Internet Marketing for Free

Talk to almost any advertising agency, or Fortune 500 company exec about advertising and promotion, and you will almost certainly hear the buzz words “fragmented advertising” and “consumer-centric campaigns” and long discussions about the many pitfalls and difficulties of creating effective advertising campaigns today.

What is fragmentation exactly? It’s the increase in the number of available methods for getting your message to your audience.

One of the main difficulties faced by any entrepreneur is that advertising has changed and evolved over the last few years. It now includes visual, audio and electronic media.

In fact, if you do a Google search for advertising, you may feel overwhelmed by all the options available to you now — if you just look at the options for your Website you’ll find popups, popovers, audio messages, flash video, RSS, even animated “sales people” that can be programmed to appear right on your Website and interact with your customers. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

So is traditional advertising — which includes billboards, radio, television, newspaper and magazine — dead?

Not by a long shot. According to one top advertising mogul, traditional advertising methods are still around because they still work.

The trick is to figure out who your target market is, what they want, and how they look for that information.

Mark Twain said, “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

If you know customers, you can spend your advertising dollars on the mediums they use to look for answers.

If your customers are senior citizens who are not online, then focus the majority of your advertising dollars on the newspapers, magazines, television, and radio that they are reading, watching or listening to.

If your target market are working parents, you need to know how, when and where they get their information. Is it on the Internet? What radio stations do they listen to? What magazines are they reading? Do they watch television? When? Why?

So what are your best options for creating an effective advertising campaign?

Here are some simple steps:

1. Know your audience. What do they want? Where do they shop? What do they read? How old are they? Where do they hang out? Do they need your product or services? Can they afford your product or services?

2. Know your competition. Be prepared to do a little detective work. What are your three main competitors doing to advertise? Where are they advertising? How often? What types of advertising methods are they using? How long have they been running? Are you reaching the same audience? Is your message different?

Look at what they’re doing right, and figure out creative ways that you can make your advertising just a little bit better, or differentiate yourself from the crowd.

3. Next take a look at what the “big dogs” in your field are doing, and see if you can adapt some of their methods to your target audience and your budget.

4. Know your message. What exactly are you trying to say? What do your customers want to hear? Why should they buy from you, and not someone else? Make every word count.

Chances are, your customers are much more tech-savvy than they were five years ago, or even one year ago. The Internet has made unbelievable amounts of information accessible, but it also has contributed to the “information overload” consumers complain of.

Another side effect of the Internet is that your customers have probably become used to getting “instant gratification” when they are looking for information, products or services. They want it, and they want it now. Are you giving your customers what they want, when they want it?

If you want to have an effective advertising campaign, don’t try to be everything to everyone. Think of your advertising as a conversation between you and your one “ideal” customer.
Remember, if you’re giving your customers what they want, they don’t perceive your ads as a nuisance, they see them as a service.

Traditional advertising is not dead and you can use it to your advantage if you pay attention to who your customers are, and what they want.

Chet Holcomb of http://www.internetpromotions.biz is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product.

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Smart businesses know that clever and effective marketing is the key to success during both good and bad economic times. The problem is that many businesses are finding it hard to adapt their marketing strategies to today’s economic climate.

This is not surprising as successful marketing especially in a recession requires detailed marketing knowledge and experience that many businesses don’t have. Investing in good marketing consultants can help businesses reconnect with their customers or clients and promote their products/services more effectively.

This article provides a brief overview covering the following:
o What marketing consultants are
o What can businesses expect from a marketing consultant
o How they can help businesses during a recession
o What to look for when choosing a marketing consultant

What are Marketing Consultants?

A marketing consultant is a trained professional or company who can assist a business or organisation in creating and implementing effective marketing strategies to promote their products or services.

A trained marketing consultant should be able to view things from the target audience’s perspective including how they think and react to a business’s products or services.

Good marketing consultants are certainly worth the investment since they can handle all of a business’s marketing requirements leaving the client free to focus on other important business needs.

Whether a business is just starting up or has been trading for some time an experienced consultant can assist them in investing their marketing budgets wisely and creating strategies that working both in the short and long term to meet and in some cases exceed their expectations.

So what should you expect from your marketing consultant?

A good marketing consultant should:
o be experts in a number of marketing techniques and strategies
o provide creative, fresh and successful marketing strategies that are tailored to the businesses goals and target audiences
o assess current marketing strategies, identifying problems and suitable solutions
o handle any issues or problems that may arise during a recommended marketing campaign quickly and efficiently
o collate and analysis marketing data including providing campaign reports
o be in regular communication with the client being able to listen as well as make suggestions

How can Marketing Consultants can help businesses during a recession?

Recession is a difficult time for business suddenly customers aren’t as willing to part with their money as they used to be, plus existing marketing campaigns may have become much less effective.

What is often needed is a fresh approach, but where to start? No business wants to start risking their marketing budgets testing different strategies until they find the ones that work. What they need is someone who has the expertise to access the current situation and experience to suggest proven marketing solutions.

This is where a good marketing consultant or company can really help, finding ways to make marketing budgets stretch further and work more effectively to improve business ROI.
Yes hiring marketing consultants is an addition cost that needs to be carefully considered, but surviving a recession is not just about cutting costs it’s about using resources wisely. Investing in a consultant can help businesses review their current marketing identifying areas where resources could be saved and where existing or extra resources should be placed for maximum results.

What should I look for in a marketing consultant?

Hiring a marketing consultant can bring a business valuable expertise and a fresh successful approach to their marketing efforts; however, as with any industry it’s important to pick the right consultant for the job.

The following are a few points to consider when selecting a marketing consultant or firm:
o Recommendations – Make sure the consultant or firm can provide client recommendations. Ask for a list of current clients who can be contacted for references.
o Compare – It’s worth getting in contact with several different consultants and comparing them not only on price, but also experience and service. The right consultant is not always the cheapest or most expensive, but often the most experienced.
o Research – Do some independent research on marketing consultants. Businesses can use the internet to research individual consultants or companies and check if there are any complaints or issues they need to be aware of. Even the best companies may have disputes from time to time so if there are complaints businesses should try to find out more about them and how they were resolved.
o Rapport – It’s important to have a good working relationship with your marketing consultant. You want someone who will listen to you and communicate on a regular basis. If you have doubts about their ability to communicate with you then its best to look for another consultant.
o Creativity – Part of the job of a marketing consultant will be to come up with fresh new ideas and strategies and this requires creativity. If the consultant or firm don’t seem very creative or lacking in ideas you need to look elsewhere.
o Multiple Strategies – Never put rely on just one marketing strategy. Look for consultants who will offer a number of carefully planned strategies that can be put to the test and provide clear results in both the short and long term.

No one can be an expert on everything and in business it’s important to recognise an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and use them accordingly. Marketing is a specialist field and it is unlikely that most businesses will have individuals with all the expertise needed in this area so hiring a marketing consultant or firm provides an excellent solution.

However, it’s important for businesses to approach hiring a marketing consultant carefully, taking the time to find the right consultant for them to ensure their business is successful not only today, but long into the future.

Recession is a difficult time for everyone, but by spending marketing resources wisely and getting the right expert help many businesses can actually become stronger and more successful.

Hedley Basford skilled and experienced marketing consultants are committed to making your business more successful by offering you a personal service with honesty and integrity.

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Business of any kind depends a lot on advertising, since you need to get the word across to potential customers. Choosing the right advertising media is very important if you wish to see our clientele grow, and yet do not want to end up wasting many resources on worthless advertising.

How to Choose an Advertising Media:

Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting an advertising media.

1) What are the features of your products that you want to emphasize?

2) Are you building a brand for your company or just want to sell a product?

3) How much are you ready to spend on advertising?

4) What is the profile of the targeted customers?

5) How frequently will your products be bought?

6) At what time do you want to display the ads? People have different moods at different times, so advertisements have differing psychological impacts based on the time of display of ads.

Types of Advertisements:

There are different kinds of advertisements depending on customer profile, brand, product etc.

1) Category Specific Advertisements

These ads are “one size fits all” kinds, where all you have to do is fill your product name in a preset template. A typical category specific advertisement can be used for any number of products in similar categories.

2) Franchise Advertisements

These ads are useful when it comes to building a brand. The advertisement builds up hype around a brand, and thus costs more than a category specific ad.

3) Store Specific Advertisements

Store specific ads are highly region specific; what works for one retail store in one location may not work for another in the same or different location.

4) Product Specific Advertisement

The product specific ads are about the product on sale. It has nothing to do with brands, company, or any other subject related to the seller. These advertisements are the best option for small businesses and franchisees. However, franchisees should take care that these advertisements do not just highlight the manufacturer’s business, but also the products you retail on behalf of the manufacturers.

What Your Advertising Firm Never Told You:
When selecting an advertising media, you should not think that simply putting in a lot of money would do the trick. Here are some surprising findings by the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

1) The effectiveness of the advertisement has nothing to do with what you spend on them.

2) Content of the advertisement is more important than how much money you spend on it.

3) Repeating advertisements is a very effective way of getting your message across.

Best Advertising Media:
Some of the most widely used advertising media are:

1) Billboards

2) Television

3) Radio

4) Newspapers

5) Direct Mailing to potential customers

The above guidelines will help you generate more revenue through higher sales that result from effective advertising. Good advertising is more about proper content, and it should be delivered keeping the profile of the customers in mind. You can hire a small business advisor to help you with choosing the best advertising media for your small business if you want to know more about the kind of advertising vehicle that suits your business.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com – The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

Business Owners all across the country are joining “The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.

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Quite a few clients have told me that marketing is difficult for them. It is difficult to get started with marketing; it is difficult to figure out how to market, and it is difficult to understand how to market effectively. Even if you are already using marketing techniques to promote your business, there is no guarantee that your marketing efforts will bring the results you are looking for.

I have put together a simple plan for you to take charge of your marketing and to simplify at least some of the process. Here are five marketing steps:

- Define What Needs To Be Done. What are you marketing? Is it a product or a service? What are the results you are looking for? Would you like to generate more sales, more leads, more partners? Which online marketing techniques are you planning to use? Search engine optimization, article marketing, newsletter publishing? The better you define these points, the easier it will be for you to put your marketing plan into motion.

- Break Your Plan Into Bite-Size Pieces. Divide-and-conquer is a proven, time-tested technique for managing complicated tasks. If your goal is to optimize your web site for search engines, your bite-size pieces will include learning about search engine optimization, performing keyword research, optimizing your pages, optimizing your copy, etc. It is much easier to follow along when you map out the steps.

- Understand The Marketing Process. It is really difficult to apply a marketing technique if you do not have a good understanding of the process. For example, if you do not know how to use article marketing to promote your business, you will not be able to use it to market. Learning about marketing is essential. It will help you market now, and you can use your newly acquired marketing knowledge to continue marketing your business for years to come.

- Don’t Try to Do Everything At Once. Don’t start using five marketing techniques at the same time. You will simply end up jumping from one method to another, without spending a proper amount of time on any one of them. If you do not devote sufficient time to applying a marketing technique, you will not get results. Take some time to learn and apply a new marketing technique. Then, once you are seeing results, move on to the next one.

- Track Your Results. Tracking your results (or lack thereof) helps you understand what has produced results and what hasn’t. It also helps you compare different marketing methods and to determine which one(s) produce better results for your business.

Use this five point plan to better market your business and get results from marketing your business online.

Learn how to make marketing simple! Biana Babinsky is the online business coach, expert and author who has taught many solopreneurs how to become better known online, get more clients and make more money. Now you can learn all of her online marketing secrets, described in simple steps, in the Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zcourse

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The results I have seen achieved from newspaper, phone directory and web site advertising, have been nothing short of amazing. It has all been accomplished using simple, but powerful, strategies.

Whether you are running web site advertising or any other kind of advertising – it still needs to get results. Your advertising will cost you the same, regardless of whether it pulls in two sales or does 1000% better and pulls in 22 sales.

So, how do you make your advertising work like crazy?

Your first task is not to get your prospect to read your advertising. You first need them to notice your advertising. I might be old school but, from years of “hands on” experience, I know that EVERY written advertisement needs a powerful headline. That goes for mail order, phone directory advertising, web site advertising, newspaper advertising etc. Every advertisement needs to grab attention with a powerful headline.

When I sort through my mail I do it next to the wastepaper basket. Unless it is something important, or a bill I need to pay, most of it gets trashed.

If I spot an eye-catching headline, I might be tempted to read a couple of paragraphs to see what it is all about. The same goes for web site advertising; if the web page doesn’t immediately grab my attention, I will move on to the next web site.

So, the first job of any advertising is to get attention. The second job is to keep the reader interested in what you have to say. You just have to get the person to read the first sentence, then the next sentence, then the one after that, and so on. Keep them interested and you may start to create a desire for what you have to sell.

Take just one step at a time. Get their attention and then keep them interested. Create a desire. Then, introduce a call to action and ask them to buy.

It is really important to work through the process in the correct order. There is no point in asking for the sale if you haven’t first grabbed their attention and created the desired.

That is why so many advertisements fail to pull in satisfactory results. A lot of advertisers put their company name at the top of the advertisement (boring!), and expect that to grab the attention of a reader. The business owner might like to see his or her company name big and bold at the top of the ad, but the average reader won’t have the same interest. The reader is more interested in “what’s in it for me.”

We are all interested in ourselves and want to know how we can benefit in some way. This is an important point all advertisers need to understand if they want better results from their advertising.

Now, before I go, take another look at the headline of this article. You will see it includes a benefit, which is exactly what I have just been talking about. If you have read this far, then you must have been interested in what I had to say. Hopefully you now have the desire to improve your advertising. However, I will stop there and not ask for a sale, because that is not the purpose of this article.

The important thing is that you understand the important sequence of the AIDA process – Get Attention, Create Interest, Generate Desire, and then Call for Action.

Noel has a friend with a new jewelry website with helpful information selecting a Mens Cross Necklaces and Mens Gold Rings. This site has helpful information for jewelry buyers, male or female.

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