Sunday 11 December 2016

Advertising And Publicity

Advertising and publicity are terms which are often used synonymously.
Strictly, publicity has a wider significance. It includes all forms of
advertising and all activities which attempt to inform the public
about a business; this includes public relations.

The role played by advertising in the marketing activities of firms
varies greatly. Advertising can be direct or indirect. The object of
most advertising is to present information about a product, arouse
interest, build desire and get customers in a favorable frame of mind
to buy the product. Firms may have their own advertising departments,
but usually, they ask an advertising agency to help.

An advertising agency is an independent business organization, staffed
by specialists, which develops and places advertisements in
advertising media and assists in overall planning. The agency obtains
facts, plans campaign strategy and the media to be used. The final
plans are presented for approval by the firm. The agency acts as a
middleman between the advertising firm and the suppliers of the
advertising media, such as the television and radio companies, and
they are paid by the owner of the media employed and not by their
client.

An advertising consultant offers a different service. This is normally
a one-person business who, for an agreed fee, prepares the advertising
plan and dictates its general direction. The consultant continues to
watch over the operation and give further advice.

There are a number of points to consider in communicating to the
public by an advertisement. This should be specific, expressing ideas
clearly, and having authority and impact. It must be believable and
acceptable and related to the needs of the recipient. It must also be
presented at the right time. A person should be made aware of the
product or service, understand its benefits and be convinced of its
value. This should then, ideally, bring a response or action to look
at or to take steps to purchase.

Principal Forms Of Advertising

Below are the principal forms of advertising:

1. Direct Mail: Information is sent directly to prospective customers.
It can be used as the main advertising method. Mailing lists can be
compiled from certain directories and yearbooks, or the aid of
certain professional organizations, which provide lists of firms in
particular trades, graded in size and status, can be obtained.

2. Press: This includes all newspapers and journals and specialized
magazines. Payment is made by the vertical column inch and varies
according to circulation or net sales, position in the paper, the status
of the paper, use of color and so on. It is important to note that
readership is more important than circulation figures. For instance,
newspapers may be read by a few people, magazines may be read by many
in a family.

3. Posters: Sites are mainly in the hands of bill-posting contractors
who grade their sites according to a position. A bill-posting contract
is on a rental basis. This includes fixing, inspecting and renewing if
necessary. This method is useful to supplement a press, television or
radio campaign, as the effects last over a period. It also allows
concentration of advertising in a particular area, such as on
transport vehicles.

4. Cinema and Television: Costs are heavy, particularly on television,
but displays are live and seen by many in a favorable environment.
Consideration is needed for declining cinema audiences and their more
youthful nature.

5. Other methods: Special displays and exhibitions, such as motor
shows, local radio and trade journals.

Monday 5 December 2016

How To Launch An Online Store Instantly


Launching your own online store is a crucial part of building a business, but this may seem to be a very difficult task to most people. Whereas, anyone so ready and determined can actually accomplish this task in just one day.
You can successfully launch a professional-looking and functional store for your business within a day. That's quite possible provided you can take the appropriate steps in the correct order. There's no barrier to success for anyone that is ready.

Here are the basic steps to be taken in launching an online store and making it up and running instantly:

1. Get a nice design for your online store.

Getting a nice design should be the first step in launching your online store. This does not necessarily cost you a dime. Instead of spending so much money on web design as a result of engaging a professional web designer, you can make use of designs that are ready-made, but choose a very simple and great-looking design template that will reflect your product quality and attract potential customers. Placing a lot of links, animations and banners may be good, but this causes a lot of distractions for potential buyers since the main purpose is to introduce and sell products to the people. Just make a simple and decent design as well as upload product images on all of your pages. This will help in directing buyers' attention to the main focus.

2. Upload Quality Content.

Once your store is well designed, the next line of action is to load it with quality and informative articles. Apart from filling out content for the various pages in your store, you must also add some extra text links to your site. These text links may include the homepage, frequently asked questions, registration, and others. If you don't know how to do these, you can contact web design companies. Their own job is to help you design your website to make it look great and professional. They can also help you accomplish all these in no time. With or without this, your store can still be up and running.

In as much as you can always log into your store control center, you may regularly check for punctuation marks ensuring that they are properly observed across the whole content. Doing this regularly will help you correct a lot of grammatical mistakes which can affect your site search engine visibility score.

3. Upload products and create buttons for ordering products.

Now that your store is live on the web, you can upload several products which can be physical products or digital products. For potential buyers to be able to buy directly from your store, you need to create payment buttons at the bottom of your pages. After making payment through the site, a link that will bring customers back to the site must be created and enabled as well.

When these steps are perfectly taken, it is high time you started the various marketing plans that will make those products sell fast. In the meantime, you can keep improving and develop your store. You will launch an online store for your business successfully by carefully observing these simple steps. You can do your searching properly on the various marketing plans that will help in selling your products normally by using the search engines.