Advertising on the Internet can play tricks on you, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the rules. While there are no magic formulas, it is a good idea to learn from others who have gone before you to avoid the dangers they have encountered. It is extremely wise to use good judgment about any information that may influence you or your online business decisions.

What you are about to read and understand directly impacts a web user’s capability to communicate with you. Ten of the most popular web advertising methods still maintain their independence, but come with certain technical flaws and disabilities.

1. Video Ads

I’m a firm believer of utilizing videos to advertise a product or service. Actually, I think it’s the best overall affluent tactic ever invented. But, Web videos have their technical limitations with multi-user support. There will always be one user who cannot view a video properly, or not at all. If support is not built in, a blank window will appear. Developers must remember an estimated 25% of the world still use old machines and outdated browsers. What’s more shocking, those same users must deal with slow dial-up Internet connections.

2. E-zines

Advertising with ezine publishers can be very productive providing the list owner has a target market. The old, “Fan Zine” market typically has its information embedded within a realm of influence. These skillfully crafted publications offer a specialized interest. But, one false positive exists in ezines – The quality of the list. Or, is it?  Advertisers who are smart enough to test realize this and try hard to overcome shotgun marketing failures. It could be a number of things that didn’t pass inspection by the readers. Obviously, return on investment remains in the forefront. Calculating profits will often be delayed due to unfamiliar expectations of the publisher’s audience.

3. Banners

People use banners to advertise on the Web, plain and simple. The main cycle of operation is to increase the persuasiveness of a message with graphics. Banner usage has remained steady for businesses that use the kinds of graphics that are appropriate to the role of an audience. Their subtle ways of communicating emphasizes a customer benefit in every message they produce. Why? Because it works. Or, does it? The downside is compression and it doesn’t blend in with the rest of the page. Web graphics should be oriented on the page with an active caption that is quick to load.

4. Affiliate Programs

Voted the top of its class for generating web site traffic and sales, affiliate programs offer a cluster of activities for resellers. The vast majority of e-commerce systems configure routed orders to their appropriate sales partners. Program owners virtually maintain influence over sales and enhance customer experience. However, a good working affiliate program should have the proper cookies, IP, and sessions in real time operation. This is what makes it real, because there are programs which have difficulty delivering on performance.

5. Press Release

The power of news crafted into a good story has a phenomenal affect over driving visitors to your web site. Distribution knowledge (plus) a well written and newsworthy document (equals) media attention to interested public viewers. Most importantly, if you deliver the right angle to an editor or reporter in a courteous, yet professional manner, then you have succeeded in separating real news from promotional jargon.

6. Articles

The correct use of articles have stood the test of time by being a permanent fixture to targeted audiences. This encourages problem solving at its best, however, article marketing methods designed to establish you as an expert can quickly misrepresent any business qualities. If I’m so amazed at your knowledge and so curious about what other problems you can solve for me, then be prepared for my visit to your online enterprise.

7. Blogging

A widely popular term for people with a mission to engage personal or business dealings online. Bloggers from all walks of life manage to express their own beliefs and opinions in a vibrant way. While blogging can be entertaining and a great learning resource, there’s a limit on what you can say, how you say it, and where you say it that can be detrimental to your job or business. If you plan on using blogs for personal or business reasons, write on the facts and learn how to react to any post where it involves your credibility.

8. Email Marketing

If you think email is king over any method of web promotion, you’re 100 percent correct. You can communicate instantly with family, friends, business prospects, and customers. If every email marketer can grasp the fascinating facts about the technical aspects behind their operation, things will run much smoother. All major ISPs implement a form of content filters and personal response systems that has resulted in creating a “brick-wall” effect on any sizable amount of incoming email from a single source. Ask any successful email marketer, ‘what their main responsibilities contain’, and 99.9% will say it’s what you send, clean bounces, manage unsubscribers, manage complaints, and keep the followup process active. Lot of work, isn’t it?

9. Pay Per Click

If every web marketer could understand all the intricacies of search engine optimization and page ranking, they wouldn’t need PPC. The harsh reality is if you can get it right, you’ll generate loads of targeted traffic to your site. Newly updated web applications offer users the ability to control campaigns in real time. But, in order for everything to work properly, the account manager must also become marketing manager. You don’t have to be a marketing metric statistician, however, you don’t need to pay for something you can get for free, either! Search Engine organic listings earn more quality traffic and exposure than sitting in a side bar on the page filled with other ads.

10. Podcasting

It is a client side browser activity. The type of service it provides is very similar to Radio, with the exception to being a web based learning tool or entertainment resource. Podcasting is also a rarely NOT supported system. It’s a bandwidth eater and can interrupt frequency levels and can serve you with a non-existent, or very low quality audio file. However, millions of users remain loyal to their favorite stations and individual personalities. Listeners have the power to tune in while surfing the web, thus, steering attention away from the main show. Throw ads into the mix and you now have reduced attention span levels by 50 percent.

Advertisers must have common knowledge before seeking out under-tapped opportunities, under marketed products, services or markets. Only a handful of Internet Marketers can massively increase their sales and marketing methods. Fewer still can add lucrative new income streams, products and services to a business mix. Anybody can personally engineer ways to get enthusiastic applicants. Effective Web advertising can quickly, significantly and continuously multiply profits. However, this will not stop anyone from coming up with ingenious new selling systems. It’s inevitable!

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I sat down with Internet marketing professional, Abe Cherian to grill him on what makes his Internet Empire so unique and profitable. I wanted to get a real, in-depth approach to his many long hours of hard work.

With fluctuations in the economy, business decision making becomes critical to survive. What Abe shared with me about his unique selling advantage and his profitable enterprise with powerful management tools paved the way to critical elements of modern Internet business thinking.

Steven: Millions of people from various cultures feel they need to know more ways to survive. One such way, as you mentioned earlier, is for them to take their own entrepreneurial journey. What do you say to someone who comes to you asking for this type of advice?

Abe: Great question, Steven. Entrepreneurship is not really a means to survive, but an opportunity to thrive. I mean, no body dreams of just ’surviving.’ Often times, dreams are about huge successes.

To be an Entrepreneur means turning ones dream into reality.

Being an Entrepreneur also means, a person who organizes and manages any enterprise. An employer of productive ideas and labor. A person who creates further prosperity, jobs, and opportunity in the community. A person who brings in value to the marketplace.

To me, that is a huge responsibility.

The good news is, Entrepreneurship is ‘initiated’ by a person. Nobody is born as an Entrepreneur, but any one can ‘initiate’ it.

The good news is, anyone can learn the skills necessary to run an enterprise and bring value into the marketplace.

Today we as humans have a tremendous opportunity to use powerful communication tools, and access to great information for little or no money.

Sooner or later, you will learn that, ‘knowing’ is one thing, but having the tenacity to ‘act on that knowledge’ is what makes every day people turn into entrepreneurs.

I would say to any one, who is pondering on the idea of starting a business, act on it quickly. Once you decide that this is the path that you want to take, then it becomes a journey. But, what a journey it will be.

Steven: Thinking back when you first started your business, did you have any idea you were going to become successful by doing what you are passionate about?

Abe: I have heard from other successful people, that when you do what you love to do, you will most likely enjoy success. Like most people starting out, my goal was financial freedom, but I did not have a clue that it could happen so quickly.

Success means different things to different people. I think success comes in stages. When you reach your goal of financial freedom, then success means something much greater than money.

I have a lot of work to do.

Steven: Realizing that we are still in a recession, and that millions of workers are out of a job, what impact have you seen in the Internet advertising industry as a whole from online companies going out of business? And, does it actually impact you at all?

Abe: Jim Rohn said…

“Life and business are like the changing seasons. A major lesson in life to learn is how to handle the winters. Winter time allows you to get stronger, wiser, better. The winters won’t change, but you can.

Think like a Farmer. For a farmer, springtime is his most active time. It’s then when he must work around the clock, up before the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight. He must keep his equipment running at full capacity because he has but a small window of time for the planting of his crop. Eventually winter comes when there is less for him to do to keep him busy.”

Fortunately, following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort.”

Jim’s attitude and philosophy has a lot of Impact on me, and how I run my business. Watch out, spring time is coming soon! And then harvest time, and winter again for sure. The cycles are never going to change. It hasn’t for over 6000 years.

Steven: With so much business creation, start ups, and product development information available on the Internet, what sets your business apart from other Internet media marketing companies? I mean, you’re one of the leading experts in this field, what has been the key to lasting this long?

Abe: During the California Gold Rush in the 1840’s, a lot more entrepreneurs made money by selling ‘picks’ and ’shovels’. The Internet is still in the gold rush period, and my business sells them ‘picks’ and ’shovels’ that makes it possible for entrepreneurs to make profits, (tools and channels necessary for the wealth miners on the Internet).

When I started this business in 1998, I knew it was going to be a Journey of a lifetime for me. Quiting was not an option for me. I guess that is the main reason, why my business lasted over 10 years. It is one of the best things that happened in my life, so I feel no need to stop now.

Steven: I’m going to switch gears on you and would like to know your thoughts about building relationships and the core to your lead generating success. Without displacing any secrets, what core model would you consider vital to your business?

Abe: I think ‘consistency’ and ‘discipline’ is probably the best practice for building relationships and generating leads. If you are consistently searching and providing the best solutions for your clients, in a highly disciplined way, then you will see growth in your business.

The models that we use are no secret. It’s about working on strengthening the pillars that hold up the fort. The pillars are your model.

For a business to sustain and bring value into the marketplace, the first and most important model to put in place, is your ‘Cash Flow Model.’

The “cash flow model” we use are as follows, in order…

1. Front end lead generation product
2. Relationship building and support
3. Subscription products
4. Advanced relationship building
5. Up sells and one time offers
6. High ticket services
7. Constant improvement in systems and products

Pretty basic stuff. But, it is powerful if you apply it in a consistent and disciplined manner. That is why I value ‘Consistency’  and ‘Discipline’ as the core practice. Models may change from time to time, but with any model, again, consistency and discipline is the key.

Steven: I remember one conversation you and I had years ago about social networking. It was lengthy and full of ideas. What is your take on the social networking craze, and what adjustments have you made in your business to fit in?

Abe: Social Networking is one of several ‘Pillars of Marketing’. It is powerful, but it is only one of several channels to keep your ‘lead generation funnel’ stocked.

At Multiple Stream Media, we use almost all major Social Marketing channels, like Twitter and MySpace — but we have realized that ‘hosting’ a Social Networking platform gives you the most leverage of time. We launched http://www.startupnet.com with that in mind, and have been experiencing a viral growth because of it.

Anyone can start a social networking website that is geared toward a specific market with the help of Social Networking platforms like the Ning Network, (ning.com).

It’s Exciting.

Steven: You are the true pioneer of multiple stream media. Many other Internet marketing firms still believe email is the driving force behind the success of their online business. What challenges have you faced and overcome using email as technology advances?

Abe: According to a survey we did on our blog, (Msmediablog.com) a month or so ago, email marketing still rules the roost. Here are the results:

Question: What 3 Internet Marketing tactics will you emphasize most in the next 3 months?

Option 1: Email Marketing – 63%
Option 2: Pay-per-click – 57%
Option 3: Social Networking – 48%
Option 4: Blogging – 34%
Option 5: SEO Optimization – 31%
Option 6: Offline Advertorials – 8%
Option 7: Video Marketing – 8%

Email marketing has it’s challenges; but with any challenge, there are other sub-industries who take advantage of the opportunity, and come up with solutions. Email companies can now take advantage of ‘Certified Email’ services like Goodmail.com to obtain more deliverability.

Entrepreneurs who wish to profit from Email Marketing without worrying about major deliverability issues and spam, can use the list management service that we provide, http://www.imediamarketingtools.com to boost sales and build relationships.

Steven: Obviously, the best website with the best offer doesn’t necessarily mean people will purchase from you. How do you know what tools online business owners want?

Abe: True, creating a great offer is only the first stage in marketing. In order for people to purchase your product, you obviously have to find strategies that will give you maximum leverage in reaching your target audience.

Entrepreneurs now have a tremendous opportunity to use powerful communication tools, and access to great information for little or no money.

Testing is key, and there are many tools available to test and determine what will work for you. We offer tracking and survey tools with the iMediaMarketingTools.com service.

Tools are available for every stage of marketing your website.

Steven: I understand you are accepting one-on-one consultations with people who haven’t quite discovered their dreams or aspirations. How do you manage to nurture someone new to the Internet business model where they learn to empower others to become good at it, too?

Abe: For years, my team and I have been helping many aspiring entrepreneurs understand and take advantage of the Internet Medium to grow their business.

We offer free phone consultations, and one-on-one webinars on how to correctly use the tools to profit from their efforts. Anyone can call us and seek help. (845) 247 2565 Ext2.

I am working on publishing a book that will nurture, and empower, hidden dreams, and aspirations, from within people and motivate them to take action toward the first step (Stage One) in their Entrepreneurial Journey.

As you already know, Steven, I approached you for help with this book. Your experience in Marketing, and as a Journalist and writer, I realize that we can make this information available to thousands of people globally.

There are many business books available about success and self help.

What I want to share with others in this book, is my own experience in building an online business from $0 to 1 Million in sales. It’s a combination of my story and a how to book.

Steven: In closing, online advertising has challenges like any other business. Where do you see promotion on the Internet headed to in 2012?

Abe: Business owners in any Industry face challenges. Challenges are opportunities to learn. Without obstacles, no business will know what to avoid. The online advertising business is no different.

In 2012, it will be the same. Marketers will still want to find ways to promote their products. Consumers will still buy and consume goods and services. Authorities will still put in place rules and regulations that creates a safe environment for online surfers. Nothing will change. There will be huge opportunities, there will be challenges.

The only change that will happen is within YOU.

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Most businesses have no idea what it takes to get just one customer. They are so busy trying to include their marketing budget into a percentage of their sales, that during a recession they cut their ad budget. This is a huge mistake.

The very principle to continue advertising at their current level, they will eventually get their customers. But, how well do they know what one customer is worth? Calculating your customer’s worth is basically done by taking the average sale number, your profit per that sale, how much additional profit a customer is worth to you, and determine how many times they come back and buy. You will want to be very conservative when adding this up.

Next, figure out what a customer costs by dividing your marketing budget by the number of customers it produces. If you spend $1,000 on marketing and you get 1000 customers, they are costing you $1 a piece. Prospects are the same. Maybe out of that $1,000 you get 10,000 prospects for $.10.

Calculate how many sales you get for so many prospects. The percentage of prospects that actually become customers. This will be your closing ratio. If you get 10,000 prospects and you have 1,000 customers, it’s a 10% closing ratio.

Additionally, the marginal net worth of a customer is figured by subtracting the cost to produce that customer from the profit you expect to earn from them over their lifetime. Your goal should be spending less to get customers through your acquisition cost. However, this method is one way to generate customers in a short term.

The key is to try and do business for free on a front end sale where you will be attracting new customers. This will ultimately be the driving force to cut back back and reduce how much it cost you to get them. Every business right now wants as many new customers as they can get, but noody really knows how much a customer is worth. So, they end up NOT knowing how much they can spend to get one.

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As tough economic conditions have caused general advertising revenue across the board to diminish, newspapers across the nation are closing their doors entirely. Some are willing to take a chance of converting over to the Internet in hopes of keeping the local news in front of their loyal subscribers. Others who are currently using the Web to generate ad revenue have already experienced low volume ad sales.

The thing is, a local newspaper that once filled neighborhoods with the community news in print is NOT going to reach that same audience with the Internet. Why? Not everybody has the Internet that reads the newspaper. And Not everyone who does will read the online version. In fact, 23.7% of the World still does not have Web access. What’s more, 32% still uses dial-up from their remote or rural location. This makes it difficult to view all of what the media has to offer.

Newspaper owners have NO idea what they are about to face when it comes to Internet advertising. With all due respect to the industry I love, calculating profits and measuring metrics is venturing into unknown territory for most publications. With little or no way to know if online news or ads even reach their target audience, it’s shotgun marketing at its best! The only way to know is to measure it.

Online Advertising Analytics

More Web staff will be needed to help process log files for measuring and analyzing the effectiveness of their web site in terms of customer experience, return on investment, and site effectiveness. They must learn how to collect massive amounts of site visitor and usage data to provide a better customer experience and determine ROI. Employees will have to adjust with greater intelligence regarding how their online publication operates. Everyone will need to know how to execute precision marketing, effective sales, and real-time customer service. This will be extremely important in the current economy when they can’t afford to waste time, resources, or money.

Understanding Data Collection

Various niche publications that choose to place their entire operations online must enforce a niche concept that rests on the importance of customers to its company. They must determine the needs of their customers. Develop their competitive advantages. Select specific markets to serve. Determine how to satisfy those needs and analyze how well they’ve served their customers. Online sales and conversions are not enough. They need to find out who the customers are, what the customers want, where and when they want it. This type of research can also expose problems in the current news service, and find areas for expansion of current services to fill customer demand. This should also encompass identifying trends that may affect sales and profit levels.

Advertiser Experience

Every media kit from every publication is negotiable. One of the best kept secrets in newspaper advertising is how to get better rates than what the publication tell you is available. All will quote you their rate card numbers. And they will offer you a discount if you agree to do multiple runs of the ad. But, what about online ads? Will they be upfront and inform you about the banner impressions you couldn’t track? Or will you ever hear from a visitor who has been bombarded with pop-up display ads? How will they combine news and ads for a pleasurable reading experience without compromising standard business relationships? Clicking Web ads while reading the latest news column weighs heavily on whether the visitor will return to read more.

For once, newspapers hold an edge. While larger publications hire professionals to do their research, smaller ones are close to their customers. They can learn much more quickly the likes and dislikes of their customers and can react quickly to change in customer buying habits. While there is NO safe prediction on where our economy is heading, a decision to go entirely online is seldom a purely rational one. One that can influence your reader’s behavior. As you explore various techniques for presenting your publication online, do not ignore psychological and emotional appeals. It might save your paper!

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Advertising in magazines and newspapers can play a major part in growing your business. But many people go at it the wrong way. In fact, many people conclude that advertising in these type of publications don’t work for their business. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Most people are so busy they simply don’t have time to understand how magazines and newspapers work.

If you can take a little time to really understand the concept of how to make it work, you’ll be on your way to move ahead of your competitors, because most people truly don’t.

1. Magazine and newspaper advertising is vastly different from all other advertising types, and must be treated as such. This type of advertising can (and should) be a superb lead generator, but remember you are competing head to head with dozens of your competitors. There’s no other marketing or advertising tool where competition is so fierce. Even though advertising in these publications presents you with the challenge of competing against all your competitors, you can guarantee 99% of them have ads that are ineffective. That’s your edge. As long as you follow each of this you’ll steal business from right under their noses.

2. Recognize when people find you, because they’re already looking to buy. People using magazines and newspapers (whether free of paid) are immediately excellent prospects for you. Whenever someone looks at your ad they’re interested at your product or service. This cannot be said in all other forms of advertising or marketing. When you advertise in the local newspaper your ad needs to grab the attention of the reader and convince them they need you.

With magazine advertising your ad still needs to grab the attention of the reader, however, your reader is already interested in your product or service. Therefore, your goal is not to convince them they need you, but to ensure they choose you over and above your competitors. Hopefully, you’ve learned how important it is to use a headline in all your advertising. That doesn’t mean your headline is the name of your business. This is probably the biggest mistake 99% of businesses make with their ads.

3. You must prepare in advance. Many people leave the creation of their advertisement until the last moment. They say, “Just repeat last years ad,” or “Will you create something for me?” – are things that are said all too often. Unfortunately, if you want your advertising to be successful, you have to spend time on it. This has to be just like all your other marketing and advertising tools. If you do you’ll benefit greatly – I guarantee it. And please don’t ever ask the magazine or newspaper reps to design your advertisement. They design about 60% of the ads, and they all look the same. This generally means unsuccessful and they don’t truly understand what makes a successful ad.

4. Your ad must be big enough to get your offer and message across. The owners, directors or partners of many businesses are simply happy to put short or single line entries, semi-display, or in-column ads in the magazines or newspapers, and then conclude it don’t work.

Here’s a reality check: Single line entries, semi-display ads or in-column ads don’t work. They hardly ever cover their cost. Why? Because you can’t say enough about your product services to convince people they should be buying from you or at least talking to you. Don’t fall into the same trap. Your ad needs to be big enough for you to tell the prospect why they should be calling you – and not someone else.

5. Understand the multiple ad rule. Magazines and newspapers group together different businesses in the same product or service page, and people know they are going to have a good selection of companies to choose from. It therefore stands to reason in 95% of cases every person looking for your business will follow this rule. They’ll choose one, two or three companies to call or visit. Therefore your advertisement MUST ensure your company is chosen in this case.

6. You must achieve rule five or else. If you don’t achieve rule Five, your advertisement will sit on the page and blend in with the rest. There will be no hope of gaining interest – it’s as simple as that. The only reason why magazine and newspaper advertising flops is because the ads fail to stimulate the prospect into calling or stopping by – over and above the rest of the competition. It stands to reason that if your ad doesn’t entice people to call – it will fail. I know this is obvious, but when you take a look at most of the ads in these publications it seems most people don’t understand this basic assumption.

7. You must create your ad with one purpose in mind – to achieve your primary objective. This last rule ties all the previous rules together. It’s the “mechanics” of your advertising. Your ad should be created to achieve your primary objective. For many, this is to receive a phone call from the reader, or a website visitor. For others it could be for people to walk into their premises or store. The key is this…your ad should be created to fulfill this one primary objective – and this one objective only.

Many people try to achieve several things with their advertising. You’ll never achieve great success if you take this approach. One objective means one outcome. The outcome YOU want.

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Selecting photographs and artwork is an element that can set the tone or image of your marketing campaign, but you don’t want them to be the overriding factor unless you are selling artwork. Photographs and artwork can make dramatic statements. If they are treated incorrectly, they offer no value and might be costly.

You don’t have to have photographs or original artwork in your marketing piece to get your desired goal. The proper use of typefaces, colors and white space plus simple graphics and clip art can add to the overall effectiveness of your marketing material. Should you choose to include photographs and artwork, there are some guidelines to follow.

Budgetary constraints can often dictate whether or not you use photographs. There are several ways you can incorporate photographs into your marketing pieces. You can use four color (full color), dual-tone (two-color, half-tone, reproduced from a one color photograph where the photo is originally black and white and in the printing process another color is added) which makes it tinted. Or simply use black and white.

Four color photographs are more expensive to reproduce than the other ways. They do require four color separation charges by your printer. If you can afford this process think carefully about your selected photograph. If it’s a little out of focus it won’t look any better once it’s printed. Dual tone is less expensive although the photograph will not be full color. It will appear to have color, or at the very least, be more colorful than a black and white photograph.

Black and white photos reproduce the best when they have a lot of contrast. Careful consideration needs to be taken when choosing color, dual tone or black and white. I have found that the most effective choice for an entrepreneur’s business is a simple black and white photo of the owner or a black and white photo of the owner and a customer or client.
This can build credibility.

In addition, if you use a photograph in your material, it draws the reader’s eye to that photo, so you must take that opportunity to put a caption underneath the photograph. This is a mainstay rule. Always include a caption with a photograph. Putting together your marketing material with all the right Ingredients is a lengthy, but worthwhile process. If you have someone else put it together for you, make a checklist for them. Using photographic images with the following will produce the desired results you’re looking for.

Do not use all capital letters – All capital letters will get more attention, but slow down the reading speed of the person and thus their comprehension. It doesn’t give a natural flow to your marketing piece. If you want to emphasize a certain word or a group of words, italicize them or bold them. In your headline or subhead, you can use a bigger type face than the rest of the body text. You might just capitalize the first letters of each word.

Do not fill up all the space you have to work with – If you cram too much information into a given space, it is difficult to read and the reader might lose interest. White space can be an effective design tool that will draw the reader to specific information that you wish to emphasize. However, don’t confuse this with an advertising agent when designing a space ad. Make effective use of your space in telling your story and listing benefits, but you don’t want to pack it together so closely and tightly that when a prospect looks at it, the eyestrain is so bad they don’t want to read it. There is a balance to achieve.

Do not use too much reversed type text where the background is black and letters white. You might use it sparingly to emphasize one idea here and there. Usually, it can be used to draw attention to a particular item. If it’s used for too many things, it loses its effect and nothing will jump off the page.

Do not use more than two typefaces (3 maximum). Too many type faces will cause confusion and slow the reader down. Two will draw attention to different pieces. Maybe one typeface for headings and subheadings, and one for the body text. That’s usually all you need. These two typefaces should have some contrast. The body text is usually in a “Serif’ type font and the headline and subheads are in a “Sans Serif’ type. A common type of font used is a Courier font and a Times New Roman.

Do not waste white space – Wasted white space occurs when there is a hole created somewhere in your layout that is not really part of your design. A white hole of space which has other elements all around it really differs from using white space in a good way and it will draw attention to itself instead of to a headline or a picture or body text available.

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Most small businesses are more flexible organizationally than ever before. They have set aside their cultural and organizational differences to predominantly better equip their company with quick decision making, where risk taking is encouraged and failure is merely an education.

A company with conventional free advertising methods usually find it a generally unsatisfying experience. They utilize every part of their imagination and energy to be a guest on radio and television talk shows. They produce and distribute advertising circulars on all the free bulletin boards at coin operated laundries, grocery stores, and beauty or barber shops.

What they eventually find, is that increasing complexity in their company has resulted in inflexibility and slow decision making processes. The more routine free advertising methods have a tendency towards internal conflict and stratification, as well as a leadership that would tend to emphasize capital investment as a solution to all problems.

Consumers have acquired organizational habits that are not well aligned to the needs of a tough economy, therefore, they discover undesirable traits or behaviors found in many organizations. They have become smart consumers in the movement towards centralized control. This characterizes a typical consumer goods business, and will carry with it limited coordination among departments and divisions resulting in a weakened sense of market trends and increased dissatisfaction.

Free Advertising must embrace the initial contact and emphasize that your product or service would be of interest to the listeners or viewers of the program, perhaps even saving them time or money. This also must carry an increased willingness to seek appropriate alliances and partnerships that will provide convergence to the integrated business model required to overcome these mismatches in our current economic culture and outlook.

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You must realize that your product or service cannot be all things to all people. Very few items on the market today have universal appeal. Even when dealing in basic commodities like table salt or aspirin, marketing people have gone to all sorts of extremes to create brand awareness and product differentiation. If your product or service is properly positioned, prospective purchasers or users should immediately recognize its unique benefits or advantages and be better able to assess it in comparison to your competition’s offering. Positioning is how you give your product or service brand identification.

Positioning involves analyzing each market segment as defined by your research activities and developing a distinct position for each segment. Ask yourself how you want to appear to that segment, or what you must do for that segment to ensure that it buys your product or service. This will dictate different media and advertising appeals for each segment. For example, you may sell the same product in a range of packages or sizes, or make cosmetic changes in the product, producing private labels or selecting separate distribution channels to reach the various segments. Beer, for example, is sold on tap and in seven-ounce bottles, twelve-ounce cans and bottles, six-packs, twelve-packs, cases, and quart bottles and kegs of several sizes. The beer is the same, but each package size may appeal to a separate market segment and have to be sold with a totally different appeal and through different retail outlets.

Remember that your marketing position can, and should, change to meet the current conditions of the market for your product. The ability of your company to adjust will be enhanced greatly by an up-to-date knowledge of the marketplace gained through continual monitoring. By having good data about your customers, the segments they fit into and the buying motives of those segments, you can select the position that makes the most sense. While there are many possible marketing positions, most would fit into one of the following categories:

Positioning on specific product features

A very common approach, especially for industrial products. If your product or service has some unique features that have obvious value this may be the way to go.

Positioning on benefits

Strongly related to positioning on product features. Generally, this is more effective because you can communicate to your customers about what your product or service can do for them. The features may be nice, but unless customers can be made to understand why the product will benefit them, you may not get the sale.

Positioning for a specific use

Related to benefit positioning. Consider Campbell’s positioning of soups for cooking. An interesting extension is mood positioning: “Have a Coke and a smile.” This works best when you can teach your customers how to use your product or when you use a promotional medium that allows a demonstration.

Positioning for user category

A few examples: “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby,” “The Pepsi Generation” and “Breakfast of Champions.” Be sure you show your product being used by models with whom your customers can identify.

Positioning against another product or a competing business

A strategy that ranges from implicit to explicit comparison. Implicit comparisons can be quite pointed; for example, Avis never mentions Hertz, but the message is clear. Explicit comparisons can take two major forms. The first form makes a comparison with a direct competitor and is aimed at attracting customers from the compared brand, which is usually the category leader. The second type does not attempt to attract the customers of the compared product, but rather uses the comparison as a reference point. Consider, for example, the positioning of the Volkswagen Dasher, which picks up speed faster than a Mercedes and has a bigger trunk than a Rolls Royce. This usually works to the advantage of the smaller business if you can capitalize on the American tradition of cheering for the underdog. You can gain stature by comparing yourself to a larger competitor just as long as your customers remain convinced that you are trying harder.

Product class disassociation

A less common type of positioning. It is particularly effective when used to introduce a new product that differs from traditional products. Lead-free gasoline and tubeless tires were new product classes positioned against older products. Space-age technology may help you here. People have become accustomed to change and new products and are more willing to

experiment than was true ten years ago. Even so, some people are more adventuresome and trusting than others and more apt to try a revolutionary product. The trick is to find out who are the potential brand switchers or experimenters and find out what it would take to get them to try your product or service. The obvious disadvantage of dealing with those who try new products is that they may move on to another brand just as easily. Brand loyalty is great as long as it is to your brand.

Hybrid bases

Incorporates elements from several types of positioning. Given the variety of possible bases for positioning, small business owners should consider the possibility of a hybrid approach. This is particularly true in smaller towns where there aren’t enough customers in any segment to justify the expense of separate marketing approaches.

As you continue to expand your business in the months and years ahead, use the tips presented here. Prepare a budget and review it frequently. Select your items for advertising to help solve consumer problems and then present your advertising message as a form of planned communication to strengthen your market positioning.

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Ask anyone what their primary sales strategy is for selling their products or services and their response might seem shocking to you. Why? They make harmonious bonds with their customers!

Simply put, these are advertisements which represent the hidden benefit to reinforce the need for a desired outcome. The consumer makes an emotional connection, whether it’s your customer service, your product, or other factors of human behavior.

Before you develop this style of ad, you must understand the five basic needs or motivating forces from a consumer’s point of view. The theory is that until a lower ranking need is satisfied there is no desire to pursue a higher ranking need.

Below are the five human motivators, beginning with the basic or lowest ranked need and continuing to the highest.

Physiological needs - Include hunger, thirst, reproduction, shelter, clothing, air, and rest.

Safety-security - The need for security, stability, dependence, protection, structure, order, law, tenure, pension, and insurance.

Love-belonging - The need for belonging, acceptance, love, affection, family, group acceptance, and friendship.

Self-esteem - The need for recognition, respect, achievement, responsibility, prestige, independence, attention, importance, and appreciation.

Self-actualization - The need for satisfaction, the desire to achieve fulfillment through reaching self-set individual goals or aspirations.

If you can become familiar with this theory, then you will understand that motivation is always an individual act. The most your advertising message can hope to do is to present an appeal strong enough to stimulate action toward satisfying one of the basic human needs.

If there is one rule that will be most helpful in preparing effective advertising, it is this: The message must put the desire of the potential customer before the advertiser’s desire. Please read that one more time! The rule may sound like a simple one to follow, but frequently advertising messages take the form of a plea to customers to respond rather than solve the advertiser’s problem.

The buying decision is seldom a purely rational one. Emotions always influence behavior. As you explore various techniques for presenting your advertising message, do not ignore psychological and harmonious appeals.

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Selling when the consumer wants to buy is a fundamental factor in the marketing concept. Promotional efforts, whether in-store or through mass media advertising, should be timed to coincide with maximum seasonal or cyclical demand.

Advertising

The major portion of a business’s promotional budget is advertising. Some advertising media, such as the Yellow Pages, where a specific amount is charged each month, can be budgeted as fixed advertising expenditures. The mass media-newspapers, radio, TV, direct mail, internet and magazines-should be individually budgeted to achieve sales goals, improve your image and expand your customer base.

Promotion

Many businesses classify promotion as a separate budget category. In this case, promotional efforts include in-store displays, sampling, specialty advertising, giveaways and other nontraditional media efforts including online freebies such as ecourses and ebooks.

Publicity

This is the no-cost element, meaning there is no charge by the newspaper or other medium for carrying a news release or feature. There will be an internal cost, however, for the preparation of publicity releases and photography. Many businesses miss publicity opportunities because they do not have a written marketing plan. Every promotion or addition of personnel is an opportunity for free publicity, but only if the news release is prepared and sent to the media. Business expansion, remodeling, automation or changes in product name all deserve a publicity program.

Promotion Strategy

All advertising and other promotional activities should be in tune with the company’s stated position in the marketplace. This suggests that not only advertising themes but also media selection must be based on building and strengthening that position.

Benefit Approach

Regardless of your media, to make your marketing concept work in advertising messages you must analyze each product and service in relation to these two elements: Product Point and Benefit.

Product Point

Those features built into the product or service. Product points are usually highly touted in advertising messages, but they are relatively ineffective unless they are integrated with the second ingredient.

Benefit

The advantage a customer receives after purchasing the product. Your advertising should promise benefits and make those promises believable by naming the product points that will produce the benefits. For example, “You’ll feel better about your family’s safety (benefit) when they are riding on the new steel-belted radials from Goodyear, thanks to the interwoven blankets of steel embedded deep in the tread (product point).”

Media

Consider many types of media in your promotional campaigns.

• Newspapers
• Shoppers
• Television
• Radio
• Billboards
• Direct Mail
• Magazines
• Internet

In conclusion, the importance of promotion in the overall marketing strategy suggests you devote time to its written plan and constantly monitor the plan’s performance. Be creative but avoid cuteness. Stick to the benefit approach, and your customers will respond.

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In submitting any display advertising message to the Internet media, the only way to ensure that your ad looks the way you intended is to provide adequate instructions. Layout means blueprint to the image editor. Your layout should be a full size replica of what you want the finished advertisement to look like.

Here are some guidelines to use in preparing layouts.

1. A layout should accurately indicate where all parts of the completed message are to be located with respect to the borders. This must include the location and approximate, if not actual, dimensions (pixels) of all artwork.

2. There are five parts to a comprehensive Internet display ad layout:

a) Headline – Type all headlines right on the layout, making the headline fill the width you want. Give the editor a close approximation of the desired type size by the size of your lettering. On each line, put the exact words you want to appear and use capital letters or upper and lower case letters the way you want the type set.

b) Illustrations – Use a scanner, if possible, and paste a copy of any artwork or photograph on the layout where you want it to appear. If you plan to reduce or enlarge the artwork, show the finished height, width and the location on the layout page.

c) Copy – Copy refers to the text in your advertisement. Do not letter in the copy on your layout. Use two parallel lines to represent each line of copy and create these lines in the exact position on the layout page. These parallel lines should show whether you want the copy set flush on both right and left margins or if you prefer, a ragged edge on the right margin. Each block of copy should be positioned properly on the layout page and then should be keyed. For example, assign a circled letter of the alphabet that matches a separate block of copy supplied in most image editing software. The copy should be evenly spaced and should include all words and prices, including any headlines you have lettered on the layout.

d) Price – It is generally a good idea to letter your prices right on the layout if they appear anywhere other than within regular copy lines. Show the price as it should appear, including the relative size of the cents to dollars portion of the price and any dollar or cent signs you want used.

e) Logo - The logo is your company’s name, whether you have a standard, exclusive design or you merely want your name set in type. Let the layout show the desired location and size. It also is helpful to letter in your address and phone number. If you have a digital logo design, paste the original art work on the bottom right hand corner of the layout. The worst place for your logo is the lower left and corner; the eye prefers to leave the ad at the lower right-hand corner, so your logo will have greater impact there.

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For many years marketers were in control and advertised their products and services in order to sell as much as possible of what they produced. However, there has been a seismic shift in recent years and it is now the consumer that calls the shots. This change in the center of control has substantial implications for marketing as traditional marketing practices have been established around the marketer in the controlling role.

At the same time we have been witnessing an increase in the disenfranchised consumer in developed markets. This shows that marketers now have to take into account a consumer who is knowledgeable about marketing and, in many cases, cynical. They may de-construct marketing messages or, in more extreme cases, set up pressure groups to air their views on specific marketers or marketing practices.

The move away from mass marketing towards one-to-one and niche marketing also plays a key role. Consumers will increasingly expect marketers to deliver what they are looking for, not a product or service that is simply designed to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. They are looking to direct a dialogue with a marketer, not receive a monologue.

The consumer in control is one of the most important Forces of change impacting on marketing today as it is changing so many of the practices and processes that are established. Through the Loop has been analyzing some of the implications of this as part of its Knowledge Development Program.

Why is there a need for more marketing control?

This need for having greater control results from a number of factors. The over riding factor is the rise in uncertainty in life. This has occurred for a number of reasons, some of which are closer to individual consumers and some of which are more micro but make a clear impression.

Major world events can impact on consumer uncertainty and lead to buying decisions being postponed or cancelled. It is too early to be sure of the long-term impact of 11 September However, research has shown that short-term uncertainty may not necessarily dampen longer-term underlying optimism.

Closer to home, there is frequently less stability in consumers’ lives. Changing working practices have meant that there is a job no longer guaranteed for life. Work may not provide the security required for consumers and their families. Furthermore, they may find that their journeys to and from the workplace are taking longer due to traffic congestion. Some have been looking to downshift, opting out of  the normal working environment for a different type of life. Others will look to change how they work within “traditional” employment. Employers and employees have to work together to find ways to bring a level of personnel control back into the workplace.

Time pressure is increasing. A reduction in working hours was supposed to lead to greater leisure time. Have working hours actually been reduced? In addition, there are an increasing number of activities that make demands on precious leisure time. Consequently, there appears to be less time to relax and take things easy. This adds to the level of stress experienced and a perceived loss of control.

Changing social patterns includes the fact that more women are working and in increasingly senior roles. This leads to a shift in how household roles and childcare are allocated between parents. This means that there is an opportunity to help consumers maintain control over their home lives.

On a more micro level, the personal information that is being collected from consumers whenever they use a credit card, visit a Web site or telephone a call center leads to a degree of uncertainty about how that information will be used by the company. Consumers will look for confirmation about what is collected, how it is stored and how it is likely to be used. They want to retain control of their own personal data.

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Since the headline is the first contact your readers have with your message, it must reach out to them. Promise them a benefit. Tell them how they will be better off if they read the rest of the ad. Use action verbs. Save ten dollars is a stronger heading than Savings of ten dollars because of the verb.

Headlines can be classified into the following five basic types; effective headlines frequently combine two or more of these kinds.

News Headlines

This form tells the reader something he or she did not know before. Using the word news does not make it a news headline. “Now – a copy machine that copies in color” is an example of this type headline.

Advice and Promise Headline

Here you are promising something if the reader follows the advice in your ad. “Switch to Amoco premium, no-lead gasoline, and your car will stop pinging.”

Selective Headline

This headline limits the audience to a specific group. For example: “To all gray-haired men over forty.” Caution! Be absolutely sure you do not eliminate potential customers with this type of headline.

Curiosity Headline

The intent here is to arouse the reader’s interest enough to make him or her read the ad. The danger is that this headline often appears “cute” or “clever” and fails in its mission. An example: “Do you have trouble going to sleep at night?”

Command or Demand Headline

Watch out for this one as most people resist pushiness, especially in advertising. “Do it now!” or “Buy this today!” This headline generally can be improved by changing to less obtrusive wording such as: “Call for your key to success!”

One common misconception about headlines is that they must be short and easy to understand. This is not always true. Here is a headline that was used extensively in print ads by Ogilvy and Mather for one of their clients: At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.

Illustrations

There are three primary reasons for using illustrations in an advertisement.

- To attract attention to the ad.
- To illustrate the item being featured.
- To create a mood in the mind of the reader.

Everyone has heard, A picture is worth a thousand words; in advertising, the illustration frequently helps the reader visualize the benefits promised. You can almost feel the warmth of the tropical sun when you see the photos in January travel ads. Cost and practicality may dictate whether your ad uses photographs, artists’ drawings or merely canned artwork. Any of these can make the ad more appealing to the reader’s eye.

Copy

If you follow the three principles of good copy, your ads will be effective:

- Good copy should be clear.
- Good copy should be crisp.
- Good copy should be concise.

Clear, crisp and concise . . . the three Cs of copywriting suggest that the words in your advertising message merely do a good job of communicating. Do not use big words when small words can make your meaning clear. Use colorful, descriptive terms. Use the number of words necessary to make your meaning clear and no more-but also no less! Selecting the right words is critical to the success of the ads. Recent research conducted at Yale University found that the following 12 words are the most personal and persuasive words in our language.

You       Discovery    Safety

Money   Proven        Results

Love     Guarantee   Save

New     Easy           Health

Notice the overused word free is not on the list.

REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOUR MESSAGE IS PRINTED IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS INSTEAD OF UPPER- AND LOWERCASE LETTERS, IT IS FAR MORE DIFFICULT FOR THE READER TO FOLLOW AND REMAIN INTERESTED. EVEN IN HEADLINES ALL CAPITAL LETTERS SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

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If you understand the concept that advertising is a multiplication of a selling conversation, then the basic ingredients of advertising media are easier to grasp. First, there must be an audience. A newspaper printed as a single copy could not function as an advertising medium unless the single copy were passed from person to person to create a worthwhile audience.

In that case, the advertiser probably could go from one individual to another and be more effective while reaching at least as many prospects in the same amount of time. A potential advertiser will require evidence that an audience does exist, and will want to know the size and location of the audience, as well as other characteristics.

The second ingredient on which an advertising medium can be evaluated is its acceptance in the marketplace. Acceptance is related not only to the total number of customers in an audience, but also to the composition of that audience as compared to the target audience of the advertiser.

In addition to an audience’s acceptance and size, the medium also must have a usable frequency of exposure. Most retailers and other local business establishments rely on their advertisements’ reaching potential buyers regularly, some even several times daily.

A medium with a once-a-year or even a once-a-month frequency might deserve nothing more than a very small part of a retailer’s advertising budget. Remember, one way advertising functions is by repetition; a commercial message increases in audience awareness aftermore than one exposure.

Various advertising media will be examined from the standpoint of these three basic ingredients: the audience (coverage) each enjoys; the acceptance (impact) of the medium on the audience; and the ability to expand its initial impact by being available more than once or twice in a particular time frame (frequency).

Direct Mail

We would be remiss not to mention the U.S. Postal Service and its ability to deliver your advertising message. The direct mail advertising message can be highly personal and powerfully effective.

You know how saturated your home mailbox is with nothing to buy contests giving you chances to win new houses, cars, world cruises and big checks for every month as long as you live. While there is no obligation for you to buy anything, there is always something available for sale subscriptions, books, records, videos, personal products, real estate usually at discounted prices.

The give-aways are possible only because enough people are tempted by what is available, and what they buy can be traced to direct mail advertising. In almost every business there is an opportunity for increased business through intelligent use of direct mail advertising.

Because the per-piece cost of direct mail is much higher than most forms of print, it must be used carefully, selectively and efficiently. Mailing lists are difficult to prepare, expensive to buy and are partially obsolete the day after they have been completed. Because people die, move away or get mad at you at an alarming pace, keeping an accurate mailing list is not easy.

Still, direct mail can be an efficient way to deliver a sales message to a specific target audience. If your audience is composed of doctors, lawyers, dentists or school teachers, for example, only direct mail offers you the chance to direct your ad to that target audience with no waste circulation.

Direct mail also makes couponing and sampling practical. It can help isolate advertising response to one segment or another and compare returns in one area with those in another.

The most critical part of any direct mail program is the mailing list. Keep a list of all your customers, either by asking them to fill out a mailing list card or by taking their names off the checks you receive each day. Hold contests to get your customers to fill out an entry form. As your list grows, you may need to buy a computer or hire a mailing firm to keep the list current and to prepare mailing labels.

Magazines

Print media also include magazines. While most national magazines are not practical as an advertising medium for local businesses, some local magazines may be. City magazines are now published in hundreds of cities and towns. They may look as sophisticated as their national counterparts, and they are edited to local tastes.

They use color, photography and professional writing and editing to create high-interest stories about people, places and things. They frequently are distributed free to certain people on special lists restricted to higher income families. In this way they can reach relatively exclusive audiences, but the frequency of publication (usually monthly) restricts their use as a basic medium.

Many regional and national magazines include classified ad sections that may be useful for promoting the availability of a catalog or for selling individual products. The advantage of magazines is that they have highly defined readerships that allow you to focus on specific market niches.

If, for example, you run an ad in a boating magazine, you can be fairly sure the people who subscribe either own a boat or are looking for one. The Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) publishes a complete listing of all the magazines that serve particular market interests; it is available in the business section of most libraries.

Brochures

For many small businesses, a printed brochure may be helpful to establish credibility and tell your story in more detail. Computer type setting and laser printing have reduced the cost of producing a brochure. Free layout help is available at many copy centers. You can keep your costs down by using standard 8.5 x 11 inch paper and by using a triple-fold design that will fit into a standard business envelope.

Other Local Print Media

Don’t overlook drop-point media such as booklets available for free pickup in high-traffic areas like convenience stores, banks and motels. These may include guides to local television programs, listings currently available from real estate firms, entertainment or sporting events. Evaluate each booklet on its ability to provide enough value to justify using it.

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