Comparison Between Promotional Items And Conventional Advertising

Advertising campaigns is very crucial for businesses to stay afloat above their competition. This is the reason why there are many entrepreneurs who use different kinds marketing strategies to increase their brand awareness. Although there are conventional ways of marketing product, many entrepreneurs have also embraced promotional items because of the many benefits that it gives them.Promotional Products Are Cost EffectiveAdvertising products like coffee mugs remain one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies that you can use to promote your business. Although they require more when it comes to the initial cost, promo items are very cost efficient in the long run. Once you give them to your clients, they continue to work for a long time by exposing your brand and company to other people. For conventional marketing strategies, you need to constantly run your ad to expose your business to your target client. With promotional products, you can promote your business longer as long as your clients use them. This equates to savings in the long run.Promotional Products Are Great In Passive AdvertisingPassive advertising is one of the things that conventional advertising cannot do. As mentioned earlier, you need to run your ad constantly if you want to use conventional marketing strategies. However, for you to utilize passive advertising using promotional items like coffee mugs and pens, you need to put your logo properly on your items. Moreover, your clients should also need to keep using your items to let other people see your logo. This is how passive advertising works and giving away practical items like promotional bags helps a lot.


Promotional Products Satisfy the Preference of Different PeopleIf you use conventional advertising, you limit your target market to only a few. The best thing about promotional advertising products is that they easily satisfy the preferences of your clients which mean that you can extend your target market to different demographics as long as you make your product generally appealing to everyone. For example, promotional bags can be designed to fit young and old clients. This is especially true if you are running a retail store.Promotional items like coffee mugs and pens are great marketing strategies that you can use to promote your business. Unlike conventional marketing methods, promotional products help build personal relationship between your client and your business. The thing is that most people today are not only looking for entertaining advertising methods but they are also looking for companies that will give them more worth clients.

Why Promotional Coffee Mugs Appeal To The Public

If you are an entrepreneur who is in need to boost your advertising campaign, then you should opt for promotional items. While promotional products are great in helping you achieve your goals, the problem is that there are many types of advertising products to choose from including pens and promotional bags. What you need to do is to look for those that are effective and functional. There are many promotional products that you can choose but if you are looking for one that fits your limited budget, then coffee mugs are for you. A coffee mug as a promo item is very effective in helping you achieve your goals. The reason for this is that it appeals to the public.Everyone Needs To Drink SomethingOne of the best reasons why mugs are great promo items is that everyone needs to drink something. Whether you use them to hold coffee, tea, or chocolate, you can use them to hold whatever drink that you desire. Aside from drinks, they can be also used to hold food. I know a lot of people who use mugs instead of cereal bowls to eat their breakfast.They Are PortablePeople always have the affinity for portable things. Coffee mugs are small so they do not require a lot of space in your cupboard. Moreover, you can also carry them wherever you go. If you are planning to use mugs as promotional items, make sure that you give them cool and functional designs so that people will like to use them all the time.


They Can Be CustomizedAnother reason why mugs appeal to the public is that they can be customized to fit the preferences of the receiver. For example, if your business targets young professionals, you can design hip and trendy mugs that will fit their preferences. When you use advertising products like mugs, you do not need to spend too much money to launch your promotional campaign. Moreover, you also get your ROI fast and revenue will continue to pour in for a long time.When it comes to choosing promotional items, you can never go wrong with coffee mugs. Although other promotional products like pens and promotional bags are just as effective, there is something about mugs that appeal heavily to the public thus if you are still contemplating whether you should use this for your promotional campaign, then you should by all means.

Important Considerations Of Brochure Printing

Before you start putting your brochure together, it's important to realize how important this can be for your business. You can't just throw anything together. Handing out this type of product is a market tool, which should increase visibility and improve the perception of your company.Brochure printing is one of the most used marketing tools used by companies around the world, it gives customers something tangible to hold onto and look through while getting an overall impression of the company and the products and services on offer.The first factor you are going to have to take into consideration is size. You can go to A4, but this may be too big, especially when your customers are looking to pop something into their bag with ease. A5 may be better suited, it's smaller and more convenient, but is it big enough to say what you need it to say?Most people choose the smaller size because of the convenience it can provide. You want to hand one of these products to your customer and know that they aren't going to throw it in the first bin they see. You want them to pop it in their bag, take it back to their home or office and take the time to go through it, hopefully calling you later to place an order.Many business owners will concentrate on what they are putting in their brochure and not pay much attention to the resolution. This is why it's always advisable to use a print company to handle this for you and let their in house designer work on the overall product. The higher the resolution, the clearer the product will be, this gives a good first impression to customers.There is nothing worse than handing customers a brochure that is blurred or has poor quality pictures. This is why resolution is exceptionally important to the overall design of the product.


Your next consideration is the paper quality. While it is probably tempting to go as cheap as possible and choose a lower quality paper, this will not pay off in the long run. It's always worthwhile going with a thicker and higher quality paper which isn't going to tear as soon as someone picks up the item.Remember you are trying to make a good impression on customers, if they think you've cut corners in your brochure printing, they're not going to have much faith in your company and the products or services that you provide. Think in the long term and pay a little extra for high quality paper which will last for a while, giving the customer the ability to hold onto the product and use it when they're ready to order.Be creative. This may sound obvious, but adding splashes of color and a catchy slogan are all ways to draw people's attention. The use of pictures, bright and bold colors and valuable information is what will bring customers back for more.Wherever possible use a professional designer. They are experienced in this type of marketing and are therefore the best people to put a creative and original design together that can produce results and help your company achieve success.Whatever you do, when designing the material for brochure printing, ensure you can identify your business. There is no point putting a fantastic design together and it has nothing to do with your company. Your company name, logo and slogan should be clearly identifiable along with your contact information, this ensures customers know what they are looking at and will get them remembering your company name.

Small Business Advertising: Understand The True Value of Your Customer

One of the major mistakes that many businesses make in their advertising is not understanding the true value of their customers.Look, if you are a new business, you might not even be aware of what the true value of a customer means or how it affects your business. If this is the case, you should understand that customers are like the other business assets - they have a value over their lifetime. When you calculate this number, then you'll be able to understand the customer's true value to your business, which, in turn, will help you grow your business more effectively in your market.While most businesses value their customers in terms of a current sale or the sales to date, those who understand the concept of a lifetime customer value are more comfortable with making the right investments in order to acquire new customers.Let's just dive into this further. You need to remember that a customer is coming in to your establishment or engaging with your business in response to an ad that you put out there. So, even though they may make a single or minimal purchase on that visit, presuming that you are a business that is going to be able to sell to that customer again and again and again, well that customer has more value than that single purchase that they made in response to the ad. In fact, they have a value over their lifetime.A quick side note: Many of us small business owners have gotten caught up in the whole daily deal online coupon craze. Sites like Groupon or Living Social have given us really inaccurate understanding of true customer value and this is something that I think has made it more difficult to understand what the true value of our customers may be.These coupon offers are intended to bring in new customers and introduce them to our business, but what we have found is that many small businesses have gone out there said "we're gonna give you a special offer for that first time you come in"... and there's a lot of window shopping. And the sad reality is that the promotions we're mostly misdirected at an audience of coupon clipping customers who will never come back to you. Truth be told, the entire daily deal experiment has not proven to be a wise investment for the majority of businesses who have used them.So let's return to our discussion of customer value, because understanding a customer's lifetime value will help you make better decisions about the value of your marketing campaigns... and this is a really important point that most of us as business owners don't consider.


When we look at the price tag and we think, "If I invest fifteen hundred dollars in an ad, it had better bring in fifteen hundred dollars in sales right away for it to pay for itself." What we don't consider is that maybe it brings in $600 or $700 purchases immediately, but those customers who made those purchases initially, will come back again and again and spend well over the $1500 invested in the ad. So we need to recognize that those customers have a lifetime value and that the only way we're going to get them in the door the first time was because we placed that marketing piece out there in public for them to see and respond to.So we may not have made our money back on that initial expenditure right away, but the lifetime value of those customers is going to far outweigh the expense on that marketing campaign. And if we design our offers to target people who we already know will have a better lifetime value, well then so much the better.The idea here is that we want to consider how a campaign positions itself positions our business and calls the right people to the right sort of action. So if we're going to introduce somebody to our business for the first time through advertising, we want to make sure that we set them up as as individuals who are going to be a repeat customer as a result of the offer they responded to.Understanding lifetime value of a customer is just one important tool in advertising your business. For a complete introduction to mistakes most local businesses make in their advertising... and how you can avoid them, download my free report at http://baeronmarketing.com/7mistakes. As we've demonstrated here, understanding a customer's lifetime value can not only help you make better decisions about your advertising, but also who you are advertising to, and what sort of offers you are making to them. Don't overlook the power of this simple concept in your next ad campaign.

Explainer Videos for Business and Apps

What is an explainer video? It is a short video introduction to a new product or a new business. These videos last for about 1-2 minutes and in that time they should successfully give answers to basic questions about a certain product or a business. An explainer video should, in a creative manner, explain what the product is about, what can it be used for and why should anyone want to use it.Imagine it like pitching an idea to your boss or potential investor, you only have a short amount of time, so imagine what would you say, how would you use that time to hook them to the idea. Sometimes, these videos can be used and created before the product is even finished, so that they can arouse interest in the potential customer base.For your start-up business, an explainer video can be a very useful marketing tool. You have invested some money into the production of an app or a website, and, naturally, you would like to earn some money. To do that, someone has to see your app on website before other apps and someone has to be convinced that your app is exactly what he or her may need. A quality made explainer video can provide you with a needed distinction.There are several reasons why explainer videos might bring you more effect than traditional text descriptions. One of the reasons is that an online video is much more interactive. They provide much more information in a quicker and easier way, because they have sound and video materials which are more likely to keep the potential user's attention. And we all know how Internet users have a short attention span. Another reason is that an explainer video can provide that your app can be seen, no only on app websites, but also in different media. One more reason why you should use explainer videos is that they can bring you higher conversion rates. Meaning that most of the mobile market users do some research before deciding to buy or download an app. Your business video can help the potential user to make the decision and download your app instead of any other. Because the video showed up in the user's research results and has managed to answer all of his questions about the product.


Nowadays, the mobile apps market is overpopulated with more or less useful apps. There isn't much room left for grand new ideas. But that does not mean you cannot set your app apart from the others. Explainer videos are the most reliable tools to do so, and to earn money.

Promotional Coffee Mugs: An Essential Corporate Gift

The truth is that no corporation has survived without the use of effective marketing campaigns and advertising program. If your work is related to corporate marketing, then it is important that you use marketing campaigns like promotional products so that you not only improve your brand awareness but also establish rapport with your clients and also boost morale of your employees. There are many types of corporate gifts that you can use to achieve your advertising goals but you can always give away coffee mugs. So why are mugs great gifts to help build your brand and boost morale among employees. Below are the reasons why you should consider giving them to your clients.They Are FunctionalWho in the business world do not use a coffee mug? The thing is that many workers enjoy a cup of hot tea, coffee or chocolate during the day to keep their energies up. Office pantries are always filled with aroma of coffee to perk employees up. Since coffee mugs are ubiquitous in the office environment, it is a perfect way to advertise your product and company.They Are SimpleWhen it comes to using promotional products as corporate gifts, it is important to keep things simple so as not to overwhelm people with the message that you want to say. And because of its simplicity, it is no wonder why a coffee mug is one of the cheapest promo item companies can use to boost their advertising campaign. This is the reason why coffee mugs as well as promotional bags are very effective in delivering your message across. Moreover, these promo items have proven the test of time and that many businesses can attest to the efficacy of these promo items.


They Are VersatileWith the simplicity of mugs, you can create endless designs out of them to fit your advertising campaign. You can design simple mugs with your company logo or create novelty mugs with quirky design to celebrate a special event of your company. Whatever design preference you may have, you will never go wrong with coffee mugs. On the other hand, they are not only used to hold hot liquids as they can be used to organize things in the office.The thing is that that promotional products like mugs are more than just your ordinary mugs. Just like other promo items like promotional bags, they represent your company thus it is very important that you choose this particular promotional item to achieve your advertising goals.

Digital Billboards: The Issue With The Future Of Outdoor Advertising

The outdoor advertising industry is ever-evolving. Digital billboards are seen as the latest boon to the industry, with the stakeholders hailing them as the future of outdoor advertising. The amount spent on different forms of outdoor advertising is increasing steadily year after year, and digital billboards are contributing to the GDP of economies around the world.Their esthetic appeal is easily recognizable, but there are still some concerns regarding the safety of digital billboards. The most often cited issues are the one of drivers being distracted by their huge flashing displays. The staggering amount of light that they are emitting contributes to the light pollution in the cities, making them the favorite new enemy of sky watchers and homeowners. They represent a sore in the urban landscape, some argue.On the flip side, they can provide a valuable public service when needed. The news of Boston bombings was conveyed by digital billboards turned into public message boards. For a part of public in Boston, that's how they have found out about the horrific events taking place in their city.One thing is for certain: digital billboards are truly eye-catching. You can't turn them off, you can't throw them away. That is what makes them a successful advertising medium.


Indeed, their exceptional brightness and advertising messages flashing and changing in quick succession must have a less bright side as well. Some cities have proposed a moratorium on digital billboards, while the other took an additional step forward, making them go dark until the safety concerns are addressed. Other cities, strapped for cash, embraced them wholeheartedly.Digital billboards are also known as electronic billboards, electronic signs, or changeable variable message centers. Call them as you will, this industry is never sitting idly: there is now the possibility for advertisers to stream their social media content on electronic billboards. The advertising message can be changed weekly, daily, hourly or in real-time.The cost of advertising using this sort of display medium is falling constantly, which means that they are probably going to proliferate even more in the near future. It is very likely that the majority of different static signs and billboards is going to be replaced with their dynamic counterparts.The question of paying taxes on digital billboards using publicly funded highways has not yet been answered neither. Since this is a rather new industry, the regulations are changing as frequently as the advertising messages on the billboards!

Common Types Of Media Production

The digital technologies are still advancing at present which is the reason why professional media production has been available for many people at low rates. There are many uses for videos for a wide range of businesses. Any organisation can explore their opportunities even better when they exploit the different types of videos and use them to their advantage.Videos are channels to distribute information more rapidly than printed content. There are video streaming sites that allow people to obtain the information they need on so many subjects and they are now accessible through smart phones, tables and personal computers, wherever one is.Below are the types of video production that are accessible at affordable prices at present:Web Marketing VideosIf you are a small business trying to make it above the competition, you can request a company to create an effective video for use in marketing your company, products or brand. These videos are then usable for sharing in social media sites, in your website or converted into DVD for distribution to customers. A company that specialises in making videos can provide the planning of the marketing message, including script writing and the different stages of production. This video normally runs at about 60 seconds to 3 minutes.Corporate Video CommercialsIf you are putting online content, you should not omit doing videos since they can be the best and cheapest form of broadcast material that can be comparable to the impact brought by television commercials. Shooting a video for a simple corporate commercial purpose is one way to cut down on cost in advertising. As TV airtime rates are too sky high, you have a better alternative with video commercials since they can be accessed by users round the clock, 7 days a week and any time throughout the year. You can be helped with scriptwriting, voice talents, set designing and directing when you can find a company that offers media production. This type of video can run at 15-60 seconds.


Promotional VideosThere may be a lot of organisations that have adopted doing promotional videos. You can request from a company that offers creation of this type of video for use in events promotion, and advocacy campaigns. This type of video can run at 60 seconds to 3 minutes.How-To VideosThis is one of the most sought after video production in streaming sites because it allows people to learn something, policies, safety, a skill or a process when they watch this type of video. These videos can be viewed again and again until one can master the knowledge presented in the tutorial video. Usually, this type of video runs at 10 minutes to about 3 hours. If long, they will be separated by modules so viewing will not be so straining for the learner.Videos For CeremoniesIf you are familiar with ceremonies, you will know that certain occasions will call for ceremonial videos. This is done to provide fun and entertainment to the guests of an event. Video runs at 5-20 minutes.If you are hesitant to choose which videos to do, consult a video company.

Small Business Advertising: Using Great Landing Pages With Your Advertising

For many small businesses, creating a great ad is a huge task on its own. But one very important element in promoting a business online is to ensure that you are using an effective landing page, where visitors are directed to after seeing your ad. Too often, the landing page is an afterthought, or it's completely overlooked, with many ads sending visitors to the business's main web page, which includes little or no direction about how they should proceed.So let's take a look at how to effectively create an ad and landing page combination network successfully together.Rule number one: Make sure there is congruency between your ad and your landing page. If your ad is presenting a specific offer, your landing page must also include reference to that offer in as overt and obvious a way as possible. Nothing will damage your conversion rates more then sending somebody from an ad to a webpage that doesn't make it clear what they are supposed to do next.If you are advertising ski equipment, but your landing page is about all sorts of recreational supplies, you're making it harder for your prospect to buy something from you. Don't make this mistake. If you've gone to the trouble of advertising, be sure to send your prospects to a page on your site that will make them feel like they arrived in the right place.Rule number two: Remember that it's just as easy for somebody to leave your pages as it was for them to arrive there. Therefore, you want to make sure to provide some sort of incentive for them to stick around and spend enough time on your website so you have the ability to educate them and provide them with the value that they're looking for.


Many businesses use their websites as a virtual brochure, but don't make it interactive. Unless your's is an e-commerce site, where visitors arrive already looking to purchase a specific product before they even arrived, you are better off finding a way to make sure that this first visit isn't their last visit. A great way to do this is to incentivize them to sign up for an email list, register for a webinar, or enter their email address to download an instructional PDF.Rule number three: A landing page has two responsibilities: 1) to continue the presentation of the offer the visitor saw in the ad, and 2) to capture the lead's contact information so you can continue the "conversation" with them further. Don't miss out on your opportunity to start the relationship off right by inviting them to "lean more" from you by providing their contact information.Landing pages don't need to be fancy, they just need to be relevant to what the visitor was looking for in the first place. In fact, the simpler, the better... with fewer options for the visitor to get distracted an miss out on doing what you want them to do next.If you'd like to see some examples of both good and bad landing pages, be sure to check out my free report on some of the common mistakes that local businesses should avoid in their advertising. You can get access to it at http://baeronmarketing.com/7mistakes. Remember, no matter how good your ad or call-to-action is, all will go to waste unless you have a strong landing page that is interactive and easy to use for those who have come to the page.

Advertising Is an Essential Part of Life

Imagine a world where nobody knew anything about anything or anyone. That's the world we'd live in without advertising. And advertising is deeper than companies making a profit, it's about being heard and understood by people who don't yet know you, brand or otherwise. At Footrr, we focus on brands and advertising so you make a profit. But that's only half of the story. You advertise your self and other brands almost every single day of your life.Remember when you had to apply for a job? You wrote up a nice resume, maybe even a cover letter, and submitted it to one or more places. You were advertising who you are. "Hire me because of what I have written", or more realistically it said, "Get to know me on this piece of paper; understand who I am and how I can contribute". That's advertising at it's finest! Nobody can advertise yourself like you.But wait, there's more! When you invite someone to a birthday party, a bar, family event, or some sort of gathering, you're indirectly telling the person you're inviting, "Hey, I'm going to be there. You should be there, too!". You've advertised the fact that you'll be there in a much more subtle manner.But it doesn't stop there! We are so tied in with the world of advertising that we wear it, we display it, and we do it proudly! Some people wear Armani clothing, Nike shoes (or maybe even Jordan's), your car dealership often puts a sticker on the back of your car or brands themselves with a licence plate holder - on your $20,000-$50,000 purchase, and so on. The fact is that we are so entangled with advertising that we don't notice a lot of it anymore unless it doesn't fit it, like a billboard on the highway. Would our clothes look as nice without a logo or name on it? Most of the time, yes. But you have to give up the prestige feeling of wearing Armani and displaying to the world that you are a person of fashion.


Without advertising, and proper branding (also very important), you're looking at a boring planet to live on. Pepsi is everywhere, and literally reaches every corner of the planet where people live. But they didn't acquire the distribution methods over night, it took years of advertising and growing they brand so more people would drink Pepsi products, so they could build a perfect distribution method.The fact is we wouldn't know about many of the nice things in life without advertising and it's many different forms. From luxury hotels to buying beat-up cars to buying Uncle Bens rice, Delissio Pizza's and McDonalds.

Custom Promotional Products Are Effective Tools For Branding

The art of advertising for products has been a necessary tool among businesses since time immemorial. Advertising new products increases the dominance of a company and edges them from rival companies. The increasing competition among mainstream companies has seen the rise of custom promotional products to build brand awareness among consumers and potential clients. The competition for market domination is so fierce that it is often termed as 'brand wars'. Most of this is seen among companies that serve wide populations such as food and drink companies, communication giants and technology providers. These companies resort to the use of products specially made to expand their brand. Promotional products used by companies may include:ClothingOften, you have come across clothing items branded in company names. They come in form of T-shirts, jackets, caps, wristbands, pullovers and scarves. This type of branding is the most effective as it reaches the highest number of consumers at very little cost compared to putting advertisements on television. Companies often give out these pieces of clothing as gifts upon purchasing one or more of their products. This is a big attraction to customers, since many want to be associated with a particular brand.Household itemsCompanies produce with specially made items for everyday use in the home. These items, which are heavily marked with the company logo, include umbrellas, cutlery, mats, wall hangings, and chairs. The presence of such items is a huge boost to a company's image and presence in the market. The more promotional items a company rolls out for use, the more it gains in terms of profit and edging out other similar companies.


LotteriesLotteries are mostly used by companies that deal with communication and technology. When consumers buy an item at a certain price, they are automatically entered into a competition to win a prize. The more products the customers buy or the more money they spend, the more their chances of winning the prize. Lotteries are the most common form of branding and the most popular due to the excitement they elicit from the public.EventsMajor companies act as the official sponsors of major social, corporate and sporting events. During these events, they sell their products and use banners to advertise them. In fact, all events today always have corporate sponsors who aim to reach as many consumers as possible. This is one of the powerful ways of branding, especially if the company puts up its tent within the event, where people can go to and learn more about its products and services.