Avoid These Common Mistakes When Advertising For Your Business

If you are offering a product for sale or maybe a new service for hire, then it goes without saying, that you need to advertise. Yes the dreaded "A" word. All of us in business must do it, otherwise you will either go out of business very quickly, or your customers will be nothing more than friends and relatives.

Here are some thoughts to keep in mind when creating your advertising campaign. To start, do not over think the process. What I mean by that is, yes, you want to think outside the box, but don`t get too crazy, where your advertising has become so creative, that no one has any idea what the heck you are trying to sell to them. I am sure you have experienced this yourself as a consumer. You are watching TV and a commercial comes on so you sit through it. At the end of it, you sit their and wonder, what in the world are they selling. I know I have experienced this, and so have others. Do not fall into that trap.

Often, often often! What does this mean? It means, run your advertising as often as your budget will allow. Do not run it today, then wait 60 days to run it again. Studies have shown that consumers must be exposed to advertising on average about 5 to 7 times before they make a move and purchase something from a company. Using that information, you will need to get yourself out there 7 times to start gaining some customers. If you wait in between advertising segments, it will be like starting over every time you run it. So get your name out there often.

In business there is nothing better than the impulse buy. A lot of consumers will impulse buy if they feel they are getting a great deal. They understand real numbers, so saying "buy right now!", won`t work. What you want to do is offer them a huge discount, as much as 35% to 40%, if your budget will allow, then show them the real price. So if you are selling a widget, and it normally sells for $19.99, let the consumer know, that if they act right now, it will only cost them $12.99 (or a number that meets your budget). The discount has to be significant enough for the consumer to act on it right there and then. 10% to 20% hardly ever does it.

Avoid using catch phrases, such as "you must act right now in order to get this discount", or "we only have a limited number left". These statements are more destructive to your ad campaign then constructive. Instead set a deadline. I saw a real good one the other day for someone trying to sell their home. The headline read, "If under contract by Sunday 8:00pm, I will reduce the asking by $45,000". The price drop was a significant one, and it sets a deadline for someone to act on it, limiting their time.

If you offer coupons in your business make sure you put a code on the coupon so you can keep track of which advertising medium it comes from. This way you can track exactly where you should emphasize more advertising dollars.

Finally, do not neglect current customers. Most of the time there is no better resource then consumers who have already purchased your product or used your service. Get their feedback on what they would like to see changed in regards to what you are offering. Remember, all criticism is helpful, regardless of how negative it comes across. We`ll get to criticism in another article, but for now, know that you can learn from all criticism that you receive. As you receive feedback, if you notice patterns from multiple customers such as hearing from 5 to 10 of them that they would like to see your widget in purple, then consider making a purple widget. You get the point.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com. http://www.Indocquent.com is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.

Jetlag, Being in a Timeless World

You are sitting. Arms irritate your own. Not enough room. Too much time. Yet there really is no time here. Sitting in this bubble of air, flying thousands of feet over an invisible land cause clouds have covered them now beneath you. Yes. There is no time here. You`re traveling through so many different time zones, you`re not sure what time really is anymore. Neither does your body. We are beings of habit. Repetition. Our body takes cues from that. Normally we get up in the day, go to work be productive, come home relax and go to bed at night time. This schedule your body knows well and prepares for each segment of the day. With traveling via an airplane though it can mess everything up, even if you traveled through only ONE time zone it can disturb your body`s normal clock.

So how do we fix this? How are we able to trick our body into notbelieving we are in a different time zone? As I`m sure you and anyone who travels often, jet lag is no small thing to worry about. It can literally ruin first encounters. It makes you more irritable, tired, disturbed, and all-around uptight. Even vacations are ruined if a physician`s general rule of thumb could be believed.

Under one physician`s generalization,Ph.D Charles E. Ehret, "Basically, the rule of thumb is that after you land, it takes one day to recover for each time zone you go through." Imagine that. If you travel internationally you could be suffering more then fifteen days worth of jet lag such as between New York and Japan. Have no fear though, minor changes can have major effects.

Here are some tips for your avid travelers or casual voyager. Get sleep before your flight so you`re well rested and consistent with your usual sleeping patterns. Exercise on the plane (Trust me I`m not a health freak I`m just telling the truth, walking up and down in the aisles of the plane, stretching in the back, get your muscles looses helps amazingly to counter jet lag.) Don`t drink the in-flight alcohol (Seriously not a health freak.), it`s a very dry air bubble that you`ll be traveling in for the next few hours so drinking alcohol will only inhibit you more. It will make you thirstier and more irritable, and dehydration worsens jet lag just by itself. That desert air plane does not need your help! The most important tip here is to make sure when you get to your destination you try to arrive at night time (Destination`s night time), and try to go bed at the same time as you do at your home. Your body will thank you being able to sync with the new time zone easier, and you will thank it, trust me.

You will.

Happy travels!

By: Gregory Elfrink
Edited By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Gregory Elfrink is a freelance writer for and Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com. http://www.Indocquent.com is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale and hire in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.

Use These Ideas To Promote Your Business, Product or Services

You have a great new product. Maybe it is a wonderful new service that you are offering. How about an event, a gala or a special something that you need to get the word out on. Have no fear, we are going to outline some great ways to promote your business, product, service or event.
Lucky for your business, these ways are either low cost or no cost. Keep an open mind and better yet, let your creative side come out. your business, and of course your "future" customers will love you for it.

What other way to start then of course, press release. A lot business owners over look this simple yet effective way to get their word across. Newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television are always looking for new stories on a daily basis to keep their reasders informed of what is going on in the world. Nothing better than sending your press release. It should be about 450 to 550 words and in "news story" format. In other words editors aren`t looking for hype of your business such as, "if you order right now we`ll throw in a set of Ginsu knives". They want news for their customers, and your press release could be it, if put in the correct format.

According to Kim Campbell of Writer magazine, "You should learn to love the camera. Many local television stations have morning or midday talk shows. Call program directors and schedule brief appearances to promote your workshop or conference. Be sure to emphasize how the event will assist writers in the area. Be professional, accommodating and pleasant. Authors should try to interest program directors in the subject, characters or setting of their book in ways that will appeal to viewers. A close-up shot of your new book on TV is priceless publicity."

Get to know the world wide web we call the Internet. You should be able to find many websites, blogs, MySpace pages, and Facebook subscribers that are interested in your product or service. Work with them to help promote what you are offering. Chances are they will work with for little and in most cases, no cost.

Also don`t rule out the free web hosting companies where you can put up your own web page to promote your business. You may not know much about web programming, but your local highschool student does. Offer to pay him $8/hr to put up 1 to 3 page site. You can be online for under $50.

Campbell also says, "Get to know newsletter editors. You already may send information to your local writing-newsletter editor, but what about other writing groups across the country? Go one step further: What about newsletters that aren`t specifically about writing? Readers and others interested in learning about the process of publishing can be found in women`s, men`s, business and professional organizations. Wherever people gather, you are bound to find readers and writers."

If you product or service is one that a local organization may be able to use, then offer it up to them for free. There is no better promotion of a business then that of word of mouth. By offering what you have up to clubs and organizations, and it fits their needs, they will without a doubt promote it for you, for free.

Finally, do not forget the aged old, business card. Always have about 5 to 10 on you to hand out, and when you do hand them out to a person, always give them three. Why three? One for the person you are handing it to, and two more for the two people he`s going to give them to. Get your information on the business card of who you are, what you are offering and how the customer can get in touch with you or someone in your company. Business cards can be printed at your local office supply store for less than $20 for 1,000 of them.

Some of these promotions might be no-brainers but you would be surprised how many people overlook the obvious. Start using these ideas, and don`t forget to be creative and add your idea "neat" ideas to change these up a big.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com. http://www.Indocquent.com is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale and hire in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.

Learn How To Build Relationships With Your Customers To Increase Sales

You want to get your brand name out there and take control of the great product or service that you have to offer. A good way of doing this is to use marketing to create a personal relationship between what you have to offer and what the customer is looking for.

According to Rick Roth of Advertising Age, "Chief marketing officers (CMO) who understand the interplay between their key retailers and their brand also fair better. How retailers advertise a shelved product also adds to or detracts from a brand's value."

"The retail trade seems to enjoy more control over the fate of a brand with each passing day. Years ago, clients knew exactly what they wanted from in-store, demanded a certain level of performance and got it. Today, there is one brand major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, Target and Safeway care most about...their own. Marketers are squeezed by an empowered consumer, a controlling retail channel, and, on top of it all, a lack of predictability in the impact media truly delivers. No wonder they are increasingly focused on return on investment and are zeroing in on where they can best measure results: at the point of sale," claims Roth.

So how do you create this relationship between you and the customer. Roth believes you must find out how your potential customers move throughout their day to day operations, how do they interact with your competitors and their products or services, or where could it. You must be able to identify the most powerful moments to intervene with your product or service.

Roth stresses, "Retailers hold tremendous leverage in the relationships shoppers have with your brand. CMOs must investigate the relative strengths of each key retailer as well as their individual brand propositions and their category and market challenges. CMOs must also build marketing plans in such a way that considers the needs of their retail brand, and, ultimately, they must create programs that contribute to retailers' and their own businesses."

He stresses that in order to build up your product or service, you should also help build up the retailers business. By doing this, both will be successful and thrive from the lucrative partnership.

An example of such a partnership was when Levi's created a new brand exclusively for Wal-mart, and as Roth puts it, "the retailer was able to leverage the credibility of the Levi's name, and Wal-Mart provided Levi's with an unmatched volume opportunity as a means to jump-start their new brand." Of course a more recent partnership was AT & T and the Apple iPhone.

McKinsey & Company noted that approximately 70% of purchase decisions are made at the shelf-regardless of what the consumer was originally intending to buy. Roth says he conducted an in store study where the results show that 37% of consumers walked by displays without even looking at them, 32% looked but did not bother to stop, only 4% did stop, but did not buy, and 27% stopped and bought.

"The study pinpoints seven critical moments-from category visibility to checkout-that lead a shopper to purchase. Barriers are at each step and involve everything from planogram and store design to product placement, packaging, signage, pricing and shopper demographics," claims Roth.

Purchasing decisions vary by what you are selling, the region of the world you are based in and of course gender. To better market your product or service you should understand the who, what, when, where, and why questions, to narrow down what kind of consumer it is geared toward.

You must be able to create and build valuable relationships with your buyers. If these relationships created have a strong foundation, such as commitment and understanding, you are sure to see your business grow tremendously.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.indocquent.com/. http://www.indocquent.com/ is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.

Are You Tapping Into The 4 Billion Asian Market

The Internet makes it possible to become a global supplier of your own products, practically overnight. However, marketing on a global level can be a challenge. In this article we are going to focus in on marketing to the Asian consumer. Although their per year income may seem low, it is normal for someone to have a $2,000 per year salary. Don`t let that fool you though. Even individuals with the lowest of incomes have needs, and those needs could be your products or services.

"About 4 billion people in the world earn $2,000 a year. Across all of Asia-whether it be China, India, Indonesia or Vietnam-product innovation and new ways of thinking make it possible to meet these people`s needs ethically, fairly and profitably," claims Michele Kristula-Green of Advertising Age. She continues, "For decades, the majority of multinational corporations marketing in Asia have focused on the affluent minority, those who tend to live in urban areas and have shopping habits and product needs that are quite similar to those in the West. But by focusing only on the upper-income urbanites, marketers are missing a vast opportunity at the bottom of the economic pyramid."

In order to tap this market, you need to know the consumer. For starters, "the people have a strong sense of when and where brands play a role. They often want to buy brands not only for image but as a guarantee of quality," claims Kristula-Green.

One might think these people are price conscious, but what they really are looking for is value. As Kristula-Green puts it, "a miner in China wants a mobile phone with multiple functions, including an MP3 player. It costs a bit more, but it will also function as a camera, music player and calendar. In the Philippines, that cellphone is also used for banking transactions, which means you don`t need to leave the stall you run to make a three-hour round trip into town." In other words getting the most out of your dollar by combining different products.

Companies that have been successful in the Asian market have done so because they understand the consumer. They have taken the time to sit down and study the culture, the people, the way they work, play and so on. They also understand that the Asian market is really no different then the US market. They have a desire to dream, a solid work ethic and want the most out of life for themselves and their families.

Kristula-Green says, "Big opportunities lie at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Microbanking, distribution systems that employ rural villagers, the internet and cellular connections are at the forefront of microenterprise and economic development. Marketers also need to think in terms of new alliances, new business models and local support to get things done. Product, packaging and pricing innovation-which can arise only from a new way of thinking-are key."

If you sell products that can be manufactured at a low cost yet yeild a high quality as well as perform multiple tasks, the Asian market can be the place for you.

So how do you win the Asian market over? People in Asia are really no different then us here in the good ole USA. They gravitate towards brands that really understand their own lifestyle.

To start, listen to what is going on in the Asian market. Don`t assume a $2,000 a year income means no chance of a sale, when in fact it is the norm. Understand the Asian lifestyle. Find out how they would use your product or how you can incorporate more tasks or creative ways for them to use it. Next, tailor your product to their needs. In other words, using pro football as a marketing scheme won`t work. They don`t follow American football. Garner your product around what their cultures are, and associate it with something practical in their lifestyle. Most importantly, understand what people are willing to pay for your product, and make adjustments accordingly.

Your product may be perfect for the Asian market. The only way to find out is to do your homework and then plug your product into whatever niche it fits.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com. http://www.Indocquent.com is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to market their products and services for sale and hire in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world free of charge.

Use These Two Techniques To Boost Your Sales

In our first installment of tips on how to sell, we covered three different techniques on building a large, yet reputable client base. Now that you have a solid client base, filled with plenty of contact information, email addresses, names, phone numbers etc., it is now time to close the deal.

The art of selling, and it is an art form (if you do not think so, you should see some really good professionals in action), is one that takes time to master. With the right tools, techniques, training and mentors, you will be landing those big deals before you know it. In this article we are going to cover two techniques that you should be able to use to close your deal.

Closing the sale is one of the most difficult parts of being a salesperson, and of course, the most important. If you have ever gone to buy a car and you are working with a salesperson, have you ever had them "go get their manager"? That`s because the manager is better at closing the sale. If they were better at it, there would be no need for them to get the manager, or they would be the manager themselves.

If you want to learn how to close, there is no better way then to ask the pros who do it now. Joan McCarty a Travel Agent in Florida says, "Since most of my clients book their cruises 12 to 18 months in advance, I close the sale by offering an EZ Pay Plan." She says this plan allows her clients to slowly pay for their vacation over time in smaller monthly increments. So imagine you are a customer and you and your family are looking to book that super family fun vacation but it will run you about $5,000. This is an amount which is a lot of money, and even seems like a lot more because you do not have it right now. Now imagine if someone like Joan came along and offered for you to pay for the vacation in smaller monthly installments until the date your trip is set to depart. Sounds like a better more reasonable way of doing it, and guess what, Joan just made a huge sale. This is a good technique for a lot of people to use in both selling products and services. Offer your clients and customers and easy monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly payment plan (which ever is more appropriate for you) so they can buy your product or hire your service without laying down all of the money up front.

I am sure you have heard of insurance companies that not only show you their rates, but the rates of their competitors. This is another good closing technique. Its a way for you to say, "here is what I am offering, and here is what the other guy is offering." It gives your prospective customer a visual comparison of what they will be getting by doing business with you and with the other guy. Lets say you are selling a widget for $30, and your competitor is also selling widgets for $30. Most people would just lower the price to beat out their competitor, but in turn you would have to sell more widgets. If the product is priced right, then you should keep it where it is, but give the buyer a visualization as to why your widget is better than theirs. You will have to apply this to your specific needs for your business, product or service, but you get the point.

These are just two of the many ways to close your sale. Try and adapt them to your needs, so you can start applying them today.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.indocquent.com/. http://www.indocquent.com/ is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world free of charge.

Close the Deal

In our first installment of tips on how to sell, we covered three different techniques on building a large, yet reputable client base. Now that you have a solid client base, filled with plenty of contact information, email addresses, names, phone numbers etc., it is now time to close the deal.

The art of selling, and it is an art form (if you do not think so, you should see some really good professionals in action), is one that takes time to master. With the right tools, techniques, training and mentors, you will be landing those big deals before you know it. In this article we are going to cover two techniques that you should be able to use to close your deal.

Closing the sale is one of the most difficult parts of being a salesperson, and of course, the most important. If you have ever gone to buy a car and you are working with a salesperson, have you ever had them "go get their manager"? That`s because the manager is better at closing the sale. If they were better at it, there would be no need for them to get the manager, or they would be the manager themselves.

If you want to learn how to close, there is no better way then to ask the pros who do it now. Joan McCarty a Travel Agent in Florida says, "Since most of my clients book their cruises 12 to 18 months in advance, I close the sale by offering an EZ Pay Plan." She says this plan allows her clients to slowly pay for their vacation over time in smaller monthly increments. So imagine you are a customer and you and your family are looking to book that super family fun vacation but it will run you about $5,000. This is an amount which is a lot of money, and even seems like a lot more because you do not have it right now. Now imagine if someone like Joan came along and offered for you to pay for the vacation in smaller monthly installments until the date your trip is set to depart. Sounds like a better more reasonable way of doing it, and guess what, Joan just made a huge sale. This is a good technique for a lot of people to use in both selling products and services. Offer your clients and customers and easy monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly payment plan (which ever is more appropriate for you) so they can buy your product or hire your service without laying down all of the money up front.

I am sure you have heard of insurance companies that not only show you their rates, but the rates of their competitors. This is another good closing technique. Its a way for you to say, "here is what I am offering, and here is what the other guy is offering." It gives your prospective customer a visual comparison of what they will be getting by doing business with you and with the other guy. Lets say you are selling a widget for $30, and your competitor is also selling widgets for $30. Most people would just lower the price to beat out their competitor, but in turn you would have to sell more widgets. If the product is priced right, then you should keep it where it is, but give the buyer a visualization as to why your widget is better than theirs. You will have to apply this to your specific needs for your business, product or service, but you get the point.

These are just two of the many ways to close your sale. Try and adapt them to your needs, so you can start applying them today.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com. http://www.Indocquent.com is an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world free of charge.