How To Use Advertising

How important is advertising? It can make or break your business. People need to know you exist, what you have to offer, and how they can get what you have.

No business can succeed without proper ad placement. Advertising is very important to the success of any business venture. If you don`t have the money to advertise in a national publication, advertise locally. If you can`t afford to advertise locally, think outside the box. How can you advertise your business inexpensively, yet still show yourself as a "professional"?

A one-time placement in your local newspaper, on television, on the radio, or in a national publication will be a total waste of your time, money, and effort. Consumers need to see your product a minimum of 7 to 10 times before they will even consider ordering your product or service. Your best bet would be to purchase a business-size card ad, with two or three colors, a graphic, and a bit of information about your product or service. Advertise in the same publication for six months. If after three months the advertisement doesn`t trigger any new sales or clients, change the ad, but keep it in the same publication.

Last year, we had a new coffee shop open up in town. Though many coffee shops have come and gone, this one picked up gusto and earned enough revenue to open a second shop in the next town. How did the owners prevail? They knew how to advertise their business. They placed the same advertisement in the same spot, in the same paper, every week—without fail. And they learned to use their public relations skills to gain free radio time as well as television time.

When sitting down to develop your advertisement, keep these things in mind:
• What advertisements do you read over and over again, even though you pretty much know what the ad is going to say? What is it about that ad that continues to capture your attention?
• Which advertisements do you automatically gravitate to when reading the paper? What is it about those ads that draw your attention to them?
• What do you want your advertisement to do for your? Promote your business? Offer a sale? Inform the public?
• What is your product or service`s biggest seller? Should that be mentioned in your advertisement?
• Don`t crowd your advertisement with tons of colors, words, or pictures. Less is truly more.
• Place a "call to action" in your advertisement...call this number, visit our store, sign up for ____, or visit our website to download free ____.
Finally, remember that you can`t always rely on the results of others as to a "good place" to advertise your business. If your business isn`t geared towards the readers of a certain publication, your results will not come close to that of the person who recommended that publication in the first place.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alyice Edrich helps parents earn extra cash from home so they can spend more time with their children. To get three free e-books or buy one of her best sellers, visit http://thedabblingmum.com/ebookstore.

Track Your Customer`s Data For Advertising Success

If you are currently running a business or thinking of starting one, then you already know the importance of advertising. However, you may not know that doing this simple trick may help increase your advertising return.

Do you grocery shop? Of course you do, otherwise you would never eat, or at least not eat at home. Ever notice at most, probably all by now, that grocery stores want you to sign up for those key cards or key tags?

If you are not sure what I am talking about, let me give you a little definition of what a key tag is. The supermarkets (and other stores) have you sign up, filling out a simple one form piece of paper with your name, address, email etc., on it and in turn they give you this key card or also known as a “special savings card”.

In return for signing up for their card, certain products are marked down at a discount and only those who have this magical card (not really magic but you get the point) receive the discount.

Many people wonder why a store would put their customers through that hassle of signing up for it just to get a few pennies off a product. The answer is simple, marketing and tracking.

Stores aren’t doing this because they would like to see their most loyal customers buy from them at a discount, although that may make up about 5% of the thought process. They do it to track what you buy and how often.

Every time you swipe that key tag, the store knows how much you bought, what you bought, the days in which you shop and so on. This information is golden when it comes to spending their advertising dollars. If the store knows you are more likely to buy frozen spinach over frozen beans, or if you are more than likely to shop on a Tuesday rather than a Friday, they can then tailor their advertising to reflect the customers shopping habits.

Now imagine hundreds if not thousands of data points like this on your customers. You can then use all of this data to really come up with a marketing and advertising campaign that would surely work.

Key cards, tags and special savings cards may not go with what your business does, but I can guarantee that setting up some kind of tracking of your customers will.

If you have an existing business and a decent customer base, then you need to obtain their spending habits. When do they like to come in and buy? What do they buy? How much? You need to ask these questions about your customers, and more importantly answer them honestly. The more you know about your customers, the better your advertising will be.

For example, if after you collect your data you find out males from the ages of 24 to 35 are three times more likely to buy your product, you can now tailor your advertising efforts to that demographic.

If you are looking to starting a bua you feedback on what you are selling. This will give you an immense amount of data to jump start your business.

Whichever direction you take to obtain data on your customers, the key here is to do it and get as much of it as possible. This will aid your business’s ad campaign a great deal.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.indocquent.com/, 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.

In Business Find Your Niche Market

Many experts say and truly believe that in business you can find success in a more centralized area. This area is referred to as a niche, or a niche market.

I am sure you have heard of the term, “niche market”. According to the dictionary a niche market is defined as a distinct segment of the business marketplace. That definition could not be truer.

For many of us in business, a lot of times we try to take on too much. We want to be the “be all, end all” for everything that a customer needs or wants. In reality that is impossible to accomplish.

If you are currently in business and sales are slow, or you are thinking of starting a business, then look to a niche market. A niche market will give you the ability to focus more clearly on the business, as it will be a more distinct segment.

For example, a friend of mine runs a home repair and renovation company. If there is any market that can be more general and have a lot of options it is that one. Just think about it. You can specialize in floors, windows, drywall, small repairs, complete kitchen makeovers, you name it.

Now imagine if my friend said he did it all. It would be impossible to become an expert at anything because his job would entail doing so many things, that he would never get the experience in one area to excel at it. Sure he might be able to do everything, because he is very handy, however in order for him to succeed in business he needs to do just a few things really well.

In knowing that, he created a niche market in the renovation and repair market where he can become an expert at it. This allows him to carve out a small area of this broad and very competitive business place where he will succeed.

You need to do the same. If you are currently running a business and it seems like you may be handling too much, find out what you really enjoy and do really well. Hopefully they are one in the same. Once you realize that, tailor your business to this specific identity.

The same above principle applies to you if you are starting a business. What do you enjoy? What makes you happy? What are you good at? Start asking yourself these questions, and more importantly answer them honestly to get a better understanding of what it is you exactly want.

Now that you have your answers, start narrowing down to find your niche market. Maybe you like handiwork, but really love to paint. There is your niche market. You get the point.

Find out what it really is you want to do, and go do it. There is a niche market out there for everybody.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com, 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.

Weblog University

Riky, from Indonesia, has completed his first semester at Northern Kentucky University and looks forward to a well-deserved holiday break. Neema, from New Jersey, cheers on the "Ruts" football team in between studying for mid-term examinations at Rutgers University. Heather, from Columbus, Ohio, reflects on what Thanksgiving means to her while lamenting the cold, damp weather at Capital University.

Today`s weblog (or "blog," as coined by Peter Merholz in 1999) has come a long way since it was first introduced in the mid-1990s as a form of an internet diary and/or opinion podium. From news media, to corporations, to political pundits, today`s blogger continues to embrace the technology he or she hopes will attract a wider, more global audience.

Colleges and universities all over the world have now begun to implement student weblogs for a myriad of reasons. Take, for instance, Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and its "Games for the Web: Ethnography of Massively Multiplayer On-line Games." This is a "Live Journal" blog created for students of this particular class to showcase their writing and ideas generated as a result of enrolling in this course. Louisiana Technical University publishes student blogs as part of its admissions` website. These types of blogs use internet technology to recruit prospective students by peaking their curiosity enough to schedule campus visits and apply to the respective universities. Unlike other blogs and websites such as "Facebook" and "My Space," university-student blogs are "family-friendly" internet postings where current students from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences reflect on and share their experiences as college students.

The United States is not the only country that has caught on to this relatively new trend. In the United Kingdom, the "The Attic," which is hosted by Google`s "Blogger" website, is a virtual meeting place for doctoral (PhD) students who are pursuing their degrees at the University of Leicaster in conjunction with its Department of Museum Studies.

In addition to college and university weblogs, other student-oriented blogs have appeared on the internet. These range in topic from Jewish students` perspectives, to London students` personal musings, all of which focus on commonly-shared daily experiences of young adults pursuing post-secondary school degrees.

What with millions of weblogs hosted on the World Wide Web, it has become apparent that today`s weblogs have evolved from serving mainly as diary entries and opinion pieces. According to Olga Kharif, a writer for Business Week`s "The Tech Beat" website, the nature of blogs is changing with the help of technology known as "tagging," technology that operates with the help of "Technorati.com." Tags are used to generate search results for a particular topic. Let`s say you`re interested in studying at The Ohio State University. You perform an internet search on "Technorati.com," and you will soon find news stories, photographs and blogs tagged with the words "The Ohio State University."

Today`s weblogging capabilities will help colleges and universities attract potential students to campuses far and wide at a relatively inexpensive cost. In a competitive environment such as university recruitment, this technology will no doubt help increase future applications and enrollment in today’s competitive market.

By: Jane Bratton



About the Author:
Jane M. Bratton is a freelance writer who has been published in "34th Parallel" magzine and "The Cincinnati Enquirer. She wrote this article for Indocquent.com, an online resource where businesses and individuals can promote their products and services for sale and hire in over 20,000 cities, throughout 200 countries around the world.

Ms. Bratton will have a story published in the book "A Cup of Comfort" sometime in 2008.

Go After Your Target Audience With Your Advertising

Think of your customers, or group of customers, as a dart board. I am sure at some point in your life, like me, you have played darts. Whether you know the rules or not does not matter for this example. However, like a dart board the closer you get to the center of the board the more valuable the points will be.

As you throw the darts you are trying to hit the center because that is where the most points are. The more often you hit the center, the more points you "rack" up.

Your customers are like that dart board. The customers you are striving to grab are closer to the center, with the best customers being the center spot. Those are the customers that will, without a doubt, buy your products and hire your services.

If your advertising is only reaching the outer rings of your customer dart board then you already know you are spending more money than you have to. You are because the empty space like on a dart board represents people that have no interest in your business, products or services. They have no interest, not because you do not have something good to offer, they have no interest because what you offer is something they have no need for.

For example, a friend of mine runs rental property repair business. What do you think would represent the center of his customer dartboard? Landlords and propery managers right? These are the individuals that actually own and operate the real estate he is looking to supply his service for.

As he moves further away from that center, he will reach people that may or may not own rentals or investment properties. Now they might own their own properties or have things to fix in theit houses or apartments they rent, but that is not the market he is targeting.

So does it make much sense for him to run an ad in a newspaper? Sure he might get a customer or two, but if you break down the cost per customer, it really would not be worth it. His ad is hitting too much of a broad general audience that may or may not reach the customers he is looking for. In other words, that ad in the newspaper would be considered hitting the outer rings of the dart board.

So in order to hit the center of his dartboard he needs to go right after the landlords and property managers directly. One technique he uses is to go to the courthouse in the area where he does business and obtain the mailing address of individuals he knows rents out their properties. Then he send them a postcard, a flyer etc. He has now hit the bullseye.

His advertising hit the center which is a customer he know can use his service. So as you can see all of his advertising money is being spent to hit as close to 100% of his market as you can possibly get.

Wouldn`t you like your advertising to hit 100% of your market? Of course you would. You need to find out what customers, areas, etc. make up your bulls eye. Then you need to find the best way to throw that dart and hit it.

For my friend his dart was the postcards and flyers he sent out, hitting the center which was the landlord or property manager on the other side.

First find your center target, then next create your "dart". The vehicle by which you will hit the center. Finally, throw the dart and hit the center and start "racking" up the points.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com, 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.

Use These Techniques To Find Good Tenants For Your Rental Properties

As a landlord for over the last 10 years I can tell you I had my share of good tenants and share of some bad tenants, as do all landlords.

Today I want to share with you some ideas and techniques that I use to at least limit the possibility of a bad tenant. In my experience I have encountered on a few occasions where no matter how much time and effort you put in, you just can`t predict the future, and because you can`t you won`t be able to for-see your tenant lose their job resulting in you not getting your rent. Will get to more on that in a moment.

As landlords we use a variety of documents and information obtained from the potential renters application, which brings us to step one, a complete application.

A red light of caution should immediately go off in your head if you get back an incomplete application. What is considered incomplete? The person`s job history should go back at least 5 years. Some say 2, but I require 5. I want to see what they have been up to. Do they jump around from job to job? Or are they stable? Is the industry they are working in stable? In other words, are they busy today only to get laid off tomorrow. Get up to 5 years work history. Obviously if you are looking at a section 8 tenant you might not get that, but we`ll talk about section 8 tenants later.

Look for personal and professional references. Three of each is what should be the minimum, although the application that I use (which I customized), has space for 5 each. it is rare that I get 5, but 90% of the time I will get 3 or 4.

Make sure your application calls for what there current bills are. Do they have a car payment? Alimony or child support (although some states do not allow you to ask this)? As you can see you have to deduct these costs from their income to see whether or not they can afford the property.

Find out why they are leaving their current place. Obtain the contact information for the landlord where they live.

Now that you have all that information, start placing some phone calls. Call the jobs, the references and the previous landlord. Find out what kind of person they are. Keep in mind many states do not allow you to ask personal questions, nor can references tell you that someone is a bad tenant, employee or person. What you are trying to find out is are they reliable. Did they show up to work on time? Is it a person that a personal reference can count on? Is the previous landlord sad to see them move out? That type of information.

Notice I did not mention anything about the credit report. If you, like me, rent in an area, where you have a better chance of hitting the lottery then seeing someone with a halfway decent credit report, then you know the credit report is basically worthless. I would only use a credit report if my choices come down to more than one person or family. Then I would take the best of the bunch.

Armed with all the information above, you should have no problem finding quality tenants and keeping them for a very long time. Remember, the more time and effort you put in prior to moving someone in, the less headaches (and court appearances) you will have later.

By: Michael C. Podlesny

About the Author
Michael C. Podlesny is the owner of Rental Property Repair, LLC. A rental and investment property repair and renovation company that services Mercer & Burlington Counties in New Jersey and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
To inquire about their services you can visit them online at http://www.RentalPropertyRepairLLC.com.

How Much Do You Know About This To Make Your Advertising Work?

I am a huge fan of the NFL. America`s National Football League. It is a professional sport, played by huge men, where the game can get very physical.

For awhile I just always assumed the team that wins does so just because they are physically better, however I know now that this is not the case.

It is that other attribute that propels a team to win. It could also do so for your business. We`ll get to more on that in a moment.

What amazes me about the sport is watching an offense operate. Being able to watch a good quarterback throw the ball where the defense isn`t, and the running back be able to run by guys twice his size.

How is it possible that this can be done? Do they know what the defense is doing? Do they have their plays? Yes to both questions. They do, because the offense knows their competition.

What I mean by this is, they spend countless hours studying film of previous games of their opponents to understand what their every move will be. All teams do this, but those who do it properly and correctly will get the advantage. You need to do the same for your business, to allow your advertising to be affective.

No I don`t mean watch countless hours of film on your competition (although if that is relavant you should). What I mean is, know your competitors. Knowing everything about your competitors is just as important as knowing everything about your own business.

Find out who your competition is and write down everything about what they do. How much do they charge? How often do they advertise? Where do they advertise? How long have they been in business? You get the point.

Before you get to work on finding out as much information as possible on your competition, take the time and write up a list of questions that need to be answered. Remember, the more questions you can ask, the more information you will eventually have on them.

You can make it a fun company project where every employee can submit `x` number of questions and so on.

Once you have the questions in hand, start researching to get the answers. Look far and wide and you will be able to obtain the information you seek. Do not forget to ask your own customers. Some might have done business in the past with your competition. Ask them what they liked and disliked about them.

Once you know everything about them, you can now begin to design a plan of action to get a step up on them. You know their plusses and negatives. Whether you advertise on our website, in print, TV or radio, you can now use that information in your advertising campaign.

The goal here is to know everything there is to know about your competition. Once you do that, everything else should just fall into place.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com, 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.