Using the Right Publications for your Adverts.

TYPE OF PUBLICATIONS.	ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES
Free Local Papers are daily papers containing editorials in the area and are delivered through the door.	These rely on advertising for income; they are cheap because there are many more adverts competing for space in them.
Paid for Papers Daily and weekly, local and regional; these are titles serving local cities and communities.	These are good for local organisations that wish to target areas where they have outlets. They have short lead-times than daily papers.
National Newspapers have daily publications, with a Sunday title or sister title.	Good for reaching large audience, readership profiles allow wide socio-economic targeting, they can be prestigious and expensive though with short a short shelf life.
Consumer Magazines huge range including publications for women’s lifestyles, music, health and sports titles.	Good for targeting special interest groups, high reader interest. Longer lead-in-times high competitive publications, expensive.
Professional Publications include particular professions and trades, from architects to pig-farmers, take your pick.	Excellent for targeting particular professional groups, they are kept for reference extending their shelf-life, passed round and round, read by many people.

Use the headlines of your advert to attract readers and remember that readers 80% of people will stop reading further at this stage.

When readers see an advert for the first time, their eyes follow a set route, first they look at the picture, then at the headline, then they look at the bottom right-hand corner, then they read subheads and body copy in that order.

Analysing Different Types of Headlines 320

HEADLINE TYPE	EXAMPLE	WHEN TO USE IT
A Direct Headline presents your proposition in a direct and concise clear form.	Mobile Service Vans transport lorries or bill boards etc	To present a simple message requiring little explanation or no explanation at all
Filter Headlines show the relevance of your advert by flagging up the target audience.	Attention to All Van Owners	To attract the right prospective customers and ensure that they do not overlook you advert.
Cryptic Headline attracts the readers’ curiosity but makes no sense as a stand-alone headline.	“Its what everyone is talking about” “What is it” “I will find out”	To hook readers and lure them to your body copy and providing you with an opportunity to persuade them.
Command Headline gives the reader instructions that cannot be ignored.	“Contact us today to arrange your cheap van Service”	To prompt readers to take action and respond to your advert.
Question Headline poses a query to which the answer should be “yes”.	“Want to save money servicing your car”	To engage readers’ interest and push them towards accepting your proposition.

Tips for Advertisers.

1 Give a small advert a heavy dashed border to increase its impact on the reader.

2 Appeal directly to readers by using the “first person” in advertising copy.

3 Use colour adverts to attract twice the mono number readership.

Using the Internet for Advertising 328

Nowadays everyone seems to want to be in the cyberspace and more organisations are getting on-line daily, so should you. It is very important that you create a Web Site that reflects your image. Professional web-designers can help to produce an effective Web-Site with pop-ups when potential customers use search engines hunting for you.

The Pros and Cons of Internet Selling

INTERNET ADVERTISING ATTRIBUTES	INTERNET ADVERTISNIG LIMITATIONS
Internet conveys a massive amount of information very fast	Freud presents problems for buyers and sellers.
Internet providers a gateway to new markets world-wide.	Buying on-line worries some customers
Internet enables instant feedback from customers	Hacking and viruses are an ever present threat.
The number of “hits” or visits attracted can be measured on the internet.	It is impossible to go to customers, they must come to you.
Internet is available 24 hours a day (internet, like business, never goes to sleep.	Not everyone is on-line; the world market is far much larger than on-line customers.

Use your internet site for: Interactive publicity; Customer support via e-mail; Maintaining relationships with customers and attracting new ones; Generating interest an you and building awareness of your products, service or organisation; Conducting market research; Selling on-line and providing product information and current availability.

Points to Remember When Using the Internet.

1 The Web should be designed to tour corporate image and easy to read and quick to navigate.

2 If your pages are slow to download customers will leave and visit those of your competitors.

3 It should be possible to return to your home page with a single click.

4 Including an e-mail link will allow visitors to easily get in-touch with you.

5 Register with directories to help publicise your site.

6 Maintain your site to keep it fresh, current, relevant and up-to date.

7 The internet is a proactive medium, customers pull out information that they want.

Creating a Virtual Shop. 330

E-commerce is a major growth marketing area because it provides a fats-efficient “open-all hours” way of selling. Once you begin to sell on-line you are entering a new world of marketing that needs internal restructuring comprising of management systems and interactive forms, order handling and tracking, safe and secure payment environment, automated invoicing and order fulfillment delivery systems.

Some products (those that need to be touched) do not lend themselves well to on-line, while others made for the net (music or software that can be downloaded direct from the net). You should consider how an on-line shop front (Virtual shop) will affect your selling channels.

Ask yourself the following Questions before opening a Virtual Shop.

1 Are our customers on-line or not and are our products suitable for on-line sales?

2 Do we want to limit our on-line presence to publicising of our venture?

3 Are our competitors on-line, do we have the skills to create and maintain on-line site?

4 Do we want to sell via the internet, could we handle the extra orders?

Developing a Marketing Strategy.

A business marketing strategy is a long term (not a one-off activity) defined route of steps to be followed towards a clear outcome. It provides an organisation with a shared vision for the future and ensures that you maximise returns on your marketing spending to boost profits.

Comparing a Strategic Managers and a Non-Strategic Manager

STRATEGIC MANAGER	NON-STRATEGIC MANAGER
A strategic Manager always has a clear picture of the future of the organisation.	A Non-Strategic Manager lives day to day without planning.
A Strategic Manager always anticipates changes ion the market.	A Non-Strategic Manager reacts to changes in the market.
A Strategic Manager always works towards clear long-term goals.	A Non-Strategic Manager has only short-term objectives.

To produce a credible marketing strategy you should bring together a marketing strategy team from a range of departments to assist with drawing up future plans. Involve people whose function touches on marketing and also those whose job involves considerable customer contact and the establish common ground by agreeing definition of the task and purpose of the group.

1 Start by analysing the present position of your company, products, services, customers, your market and your competitors.

2 Look closely at your current market activity and logic behind it, ask your self why you adopt certain working practices, are there strong reasons for undertaking marketing activity in the way you do or is it just a habit?

3 What is your marketing success up to now, what are your failures, what is your current market position, how do you compare with your competitors?

4 Build up a realistic present picture of your organisation, are you ready for the future?

5 Work out how long you will need to develop the strategy bearing in mind all the stages.

6 Map out the process of producing the strategy and set a deadline for completion of the strategy

7 Agree dates with your team for meetings and diarise them

8 Keep notes of the meetings and principal decisions taken and circulate notes to team members.

Create your Marketing Strategy along this Sequence:

First create your team; Review the current company situation; Set Objectives; Plan actions; Implement Strategy and Review strategy at regular intervals.

Set objectives by analysing your current position, then, specify your ideal future and modify it to incorporate current reality, define measurable short-term and long-tem objectives, seek advice from colleagues, modify and finalise your objectives.

Set measurable objectives like this: To increase our customers by 25% in 12 months.

Not to increase our customers in future without a definite time limit.

After setting your objectives: work out how you are going to attain your objectives and investigate constraints such as time and money and timetable of activities to complete your marketing campaign.