If you have been following the recent advertising news you will notice that more and more major advertisers are looking to smaller ad agencies to handle their campaigns.
Is it because they feel bad? Is it because they are cheaper? Or is it because they see the level of creative talent of smaller agencies?
Lets take a quick look at why this is happening and how this is good for the consumers and the advertisers. When I use the term smaller it doesn't mean that it's a one-man show, but that they aren't part of the "BIG 6". Now with that said lets continue, smaller agencies have a hunger to succeed, they have a need to be customer service oriented, they have a desire to be more creative without the fear of upsetting upper management. Take these points into account and you have an agency that will be tenacious and with the number one goal of showing their clients results.
At New Age Media Concepts, we believe that major advertisers deserve better results from their campaigns, don't get me wrong there have been great campaigns launched but who are going to be the new creative minds to develop the next memorable moment in advertising history?
If advertisers like General Motors, Ford, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Microsoft, Burger King, Toyota, Home Depot, Wendy's, ConAgra Foods, Wal-Mart Stores, American Express, Colgate Palmolive, Intel and the many others are looking beyond what agencies they are accustomed to working with and are looking towards connecting with their consumers in a big way, then they have to look beyond the brick and bring in a creative team that can help them do that.
Consumers today aren't ignorant and in this age of reality television and the shock factor mentality, advertisers need to step up to the plate and shed their skin to be able to reach the new age of consumers, the ones that are their core audience, the ones that will have brand loyalty.
Louis Victor has been involved in the investment, advertising, marketing and public relations indutries for close to two decades. Through various articles he looks to give some insight on various topics as it relates to these industries.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Marketing Lessons I Learned in Chicago this Week...
I was in the fine city of Chicago this week to speak at a marketing conference. And I learned some interesting things:
1 - Traffic in Chicago is much worse than the allegedly bad traffic in Atlanta where I live. We left the hotel downtown at 3 p.m. and were parked on the "highway" a few minutes later.
The Lesson Learned:
I am thankful - as I know many of you are - that I don't have to leave home and fight through this terrible traffic on a daily basis. Life's too short to suffer like this regularly. The stress level of doing this would take years off my life.
2 - Despite the traffic, I arrived at the airport early enough to rebook my ticket (by paying the $25 fee) on a flight leaving 90 minutes earlier than my original schedule. That was the good news.
The bad news turned out to be that this flight would leave 45 minutes late so I didn't gain very much for my $25.
Obviously, I can afford the $25, but that's not the point.
The Lesson Learned:
It's not about the money. It's about the perception of value received for the money. When I made the deal with the airline to book the earlier flight, I did so with the specific understanding that I was investing $25 to buy 90 minutes.
But, I ended up only getting 1/2 that time - 45 minutes. So, I felt like I'd gotten screwed in the deal.
People - like us and our customers - invest money with us based on the perception of the value they'll receive in exchange. If you don't deliver on your promise, then the customer is not going to be happy with the deal.
If you deliver more, the customer should be ecstatic. That's why you'll usually find extra - unadvertised - bonuses when you purchase my products.
It doesn't matter that I probably would have spent the $25 to get the 45 minutes anyway - that's not the deal I bought.
3 - When I booked my hotel reservation, the website promoted the fine history of the property. When I was standing in the lobby, they had an interesting wall display listing the famous people and many presidents who had stayed there years ago. And they specifically mentioned how they had upgraded the hotel with the latest in electrical, plumbing, etc.
I'm not sure how long ago someone wrote this fiction, but it must be at least 30 years ago - maybe longer. Perhaps the reference to Diamond Jim Brady should have clued me in.
I won't bore you with the sordid details about the sagging mattress and matted down carpet, but it was depressing to enter my room. Especially when I opened the curtains so I could look 15 feet across the air shaft at other rooms.
The Lesson Learned:
Next time I'm booking a reservation in a "historical" hotel, I need to be certain to ask if they've stayed true to their history or entered the new millennium.
Of course, for $39 a night, I might have expected something like I got. But, when I'm paying $120 for the discounted conference special rate, I'm not seeing the value in the deal.
For many products and services - like hotel rooms - we have an understanding of what we think we should get for the money we spend. It doesn't matter whether our preconceived notion is correct - we've got it in our heads already.
As marketers, we have to deal with the public that has these preconceived ideas. When we're not going to fit with them (like charging way too much for a crummy room), we should be fair and make that clear. But we'll obviously want to do this in a fashion that will show why this is a still a fair, if not great, value proposition.
4 - But this story gets even more interesting...
I was chatting with Paul Hartunian (the PR expert who once sold the Brooklyn Bridge - legitimately) and mentioned that I was not happy with my room. He remarked that other people had also voiced similar opinions, but he loved his room.
Turns out he had asked the hotel about upgrade options and, for $20 more, you could get a completely updated room with a wonderful view of the city and Lake Michigan.
Of course, no one volunteers this when you call to make reservations. And it's not mentioned at all on their website.
But I'll bet the people that work in this hotel are wondering why more people don't choose the upgrade option.
The Lesson Learned:
Don't hide your light under a bushel basket!
Think about this...the hotel could have turned many unhappy people into raving fans simply by mentioning the $20 option. Plus, they could have been grabbing an extra $20 a night from dozens of people for doing absolutely nothing.
Sure, we're sitting here in judgment thinking how stupid this is. But...unfortunately, we occasionally make the same kind of silly mistakes and don't make the really fine benefits of our product or service crystal clear.
To sum up:
1 - Don't play in traffic. It's hazardous to your health.
2 - Explain the value in your offers and deliver what you promise (preferably more).
3 - Don't hide your best benefits and offers. Put them right out front so your prospects will become happy customers.
Yours in success,
Shawn Casey
P.S. If you missed the incredible Jeff Paul teleseminar this week - or just want to review it and take some more notes (Jeff talks fast and delivers a lot of info), you can hear the recorded version here:
(Scroll down a little when you get there)
Internet Millionaire Shawn Casey's "Mining Gold On the Internet" is one of the best selling Internet books with over 85,000 copies sold. In "Mining Gold", Shawn reveals the same step-by-step strategies he uses to create millions in Internet sales Benefit from Shawn's 7 years of Internet experience and learn from someone who has actually made millions online.
1 - Traffic in Chicago is much worse than the allegedly bad traffic in Atlanta where I live. We left the hotel downtown at 3 p.m. and were parked on the "highway" a few minutes later.
The Lesson Learned:
I am thankful - as I know many of you are - that I don't have to leave home and fight through this terrible traffic on a daily basis. Life's too short to suffer like this regularly. The stress level of doing this would take years off my life.
2 - Despite the traffic, I arrived at the airport early enough to rebook my ticket (by paying the $25 fee) on a flight leaving 90 minutes earlier than my original schedule. That was the good news.
The bad news turned out to be that this flight would leave 45 minutes late so I didn't gain very much for my $25.
Obviously, I can afford the $25, but that's not the point.
The Lesson Learned:
It's not about the money. It's about the perception of value received for the money. When I made the deal with the airline to book the earlier flight, I did so with the specific understanding that I was investing $25 to buy 90 minutes.
But, I ended up only getting 1/2 that time - 45 minutes. So, I felt like I'd gotten screwed in the deal.
People - like us and our customers - invest money with us based on the perception of the value they'll receive in exchange. If you don't deliver on your promise, then the customer is not going to be happy with the deal.
If you deliver more, the customer should be ecstatic. That's why you'll usually find extra - unadvertised - bonuses when you purchase my products.
It doesn't matter that I probably would have spent the $25 to get the 45 minutes anyway - that's not the deal I bought.
3 - When I booked my hotel reservation, the website promoted the fine history of the property. When I was standing in the lobby, they had an interesting wall display listing the famous people and many presidents who had stayed there years ago. And they specifically mentioned how they had upgraded the hotel with the latest in electrical, plumbing, etc.
I'm not sure how long ago someone wrote this fiction, but it must be at least 30 years ago - maybe longer. Perhaps the reference to Diamond Jim Brady should have clued me in.
I won't bore you with the sordid details about the sagging mattress and matted down carpet, but it was depressing to enter my room. Especially when I opened the curtains so I could look 15 feet across the air shaft at other rooms.
The Lesson Learned:
Next time I'm booking a reservation in a "historical" hotel, I need to be certain to ask if they've stayed true to their history or entered the new millennium.
Of course, for $39 a night, I might have expected something like I got. But, when I'm paying $120 for the discounted conference special rate, I'm not seeing the value in the deal.
For many products and services - like hotel rooms - we have an understanding of what we think we should get for the money we spend. It doesn't matter whether our preconceived notion is correct - we've got it in our heads already.
As marketers, we have to deal with the public that has these preconceived ideas. When we're not going to fit with them (like charging way too much for a crummy room), we should be fair and make that clear. But we'll obviously want to do this in a fashion that will show why this is a still a fair, if not great, value proposition.
4 - But this story gets even more interesting...
I was chatting with Paul Hartunian (the PR expert who once sold the Brooklyn Bridge - legitimately) and mentioned that I was not happy with my room. He remarked that other people had also voiced similar opinions, but he loved his room.
Turns out he had asked the hotel about upgrade options and, for $20 more, you could get a completely updated room with a wonderful view of the city and Lake Michigan.
Of course, no one volunteers this when you call to make reservations. And it's not mentioned at all on their website.
But I'll bet the people that work in this hotel are wondering why more people don't choose the upgrade option.
The Lesson Learned:
Don't hide your light under a bushel basket!
Think about this...the hotel could have turned many unhappy people into raving fans simply by mentioning the $20 option. Plus, they could have been grabbing an extra $20 a night from dozens of people for doing absolutely nothing.
Sure, we're sitting here in judgment thinking how stupid this is. But...unfortunately, we occasionally make the same kind of silly mistakes and don't make the really fine benefits of our product or service crystal clear.
To sum up:
1 - Don't play in traffic. It's hazardous to your health.
2 - Explain the value in your offers and deliver what you promise (preferably more).
3 - Don't hide your best benefits and offers. Put them right out front so your prospects will become happy customers.
Yours in success,
Shawn Casey
P.S. If you missed the incredible Jeff Paul teleseminar this week - or just want to review it and take some more notes (Jeff talks fast and delivers a lot of info), you can hear the recorded version here:
(Scroll down a little when you get there)
Internet Millionaire Shawn Casey's "Mining Gold On the Internet" is one of the best selling Internet books with over 85,000 copies sold. In "Mining Gold", Shawn reveals the same step-by-step strategies he uses to create millions in Internet sales Benefit from Shawn's 7 years of Internet experience and learn from someone who has actually made millions online.
Understanding Internet Banner Advertising
Banner advertising is an effective way of getting your advertising message seen on the Internet. Banner ads should not be your only online form of advertising, but they are an essential part of your online advertising mix.
This article assumes that the reader knows what a banner ad looks like, but do you know how they work, and how you can derive benefit from them? Let's define a few terms before answering these questions.
1. "Page views" or "page impressions." These terms are interchangeable and they refer to the number of times that a page within a website has been displayed on a website.
2. "Banner view." Like a page view, a banner view is the number of times that a banner has been displayed on website.
3. "Click through." A click through is the number of times a website visitor has "clicked" on a particular banner ad and was transferred to the website of the banner advertiser.
4. "CTR." CTR is the acronym for "click through rate," which is the ratio of the number of banner view versus the number of times visitors have "clicked through" to your website. CTR is expressed as a percentage, so a click through rate of 1% means that for every 1,000 banner views, 10 visitors have clicked through to your site.
5. "CPM." CPM is an acronym for "cost per M," where "M" is the ancient Roman numeral for 1,000. Translation: CPM is the price your business will pay to have its banner advertisement displayed 1,000 times on a website, e.g, the cost of 1,000 banner views. So, for example, if the CPM to advertise on a site is $80.00 your business will pay $80.00 for every 1,000 banner views.
6. "ROS." ROS is the acronym for "run of site," which simply means that a banner ad is displayed on every page in a website, as opposed to being displayed only in a particular category of a website or only when a particular keyword is entered into a search engine.
Everyone who is in charge of a advertising or marketing department (that's you if you're the sole shareholder of the company) knows that advertising is, in large part, a numbers game. The more frequently your message is seen or heard, the more likely the consumer is to purchase your service or product. Take Mattress Mac with Gallery Furniture , for example. If you live in the Houston area, or if your radio can pick up the signal of almost any Houston area radio station, you cannot go a single day without hearing or seeing an advertisement for Gallery Furniture. Peppering your senses with constant reminders that "Gallery Furniture Saves You Money!" has enabled Mr. McIngvale to build his single location furniture store into an empire. (Of course, advertising alone won't do it; you still must have a quality product or service). I have no scientific data to support this assertion, but I'll make it anyway: I'm willing to bet that Gallery Furniture is known to more people in the greater Houston area than any other single business. How did that come to be? Mattress Mac understands the advertising numbers game and plays it better than anybody else.
Banner ads are a numbers game. The industry standard click through rate for online advertising in general is around .5%. Not 5%, but .5%. Doesn't sound very encouraging for your banner ad campaign, eh? Well, there are ways to significantly increase the CTR of any given banner. The best way is by targeting a particular banner ad to a narrow audience, an audience that is looking specific for a product or service just like yours. Highly-targeted can boost your CTR to as much as 2%-3% or higher and significantly increase the traffic to your website.
Another valuable purpose of the banner ad is branding. Intertwined with the messages Gallery Furniture delivers about particular sales events or types of furniture is the company's consistent and recognizable logo, color scheme, and tag lines. Your banner advertisements can, and should, perform the same function; they should be designed using your company's logo and colors, at a minimum. Sometimes incorporating the tag line is the way to go, but other times you may want to advertise a particular special offer, product, etc. The important thing is that you take advantage of the numbers game by continually displaying your name, logo, and colors. The more visitors that see you, the more they will come to associate your name with your type of product or service, and the more likely they will be in the future to buy from you.
This article assumes that the reader knows what a banner ad looks like, but do you know how they work, and how you can derive benefit from them? Let's define a few terms before answering these questions.
1. "Page views" or "page impressions." These terms are interchangeable and they refer to the number of times that a page within a website has been displayed on a website.
2. "Banner view." Like a page view, a banner view is the number of times that a banner has been displayed on website.
3. "Click through." A click through is the number of times a website visitor has "clicked" on a particular banner ad and was transferred to the website of the banner advertiser.
4. "CTR." CTR is the acronym for "click through rate," which is the ratio of the number of banner view versus the number of times visitors have "clicked through" to your website. CTR is expressed as a percentage, so a click through rate of 1% means that for every 1,000 banner views, 10 visitors have clicked through to your site.
5. "CPM." CPM is an acronym for "cost per M," where "M" is the ancient Roman numeral for 1,000. Translation: CPM is the price your business will pay to have its banner advertisement displayed 1,000 times on a website, e.g, the cost of 1,000 banner views. So, for example, if the CPM to advertise on a site is $80.00 your business will pay $80.00 for every 1,000 banner views.
6. "ROS." ROS is the acronym for "run of site," which simply means that a banner ad is displayed on every page in a website, as opposed to being displayed only in a particular category of a website or only when a particular keyword is entered into a search engine.
Everyone who is in charge of a advertising or marketing department (that's you if you're the sole shareholder of the company) knows that advertising is, in large part, a numbers game. The more frequently your message is seen or heard, the more likely the consumer is to purchase your service or product. Take Mattress Mac with Gallery Furniture , for example. If you live in the Houston area, or if your radio can pick up the signal of almost any Houston area radio station, you cannot go a single day without hearing or seeing an advertisement for Gallery Furniture. Peppering your senses with constant reminders that "Gallery Furniture Saves You Money!" has enabled Mr. McIngvale to build his single location furniture store into an empire. (Of course, advertising alone won't do it; you still must have a quality product or service). I have no scientific data to support this assertion, but I'll make it anyway: I'm willing to bet that Gallery Furniture is known to more people in the greater Houston area than any other single business. How did that come to be? Mattress Mac understands the advertising numbers game and plays it better than anybody else.
Banner ads are a numbers game. The industry standard click through rate for online advertising in general is around .5%. Not 5%, but .5%. Doesn't sound very encouraging for your banner ad campaign, eh? Well, there are ways to significantly increase the CTR of any given banner. The best way is by targeting a particular banner ad to a narrow audience, an audience that is looking specific for a product or service just like yours. Highly-targeted can boost your CTR to as much as 2%-3% or higher and significantly increase the traffic to your website.
Another valuable purpose of the banner ad is branding. Intertwined with the messages Gallery Furniture delivers about particular sales events or types of furniture is the company's consistent and recognizable logo, color scheme, and tag lines. Your banner advertisements can, and should, perform the same function; they should be designed using your company's logo and colors, at a minimum. Sometimes incorporating the tag line is the way to go, but other times you may want to advertise a particular special offer, product, etc. The important thing is that you take advantage of the numbers game by continually displaying your name, logo, and colors. The more visitors that see you, the more they will come to associate your name with your type of product or service, and the more likely they will be in the future to buy from you.
Localized Advertising ? Door-to-Door Ad Distribution on the Fly!
Have you ever had to distribute door-hanger advertisements for your business?
Have you ever employed door-to-door sales techniques to increase your brand awareness?
Have you ever had to walk mile-after-mile repeating the sales pitch, over and over?
Have you ever had to stand outside of an arena event and pass out flyers to exiting patrons?
If you stop to think of the cold calling technique of door-to door advertising, you would discover how sometimes humiliating it is to have a disinterested and irritated individual slam the door in your face, yell insulting things toward you, or be escorted off of their property. To combat this instantaneous humiliation, the idea of door-hanging advertisements gives the sales person a means of getting the word out to more people faster than before but more importantly, it saves the person the anguish of the advertised becoming irate over the interruption. Having been in situations were I have used these techniques either selling for other companies or trying to gain customers for a newly opened business, I came up with the idea of trying a door-to-driveway or door-to-doorstep advertising campaign to build brand awareness for a national car sales corporation that needed grass roots advertising for the local area around their dealerships.
Basically, I was a car salesman that was responsible for bringing in customers to buy cars, and my pay was determined by how many people actually came in and bought. Since I have leg injuries from an auto accident, I needed to find a way to cover the same amount of territory as my competing sales people. The company already supplied a few thousand door hangers; however, the advertisement brought awareness to all of the local 11 dealerships and I wanted to build awareness just to the dealership that I was at, and more specifically, I wanted the traffic created to come specifically to me.
Keeping in mind the flyer campaign I was apart of at a professional basketball game in which the sales team handed out 7,000 flyers to build awareness of a local college basketball season, I designed a half-page flyer text advertisement-therefore, two ads can be printed on every page-that put emphasis on my name, my contact information, and schedule. You can substitute any advertising design on this half-page ad.
I chose a colored card-stock weighted paper for printing because I needed paper weight for the distribution method used and a lower cost than the cost of printing in color. Printing black and white on colored paper is easier and cheaper than printing expensive color ads, unless you can afford it. But for the purpose of this campaign, you do not need to spend a fortune making your company look good in print.
Once the printing is done, cut the full-page printed page in half, which produces two half-page ads. Next, take the ads and roll them into a cigar shape and secure with small rubber bands. Tiny rubber bands can be purchased at the local office supply company, but the best bet for the appropriate size can be located at a local beauty supply company-ask for small hair braiding bands, usually kept in 500 and 1000 count. Keep a large box handy to place the rolled ads in until it is time to distribute.
Now it is time to distribute. Normally, door hangers would take about 2 ½ hours to distribute 500 hangers and would receive a few inquiries for the effort; so being limited to the amount of walking I could do, I decided to drive a car and throw the ads onto the edge of the driveway at peoples houses. I wanted the advertisement to be in the same placement as the local newspaper so the ad had the best chance to be noticed, picked up, and acted on by the potential customer.
As a homeowner, I myself have had numerous advertisements thrown in my driveway, and as the homeowner I am responsible for picking up the ads in my yard. I have seen ads for grass cutters, electricians, Avon sales, donations to thrift stores, and many more, so any kind of message can be placed on these ads.
Now with the new way to distribute, I could get 2000 ads out in approximately 1 ½ hours and had responses before I returned to the dealership. It makes me wonder how many people really do watch the front of their house and wonder what a slow moving vehicle was throwing at their house. After seeing the instant results of my effort, every sales person at the dealership enacted the same door-to-driveway campaign for the shear fact of the number of ads distributed for the time distributed was achieved with far less effort than before. Results we quicker and slightly higher; but, I do not know the exact increase numbers because I did not do any kind of analysis on exact number of responses for the number distributed. I do know that I got a lot out a lot quicker than before and I didn't have to walk anywhere except to the car.
A few things to keep in mind:? Make sure it is NOT going to rain on the day that you distribute.? Try NOT to distribute after 2:00 PM because of children being released from school and them walking and playing in the streets.? Try NOT to distribute during the weekend because that is when you want people to be acting on the ad that has been delivered, and the kids are in the streets again.? The perfect time seems to be between 10 AM and 12 PM, a two-hour break in morning commute traffic and the beginning of lunch hour traffic.? Keep a map and mark the streets covered as to not deliver in the same area too often.
Have you ever employed door-to-door sales techniques to increase your brand awareness?
Have you ever had to walk mile-after-mile repeating the sales pitch, over and over?
Have you ever had to stand outside of an arena event and pass out flyers to exiting patrons?
If you stop to think of the cold calling technique of door-to door advertising, you would discover how sometimes humiliating it is to have a disinterested and irritated individual slam the door in your face, yell insulting things toward you, or be escorted off of their property. To combat this instantaneous humiliation, the idea of door-hanging advertisements gives the sales person a means of getting the word out to more people faster than before but more importantly, it saves the person the anguish of the advertised becoming irate over the interruption. Having been in situations were I have used these techniques either selling for other companies or trying to gain customers for a newly opened business, I came up with the idea of trying a door-to-driveway or door-to-doorstep advertising campaign to build brand awareness for a national car sales corporation that needed grass roots advertising for the local area around their dealerships.
Basically, I was a car salesman that was responsible for bringing in customers to buy cars, and my pay was determined by how many people actually came in and bought. Since I have leg injuries from an auto accident, I needed to find a way to cover the same amount of territory as my competing sales people. The company already supplied a few thousand door hangers; however, the advertisement brought awareness to all of the local 11 dealerships and I wanted to build awareness just to the dealership that I was at, and more specifically, I wanted the traffic created to come specifically to me.
Keeping in mind the flyer campaign I was apart of at a professional basketball game in which the sales team handed out 7,000 flyers to build awareness of a local college basketball season, I designed a half-page flyer text advertisement-therefore, two ads can be printed on every page-that put emphasis on my name, my contact information, and schedule. You can substitute any advertising design on this half-page ad.
I chose a colored card-stock weighted paper for printing because I needed paper weight for the distribution method used and a lower cost than the cost of printing in color. Printing black and white on colored paper is easier and cheaper than printing expensive color ads, unless you can afford it. But for the purpose of this campaign, you do not need to spend a fortune making your company look good in print.
Once the printing is done, cut the full-page printed page in half, which produces two half-page ads. Next, take the ads and roll them into a cigar shape and secure with small rubber bands. Tiny rubber bands can be purchased at the local office supply company, but the best bet for the appropriate size can be located at a local beauty supply company-ask for small hair braiding bands, usually kept in 500 and 1000 count. Keep a large box handy to place the rolled ads in until it is time to distribute.
Now it is time to distribute. Normally, door hangers would take about 2 ½ hours to distribute 500 hangers and would receive a few inquiries for the effort; so being limited to the amount of walking I could do, I decided to drive a car and throw the ads onto the edge of the driveway at peoples houses. I wanted the advertisement to be in the same placement as the local newspaper so the ad had the best chance to be noticed, picked up, and acted on by the potential customer.
As a homeowner, I myself have had numerous advertisements thrown in my driveway, and as the homeowner I am responsible for picking up the ads in my yard. I have seen ads for grass cutters, electricians, Avon sales, donations to thrift stores, and many more, so any kind of message can be placed on these ads.
Now with the new way to distribute, I could get 2000 ads out in approximately 1 ½ hours and had responses before I returned to the dealership. It makes me wonder how many people really do watch the front of their house and wonder what a slow moving vehicle was throwing at their house. After seeing the instant results of my effort, every sales person at the dealership enacted the same door-to-driveway campaign for the shear fact of the number of ads distributed for the time distributed was achieved with far less effort than before. Results we quicker and slightly higher; but, I do not know the exact increase numbers because I did not do any kind of analysis on exact number of responses for the number distributed. I do know that I got a lot out a lot quicker than before and I didn't have to walk anywhere except to the car.
A few things to keep in mind:? Make sure it is NOT going to rain on the day that you distribute.? Try NOT to distribute after 2:00 PM because of children being released from school and them walking and playing in the streets.? Try NOT to distribute during the weekend because that is when you want people to be acting on the ad that has been delivered, and the kids are in the streets again.? The perfect time seems to be between 10 AM and 12 PM, a two-hour break in morning commute traffic and the beginning of lunch hour traffic.? Keep a map and mark the streets covered as to not deliver in the same area too often.
How To Write More Powerful Brochures, Leaflets, And Catalogues
Probably the most interesting thing about brochures and leaflets is that they're seldom read in what we've come to know as the right order - as you would read a book. Rather in the same way that many people read magazines in dentists' waiting rooms, they will flick through brochures and leaflets and stop to take a longer look at bits that grab their attention.
Alternatively they'll flick all the way through and then go back to bits they've noticed and that have interested them. They're just as likely to flick through from back to front as they are from front to back.
What all this teaches us is that despite seeming logical, writing for brochures and leaflets in the form of a story that starts at the beginning, goes through the middle and finishes at the end, is not necessarily the best way forward.
Obviously you can't make every page stand alone with a message on it that says "in case you're flicking through backwards or only want to read this page, here's a summary of our corporate profile again." But there are some tricks you can use to get this random reading pattern to work a bit more effectively for you, rather than against you.
A lot depends on the type and style of brochure or leaflet you want to write, of course. In my experience, generally speaking the more specific the purpose of a brochure or leaflet the more likely readers are to read it properly and thoroughly.
If a leaflet contains assembly instructions, or a brochure contains technical specifications of equipment, there's a good chance that readers will start at least near the beginning and then work through towards the end. Once again, that's because readers will only get their full value from the leaflet or brochure - the "what's in it for them" - by reading it properly. Where you get the worst random grasshopper reading, however, is with the less specific documents like "welcome" leaflets or "corporate" brochures. So let's look at how we can minimize the problems with those.
Despite all of the above, often it is still worthwhile to organize your content in a reasonably logical order. Many people do absorb brochures in the usual order, and even if they don't they still expect to find the introduction at the beginning, the substantiations in the middle and the conclusion at the end. This approach is useful for the moderately subject-specific document, like a leaflet about a new service or a brochure about a new line of garden furniture.
The trick here is to put the main points in as crossheadings (some people call them sub-headings) in bold type, so that someone scanning the document will get the gist of your message even if they don't have time to read the body text.
You should also ensure that the crossheadings make sense in their own right and that understanding them is not wholly dependent on their being read in any particular order. Body text should support and expand on each crossheading and lead the reader towards the next one, but without creating a "cliffhanger" (in case the reader is going in the wrong order).
For the more general subject matter - the most likely to be skimmed, scanned, flicked through, read upside down or otherwise not absorbed properly at all - here's some advice from US writer John Butman from "Writing Words That Sell" which he and I co-authored some years back. This is what John calls "chunking:"
"Chunking means that the story you are writing is not, in fact, a story at all. It doesn't have a sequential flow. It's a string of tiny stories, each with its own message. Each chunk is relatively separate and each page or page-spread is also reasonably separate. This approach means that you need to be careful about antecedents - you can't refer to something mentioned on page one, because the reader may have started reading on page twelve."
I find that John's "chunking" approach works particularly well when there is a lot of visual material, with the "chunks" of text acting almost like expanded captions to illustrations. With "chunking" you may also use crossheadings, but their importance in telling the story by themselves is not as critical. Crossheadings here, then, can be more cryptic or abstract provided that they are relevant.
And a quick word about style, particularly if you are writing a "corporate" brochure or leaflet: this medium, equalled only (perhaps) by the "corporate" website is the most prone to suffer from the curse of "corporate speak." Sadly it would be very easy for me to illustrate what I mean just by including excerpts here from corporate brochures I could find in the offices of both small and large companies based in the city where I live. The curse of "corporate speak" lurks everywhere regardless of the environment, rather like cold viruses or headlice.
Catalogues
Many people fail to realize that catalogues should be written. Often their objective in creating a catalogue is to cram in as many products as they can with descriptive copy kept to a few mis-spelled words in tiny type squashed into a corner. These people are the on-paper equivalent of the "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" species you encounter in retailing.
However in a retail environment customers can usually pick up the products, have a good look at them, read the on-pack copy and find out all they need to know, so the fact that they're in a no-frills environment doesn't matter too much. When a product is pictured in the small, two-dimensional environment of the printed page it's not only no-frills but also very lonely, unless the product has the support of some well-chosen words to inform readers and encourage them to buy it.
Considering that for many businesses and other organizations their catalogue is their only shop window - or at least represents, potentially, a very significant revenue stream - you would think that everyone's attention and skill would be focused on its written content as much as its other elements. But no. All too often catalogues look as though their copy has been written by a well-meaning high school pupil who can look forward to a glorious future as a street sweeper.
Yes, of course some products that get sold via a catalogue do not need a lot of description and the only words you need to include are choice of colours/sizes/quantities etc.
But what about the "how to order" messages?
I don't know about you, but if I'm thinking of buying something from a catalogue there's nothing that puts me off faster than having to spend a lot of time figuring out how to fill out the form, who to make the cheque out to and where to mail it, etc. The same applies if I have to hunt around for website details.
It's not difficult to get the process right. Simply work out the steps you want customers to take, write them down simply, rough out the order form itself, and then try it out on your mother, your brother, your neighbour, the milkman, or anyone else - provided they are not involved with your organization. That's a cheap and fast way of discovering any flaws in the system, especially small goofs that can get overlooked so easily if you're too familiar with them.
And here's another one. How many times have you looked at a catalogue only to find that crucial information you should keep (like contact details for ordering, delivery information etc) is placed either on the order form itself or on the back of the page the order form is on? The result is when you mail off your completed order form you're obliged to mail that important information away with it. Stupid, huh.
There is no mystery about creating good catalogues - only common sense. It's perfectly okay in my view to keep your writing crisp and concise because it helps to use the space more efficiently. But whatever you do, never lose sight of the fact that the way a catalogue is written and designed says a lot more about your organization than you think. If it is cluttered, unclear and illogical, customers will think your company is too. If it is busy but accessible, clear and easy to understand and logically planned, well - need I say more?
Retailers spend fortunes on the design, layout and flow of their instore displays. Supermarkets can increase or decrease their turnover by thousands, simply by moving the fresh produce from the back wall to the side wall or by putting the bakery beyond the delicatessen or by increasing the aisle width by a few centimetres. Think of your catalogue as a paper-based store or supermarket, and you'll find it easier to give it the consideration and respect it deserves.
Instruction leaflets and manuals
A few years ago I bought a new computer, printer, keyboard and monitor all at the same time. I heaved all the boxes into my office at home and unpacked each piece enthusiastically. There was metal and plastic and cabling and cardboard and polystyrene and bubble wrap all over the floor. My two dogs picked their way through it, sniffing suspiciously as if all these items were chickens lying dead and headless after a fox attack.
I sat cross-legged in the middle, leafing anxiously through the instruction booklets, desperately trying to find the English language pages. When I did, I couldn't understand a word, largely because the instructions a) had been compiled by technical people who assumed substantial prior knowledge even though it was a "home" computer and b) whoever had written the UK version must have been taught English by Donald Duck.
And do you think the manufacturer might have supplied a simple instruction sheet telling me how to bolt it all together? No. Every piece had its own awful instructions but as far as the manufacturer was concerned, each item was on its own.
So I phoned my dear computer guru Jason and booked him to come over the next day and sort it out, despite him telling me it was easy and I could do it myself.
"Just read the instructions," he said.
"I can't understand the ****ing instructions," I shouted back down the phone. "You come and do it, I'll watch what you do, then I'll write it down and send the text to the manufacturers with an invoice for my time. At least that way poor so-and-sos who buy this kit in the future will find out how to get it working without having a nervous breakdown."
There's one very strong point that emerges from this true story. When people read, listen to or watch a set of instructions, they often do it in fairly stressful circumstances, in uncomfortable surroundings, in poor light, etc. Accessibility, simplicity, visibility, and clarity are vital.
People who buy products that require instructions, need to know how to use the product as easily as possible. And because many people are technodorks like me, instructions need to be understood by the lowest common denominator.
Logically then, you might think, the best person to write instructions for technodorks like me is someone who knows every last detail about the product, how it was made, how it works, what it does, and what its inside leg measurement is. In other words, an expert. This could not be further from the truth.
Instructions should never be written by experts, because they know too much. What this means is that they are very prone to making the mistake of assuming the reader knows a little bit about the subject matter already. To an expert, the fact that before you begin assembling the bookcase you need to align sections A, B and C with each other may be so blindingly obvious it's not even worth mentioning. To someone like me it's not just worth mentioning, it's absolutely essential if I'm not to spend the next three hours wondering why on earth I can't find any bolt holes that line up.
Wherever practical, instructions should be written by someone who knows as much as, but no more than, the audience. For any form of instructions to be followed by non-technical users, the writer should assume zero prior knowledge and the best way to ensure s/he does that, is if s/he doesn't have any prior knowledge her/himself. Provided that the writer has a logical mind and the ability to write clearly and simply, s/he can't fail to work out and then write good, usable instructions - because if s/he understands them so will everyone else.
Equally, instructions should not be written by the sales people, the marketing executives, the guys in the lab, the production staff, or anyone else - even you - if there's a risk they might have become familiar with the subject matter. Familiarity can breed if not contempt, at least wrongful assumptions about the audience's existing knowledge. For any product to be used by ordinary folks in the street, try to get the instructions written by someone from a totally unrelated department or even from outside your organization. Failing that, get them tested by one or more typical users who have no prior knowledge of the product, and edit them carefully on the strength of the feedback you get.
There is nothing that will blacken the name of your product and your company faster than a customer like me not being able to put your product together easily.
Although customers like me will get over it after taking a cold shower and asking the brainy next-door neighbour to interpret the instructions, we'll probably remember all those bad things next time we're shopping for the sort of products you sell. And we'll buy your competitor's.
Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. In addition to her consultancy work for clients in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, she contributes articles to more than 150 business websites and publications worldwide, and has written eleven published books. Her latest eBooks, "The MAMBA Way To Make Your Words Sell" and "Get Yourself Published.
Alternatively they'll flick all the way through and then go back to bits they've noticed and that have interested them. They're just as likely to flick through from back to front as they are from front to back.
What all this teaches us is that despite seeming logical, writing for brochures and leaflets in the form of a story that starts at the beginning, goes through the middle and finishes at the end, is not necessarily the best way forward.
Obviously you can't make every page stand alone with a message on it that says "in case you're flicking through backwards or only want to read this page, here's a summary of our corporate profile again." But there are some tricks you can use to get this random reading pattern to work a bit more effectively for you, rather than against you.
A lot depends on the type and style of brochure or leaflet you want to write, of course. In my experience, generally speaking the more specific the purpose of a brochure or leaflet the more likely readers are to read it properly and thoroughly.
If a leaflet contains assembly instructions, or a brochure contains technical specifications of equipment, there's a good chance that readers will start at least near the beginning and then work through towards the end. Once again, that's because readers will only get their full value from the leaflet or brochure - the "what's in it for them" - by reading it properly. Where you get the worst random grasshopper reading, however, is with the less specific documents like "welcome" leaflets or "corporate" brochures. So let's look at how we can minimize the problems with those.
Despite all of the above, often it is still worthwhile to organize your content in a reasonably logical order. Many people do absorb brochures in the usual order, and even if they don't they still expect to find the introduction at the beginning, the substantiations in the middle and the conclusion at the end. This approach is useful for the moderately subject-specific document, like a leaflet about a new service or a brochure about a new line of garden furniture.
The trick here is to put the main points in as crossheadings (some people call them sub-headings) in bold type, so that someone scanning the document will get the gist of your message even if they don't have time to read the body text.
You should also ensure that the crossheadings make sense in their own right and that understanding them is not wholly dependent on their being read in any particular order. Body text should support and expand on each crossheading and lead the reader towards the next one, but without creating a "cliffhanger" (in case the reader is going in the wrong order).
For the more general subject matter - the most likely to be skimmed, scanned, flicked through, read upside down or otherwise not absorbed properly at all - here's some advice from US writer John Butman from "Writing Words That Sell" which he and I co-authored some years back. This is what John calls "chunking:"
"Chunking means that the story you are writing is not, in fact, a story at all. It doesn't have a sequential flow. It's a string of tiny stories, each with its own message. Each chunk is relatively separate and each page or page-spread is also reasonably separate. This approach means that you need to be careful about antecedents - you can't refer to something mentioned on page one, because the reader may have started reading on page twelve."
I find that John's "chunking" approach works particularly well when there is a lot of visual material, with the "chunks" of text acting almost like expanded captions to illustrations. With "chunking" you may also use crossheadings, but their importance in telling the story by themselves is not as critical. Crossheadings here, then, can be more cryptic or abstract provided that they are relevant.
And a quick word about style, particularly if you are writing a "corporate" brochure or leaflet: this medium, equalled only (perhaps) by the "corporate" website is the most prone to suffer from the curse of "corporate speak." Sadly it would be very easy for me to illustrate what I mean just by including excerpts here from corporate brochures I could find in the offices of both small and large companies based in the city where I live. The curse of "corporate speak" lurks everywhere regardless of the environment, rather like cold viruses or headlice.
Catalogues
Many people fail to realize that catalogues should be written. Often their objective in creating a catalogue is to cram in as many products as they can with descriptive copy kept to a few mis-spelled words in tiny type squashed into a corner. These people are the on-paper equivalent of the "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" species you encounter in retailing.
However in a retail environment customers can usually pick up the products, have a good look at them, read the on-pack copy and find out all they need to know, so the fact that they're in a no-frills environment doesn't matter too much. When a product is pictured in the small, two-dimensional environment of the printed page it's not only no-frills but also very lonely, unless the product has the support of some well-chosen words to inform readers and encourage them to buy it.
Considering that for many businesses and other organizations their catalogue is their only shop window - or at least represents, potentially, a very significant revenue stream - you would think that everyone's attention and skill would be focused on its written content as much as its other elements. But no. All too often catalogues look as though their copy has been written by a well-meaning high school pupil who can look forward to a glorious future as a street sweeper.
Yes, of course some products that get sold via a catalogue do not need a lot of description and the only words you need to include are choice of colours/sizes/quantities etc.
But what about the "how to order" messages?
I don't know about you, but if I'm thinking of buying something from a catalogue there's nothing that puts me off faster than having to spend a lot of time figuring out how to fill out the form, who to make the cheque out to and where to mail it, etc. The same applies if I have to hunt around for website details.
It's not difficult to get the process right. Simply work out the steps you want customers to take, write them down simply, rough out the order form itself, and then try it out on your mother, your brother, your neighbour, the milkman, or anyone else - provided they are not involved with your organization. That's a cheap and fast way of discovering any flaws in the system, especially small goofs that can get overlooked so easily if you're too familiar with them.
And here's another one. How many times have you looked at a catalogue only to find that crucial information you should keep (like contact details for ordering, delivery information etc) is placed either on the order form itself or on the back of the page the order form is on? The result is when you mail off your completed order form you're obliged to mail that important information away with it. Stupid, huh.
There is no mystery about creating good catalogues - only common sense. It's perfectly okay in my view to keep your writing crisp and concise because it helps to use the space more efficiently. But whatever you do, never lose sight of the fact that the way a catalogue is written and designed says a lot more about your organization than you think. If it is cluttered, unclear and illogical, customers will think your company is too. If it is busy but accessible, clear and easy to understand and logically planned, well - need I say more?
Retailers spend fortunes on the design, layout and flow of their instore displays. Supermarkets can increase or decrease their turnover by thousands, simply by moving the fresh produce from the back wall to the side wall or by putting the bakery beyond the delicatessen or by increasing the aisle width by a few centimetres. Think of your catalogue as a paper-based store or supermarket, and you'll find it easier to give it the consideration and respect it deserves.
Instruction leaflets and manuals
A few years ago I bought a new computer, printer, keyboard and monitor all at the same time. I heaved all the boxes into my office at home and unpacked each piece enthusiastically. There was metal and plastic and cabling and cardboard and polystyrene and bubble wrap all over the floor. My two dogs picked their way through it, sniffing suspiciously as if all these items were chickens lying dead and headless after a fox attack.
I sat cross-legged in the middle, leafing anxiously through the instruction booklets, desperately trying to find the English language pages. When I did, I couldn't understand a word, largely because the instructions a) had been compiled by technical people who assumed substantial prior knowledge even though it was a "home" computer and b) whoever had written the UK version must have been taught English by Donald Duck.
And do you think the manufacturer might have supplied a simple instruction sheet telling me how to bolt it all together? No. Every piece had its own awful instructions but as far as the manufacturer was concerned, each item was on its own.
So I phoned my dear computer guru Jason and booked him to come over the next day and sort it out, despite him telling me it was easy and I could do it myself.
"Just read the instructions," he said.
"I can't understand the ****ing instructions," I shouted back down the phone. "You come and do it, I'll watch what you do, then I'll write it down and send the text to the manufacturers with an invoice for my time. At least that way poor so-and-sos who buy this kit in the future will find out how to get it working without having a nervous breakdown."
There's one very strong point that emerges from this true story. When people read, listen to or watch a set of instructions, they often do it in fairly stressful circumstances, in uncomfortable surroundings, in poor light, etc. Accessibility, simplicity, visibility, and clarity are vital.
People who buy products that require instructions, need to know how to use the product as easily as possible. And because many people are technodorks like me, instructions need to be understood by the lowest common denominator.
Logically then, you might think, the best person to write instructions for technodorks like me is someone who knows every last detail about the product, how it was made, how it works, what it does, and what its inside leg measurement is. In other words, an expert. This could not be further from the truth.
Instructions should never be written by experts, because they know too much. What this means is that they are very prone to making the mistake of assuming the reader knows a little bit about the subject matter already. To an expert, the fact that before you begin assembling the bookcase you need to align sections A, B and C with each other may be so blindingly obvious it's not even worth mentioning. To someone like me it's not just worth mentioning, it's absolutely essential if I'm not to spend the next three hours wondering why on earth I can't find any bolt holes that line up.
Wherever practical, instructions should be written by someone who knows as much as, but no more than, the audience. For any form of instructions to be followed by non-technical users, the writer should assume zero prior knowledge and the best way to ensure s/he does that, is if s/he doesn't have any prior knowledge her/himself. Provided that the writer has a logical mind and the ability to write clearly and simply, s/he can't fail to work out and then write good, usable instructions - because if s/he understands them so will everyone else.
Equally, instructions should not be written by the sales people, the marketing executives, the guys in the lab, the production staff, or anyone else - even you - if there's a risk they might have become familiar with the subject matter. Familiarity can breed if not contempt, at least wrongful assumptions about the audience's existing knowledge. For any product to be used by ordinary folks in the street, try to get the instructions written by someone from a totally unrelated department or even from outside your organization. Failing that, get them tested by one or more typical users who have no prior knowledge of the product, and edit them carefully on the strength of the feedback you get.
There is nothing that will blacken the name of your product and your company faster than a customer like me not being able to put your product together easily.
Although customers like me will get over it after taking a cold shower and asking the brainy next-door neighbour to interpret the instructions, we'll probably remember all those bad things next time we're shopping for the sort of products you sell. And we'll buy your competitor's.
Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. In addition to her consultancy work for clients in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, she contributes articles to more than 150 business websites and publications worldwide, and has written eleven published books. Her latest eBooks, "The MAMBA Way To Make Your Words Sell" and "Get Yourself Published.
What?s the Score?
You may be aware that in a basketball game the assistant coaches keep an almost unending list of personal statistics for each player. Rebounds, assists, points, minutes played, etc.
Why is that?
Because they know that these individual statistics all add up to the bottom line.
The final score.
If they can achieve even a small incremental improvement in these individual statistics for each player this will have a compound affect on the final score.
And of course, it helps them know which players to give the most playing time too.
In marketing your business you should be just as disciplined. Which products and which ads and which media should you give the most playing time? Do you know?
What's the point of designing and implementing an advertising campaign if you don't know if it worked or if it was better than the last one?
What a waste.
How do you know where the best place is to spend your advertising dollars?
By tracking everything.
Incoming calls, emails, walk-ins, website visitors, etc.
Train yourself and your staff to always ask these questions. Where did they come from? How did they hear about you? Which ad did they call on?
Here is an example: Let's say you place a classified ad in the newspaper at a cost of $135.00 offering a free report on your product. You could track the incoming calls in many ways (for instance by directing them to a free recorded message with a unique extension number or simply by asking them where they heard about the offer when they call).
Let's say you receive 12 calls on this ad and 2 of them end up as completed sales.
What is your cost per prospect?
(Cost of Ad) / (Number of Calls) = Cost Per Prospect
$135.00 / 12 = $11.25
Your cost per prospect is $11.25
What is your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients?
(Number of Sold Clients) / (Number of Prospects) = Conversion Rate
2 / 12 = .17 (or 17%)
Your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients is 17%
What is your cost per sold client?
(Cost of Ad) / (Number of Sold Clients) = Cost Per Sale
$135.00 / 2 = $67.50
Your marketing cost per sale is $67.50.
Now let's say you place a display ad in a large local corporate newsletter and it costs you $450. You get 27 calls which turn into 4 sales.
Which ad is performing better?
What is your cost per prospect for this ad?
(Cost of Ad) / (Number of Calls) = Cost Per Prospect
$450.00 / 27 = $16.67
Your cost per prospect is $16.67
What is your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients?
(Number of Sold Clients) / (Number of Prospects) = Conversion Rate
4 / 27 = .15 (or 15%)
Your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients is 15%
What is your cost per sold client?
(Cost of Ad ) / (Number of Sold Clients) = Cost Per Sale
$450.00 / 4 = $112.50
Your marketing cost per sale is $112.50.
Depending on your products and profit margin both of these ads may be performing well enough to merit continuation. However, based on this information we would want to look for other opportunities to expand our use of the classified ad first.
This may seem a little basic but this information is extremely valuable and often overlooked.
The outcome of most athletic contests is normally decided by a very small margin, sometimes by as little as tenths of an inch or hundredths of a second, missing that pass completion by half a step or missing one basket.
One would suspect that most winners and losers in business are also determined by very small margins.
Not giving that extra little bit of caring and customer service. Not having your presentation skills honed, not including testimonials with your sales information. Not having the most effective headline in your ad or not having a headline at all.
And worst of all, not knowing which ads are working and which should be put on the bench.
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it." - W.C. Fields
Shawn Meldrum has spent the last two decades marketing everything from almonds to landscape lighting. He currently specializes in marketing for mortgage brokers, loan officers and real estate agents.
Why is that?
Because they know that these individual statistics all add up to the bottom line.
The final score.
If they can achieve even a small incremental improvement in these individual statistics for each player this will have a compound affect on the final score.
And of course, it helps them know which players to give the most playing time too.
In marketing your business you should be just as disciplined. Which products and which ads and which media should you give the most playing time? Do you know?
What's the point of designing and implementing an advertising campaign if you don't know if it worked or if it was better than the last one?
What a waste.
How do you know where the best place is to spend your advertising dollars?
By tracking everything.
Incoming calls, emails, walk-ins, website visitors, etc.
Train yourself and your staff to always ask these questions. Where did they come from? How did they hear about you? Which ad did they call on?
Here is an example: Let's say you place a classified ad in the newspaper at a cost of $135.00 offering a free report on your product. You could track the incoming calls in many ways (for instance by directing them to a free recorded message with a unique extension number or simply by asking them where they heard about the offer when they call).
Let's say you receive 12 calls on this ad and 2 of them end up as completed sales.
What is your cost per prospect?
(Cost of Ad) / (Number of Calls) = Cost Per Prospect
$135.00 / 12 = $11.25
Your cost per prospect is $11.25
What is your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients?
(Number of Sold Clients) / (Number of Prospects) = Conversion Rate
2 / 12 = .17 (or 17%)
Your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients is 17%
What is your cost per sold client?
(Cost of Ad) / (Number of Sold Clients) = Cost Per Sale
$135.00 / 2 = $67.50
Your marketing cost per sale is $67.50.
Now let's say you place a display ad in a large local corporate newsletter and it costs you $450. You get 27 calls which turn into 4 sales.
Which ad is performing better?
What is your cost per prospect for this ad?
(Cost of Ad) / (Number of Calls) = Cost Per Prospect
$450.00 / 27 = $16.67
Your cost per prospect is $16.67
What is your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients?
(Number of Sold Clients) / (Number of Prospects) = Conversion Rate
4 / 27 = .15 (or 15%)
Your conversion rate of prospects to sold clients is 15%
What is your cost per sold client?
(Cost of Ad ) / (Number of Sold Clients) = Cost Per Sale
$450.00 / 4 = $112.50
Your marketing cost per sale is $112.50.
Depending on your products and profit margin both of these ads may be performing well enough to merit continuation. However, based on this information we would want to look for other opportunities to expand our use of the classified ad first.
This may seem a little basic but this information is extremely valuable and often overlooked.
The outcome of most athletic contests is normally decided by a very small margin, sometimes by as little as tenths of an inch or hundredths of a second, missing that pass completion by half a step or missing one basket.
One would suspect that most winners and losers in business are also determined by very small margins.
Not giving that extra little bit of caring and customer service. Not having your presentation skills honed, not including testimonials with your sales information. Not having the most effective headline in your ad or not having a headline at all.
And worst of all, not knowing which ads are working and which should be put on the bench.
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it." - W.C. Fields
Shawn Meldrum has spent the last two decades marketing everything from almonds to landscape lighting. He currently specializes in marketing for mortgage brokers, loan officers and real estate agents.
Juice - Scam of the Decade or Opportunity of the Century
If you are an ardent web surfer and MLMer like I am, then I am sure you would have seen the sales pitch "Give away free broadband and earn £27 GBP each time".
Depending on which side of the fence you are, this product is either God's gift to freebies enthusiasts, MLMers and all paying ISP subscribers or it is the biggest scam yet, bar none.
For those still in the dark, let me fill in the blanks for you. A new ISP service will be launched in October 2004 that will be offering its subscribers internet connections at speeds "Faster than Broadband". This service will be available worldwide and get this, you can now get a free connection just by submitting your name and email address.
Among other things, JUICE:
- Will work with any PC or Mac with 9600 kbps modem upwards.
- Will work with any Internet connection including dial-up, ISDN, BROADBAND, GSM, GPRS and wireless connections in any country as long as you have a telephone line.
- Requires no cabling, engineers and no need to alter your PC in any way.
- Guarantees connection speeds 40 times faster than dial-up and 4 times faster than broadband.
- Promises that you will never have to pay for this serviceif you sign up before October 1, 2004.
For those who are not too technologically savvy, I guess you will ask "What's wrong with that? Sign me up!"
Here is where the detractors of "JUICE" smell a SCAM - and I will excuse your outright laughter at these claims.
- You will never see another dead, blank or irrelevant page ever again and if you do, they will pay you £500 GBP.
- You will NOT get another Spam email EVER, but if you do they will pay you £100 GBP in compensation.
- You are guaranteed to get a minimum connection speed of 2MBwith 100% uptime. If Juice fail to meet either or both theywill pay you £500 GBP per failure.
- YOU will NEVER receive a virus or worm in your email inboxagain as Juice operate up to the millisecond software to stop the same, but if you do get one they will pay you £500 GBP compensation.
- JUICE will be able to block every porn and adult site on the Internet if you choose to filter it and if they fail, you will be paid £200 GBP per reported instance.
- JUICE can STOP your child from chatting to people who pretend to be children in chat rooms by using amazingbreakthrough IP filtration and parenthesis technology.
Amazingly, this company promises to pay you £27 GBP for every person who you introduce to this service and they are accepting 80 million free subscribers by October 2004. They will also pay each affiliate £1.79 GBP for each person their downline introduces for ten levels down. Assuming they meet their target and my math is correct, that is in excess of £ 2 billion payment even before the product is launched!.
Scam, or the opportunity of the century? You can decide for yourself by visiting these two websites for more details. The first promotes Juice while the second expresses opinion of its detractors.
If you find this opportunity too tempting to ignore you may wish to take the precaution of not providing Email addresses you have used to set up your Paypal, Stormpay or other secure transaction account.Similarly, it may not be advisable to provide details of bank accounts and credit cards if in doubt.
As one MLMer promoting JUICE points out, if you take the right precautions you can only be scammed out of your email address. His advice for the ultra-cautious, open a throwaway email account.
Depending on which side of the fence you are, this product is either God's gift to freebies enthusiasts, MLMers and all paying ISP subscribers or it is the biggest scam yet, bar none.
For those still in the dark, let me fill in the blanks for you. A new ISP service will be launched in October 2004 that will be offering its subscribers internet connections at speeds "Faster than Broadband". This service will be available worldwide and get this, you can now get a free connection just by submitting your name and email address.
Among other things, JUICE:
- Will work with any PC or Mac with 9600 kbps modem upwards.
- Will work with any Internet connection including dial-up, ISDN, BROADBAND, GSM, GPRS and wireless connections in any country as long as you have a telephone line.
- Requires no cabling, engineers and no need to alter your PC in any way.
- Guarantees connection speeds 40 times faster than dial-up and 4 times faster than broadband.
- Promises that you will never have to pay for this serviceif you sign up before October 1, 2004.
For those who are not too technologically savvy, I guess you will ask "What's wrong with that? Sign me up!"
Here is where the detractors of "JUICE" smell a SCAM - and I will excuse your outright laughter at these claims.
- You will never see another dead, blank or irrelevant page ever again and if you do, they will pay you £500 GBP.
- You will NOT get another Spam email EVER, but if you do they will pay you £100 GBP in compensation.
- You are guaranteed to get a minimum connection speed of 2MBwith 100% uptime. If Juice fail to meet either or both theywill pay you £500 GBP per failure.
- YOU will NEVER receive a virus or worm in your email inboxagain as Juice operate up to the millisecond software to stop the same, but if you do get one they will pay you £500 GBP compensation.
- JUICE will be able to block every porn and adult site on the Internet if you choose to filter it and if they fail, you will be paid £200 GBP per reported instance.
- JUICE can STOP your child from chatting to people who pretend to be children in chat rooms by using amazingbreakthrough IP filtration and parenthesis technology.
Amazingly, this company promises to pay you £27 GBP for every person who you introduce to this service and they are accepting 80 million free subscribers by October 2004. They will also pay each affiliate £1.79 GBP for each person their downline introduces for ten levels down. Assuming they meet their target and my math is correct, that is in excess of £ 2 billion payment even before the product is launched!.
Scam, or the opportunity of the century? You can decide for yourself by visiting these two websites for more details. The first promotes Juice while the second expresses opinion of its detractors.
If you find this opportunity too tempting to ignore you may wish to take the precaution of not providing Email addresses you have used to set up your Paypal, Stormpay or other secure transaction account.Similarly, it may not be advisable to provide details of bank accounts and credit cards if in doubt.
As one MLMer promoting JUICE points out, if you take the right precautions you can only be scammed out of your email address. His advice for the ultra-cautious, open a throwaway email account.
Wheres Me Pot of Gold and Lucky Charms?
We already know this from our history books. If you want to make money today, you must first look back in time to the first time in history that a large portion of our country all tried to get rich at the same time in the same place. The first discovery of gold was at Sutter's Mill by James W. Marshall in 1948, Mr. Sutter's mill contractor and builder. This discovery sprang thousands upon thousands of ambitious individuals to get rich which we refer to as the "Gold Rush."
As you can imagine, these people were not that much different from the thousands of new entrepreneurs trying to get rich on the Internet. But out of all those thousands of people seeking their fortunes, only about 4% to 6% of them even found enough gold to feed themselves. And history books tell us that less than 1% ever became wealthy. This is so similar to the Internet of today that the two are worth comparing.
BUT Wait! A completely different group of people became extremely wealthy in those exact same gold fields...
Who were these people who managed to get rich during those hard times?
They were the people who opened little stores not far from where all the people were digging and panning for gold! These people were the smartest group because they chose to sell the tools that they knew all those gold diggers were going to need. This special group of individuals some how knew that it was a waste of time to dig and pan for gold. This amazing group of people wanted something with better odds. They wanted a sure thing!
They knew that the miners couldn't mine unless they had clothing, tools, and food. So these genius store owners made their fortunes selling the shovels, jackets, pants, wheel barrows, picks, pans, beer, food, hats, medicine and etc. So it didn't matter to them if a miner found gold and got rich or whether that miner couldn't find an ounce of gold. It just didn't matter to the men and women who owned the stores because no matter what, all those people in search of gold still needed massive amounts of supplies to live and more tools to keep trying. The shopkeepers were always there to sell all these supplies!
Whether gold was found or not, during any given day, the shop keepers made the same consistent amount of solid income!
Below you're about to find out why all this is relevant to you and your Internet income.
You now know that history has proven that if you do exactly what the masses of people are doing to get rich, you'll most likely fail. And you now know that if you provide products or services to that large group of people that are all trying to get rich, you'll most likely become wealthy. It's simple! Turn those gold diggers into your customers!
Just for a moment, separate yourself from the rest of them - sit back and relax. While sitting there, watch what they are doing; pay attention to what they are looking for and what they are using to get it. Once you have figured these things out you will know what to do to turn them into your customers.
But in case you don't, here's the simple answer to how you're about to turn all of today's Internet gold diggers into your own customers. First of all, you must ask yourself this question: "What is the single most important thing to all of today's Internet gold diggers? What do they crave and desire the most?"
The answer is "Traffic." In case you're new to the Internet, the word "Traffic," of course, means visitors to your web site. It doesn't take Internet marketers long to figure out that even though they have a professional web site up, not a single person is ever going to visit that web site unless it gets advertised. You have to know where to get traffic and generate MORE traffic.
With all that in mind, I'm about to discuss a very important subject and it may be very controversial to some, and even cause me to lose a few customers but I MUST make my point.
You hear this from people around you, your teachers, your advisors, even television, "knowledge is power." Do you agree?
Please explain.
I've asked a few people this same question and some have explained, "Well, yeah, without knowledge you have no authority."
"Well, it's obvious, without knowledge you have no power."
"Knowledge is what gets the job done in your everyday task."
While these are good explanations, I disagree. You're baffled. Totally understandable because I'm probably the only person on Earth standing up to this worldwide, coined phrase. So I better begin explaining myself before I start receiving hate mails. Allow me to explain by using an example.
Electricity.
Can you agree electricity is power? It has the power to turn your lights on, it's what plays your radio, and it's what starts up your car. Or does it? Electricity doesn't just magically turn your light on, automatically play your radio nor does it mysteriously start your engine. No. The electricity HAS TO BE APPLIED.
Like electricity, knowledge doesn't magically write your sales letter, knowledge doesn't automatically file your folders and knowledge doesn't mysteriously tune up your car. It has to be "APPLIED."
"Where are you going with this," you might ask.
Simply this, "knowledge" is only POTENTIAL POWER. All the knowledge that you hold within you is nothing unless you put it to use. That's it. If after reading this article and you decide to do nothing then you will have wasted your time and effort. Unless you apply what I've taught you, you will have thrown away your money. You can learn from my 4 years of experience or you can ignore it, the choice is yours.
I'm not here to change your mind about anything, I'm just pointing out important aspects to consider and I can only hope it has opened your mind and drive you to take action.
Van Lam is a business opportunity reviewer who speaks his mind and shares his thoughts. He has written a new ebook called, "The Hidden Secrets Revealed." Visit his web site to read the reviews and register at his Private Forum for plenty of free products to download and to chat with other network marketers and online opportunity enthusiasts.
As you can imagine, these people were not that much different from the thousands of new entrepreneurs trying to get rich on the Internet. But out of all those thousands of people seeking their fortunes, only about 4% to 6% of them even found enough gold to feed themselves. And history books tell us that less than 1% ever became wealthy. This is so similar to the Internet of today that the two are worth comparing.
BUT Wait! A completely different group of people became extremely wealthy in those exact same gold fields...
Who were these people who managed to get rich during those hard times?
They were the people who opened little stores not far from where all the people were digging and panning for gold! These people were the smartest group because they chose to sell the tools that they knew all those gold diggers were going to need. This special group of individuals some how knew that it was a waste of time to dig and pan for gold. This amazing group of people wanted something with better odds. They wanted a sure thing!
They knew that the miners couldn't mine unless they had clothing, tools, and food. So these genius store owners made their fortunes selling the shovels, jackets, pants, wheel barrows, picks, pans, beer, food, hats, medicine and etc. So it didn't matter to them if a miner found gold and got rich or whether that miner couldn't find an ounce of gold. It just didn't matter to the men and women who owned the stores because no matter what, all those people in search of gold still needed massive amounts of supplies to live and more tools to keep trying. The shopkeepers were always there to sell all these supplies!
Whether gold was found or not, during any given day, the shop keepers made the same consistent amount of solid income!
Below you're about to find out why all this is relevant to you and your Internet income.
You now know that history has proven that if you do exactly what the masses of people are doing to get rich, you'll most likely fail. And you now know that if you provide products or services to that large group of people that are all trying to get rich, you'll most likely become wealthy. It's simple! Turn those gold diggers into your customers!
Just for a moment, separate yourself from the rest of them - sit back and relax. While sitting there, watch what they are doing; pay attention to what they are looking for and what they are using to get it. Once you have figured these things out you will know what to do to turn them into your customers.
But in case you don't, here's the simple answer to how you're about to turn all of today's Internet gold diggers into your own customers. First of all, you must ask yourself this question: "What is the single most important thing to all of today's Internet gold diggers? What do they crave and desire the most?"
The answer is "Traffic." In case you're new to the Internet, the word "Traffic," of course, means visitors to your web site. It doesn't take Internet marketers long to figure out that even though they have a professional web site up, not a single person is ever going to visit that web site unless it gets advertised. You have to know where to get traffic and generate MORE traffic.
With all that in mind, I'm about to discuss a very important subject and it may be very controversial to some, and even cause me to lose a few customers but I MUST make my point.
You hear this from people around you, your teachers, your advisors, even television, "knowledge is power." Do you agree?
Please explain.
I've asked a few people this same question and some have explained, "Well, yeah, without knowledge you have no authority."
"Well, it's obvious, without knowledge you have no power."
"Knowledge is what gets the job done in your everyday task."
While these are good explanations, I disagree. You're baffled. Totally understandable because I'm probably the only person on Earth standing up to this worldwide, coined phrase. So I better begin explaining myself before I start receiving hate mails. Allow me to explain by using an example.
Electricity.
Can you agree electricity is power? It has the power to turn your lights on, it's what plays your radio, and it's what starts up your car. Or does it? Electricity doesn't just magically turn your light on, automatically play your radio nor does it mysteriously start your engine. No. The electricity HAS TO BE APPLIED.
Like electricity, knowledge doesn't magically write your sales letter, knowledge doesn't automatically file your folders and knowledge doesn't mysteriously tune up your car. It has to be "APPLIED."
"Where are you going with this," you might ask.
Simply this, "knowledge" is only POTENTIAL POWER. All the knowledge that you hold within you is nothing unless you put it to use. That's it. If after reading this article and you decide to do nothing then you will have wasted your time and effort. Unless you apply what I've taught you, you will have thrown away your money. You can learn from my 4 years of experience or you can ignore it, the choice is yours.
I'm not here to change your mind about anything, I'm just pointing out important aspects to consider and I can only hope it has opened your mind and drive you to take action.
Van Lam is a business opportunity reviewer who speaks his mind and shares his thoughts. He has written a new ebook called, "The Hidden Secrets Revealed." Visit his web site to read the reviews and register at his Private Forum for plenty of free products to download and to chat with other network marketers and online opportunity enthusiasts.
Why Most Advertisements Stink!
Question: What do you think the most important part of any ad is?
Your company name? Your telephone number? Your offer?
Look at your own advertising. What stands out? What is in the largest print? If it's your company name or logo hold out your wrist so I can whack it with a stick.
What's the answer? THE HEADLINE!!
You see, without a good compelling headline it won't matter much how great your copy or you offer is, because few will ever read it.
REMEMBER: The Only Job Of A Headline Is To Get The Reader To Read The First Paragraph.
It should be big, bold, dark and easy to read. But more importantly, it must force the reader to read on.
"HEADLINE TEST"
How do you know you have a powerful, effective headline?
Here's a great acid test: separate the headline from everything else, out of context, and treat it as a classified ad; nothing but the headline and a response instruction....then ask yourself if people would respond.
So if your headline is, say, the name of your company, the classified ad would read:
"Acme Mortgage, No. 1 in serviceand reliability. For more info,call 1-800-000-0000."
Trust me, that does NOT work.
But if the headline is;
"6 Things You Must Know Before GettingA Home Mortgage. Free Report Tells All.Call 1-800-000-0000".
That does work.
Put every headline you use in your ads, letters, flyers, brochures to this test.
Tips For Stronger Headlines
1. Telegraph a dynamic benefit or promise.
(You want to evoke emotion in every advertisement, always answering the reader's questions, "What's in it for me? And why should I continue reading this?")
Example: "You Can Laugh At Money Worries -- If You Follow This Simple Plan"
2. Add "How To" to the beginning.
Example: "How To Escape the Debt Rat-Race And Get Debt-Free, Fast....."
3. "Flag" your targeted prospects. Let them know who the ad is talking too.
Example: "Credit Card Payment Sufferers: How To End The Pain In 3 Days!"
4. Arouse curiosity.
Example: "What Your Banker Doesn't Want You To Know"
5. Use meaningful specifics.
(3 days is more "specific" than "in days").
Example: "I Instantly Saved $103,239.83 and Never Took The TV Remote Out Of My Hand"
6. Use powerful attention-grabbing words.
(Like "Warning", "Guaranteed", "New", "Now.")
Example: "WARNING: Credit Card Users May Be Paying To Much"
For a free instant reference guide that reveals time tested formulas to create dynamite, attention-getting headlines.
Shawn Meldrum has spent the last two decades marketing everything from almonds to landscape lighting. He currently specializes in marketing for mortgage brokers, loan officers and real estate agens.
Your company name? Your telephone number? Your offer?
Look at your own advertising. What stands out? What is in the largest print? If it's your company name or logo hold out your wrist so I can whack it with a stick.
What's the answer? THE HEADLINE!!
You see, without a good compelling headline it won't matter much how great your copy or you offer is, because few will ever read it.
REMEMBER: The Only Job Of A Headline Is To Get The Reader To Read The First Paragraph.
It should be big, bold, dark and easy to read. But more importantly, it must force the reader to read on.
"HEADLINE TEST"
How do you know you have a powerful, effective headline?
Here's a great acid test: separate the headline from everything else, out of context, and treat it as a classified ad; nothing but the headline and a response instruction....then ask yourself if people would respond.
So if your headline is, say, the name of your company, the classified ad would read:
"Acme Mortgage, No. 1 in serviceand reliability. For more info,call 1-800-000-0000."
Trust me, that does NOT work.
But if the headline is;
"6 Things You Must Know Before GettingA Home Mortgage. Free Report Tells All.Call 1-800-000-0000".
That does work.
Put every headline you use in your ads, letters, flyers, brochures to this test.
Tips For Stronger Headlines
1. Telegraph a dynamic benefit or promise.
(You want to evoke emotion in every advertisement, always answering the reader's questions, "What's in it for me? And why should I continue reading this?")
Example: "You Can Laugh At Money Worries -- If You Follow This Simple Plan"
2. Add "How To" to the beginning.
Example: "How To Escape the Debt Rat-Race And Get Debt-Free, Fast....."
3. "Flag" your targeted prospects. Let them know who the ad is talking too.
Example: "Credit Card Payment Sufferers: How To End The Pain In 3 Days!"
4. Arouse curiosity.
Example: "What Your Banker Doesn't Want You To Know"
5. Use meaningful specifics.
(3 days is more "specific" than "in days").
Example: "I Instantly Saved $103,239.83 and Never Took The TV Remote Out Of My Hand"
6. Use powerful attention-grabbing words.
(Like "Warning", "Guaranteed", "New", "Now.")
Example: "WARNING: Credit Card Users May Be Paying To Much"
For a free instant reference guide that reveals time tested formulas to create dynamite, attention-getting headlines.
Shawn Meldrum has spent the last two decades marketing everything from almonds to landscape lighting. He currently specializes in marketing for mortgage brokers, loan officers and real estate agens.
Advertising For The Long Haul and Not the Short Term Gains
New Age Media Concepts issues its first article of many that will focus on the advertising and marketing industry.
"If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is -- that's advertising. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is -- that's public relations." By S.H. Simmons.
Welcome to New Age Media Concepts, Inc. where we understand your needs and how to maximize your marketing dollar.
Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives.
People have their own unique perceptions of the world based on their belief system. The most innovative ideas, the greatest products, or a superior service succeed only when you market within the context of people's perceptions. This is true from something as simple as the pet rock craze of the 1970s to the marketing muscle of Wall Street and the Internet boom of the 1990s.
Context can be many things, singly or simultaneously. To name a few, you may market to your customers within the context of their wants, needs, problems solved, or situation improved. Current and potential advertisers need to be aware of many other contexts, such as social and economic trends or governmental regulations.
People don't just "buy" a product or a service. They "buy" the concept of what that product will do for them, or help them do for themselves. People just don't "buy" a laundry detergent, they buy the perceived notion of what that laundry detergent brand says it can accomplish for them. Otherwise every brand in the supermarket will be a no-frills. This is not to say that if a product fails to meet the customers' expectations that product will be successful in the long haul. No amount of advertising and marketing will help a failed product succeed in that scenario.
To have a successful campaign a product or service must understand that they need to start out with something a consumer needs, wants, or improves their situation and that product or service actually does help the consumer for the long haul.
The New York Times said it best in a recent article, "Companies can't Buy Love with Bargains" Building brand loyalty is more than just hyping the consumer into buying a product, it's gaining their trust and the trust of their family both today and for years to come. One example of great brand building is H.J. Heinz, (NYSE: HNZ) they have been around for decades and they gained the loyalty and trust of the consumer spanning generations, now that is great brand building.
Anyone could hype a brand for short term gains but that doesn't accomplish the goals of the advertiser or the consumer. It looks good initially but what happens when the product isn't flying off the shelves any longer and the consumers have lost trust in the product or the company?. Of course you need new and innovative ways to get your message to the consumer but this message has to be geared to building consumer loyalty and not just hype. Even the largest companies make this mistake and pay for it with decreased sales and profit margins.
So whether a consumer is buying a car from Ford (NYSE: F) , a can of beer from Anheuser Busch (NYSE:BUD) or software from Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), the advertiser needs to cater to the needs of the consumer.
Louis Victor has been involved in the investment, advertising, marketing and public relations industries for close to two decades.
"If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is -- that's advertising. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is -- that's public relations." By S.H. Simmons.
Welcome to New Age Media Concepts, Inc. where we understand your needs and how to maximize your marketing dollar.
Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives.
People have their own unique perceptions of the world based on their belief system. The most innovative ideas, the greatest products, or a superior service succeed only when you market within the context of people's perceptions. This is true from something as simple as the pet rock craze of the 1970s to the marketing muscle of Wall Street and the Internet boom of the 1990s.
Context can be many things, singly or simultaneously. To name a few, you may market to your customers within the context of their wants, needs, problems solved, or situation improved. Current and potential advertisers need to be aware of many other contexts, such as social and economic trends or governmental regulations.
People don't just "buy" a product or a service. They "buy" the concept of what that product will do for them, or help them do for themselves. People just don't "buy" a laundry detergent, they buy the perceived notion of what that laundry detergent brand says it can accomplish for them. Otherwise every brand in the supermarket will be a no-frills. This is not to say that if a product fails to meet the customers' expectations that product will be successful in the long haul. No amount of advertising and marketing will help a failed product succeed in that scenario.
To have a successful campaign a product or service must understand that they need to start out with something a consumer needs, wants, or improves their situation and that product or service actually does help the consumer for the long haul.
The New York Times said it best in a recent article, "Companies can't Buy Love with Bargains" Building brand loyalty is more than just hyping the consumer into buying a product, it's gaining their trust and the trust of their family both today and for years to come. One example of great brand building is H.J. Heinz, (NYSE: HNZ) they have been around for decades and they gained the loyalty and trust of the consumer spanning generations, now that is great brand building.
Anyone could hype a brand for short term gains but that doesn't accomplish the goals of the advertiser or the consumer. It looks good initially but what happens when the product isn't flying off the shelves any longer and the consumers have lost trust in the product or the company?. Of course you need new and innovative ways to get your message to the consumer but this message has to be geared to building consumer loyalty and not just hype. Even the largest companies make this mistake and pay for it with decreased sales and profit margins.
So whether a consumer is buying a car from Ford (NYSE: F) , a can of beer from Anheuser Busch (NYSE:BUD) or software from Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), the advertiser needs to cater to the needs of the consumer.
Louis Victor has been involved in the investment, advertising, marketing and public relations industries for close to two decades.
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