89123 Magazine | February-March 2015
Your favorite Zip Code Magazine is now available online! Click here to read the issue now.
89074 Magazine | February-March 2015
Your favorite Zip Code Magazine is now available online! Click here to read the issue now.
89014 Magazine | February-March 2015
Your favorite Zip Code Magazine is now available online! Click here to read the issue now.
89012 Magazine | February-March 2015
Your favorite Zip Code Magazine is now available online! Click here to read the issue now
89052 Magazine | February-March 2015
Your favorite Zip Code Magazine is now available online! Click here to read the issue now
Blog: Build an Effective Advertisement – Get the Most Out of Your Design
It’s a new year, and that means taking inventory on what you’re doing right, and what you may be able to improve on. This can include cutting a few desserts during the week, spending more time away from your computer or, more tactically, figuring out better and more effective ways to get the most out of how you are marketing your business (*cough* advertising *cough*).
When you have a lot to say and short time to say it, you’ve got to be able to prioritize how and why you’re telling your story. This is no different from an advertisement. For many of you traditional advertising, like in magazines, is the portion of your marketing mix that reinforces your brand as well as brings in current and new customers with deals and calls to action. This month, I challenge you to take a look at the ads you have running and ask yourself a couple of questions:
- Is your brand name, logo and contact information obvious and easy to find?
- Is your Call-to-Action clear?
- Does your ad look appealing to the type of customer you are seeking to capture?
- What can you do to make your ad even better than it already is?
If found this article that has some great tips and tactics for getting the most out of your advertisement. I hope it helps as you work to make 2015 your best year yet.
Facebook Troubles? Tips for writing better online content.
For what seems like the hundredth time, Facebook is again changing its algorithm for showing posts in our Newsfeeds. This time, it’s given direct instructions on what kinds of posts will be shown, and what kind will be…well…completely nixed.
While we know social media is just a supplement to other marketing, we also know it’s a powerful one that helps you connect with your customers on a more personal level, that’s why we’re passing along this article from Jay Baer, the author of best seller Youtility on how to make the most of your social media pages with thoughtful, helpful and non-promotional content.
P.S. This works in your advertisements as well. Everybody loves good content. 🙂
Enjoy…
Great Expectations: A Fine Line in Business Branding
In this Yelp-driven world where reviews can spread like wildfire and have incredible impact on your business, customer perception is paramount… every time. This isn’t to say customer satisfaction hasn’t always been the highest priority, but if we’re considering the information-age and the abundant resources for one disgruntled patron to voice disconcert, I’m just saying our margin for error as a business (and as business-owners and employees) has gone down dramatically.
Something I’ve noticed with my clients through the years that makes the threat of error even greater is their tendency to set expectations too high. As a brand (and we’re all brands), creating larger-than-life expectations with your clients can almost immediately set you up for a failure that’s hard to come back from if you hit an issue that, while certainly not the norm, blindsides the client without so much as a tap on the shoulder. As I’m always looking for other resources that can help my customers find success, I stumbled across the article below that explains this kind of incident perfectly as well as giving some great advice as how to avoid the “Great Expectations” trap, and keep your brand’s reputation spotless without having to be perfect…every time.
Enjoy.
Great Expectations Can Be a Drag…On Your Brand
How Much Skin Should We Place in the Digital Game?
Sort of like when you read about the newest “fad” diet that claims you can eat watermelon for two weeks straight and lose 20 lbs., some marketers claim that going on a fully digital diet is the only way to create awareness and convert sales nowadays. But, is that the right way to go? Common sense tells us health and weight loss is a combination of eating right, exercising and other extenuating factors… so doesn’t it make just as much sense for a healthy marketing plan to contain a mixture of tactics to get truly noticeable and sustainable traction?
We’ve put together a few studies that show the importance of maintaing a mixture of mediums when considering your advertising and marketing plans:
- Does Digital-Only Work?
- Print vs. Digital Media: The Death of Print?
- Cross-Media study shows print advertising has highest ROI
So – next time someone tries to prescribe a “fix-all” in advertising, whether it be all digital, print, TV, think about it for just a minute longer. Advertising is within in the “Promotional” realm of the Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), and that “Promotion” requires casting a wide net. Don’t make the mistake of alienating potential customers by neglecting the media on which they spend the majority of their time.
Ad Inspiration
Throughout my career I’ve seen a LOT of advertisements. Some were good, some were dismal (I mean, really bad) and then there are also a few that have stuck in my mind through the years as examples of pure excellence in this industry. They were ads that made someone stop and pay attention and, most importantly, follow through with a call to action or remember a brand when he or she truly needed a product or service.
These are the ads we always strive for – the ones that “stand out” for whatever reason.
Since it’s Friday, and we all need a little fun, creative inspiration at the end of a long week, I’ve decided to share this article I found with examples of truly great advertisements. Note the things you like and the things you dislike (we all have different tastes), but most importantly note what you think is most effective. I challenge you to incorporate something you liked into your next ad campaign to see if it makes a difference in response. Next time I’ll share a few tried and true methods to test ad ROI and effectiveness but, until then, take a break and enjoy these examples of creativity at its finest.
See you around the neighborhood,
Greg
