In the face of these uncertain economic times, many small businesses go into panic mode, and let the economists drive their business decisions. Big mistake! To be honest, it is difficult to remain calm when everyone is shouting stories about economic disaster. But for most business owners – panicking is a recipe for failure.
The Secret is to Stay Committed, Remain Calm and Spend Smart.
If you really want to succeed in an economic downturn, you need to stay focused on business growth, be smart about where you spend your money and keep a cool head.
Spend Smart: Marketing That Generates Results
So, where is the best place to spend your marketing dollars…
The Cost Effective Way to Acquire New Customers. The key is “Pay for Performance” marketing. There’s no safer way to spend your marketing budget. Continued…
Posted in Serach Engine Marketing (SEM).
Humor In Health Care Advertising.
By Hans Kracauer – Executive Creative Director (Copy) – The Idea Factory
Although not unknown, humor in health care advertising is a relatively rare phenomenon.
There’s a reason for that. Health is an innately serious subject. The entire category of health care is seen as better approached in deadly earnest. Of course, there’s the other end of the spectrum. Which entails pouncing on your audience and repeatedly hitting it over the head.
It’s a broad field. Yet in surveying health care advertising, certain patterns emerge.
You can run advertising that seeks to inform — combining your message with an attitude of deep concern and bottomless compassion. Or you can resort to scare tactics. (Use our product or something absolutely unspeakable will happen to you.) Then again — if it’s a parity product — you can just invent a point of difference. Simply create a campaign which elevates that point of difference to a level of towering importance. And let’s not forget that old standby — a benefits comparison. Take a competing product whose active ingredients are slightly different than yours. Place the two products next to each other. Then let the two sets of active ingredients fight it out. Need I tell you which product will come out ahead?
Well, you get the idea.
Now we all know that the above strategies work. And sometimes the specific nature of the health care product may warrant them. But just as often, there’s a much more effective approach. That approach is humor.
A Smarter Advertising Formula: Laughter
Continued…
Posted in Healthcare.
Tagged with healthcare advertising.
How To Persuade People That Selling You Their Jewelry Is One Of The Wisest Moves They Can Make.
By Hans Kracauer – Executive Creative Director (Copy) - The Idea Factory
Yes, the bad news is that the economy seems to have plunged straight into the cellar.
But the good news is that the economy seems to have plunged straight into the cellar.
Good news? Absolutely — if you happen to be a jewelry retailer. Because, very frankly, this can be a period of tremendous opportunity for you. People that possess jewelry are no different from anyone else. They’re very jittery about the future. And if they own gold or diamonds or precious heirlooms of any kind, they may be readier than ever to convert their treasure into cash. Let’s not mince words. Their state of mind could eventually turn into an extraordinary bonanza for you.
Getting down to — you should excuse the expression — brass tacks.
Okay then. Once you’ve hit on a “now’s the time to sell your jewelry” advertising strategy …how do you effectively persuade potential sellers to come to you?
Actually, there are a number of ways. However, each is inextricably bound to a single critical element: branding yourself as one of your area’s finest, most trustworthy jewelers. Perhaps you’re already known as that. But in any event, it’s a point that needs to be stressed directly or indirectly in all your advertising.
Here then — very briefly — are some proven strategies to persuade jewelry sellers to beat a path to your door.
Continued…
Posted in Jewelry Advertising.
Tagged with jewelery marketing, Retail Advertising.
from the future-buyers-galore dept
With captive audience advertising dying out (slowly, in some cases), advertisers have increasingly been adopting new strategies to convince people to buy their products. The automotive industry has often been the most creative in experimenting. From Lexus’ plans (nearly six years ago!) to let people make their own commercials to Lexus (again) doing a contest with TiVo to get people to watch commercials to BMWfilms to Honda’s famous cog commercial — there have been tons of experiments. It appears that Toyota (which, of course, is part of the same family as Lexus) is now trying to hook kids at a very young age — well before they’re driving. For years, automakers have been putting their cars in video games, but those games tend to be car racing video games (makes sense, right?). Toyota, though, is shooting for an even younger demographic, by dumping references to their Scion brand all over a children’s “interactive community” with the belief that it can (a) get kids to influence their parents’ car buying choices or (b) get the kids hooked on the brand at a very early age. In fact, Toyota claims that the effort is already a success — with the word Scion being mentioned thousands of times in chatrooms and “virtual Scions” being bought plenty of times within the community. Of course, you might also say that it’s a success in teaching kids that product placement should be expected absolutely everywhere — even supposedly educational community websites.
Posted in Automotive Advertising.
When the subject of marketing and advertising come up, most law firms instinctively think of TV ads, billboards, newsletters and the like – i.e. marketing tools that while effective, are usually expensive. These expensive techniques have their place, and when done correctly, can offer strong payback for firms that can afford them. However, not everyone can, especially in a slumping economy. Still – law firms need to aggressively market themselves, because competition is fierce. The good news is – there are several marketing techniques that are low cost, that can be used by firms who are trying to save money in a down economy or by any firm as part of a larger marketing program.
5 Low Cost Law Firm Marketing Tools:
1. eNewsletters
A newsletter program has an important role in marketing to potential referrers and past clients. Plain and simple, newsletters keep you and your law firm top-of-mind with the recipients – as long as you are sending them on a regular basis, and following some basic rules of newsletter production. eNewsletters perform a similar role. They also can keep you top-of-mind with referrers and potential referrers.
Continued…
Posted in Legal Advertising.