Advertising Essentials
Advertising for small businesses is tricky to get right, but once you do, you've got yourself a money machine, one which will often last you for year after year, consistently bringing in a predictable return for a modest investment
And, frankly, now is the perfect time to be testing your advertising. Here's why.
First , the current economy means advertising space and advertising design is cheap. Firms are slashing their budgets and cutting their campaigns to the bone, and the media simply cannot sell advertising space right now. Prices are in free-fall, and it's possible to get discounts of 82% or more, just by using a few advertising secrets and "tricks of the trade".
More than that, prices for copywriting, graphic design, and printing are at rock-bottom, because of the knock-on effects of the cuts in advertising. Even local photographic studios in their role as advertising photographer are feeling the pinch. From every angle, advertising design costs are very favourable.
Remember: test small. In advertising researchcan save you a lot of time and money. So don't go all-out for a big campaign just because it looks cheap and sounds like a good idea. Do your advertising research! Ask your clients and customers what they want and really get to know what people are looking for. Too many business owners make the mistake of trying to sell what they feel like selling rather than selling what the market feels like buying.
Secondly, because everyone else in your industry – all your competitors, basically -- have stopped advertising, you have the field to yourself, meaning your responses should increase (if you follow the strategies, tips and techniques I share with you on this website).
And look at it this way... if you can slash your advertising cost by 82% (less than 1/5 of its previous cost!) and double the responses to it (much easier than you might think by following just few simple rules) then...
Your advertising ROI will increase by more than 10 times!
And the real trick to making your advertising profitable is increasing your ROI rather than necessarily just increasing the gross amount of money you make from it. And the easiest, most effective way to increase your ROI and make a handsome profit from advertising is not by selling products for a high price, but rather buying advertising for a low one.
And don't make the mistake of thinking this applies to print media only. The price of advertising has fallen across the board: prices for every kind of advertising from newspapers to the (not recommended for small businesses) advertising inflatable and roadside advertising board are all at their lowest for years, giving you some tremendous opportunities for testing out that advertising idea you've been kicking around for a while, with minimum risk of losing money.
Finally, a quick word about that old stalwart, email advertising. It's true it's on the increase, simply because it's fast, cheap, and easy. However, because most business owners have no clue about how to write a good email and so make their email advertising effective, it's still worth doing.
The reason is, most emails sent by business owners are poorly written and are nothing more than plaintive requests for customers to buy something from them. In today's market, value is even more important than ever before. So not only should you keep up your email advertising but you should work hard to make it effective and probably increase the frequency.
Have a look around the rest of this site and see some of the specific advertising secrets and strategies you can use to increase your profits starting TODAY!
Happy Advertising!
Chris Cardell
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