The Downside Of Targeting Niche Markets
How To Use Promotional Products To Market Your Business And Delight Your Customers
Looking for a low-cost, attention-getting way to promote your business? Do it with promotional products. Sometimes called "advertising specialties," these delightful items include mugs, key rings, caps, t-shirts, playing cards, license-plate frames, flashlights, and more -- all with your company LOGO printed on them.People just love them, especially if you offer them for free. Often your established customers will even BUY them, sometimes at a price that creates a profit for you.The variety and kinds of products you can have your name printed on is incredible. As a promotional product specialist, I can -- right now -- deliver more than 700,000 popular promotional items, all with your name on them, ranging from aprons to watches.The beauty of promotional products is they are a super low-cost billboard that stays with your prospect or customer for years at a time. Every time the prospect uses the promotional placemat, fan, or pen, they'll think of YOU. And everyone else who sees that item will think of you, too.In recent years, big companies who could easily afford all the newspaper and TV advertising they want, have instead invested millions in promotional products.Why? They work! Promotional products work especially well to market to those very powerful, but hard to reach individuals like corporate bosses or teenagers. A teenager might turn her nose up at your TV ad and never see your newspaper ad. But if a friend she admires wears or uses your promotional product, you're immediately cool.The same principle works for corporate chieftains who are impossible to reach on the phone and never answer their email. Fed Ex him or her a luxury item for their home or office, and you will get their attention.Promotional items are also excellent for reinforcing your media or online advertising. How do you get a prospect to remember your ad for weeks, months, or even years? Give them a promotional product that makes them think of you and your ad.For added effect, choose "promotional items" that relate to your business. A gym might giveaway a t-shirt. A tanning salon might hand out sunglasses. Let your creativity and sense of fun be your guide.Keep in mind that promotional products aren't just for marketing business names. They work equally well when they focus on a specific product, product line, service, or idea. Some of the most successful promotional products have worked to promote political, religious, health, and community causes.Click through a site or catalog that features a big selection of promotional products. Think about your customers as you browse. When you find yourself thinking "Oh - they would LOVE this"... you've found your best promotional item.
A Look at Make-Up Infomercials
Using a variety of female celebrities, infomercial producers have once again created a huge market where none existed. Thats not to say that make up products didnt exist. They did. And they were a multibillion dollar industry long before anybody ever thought of infomercials. Starting in the early twentieth century with the advent of movies and their subsequent side affect beautiful stars! make up companies have been designing products to make average looking women look better. Or at least think they look better. Make up has been a staple of upscale department stores and high priced boutiques right from the very beginning of the retail business. Even in the early days, make up products had their own departments. Salesgirls were hired who exhibited a youthful, sparkling appearance. They would grab women by the hand, lead them to the sales counter, apply a bit of this, a dab of that and a puff of something else for free and then make the sale. Early products were marketed in the usual manner for their value in improving your appearance and their price. The first make up celebrities in the pre-infomercial era were not the stars that women were trying to emulate but the heads of the Hollywood make up departments who made the stars look so glamorous. And so the likes of Max Factor, make up master to countless female celebrities (and men too, by the way) and the most successful line of make up products were born. Later on the celebrities themselves, sensing a huge cash return for the use of their face, put themselves on various lines of make up products available in stores. When their looks faded, when their careers stopped humming along, the make up products disappeared as well. And then came infomercials. All of a sudden there was a way to get women interested in buying make up products over their TV sets and was it ever successful! Sensing right from the outset that the products had to be celebrity driven, producers came up with a way to market their products to women all over the world via the TV set. Faded and fading stars from the music business, movie business and TV business jumped on the bandwagon to sell make up and other beauty supplies to American women by the truckload. Heres the hook that they used: the make up infomercial and the products were not completely celebrity driven. The celebrity was merely there to endorse the products supposedly used on her over the years to keep her looking younger and more beautiful. But the product itself was created by, bore the name of and was demonstrated by the make up artist who had labored for years applying make up to countless beautiful celebrities. The make up artist was not a beauty herself but a regular woman who merely worked on celebrities. Hence, the housewife watching in Des Moines, or Chicago or anywhere was not made to feel ugly or less than glamorous. In fact the celebrity was usually somewhat demeaned on make up infomercials as they would often appear on the show without any make up on. You would be channel surfing and a close up shot of a celebrity you know would appear on the screen and youd stop, youd notice she didnt look so good. Youd wonder what happened and youd start watching the infomercial. And youd hear her talking endlessly about how her appearance, her look, her beauty was predominately the successful work of the artist and her line of amazing products while the artist was applying make up to her face and transforming her right before your very eyes. And furthermore, YOU!, Miss American Average Woman, could have these same products that celebrities have been using for years to make movie magic happen, the secret stuff known only to Hollywood insiders, delivered right to your door in a few days for the low, low price ofwell you get the idea. What a concept! Dont get the beautiful celebrity, with the face of an angel, to sell the product. Have the average looking make up artist sell the product while the beautiful celebrity is transformed from average looking to gorgeous right before your eyes! And of course, the celebrity was an equal or even majority partner in the profits from the line, picking up millions along the way for a days work, sitting in a comfortable chair, in air conditioned splendor, having make up applied to their faces. As the man said Only in America!
How To Use Sponsor Ads To Increase Website Traffic
How many times have you surfed the Internet and noticed that most e-zines and websites have advertisements posted all around its pages? Flashing ads that are popping up and blocking your view are often hard to get rid of. Even some search engines and directories carry sponsor ads. Sometimes those "sponsor ads" can get in the way, but sometimes the ad appears too tempting not to check. If it was not for those sponsor ads, you might not have realized a specific business or website existed. The two primary goals of sponsor ads are to increase awareness of a product, brand, or business and to enhance the image of the business or brand. These goals are very important to the success of small businesses and their websites. In order to strive, small businesses need to spread the word on what products and services they have to offer in order to increase their profits. They also need to stay in communication with customers and potential customers to what they have and why you need it. This may even mean they have to send out an emailed newsletter. People like to know what is out there that they can benefit from. To achieve these two primary goals, consider using sponsor ads to increase the traffic to your website. Using sponsor advertising can be a great way to increase traffic to your website and encourage more product and services purchases. Sponsor advertising has become increasingly popular among web site owners, allowing the businesses to develop relationships with the online community by providing information and becoming a part of the online community. Many online business owners who are looking to promote their website may be interested in using sponsor ads to increase the traffic to their website. More website traffic can mean more sales and increased profits. Sponsor ads can be free, bought, traded, or sold. It all depends where you look, and whether you are looking for free opportunities or can afford to pay for them. It will also depend on where your business stands financially and how much you plan to advertise or invest in advertising. Sponsor ads can offer many different advantages to both the sponsor and the website. The sponsor may be able to benefit as attitudes that are more promising evolve with trust, leadership, credibility, and enhanced customer service. When the sponsor or website is able to develop good customer relationships, this may prompt the sales to grow faster. Customers want to know they can depend on a business for their wants and needs. Customers want reliability and outstanding customer service. The business website can benefit by providing secure, updated information at no charge to the customer. Visitors may also see the website as more active and responsive to their interests and therefore develop a kind of relationship with the website. E-zines offer great sponsor ads that will be of benefit to your website. There are varieties of E-zines from which to choose. It is important to make sure you choose the ones that compliment your website or that have similar content. In this age of computer technology, there are many different types of E-zines out there. The Internet has become the fastest growing form of having an "online business" . There are literally millions of people online everyday searching through websites, E-zines, directories and search engines. The more sponsor ads you have in popular locations, the more likely customers will find our website and look at what you have to offer them. Making your website business available to the world and easy to find is the best way to increase the traffic to your website. You have a purpose for having a website, so why not use every opportunity to promote your website and reap the profits. It is up to you to use sponsor ads and be the next flashing, pop up, blocking your view, hard to get rid of advertisement online. You want to be that online advertisement that gets in the way and that is so tempting, others just have to check it out. Once you increase the awareness of your product, brand, or business, you can generate more traffic to your website and receive a Return on Investment (ROI) to make all your hard work worth all your time and effort.
9 Marketing Credos for a Thriving Business
1. Differentiate or Die! You Must Stand Out From the Pack. Dont become another me too option for your prospects to choose from. When you allow this to happen, you position yourself to compete only on price a tough arena to play in.2. You Are in Two Businesses... The Business of DELIVERING Your Products and Services AND The Business of MARKETING Them. You're better off being a GREAT marketer and have adequate ability at what your business delivers than have great ability at what your business delivers and be an average marketer.3. Know Thy Target Audience! Who exactly is your ideal customer? What do they look like? Where do they hang out? What is their decision making process? Keep drilling down until you are crystal clear and can visualize them in your head. Then focus your marketing efforts directly at them. 4. The Internet is Simply Another Medium to Reach Your Target Audience Dont Be Intimidated by it! You do not need to be a computer expert to market your business online. Nor do you need to go it alone. Help is all around us, we just have to ask for it.5. Consistency Is Key! This is where the old clich Out of sight out of mind really holds true. You must have consistency in the look, feel and frequency of delivery of your marketing efforts. This builds a level of comfort between you and your prospects and helps you maintain top of mind presence with them.6. Apply the Rule of Five to Your Marketing Efforts Every Day. Commit to doing at least 5 things per day to market your business and see your business soar!7. Have a Plan! Know the 5 Ws Who, What, When Where, and Why of every marketing initiative you take. Add to that a financial forecast for your marketing efforts and you are golden!8. Diversify Your Efforts! Dont put all your marketing eggs in one basket. Have multiple marketing tactics going at all times so that you always have a bread-winning marketing tactic.9. Tap Into Viral Marketing! Get others promoting and selling for you. 2005 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.
Business Card Design That Works
There are a lot of business cards being circulated by countless businesses nowadays, but the truth is most people only keep a few. The main reason is that the business card does nothing to make the people who have them want to know more about the business. There are cards that utilize loud designs that make the contact information hardly noticeable. There are letter heads which are printed in unreadable fonts and sizes, or a paper material that is way too scented or way too glossy. Business cards have the ability to speak so much about a business. This is the reason why the design of a business card is as essential as the distribution of the cards to a greater number of people. There are many business card printing companies that are able to come up with professionally designed cards best suited to your company or business. Whether online or offline, these printing and design experts can be of great help in determining which design, color, or lay out will give your business the best possible exposure it can generate. Although there are businesses, especially small or start-up businesses who would rather print their own business cards to save on costs, choosing a professional business card lay-out designer and printing company is a wiser option. There are in fact many ways to optimize a business card. The products or services can be enumerated on the face of the card for the clients to have a clearer grasp of what the business can offer. Unfortunately there are cards that fail to include other services which may add to the profitability of the business by increasing sales.Furthermore, in business cards, the business logo and business name must be printed legibly on them. It is not wise to fill your card with so much information and other designs, and barely leaving enough space for your company name and logo. A business card is not a company resume, and as much as information on the company is essential, there is no sense in overdoing it.Finally, the other side of the business card can be utilized for a number of purposes. The location map of the business may be printed, or a particular product best seller or service can be highlighted. Or the card can have a folded design so as to have more space for additional information. "Business cards" can do so much for any business, when optimized for exposure and sales purposes.