Raw 04 - December 2008 - (Page 52)

RAW ALEXANDER DAVIS Advertising works doesn’t it? Well the old saying is that 50% of it works – but which 50%? his is the quandary most businesses come across, be they large conglomerates or SMEs. Despite what most marketing, PR or advertising gurus will tell you, there is only one 100% effective form of advertising: ³Word of mouth,² the good old recommendation from someone who has used your services in the past, which is not a great help if you are a start-up. So what else is there to get your product or service noticed? PR, media advertising in its various forms, joining various business associations, all can work if you can afford to spend enough and/or have the time and personality to get your message over, either face-to-face or online. Just be practical and have a basic understanding of the market you are targeting. Who wants/needs your services/product? Is it better than anything else available in your catchment area? Is the price right? Once you have these basics under your belt you can start thinking about how you are going to get in front of the decision makers and let them know T that they need you in their life. The easiest and in many respects the cheapest form of advertising is PR. Depending on your market place, it can take the form of a circular to the local press, or to a b2b journal associated with your target audience. Of course it will need to have something of interest in it! A local garage owner has associated his self with a breast cancer charity and sponsored a fashion evening to help raise funds. He got his company¹s name and interviews on local TV, radio and in the local press. The evening was a great success, and subsequently he has had a 50% increase in enquiries from the female section of the population. Next come mail shots. Find out who the decision maker is it s often the secretary not the boss. People like the personal touch, follow up with a phone call and keep it light and don¹t be pushy, a friendly call makes more of a positive impression and at least it leaves it open for a follow up phone call a month or so down the line. The most common form of advertising is in the local press. This can prove to be very hit and miss - you have to design your advert to get the maximum impact from the smallest of spaces, usually in mono with a printing process that acts like blotting paper and if there is colour it looks like someone has wiped the pavement outside the local curry house with it. Obviously this is a tongue in cheek generalisation of local papers, some are worse. Monthly glossy county lifestyle magazines have become popular throughout the country over the last couple of years, either as FOC¹s from your local supermarket or paid for from newsagents. With circulation figures bandied about from 5k up to 50k, some actually work; they do tend to hang around gathering dust in allsorts of odd places. Never take the rate card figure as gospel; there is always room for manoeuvre. That salesperson has a target to meet, so negotiate. 52 millionimpossible.com http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 04 - December 2008

Raw 04 - December 2008 Contents Imran Hakim Linda Klassen Brown Bradley Chapman Heidi Weir Colin Stroud Emma Thompson Raw Business Have a Care JPR Mortages TLB Events Alexander Davis

Raw 04 - December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.