5 Things You Should Expect From an Advertising Agency

Advertising agencies are a great asset for any business seeking to increase its visibility, reach more customers, and make a bigger impact in its field.

Working with an advertising agency can be beneficial for any business’s marketing strategy, but certain expectations should be met when partnering with one. 

Here are five things you should expect from an advertising agency.

Creative Solutions

An advertising agency should be able to think of creative ways to promote your business and drive sales. 

Not only will they come up with innovative ideas that will capture the attention of potential customers, they'll also have the resources and knowledge required to execute these ideas effectively. 

These solutions could include digital campaigns, outdoor advertisements, radio spots, or anything else that may benefit your business’s marketing efforts.

Strategic Planning

The team at an advertising agency should have a well-rounded plan in place to help your business achieve its goals. 

This includes creating effective strategies based on customer data and trends and utilizing different types of media and platforms to reach larger audiences. 

They should also identify target markets and use tactics like segmentation and personalization to craft messages tailored for those markets in order for them to stand out from the competition and maximize returns on investments (ROI).

Professional Network

Advertising agencies often have extensive networks of trusted contacts in different industries who can provide valuable insight into your industry or target market. 

This professional network can help you gain access to new opportunities such as sponsorships, collaborations, or partnerships that may have yet to be available otherwise due to lack of time or resources needed for the process.

Optimization & Tracking

Once an ad campaign has been set in motion, it is important that it is monitored closely so it can be optimized accordingly over time if needed. 

An experienced advertising agency will track effectiveness metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, etc., measure return on investment (ROI), and adjust according to any changes within the market or customer preferences so campaign goals are eventually achieved efficiently while working within budget constraints as much as possible

Cutting Edge Technology

Advertising agencies will typically stay up-to-date with current technologies in order to better serve their clients’ needs; this includes artificial intelligence (AI) technology which assists in gathering customer insights rapidly, among other tasks like automated content creation or ad delivery optimization across multiple channels (social media accounts/websites/etc.). 

AI technology can also provide valuable data-driven recommendations, making it easier for businesses to make informed decisions about their marketing strategies moving forward.

By making sure all five of these expectations are met when selecting an advertising agency—an invaluable asset—businesses will be confident they're receiving exceptional services while reaching their desired outcomes quickly and cost-effectively

2 Steps to Increase Customer Interaction through Marketing

Your clients have a variety of sources to purchase products from. Your customers' expectations are high, and as such, you have to reach out to them to understand their specific needs. 

Hubspot notes that failure to meet your clients' high expectations will result in their shift to your rivals. Markedly, you should go the extra mile to surpass your customers' standards and to stand out among your competitors.

Customer experience exists past the sale point as you will need these clients to enhance your company's growth, nowadays driving even more traffic from all of the online shopping that is taking place due to lockdowns and restrictions. 

You should promote customer interaction through marketing to keep in contact with your clients. Such actions will improve loyalty and trust among your clients.

Customer interaction refers to the consumers' willingness to reach out to your company in case of an issue or complement regarding your product. Increased customer interaction means increased customer value that improves customer experience.

Here are two steps to increase customer interaction through marketing.

1. Asking For and Acting on Customer Feedbacks during Surveys

As you market your products, ensure you give your clients a listening ear. Your customers love being heard, and their feedback is acted on promptly. Rather than promoting your brand blindly, you should create marketing surveys to gather information from your customers. Here, customers will freely offer positive and negative feedback on your product to give you room for improvement.




Additionally, you should create a conducive and transparent environment for your clients to open up about your products. Such an action will help you show your customers that you value their opinion and care about their satisfaction. Ultimately, this will foster honesty among your customers, enhancing customer retention.

For instance, if you have car insurance in Montreal, you can create relevant surveys to get information from your clients. After getting your customers' feedback, you should be prompt in responding and handling the issues raised. 

Your promptness will encourage the customers to connect with your company and fearlessly reach out when they need help. However, if you collect feedback and keep it, your customers will be discouraged from interacting with you as you give them a negative impression. 

Therefore, it is prudent to organize and promptly handle customer feedback to enhance customer contact and interactions.

2. Interact with Your Customers Humanely as You Prioritize to Reach Out to Them

Communication with your clients can either start with them or you. Ensure that you regularly reach out to your clients and check out if they are experiencing any difficulties with your products. Equally, in situations where your clients reach out first, you should calm them down and assure them that you will immediately handle their issues.

Additionally, rather than sending a formal response with a number to the customer to contact you, you should contact them through the platforms that they connect with you at first. Your promptness will create a positive impression, encouraging your clients to always connect with your company.




You should also create a personal touch with your customers as you interact. For instance, you can incorporate GIFs and emojis that your clients can relate with as they offer their feedback. These symbols will reduce tension in your interactions as your customers connect with your company.

Ensure to embrace good judgment as you interact with your clients with a personal voice. Depending on the impression you give your clients during your interactions, they will either maintain future contacts or keep quiet about any product issues. 

You should embrace a humane, exciting, and engaging tone as you interact with your clients to avoid losing them. Once your clients' get assurance that you will handle their issues, they will rest easy and increase confidence in your company. In the end, they will improve their connection through regular interactions with your company.

Customer interaction is the key to the success of any company in the modern business environment. Your customers want you to surpass their expectations as you serve them. 

Through customer interaction, you learn about these expectations and align them with your company goals. Customer satisfaction enhances your connection with your clients. 

Without the right steps and priorities, you may end up losing your loyal clients to competitors who stand out in the industry. Therefore, you should outsmart your competitors by keeping your clients close.

For instance, you can enhance your customers' interaction by asking for and acting on customer feedback during surveys.  Interacting with your customers humanely as you prioritize to reach out to them. Making sure you apply it to any and every other aspect of your business deals. Even when you are looking into factors for buying a condo or similar. Ultimately, these steps will increase customer interaction through marketing, leading to customer satisfaction and retention.

Wanna Be On Top? How Proper Communication Boosts The Bottom Line

Any business attempting to stay on top needs to focus on communication. It may not seem too important, but the reality is that communication can end up boosting our bottom line. The following are just a few ways you can improve communication within your company effectively.

Good Instruction Writers

An effective way to improve communication within your company is to make sure that all instructions are as clear as they can be. This means you need to hire good content writers to make sure instructions are as clear as possible. Errors could lead to confusion, and that is not good for a business because it can cause costly mistakes or even accidents.

Clear and Effective Contract

You are going to want to make sure that all contracts are written by a professional meaning that you are going to have to talk to a lawyer. Make sure this person understands business law before hiring him or her to help you jot down contracts. 



Creating clear contracts helps make better deals, and it helps foster relationships with third parties that can flourish for ages. For example, a Keep in mind that strong contracts can also end up protecting you should something go wrong.

Product Waste

Waste can lead to all sorts of problems later on. Not only do they cost money, but the possibility of finger-pointing also goes up. You do not want to be put in that position, but you can do something about it. For example, those who work with chemicals could use a chemical industry asset traceability solution that should help reduce waste. You could also use big data software though it does have to be specialized software to help your type of business.

Strong HR Team

A good HR team can also do wonders for a business because these are trained specialists who understand how to talk to personnel effectively. These individuals not only know how to make each person's voice heard but also know how to convey your company's positions in a way that is digestible. You want to have a good HR team to ensure that employees are appreciated and issues are dissolved with little problems.

Some of these suggestions may be difficult to initiate, but they are worth the effort. Your bottom line is what matters here, and optimizing communication within your company can get you where you want to be, so do not wait too long before you start optimize communication.

Promoting Your Business Through Social Media

It is always hard for new businesses to break through the industry. There are brands that are already more established and more reputable. People need to be sure that they are dealing with brands that they trust all the time. 

There are moments when they would be interested to try out new brands but this is only because of the influencers who encouraged people to try out a certain brand.

As a business owner, what are you supposed to do to promote properly? There are still other things that you have to think about. You need to make sure that your federal tax ID application goes through. Even if you are not a resident of the United States, you can offer your products to the target market there provided that you have an EIN number.

You can refer to Gov Doc filing if you want to know more about how you can apply for your EIN. This is great because you will learn how your personal finances can be protected no matter what the current state of your business is.




If you have already fixed your EIN, you can focus on how you are going to promote your business and your brand through social media. How are you going to do that? These are just a few of the things that you can do:

• Make sure that you choose the social media platform you are going to promote on. There are some people that you can reach better through the social media platform that you choose. Expect that the generation would be younger if you promote through Instagram as compared to promoting through YouTube wherein the users will be more diverse. Your choice will depend on the people that you want to purchase from your brand.
• Find people who can promote your brand for prices that you can afford. You may be tempted to just contact anyone who will promote your business through social media but you need to be careful. The influencers are able to get people to try out your brand. They give your products and your whole company exposure in exchange for a fee or a price. 
• Choose influencers whom you believe can represent your brand in a good way.
• Plan how you are going to advertise your products and your services. You may want to create a social media page wherein you can place all of your items for sale. This will allow people to visit this page whenever they want to check if some of the items they want are still available.
• You can also work with other brands by doing a guest post on their social media page if they could also promote through yours. Businesses can form partnerships and help each other become better. The more that your business grows, the bigger the names of the brands that you will come across and possibly work with.

There are a lot of things that you can do to promote through social media. Do you think you are ready? With LLC forms properly filed, you have nothing to worry about.

Reaching Your Specific Audience is Key to Your Marketing Plan

Every product has a different audience, you must reach that audience in order to be successful. Everything that you do needs to be geared towards your audience, or you will be wasting your time. 

However, it is not always easy to find and impact your target audience. Here are 6 tips and tricks to help you focus your marketing for your specific audience.

Discover Your Audience

The first thing you have to do is determine your audience. Every audience has different habits, preferences, communication styles, etc. And you have to market specifically for your audience. 

As suggested here, sit down and create a stereotype for your audience. Write down everything that you know about them: their gender, age, where they work, what they do for fun, their shopping habits, what type of job they have, where they live, etc. While not every one of your customers will fit into your perfect stereotype, they will have many things in common. 

Focus your marketing towards the stereotype you have created. Remember that if you try to speak to everyone, you’ll just end up speaking to no one.

Appeal to Your Audience

Once you have determined your audience, you can speak right to them. Let them know why they need you. What types of advertisements will they connect to? What is it about your product that will change their life? 

Remember to make your marketing about your customer, and not about you. Create content that will set up a conversation with your audience, not a lecture. Be genuinely interested in your consumer, and they will respond. Use the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos) to reach out to your consumer. 

Essentially, inform your audience that you know what you are talking about, appeal to their ability to reason, and give them something that will touch their heart. (This persuasion method was created nearly 2,000 years ago by Aristotle, and has been proven effective over the test of time.

Be Seen by Your Audience

After you have determined who your audience is and how to appeal to them, you have find ways to get seen by them. Figure out what type of media your audience is consuming, and get on it. If you have an audience in a specific location, consider putting up a billboard for them to see every day. 

Find out what magazines and coupon books go out in that area, and get an ad in the mailer as soon as possible. If you are trying to connect to businesses, go to relevant trade shows, send letters or emails to businesses, and consider visiting them in person. Don’t forget to reach them online too (see below). 

Remember to keep your marketing specific and focused. If you get contacted by a magazine that your audience doesn’t read, don’t waste your time and money creating an ad for that company. Decide what will work for you and your audience, and do it.

Decide What Sets You Apart

You and your competitors are trying to reach the same people at the same time to sell essentially the same products. Determine what it is that makes you different and advertise that. Be careful not to over-compare yourself to your competitors, as it is tacky and a huge turn-off for customers. 

Instead, focus on you and your business. What do you do that is unique to other companies? Do you offer free samples? Have an amazing return policy? Do you have a secret recipe? Do you offer a service that no one else does? 

Is your treatment plan different than other companies? Do you offer a famous favorite at your restaurant? Let your customers know why you are unique. Make sure that it is right on your website, and something that you advertise frequently.

Reach Them Online

Communication is no longer as it was. Before, you would reach customers by mail, phone calls, radio ads, billboards, or in person visits. Now we have the internet that not only speeds up communication, but makes advertising incredibly easy. Take, for example, Facebook ads. 

For as little as $5 a day, you can reach out to your specific audience and get your brand seen. Facebook allows you to narrow your target audience based on age, location, things they like, and more. Unfortunately, you do have to reach your audience online, as it how the world connects. 

Make sure that your website is up to date and you keep up on your blog. Get your brand on social media (especially on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), and be active on your social media pages.

Give Back

The best way to get noticed is to give back to the community. It is positive PR that gives people a good feeling about your business. While you should not give back solely for the PR, it does help your business. 

Charitable donations are also tax deductible, make you look good to customers, give you free advertising, and makes your community a better place to live in. Find a charity that works well with your business, or create your own. 

For example, if you are a cruelty-free skin care company, partner with a company that tries to make life better for animals around the country (like this company); if you are a furniture and appliance store, team up with a non-profit that rebuilds homes for low-income homeowners; and if you are a children’s toy and entertainment company, consider donating to a children’s hospital.

Cheap Ways to Advertise Your Business

The secret of running a successful business is promoting it the right way. Whatever you are aiming for; opening a new business; expanding your old one or just attracting more clientele, the trick is to advertise it in the right manner. 

Many people believe that good marketing demands a lot of money, but the actual truth is that it just needs a little money and a lot of creativity. Here we will try and list a couple good ways that you can promote your business and save money in the process!

Internet

The best way to promote just about anything nowadays is through internet. There are many ways to advertise your business this ways. For instance if you don’t have one, it could be handy to make a website. It doesn’t cost much and there is a high chance that you already know somebody who is willing to do it for free. 

Other things, like social media, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc… are just a great way of promoting yourself and what you do. Also, don’t forget about e-mail marketing. It’s flexible and has a high impact. You use it to send newsletter, announce any new products, deals or discounts you’re organizing.

Newspaper and Magazines

Although people tend to think that this is a dying business since the internet was introduced, it’s actually far from the truth. The newspaper industry is still blooming and there are tons of people who get information only from the paper. 

The key is to try and get published somewhere that is connected with your line of business, otherwise you will miss your target audience. Try and contact the Editor of your local paper or send a letter to the Editorial section.

Networking

Probably one of the first things you need to learn when you are starting a business. Perhaps it sound easy and perhaps it doesn’t sound that important, but you would be amazed to learn how much this can affect your work. 

It’s not just about knowing enough people, it’s about getting to know even more people who can benefit you. A good idea is to write down or make a scheme of the people you know and to divide them in categories (friends and family, acquaintances…) The key here is not to take advantage of those people but to make a network of people who will try and help you in your line of work knowing you would return the favor.

Human Resources

This is something to keep in mind. It doesn’t matter how good of a business you are leading, or how good of a promotion you are doing, if you don’t know the proper way to communicate with your customers. 

The goal is to keep the old ones and attract new ones. You need to make them feel special and unique and to try and meet their every need. Have you heard of the expression ‘The customer is always right’? Keep that in mind. It’s not always easy to please everybody, but it’s essential if you want to run a successful business.

Event

A smart thing to do once in a while is to organize some kind of an event. Something like a one week discount or some special sales and similar. It’s good to make some promotion materials or even promotional gifts to treat your customers with care. 

It’s always a good idea to attract them with a concept of free samples or just small tokens of appreciation. Those kinds of things don’t cost much and it makes you seem like you really care for your clientele.

A creative mind, a couple of good ideas, little money and you are good to go. These are all promotional techniques you can use to advertise your business but still maintain at a low cost option. These examples show you that just with a little wit you can accomplish a lot. 

You don’t need big marketing campaigns or billboards; all you need is to be innovative and creative. Also, the key is to be kind, persistent and to never give up. You never know who you will meet on your ladder to success, so it’s better to choose your methods wisely!

5 Ways Your Can Be More Effective in Marketing to Customers

The success of your business depends on how many customers know you are open and how they can find you. If your customers can't find you then you won't be in business very long. But if you have proper advertising, a business can become known to the community and have many satisfied customers.

Here are a few ideas to use in making the public aware of your business and how you may serve them.

Newspapers 

Look into the advertising rates for your local newspaper. Even though many people use the Internet to do their searching for goods and services, newspapers are still an option. Newspapers are still a good way to let your customers learn about you. An ad large enough to catch the eye of your customers can be somewhat pricey but you can negotiate a better price for a continual advertising campaign.

If an ad is to pricey for your budget, start out with classified ads because they are less money and you can run it for a longer period of time. 

Don't ignore newspapers as a good way to advertise. Also be imaginative in your campaign by contacting a reporter whose beat is related to your business. A interesting news story with your business prominently written about is a cheap way to get new customers.

Radio Stations

Contact your local radio station. Surprisingly, radio stations are an efficient way to advertise. They are affordable and can reach many people looking to find your goods and services.

Stations are flexible and can design a plan for any budget. After arranging a budget, the radio station can schedule your ad at specific times through the day to focus on the most listeners. Of course, the times when most listeners are listening, those times will have premium costs. So it is possible to start with a small budget and still reach your target audience.

Local Television

Like radio stations you can also create a campaign to stay within a budget. Using local television stations can be the quickest way to get the most exposure for your business. These stations have advertising departments that can assist you with finding the target audience you desire. Striking a balance between commercial length and time of day the commercial airs, can help you stay within your advertising budget. 

You may think starting out with only a few air plays of your commercial a month will not be effective but studies have shown local television is the most efficient use of a businesses advertising dollars.

Billboards

You have seen the billboards on the side of the road. For local advertising these are great. 24/7 these billboards are working to show the community your goods and services. Billboards can also be targeted by choosing the ones that are on major highways and locations in town. 

The better locations have higher rates but they reach more customers. Unlike broad advertising media, like TV and Radio, billboards can focus on specific parts of the city. You can target specific income groups or geographical locations with billboards, depending on the advertising location.

Pamphlets and Coupons

Direct mail, pamphlet, and coupons have been around for a long time and still produce effective results for local companies. You may can find in your mailbox an envelope containing a variety of 10 to 20 coupons from your local businesses and even some national businesses. 

The reason you receive these is that advertisers find this type of advertising very effective. As we have discussed before about target advertising, this technique can be very effective. With direct mail of your pamphlets and coupons you can target by income, disposable income, location to the business or a any other specifics target you need. 

Pamphlets that describe or sell your businesses services are highly effective because first you have targeted the specific type of customer and their attention is focused on the pamphlet from your company. Pamphlet delivery can be effective in marketing to new customers. You need to make an impression on the customers and help them make the decision to use your service. Including a money off coupon can be a very effective enticement.

The number one reason a business fails is from lack of proper advertising. Not connecting with your customers will doom any business. It's your job as the business owner to determine the type of advertising and marketing your business requires.

Get Noticed in 2014 - 4 Marketing Techniques to Try in the Coming Year

Running a business is a rewarding venture, but it is also one that poses new challenges each day. Even companies with undeniably intelligent business plans, high-quality products and competitive prices can find it difficult to stay ahead. One of the biggest challenges for businesses is simply getting noticed. In a crowded marketplace — particularly one in which technological advances have lowered the barrier to entry — it can be quite difficult to produce a steady stream of interest. 

Get Social

If you're not already embracing multiple social media platforms, now is the time to do so. Different demographic groups use different platforms, so concentrating all of your efforts on just one site means you will risk missing out on a large chunk of potential consumers. Social media offers an attractive option because you can reach an audience whether they are at home or mobile, and it doesn't cost anything to send out messages. Additionally, it is easy for people to copy your messages and pass them on, allowing you to expand your audience effortlessly.

Promotional Products

Getting your name out is essential if you want to keep expanding your business. And, just as in movies and television, product placement can be a very effective strategy for doing so. Getting custom-made promotional products, such as promotional zipper pulls or custom carabiners by HALO will dramatically increase exposure to your brand, which is crucial if you want it to become a household name. These small, utilitarian products are items that customers can use every day, encouraging repeat exposure. Promotional products are inexpensive to make but can make a significant impression on your target audience, making them a great marketing investment. These promotional products can be imprinted with your company’s logo and contact details so every time they are used by current and potential customers, you gain marketing exposure.

Get Involved

Don't be afraid to think outside of the box when it comes to marketing; you don't have to restrict yourself to traditional advertisements or commercials. You can also get exposure for your business by volunteering in the community or sponsoring an event related to your products or services. These strategies can help you gain vast new audiences and have your business be seen in a positive light.

Get Personal

People are more likely to interact with and support a brand with personality, so make sure your target audience knows that there are people behind the products. Starting a blog can help you show your human side and will also give people more insight into how your business operates and witness your passions. Getting on the same level as your audience will make your business more appealing so that consumers see you, not a faceless corporation.

Cutting through the barrage of marketing messages that consumers receive every day is no easy task, and it requires strategic planning. Luckily, altering your approach to marketing is much easier than changing a product's design or chain of distribution. If you want to get noticed in 2014, consider adopting some of these marketing techniques that will get you noticed in your chosen field.

Setting Your Business’s Marketing Budget

While marketing may not be the lifeblood of a running business, it certainly does keep an organization’s lifeblood flowing. From letting customers know about new products and services to gaining new revenue streams and continually refreshing interest, marketing and advertising have a very important role to play when it comes to staying in the black.

But how important is marketing — not in an ideological way, but in dollars and cents? How much should a business allocate to marketing, and how is a company supposed to arrive at that figure? If times are lean, and you’re more worried about how you’re supposed to afford to print postage, should you still pump money into advertising, or is it wiser to let your marketing dollars fall to the wayside? Here is a quick look at how to set and spend a marketing budget, as well as a pitch for why you need to do it even when you think you can’t afford it.

How to Set a Marketing Budget

A general rule of thumb for most businesses is that they should allocate and spend about 5 percent of their operating budget on marketing and advertising in order to maintain their current level of business. If you want to grow your market share or you have a new product to introduce, however, that figure should jump to at least 8 percent, because pushing past the inertia of what people already know about you can take some added effort.

Beyond those general rules, here are four other methods you can employ when devising your marketing financial plan:

• Utilize a fixed percentage of sales. Take last year’s gross sales or the average sales from the last few years, and allocate a percentage based on those numbers. Five percent is a good amount, but some businesses only spend around 2 percent. The advantages of this technique are that it’s stable and doesn’t try to predict the future, but focusing too much on the past can keep you from being aggressive, and sales are not always directly related to advertising alone, which means your figures may not totally line up.
• Keep up with the Joneses. This method employs doing what your competitors are doing. Whatever the industry marketing expenditures average is, adopt it. It’s easy and predictable, but looking at everyone around you can keep you from effectively increasing your market share.
• Take a task-based approach. Set specific marketing goals, and outline the tasks you’ll have to do to reach them. Then, determine your budget based on how much it will cost to perform those tasks. This method is accurate, but if it fails, it’s probably going to be costly.
• Go all in. If you have a strong stomach for risk, and you want your business to grow quickly, set aside a minimum amount of money with which to do business and put the rest in your marketing budget. Because it’s aggressive, this type of marketing can gain leaps and bounds over a more passive approach, but it’s risky. You’re liable to spend yourself out of business.

How to Spend a Marketing Budget

In order to properly spend the money you’ve set aside on marketing, you need to have a plan. From utilizing social media to television, direct mail and other campaigns, your money needs to be spent with wisdom and intention. Outline the avenues you’ll use, and then, get started. Once you know where your money is going, keep track of whether the expenditures are actually meeting your goals. If you need to adjust or change, do so. A marketing plan needn’t be fixed. Knowing whether or not your money is achieving your marketing goals is much more important than sticking to your plan or sticking to your budget. Compare quarters and campaigns. Analyze sales data and expenditures. Be patient, and be open to things that do and don’t work, and above all, make sure that your plan and its execution are in keeping with who you are and hope to be as a business.

Regardless of the type of business you run, you need people to know about the goods and services you provide so they’re able to purchase them. Even in lean times, you need to treat your marketing budget as a non-negotiable expense, because without awareness, you won’t have customers. Staying in business, remaining competitive, gaining market share — a good marketing plan with a solid and reliable budget will help you achieve these things and more, but you have to do it consistently.

About the Author: Jerry Jacobs is a contributing blogger and freelance marketer.

Top Advantages that your Business can Enjoy from Blogging on a Regular Basis

Blog of the day once again (Photo credit: the Italian voice)

While there is a chunk of businessmen involved in blogging activities to take their business to the ;next level, there is also a section that believes that doing do is simply a waste of time and efforts. However, this is far from truth. Blogging has gained an immense amount of momentum in recent times and its popularity among the masses is commendable. Besides, the increased level of dependency on the internet has only worked immensely in the favor of blogging. The time that you spend blogging is far less whereas the results that you get from the same are monumental and one of the best things about it is the fact that it is available on a global platform. Therefore, if you are looking for a marketing platform like empower network for your business, you must certainly consider blogging for the following benefits that it is likely to offer. 

1.) The most cost-effective ways to market your business:

After social media, blogging definitely follows up as one of the most pocket friendly ways to promote your business on a global platform. There are several platforms that provide blogging services at absolutely no cost. However, if you wish to gain better control, you can opt for self-hosted blogs that are extremely affordable. Besides, the fact that this blog can be included as part of your website makes it all the more appealing as a marketing tool for your business. It is always advisable to have the name of your business as a domain name as it enhances the prospects of getting more customers and credibility.

2.) The business is likely to get more noticeable over a period of time:

When it comes to blogging for your business, it goes without saying that you need to be extremely regular in posting new and fresh content for increased credibility. Besides, when you use the right empower network and an SEO strategy, you are likely to get a better response in the search engines results page. Not just that, you may also get more linkbacks if your content is liked and appreciated by your customers and other site visitors. If you can pull off guest blogging and use high traffic sites to post content with a link back to your blog, you will get an immense amount of traffic to your blog, which eventually increases the possibility of conversion rates.

3.) Helps build a large network over a short period of time:

When it comes to any other methods of marketing your business and the business website, it is very common to invest a colossal chunk of your money to see the results. Blogging, on the other hand is a global medium that lets you connect with customers and other related companies at absolutely no cost or a very minimal amount. This network can help your business gain more customers.

4.) Increased emphasis on your products:

There are two ways in which your products can be the highlight by means of blogging. The first method is to write blog posts on the products that you sell. These blog posts should never be promotional but must offer information that will help the potential customers realize if they fit their needs. The second way to do this is by asking well known bloggers belonging to the niche that your business deals in to review the products that you have to offer. Well known bloggers are often also referred to as influential personalities as their views and opinions are highly valued. This is an excellent way to get your business and your products into focus.

Author’s bio:
Marilyn Osborne is the owner of a well known cosmetics line that uses herbal and naturally occurring elements to produce a wide range of cosmetics. She has recently worked to empower network and is offering several incentives for customers.

5 Essential Marketing Metrics You Need to be Watching

Creating and executing a good online marketing plan is only the beginning of the process. Once you have the plan in place, you need to monitor essential metrics to determine what kinds of changes will need to be made to improve the plan. This will allow you to improve your current marketing plan's effectiveness and create better marketing programs in the future.

Engagement

For websites such as Entrepreneur.com , which offer a great deal of information, engagement is a very important metric. For a website, engagement is measured in how long users stay on your site and how many pages they look at. If you have users looking at several pages for long periods of time, then your material is effective. If users are bouncing around various pages and leaving after a few seconds, then you need to improve your content.

Repeat Traffic

This is a marketing metric that can be applied to online and offline plans. It is simply the measure of how often people come back to your site, or your business, and engage the features you have to offer. For a website owner, this would be measured in visitors that come back often and spend time on the site. For a retail business owner, this would be how often people return to the store to purchase products.

Cost Per Lead

The marketing experts at a website such as DentalMarketing.net place a premium on maximizing the cost per lead for their clients. If a company is spending $10,000 per month and getting 100 leads, then the cost per lead is $100 each. The goal is to lower that cost per lead while still getting quality prospects.

Focus

In marketing, focus means that the plan is getting consumers to react in a way that is consistent with the plan's intentions. If a shoe company puts together a marketing plan to sell its latest basketball shoe, but tennis shoe sales go up instead, then the plan needs to be re-examined and re-worked.

Conversion

What is your marketing plan trying to do? Are you trying to get people to sign up for a newsletter? If so, then you need to compare the traffic you get to the number of people who register. The higher your conversion rate, the more successful your campaign will be.

Make no mistake about it. The days of the CMO who is not fluent in metrics, analytics and spreadsheets are long gone by. The internet has made it relatively simple to measure metrics and if you aren’t measuring your marketing metrics, the competition will pass you by, leaving you in the dust. Remember, it’s vital that these marketing metrics are measured every day. In order to get the most out of your metrics, you need to have projections in place that can be compared to actual results. That will let you know how well your marketing plan is actually working.

6 Cheap and Creative Ways to Effectively Advertise Your Business

In today's digital age, business owners must reconsider their marketing strategies to ensure that they are effectively targeting the best market for their products and services. Technology has created a variety of different ways that businesses can reach out to potential customers, but this variety of different choices can often obscure the choices that will truly yield results and a return on investment. Thus, consider the following inexpensive and innovative ways you can spread the word about your company, all of which you can try without fear of losing a great deal of money.

Blog Online

Establishing an online blog in your line of business is a great way to position yourself as an expert while promoting your company. Add a blog to your website or join Bloggit.com or Blogger.com to start a separate blog. Discuss problems addressed by your goods or services, and readers will remember your company when a need arises. The key with blogging is to not advertise your product. Yes, you can talk a bit about your products, but you usually want to talk about general topics within your industry. By doing this, you will get a greater number of followers, which increases your ranking in search engines and introduces your website to a greater number of people.

Be Interviewed

Offer interviews on relevant subjects to local radios, newspapers, and Internet communications. For example, if you sell gardening tools, offer an interview in February or March about spring planting. Listeners and readers will appreciate the free advice and consider you an expert when they need additional gardening help. If you are unable to find local opportunities for offering interviews, you might want to consider starting up your own podcast or starting a YouTube channel that contains videos that address relevant topics and issues.

Write Articles

Offer op ed pieces to community newspapers or magazines, or submit an article to the trade publication associated with your company's industry. In marketing your knowledge and skills, others will appreciate your expertise and contact you with future business needs, such as a financial adviser for someone who is planning for retirement. Also, consider writing articles for other blogs, since this might give you valuable links back to your website and blog.

Give Donations

When possible, donate equipment, expertise, or services to individuals or programs who can benefit. Contribute to special holiday collections for the needy. Participate in volunteer programs. Sponsor children's educational initiatives. Giving back to the community will not only make you feel good, but it can also help others consider your business in a favorable light.

Demonstrate Skills

If you have a skill that others might value, whether or not it is company-related, share it with the public. Libraries, schools, and certain social service organizations appreciate those who are willing to share their knowledge and experience to help others. For example, if you own a restaurant, you may want to teach a nutrition class or workshop at a high school or college, or perhaps to a group of low-income residents at a housing development. They will recognize you as someone who cares and be likely to do business with you in the future when possible.

Join Organizations

Become a member of the chamber of commerce and other civic groups. Network with members to learn more about their services and how your business might complement their enterprises. Ask them, where should I advertise my business? Networking is often the best way to get new customers and valuable referrals, and it is completely free and relatively easy in most cases.

The above methods can help your business get noticed. Start growing your company innovatively.

Printing Press: What Kinds of Advertising Will Work for Your Business?

To run a successful business, you need to be able to reach your customers. The easiest way to do so is through advertising. However, not every advertising strategy is suited to the needs of every business. When you need to get more out about your company it is time to start thinking about your target consumer. Below is an over-view of a few of the different kinds of advertising that can benefit different kinds of businesses.

Viral Advertising

This is perhaps the newest form of advertising available to businesses. Viral advertising implements the internet and social media to promote products and services. When an ad goes viral, it quickly spreads throughout social media, or receives a large number of hits on sites like YouTube. Viral marketing operates a lot like word of mouth. Due to this, it is extremely difficult to predict whether or not ad based content will take off. Still, this may be a great avenue for promoting things like movies and videogames aimed at younger demographics that feed off of internet word of mouth.

The Mail

Another common marketing strategy is direct mail. The concept for this type of marketing is very simple, ads are placed directly into the mail boxes of consumers, and it is then hoped that they will read these ads and respond to them. A successful direct mail campaign requires a bit of strategy since people tend to throw away junk mail, including coupons. Direct mail works best with local businesses such as restaurants, dry cleaners, car washes and the like. Research your consumer demographic and find out if they would be likely to respond to direct mail.

Billboards

Another option that many businesses choose is billboards. Today, billboards come in the form of the more traditional printed, or painted variety as well as electronic billboards that can be programmed with multiple ads. These advertisements are great for targeting a wide array of consumers that commute on a specific roadway. Billboards can benefit many different businesses. They can direct customers to local businesses, as well as advertise new products being offered by national chains. They are even great for advertising things that radio and TV advertising tend to ignore, such as local healthcare providers. A billboard about the struggles of drug abuse can be used as part of an addiction treatment marketing strategy for a local addiction treatment center.

There are now many advertising strategies to choose form. Some are newer than others. If you own a business, carefully choose a marketing strategy that is best suited to both your company as well as the customers you are trying to reach.

4 Savvy Ways to Get Customers to Buy Your Marketing Materials

Free publicity is often the best publicity – but what about publicity the customer pays to spread around for you? Many businesses have had their logo printed on “swag,” items such as pens, tote bags, T-shirts and mugs, and give them away to customers (and potential customers) at trade fairs and festivals. Free swag is a great way to remind potential clients of your business every time they use the items. However, savvy businesses can get customers to actually buy swag and use it. Start with these four simple tips and your marketing material could be as sought-after as the products and services you sell.

Target the Audience

Before you begin, consider your target audience – which should be the same as the target audience of your products or services. Focus on how to make your brand appealing to your target audience and how to best get the word out about the products you intend to offer. Social media will prove an excellent way to make your marketing campaign more interactive. The more you ask your customers to participate in the campaign, the more likely they are to pay attention when you sell swag.

Use social media not only to spread the word about your swag, but in the swag design itself. For example, come up with a hashtag related to your brand, products or services. If the hashtag takes off in popularity, incorporate it into your design. When someone new sees the hashtag on a customer’s swag, she’ll be inspired to discover the buzz behind the word or phrase.

Design Something Marketable

Once you know who you’re targeting and how you’re going to get their attention, focus on your design. You probably already have a business logo; if you can’t or don’t want to change that, that’s fine. If you are open to a redesign, getting ready to sell swag might be the ideal excuse.

In addition to your logo, come up with a fun, cute or attractive addition to your logo that appears on your swag and the marketing material for your swag. This should be something your customers will want to wear or show off for aesthetic reasons in addition to a love of your brand. For example, if your target audience is elementary school kids and their parents, a cute mascot animal could prove popular on T-shirts, pencils and notebooks.

Support a Charity

Donate a portion of the swag proceeds to a charity related to your industry or the community. For example, if you’re primarily a local business selling products for seniors, offer to support local senior centers and programs such as Meals on Wheels. If your business is aimed primarily at women, choose causes especially important to women, such as breast cancer research and support for abused women and children. Your customers and supporters of the charitable cause will spread the word about the promotion, which will lead to more sales. 

Start Small

Don’t look at the swag sales as a huge untapped revenue stream. Inc. 5000 cautions against thinking of marketing material as a substantial part of your profits, but stresses that real profit can be made with careful planning. Start with small vendors and see how sales of the items go before broadening sales.

Sell the swag exclusively out of your storefront or online store, or partner with a local store related to your industry to sell the goods. Focus entirely on the local market. If sales prove successful, branch out to more national avenues and broaden your online marketing strategy to include other regions. If you find you’ve ordered too much swag and it’s not selling, dial back on the campaign and re-strategize.

When you sell swag rather than give it away, loyal customers are getting the word out about your company by financially supporting your business. However, if you’re going to ask customers to pay to promote your business, you have to offer something that is worth paying for. Having a compelling logo and design that people want to buy gets people talking about your business.

About the Author: Gary Austin can provide your company or organization with the best promotional pens in the industry. Visit http://www.thepenguy.com/promotional/ to find out more.

Market Know-How: Five Musts When Self-Marketing Your New Business

Creating an effective marketing force is one of the biggest struggles new businesses face. Nonetheless, marketing takes more than a little creativity and a small amount of ingenuity. Being creative and actively seeking new methods to reach people are key when it comes to self-marketing your business. Take a little advice and become a marketing guru by employing these five tips to kick off your self-marketing campaign. 

1. Offer an Incentive

Everyone likes free stuff. Consider featuring a special promotion, contest, or freebie that features a small giveaway to your customers. Delivering an effective incentive to customers will increase your foot traffic, boost your sales and heighten the overall awareness of your company’s opening. Whether it’s a 10% discount for shopping on a certain day, a free sample of your company’s special product or a gift card to use on a later date, the giveaway strategy is a great way to get even more.

2. Host a Demonstration

People don’t buy things that they can’t see. Remember this as you market your product. The best way to increase your revenue is to make sure people see your product. Consider setting up a booth at a local event to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product, or simply have a table set up where customers can manipulate the product themselves.

3. Highlight Your Business and Staff

People naturally follow the direction of others, and they appreciate positivity. Consider using custom map calendars or custom desk calendars to highlight the aspects, products, placement, and people of your business venture. You can offer these as complimentary gifts or as possible incentives. Regardless, using this method helps customers see who and what you are about, which leads to better sales.

4. Invite Testimonials

One of the most effective ways to market your personal business is to share testimonials from other satisfied customers. These statements serve as a quick endorsement for both your company and your product. Ask existing customers to write or record a brief testimonial or consider writing down testimonials as part of a demonstration endeavor. Someone tries the product, loves it, and gives a testimonial outright, which will give new customers that confidence they might need to try your product.

5. Create Empathy

A great way to market your small business is by establishing empathy with customers. One of the most beneficial ways to create this common bond is by participating in and sharing a common goal or effort. Consider sponsoring a school supply or canned food drive. By investing in the local community, the individuals of the community are more likely to invest in your company and product.

Self-marketing your business isn't necessarily easy, but making an effort to get your name on the market takes little more than a bit of creativity and hard work.