of the five common mistakes small business owners and professional service providers make when developing and delivering their advertising.

Here is a list of five qualities common to successful small business advertising campaigns.

Zero in on Your Best Prospects
Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking bigger is better when they choose a medium in which to run their ads and opt to spend their advertising dollars to reach a larger but less focused market.

For example, if your company specializes in helping law firms reduce the cost of long, ongoing cases and 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 your would be missing the focused attention of the legal minded readership of the New York Law Journal.

Be sure to zero in on your market. You will increase the likelihood that the readers who see your ad will actually have a need for your service.

Set Yourself Apart from the Crowd
Unless your business sells a product or service that is completely unique and faces no competition your ads need to set your products or services apart from the crowd of your competitors.

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.

Demonstrate Value
Another property of a highly effective advertisement is that it demonstrates the value your products and services provide. By demonstrating value in your advertisements you give your prospects a clear idea of the benefits you provide and a clear reason to buy from you. Demonstrating value can also help you set yourself apart from you competitors.

How can you change your ads to demonstrate the value you provide? What special offers can you make to set yourself apart from the pack?

Focus on client problems
Consumers buy products and services because they fill a need or solve a problem. If your ad copy does not address your prospects’ problems they will never know that you provide the solution they need.

If 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?

Be sure to focus your ads on your clients’ problems. You will win more business as more and more prospects come to see you as the solution to their problem.

Require Action
The final aspect of a highly effective ad is a call to action. If you’ve done your job up until this point, your prospect has read your ad. If your ad does not finish the job and inspire your prospect to contact you for more information or visit your store or your web site, it is not worth the money you spent to have it published.
Don’t assume that your prospects know what they should do next. 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.

If all this seems like a lot to accomplish in one advertisement, you need not worry. A well-written marketing message will take care of most of the details of writing a highly effective ad.

Do you have a marketing message you can use to consistently deliver effective ads and position your business as the solution to your client’s problems? You should.

13 Free or Cheap Effective Advertising Methods

Effective Advertising - Advertising is the life blood of any business, no matter how big or how small. No advertising usually means no business. Large companies have an almost unlimited source of advertising dollars. Small business owners on the other hand, are limited in the amount of money they have for advertising. So, the problem is how to make ones advertising dollar get the most bang for the buck. It's not enough to advertise. Your advertising must be effective. So, once you have a website or an ad to advertise, check out the following ways to advertise for little or no cost.

1. Advertising coop- Many businesses, especially work at home businesses, offer advertising coops. They will send people to your business for a fee. Usually the fee is relatively small. This is nice because you already know that these people have at least some interest in your business. Although they may not spend a penny with you, you at least get the exposure.

2. Website-The age of the internet has expanded the possibility of owning your own business to an almost unlimited number of people. It also has expanded the advertising audience to a tremendous amount of new people, world wide, who otherwise you would never have been able to reach. Although websites will cost you to get hosted, you can advertise it many ways for free. Things like link exchanges and article submissions allow you to get exposure to your website with no cost except for you time. And as we will see in a moment, your website can be advertised many other ways for free. The advantage of a website is that it centralizes all your business and products into one central location. It gives you somewhere to send people so that you don't have to do as much selling because you let your website do the selling for you.

3. Answering Machine-Change the message on your answering machine to reflect the fact that you are now in business for yourself. You could say something like," Hello. You have reached the home office of John Doe of My Business.com….." That way when you call that person back, they may ask you about your business and thus the door is open to discussing your business.

4. Put a sign in your front yard or in the yard of a friend or relative with your name and website address on it. This is a good way for your neighbors to find out about your new business as well as any people that ride by your house.

5. Place a magnetic sign or bumper sticker on your car. Now, when you are riding down the road, sitting at a stop sign, or leaving your car parked at the mall or grocery store, you are getting free advertising.

6. Wear your ad-Place your website on a sweatshirt, tee-shirt, or a hat. So, when you are out in public, people will see you ad and again it will open up the door to discussing your new business.
7. Flyers-There are many places that will allow you to place a flyer about your business. Businesses like grocery stores, libraries, laundromats, hair salons and others will let you place a free ad on their public bulletin board.

8. Business cards-Don't leave home without them. You never now when the chance to hand one out will happen. You may see an old friend, meet someone looking to get out of the 9-5 rut or who is in need of a new opportunity.

9. Free Classifieds-Use the internet and the many free classified ads on it to advertise your business. A search using "free classifieds" will give you an almost limitless number of places to submit your website and ad.
10.Ezines or electronic magazines are also a good place to advertise your business. Some charge a fee for placing your ad in the best location, some let you advertise for free. Again a web search will allow you find numerous ezines to place you ad in.

11.Place your web address in your e-mail signature.

12.Place a flyer or business card in your out going mail.

13.Word of Mouth-The least expensive form of advertising and maybe the most effective way to advertise your business is word of mouth. Simply tell those you come in contact with that you are in business for yourself. They will tell others and they will tell others and it can go on and on. Sooner or later someone will take a look at what you are doing.

Obviously, there are many more ways to advertise your business for little or no money. The point is you don't have to have the big bucks to successfully advertise you business or product. There are many people who have started and become extremely successful in their business on a shoe string advertising budget. There is hope for the small business owner. All you need is a website or add, a little creativity, a little time, and you too can advertise your way to success without going to the poor house.

How To Effectively Use Offline Advertising To Build Your Online

First of all let me say that having spent the past 20 years working closely with small businesses I know exactly what works when it comes to offline advertising.

What I have found today is that online businesses have a built in advantage when it comes to promoting their business offline. You already have a website and autoresponder in place to lead your prospect to. When you combine that fact along with the traditional capture methods of telephone and snail mail there is no reason any online business can't use offline methods to build their businesses and sell their products and services.

A lot of online based businesses forget about offline advertising. I know I have. It is important to combine offline and online advertising together in your marketing campaign. This will give you to a more well rounded approach to promoting as well as attract potential prospects and customers you might not otherwise get.


In all your offline advertising you want to include your web site address, e-mail or autoresponder addresses, and your phone number and mailing address. This gives you the appearance of a real bonafide business.


Another thing is to start selling products for manufacturers who offer co-op advertising for promoting their products. You can read a little more about this technique in an article I wrote titled "Why Are You Wasting Free Advertising Money?"

Finally you need to view offline marketing as a long term committment. I've seen businesses over and over run and ad not get the response they were looking for and quit.


This will not work offline. Or online for that matter. You need to establish a budget and stick to it. That doesn't mean that you can't change the ad copy if your response is marginal. It just means if you are going to run classified ads for example that you run them for a period of time and allow them to do their job.


Here are 10 offline marketing ideas. Use as many of these as possible to move your business forward.

Classified Newspaper Ads- Place classified ads in newspapers. Local newspapers often have great advertising rates that you can take advantage of to promote your business. Here's a great source for running classified ads.
http://www.nationwideadvertising.com

Put up flyers. They could be in computer stores, libraries, restaurants, car windshields, or anywhere you shop that allows flyers.

Direct mail. A nice direct mail piece when done consistently over a period of time can bring tremendous exposure for your business. The biggest benefit of direct mail is it allows you to reach thousands of people at a bulk mail rate. You could not do this if you had to mail each piece individually.


Buy time on local cable T.V. It is surprisingly affordable and if you commit to a block of advertising you can develop Top Of Mind Awareness. TOMA is being there when they want or need you. If you are an affiliate or in an MLM consider doing group advertising and spreading the cost out over several of you. You can have leads routed into one phone number and divied out to all advertisers or have each ad display a different phone number.


Pass out your CD-ROM or diskette business cards at special events. It could be at trade shows, seminars, fairs, etc.


Get 250 free business cards here and leave them everywhere you go.

http://www.vistaprint.com

Hold a free offline class and teach people how to use their computer or how to use the internet. You could have your web site on display as an example.

Give away promotional items such as free mouse pads. Put your advertising on the mouse pads and give them away at computer or internet events.

Advertise in card decks. The card deck you advertise in should be targeted toward internet users.


You would also want to target your offline advertising to groups of people that will actually be interested in your product or service. If you're selling business books, you will want to market to business owners.


In conclusion, if you have a business that's only based online using offline advertising to make money online is a great idea because so many people today go online to get information about products and services they are interested in.

Effective Advertising

How do you know when your advertising dollars are being well spent?
Effective Advertising How do you know when your advertising dollars are being well spent? First, let’s expose two of the most common fallacies about advertising. Number one is that good advertising magically generates so many leads you have trouble keeping up with them. Number two is that advertising is some big executive’s hyped idea that never worked in the first place. The truth, I propose, lies somewhere in the middle.

If no one knows about your company and it’s product(s) and service(s), then you can bet you won’t be in business a long time. Advertising is just one method of getting your prospect’s attention, and because we live in a society where we have to fight for any even small piece of “mind share,” advertising has become even more of an art form.

When you learn a fine art such as painting, you discover how to put on the exact colors, utilize the right amount of raw material, as well as apply the proper strokes to shape your visual communication. So too in advertising. There are rules that take into consideration the psychological aspects of motivating your potential customer to intuitively respond to your message.

The first key in any marketing/sales process is building rapport – making a connection – and advertising can help create a “warm” environment where people become interested in listening to you. If you pique their interest with a good ad, as well as reach them at an emotional point where they need, or even better want, your product and services, you have a much better chance of getting the job or closing the sale. Advertising gives your company an edge by helping you to get your share of whatever business is around and by surpassing your competition.

What then comprises effective advertising? What are these aforementioned rules (not tricks) of the trade? Marketing experts have discovered three important elements in direct response advertising including direct mail and email campaigns that are “must knows.” These elements are: the Target List, the Copy, and the Graphics.

The Target List The key to knowing what mail or email list to buy lies within your company’s strategic positioning and differentiation. Ask yourself, what type of companies would benefit from my products(s) and service(s), what interests them, and why would they want to buy from our company versus anyone else? Keep your focus narrow, and don’t make the mistake of trying to provide everything to everyone.

Identify those firms within your geographical area (provided you have one) that you are willing to service. If the populous is large enough, you may want to buy from a reputable list broker. If you can create the list yourself from regional resources, make sure to put the information into an open database and obtain accurate information. Most important, be sure you have the correct contact name and phone number of the person who would make the buying decision.

The Copy Find your killer headline – that hook that makes them say “yes” so they continue to read your promotion and immediately recognize you in the future. Tell them why you are unique and the best choice to fulfill their construction needs. This, of course, requires you to know all of their needs – the more, the better.

Now state your benefits and then your features. Your benefits are what you provide that interests the prospect. Your features are what they expect to get. Good ad copy appeals to the buyer’s emotions first; then tells them what bang they are going to get for their buck. Then it asks for the order, or in the case of a longer sales cycle, requests action from the potential buyer; for example, to call you or visit your website for more information.

The Graphics Graphics create associations that enhance your image regarding credibility and whether or not you are successful and to be trusted. Visuals need to be interesting and eye-catching so your ad stands out and helps facilitate an emotional response of well-being.

In the case of construction companies, ads can also point out your most high profile projects and the excellence of your work. If your company does not have established branding guidelines, then you might want to consult a professional to create the right message and deliver it in a consistent manner that significantly increases your chances for success.

For small business owners, the task of learning marketing can be overwhelming and the cost of hiring professionals prohibitive. It does take time to master these skills, but with a little attention on a consistent basis, one can learn enough to market their firm successfully. To be really effective, any information you receive from people who make a living at marketing or public relations should come from those who have years of experience in your industry.

Carefully plan your campaigns for maximum effectivity, and don’t forget to employ the tried and true tactics of testing and tracking. On an enterprise level, business software for tracking advertising includes MarketingPilot and Aprimo. Among numerous packages for smaller companies are ProAnalyzer, Clearmetric and AdRevolver.

Numbers don’t lie, and the smartest business decision is to reinvest additional advertising dollars into the areas that are actually showing results for your company.