Quote by Thomas Jefferson - don't stop advertising

“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” / Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, 1801-1809

Do you stop the clock when you are running out of time? Of course not! However, many businesses and organizations stop advertising, as they think they cannot afford it any longer.
How come that many businesses are able to advertise big time when everything goes well and they are in a good financial position? Once business slows down and they make less profit, the budget for marketing and advertising is cut. But shouldn’t you expand the marketing budget at this time?

Once the economy slows down, many businesses – big and small – cut their advertising. That means if you advertise now, you will be recognized much easier, as the advertising landscape is not as crowded. The chance of people actually noticing your advertising efforts increases. Maybe you are lucky being the only business in your industry showing consumers that you are there.
If you hide once your sales go down, your customers will not recognize you anymore and your sales will keep on going down. When your competitors hide is the perfect time for you to advertise and show that you are there for the consumers.

Quote by Henry Ford - Marketing like chicken

"Ducks lay eggs discreetly, on the other hand a chicken makes noise so the whole estate can hear. What is the result? The whole world eats chicken eggs, just few use duck eggs.“ /Henry Ford

Act like chicken. Make noise. Market your product. Without marketing nobody will see you!

How to make money with the World Cup 2010 - adjusting your marketing on major events

Every four years, there are some smart companies that are able to sell a lot of World Cup merchandise and products related to the World Cup for a lot of money - all with a good marketing strategy. These include not only companies in South Africa that earn their money with the many tourists who come into the country. Football fan articles are available (almost) everywhere worldwide and are purchased by customers worldwide.

According to the CEO of Intersport International, Franz Julen turnover from the World Cup in June and July was about 30 to 40 percent of the annual football sales - depending on the country and when the team is eliminated from the World Cup.

Products that are hot during the World Cup 2010 are jerseys, footballs and flags for the car. Also the flag that is attached on the mirrors of the car is enjoying great popularity in Germany this year. Annoying, but quite a sales hit - not only in Germany - are the Vuvuzelas. Those horns that make viewers think of a huge swarm of bees in the stadium.
Of course there are numerous other memorabilia, such as Hawaiian chains, fan hats, sweatbands, headbands, makeup, car magnets with the flag of a country, key rings, key chains, glasses, bags, stickers, cups, glasses - everything goes with the color of the country.

But you cannot only make money with these mentioned products. Even products that have to do with the host country South Africa are hot. Thus, supermarkets offer more wines from South Africa and also South African food during the World Cup.

As a company you should not only get the maximum revenue from the 2010 World Cup, but to also offer the best service to your customers - regarding football. Public transportation in Germany is a good example here: Hamburg's subway reports the scores of games during the World Cup on the display board and the German railway announces the scores on their trains. For non-football fans, this may seem trivial or even annoying. However, any football fans will welcome this service.
Other companies rely more on online services for football fans, such as animated World Cup calendars, projections etc.

Next time, think of mass events like the World Cup in advance, so you can offer special services to your customers, in order to differentiate from your competition.

Public Relations instead of Marketing

Utilize public relations instead of paying for marketing efforts.

Articles in the press are more likely to be read than ads. People percieve ads consciously as advertising and therefore are less likely to notice them. However, more people than just your target audience read press reports.
Additionally, press reports are more credible than advertisements, as they are written by (independent) journalists, wheras ads are designed by advertising specialists.

In an article in the press your company or organization can be represented in detail - including pictures. In an ad, this is more difficult and only possible with a lot of money.
Press reports are free, whereas ads can be very costly. With the right PR, you can not only make your firm or organization known to the public, but also your products and services. You get the opportunity to build a distinctive and credible image, which will help you gain more customers, clients or members - especially in the long run.

Ads on the other side might increase awareness, but do not build credibilty. But how will being famous help you, if people do not trust you, because you lack credibilty?

Make sure the media report about you and not about your competition. You can for example feed the media with material, such as press releases. Organize interesting events, to which you will invite the media. You can organize a run for a good cause, hold an open house in your organization or as a company you can support a non-profit organization (NPO). Make sure that all events support the purpose of your organization or your company's goals. If you support an organization, you should make sure that the organization and your company are a fit. It makes little sense to support a non-smoking organization when you are a tobacco shop.

Publish a short press release with a picture for every event you organize. It is worth much more when the regional daily newspaper publishes a note on your event, than any marketing in form of an ad.

Is marketing through social networks a waste of time?

More and more small business owners spend more and more time online with social networking. Is time spent here wasted or is it useful?

For sure, blogging, twittering and facebooking takes time - a lot of time if you want to post more articles than just one every now and then.

There are some things online that you can automate, such as the update of your twitter account, that you can set up in a way that it will show your latest blog posts or facebook post. However, communication through social networks should stay personal. That means, not everything should or can be automated. If you really want to start interacting with people, you yourself will have to answer their questions or respond to their comments they might leave on your blog or facebook page.

So why do businesses and organizations even have blogs, twitter accounts, a fanpage on facebook, if it is so much work to keep it updated?

They do it to draw attention to themselves, to gain more and more subscribers or 'followers'. Of course, as a company or organization you also want to sell. Either your product or service or your organization’s purpose.
If you do not gain any new subscribers, ‘followers’, customers or clients with all your efforts, then you are probably just wasting your time.

Of course it will take some time (at least several months) until you succeed with your efforts in social networks. If you are not successful, you should reconsider your strategy. It might be better for you to target your audience through other channels.

How much time do you spend with social networking? Do you believe it is a waste of time?

Facebook-Ads – How to create an advertising campaign in facebook

Facebook offers a very cost-effective way of online advertising with facebook ads. These are ads that can be set to be shown only to a very specific audience.

For example, you can set your ads to be shown to just 40 year old, single, male facebook users who have kids, like hiking and live in Switzerland. This example is very specific. However, you limit the number of facebook users, who will get to see your ad. The fewer attributes you set for your target audience, the bigger your target audience will be and the more facebook users will get to see your ad.

In order to advertise on facebook, you already have to be a facebook user. If you do not have a facebook account yet, you will have to open one.



Go through the following steps in order to advertise on facebook:

1. Log in to facebook with your user name and password
2. Click on your profile, click on “Create an Ad” on the right side
3. Now you can start creating your ad
4. „Design your ad“: Under „Destination URL“, enter the website that you want users, who click on your ad, to go to. You can add the URL of your facebook page or the url of your website. Under “Title” you should add a title for your ad. The text of your add can not have more than 135 characters and has to be added under “Body Text”. Under “Image” you can upload a picture for your facebook ad. This is optional. However, pictures can not be bigger than 110x80 px.
   The last sentence of your ad should give an instruction to the viewer, such as “Order now!”.
   On the right side you can view your ad, while you input the text.
5. “Targeting”: When you put in details here, you will see that the “estimated reach” will decrease. Remember that not all facebook users make all information in their accounts and thus may not be counted as your target audience, although they should.
   Under “Location” enter the country in which the ad should be displayed. The ad can be seen in the entire country or in specific cities (“by city”) and the area around them.
   Under “Demographics” you can provide information on age, gender, relationship status and languages of your target group.
   Under “Likes&Interest” you can add certain styles of music, bands, movies etc.
   Under “Education&Work” you can specify what education it is your target audience should have. You can even add a company or organization.
   If you advertise your facebook page in your ad, you should add it under “Connections on Facebook” > “Target users who are not already connected to:”. Otherwise, facebook users who already like your facebook page will get to see the ad as well.
6. Under “Campaigns and Pricing“ you will have to decide whether you want to „pay for impressions“ (CPM – cost per impression) or „pay for clicks“ (CPC – cost per click). You also have to add your maximum bid. The maximum bid is the highest price you are willing to pay per 1,000 impressions or per click. Just choose “Use Suggested Bid” – this is the simplest way when you are just starting out with facebook ads.
   I recommend you use the model of CPC (paying for every click on your ad), as this is more cost effective.
7. Click on “Review Ad”.
8. You will now see your facebook ad and you can also assign a name. This is especially useful if you decide to run different ads.
9. The costs for your ad will be charged to the credit card that you have already stored in your facebook account. If you have not put in your credit card information, you will have to do so now.
10. If you do not want to change your ad, click “Place Order”.
11. Under “Run Status” you will now see “Pending review”. This means that facebook is currently reviewing your ad. You will receive an email from facebook once your ad is approved and active.
12. In this overview, you will later on be able to see how many people have seen your ad and how many actually clicked on it.

It is advisable, to advertise with different ads with slightly different texts and target groups, in order to get a feeling what the target audience likes best.

Plan for recreation when planning your marketing activities

Recreation and free time are part of the life of an entrepreneur/freelancer, such as well as work. You do not have time for recreation? That is not possible! Without recreation there is no work.
People who who are just working around the clock, do not nearly do their work as powerful as someone who regularly relaxes.
Recovered and relaxed people can concentrate better and perform their tasks better. This was confirmed by a study of the Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany – even though you probably knew that already a long time ago.
Recreation and leisure go hand in hand with the marketing of a company. Only people who have free time on a regular basis can make good marketing. People who do not compensate work with recreation cannot be creative.
Go out, enjoy the summer and leave your computer and Blackberry at home.

Designing your business cards

Business cards are essential for your marketing! They are a cheap and simple way of advertising.

For business cards, there really is no standard format. However, there are a few formats that are common:

• 85 x 55 mm (EU credit card size used in Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland)
• 85.6 x 54 mm / 3.370 x 2.125 in (credit card size according to ISO 7810)
• 74 x 52 mm / 2.913 x 2.047 in (ISO 216, A8)
• 81 x 57 mm / 3.2 x 2.2 in (DIN C8)
• 100 x 65 mm / 3.937 x 2.559 in (with photo)
• 88.9 x 50.8 mm / 3.5 x 2 (business card size in U.S. and UK)
• 91 x 55 mm / 3.582 x 2.165 in (Japanese business card format)
• 90 x 55 mm / 3.54 x 2.165 in (used in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden)
• 90 x 54 mm / 3.543 x 2.125 in (used in Hong Kong and China)
• 90 x 50 mm / 3.543 x 1.968 in (used in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary)
• Fold-over business cards usually folded to one of the above formats

As paper, you should select something stable, such as 300 g/m² or 350 g/m². Thin paper is cheaper, but does not look professional.

You can design and print your business cards on one side or on both sides. The one-sided print usually is a little bit cheaper. You can just have something printed in black on the front side - the print shop will call this 1/0. Or you have something printed in black on both sides - 1/1.
However, I recommend using color. Either just on the front side (4/0) or the front side colored and the back side in black (4/1), or both sides in color (4/4). '4' stands for the four printing colors used: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
You can also use special colors - at additional cost of course.
Also, you have the opportunit to have your business cards coated with a UV lacquer. This is offered by most of the print shops now.
Another possibility, which is particularly common in the U.S. is the thermography process. Thsi simulates the more expensive raised-print effect with the application of plastic powder that is melted onto the card.

The font on your cards should be adjusted depending on the appeal wanted. Avoid using all capital, script or ornate writing - these are difficult to read.
Select a font size that is not too small - less than 8 pt can only be read by some people with the help of a magnifying glass.

Your business card should appear clearly. Do not stuff it with too much text. Do not overload your card with too much information, as this will appear cluttered.

If you already have a Corporate Design (CD) - a consistent corporate identity - you should also use it for your business cards. At least your logo should appear on your cards!

Important content of your business card:

• Logo
• Company name
• Maybe a short description of the company
• First name, last name, title, function
• Full address
• Telephone, mobile telephone number, fax
• E-mail
• Website, blog, facebook page

There are several possibilities for having your business card printed.
One way to print the cards is doing it yourself - with your own printer and special business card paper. However, since this appears unprofessional, takes time and is not necessarily cheaper than having the cards printed professionally, you should make use of another possibility: You can use a local print shop or an internet print shop. Mot internet print shops are a little bit cheaper - however, they lack personal contact. To find an internet print shop simply google 'printing business cards'.

Wasted money for advertising - quote by John Wanamaker

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half. /John Wanamaker, US merchant

Do you know, which half of your advertising expenditures goes to waste? What is the amount of your marketing budget and what is its effect?

How to create a facebook page for your business or organization

Online marketing is becoming increasingly important for small businesses, organizations and also freelancers. Marketing through social media is becoming more and more interesting. Facebook is the social network, where most users have an account. Therefore, you should also take the opportunity to market your business or organization here. The start is simple – just create a facebook page for your business or organization.

• In order to create a facebook page for your business or organization you need to register with facebook and then log in with your username.
• On the left side click „Ads and Pages“, click on „Pages“.
• Here, you click the button „Create new page“.
• Depending on who you want to create the page for, you have different options: „Official Page“, „Community Page“ or a group.
• Official Page is meant for businesses, organizations and artists.
• Community Page you create when you are looking for people to share a certain topic with, such as „Recycling“.
• For your business, you should create an official page.
• Here you can choose from three different options: „Local business“, „Brand, product, or organization“ and „Artist, band, or public figure“. For each option, you also have to choose your industry/kind of business/organization/person.
• Add the name of your future page and then check the box „I’m the official representative ...“, to facebook’s terms. Click „Create Official Page“.
• Now you have created your facebook page.
• Now upload your company logo or a picture of yourself. This picture will be shown as a profile picture next to each of your entries. To upload your picture go over the grey question mark with your mouse, click „Change Picture“ and then „Upload a Picture“. Now you can choose a picture from your hard drive and upload as a profile picture. It is best to choose a picture that is squared, otherwise parts of the pictures will not show.
• Klick on „Write something about ...“. Now you can type a short text about your business/organization/yourself. A few words are enough here.
• Up in the tab „Info“ click on „Edit information“. Add all important information on your business/ organization/ person and then click „Save Changes“.
• In the tab „Photos“ click on „Create a Photo Album“ and upload photos of your business/ organizations/ person. These pictures can be seen by visitors of your facebook page.
• On the left side click on „Edit Page“ to set who can upload what to your page.
• Click „Suggest to Friends“ in order to invite your facebook friends to your new page.
• At the bottom on the left click the button „Share“ to pust your facebook page to your regular facebook profile.

Of course there are many other advertising possibilities for your facebook page. Just try out a few things and also do not forget about your competitors. Every now and then check what the competition is doing facebookwise.

Your entry on Google maps

On www.maps.google.com you have the possibility to add your company or organization to the interactive map. This is a free service that Google offers and it is very easy to set up:

1. Go to Google Places and sign in with your Google account. If you do not have one already, you can create one by clicking on "Sign up now".
2. Once you are done setting it up, click on "Add listing".
3. Here you can put in all the necessary information on your company/organization. After you add your address, it is shown on the interactive map.
4. You can add up to five categories for your business. Click "Next".
5. Here you can add information about service areas, location settings, hours of operations and also payment options. You should also upload your company logo or picture of the building here. If you already have a video for your organization/business, make sure to upload it here.
6. At the very bottom you can add additional details, such as information about parking.
7. Check your address again and also make sure the marker in the map is in the right spot. If it is not, you can move it to the correct position. Click "Submit".
8. Now you can choose how to validate your listing. You can choose to be called on the phone you added before or you can have Google send you a postcard with the required PIN. Click "Finish".
9. When you go back to Google places now, you can see your listing and add the PIN to validate it. Here, you can also add more listings.
10. Make sure to check Google maps a few weeks later to see whether your listing is correct.

Apple's Marketing - is the iPad really that great?

Apple's iPad is not the first tablet PC. It doesn't do anything that other devices wouldn't do - and other devices generally even do it better: The iPad does not have a USB connection, nor does it have a keyboard or a mouse. The iPad doesn't do multiple things at the same time. However, you can hold it with one hand, put it on your lap or pass it to someone else. Typing on the device feels as if you were typing with frozen fingers, it doesn't even have a camera, but it has a nice design. The only browser that the iPad has is Safari and it doesn't have a system for storing data. However, it has one of the world's best multitouch technology displays. The iPad doesn't have a lot of features (not even Flash!), but it has great batteries that will allow you to surf the Internet for 10 hours with charging them once.

Apple's products are simple. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, but it makes it easy to listen to music. With the iMac it became simple to use the Internet. With the iPhone it became easy to carry the Internet, phone, films, and music with you. The products speak to the masses rather than thechies. This can be seen in the fact that Apple is more concerened with TV commercials than social media marketing, which would tent to attract techies.

Apple does not organize focus groups, it doesn't ask what consumers want. Instead, Apple dictates what customers want.

Apple creates new niches and dominates them from the start. Whereas rival Microsoft penetrates and takes over established markets in a brutal way. Apple's products consist of a mixture of different niche products. Also the iPad is a little bit of everything: some MP3 player, some netbook, a little bit of tablet PC and a some e-book reader. In fact, the iPad can't be compared to anything, because there is nothing comparable.

And anyone who ever bought an Apple product will have a hard time to escape from the brand. After all, those who switch to another will lose everything previously purchased or will have to pay a lot of money.

But which organization is actually able to get customers to stand in a line for a product that they have never before held in their hands, nor seen or used?!

The iPad is not a revolution - bbut certainly different than a regular laptop. It is well suited to consume content, but not for creating content. Apple shifts the focus from content creation to pure absorption of content and thus transforms users to pure consumers.

Effective online marketing

Online or Internet marketing is becoming increasingly important - not just for online businesses, but also to any other companies.

To run effective online marketing, you should note the following:

• Spend a lot of time on the Internet and try to learn as much as you can about online marketing.
• Take part in debates in Internet forums and state your website. This will help you to get search engine traffic to your website.
• Try to find out how your customers find you - through acquaintances, Google search, by chance?
• Define your target audience and align your website, as well as your complete marketing.
• Your website should be different from their competitors' websites. Do not bore your clients with information, photos or products they have seen everywhere else.
• Your website should contain useful information for your customers - about your company, your products, your services. Offer tips or newsletters to your customers so that they will come back to your website from time to time.
• Your website should show clarity. The navigation should be clear - you should give up using different levels.
• If you sell products through your website you should have a secure order page.
• To ensure that your website is found by search engines, you should have so called "back links"- links from other websites to your website.
• Try to find out which new opportunities there are in online marketing and how to use them.
• Hold on. Do not give up too quickly. It takes time until you are able to see results of your online marketing.

Starting your marketing campaign

Usually, the marketing budget of small companies is not particularly large – often it is non-existent. Therefore, you must be creative when it comes to marketing your company.

You can start your marketing campaign as follows:

• Ask your suppliers or partners, to advertise together with you.
• Take the time to send recommendations and buying impulses to existing customers.
• Think about introducing yourself to the local or regional press - possibly as an expert in your field.
• Invite people to your company. Maybe there is a concert in your city for which you can provide tickets? This might get you on the air in the local radio station.
  

While spending your marketing budget, remember to measure your marketing efforts. You can code your ads or ask your new customers where they have about you. This way, you will get to know which efforts work and which efforts are redundant and you can replace them with efforts that work better.

The importance of marketing according to D. Packard

„Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.“ /David Packard (Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard)

This quote by the founder of Hewlett-Packard is only partially correct. Today, many firms offer products that cannot be differentiated from others easily. Therefore, it is important how customers perceive the product. The perception can be influenced with the right marketing strategy, as well as the implementation of this strategy. The management of an organization should set this strategy together with marketing experts (internal and external). But consider, that the strategy will mainly be implemented by the organization's marketing experts. The big field of marketing is too complicated for managers, who do not have the experience with it.

Marketing and PR

"If a young man meets a girl and tells her what a great guy he is, then it’s advertisement. When he tells her, how beautiful she looks, it's promotion. If she decides to take him, because she has heard from others that he is a great guy, it’s public relations. "/ Alwin Münchmeyer

On the Internet nowadays marketing and public relations cannot be separated anymore. Beyond the Internet, however, many companies still have a marketing department and a separate PR department.
Through the Internet, especially blogs and Internet communities, boundaries between marketing and PR dissolve. Therefore, it is important for companies to recognize that marketing and PR go hand in hand now.

Word-of-Mouth (WOM)

Word-of-Mouth (WOM) is a very effective and also cheap way to advertise.

Many business owners believe they are not able to influence word of mouth advertising. However, this is not entirely true. Just think of what you tell others after going shopping at a place with outstanding services or how many people you tell if you had a very negative shopping experience.
Since there is a vast number of products and services, we look at what our friends and coworkers buy and what they had positive experience with.

With WOM, the customer is being influenced through a recommending person, instead directly through ads or commercials. A satisfied customer will tell about three people about his positive experience, whereas an unsatisfied customer will tell his negative experience about 10 times.

Stimulate a positive referral among your customers – for example with a call, asking whether they are satisfied. To get this far you will have to offer your clients a lot: your services have to be convincing and they have to be outstanding. Offer your customer a positive experience that customers do not expect like that. People who get more than they expect will talk about it. Of course, this works best when you define your target clearly and you know what they expect.
Take it serious when your customers give you negative feedback. Try everything to make it better so your customers will have to fight with the same problem in future anymore. Don’t forget to ask new customers who told them about you.

Count on the oldest and probably most effective way of marketing – as a trustworthy referral is better than every ad.

Your website

Most businesses and also organizations – even the smaller ones – have a website with more or less the latest content. However, a website alone does not do the trick. Why have a website, if nobody knows about it?

Here are a few tips, that will help you get more people to your internet presence:
• Print the address of your website (URL) on everything – business cards, stationery, envelopes, bills, offers, leaflets, cards, brochures, product boxes, ads, signs.
• Add the URL to your email signature.
• Add the URL to the text on your phone mailbox.
• Print the URL on t-shirts.
• Put the URL on your company vehicles.
• Don’t just put the URL – also add the company name, address and phone and fax numbers.
• Exchange links with other companies – add the link of another company to your website and have them add the link to yours on their website.
• Participate in industry-specific forums: give expert advice and add your URL
• Send online newsletters, which contain a link to your website
• Only send the newsletter to people who want it and make it easy for people to unsubscribe from it again
• SEO (search engine optimization) – have your website analyzed and optimized regarding to search engines (relevant key words, optimize text regarding marketing)

Quote - Henry Ford

„If you want to put one dollar into your business, you need to have one more to make it public.“ /Henry Ford I.

Differentiate your business from others

Think about what makes your business different? Why do clients come to YOU? What do you offer your clients that they cannot get anywhere else?

One possibility in order to find out is to apply a strength-weakness profile of your business. Here, you will list, compare and grade all strengths and weaknesses the business has, as well as the most important competitors. In doing so you can grade different factors such as the range of articles, product qualities, production, market share, location, services, expenses, profitability, quality of managers, staff turnover, research and development, distribution, supply with resources and energy, as well as the marketing concept.
For each feature you assign a grade for your business, as well as a grade for your competitors (such as your strongest competitor).
With this strength-weakness profile you will have the possibility to find out where you competitive position is.

A unique selling proposition, such as a 24/hour telephone service can help you to improve your competitive position. It can also bring you new clients, who will use your services instead of those of your competitors. Therefore, look closely on which possibilities you have to reach a unique selling proposition.