I want to share an event coming up. Come join us in a relaxed, casual environment and talk about your business. The event will be held at Downtown Melbourne's Debauchery, on November 7, 2012 from 5pm to 8pm. You can visit www.brevardconnections.com to learn more or to participate and promote your own venture. We look forward to seeing you there. The benefits of networking are huge. There is no better return on investment than a face to face meeting and exchange of information. You may give your card to someone that does not need your services, but they may meeting someone that does. They will then forward your card/info. Networking does not mean you have to sign up with a group, although it does help. Networking is keeping your eyes and ears open to whats going on around you and meeting as many people as you can. Think the girl at the cash register is just a cashier? Well, she might be in college right now and will need your services in the future or she might have a boyfriend that owns a sign company. Keep your mind and ears open. And connect others when you see a fit. They will return the favor.
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Know your competition
Something people seem to overlook is their business' competition. It's easy to get caught up in your own business, let alone try to figure out what's going on with your competition. The importance of knowing where your competition stands effects so many aspects of business. You want to know exactly what you're up against and how to gain your share of the market. How do you get the information? You talk to people and ask questions. You physically go to see your competition. You take a look at their website and other pages to see how they represent themselves. Know your market Every market has a different personality. In order to really understand your market, you have to not only participate in it, you have to understand buyer's behaviors in your market. Why and when do people buy? Is it price, is it service, is it selection? All important questions that you need to know in order to succeed in that market. Know your strengths/weaknesses Once you know the competition's weaknesses, you'll be able to find your strengths. Also, a great way to find your strengths is by talking to your existing customers. They will tell you why they do business with you. They want to. And they like to give feedback. You also need to know your weaknesses, because you'll want to try to eliminate those altogether. Those are good though, because they give you goals and things for your to do list. Here is an example of using your strengths (true story) . There is a new company offering IT services. Their competition is a big box store that has a similar service. The big box charges twice as much as the new company. The big box store has the dollars to market the service better than the new IT business, however, they are charging retail prices. The new business will use this to their advantage. With advertising that starts with "Don't pay retail for IT." They are able to offer better service with more offerings for a much smaller price. That is the big store's weakness, price. Basically, you are spotting a weakness and using it to your benefit by highlighting your strength. Other aspects that have just as much importance are quality merchandise, better service, selection, even turnaround times. EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail is a relatively new program by the post office that offers a direct mail service that's half the postage. It's a great tool, but will it work for you?
Based on your needs, which is the best tool for you? The right choice is easy. Both Direct mail and EDDM have their specific purposes. Do you have a mailing list of customers and you want to let them know about a specific sale? Then direct mail is the way to go. You will only spend postage to a select group of people that you know already frequent your shop. If you're trying to hit a specific region, they will both work. But why would you spend double on the postage of direct mail, when you could do the EDDM for half of the postage price. Since postage is the most expensive cost in a direct mail campaign, definitely save your money. Also, no worries about the cost of the mailing list either, there's no addressing an EDDM piece. EDDM works like this. You go online to USPS.com and make an account. Once you get your log in, you would then go the EDDM part of the site. From there you put in your city or zip code to get the specific routes in that area. There are other perimeters to consider, whether you want to hit P.O. boxes and rural areas. But it's easy to see in the list how many are residences and how many are businesses. It will allow you to break it up at your preferred ratio or pick heavier on the residential or business side. The drawback from this fancy program is that you cannot only target businesses or residences. You can get close, but you have to hit the entire route, sometimes leaving business to business companies spending half their budget reaching residences. Another reason to love EDDM, the mail pieces must be at least 6.25" on one side, so they are nice and oversized. They really stand out in the mail. A great poster for an advertisement. Put an image that will stand out and grab people's attention. It will make a big difference. Below is the EDDM we just ran. I live in Florida, so the tropical images hit nicely here. Some people save them just for the image. Below is a link to learn more about the EDDM program through the post office. https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm When I started my business and I didn't know enough about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It takes time to learn the ins and outs of website design and copywriting to know how to get to the top. But I read something that helped me get on the first page, without even tweaking much of my site. And that was to get into the local advertising directories.
The directories themselves take on the SEO, you get to float on their hard work. The first advertising I would do as a new business would be to make sure your business is listed in the local online directories. To be uber helpful, below is a list of local directories and their links for you to visit and list your business. It will take some time, but is well worth it. Best Deals on Bing BizJournals.com Biznik Brownbook CitySearch CitySlick CitySquares CityVoter Dex Knows Discover our Town Foursquare Genieknows Infignos InfoUSA Judysbook Justclicklocal Kudzu Local.com LocalEze Local Site submit Magic Yellow Manta Mapquest MatchPoint Merchant Circle Metrobot MojoPages Myhuckleberry Navteq GPS Outside.in Supermedia TeleAtlas ThinkLocal twibs UsCity.net Whitepages Yahoo! Yellowassistance Yellowbook YellowPages.com Yelp Zipweb May your listings be easy and profitable. A few years a go when I read up on how the QR codes were going to explode in the advertising industry, I was excited about the idea of someone getting immediate information with a simple bar code scan. And although I did see more QR codes in advertising, they are less exciting now.
Augmented Reality (AR) will soon take over the QR Code. Which seems like a very broad term. The computer science world's definition of AR is the interaction of superimposed graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment that's displayed in real-time. It is not a new concept and has been around for a long time, however with the AR mobile apps that are now available it is a rapidly growing conversation and one that should be deemed exciting. My earliest face to face with AR came when I was at a hair appointment in high school. The year was 1989 and my stylist had just started her new business around a computer application. And not only were the computers big, but the hair too. It was a application that took a picture of you. You then were able to load your photo in and try on hundreds of hair styles and colors to choose from, giving you a good idea of what haircut is best for your face. The application was a little primitive, but effective. Another popular example is related to football games and how the text and graphics cover the games being played. And lets not forget the otherwise invisible line of scrimmage. All considered AR. For an example of what's possible, one of the new AR apps is called SnapShop Showroom. It actually allows you to try on furniture as you would clothing. You can pick your couch from the menu and bring up your live camera. It allows you to resize, move the couch around the room and change the fabric choices. Once you've chosen your couch, the app then directs you to the site and you purchase your couch. A couch you already know looks good in your home. Pretty damn convenient if you ask me. You can't get all of the out of a QR code. Below is a link to an article featureing the top 15 Augmented Reality Apps. Click the link below. http://www.pcworld.com/article/253530/top_15_augmented_reality_apps_for_iphone_and_ipad.html I have a customer who has a great model for print advertising reinforcement and I wanted to share it. It's a wonderful and effective way to get the most out of your print advertising. Dan Taylor of A Advanced Hearing Care, is a great example on how to reinforce advertising while building credibility and brand. Every month I come up with ads for AAHC, which includes a catchy headline, art and his business information, all usual stuff. And Dan comes up with the reinforcement. The thing that is so special about him is that Dan is not only a audiologist, he is a writer. So, for each of his print ads, he writes a story to accompany it somewhere in the periodical as well as in his blog. He's not selling hearing aids in the articles. He writes about hearing aids, care and general information. So he is selling without selling.
With the articles, it helps keep the site ranked high for original content as well as adding to the credibility of both Dan and the business. Not to mention the fact that the articles are filled with helpful information for the hearing impaired, family of the hearing impaired, as well as other hearing professionals in the industry. He has a good following, making his advertising even more effective. Below is the ad we chose for the month of September. To read more about Dan or A Advanced hearing care, please click here. Below is a list of facts for you to consider when wondering about radio advertising for your business. Just food for thought.
If you're thinking about where to spend your advertising dollars, you should consider radio. Radio is one of the more affordable solutions with proven results. Many businesses use radio because it offers speed, flexibility and immediacy. Also, when your customer hears the ad, it is usually in a more intimate setting. Most people listen in their car or at work, so the message is heard.
Some things you should know before getting started: 1. Radio stations typically have "Day Parts." Day Parts are how they split the day with different advertising demographics and fees. 6am to 10am Breakfast or morning drive— usually attracts the largest audience. It is also said that the morning drive market tends to be the most responsive, as people are more active in their listening at this time of day. This, of course, will be the highest cost, but with a higher response. 10am to 3pm Midday—Still considered prime day part, many listeners tune into music at work, but may not be as attentive as the morning drive. This is good for advertisers targeting female products/services. Limited Advertising budgets should not select this time to compensate, they should spend the money during the AM and PM drive times. 3pm to 7pm Afternoon Drive or PM drive—2nd largest audience. When people are driving from work to home. This is another great time to solicit retail products, planning for travel, dinner eating arrangements, running errands or focusing on diet. 7pm to 12M Evening—This day part is not the strongest. Llistenership usually drops off after the first hour, and responsiveness drops as well. This day part should only be added as part of your plan to be added with your morning and evening day parts. 12M to 6am Overnight—The least desireable inventory. Listening is very low, unless the ad targets this particular audience. Radio programming during this time is very background. This is prime time for adult content.... Male enhancement, for example. 2. Reach— Reach in the number of individuals that hear a particular campaign. This is expressed as a percentage. 3. Frequency—number of times an audience hears spot. 4. Effective frequency— Number of times a listener must be exposed to a radio spot before it has an effect. The number for radio is 3. That's 3 times hearing your ad before it sinks in. 5. Comulative Audience— Number of people who listen to a radio station for at least 1/4 hour during course of chosen times period or day part. Each person is counted once. 6. Station Share—The total audience in a given time period that is tuned to a particular radio station. This is expressed as a percentage of total radio audience for the same period. 7. Gross Impacts—Sun of the 1/4 hour audience for all spots in campaign. The number of times a radio spot was heard. This usually includes listener duplication. May your radio advertising be effective and bring you lots of business. These three terms, are extremely important to every advertiser. Even if you do not handle your own advertisements, you need to understand the importance of each and what they mean. In this blog, I am going to briefly touch on each term, which I will later explain in further detail in another post.
Reach Reach is a percentage that measures the accumulation of audience exposure over time. Basically, the total number of people exposed to your communication. It counts the unique percentage of people exposed. GRP—Gross Rating Points Gross Rating Points measure the total amount of exposure of your communication. An example would be if 24% of househols had a particular baseball game on and you ran your ad three times during that game, you would multiply 3x22, giving you a GRP of 66%. GRP measures the total exposure. Frequency Frequency is the ratio of GRP over reach. Frequency measures the repetition. The formula for Frequency is: Frequency= Gross Rating Points/Reach This is a common question. Because it depends on many factors. The rule of thumb is one and a half times your seating, however that does not leave a whole lot for anything else. Because you will want to promote your business with your menu, I would recommend that you print your restaurant menu using a high grade of material, like the EndurAce material (a water resistant surface for longevity), then add a less expensive delivery grade printed menu for promotions. You'll want to send your menu to the businesses in the area around your restaurant as well as to writers/media, hotels, etc. So don't scrimp, make sure you have enough to go around. Your menu will be the driver of your traffic. |
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