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When operating a trade show booth, you have to do things that will make customers want to look at what you have. That requires you to be very creative, though. If you’re not creative, then you’re going to be doing the same exact things that everyone else is doing. If that’s the case, then you’re not exactly going to stand out amongst the rest. You’re going to be ignored just like the others who have not used their imaginations.

So what should you do to really make your trade show booth look really interesting? Try doing special things for your customers and dress up your booth to the point it cannot be ignored. That doesn’t mean that you need to paint it hot pink with neon green letters on it that say “Come to by booth and see my goodies.” You don’t want your booth design or even your other ideas to seem desperate. You just want your customers to enjoy what they see and have a great time.

Giveaways

The way to a customer’s heart is through giveaways. People like things that are free. You can even go as far as giving away bags of popcorn or items such as pens, pencils, key chains, mugs, and so much more that has your logo on them. If you give them something with your logo, then you are giving them a constant reminder that you exist. To them, they are receiving something free, but when they look at that item they will remember that you have something they need.

Here are some other things that you can do to make yourself stand out and attract more visitors to your trade show booth:

- Play games with your customers. Have a spinning wheel that they can spin to win a price. You can give them gift certificates that they can use toward a purchase at your booth or you can have prizes lined up.

- Have things for the kids. Something as simple as a balloon will make their day. Parents will appreciate anything you give their children to keep the kids pacified. Rent a helium tank, buy some balloons, and you’re in business. If you really want to make the balloons work for you, then you can have some printed up with your company logo on them.

- Do a raffle for a particular product that you’re displaying at the show. Let the customers know that you’re doing it at a certain time and let them know that they have to be present to win. That means they will come back to your booth. If they didn’t buy anything the first time, then perhaps they will the second time.

The booth

The booth itself needs to be dressed up for your customers. You have to be really creative with it to make it stand out amongst the many others at the trade show. This means using stage lights to highlight certain items. You may even wish to have special flooring around the booth so that the customers feel like they’re walking into an actual store and not just a booth. People who feel like they are in a store environment are more likely to feel comfortable being there. They feel like they are not amongst many people, but that they are free to browse as they please.

You can also use a booth with a curved wall. These types of trade show booths are very unique and they certain gain the attention that you wish to have. Incorporate all of these elements to have a trade show presence that will dominate on every level.

Create-it Displays offers trade show displays and trade show booths that are completely customizable and transportable for all of your trade show and convention requirements.

Starting an online business is easy, but attracting ever increasing traffic is not! Dont think you are alone in this. The ongoing quest to drive traffic to your site is one that is necessary for all and sundry. The cost incurred in marketing the site with every possible online opportunity can become quite hefty. Sometimes the more traditional offline methods can provide inexpensive and ingenious way is to churn out new marketing initiatives for your online business.

Offline marketing shouldnt be seen as outdated, in fact it is sweeping through the online community. If you are looking for something innovative to add to your marketing mix, then focusing and developing an offline strategy may be the solution you are after. Firstly, know your target audience and then work out on the modes of communication that they remain in touch with, in their daily life. Once you know these modes are available to you for offline marketing, you can develop attractive advertisements and calculate the cost incurred in carrying this out. To consider a few offline marketing modes, read on!

o Radio Shows. Amidst numerous radio channels on air, theres no such thing as information being obscure. The advantage with the radio advertising format is that listeners tune in regularly, while on the go, in shops, their car, at work and so on. The broadcasters are constantly searching for fillers in their shows, hence providing you the opportunity to slot your advertising in. With radio make your ad short and crisp, memorable is the key with this advertising format. Radio is still one of the most effective and relatively inexpensive advertising formats; and there is always space between shows for the advertisers to speak on.

o Print Media. Putting out attractive and creative ads in magazines and newspapers can truly work wonders. The print media reaches out to more people than you might expect. Hence, your message, and in this case your website can be more effectively promoted. When developing print advertising, make the language very target centric, you want to really grab the attention of the target audience. In particular you should look out for publications that are related to your field and the segment of people who read them.

o Mail Packages. Developing a list of people who may find your site interesting is the key to this step. Once you have the crucial element, then the next step is to design an attractive envelope for your mail package, or go for a postcard. Think of exciting offers that may intrigue the receiver to investigate your products and services further, after all these are what will get people to visit your website. Offering easy ways to reach you and learn more about your business is the key here. Let potential customers discover the benefits of going through you and not through your competitors. Create the whole package as consumer centric. This means demonstrate that you understand and know your audience, interesting them and drawing them in so they want to know more of the details on your product and how it benefits them. The cost incurred in the mail campaign may be no more than the cost of printing the materials and the stamps. For this reason the postcard style option has become increasingly popular.

o Event Promotion. Invariably, there is always one event or another taking place in the metropolitan cities at any time. Be on the look out for ways to use these events to your advantage. Be focused and select an event that will attract more of the audience you wish to target. Once you have narrowed down the event you feel is relevant, prepare a marketing strategy that correlates to the event activities. Perhaps you could get leaflets printed with details of your site, in particular, the URL or the link you want them to visit. Get articles like pens, diaries or magnets printed with your website URL on them and distribute these. Human nature is such that people cant resist these things, and they can very quickly put your brand in the mind of the target market, when the person sees the message every time they write or look for a piece of paper and so on.

You should develop a strategy for offline marketing just as you would with online marketing. The elements are more or less the same, lets face it offline marketing is where these elements originated. So take the time to utilize these opportunities and target the potential market you want to get to your online site. Making the effort will pay dividends, and placing your business so that you get more traffic is the whole point of getting your marketing strategy rolling.

Deep Arora is an Internet marketer with over 7 years of online experience and he teaches internet marketing from his blog at HowIDid.com. Check out his blog for some amazing techniques today..

When a small business cuts back advertising, it is like tossing kerosene on a fire (in this case, faltering sales). If promotion is considered a soft expense many small businesses reduce the size or frequency of their advertising.

Big mistake.

Small businesses should resist cutting back on anything their customers will notice or that will drive them away or fail to bring them in or back.

The No Cut Back List should include:

*Maintain portions at the same price;
*Resist reducing the quality of your products and services;
*Make sure your staff is knowledgeable and caring and
*Provide hassle free returns and adjustments.

Add advertising to your No Cut Back List.

The deeper-pocketed big boxes can and do cut back by indiscriminately reducing payroll, closing under-performing locations, slashing prices, and generally pissing consumers off . . . all of which spell opportunity for the more tightly-niched small businesses.

When the economic light starts blinking RED, the savvy small business owners can make some hay (increase marketing share)by helping customers and prospects understand how their business can do a better job than their competitor down the street.

Word of mouth by itself simply will not cut it in tough times. Effective advertising will.

Four dollar gasoline and two dollar loaves of bread are taking a larger bite out the wallets of all of us . . . but people do and will continue to buy what they want or need . . . especially from businesses that back up their advertising with over-the-top service and quality products and services.
Many consumers have cut back on discretionary items but they are still spending.

In a shaky economy, buyers become more picky about where they shop and more selective about allocating their dollars. Small businesses have to work harder to get their cash.

Curtail and cut out the shotgun ads aimed at no one in particular! When the Ad Circular Monsters (big boxes) are hawking price and closing check out registers at the same time, small business guerillas can move in and build their own customer base. They can if they continue to advertise but not when they pull back or out.

Guerilla marketers often maximize the effects of their print and broadcast ads by reproducing their advertised offerings on quick printed hand-outs (flyers) and on jumbo copies of their ads strategically placed inside their stores and in their windows . . . thereby adding impact and legs to advertised promotions.

Well run small businesses do not furlough good help. Instead they get every member of their team re- focused. Be honest and frank. If sales are down, say so. Cut loose non-performing employees. Redeploy more people to the front lines–sales and marketing. Identify and eliminate busy work. Get out of the office and on the street or the sales floor.

Like advertising, resist cutting employee perks. As tempting as it may be, eliminating free coffee and bagels or holiday parties can make employees feel undervalued and potentially lead to losing them. Small extras tend to be taken personally. Retaining perks maintains employee confidence in your company and may even inspire them to go the extra mile.

Take good care of your loyal clients along with your keeper employees. It costs less to retain a valuable existing customer than to find a new one. On the other hand, fire customers that cost you money. Figure out why customers come into your business in the first place as well as what will keep them coming back.

When the going gets tough, be smart enough to ask for help from others. There is remarkable strength in new and different ideas. Ask your customers–How can we better serve your needs? What additional needs could we serve? While you are at it, ask your employees the same questions.

Stop being busy being busy. Get strategic. Slow down. Think about your own situation and ignore gloom and doom headlines. Break up those lofty longer range game plans into 90-day action plans. See to it that every one of your team members share accountability for implementing the plan at hand. Make it a big deal when the team meets a stated goal.

Buy your outside vendors a cup of coffee to discuss ways that might benefit both of your businesses and cut costs at the same time. Printers, suppliers, media, etc. Brainstorm ideas that will keep your businesses percolating even when coffee is $10 a pound and rising.

When tough times hit, the primary goal of small business owners should be to not only survive but to position themselves to thrive. Cut expenses and reallocate your dollars by daring to invest more in marketing and advertising. Going this route is good business for small business.

Bob Schumacher books and articles give entrepreneurs a clear coffee-shop English perspective on how to steer their business or profession into the top 20% who achieve 80% of the business and profits. Visit http://www.20do80.com for a complete directory of his articles and books.

Brand, in the viewpoint of a manufacturer or service provider, is a feature that distinguishes the product or service in a market. A user may define brand as the one that he can recognize and identify as an integral part of his life. In this age of modernization and industrialization, the consumer has emerged as the uncrowned king. He is the monarch of all he surveys. And to attract his attention, organizations are ready to innovate and upgrade the ideas of promoting. The 4P basic idea of Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place has come to evolve mostly around Promotion, as market survey indicates that a consumer likes to buy a brand, not a product or service.

And to showcase promotion, companies are making a beeline for the most saleable of products, that is, the Hollywood stars. A popular proverb says that one can even sell dreams in Hollywood. So it is but natural that when the celebrities, who are the stuff of our dreams, wave to us from the silver screen or stare at us from flashy bill boards endorsing a product, we simply cannot ignore the plea. After all, even for a flitting second, the user will feel that he is sharing something with his favorite idol.

Brand promotion by a Hollywood star not only enhances the longevity of the product, but also its apparent quality and mass appeal. The conveyed image of a successful individual using the product creates a sense of demand and urgency to get hold of it by the consumer. Better still, he begins to identify the product with the star, thus adding immensely to its recall value.

A user only sees a product when it is seen and this observation is triggered by various external factors and internal conditions. Perception of familiarity, trust and contentment are foremost conditions that influence the choice of a particular brand over another. Since the flashy world of entertainment and razzmatazz has easy recall value, the faces we adore and the style we follow compel a consumer to select that particular brand from the bouquet of choicest of products existing in the market. Market analysts have even noticed the trend of shift of consumers from one product to another once their favorite star leaves one company and starts to endorse another.

As Hollywood spawns the magic over almost the entire world, enticing the young and the old, the poor and the rich by its continued tales of fantasies and glory, emotions and intricacies, fervent admirers of the stars follow the fashion and style with bated breath. To some of them, turning down the plea of a star to use his product is akin to sacrilege. It gives a sense of vicarious pleasure to the consumer and awards him a sense of supremacy over his idol, as he feels that he is doing a favor by adopting the product promoted by the star. As the company and the star laugh together all the way to the bank, the consumer is left clutching to his straw of imagination that has been so well played upon by the promotional blitz of a brand by a Hollywood star.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos. You can find the best marketplace for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos at these sites for used DVDs, used movies, promotional movies, star packed movies, and used car stereos.

Advertising agencies, especially the big holding companies, are buying up every type of communication companies just to stay in the game. And the name of the game is betting on the future. But it can be a dangerous game.

If you happen to know the way in which it is going, you can safely place your bets. But if you do not, you are in for a very expensive ride. And according to reliable sources, 86% of us will get it wrong. So you do not have to be a palm reader or look into a crystal ball to see which way the business is going.

But brands cannot afford to go through the next several years making mistakes especially in this economy. And it is our job not to make any. Will brands survive into the future? Yes, if we stop looking in all the wrong places. The value of the communication is still in the value of the brand.

Maybe it has not happened yet, but brands and their agencies are likely to follow in the footsteps of the music industry. But agencies will not be the real victims, brands will. Brands now bear the risk of losing power both domestically and globally,which is transitioning from high power brands to low power brands. So what needs to be done to keep brands alive? At the very least, we need to understand how these brands were built and what is happening to them now.

Are consumers falling out of love with their brands? Are they replacing their favorite brands with other resources? With the sudden deluge of content, are brands becoming the parasites of content, feeding off every piece of entertainment that comes streaming across your screen? Have brands simply lost their grip on successful communication?

Remember when commercials were fun? When no one minded that they were sprinkled among your favorite shows? You and the advertiser had a clear understanding: You watch the following program for free if you agree to let us also run commercials. Under those terms, both you and the advertiser benefited. Occasionally, as a sign of gratitude, you were willing to go out and actually buy the product. How nice!

This economic model exited for decades. It is the stuff that held the advertiser, the consumer and the TV stations together. But this model, this wonderful quid pro quo that was built through the power of communication is breaking down. In those days, commercials had a chance of being more enjoyable: 85% were used for brand building and only 15% were used for promotions. Today, it is the exact opposite. And the economy certainly is not helping things.

In fact, according to new WSL Strategic Retail poll, to save money, 48% of consumers have traded down from their usual brands to lower-priced brands. Sixty percent said they are now more likely to wait until something goes on sale rather than buy it at full price. And 33% of the poll’s respondents said they now haggle for lower prices in stores. And if that is not enough to dampen the spirits of the most perverse sync, Ford just cut their budget by $200 million.

Advertising, to a large extent, is finding its analogy in the music business. In much the same way Napster has impacted the music business, so are YouTube, Facebook and MySpace impacting brands. Once music was free, consumers felt there was no reason to pay for it. Now that content is free, well, you get the point.

To combat this, new media companies like Google and Yahoo wax eloquent about clicks. But be careful before you join in the euphoria. Take a look at this: when you consider clicks, 50% of the clicks come from 50% of the users, and 80% of the clicks come from 16% of the users. This is for display ads. And of the 16%, the average income is slightly under $30K.

Further, this past March, there were over eleven billion videos viewed by online visitors. How does any brand ever begin to break through this clutter? As you know, clutter on television was always considered a problem. But clutter on the Internet? Did I hear someone just say eleven billion videos? And the wear-out factor is but one exposure.

Today, no one argues with the fact that the consumer is boss. Brands have always been co-created. Smart brands have always known who the boss is. But there are more important issues that are suddenly leading back to the crux of the business: What is the value of the brand? And what is the value of its communication? What meaning are they receiving from its commercials? And what value do they receive when they purchase the brand?

Right now, when it comes to brand communication, consumers seem to have no reciprocal obligation. The brand is making no demands upon them. They have walked away from the communication equation. How they evaluate and respond to brand communication is changing.

It is little wonder that Sergey Brin of Google keeps repeating the point that ads have to get better, and he is right. A new value equation has to be created. A new deal has to be struck with consumers.

Like self-believing merchants hawking their wares on a summer boardwalk, everyone claims to have the answer. As yet, no one has created a new value matrix. Everyone wants to stop talking and start doing. I could not agree more.

I have been exploring new ways to glean brand meaning and new ways to create brand narrative. It is not about storytelling, but it is about finding a new way to define a brand, which is finding the language of cinema as opposed to the language from the printed page. Narrative is meant to be reinvented Godard would be amused.

But brands cannot afford to go through the next several years making mistakes especially in this economy. And it is our job not to make any. Will brands survive into the future? Yes, if we stop looking in all the wrong places. The value of the communication is still in the value of the brand.

Gad Romann is a brand consultant who is all about ideas. Gad is a frequent speaker on CNN, ESPN, Fox, The NYU School of Business and Wake Forest University Babcock School of Management. He has held senior positions at Saatchi & Saatchi, Y&R and JWT. Gad believes in pushing the envelope. His articles are experiments in thinking about media and communication. Visit his blog to see more of his insights.

When it came to business models and looking for ways of making money to fund your Internet TV station, I strongly suggested you look at the pay 2 view and subscription revenue models.

The reason being that advertising revenue was so hard to get or to obtain in sufficient amounts to fund both production of new video programmes and your video streaming or video download costs.

The consequence of this is that Internet TV or IPTV as some call it is becoming the province of the major channels, who essentially use revenue they obtain from either advertising or subscriptions or in the case of the BBC in the UK, license fees levied with the agreement of the Government, to fund their internet presence.

Why is it so hard to obtain advertising revenue? Well, it is hard not just for Internet TV stations, but also for many small satellite TV channels. The reason is the way that TV advertising is measured, and the structure of the advertising industry.

In the UK TV advertising is measured by BARB, which uses a sample of 5000 households and measures the viewing habits of the occupants, and from that weights the viewing figures up to give the estimated national audience. For a small channel it costs 40,000 a year to be included on the BARB panel.

In the US TV advertising is measured by AC Nielsen, using a sample of 5000 households that have been wired with “people meters” that track what programme is being watched and who is watching them. Again the viewing figures are weighted up from the sample to give an estimated national audience.

So, the information that gets fed back overnight tells Pepsi or Proctor and Gamble that an estimated say, 5 million people watched CSI, and those people were mainly mid-market males aged 35 - 45. So if you are not included on BARB in the UK or on Nielsen in the US, as far as advertisers, advertising agencies, and specialist media buyers are concerned, you don’t exist ! Now, if you are not in the business it may come as a surprise to you to discover that most company’s with advertising budgets don’t “buy” their advertising direct themselves, it is typical for your advertising agency or a specialist media buyer to do the job for them.

Getting into the advertising agencies is bad enough, but when you have to try pitching to a specialist media buying agency that is really hard!! The issue is that media buying agencies have to buy the best advertising campaigns for their clients that they can, and they use BARB and Nielsen ratings as the “currency” for doing so. And then they get audited by specialist media auditors who evaluate their media buying performance. So they need to have rock - solid numbers to PROVE they made the right decision.

The other thing to bear in mind is that these people are used to buying advertisements in programmes with audiences in the millions, and even a large independent internet TV station will have trouble getting anywhere near that.

So when you turn up, assuming you get that far, with your streaming stats (which can be, lets be polite, “massaged”, and are not independently verified , and an audience of, lets say, 10,000 viewers a day, you are most likely to be given 5 minutes and then shown the door !

You also need to consider the true nature of online advertising. Most online advertising is based around Pay Per Click type advertising as per Google Adsense, or banners (with click through tracking) on high traffic websites high traffic equals 1,000,000 individuals a day ! and the advantage of this is that you know directly how many clicks you get, and what your conversion rate is to get a sale, and your cost per sale. Now in my terms this isn’t really advertising, its more like direct marketing, and it certainly doesn’t do much to build a brand as in traditional Television, press, poster and radio advertising, but that is the media buyers frame of reference.
Is there a solution and can you get round these issues. Well, yes, but these aren’t quick fixes and you have to work at them.

To find out how this impacts on your Internet TV station and proposition, and how you structure your proposition and develop your programme concepts to create an added value experience for your viewers,
go to http://www.internettvbook.com

There were some very strong structural reasons why advertising was hard to obtain for Internet TV stations, and that this was allowing the free-to-view space to be inhabited by the main channels and broadcasters, who could subsidise their Internet TV operations with revenue from the traditional broadcast channel.

Is there a solution to these issues ? Well, if there isn’t one yet, then one can certainly be constructed. Firstly if the tv player software could pull in advertisements from an external source and integrate them smoothly into the schedule stream, and that external source could be an advertising agency or a buying agency, so that the count of the number of times an advertisement played could be independently verified, then that would be a good start.

Secondly, Internet TV station owners could reposition and reframe themselves away from the TV advertising model. What I mean by this is that just because you want TV advertisements, doesn’t mean you buy into the whole TV advertising model and the way TV advertising is bought and sold ie the advertisement is not the whole model.

There is another advertising model that I see as being more appropriate, the press advertising model. Let us suppose for a moment that you are a manufacturer of sealed unit windows, and you have just made a technical break through that means you can produce windows that are lighter, stronger, retain heat better, reflect sunlight better, and more resistant to breaking.

Your market place is the architects, the structural engineers and specifiers, and the construction companies themselves roughly in that order. What you need to do is create an Advertising campaign that generates awareness initially, and follows that up with technical data, and gets some buildings built or refurbished with your windows.

That Press Advertising campaign is going to be based around advertisements in the “trade” press that each key group architects, structural engineers/specifiers, construction companies and builders etc) read because that is the most cost effective route into that audience.

So, as an advertiser, you are “buying” a discrete targeted group purely on the basis of their profession and their role in the total buying process for your product. And that is also what you are selling as a station owner. And that needs to be your pitch to the advertising agency or media buyer (or both), you want video based advertising (and you are happy to be accountable, and you can provide click-throughs to the advertisers web-site) that is relevant to the audience you have on your Internet TV station.

You have an audience that is valuable to specific advertisers. And ideally your monthly viewing audience is larger than that of the relevant trade or specialist press publication. Clearly the tighter and more homogenous your audience, and the tighter and better targeted your programmes, and the more relevant your proposition is, then the more likely you are to get advertising.

And you need to design this into your Internet TV station from the start if you are to have any chance of getting significant levels of advertising revenue. Essentially, you are competing with the trade press, and you can use their advertising rate card to structure yours. So the media buyers and advertising agency planners you would need to talk to are those dealing with Press and/or buying/planning Press campaigns, rather than TV. The third issue I discussed in the previous article was the typical audience size of an Internet TV station, compared with a programme audience on a typical mainstream broadcast TV station -there’s no comparison, your tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousand of viewers per month, against several millions for 1 programme on 1 day !

However, it should be apparent that comparing your audience of several tens of thousands of architects (say) a month against the readership of, say, Construction News, is going to be a much better match, you may even have better figures. There is another possibility I want to raise, which is of a family of Internet TV stations, all broadly targeted at 1 group, in much the same way that traditional press publishing companies have families of journals. Take for example an Internet TV station aimed at Vets, that could be allied with Internet TV stations aimed at dog owners, cat owners, horse owners etc etc.

So while Internet TV may be your communication medium, your business model, I believe, should be closer to that of specialist press publishing. Now, when you go on Joost, Blinx, Babelgum and similar internet video content aggregators, and your content is buried along with thousands of hours of all other sorts of video content aimed at God only knows who, its no surprise that these businesses struggle with advertising revenue, and you aren’t likely to get much.

To find out how this impacts on your Internet TV station and proposition, and how you structure your proposition and develop your programme concepts to create an added value experience for your viewers,
go to http://www.internettvbook.com

I know, that term Viral sounds quite nasty. It sounds like some sort of computer virus; and we all know the dangers of those, don’t we? Companies like Norton Anti-virus have made their fortunes keeping viruses away from our computers. But no, in this case, the term viral is a good thing.

A viral video is the cutting edge of Internet communication. It means that you create a video, send it out via e-mail and postings on sites like YouTube, MySpace, Google Video etc. and thus generate interest in what it is you’re trying to sell. Websites like these get literally thousands of hits a day; people viewing the videos.

A well-done video, something that interests people and really catches their eye can spread just like a virus, hence the name. People tell others about it, the video gets more viewings, and can even end up being mentioned on the national news! Think about that level of interest in your firm; think of the potential income it can generate.

If you have a new company or an old one, you always have the same problem getting customers. Even a Fortune 500 firm is always looking to expand and increase revenue. With a viral video, you have the potential to generate a huge amount of interest in you and your company, and do it for very little money.

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to get a job, sell your latest novel, get clients for your firm or introduce a new product or service. The point is, today we live in a very visual society. Look at the young people today; they use computer and the Internet like the yellow pages and telephone once dominated the scene.

So, a good first step is to do a search online and see what sorts of companies are out there to a video package. You can get something as simple as one video, and then they’ll post it to the various websites. If you can do your own editing, you can save some money. If not, there are plenty of sites that will do that for you.

Or, if you want something bigger, you can get as many as five, ten or even twenty videos created; and the company will take care of all producing, editing, and then submitting it to the websites. A video about your firm could be on forty different sites. Think about the interest that could generate. If several thousand people see your videos and that’s being very conservative, and only one percent of them become customers, you’ll cover the cost of your investment, and make a little extra.

Of course, then there’s the continuing income. Think about it; those videos will be out there, on the Internet, generating more interest in you and your company. Over time, that could amount to a huge boost to your overall sales.

Video4Leads Creates Local, National, and International Business Leads for you through internet video, article marketing, follow up marketing, increasing conversion on your website and more. #1 mistake companies make is no Internet Follow up Program, We can take care of this for you. We can help you get the jump on your competition, so you Increase Traffic To Your Website

Every business no matter what the size is, should take advantage of the benefits offered by advertising. Any businessman worth his salt should be aware of why he should resort to advertising to make the public aware of his business.

Advertising is not just the typical photo-caption placed in one full page of any newspaper or magazine. Modern advertising has taken many forms and a businessman can now apply a mixture of advertising strategies to popular his business including but not limited to public relations, marketing and direct promotions.

The owner of a small or medium sized business will always have the problem of where to get that extra budget for advertising. Despite the glamour attached to advertisements, one need not spend much money to be able to do some advertising for his business.

A person can take advantage of the easy ways to create his own website for his business. Keep the website simple and easy to read and then promote the website to as many people as possible. This can be done by printing flyers and business cards that contain the website address and these can be distributed to his target market.

Another way to get traffic to his website is to write press releases or news articles promoting the site. There are sites accepting press releases for free but the releases should be newsworthy and not just plain advertising. Articles related to the products or services being sold can also be submitted to directories with a link back to the website.

Take advantage of hard copies and online editions of newspapers and magazines that offer free classified ads section. The space available for this is usually limited so make sure that the website address is given prominence. Make the headline catchy so anyone reading the advertisement would be encouraged to go to the site.

A businessman who knows how to write can start a column and write about topics related to his business. He can then place the address of his website at the end of the article or below his byline.

Participating in forums can also be a way to get free advertising. Search forums that are related to the products or services being sold and join the group. A person can participate in the questions and answers and can even pose his own questions.

Connect with other website owners with similar business and agree on a link exchange. The site owner can post a link to your website on his page and this can also be done for him. This can present plenty of opportunities for both websites.

And always give out thank you notes and cards to customers who have purchased the products. Remember them on special occasions as this is a way of keeping in contact with them.

There are a lot of opportunities for free advertising and the businessman only need to be creative so he can take advantage of those opportunities. In his bid to look for free advertising opportunities though, he should never lose sight of the goal of advertising and that is to inform potential clients about his company, to give them an opportunity to contact the company and the most important of all, to sell.

Daegan Smith Is And Expert Online Marketer
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If you run a winery and have a website you are on your way to using technology to further your winery marketing goals. Today, most wineries have taken the steps to have an online presence. Some have been at it for over 10 years now.

But if you aren’t using email marketing to support your website you may be missing out on a key ingredient to online winery marketing success.

Here’s how.

In the early days, your website became an extension of your brochures. It was full of information. Which is good, because information is often what people are looking for online. The quest for information is what made Google big.

Over time, smart wineries learned they could put up an online store using ecommerce software and make actual orders from their website. Often not enough attention was paid to this channel and shipping restrictions made ecommerce tricky but again, many wineries have done a nice job.

In my industry research, though, I have found one thing to be surprisingly true. After reviewing over 500 winery sites, most are not taking advantage of email as a means to promote their product.

Imagine only being able to describe wine in relation only to itself. There is so much more richness being able to pair wine to food and have the flavors of each assist the other.

Email winery marketing is like adding a food pairing.

A website visitor who finds your site, likes what they see, and reads enough to become interested in placing an order becomes a customer. However, over 98% of visitors leave your site . . . and never return.

The first step to successful email winery marketing is to collect an email address - called an ‘optin’ from a visitor. In order to do that you have to have a reason for a person to leave an email address. You have to use that email address with respect and build a relationship over time with the subscriber. What would it mean to you if 10% of all of your website visitors left you with an email address? Ten people you now know for every 100 website visitors.

Over time you would have quite a list of subscribers.

Once you have that list, you have to communicate with them about the things that THEY would find interesting. What do they want from you?

You’ll soon find that this list of subscribers slowly starts to buy product from you and they too become customers.

And really, a growing customer list is a key asset no winery can ignore. If you are not doing email marketing well, you are missing out on a key marketing channel that will grow your profits.

Mitch Tarr is an email marketing guru and CEO of ZinMarketing Inc. Learn how to use email to cement winery-client relationships and create a buzz that sells wine and supports winery brands. For information and free reports visit Mitch’s exclusive website at http://www.zinmarketing.com