One of the big problems I see in advertising today, particularly on the Internet, is the believability factor. When I see an advertisement, email, or sales letter that sounds too good to be true, I instantly ignore it. There is so much snake oil being sold in the world today, especially on the Internet, that when I see big claims made for anything, I ignore them as being junk.

For example, today I received an email with the subject line saying, “How to double your business.” My instant response was, “yeah sure, BS” and I hit the delete key. Then I received another email with the subject line saying, “FREE CHEAT SHEET: My 10 Most Important Business Insights This Decade.” My response was, “yeah right, if you are such a business genius, why are you sending out spam emails like this instead of having a cover story done on you in the Wall Street Journal?” Delete.

Many marketers seem to think that for their advertising to get a person’s attention, they have to make huge claims about their product/service being the best thing since the invention of the automobile and that it will change the world. The problem with that type of marketing is, NOBODY BELIEVES YOU! People are becoming so desensitized to big claims that they ignore them.

So, as a marketer what do you do? How do you mark your marketing and advertising more believable? Well, first of all, stop saying what you have is the best the world has ever seen. It’s not. And even if it was, people would not believe you. Every company says what they are selling is the best, so there is no believability any more. It is just corporate hype and goes in one ear and out the other.

The second thing you can do is tone it down a bit. Saying you can increase a company’s manufacturing output by 6% over 10 months is far more believable than saying you will increase a company’s manufacturing output by 50% in a week. The first claim sounds like it could possibly be true. The second claim sounds too good to be true, so it will in all likelihood be ignored. Do not use whole numbers. An increase in profits of 6.2% sounds far more believable than 10%, 15% or 20%.

Another marketing tactic you can use is to include testimonials where your customers state how your product or service helped them. For example, “I bought the XYZ Widget from ABC Company and now my zipzopadoodler is not breaking down anymore and it is producing 3.8% more zibblyboos each month. Thank you ABC Company for making a great product I can rely on. Joe Doe, COO, Zibblyboo, Inc.” And finally, use brief case studies that prove quantitatively how your product or service has helped a customer. It does not have to be long; 3-4 paragraphs is fine. The key is that your case study is believable and not over-hyped so your prospects can put themselves in the shoes of your clients and say, “I have that same problem and it sounds like this product/service is exactly what I need.”

About the Author

Peter Geisheker is the CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm. Peter develops and implements strategic marketing programs for businesses of all sizes with a specialty in law firm marketing. For a no-obligation quote, contact The Geisheker Group marketing firm today. www.geisheker.com (920) 471-1638.

There are many benefits to having people walk around wearing clothes and accessories that advertise your business. This can really be one of the most effective types of advertising, because people will in turn see your company logo on their clothes and get more curious about what you sell. You will find that it’s important to take the time to make many different business decisions regarding which materials these promotional hats and other clothing items are made out of. More and more businesses are starting to turn in an eco-friendly direction to natural corn fiber materials and other fabrics which are good for the environment and cheaper in the long run. If you have started thinking about producing or distributing these kind of promotional products, then you will definitely want to take a look at all the different kinds of materials that are available for them.

Studies and statistics have shown that companies who distribute promotional headwear and give them to people who are essentially “walking billboards”, then to do better in terms of profits. It can be a lot cheaper than paying for an advertisement spot on television, newspaper, or radio. All you have to do is find people who are willing to walk around with your logos for a small fee or nothing at all if you happen to know them personally. This can be a great way to get the word out about your business and start building a customer base. Typically you will find that after you have walking advertisements going around with your logo or slogans, it will only take a matter of weeks to see a marked improvement in sales.

You can shop around at a lot of different places on the net for these hats and other clothing items which you can then put your own unique design or logo on. Often times you will actually be able to go on the website yourself and customize your order to look exactly how you want it to. You will want to personally make sure that everything is the way you want it to be, because the logo or design that you choose will be what people associate with your business when they see it. Taking the time to choose the colors and overall design is an important step that must not be taken lightly.

Switching to eco-friendly materials for your hats and caps that you put your own logo on is a good idea for many reasons, but most of all because it helps the environment and projects a better, more caring image for your business. Creating the perfect promotional headwear is all about projecting the right image and making your company look its best.

About the Author

Author Gen Wright is the Marketing Director for Nature coast. By purchasing Promotional Caps and Hats you will significantly improve the chances of your business succeeding. If you buy Custom Printed Caps for your business, you will find the profits will increase exponentially.

The only way you can get a new customer is to find ways to get that customer interested in your company. Great products and services are wonderful things, but if the customers out there don’t know they exist, then it’s a lot like that proverbial tree falling in the woods. That’s why having a great company brochure is a key element to bringing awareness of your company, its goods and services to those customers.But simply putting a brochure on the table at a trade show doesn’t mean a customer is going to pick it up and put it in their bag. That brochure has to reach out and say “take me!” and simply putting them in a holder that says “Take One” isn’t always going to be enough incentive for someone to do so. The brochure has to stand out. It has to be impactful enough that someone walking by that may only have a marginal interest in your product will want to detour to your booth long enough to get that connection.

Using color and graphics to catch people’s eyes is certainly one aspect of a great brochure. Making sure those splotches of color or pictures are impactful enough to grab attention is an important aspect that has to be paid attention to. However, there’s a lot more to a powerful presentation than simply having a great graphic or eye-catching color scheme.

Make sure you put quality information about your products or services inside the brochure. The ‘flash factor’ may make someone pick it up, but that information is what will cause them to keep it, and to use it to connect with your company. But don’t try to deluge the customer with every single aspect of your company or product, unless the brochure is designed to highlight only that aspect. Too much information, especially within the confines of a tri-fold brochure will cause the customer to put it down, unfinished.

Another important aspect of a good brochure is to make sure your company information is easily attainable. Putting contact information in two or more notable locations will give the client multiple opportunities to see that information, and it makes it easy for them to pick up the phone and call, or to type in that web address for more details.

Something else to keep in mind is to use a good quality paper. Let’s face it, if you use regular copy paper, or even regular brochure paper, the average customer won’t pay any particular attention to it. But if you use a high gloss finish paper, or a rag bond, then that will leave its own impression on the customer. Superior quality paper will leave the impression with them that your company is also superior quality, and that alone can be worth more than the words and colors used alone.

Creating a great company brochure isn’t as simple a process as one would think. But by paying attention to the details: color, content and paper, creating a great brochure is something that will pay dividends for years to come.

About the Author

In the marketing business, Andi Beark needs to stay on top of the game. She uses creative solutions with a tri fold brochure design to enhance the visibility and product images of her clients. Use PaperDirect’s brochure design and printing to maximize your company’s exposure in a big way.

If you’re still not sure what a podcast is don’t feel bad. You are one of millions of intelligent, informed people who are missing this piece of the New Media puzzle

Having excused you, now permit me to chastise you. All businesspeople should know what a podcast is, especially considering there are tens of thousands of them and their legions of listeners are growing. Podcasting can also be very beneficial to your company or you as a business professional.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, a few basics.

Podcasts are audio files, mostly composed of people talking and often including music and sound effects. They can be downloaded and listened to on a computer, or transferred to your iPod (hence the “pod”-cast name) or other MP3 player. The vast majority of podcasts are free of charge through iTunes, Podcast Alley and other outlets.

To give you some idea, I subscribe to more than a dozen podcasts that range from audio versions of TV shows such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation to Nation Public Radio interview programs Fresh Air and the Diane Rehm Show, to academic and business programming like the Harvard Business IdeaCast, McKinsey Quarterly Podcast and The Economist magazine.

It’s great stuff that will feed your head and keep you atop modern day events.

Podcasts are convenient because they can be listened to while driving, pumping iron at the gym, hiking, zipping to the office on the train, sitting on your sofa or dozing in bed at night (one of my favorite ways to enter the Land of Nod). It is this kind of flexibility that helps make podcasts so popular.

That’s one of the big advantages audio podcasts have over video – they require one rather than two senses, meaning they don’t require your undivided attention. You can listen to audio while participating in any number of activities. It’s probably not a good idea to watch a video while you’re riding a horse or trying to stay balanced on a treadmill.

All one need do is check out some of the organizations that podcast to realize its value and implications. There’s the legendary consulting firm of McKinsey & Co, accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and academic icon Harvard Business School. These are sophisticated organizations that don’t waste time on useless activities. Why do these organizations podcast?

Here are seven good reasons.

DISPLAY EXPERTISE. When McKinsey & Co. conducted its annual global survey of business spending on Web 2.0 technologies, it not only released a written report, it produced a podcast consisting of an interview with one of the research report’s authors. Another example is a podcast titled Connecting Climate Change and Economic Recovery, featuring an interview with economist Nicholas Stern. People seek out expertise. Demonstrate it and you will win customers and respect.

DISPLAY LEADERSHIP. Harvard Business School does exactly that with its IdeaCast. The Harvard Business IdeaCast has tackled subjects bearing the following headlines:

>> Use right incentives for Gen Y, Gen X >> Winning in a turbulent economy >> Redesigning health care >> When high performers struggle >> Is executive pay broken? >> The 5 leadership essentials >> Being a good boss in a bad economy

EDUCATE. The Britain-based podcast The Naked Scientists uses British humor and interesting topics to teach people about scientific and technological breakthroughs. It’s an effective and entertaining approach. Some recent subjects were:

>> Where do lost socks go? >> The diseased brain >> High altitude adventures >> Why does water expand when it freezes? >> Catching up with cancer research >> Building bodies and mending broken hearts >> Can you run faster on the moon?

PROVIDE VALUE. Grammar Girl and her brief 10-minute podcasts have become widely popular in part from publicity she has received in magazines such as Business Week. But she has sustained that audience by giving them valuable information pertaining to the proper use of grammar. She makes it fun and easy to learn proper English skills. And who doesn’t want to sound like they didn’t fall asleep in English class?

BRAND YOUR COMPANY. If you’re British Petroleum and you’re trying to position yourself as a forward-thinking company, wouldn’t producing podcasts about clean and sustainable forms of energy help immensely to burnish your image as a company operating in future tense? Podcast about topics that core to the company’s brand.

BRAND YOURSELF. If you’re the brilliant management consultant or life coach you claim to be, prove it with a weekly or monthly podcast with a snappy title. Consider how much credence would be lent to your reputation by podcasts that offer terrific advice and success stories about your own clients? Demonstrate your ability and your podcasts become testimonials.

CONNECT WITH KEY PLAYERS. Imagine you’re a regional bank that wants to reach out to key players in your market. Rather than your standard sales letter or cold call, what if you invited your target to be featured on the bank’s CEO Spotlight podcast? Now the CEO can share his or her wisdom and is likely to be flattered by the invitation. You get a face-to-face interview out of the deal and the start of a personal relationship that could be parlayed into a client relationship. The caveat, of course, is that no one will be interested in subscribing to your podcast unless you provide interesting and educational content. So don’t make the mistake of using it strictly as a relationship building tool. That will bore or offend people and cost you listeners.

About the Author

Mike Consol is president of MikeConsol.com (MikeConsol.com), which provides business writing seminars, PowerPoint presentation skills training, Web 2.0 strategies and media training. Consol spent 17 years with American City Business Journals, the nation’s largest publisher of metropolitan business journals.

Organisations and business enterprises these days strive hard to find and choose the best marketing gift that will match with the company products and also win the hearts of their target audience. Marketing gifts are usually selected from the range of useful and practical commodities of daily use and personalised with the company name and message and designed with creativity. There are a wide variety of marketing gifts that companies use to gift their customers and clients.

However, going by the market trends and reviews five quality marketing gifts that are popularly used are jotted down below:

Pens and writing materials: although it is a quite traditional and age old approach to use pens and other writing materials like writing pads, pencils etc. as marketing business gifts, they are popularly used by companies even in this century. The significance and utility of pens is all pervading and is used universally by all age groups and gender. Pens and writing materials are used on a daily basis to serve the very purpose of business marketing.

Calendars: calendars also fall into the category of traditional gifts but their functionality and usage in 365 days a year make them valuable and effective marketing gifts. A calendar with nice, colorful pictures and your company name and brand printed at the bottom remind your user everyday about you and the brand. They also get your contact information and can reach you anytime with ease. Calendars serve as great advertisements to those whom you never gifted but they are associated with the user thus building brand awareness and popularity and attracting new potential customers.

Branded products: many companies prefer using branded gift items and branded products as marketing gifts for getting more visibility and importance in the business world. Instead of using simple ball point pens, they go for branded pens from Parker or Cross to make their marketing gifts distinguished from others and alluring to the customers and clients. Likewise branded caps, t shirts and many other products are used as marketing gifts as a mark of show and prominence.

Gift Cards: use of gift cards are in fashion for the past few years and have proved to be very effective in attracting traffic. Instead of gifting customers and clients with gift items that will be of no use to them and will be thrown in the trash bins, it is much wiser to present gift cards. They can use the gift cards at their own will. Such a gift reminds the users more about the company and the freedom of choosing the gift on his own is liked and loved by all.

Wine and gift baskets: marketing gifts are not only associated with business encounters and business dealings. They are often distributed in the peak holiday season like Christmas and New Year. Many companies make the holidays memorable by gifting their valued customers with gift baskets full of chocolates or candies, dry fruits or coffee and a bottle of wine along with a warm holiday message. Nothing can be better than such a marketing gift in the festive season which brings in warmth, a personal touch and in the long run helps to build stronger business relationships.
For a vast range and variety of promotional gifts and corporate marketing items visit www.ideasbynet.com . You will get a fair idea about which product to use as your marketing gift that will yield you maximum benefits

Marketing gifts are usually selected from the range of useful and practical commodities of daily use and personalised with the company name and message and designed with creativity. There are a wide variety of marketing gifts that companies use to gift their customers and clients.

Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK’s leading online source of marketing gifts and supplier of marketing business gifts. He has taken the UK gift market by storm by the application of modern business thinking and the latest search engine marketing techniques. For more details visit www.ideasbynet.com

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About the Author

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