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Four Factors To Weigh When Choosing A Marketing Firm.

Feb

Businesses looking for someone to help them achieve their marketing goals must often size up a substantial assortment of suitors. There’s no real shortcut to researching a potential marketing firm’s capabilities, professionalism, body of work, roster of contented clients, and price structure. That’s where hard work and diligent digging are indispensable.

Once you’ve narrowed the field to the most promising candidates, however, there are a few key factors you should take into account before making a final choice. If they lack any one of these move on to the others, and don’t stop until you have a winner.

1) Chemistry. Do you feel a strong connection and comfort level with the agency’s staff? Effective marketing campaigns come from working closely with smart, talented people who believe in your vision, are passionate about your success, and become a partner in building your business. There’s no getting around it — chemistry is key to making great things happen as a shared commitment creates a mutually rewarding relationship.

2) Integrity. Honesty and integrity are vital building blocks for any successful relationship. It’s no different with you and the company you entrust to handle your marketing. Get a feel for their character and reputation by asking them for a list of references and speaking to some current or past clients. Also, consider any professional designations and memberships, and check to ensure they’re in good standing.

3) Strategic Thinking. A lot of people produce materials – logos, brochures, web content. But the value of the work is dubious if it isn’t based on sound strategy. A strategy-driven marketing firm thoroughly researches your industry, listens to your concerns, pinpoints your strengths and competitive challenges, and singles out the methods best suited to accomplish your objectives. With every execution, they help you focus your efforts where they have the most impact: Advertising the benefits of your products and services to the people who care.

4) Results. Eye-catching creative work can be a joy to behold . . . but a waste of money if it’s blind to the goals you want to achieve. Whether your priority is on increasing sales, generating leads, expanding customer interaction, or building brand awareness, never hesitate to measure a prospective marketing firm’s abilities by the results they obtain for their clients. Ask them for case histories of past successes and follow up with questions if you need more data.

When a proven history of results combines with chemistry, integrity and an emphasis on strategic thinking, you can be confident that you’ve found the right marketing firm. Seal the deal and let the win-win partnership begin.

FILED UNDER: Business,Corporate Culture,Marketing,Sales — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Good Blogging, Good Business

Jan

Good Blogging Good Business

A business blog can be a strong channel for customer engagement and brand extension. But with so many jumping on the blog bandwagon, being just another face in the crowd isn’t going to do the job.

Blogs are easy to set up, but getting them to work productively is a different story. There are various procedures and techniques that support success in blogging to build your business. Here are a few that can start turning your blog from an underachiever into an impact player.

Be consistent in your blogging. Blogging is a commitment: If you don’t make creating new content a priority, the people you’re trying to attract won’t make reading your blog a priority either. Posting once or twice a month should be a minimum.

Keep it concise. Shakespeare said “Brevity is the soul of wit.” That less-is-more philosophy would have likely earned him a loyal flock of followers in today’s jam-packed world of business blogs. Time is limited and many people are drawn to blog posts that give them something useful, provocative or interesting in a bite-size portion. Show us a long-winded post, and we’ll show you a Macbeth size tragedy.

Capture attention with a catchy post title. To get people to pause and zoom in, you need to seize their attention in the moment. “Getting In The Great Idea Groove” was the title of a recent AdServices blog post on productive brainstorming. We could have called it “How To Better Your Chances Of Generating A Higher Ratio Of Effective Ideas,” but the attention grabbing element wouldn’t have been very forceful.

Make some posts open-ended. To increase participation on your blog and the growth of an engaged community of potential customers, it pays to avoid writing every post with a beginning, middle and end. Encourage others to add their two cents by not having a tidy wrap-up or by posing a question. Sometimes the best conversation stimulus is to end with a simple “What do you think?”

Apply these best practices for effective blogging, and visibility, credibility and connections with business potential will be the returns on your investment.

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Business,Marketing — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Build A Stronger Ad Or Sales Presentation.

Nov

Tapping Testimonials

An effective ad contains specific ingredients designed to grab attention, tell a story, present an offer, create a sense of urgency, issue a call to action, and identify the advertiser in the prospect’s mind. Crafting an effective sales presentation follows a surprisingly similar path.

1. Header/Opening. A strong, attention-getting header in an ad, like the opening in a sales encounter, should tell prospective customers how the product or service will benefit them. It should make a promise to solve their problem, or give them information they need.

2. Body Copy. Here is where you tell prospects more about your product or service, explaining clearly and persuasively how you can help them achieve their goals. In a sales situation, this is the actual presentation part of the process. Should this portion or body copy in an ad be short or long? That’s a trick question. If the product or service is complex, and your audience needs details, a long explanation may be appropriate. If fewer words will do, keep it short, sweet and focused on appealing to their interests.

3. Illustration/Explanation. In an ad, an illustration or photo is a necessary ingredient. This can be a picture of the product, but it is usually better to illustrate the benefits of using the product. For example, an ad for an air conditioning and heating company would show someone enjoying their comfortable surroundings, rather than just showing a piece of equipment. When selling direct, it is the duty of the sales person to illustrate a product’s or service’s benefits with words. Charts, diagrams and bulleted messages can also be used to demonstrate key selling points.

4. Offer. A well-crafted ad or sales discussion often contains some special offer. It can be even more effective if this offer is good for a limited time only, with the expiration date clearly defined. You want to give your customer a compelling reason to buy, and to buy now.

5. Call To Action. Any good sales person knows you have to ask for the order. Likewise, a good ad should ask for a specific action. “Call today,” “Visit our website,” or “Stop by any of our convenient locations” are good calls to action in an ad.

6. Corporate Identification. In an ad, corporate identification is as simple as including your company logo, telephone number, etc. Sound obvious? Take a look in your local newspaper or a magazine, and you’ll see how many companies neglect to put that basic information in plain sight. In sales, you want to make sure that when it’s all over, the customer will remember you and your company. Without strong corporate identification, an otherwise great pitch can do more harm than good, by possibly confusing your company with someone else’s in the customer’s mind.

Include these six necessary ingredients in your next ad or presentation, and enjoy the three-part reward of a story well told: Attention earned. Message received. Sale made.

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Marketing,Sales — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Listen Up! Radio Is A Marketing Vehicle That
Keeps On Playing

Oct

Tapping Testimonials

While its demise has been predicted ever since the invention of television, radio, the oldest electronic medium, plays on. In fact, in a world of new digital media options, it continues to have a marketing impact that coexists nicely with the latest innovations and trends.

So how does old-school radio still fit the modern marketing mix of many advertisers? By delivering timeless benefits well-suited to the medium.

Immediacy. Many listeners are in their cars when they hear radio ads, and more attentive to announcements with a sense of urgency about now-or-never opportunities. Radio also has the ability to relay immediate messages in support of advertising in other media. For example, your spot can say, “See our ad in Sunday’s paper” or “Check your mail for our buy-a-dinner, get-a-dinner-free coupon.”

Targeting local audiences. Radio has reaching the right local audience with a time sensitive message down to a science. Auditing services provide demographic research to help you determine whether a station attracts those who fit the age, gender and lifestyle of your prospect. You can target your buys based on geographics, listener profile, time of day and program format.

Tapping into the theater of the mind. Free of the distractions of images or visual effects, radio commercials have an extraordinary capacity to capture an audience’s imagination. A creative, well-produced spot can draw listeners in, form vivid pictures in their minds, and crisply explain a need and solution with a sense of urgency that gets them to act.

Your key to success in radio advertising is to make sure that you target the right audience and give them a strong benefit and clear call to action. Choose your message, programming genre and air times carefully, and this tried and true fixture of broadcasting can deliver results with all the power and persuasion of the latest digital marketing tools.

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Marketing — AdServices at 10:00 am

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An Ad That Gets Results? Now That’s Cool!

Jul

Tapping Testimonials

It takes more than a bold idea to produce real bottom-line results. Advertising that contains the right elements can be highly effective for getting an audience to pay attention and act.

Talk the Talk of Your Target Audience. If you want to appeal to people who frequent upscale restaurants, your ad should describe “gourmet dining and fine wine,” not “hearty chow and cheap drinks.” Creating generic ads that don’t speak the language of potential customers is a common mistake leading to subpar results. Know your market niche and preach to the choir.

Promote Your Competitive Edge. A clever ad isn’t worth much if it neglects to sell the benefits of a product or service. Remember – getting their attention is only half the battle. If your company helps its clients increase productivity and reduce downtime, make sure to say it loud and clear. If you offer something of high quality for less money than competitors, make that value proposition a central advertising theme. Promoting a competitive edge is one of the keys to creating an ad that achieves the immediate objective while reinforcing the brand’s core messages.

Always Include a Payoff. An ad may be a work of creative brilliance or a thing of breathtaking beauty, but if it fails to ask readers to take the next step, you’ve missed the opportunity to capitalize on your investment. Whether the payoff is a call to action that drives someone to a website for more information or a phone number to place an order, stay focused on the goal and follow through with a clear statement of how you want an audience to respond.

Follow these strategies for building a more productive ad, and you’ll be poised to collect the coolest prize of all: new leads and sales.

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Branding,Marketing — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Tag, You’re It. How to Create a Memorable Tagline.

Jun

Tapping Testimonials

A tagline can be a memorable and valuable tool for quickly conveying your brand promise, differentiating you from your competition, and bringing a unifying message to your marketing and communications efforts.

Or . . . it can be an empty and senseless exercise in wordplay that leaves people cold and opens you to ridicule, rejection and hostility from men, women and children.

Now that you understand what’s at stake when doing the tagline tango, let’s look at some examples . . .

Good Taglines

“M’m! M’m! Good!” Campbell’s Soup

“The quicker picker upper.” Bounty

“Can you hear me now? Good.” Verizon

“Be all you can be.” U.S. Army

What do these slogans have in common? They promote the product or organization in a memorable way and make a meaningful promise about the brand experience. Now for the misfires.

Bad and Ugly Taglines

“I’m lovin’ it.” McDonalds

“When it rains, it pours.” Morton Salt

“No rules, just right.” Outback Steakhouse

“Every kiss begins with Kay.” Kay Jewelers

What do all these slogans have in common? They make statements that aren’t easily understandable, aren’t based on genuine strengths, and don’t reflect things that are important to customers. Oops!

So how do you create a tagline that lands on the good slogan list and has a potent influence on improving customer recall? Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Your tagline should be simple, clear, and concise and convey your marketing message.
Make sure it speaks to your customers in words and tones that are important to them.
If possible, include words or phrases that connect with your logo — words and images working together make the most powerful impression.
Once you create a strong tagline, commit to using it over the long haul. Changing taglines too frequently can impair awareness of your brand and weaken your competitive advantage.

One final tip: Never, we repeat never create a tagline that relies on the multitude of worn-out words found in a million sound-alike mission statements. While words like commitment, quality, service, and value may be effective individually, use them together and you may wind up on a future “bad and ugly” tagline list with an entry like “Our Commitment to Quality and Service is a Value You Can Count On.” Arghh!!

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Branding,Marketing — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Tapping Testimonials: The More Customers Talk,
The Better You Sound.

May

Tapping Testimonials

Today’s marketers use numerous strategies and techniques for increasing advertising response rates, but none can replace that tried-and-true power tool of persuasion: customer testimonials.

Real people speaking favorably about your product or service can have a potent influence on others who wouldn’t necessarily be receptive to a polished, calculated message crafted by a professional.

If you haven’t taken the time lately to collect and incorporate customer testimonials into your marketing messages, consider the value-added benefits to be gained.

The ring of truth. Testimonials draw their “juice” from the true-to-life flavor of real people sharing their opinions and firsthand experiences. Even if the wording is more casual or less precise than you would prefer, using the actual words of your customer will make a strong connection with other potential customers.

Birds of a feather. Just as people more easily put themselves in the shoes of someone they find sincere and believable, it’s human nature to value the opinions of those with whom we relate. Always go for as direct a match as possible in your testimonials and the audience you want to reach. Boat owners trust other boat owners. Runners trust other runners. Seniors trust seniors.

Revitalized features and benefits. You’ve no doubt spent some serious time fine-tuning how you talk about your product or service’s features and benefits. Nothing wrong there. But things take on a fresh new feel when customers speak openly about what that means to them. Because of the personal nature of testimonials, they can make the most popular aspects of what you have to offer come alive in a way that jumps off the page.

So how do you begin using the power of testimonials? It all starts by simply contacting your customers to ask what they think about your product, service or organization. Start building a collection of good testimonials. You’ll soon see how frequently they add credibility to your marketing efforts.
Read more…

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Business,Customer Experience,Customer Service,Marketing — Tags: Business, communication, customer experience, customer service, Marketing, Testimonial — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Corporate Identity: The Whole is More Than
The Sum Of Its Parts.

Apr

Corporate Identity

Many businesses and organizations use bits and pieces of what’s come to be called a corporate identity package. A logo. A business card. Maybe some letterhead with a passing design relationship to other materials past or present. But this fragmented approach never adds up to a memorable statement about what makes a company special.

Vision. Identity. Brand.

Your corporate identity materials should be strategically formulated, based on the vision you have for your business or organization. Every choice – colors, fonts, paper stock, and overall design – should reflect that vision.

An attorney, for example, would risk his or her credibility by using a cartoonish font and wild colors on business and marketing materials. Legal issues are serious matters, and people want a secure feeling of professionalism when hiring a law firm.

By contrast, a day care center needs to make a different kind of emotional connection with target prospects. While reliability and trustworthiness are still a priority, using somber, conservative designs can make parents question the creative stimulation their child is likely to receive. Here, festive colors and playful typefaces send the right message.

Branded Business Tools That Say All The Right Things.

Consistency is key in developing branded materials that reflect and reinforce your business’ character and personality. And brand identity doesn’t stop with a logo, business card and stationery. Every point of public contact, including websites, brochures, signage, invoices, etc. must present the same look and feel.

Whether you’re handing out one business card or doing a major mailing, the goal is to ensure that whenever people in your target market see your name, they instantly associate it with you and the brand perception you desire.

Every communication will then be more potent, as branding helps your organization occupy a special place in the minds of customers, clients and prospects. The final result will be a corporate identity that truly is more than the sum of its parts.

FILED UNDER: Advertising,Branding,Marketing — Tags: Advertising, branding, Corporate, Corporate Identity, Marketing Tips — AdServices at 10:00 am

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Postcard Power: The Humble Direct Mail Piece
That Still Hits Home

Feb

Postcard Power

Pssst … pass it on: The old fashioned postcard is still a force to be reckoned with in this age of high-speed digital technology. Here at AdServices, we mailed close to 10 million postcards on behalf of our clients in 2011 alone.

While each marketing medium has its strengths, the humble postcard remains a go-to performer for getting attention and results quickly and cost-effectively. After all, in an age of information overload, postcards are an engaging, at-a-glance instrument for advertising new products and services, and announcing sales promotions and local events.

The Craft of Advertising Copywriting: Readers Become Customers When Your Words Are Fresh and Relevant

Jan

"Meaning"

Consider the complex character of strong copy. One day it drives home its point with forceful simplicity. On another day, it scores with rock-the-boat boldness. Come back later and you might find it in a playful mood, making a good-natured pitch for an act of self-indulgence.

Well-crafted copy taps into the hearts and minds of readers and delivers stories and messages that make compelling human connections. When done right, it can inform, provoke, inspire and sell. But if your copy is confusing, uninteresting or just plain irrelevant to your reader, it will not only fail on its mission, it will make it harder the next time you try and get through to your audience. The craft of copywriting works essentially like this:

Blog

Four Factors To Weigh When Choosing A Marketing Firm.

Good Blogging, Good Business

Build A Stronger Ad Or Sales Presentation.

Listen Up! Radio Is A Marketing Vehicle That
Keeps On Playing

An Ad That Gets Results? Now That’s Cool!

Tag, You’re It. How to Create a Memorable Tagline.

Tapping Testimonials: The More Customers Talk,
The Better You Sound.

Corporate Identity: The Whole is More Than
The Sum Of Its Parts.

Postcard Power: The Humble Direct Mail Piece
That Still Hits Home

The Craft of Advertising Copywriting: Readers Become Customers When Your Words Are Fresh and Relevant

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