Internet Promotion - Advantages and Disadvantages

The emergence of globalise trade, increase in foreign investment and cross-border transactions have put many small businesses under pressure to find innovative ways to continue to market their products and services. This is especially difficult given that they often operate on tight marketing budgets.

In the quest for cheap marketing alternatives, these small businesses continue to use conventional marketing tools such as newspaper, magazine, radio and television advertisements, unaware of the advantages that Internet Promotion offers. All too often, these entrepreneurs focus on the disadvantages of Internet Promotion and fail to adequately take advantage of the opportunities that it presents. Moreover, their preoccupation with conventional marketing strategies is driven by a misconception that these are cheaper than Internet Promotion.

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To most small business entrepreneurs, marketing or promoting their products or services via the Internet can be a daunting task. However, with adequate information small businesses can benefit significantly from Internet Promotion while minimising the disadvantages that it presents. In fact, it may prove to be the marketing strategy that generates the highest return on investment.

The Advantages

Cost Effective and Enduring Marketing Strategies

The Internet has become the information superhighway for the buying public. Most persons prefer the hassle free transactions that Internet shopping can offer. As a result, the Internet has become the most powerful selling tool. Internet Promotion offers cost effective ways for small businesses to enhance their product or service distribution networks. For example, the use of portals can help create new marketing channels and logistics, or provide better or faster product access for customers.

In comparison to other forms of marketing, Internet Promotion presents the advantage of reduced budget and storage costs, when compared with printing brochures, producing television or radio advertisements or managing a call centre. It presents a fast and cost effective option for penetrating new markets.

Market Penetration

With millions of person using the Internet to search for products and services, small businesses can penetrate other markets at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods.

Websites act as virtual storefronts, allowing businesses to stay open 24/7. Internet Promotion gives a business greater visibility, thereby creating more opportunities for increasing its customers at relatively low cost. Never before has it been easier for an upstart business to be able to reach out to literally millions of potential customers and to position themselves for success, without the need for costly infrastructure and overwhelming marketing costs. Thanks to the Internet, new businesses can become popular almost overnight.

Low Cost, Instant Communication

Email makes business communications instant, whether the customer or business affiliate is across the street or across the globe. It makes it easier for customers to maintain contact and readily facilitates repeat purchasing. An effective online strategy can therefore turn a small web business into a virtual cost saver and income-generating machine. The net result is that the small business can gain significant competitive advantage in a given market.

Many online businesses have therefore resorted to the use of ezines, blogs, pop-up ads and other online marketing tools to let customers know about new products or services as well as provide information relevant to their respective industry. The benefits of this strategy are two fold. Marketers can effectively heighten brand awareness for relatively new products on the market whilst strengthening customer relationships, with shorter time frames.

Content is Timeless

Internet Promotion also provides the advantage of being enduring. Whereas participation at a trade fair or conference loses sales impact, once it is over, and an advertisement in a newspaper or business magazine may quickly lose its sales generating value within a day or two or as soon as the next issue is released; Internet Promotion is often timeless. Apart from the dates and sometimes prices, much of your website content remains valid years after.

Real Time Statistics For Measuring Success of Promotion Campaign

One of the most significant advantages of Internet Promotion is that its success is measurable. Marketers can use tools that provide real time statistics, on unique visitors, repeat visitors, click through rates (CTR) on advertisements, thereby allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of a promotion campaign. This enables marketers to determine what works for their particular market and to make timely changes in their marketing strategies.

Time Saving

Another important advantage of Internet Promotion is that it saves time since it generally does away with counselling on product uses and benefits, service information and sales administration. Visitors can access "frequently asked questions" to help themselves, and can buy online, without the involvement of staff. This saves time and money. So, whether 10 or 10,000 visitors visit the site, the increased cost is marginal whilst the savings can be immense.

But like any business approach, Internet Promotion is not without its risks and weaknesses.

Disadvantages

Difficulty in Attracting Customers

Small business may not have the resources to pay for paid directory inclusion, pay per click inclusions and often have to rely solely on search engine optimisation or word of mouth to drive traffic to their sites. With millions of businesses selling the same product and services, competing with more established businesses can be frustrating and costly venture for small business.

On the other hand, larger companies can offer promotions, pay for directory inclusions, implement pay per click campaigns as well as employ the "who is who" in internet marketing to develop campaigns that generate traffic and leads.

Difficulty in Evaluating Legitimacy of Transaction

Another notable disadvantage of doing promoting businesses online is that it may be difficult for the businesspersons and consumers to thoroughly evaluate the legitimacy of a transaction. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to thieves using stolen credit cards and stolen information to do online transaction.

With Internet credit card and identity fraud on the rise, small businesses are forced to finance costly security measures to reduce their vulnerability to fraudulent transactions.

Salespersons and Customers are Isolated

Another disadvantage of promotion via the Internet is that the customers and businesspersons are isolated. There is little personal contact between customer and salesperson prior to and after the sales is closed. Thus, the prospect for repeat sales may thus be diminished. Entrepreneurs are therefore compelled to adopt marketing strategies to drive online users back to their site.

From all indications, it appears that the advantages of Internet promotion, far exceed the disadvantages. With adequate knowledge, entrepreneur can benefit significantly from Internet promotion, especially small business owners.

More and more, the growth and outreach of the Internet's, its ease and accessibility for customers is becoming inevitable. Small business would therefore be well advised to start their web advertising function in order to improve their competitiveness online.

Internet Promotion - Advantages and Disadvantages

Carla Lendor has been involved in Internet Marketing from 2000. She is a co-publisher of eXplosion!, a newsletter which offers guidance to small online businesses. She is the co-founder of Caricom Single Market Economy, a blog with discusses the challenges faced by Caribbean businesses in the CSME. Visit Patant Consultants International or Caribbean Vacation Resorts [http://www.jewelsinthesun.com/] for more information.

Newspaper Advertising Costs - 8 Factors To Consider

Calculating and comparing newspaper advertising costs can quickly get complicated. Once you've tracked down a newspaper advertising rates card, you're then faced with the delightful challenge of making sense of it all. There's no "one size fits all" to make our lives easy. Instead, newspaper advertising costs depend on a number of factors, some of which you might find surprising. To answer the question, "How much does it cost?", the answer would be: "It all depends."

8 factors that affect newspaper advertising costs (within the one publication) are:

• type of ad
• size
• day of the week
• section or lift-out
• page position within a section
• left hand side VS right hand side
• colour VS black and white
• annual spend/expenditure commitment

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In this article, I'll discuss the 8 factors that determine newspaper advertising costs in Australia. I'll also provide an example of how much it would cost to place a display ad in The Courier Mail (a Queensland newspaper). As you'll see, newspaper advertising costs can quickly add up. If you're on a tight budget, as many of us are these days, knowing what most affects the cost, allows you to cut back where you can.

#1 Type of Ad - Display VS Classifieds VS Inserts

The first factor that decides the cost of a newspaper advertisement, is the type of ad. Most Australian newspapers offer a number of different types. Display advertisements appear throughout a newspaper, and may use colours, illustrations, photographs, or fancy lettering to attract the reader's attention. These provide a great deal of creative control over the content of the ad, without being limited to just text. They also aren't grouped according to classification, unlike classified ads. Display advertisements are typically charged at a rate per single column centimetre. In other words, the height in centimetres and width in columns determines the cost of the advertising space. On the other hand, classified ads are typically charged based on 'lineage' or per line.

Another form of advertising offered by most major newspapers are 'inserts' - separate advertisements that are placed inside the newspaper, and can have more than one page. Inserts are usually charged at a rate of per 1000 per number of pages. For the purposes of this article, we're going to limit our discussion to display advertisements.

#2 Size Matters

The second factor that contributes to the cost of newspaper advertising, is size. As mentioned above, display advertisements costs are calculated based on their height in centimetres, and width in columns. Most newspapers have their own standard sized advertising spaces, which your ad needs to fit into. Some newspapers offer non-standard sized spaces, such as a 'U' shaped ad around the edges of an open paper, but be prepared to pay a higher price for irregular sizes and shapes.

Let's look at the standard sizes available in The Courier Mail, as an example.

• "Small Page Strip", 6cm high by 7 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day (based on a Mon-Fri Casual rate of $AU58.51) is $AU2457.42.
• "Medium Page Strip", 8cm high by 7 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU3276.56.
• "Quarter Page Strip", 10cm high by 7 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU4095.70.
• "Horizontal Half Page", 20cm high by 7 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU8191.40.
• "Full Page", 38 cm high by 7 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU15563.66.
• "Vertical Half Page", 38cm high by 4 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU8893.52.
• "Vertical Third Page", 38cm high by 3 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU6670.14.
• "Vertical Quarter Page", 38cm high by 2 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU4446.76.
• "Portrait Half Page", 28cm high by 5 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU8191.40.
• "Portrait Third Page", 20cm high by 4 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU4680.80.
• "Portrait Quarter Page", 20cm high by 3 columns wide, the minimum casual cost per day is $AU3510.60.

Here you can see that the cost of a standard size display ad can range from at least 57.42 per day for a small page strip, and up to at least 563.66 per day for a full page advertisement. That's an awful lot of money to invest in a single page, that will only be published on one day. Most of us simply don't have that kind of cash to throw around, so you'd really need to know what you were doing. This example demonstrates how much the size of a display advertisement affects the price.

#3 Day of the Week

The third factor that contributes to the cost of a newspaper advertisement is the day of the week on which the advertisement is published. Typically, newspaper circulation is greatest on the weekends, and so the advertising rates for major Australian newspapers are adjusted accordingly. In our example of The Courier Mail, the rates are cheaper on a weekday, more expensive on a Saturday, and most expensive on a Sunday. For the most basic display ads, Saturday ads are 25% dearer than Monday - Friday ads, and Sunday ads are almost 90% dearer than Monday - Friday ads.

This pattern may vary though, depending on the circulation of a particular publication. For instance, The Age is most expensive on a Saturday. To illustrate how much of a difference it makes - a small page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday would be at least 57.42, and the exact same ad run on a Sunday would be at least 37.64.

#4 Different Sections or Lift-Outs

Most newspapers are divided into different sections and many have lift-outs - and this is the fourth factor that determines newspaper advertising costs. Different sections attract different readers and different volumes of readers, and so the advertising rates are adjusted to reflect this. For example, an advertisement placed in the CareerOne (Employment) lift-out in The Courier Mail, costs 2% more than the general section. The rates for CareerOne, also vary depending on the day of the week, as mentioned above. Some examples of other sections that may have different rates include: Adult Services, Funeral Notices, Real Estate, and Business.

#5 Page Position Within a Section

The next factor that can significantly affect the price of a newspaper ad, is the page number on which the ad appears, within a certain section. The most expensive part of the paper is typically the front section, which might include the first 10 or so pages, and is referred to as the "early general news" or EGN for short. In our example of The Courier Mail, page 2 in the EGN section attracts a 60% loading. Similarly, the first 11 pages have at least a 50% markup. This type of loading is common practice across Australian news publications. Now let's say we wanted to place a small page strip ad in The Courier Mail on a weekday, on page 3 in EGN, the cost would be at least 54.74.

The first few pages and back pages of other key sections of the paper, such as Business, also attract a higher loading. For The Courier Mail, the very back page attracts a 65% markup. You can see how the page position of an advertisement can have a substantial influence on the price.

#6 Left Hand Side VS Right Hand Side

The next factor is also related to position of the ad, but relates to which side of an open newspaper the ad appears in. You might be surprised to know that, in some publications, an ad that appears on the right hand side of an open paper, will cost more than one that appears on the left hand side. This is to do with the way readers actually read a newspaper, and where their attention is focused. This factor may also be tied to the page position of an ad, and which section it appears in. For example, in The Courier Mail, for ads on pages 12 to 21, a right-hand side ad costs 5% more than a left-hand side ad.

#7 Colour VS Black and White

Another factor that substantially affects the price of a newspaper advertisement, is whether the ad features colour, and how many colours. Colour ads are more expensive than monochrome or black and white ads. Some newspapers may distinguish between multi-colour advertisements and those that only feature one added colour (called "spot colour"). For example, The Courier Mail charges 30% more for multi-colour display ads, and 20% more for 'spot' colour display ads. Remember, that this is combined with any positional loading.

So let's say we wanted our small page strip ad in full colour in The Courier Mail on a weekday, on page 3, that would be calculated as: 57.42 + 30% colour loading = 94.65 + 65% positional loading for page 3 = 71.17

You can see here how the cost of our ad has more than doubled after we've factored in the colour, and position of the ad.

#8 Annual Spend/Expenditure Commitment

Now here's a factor that also affects the price of your newspaper ad, but this time it's a decrease, with a catch, of course. If you have the budget, and are prepared to commit to spending a certain amount annually, usually by entering into a 12 month contract, then you may be entitled to a discount. However, the discount depends on how much you're prepared to spend. For example, to qualify for a 4% discount on The Courier Mail's advertising rates, you need to spend at least 500 per year. If you're a small business owner, chances are you're not working with this kind of budget, so bye-bye discount.

Just in case you're curious, businesses that annually spend at least .3 million with the Courier Mail, receive a 13% discount. In my opinion, this form of discounting simply highlights how biased mainstream advertising is towards big business. Where's the discount for all the struggling small businesses? But that's another story.

Summary:

To sum up, those 8 factors again, and how they'll affect the cost of your ad:

• type of ad - display VS classifieds VS inserts - rates based on different measurement units
• size - pay more for bigger ads
• day of the week - weekends are more expensive
• section or lift-out - early general news (EGN) is more expensive
• page position within a section - front pages and back pages cost more
• left hand side VS right hand side - RHS is dearer
• colour VS black and white - pay more for full colour
• annual spend/expenditure commitment - get a discount if you spend up big

Now that you know what affects the price of a newspaper advertisement, you're better prepared to decide where and how you want to spend your advertising dollar. If newspaper advertising seems beyond your budget, then it might be worth considering more cost-effective alternatives, such as online advertising.

Newspaper Advertising Costs - 8 Factors To Consider

If you'd like to find out more about newspaper advertising costs, and general advertising costs for small businesses, particularly in Australia, check out our new website at: Online Advertising Australia. Online Advertising Australia can help your business access a range of cost-effective advertising solutions that are ideal for small businesses.

Also, check out this handy list of Brisbane newspapers, with links to advertising information and advertising rates cards: Brisbane Newspapers Advertising Rates.

Garage Sale Tips - How to Write an Attention Grabbing Garage Sale Ad

Advertising your garage sale is a must! If you want to have a great turnout, you need to put an ad in the paper, put up fliers around town, tell your friends, family and co-workers as well as creating fabulous signs. You can also advertise on-line at craigslist.com. Here are a few tips for writing an ad that the hard core garage sale'ers won't be able to resist!

You have to know what works in your area in regards to advertising. In my rural area, the local "Advertiser" newspaper is the place to advertise your garage sale and I truly believe that this is not the place to skimp! My 2007 garage sale was a huge event; it was a group sale with 4 of us selling our treasures. Our ad cost 0, but it was definitely worth every penny! We sold about 00 as a group and my hard earned profits totaled 00.

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Items to include in your Garage Sale Ad:

• Date and Times - State the day, date and hours of your sale; you may also set a rain date if you wish (Fri. June 19, 8-5 & Sat. June 20, 8-12)
• Your Address - Be sure to include your address, this is very helpful to your future customers; they can even look up your address on-line if they are not familiar with the area. Some avid garage sale folks have been known to plan their garage sale route with Google maps!
• Clear Driving Directions - Give clear driving directions and if you are in a rural area, you may want to include the distances too (south on Your Ave for 2 miles, west on 150th St. for 3 miles).
• Landmarks Close to You - List landmarks such as: 1 block north of Blockbuster or 1 mile south of Burger King.
• Name or Names - If you feel comfortable, you can add your last name. We have a sale every year and we have a following of people who come every year, so these folks are usually watching the ads for our sale.
• Cash Only - If you do not want to deal with checks, you can state "Cash Only" in your ad. Personally, I have not had any issues with bad checks so I will take local checks, but that is totally up to you.
• Be Descriptive - You want your shoppers to see your ad and come to your sale, so the more information they have, the better. Describe your sale: Huge Annual Multi-Family Sale, Heated Shed Sale, Huge Moving Sale and so on.
• Catchy Headline - Use this line to catch the reader's attention. Some examples I have seen are: "Cleaned out my Daughter's Bedrooms", "Obsessive Shopper Sale", "I Have too Much Stuff Sale", "Downsizing for Retirement Sale".
• List your items - I love reading those lists in the ads and if they have boys clothing in size 3T...I am there for sure! If you are selling clothing, be sure to list the gender and sizes and even brand names. Be sure to list any furniture, appliances and large items, outdoor toys, swing sets, popular kid's toys or collections and baby items like cribs, walkers, car seats and so on.
• Add a Teaser - Give them another reason to come to your sale by stating a little perk, like "Free toys on Saturday" or "Clothing 1/2 price on Saturday" or "Everything 1/2 price after 12:00 on Saturday" because at this point, trust me, you just want it gone! (I say Saturday because we usually have our sale on Friday and then a few hours on Sat.)

Sample Ad:

This is the sale you have been waiting all summer for...the annual Last Name - Last Name - Last Name

"I Have Too Much Stuff Sale"

MEGA - HUGE - 3 GENERATIONS GARAGE SALE

When: Fri. Aug 17, 8-6 and Sat. Aug 18, 8-12

Where: 123 Any St., Any Town, Any State

1 mile north of Your Landmark - watch for signs

Why: We have too much stuff! We are down-sizing and cleaning out every

nook and cranny to bring you great deals on great stuff!

What: A little bit of everything!

Educational: Lots of TEACHER books & resources / activity books (pre-school--elementary), tons of quality children's books

Unique: magazine collections, homemade bar soap

Antiques & Collectibles: porcelain collectible dolls, old spice box, old dishes (some Bavarian) & more

Entertainment: movies, music cd's, books, computer games

Household: washer, coffee maker, dishes, bedding, computer stuff

Furniture: like new oak coffee table, twin bed, 5' x 6' hutch

NEW Fabric: fleece, flannel, cotton, satin, chenille

Kids & Baby: inside toys, outside toys & more toys, movies, games, dolls, baby gym, jumper

Purses, Shoes & Clothing: Name brand kids & adult sizes: Girls 2 - 6 & 14-16 / Boys 2-4 & 7-8 / Junior & Women 0 - 12 / Men M-L

½ Price Toys & Clothing on Saturday!

**Don't forget to check the deadline for you newspaper ad, you definitely don't want to miss the cut-off date!

Garage Sale Tips - How to Write an Attention Grabbing Garage Sale Ad

Tashia Calhoun is the author of the Secrets of Successful Garage Sales Ebook, Planner and Pricing Guide. The Easy Garage Sale Planner includes a 4 week Time Line, an overall extensive Garage Sale Checklist, Inventory Lists, Writing your Ad, Mapping your Layout, Mapping your Signs, a Sales Record Sheet and a Donation Record Sheet. Garage Sale Pricing Guide has a list of low, average and high prices for over 100 items! Tashia made 00 at her 2007 sale with a total of 00 for her 4 family group! Find out how at http://www.Garage-Sale-Secrets.com

Virtual Advertising

The internet is a constantly growing medium and usage is spreading to all parts of the World. Everyone is online now, and every business has a website that you can visit. How are we supposed to live in the virtual and real world? where exactly do we draw the line? Currently, we are living in both worlds are are trying to survive the best we can. Everything is done online and in the real world including advertising. In fact, virtual advertising is rising in popularity because so many people use the internet. This is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

The goal of SEO is to get different website higher on the pages of search engines. The higher they are on the search engine pages, the more likely they are to have visitors. This increases business and also helps them reach even higher pages on search engine results. It is like a cycle that fuels itself. There are many different kids of searches such as image searches, video searches, and local searches. Companies that offer SEO also offer website optimization which is basically a way to improve your website. They help you fix the content and the html so that your site functions really well.

Advertising

SEO requires the use of a keyword which is the center of the whole advertising for a specific client. These keywords are extremely important because they are associated to the website. If people search specific keywords then certain websites are more likely to show up on engines. The goal of SEO is to make these sites rise as high as possible. There are a few basic steps to advertising websites on the internet and they include developing content, spreading that specific content and advertising the actual website. There are many ways to do this, and these companies are called Search Engine Optimization Agencies.

A Search Engine Optimization Agency is just like every company in that it is just as complicated to run. These companies are not easy to organize are coordinate because a lot depends on the internet and technology. As with any other company based on technology a lot of technical problems arise and it gets extremely frustrating to deal with. Also, internet marketing is a debated field because some agencies do spam people with comments and lots of unnecessary posts. Most companies however use practical and direct strategies. SEO is very complicated and hard to understand, but it is nothing short of amazing.

Virtual Advertising

At Skynack Marketing and Consulting, we understand that. We are a Search Engine Optimization Consultant [http://www.skynackconsulting.com/Skynack_Marketing_and_Consulting/The_leader_in_Internet_Marketing_.html] Company and have blended years of experience in Internet Services, technology and traditional marketing to help reach your customers--no matter where they live.

Advertising Signs

Advertising signs are very popular and will be seen in shops all over the world, an advertising sign is a very powerful and cost effective means of advertising. They can be completely customized and placed anywhere you desire (providing you have permission). They do not viscerally have to be used in a store, they can be placed outside to promote brands or businesses, sometimes even just to create awareness of something.

They can be manufactured in any size you require, you will find many companies around the world that offer this service and other bespoke sign services. The companies that offer this service also normally offer a complete bespoke service, you are able to choose your sign design (shape), the color scheme and the images you want on it.

Advertising

They play a very big role in shops and exhibitions, they are designed to stand out and be eye catching, vibrant designs are often a good choice as they draw in the general public.

The signs can be made of various different materials from plastics to metals. The metal advertising signs tend to be the more expensive choice and the plastic ones for less budget, however due to the material the plastic signs have a much larger array of colors available and the metal ones will have to be painted or finished with a special coating to achieve the desired colors.

If you are looking for advertising signs make sure you shop around a bit as you will find other companies better and more cost effective than others.

Advertising Signs

Wesley Clarke writes about Advertising signs. Visit the Businessmagnet product page for details and suppliers of Advertising signs.

Social & Economic Impacts of Advertising

In recent times, the word 'Advertising' has become a fiercely mooted topic. Advertising has positive as well as negative, social and economic impacts on our society. Considering advertising as a public welfare is a positive social impact whereas exposing women as a sex tool comes at the negative side. As far as economic factors are concerned, funding for the media and stimulating an active and competitive economy, are the major examples.

Assorted techniques are enforced for persuading consumers that they want the product which is being advertised. These techniques usually give attention to the benefits that would be brought to the consumers rather than focusing on the actual products. For instance, an automobile advertisement adverting the mechanical attributes of a vehicle, most likely concentrates the exhilaration, reputation and social progression it may bring to the buyer. This swarming advancement is habitually sexual, or involving the opposite gender to attract the consumers with the glamorous women/men's fancy car.

Advertising

There are various blames that advertising is causing a negative social impact on the lives. The chief unfavorable judgment for advertising is that it hales the public to buy things that they are not their real want. It is arrogated that advertising plays with emotions and encourages people to think that buying and depleting are the activities of life.

According to advertisers, they state that people are capable enough to set their mind and no one can force them to buy anything which they dislike or which they think is not a necessity. Advertisers also think that there are positive impacts of advertising on our society and culture. For example, it can be used to generate awareness among the public that which product is OK or to which they should say NO. In other words, advertising also acts as an educator in the sense that it educates people what is good and what is bad for them and puts a ceiling on the harmful products like smoking and drinking etc.

There are not only social benefits of advertising, but it also has some economic advantages. Without advertising, the media, including newspapers, television and radio would never be much strong. Advertising provides revenue for commercial mediums which would otherwise need to be funded by the actual consumer of these mediums. So, we can see a major economic infrastructure based around advertising, in which the big companies fund and subsidize the commercial media by the way of advertisements.

The major economic negative aspect of advertising is that it boosts the price of goods and services. The source of this contention is that, when organizations subsidize the mass media with advertising, we, the purchaser, subsidize advertising by compensating a grossly increased price for heavily advertised goods and services. An easy example of this is that a box of Omo washing powder generally costs around two to three dollars while the market price of the product would be seven to eight dollars. The fact behind this is that the remaining proportion goes in heavy advertising in television and print media.

So, the impact of advertising on our society is in a jumble form, depending on the functions and implementations of numerous campaigns. Our society and the marketing of products depend very badly upon advertising. The companies have become much dependent of advertising that even its negative impacts can never outweigh the many positive social and economic effects.

Social & Economic Impacts of Advertising

Maaz Iqbal is a copywriter and an SEO content writer. He maintains a blog which is, http://advertisinginnovations.blogspot.com

Why Advertising is Important For Your Business

Businesses exist to sell products and services to the public for a profit. If the public does not know that your business exists, finding customers to make enough purchases for your business to survive will be a failure without some additional help. It is an important factor in business because it gets the word out about your company and establishes a presence and a brand about what you are offering.

One of the best ways to advertise is by word of mouth, also known as referral marketing or referral advertising. When other people hear good things about your business or they have a positive experience shopping with your business, they become walking billboards for your business without you having to spend additional money on ads to create it.

Advertising

Advertising locally through newspapers and fliers as well as billboards can be an effective source of it when your business is up-and-coming, but expanding your advertising sources becomes important as you grow. You can extend your advertising approach out to television commercials as well as radio in order to reach wider audiences, but the revenue from your business should be able to pay for it costs for these methods to bring you the value you are looking for.

Creating an assortment of advertising and marketing techniques will help you to reach many different customer bases. Identifying a target market to advertise your business to is also very valuable, because a target market of customers will be more interested in your business than trying to appeal to masses of people with varying interests. Making sure that enough people know that you exist who are naturally interested in your product as a target is a great way to bring in customers and increase the profit of your business.

Creating an impulse in potential customers to purchase your product is very important when it comes to advertising. It can be easy to create it that puts your customer in a mindset not to purchase your product, either by unintentionally avoiding the sale of your product by focusing on information or topics that draw attention away from your product. Be sure to study the needs of your target market to get the best results.

Why Advertising is Important For Your Business

Businesses exist to sell products and services to the public for a profit. If the public does not know that your business exists, finding customers to make enough purchases for your business to survive will be a failure without some additional help. Advertising is an important factor in business because it gets the word out about your company and establishes a presence and a brand about what you are offering. Read more [http://www.bigarticlepool.com/articles/Why_Advertising_is_Important_for_Your_Business_c3f6ab7a-6aba-102c-8c43-000e0cc62f92.php] about Advertising.

Uma Ilango is a programmer from profession. Has lots of interest in non-technical writing too. She has written articles in several topics. Her hobbies include reading, surfing, writing and playing chess. She writes regulary at Bigarticlepool.com [http://www.bigarticlepool.com]

The Psychology of Advertising

On why it is important to understand mass psychology and the psychological processes of cognition for any successful advertising endeavor...

Advertising has been a form of glorifying or gaining publicity for goods and merchandise since very early times. In fact, advertising has been around as an informal concept since the beginning of civilizations and former methods were oral advertising or claiming the benefits of products verbally when merchants sold goods to people directly on the streets. However with the advent of paper and writing, advertising took a more formal shape.

Advertising

Egyptians and Ancient Greeks used the papyrus for advertising and rock painting was also used. Advertising in English in magazines as we know today dates back to the end of the 17th century and newspaper advertising in America began during the first part of the 18th century with advertisements for estates. With the growth of mass media and different forms and avenues of communication like radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, and of course the internet in the 20th century, advertising started becoming an important aspect for commercialization of products. People started understanding the potential of advertisements and it became a business with the establishment of advertising agencies with the first advertising agency in US opened in 1841.

With advertising becoming a business in itself, the methods of using advertisements became even more formalized, controlled and systematic and the advertisements for products started appearing as newspaper ads, on billboards, hoardings, as handbills, leaflets, on magazines, newspapers, on TV and radio as commercials and more recently on the internet. Web advertising is now a very powerful means to take the message across to the customers. However to actually appeal to customers, advertising will have to work in accordance with the principles of psychology and sociology. Thus an advertiser or an advertising professional will also have to be a sociologist and a psychologist to really have an impact on the minds of consumers.

The principles of advertising are largely based on cognitive psychology and the psychological processes of attention, perception, association and memory to bring out the complete impact or uses of a product or 'brand'. Any advertisement will have to first focus on the attention that it is able to capture of the consumers. Strong messages, strong visuals and glaring colors are sometimes used on hoardings and billboards. For commercials, attention catching clothes and attractive models are sometimes used.

Once the attention is drawn with the colors and the sounds or words, the focus is on retaining consumer interests by using 'association'. Themes or products which a particular segment of customers could associate with are used thus for baby food, mothers and babies are featured so association would have more to do with relevance or context of the advertisement. Certain colors also have associative value and certain brands and companies use a specific color to promote their products. For example easygroup uses orange and Vodafone uses red as standard color for all advertising. The company logo or symbol is also a part of developing a brand and helps in giving identity to a brand and has a strong associative value.

The association should be such that it not only serves the purpose of quick understanding and perception of the consumers but is also retained in their memory for a long time. Thus memory or retention is an important aspect of the psychology of advertising as only an advertisement that consumers can easily remember for a long time for its novelty or use of words, colors and figures will be the most effective.

The development of a 'brand' is just as effective because a brand helps in driving attention, in developing association (for example, we associate Coke or Pepsi with youth, celebration and a soft drink popular for all occasions) and in memory or retention of any image associated with a service or product. So branding is vital in advertisements as brands help in giving a name and distinct identity of a product. So a Gucci bag or a Sony camera is known for the brand rather than the product.

A brand is recognized in terms of its name, its quality and its reputation with advertisements these days highlighting the uniqueness of brands. For example, HSBC recent advertisements across airports around the world, focus on the differing points of view and different likes and preferences of people across cultures. So when you see such advertisements showing two different perspectives for the same thing, you know this is HSBC. Certain brands develop taglines or motto that sets the brand apart and gives it a distinct character.

You might have wondered why models look lifeless on fashion shows. Fashion shows are usually arranged for designer brands selling clothes and accessories and usually these fashion shows try to accentuate the clothes and that is why the models tend to be rather 'expressionless'. Although these fashion shows project the clothes sans the emoting, in case of commercials, expressions are widely used because through visual medium, emotions have to be transported through the screen to the consumers to create an effect. Putting across a message through a medium is a challenge and advertisers use emotions widely to help people retain the message that describes the product.

Whatever it is, the mantra is to create an impact and have a lasting effect on the minds of the consumers. The message of the product, the motto of the brand and the mind of the consumer, these are the three Ms that are important in advertising.

However it is important to understand that advertising will have to be different for different media. Radio ads should focus on the strength of sounds and words; internet ads will focus on visuals and colors; newspaper ads will focus on space and the theme; and TV ads would focus more on the emotions and the context used. Using motion, capitalized letters, contrasting colors etc are all important and in order to draw attention to the product, some form of highlighting of the product is also done.

How does all this affect the masses, the consumers who will actually buy the product? Apart from the attention drawing process, the retention producing sounds and words that help memory and the associative value of the products and the advertisements, there is another factor namely necessity of the consumer. Advertising is not just enough, as a customer is driven to buy a product largely considering the necessity, quality, features and price of the product.

If a company solely focuses on the physical aspects of any product, like say - an Apple iPhone looks good on the table, then it's probably not the best method to have an impact on the market. The features are as important as the price. Then of course, the 'hype' that triggers a certain mass psychology in a certain way so people sometimes queue up for newly released products. But trying to tap in on mass psychology or a kind of hype or hysteria for a product is only a short term advertising strategy. The longer term establishment of a product is through real quality, usability and price and all companies should emphasize on these ultimately.

Competition may have a lot to do with the type of advertising used by companies, so the weaknesses of other similar products by other companies are highlighted subtly although this may not always have a positive impact on the mind of the customer. Usually most products advertised as unique and not even remotely similar to other products can have a positive effect and can effectively generate hype and consumer curiosity. Focusing on the unique and highlighting the dissimilarity and novelty of a product in a way that attracts curiosity is a certain method to improve popularity of a product, so this gives consumers the reason to know more and they will enter the shops to enquire about the product. Although celebrities are largely used in advertisements to endorse products or promote a brand, the celebrity culture affects only the youth strongly so the entire value of celebrity advertising may be a bit overrated. This will require a separate discussion on celebrity culture.

The final goal of all advertisers and promoters is to ensure that products and services sell and to increase sales and potential consumer interest creating curiosity is a first short term step while introducing a new product into the market. Retaining customer interest is a different ballgame and requires reputation of the brand, product quality, right pricing and continued high quality advertising to ultimately ensure success of the product.

The Psychology of Advertising

Reflections in Psychology - Part I - by Saberi Roy (2009)
http://www.lulu.com/content/5865445

Saberi Roy - Books
http://saberiroy.tripod.com/books

Advertising Design

Advertising Design is the most important point of advertising. If your advertising is designed poorly, who is going to pay attention to it? The answer is nobody will. The Design will in most cases be done by a professional designer; there are a lot of companies out there that will design you, logos, banners, posters and anything else you can think of for advertising. These companies that specialise in advertising design will charge you for their services.

Depending on the reputation of the company, depending on the quality and the standards of designers will all contribute to what the Advertising cost will be. You will find companies that do offer this service at a low price, but be warned, they may be that price for a reason, check out the companies first, find out if you can see some examples of their previous work (if they have a website it is likely to be available on there, if not you will be able to request some) and look for customer reviews.

Advertising

Advertising Design does not have to be performed by a professional though, a lot of companies design their own logos, and posters. It is important that your logo is appealing to the eye, vibrant and something that you will remember. Simple designs are often effective designs; do not feel that just because you have put a lot of detail, a lot of images, a lot of text into your design that it makes it good. Less can often be more and as long as it catches the eye and gets to the point, your advertising will be successful.

Advertising Design

Wesley Clarke writes about Advertising Design. Visit the Businessmagnet product page for details and suppliers of Advertising Design.

Role of an Advertising Agency

Like any sector or industry, advertising has also become a very competitive industry and has assumed a very professional role in its own field and area of function. With the market getting flooded with thousands of products and services every day, creating awareness about them becomes extremely important. How will people buy products and services if they are not aware whether they exist. This is where advertising agency takes on its role of promoting products and services.

Advertising agency is a service provider that helps its clients by developing suitable ad campaigns for them. Their aim is to represent its clients' products and services before customers in such a way that a positive image is created in their minds.

Advertising

The market is cluttered with products and services. To stand out from that clutter and to emerge as a brand product, you need services of an advertising agency. An advertising agency creates eye-grabbing and attractive ad campaigns to persuade customers to buy its clients products.

Advertising agency's role start with the identification of its clients' goals and objectives. This turns out to be of immense value in planning and creating the future course of action concerning ad campaigns.

Once an advertising agency gets acquainted with its clients' business objectives, it starts creating and planning its ad campaigns. For this it keeps in mind certain points such as increasing sales, pushing news products in the market, restating benefits of its clients' brands, and drawing new customers in addition to establishing and maintaining contacts with their existing customers.

An advertising agency's professional teams put in their best efforts to develop attractive slogans, jingles, and body copy for ads. All this is done within the defined parameters of its clients and their budgetary allocations.

In some cases, companies like to completely outsource their marketing processes to an advertising agency. In such cases, an ad agency takes overall charge of marketing and promoting its clients' products and services, ranging from brand development to strategising, to enhancing sales.

Advertising agencies differ in sizes. Some are medium sized while other are full fledged ad agencies, which are well equipped technologically and logistically to carry out ad campaigns of any size and through any medium.

Role of an Advertising Agency

Deepak Kamboj is an expert writer, he is currently associated with Rupiz Media Ad Network, a leading online media buying agency. He has been efficient in providing useful information about advertising agency [http://www.rupizads.com], banner advertising, online advertising, online ad agencies advertising company [http://www.rupizads.com], web banners