Do’s and Don’ts For Effective Advertising
There are so many ways to advertise these days that it is hard to know what options to use and how to use them. Here are some quick and easy tips to effectively advertise your business or product.
Do’s
Do be sure to book ahead for the holidays. If you want to place a television commercial or newspaper advertisement around the holidays, you need to get your ad in these places months ahead of time. Many businesses clamor to get their ads in around the holidays and will have to pay top dollar for it or take the least popular times if they wait too long.
Do keep your message fresh for the variety of media outlets. Do not use the exact same copy for each type of advertisement you employ. You do want to keep the same message, but use different words for different media to get that message across. This way you will not be annoyingly repetitive.
Do tout your benefits, not your features. People want to know what your product can do for them. This is what draws them in. They will learn about all your great features after you have garnered enough interest for them to walk into your store.
Do learn from other advertising campaigns, including your competitions’. When you see an ad that really grabs your attention, take note and think about why – what about it made you look, stop, and take the time to read or listen? Ask others in your company or family to do the same. You can also ask what your co-workers’ favorite commercials are – they are bound to remember at least one. Write these down and see if you find a common factor that makes these commercials so memorable. Try to incorporate this factor in your advertising materials.
Don’ts
Do not advertise in one type of media. To be effective, advertising has to be repetitive (but not annoyingly so! See above.) This is best achieved through different channels – newspaper ads, radio ads, brochures or other color printing pieces, flyers, billboards, and television ads – the list is nearly endless. By advertising in a variety of places, you will get your message out to more people – the people that do not watch television, you will get through the newspaper. People that do not walk by your flyers will hear your radio ads.
Do not convolute your message. Keep it simple and short. Do not add too many details. Yes, your products have all these great benefits, but pick the top two or three and focus on those. If you add too much information, people will get confused or will tune your message out. Also, keep the layout simple by using easy-to-read fonts and limit the number of photos.
Do not forget to use your headlines. In any print materials you have – brochures, flyers, letters, etc., be sure to include your product’s benefits in your headlines. Most people skim before they read, so the way to draw them in to read your smaller ad copy is to attract them with your headlines.
By: Kaye Marks
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Seriesse International and Classified Advertising
Classified advertising refers to the form of advertising that allows private individuals to advertise for their products and services, as opposed to the standard form of advertising, which is designed almost exclusively for corporate entities or companies. Classified advertising is more common in periodicals and newspapers. A classified ad can vary in content, from offering as little information as the item for sale and a telephone number to providing potential customers with thorough descriptions of the product being sold, contact address and name, and so forth. As detailed as the ad may be, graphics or pictures of the products are hardly ever found, though logos are quite common.
This form of advertising bears the name of ‘classified’ due to the fact that products and services are grouped under headings that classify them. Another difference between classified advertising and display advertising is that the two are grouped in distinct sections of the newspaper or other periodicals, and the latter typically contains graphics in addition to the content. However, there is a combination between the two forms of advertising, which is referred to as classified display advertising. Classified advertising is largely used by companies when they want to recruit staff for their job openings.
Seriesse International has implemented this way of advertisement which has found its way to radio and television, and, most recently, to the Internet as well. The difference between the online classified advertising and the traditional form of advertising is that ads on the Internet have the tendency of being longer due to the fact per-line pricing model, which is employed in traditional advertising, is not used online. Subsequently, there is no need for abbreviations that would save space and money.
Online classified advertising comes with a series of advantages, such as a wider audience scope, the possibility of fostering a greater sense of urgency, the ability to be searched ore readily, low cost structures, the self-policing nature, and the tendency towards being local. Some companies may even offer free online classified advertising services at an international level. Other companies tend to focus on a smaller region, such as their hometown or another urban region.
An increasing tendency towards specialization was brought about by the development of the online classified advertising sector. Both the general marketplace and the vertical markets for classified adverting are developing fast, and the websites dedicated to classified function a lot like search engines, in that they are typically vertical in nature, and they provide platforms for buyer or seller niche markets.
Some of the services offered by companies like Seriesse International, that specialize on online classified advertising include the possibility of loading your ad instantly and uploading unlimited images. Once you have posted an ad, you can edit it anytime or upgrade it in order to make it stand out from the other ads in the same category. The ad will then be displayed throughout the network that the company administers.
Given the notable advantages brought about by the advent of the online version of classified advertising, it is safe to say that, pretty much like all the other things that have found their way towards the ‘world wide web’, this form of advertising has already become and will continue to be a success story.
By: Ric Mez
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Benefits of Aerial Advertising
Although business owners might not think of aerial advertising when planning their annual advertising budget, they should.
There are many distinct advantages to using airplane advertising. In many cases, the advantage of using plane advertising over more “traditional” advertising mediums is quite significant.
When planning an advertising budget, business owners should consider the distinct advantages of using aerial advertising as a medium to get a message across. The return on the initial investment could be significant.
Some of the benefits include:
Cost savings
First, aerial advertising is cost effective. You can easily reach thousands of people in a small period of time. You don’t have to assume they’ll watch the commercial and not flip the channel. You can be assured that when airplane messages appear, they will look skyward and pay attention to the advertisement that’s passing over.
That means there is no money wasted on advertising that won’t be read or paid attention to. In fact, it’s estimated that plane advertising costs about 50 cents per thousand people. No matter the deal offered by a radio station or a newspaper, it’s hard to beat the return on the aerial advertising dollar. Cost effective it is.
Novelty
It’s unusual and provides a break from the usual. People pay attention to aerial advertising, likely because it’s not something you see often. When they are laying in the sun on the beach on a lazy July day, they look skyward when airplane messages appear.
In addition, that novelty leads to memory. That is, people remember the aerial adds they see more than they remember other types of advertising. This is partly due to the novelty – they stop and say “hey, look at that plane and the banner!” – But it’s also the attention the banners garner. Studies show that people will generally watch the aerial advertising as is passes over and will continue to watch it until it disappears from sight. That’s a solid block of time where the intended audience is focusing on the advertiser’s message.
Non intrusive
To get the message across, advertisers who use banner towing aren’t intruding on people’s homes, their living room tables or their cars. They are simply providing a message that’s flown over the beach, or an event or other gathering.
People don’t feel as if their privacy, opinions or personal reading has been invaded. This advertising actually does something that most advertising can’t do – provide a welcome distraction, entertainment and a novel thing to talk about.
Increase ad recall
People remember aerial advertising more than any other advertising medium. Studies have shown that when questioned, 77% of the people who had just seen airplane advertising remembered what was being advertised on the banner. Another 67% could remember what was being advertised.
These numbers are far greater than the response to other kinds of advertising like radio and print ads.
All of these benefits add up to one great benefit – better use of your advertising dollar and a better return on that dollar.
Aerial Advertising services are available from companies that specialize in this type of advertising. The Internet is a good source of information when it comes to choosing aerial advertising services. Arnold Aerial Advertising is one of the companies that provide such services. Located in New York, Arnold Aerial Advertising provides nationwide service with affordable rates.
By: Michael Arnold
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Reduce Cost of Advertising with Car Wraps
Car wraps became famous when the advertising world was booming as an industry during the 1990s.The popularity started from the innovative idea of having vehicle wraps for better viewing and slowly it permeated down till smaller vehicles like cars, bikes and other two wheelers. The shortage of billboard and other outdoor advertising methods gave rise to using vehicles as the best means of advertising and why not!
Advertisers laughed their way to the bank with the fat checks they got in lieu of implementing innovative advertising features. There are many companies whose marketing require advertising in areas where there is no billboard space or it is too full of conventional poster advertisements. Car wraps come in like a fresh breeze and people look at it with interest while the advertising feature targets more audience.
While mobile advertising is not limited to the vehicle wrap, window graphics are equally attractive. With better adhesive used in these vinyl decals, car window graphics is a niche field employed by the auto wrapping companies. Using advanced perforated window vinyl graphics you can get a beautiful vinyl letters or graphics applied to your car windows. Not only do they look different but they also catch attention very fast, making them an ideal advertising feature. Your dull car will now catch the eye of many on the road. If you need to self advertise your new website or products, instead of spending a large chunk of your capital on marketing and traditional methods of advertising, it’s a viable option to go in for cheaper marketing strategy with higher targeted audience.
With changing technology and better adhesives that are available, vinyl car graphics demand has reached an all time high. With simple ‘do it yourself’ sticker and decals, your car is your billboard (and your friends cars too, ask them) for your business. Just get some custom made vinyl decals or car wraps designed and behold, you are all set to grab the eyeball of millions, driving your own car. Anything colorful and attractive is a nice diversion on the road which 99% of the people read, so you have just sent your message across in one fourth the rate of a media advertisement.
The best example of the car wrap, vinyl graphics and decals can be seen on the sports car racing. Sponsors do their best to be noticed, with the most colorful wild and attractive decals and wraps they can put on the cars, but they all get nation wide coverage.
By: Syed Raheem
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Free Advertising Websites Effective
Many wonder if free advertising is an effective way for their website to get exposure. Contrary to what you might think, there is not an easy answer to this question.
We know that advertising on television can be effective as well as radio advertising. We have seen many people use free advertising on classified websites that have had no success. On the other hand, we have also seen many others that have had tremendous success using free website advertising.
The issue that must come to head and be addressed with any advertising (whether free or not) is writing good ad copy and by making sure that you are selling your target audience what it needs or wants.
One of the biggest reasons free advertising, as well as paid advertising, does not work for some is because most advertisers fail to send a clear and precise advertising message to their potential prospects. Make sure your advertisement is clear and concise. Your free ad must be “catchy” as most people do not enjoy reading or having to decipher through hundreds of different ads. Good advertising will be delivered best through high impact with a short message.
As with any type of advertising, a big key to free ads are to have your advertisements exposed on many websites at once. You’ve probably heard the saying before, “the more hits you get, the more sales you get.” Many free advertising websites give you the option of upgrading to be featured on their site and many times it is at a very low cost (sometimes as low as $10). We have utilized these and found that our websites were getting about 7-10 more hits compared to just the free advertising without the upgrade.
Here’s the bottom line: radio advertising works, newspaper advertising works, television advertising works, AND free advertising works… all advertising can be very effective if utilized correctly.
By: Brian McCoy
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