Are You Giving the Answer to a Problem?

Life is full of problems both big and small. Many of these are just little inconveniences in life that people get used to. You just don't really think about it anymore, and because of that, you can be given a pleasant surprise when you find a solution to it.

This should be the goal of any good marketing. The more you know about your customers the more of their problems you'll be able to pinpoint and provide potential solutions for.

One type of product I've noticed that seems to do this particularly well are various tools for home improvement. A trademark of most commercials for these kinds of products is that they go briefly through a number of different ways you can use their product around the house. Many of these are ways I would've never actually thought of myself, but once they mention it the light clicks on and I realize that it really could make things a lot easier.

This is exactly what your marketing needs to be able to do as well. Often this doesn't have to be something large, either. Even small conveniences can do wonders to sell a product.

Think about something like this the next time you do postcard printing. Try to find something your product can do to make a person's life easier, something you're sure that every one of your customers will want.

Now, you make this the focus of your postcard printing. Be sure that each postcard takes this message and focuses on it. The fact that people are going to be looking at your postcard while standing in their home can add a lot of weight to an approach like this. When they pick up your postcard and read through it you want them to then glance around their house and think to themselves that they really could use your product to make things easier.

Try out your postcards on some sample groups and ask them what the first thing is that comes to mind. This is one of the best ways to find out if your postcard is hitting on just the right kind of message. If people immediately think about the different ways your product can help them out than you know you're on the right track.

A format like this can work for just about any kind of advertising. Brochures give you a chance to list more than one way your product can help, just as posters can be put up in locations where people can then easily buy your product once you have their interest.

Just remember that if you can give people a good reason why their life would be better with your help, you've made the best first step towards ensuring their interest in the future.

Plumbers - Learn How to Test Your Yellow Pages Advertising

You need to test your Yellow Pages ad to evaluate if it is successful or not and to see if it is worth spending the money on continual advertising year in year out. Advertising in the Yellow Pages is a year long plan and you need see if your ad is working over that year.

A good method of assessing how many calls you are receiving from your advert in the Yellow Pages is by having a bespoke telephone number in the ad so you will know that any calls received to this number have come through as an upshot of someone looking at your Yellow Pages ad. These calls need to be accurately logged and the subsequent inquiries tracked so you know how many jobs actually come through as a result of your original advert.

When you have measured your results you will be in a position to judge how you want to progress with your advertising in the next year.

You will clearly put a stop to any advertising that is not a success but if your advertising is effective you can obviously test other aspects in the subsequent year. You could try having an additional advert in another category and you could try the unique phone number method of testing in each ad to measure how each advert is working.

Using this kind of testing is really a win/win situation. If you consider the fact that if you have an advert that is not working, but you know it is not working, you are obviously not going to waste money doing the same thing again and you can utilise the money saved on other types of advertising and marketing that are bringing in revenue.

LED Signs - How to Select the Best Size For Your Location

LED signs are available in an overwhelming number of sizes. How do you determine which size will be most effective in your location? Imagine the disappointment and frustration that occurs when a new sign is installed and it turns out that the letters are too small for viewers to read? Or the letters are big enough, but there isn't enough room on the display area for a complete message. So passers by only see part of what you want them to read. Understanding Viewing Distance, Character Height, Pixel Matrix and Resolution (or Pitch) will help you make an informed decision.

Viewing Distance is considered the number one factor in determining the size of LED sign you need. In addition to the actual distance between the sign and your target audience, it is important to consider how they will view the sign. Will they be walking/ standing or driving by? If driving, what is the speed of traffic? The answers to these questions will determine which Character Height will be most effective in your location.

The recommended rule of thumb is that the height of the characters/letters/text on your sign must be 1" for every 30 feet of viewing distance. The maximum acceptable distance is 50' per 1" of letter height. In other words, if you will be standing 150 feet away from a street level sign, the letters need to be 6" tall using the conservative recommended rule of thumb. Should your sign be located on a highway, 600 feet from vehicles passing at 55 mph, the letters would need to be 20" tall.

Beyond the height of the letters, it is important to consider the number of lines of text and the number of letters that will fit across the width of the display area. This will determine whether your audience will be able to read your entire message before passing by. Not to worry. The LED Pixel Matrix is designed to tell you what you need to know.

An LED Pixel Matrix indicates how many rows of text your sign will display and how many characters will fit across the display area. Pixel Matrix is determined by multiplying the number of pixels vertically by the number of pixels horizontally. For instance, a Pixel Matrix of 16x80 means the display area consists of 16 vertical rows of pixels and 80 horizontal rows.

The number of vertical rows will determine the number of lines of text your sign will display. An LED display requires 7 pixels x 5 pixels to display Standard English characters. For multiple lines of text, an eighth row is required to separate the lines. Therefore, an LED sign with 16 pixel rows will display 2 lines of text, a sign with 24 pixel rows will display 3 lines of text, 32 pixel rows will display 4 lines, and so on.

Equally important are the number of characters that will be displayed across the sign at one time. Six pixel columns are required to display each Standard English character. A sign with 64 pixel columns will display 10 characters across, 80 pixel columns will display 13 characters, etc.

To sum it all up, KC McCay, a Senior Product Manager for a leading national LED sign distributor, states "I'd make one big recommendation...The most critical thing that people are not understanding is letters, lines, and the number of letters per line. The primary goal is to get messages out. One or two lines of 8 letters per line is not enough. You need a minimum of 3 lines of the most appropriate letter size...with a minimum of 14 characters per line. Most local and several national companies are selling 1 and 2 line limited LED signs...and people don't realize that they are getting ripped off."

Finally, don't overlook the Resolution, also referred to as Pitch, when determining the best type of LED sign for your location. Resolution is the degree of sharpness and clarity of a displayed image and it is a factor that will greatly affect the price of the sign. Higher Resolution means more diodes and more circuits, which usually means a higher cost. The total Resolution of a sign is determined by the Pitch: The measurement between pixels. A pixel can be composed of one single diode or a cluster of many diodes running off the same circuit. In such cases, the distance from the center of one diode to the center of another diode (usually stated in millimeters) determines the Pitch. The smaller the Pitch number, the higher the resolution. Longer viewing distances require less resolution while shorter viewing distances require higher resolution.

Beyond these tips, you can avoid disappointment and frustration, or as KC said, "getting ripped off", by consulting with an experienced sign professional to consider all of the variables effecting your unique situation. Be sure to ask for testimonials from satisfied customers and if possible, view some signs that they have provided in your area.

Christmas Signage With Vinyl Banner Printing

Christmas is the season for giving, hence the best time to put items on sale. But with everyone rushing to the stores, and every store offering discounted goods, it's a challenge to draw as many customers as possible.

You can tidy and vamp up your window displays but advertising reinforcement beyond the premises of your store could spell a significant difference. Vinyl banner printing presents a good collaborative tool that would easily complement your store's theme.

Outdoor display

Vinyl banners are rapidly dominating the outdoor marketing realm with its unique properties that easily overshadow traditional advertising means.

1. Inexpensive

Tough economic times call for cost-cutting. And this is precisely why banner printing is gaining popularity. You get sharp graphics and even images printed with vivid results. You see details clearly even from a certain distance. It is a bargain deal considering the quality you get for the price you pay.

With vinyl banners, you can also get something positive out of the Christmas rush and bumper to bumper traffic. Get good audience exposure in busy streets and areas heavily populated with shoppers. Maximum coverage at a small price is certainly a winning combination.

2. Durable

Vinyl banner is made using durable and resilient synthetic material which is many times studier than regular poster paper. With this quality, you can even reuse your vinyl banners the following Christmas season.

3. Water-resistant

Another advantageous property of vinyl banners is that it is water resistant. They have longer life than conventional materials such as paper and cloth streamers which easily absorb water when exposed to rain and other weather elements.

4. Fade-resistant

Texts, graphics and images can last better on vinyl banners even with prolonged contact with extreme light sources like the sun and direct spotlights.

5. Orientation options

Your banner ads can have a vertical or horizontal orientation so you can make a display that perfectly suits the location. If you have a long space on the exterior of a building that goes straight down, you can simply opt for a vertical ad. Should you need a regular-looking banner, you can request for one that has a horizontal orientation.

6. Easy to hang

You no longer have to worry about poking holes on the edges of your vinyl banner. Each piece comes with metal eyelets called grommets. These grommets are positioned on all four corners of your banner to make hanging fast and easy. They can help keep the banner suspended without cutting through the material, an unfortunate possibility with other materials when they can no longer hold the weight or when strong winds pass by.

For very long or very wide banner displays, you may request for additional grommets on the sides to support the weight of the banner.

If you are bent on getting posters, or using postcards for direct mailing this Christmas, go ahead. But do consider using vinyl banners as well. It is good to have a marketing material to addresses personal correspondence, another for large format indoor displays, and of course, one that would attract attention from outside your store - one that is perfect for outdoors.

Seven Steps to Signs That Pay

1. SIGNS YOU CAN'T AFFORD

Often business people buy signs as an afterthought. They wait until their budget is nearly cleaned out and attempt to get away with buying the cheapest sign they can get away with. These are signs you can't afford. If you are not confident that your new sign will pay for itself then your are about to waste your money.

The purpose of a sign is to attract new customers, brand your site in the minds of consumers and create impulse sales. A sign is often the only visible cue that a business exists! Therefore, it should be the predominant feature of your building.

Consider the case of Frenchy's Bistro opened by a husband and wife in the mid-1990's. It is located on a four-lane road with lots of traffic in Southern California. After healthy growth, revenues leveled off at $250 thousand and wouldn't budge. They attracted a local clientele from the immediate neighborhood and were known as "that restaurant next to the paint store." Their signage was so poor that they were not bringing in hungry passing motorists.

A friend suggested a better sign. They selected a V-shaped sign, internally illuminated, to mount to the side of their building. The result? Their sales grew 16% in the first year. Sales in the second increased 32%. By the forth year, they expanded into a space next door and grew a total of 322% or over $823,000.

TIP # 1 Spend time and money to ensure you have a sign that makes a positive impression on your marketplace. Your sign should be conspicuous, reflective of your company's look and feel, and remain easy for your customer to recall.

2. MARKETING 101

Your signage should be your first consideration in your marketing and promotion plan. Why? Consider these facts: since 1997, a group of 488 Southern California businesses collectively polled their 7,200 first-time customers asking how they found out about them. Here are the results:

Your Sign 46%
Word of Mouth 38%
Newpaper Ads 7%
Yellow Pages 6%
Radio Commercial 2%
Television Commercial 1

• Signtronix Survey, 2003

Clearly two conclusions jump out: their signs were effectively speaking to potential customers and signs are the most effective form of advertising for the small and independent business person.

TIP #2 Don't be so concerned about how much you can save on a sign, but how you can bring in more paying customers.

3. WHAT'S YOUR SIGN?

Your sign should be sufficient height and size without being obscured by objects such as trees, lampposts and so on. Its content, both text and logo, must be legible. It must stand out from its background. Keep this chart in mind when selecting the size of your sign(s):

Speed of traffic Legibility Distance Size of Letters Needed
(height)
55 mph 440' 12"
50 mph 400' 10"
45 mph 360' 9"
40 mph 320' 8"
35 mph 280' 6"
30 mph 240 4"
25 mph 200' 3"

TIP #3 A sign has less than two seconds to capture a consumer's attention.
Consider simple and direct messages, highly visible letters, easy to read type styles, illumination and contrasting colors. Most readable background colors are white and yellow. Most readable letters are black, dark blue and red. Use of a border can help your viewer absorb your information 26% faster.

4. AVOID TMI AND TMM.

That's "too much information" and "too many messages." We are barraged by thousands of messages daily. Not only have we become good at absorbing lots of data, we are good at tuning out obnoxious messages. Often a good, crisp presentation is best. You don't need to inform your clientele of everything you can do, you just want to capture their interest to the point that they come in. Maximum should be three to five words. Leave 30 - 40% of your sign area blank.

TIP #4 Distill your message to where you make your point with as few words as possible. If you can't fit your message on a bumper sticker, you have too many words.

5. SIGNS AND THEIR SETTING

A well-placed and attractive sign communicates to your ideal clientele the true flavor of your business. Well designed indoor signage reinforces your image. Sure you want to stand out from the crowd, but be sure to temper the information above by maintaining harmony with your setting. You don't want to look like a pair of brown shoes in a tuxedo store! Consider the other signs near your business. Some of the beach communities prefer sand-blasted wood signs. Some areas featuring lots of restaurants will be predominated by lighted dimensional signs. Often you can stand out by having a simple but elegant sign, a great design or materials no one else is using.

TIP #5 Select a design that reflects the key strength of your company that your customers most value. Use an outside designer or good sign company to help you achieve this.

6. SIGNS AND THE CITY

Now that you are ready to have your masterpiece produced, there is just one more gating factor: municipal code. It is always wise to find out what is required before going for that sign permit or charging ahead with manufacturing your new sign.

There are at least two sets of criteria to be aware of. Often business parks, historical areas and other developments will have their own sign criteria that are stricter than the city's. Be sure to check with your property manager or the city itself to find out if there is a sign criteria or "architectural overlay" before relying strictly on the city's requirements. Part of the approval exercise may include sign off by your landlord or property manager.

The second item is the city itself. You can avoid a lot of time and frustration by calling their planning department in advance to find out what is required. You do have the option of appealing the local sign code, called a "variance," but be prepared for long waits and lots of work and frustration.

TIP #6 If there is one best area to plan ahead, this is it. Cities are getting stricter about what sort of sign they will allow outside. It is best to find out what they will accept early.

7. AS SIGNS GO BY

Time and nature is the great enemy of outdoor signs. Imagine going to a restaurant and noticing that their sign is full of bird nests. Makes you wonder what else they are not maintaining doesn't it? There are many new materials coming on the market today that exceed at weatherability. Some manufacturers today are guaranteeing for life their plastics against fading or cracking. LEDs are much more lasting than neon and use less power.

TIP #7 While a great sign will bring customers, a poorly maintained one will drive them away. Make sure the materials to be used in your new sign will last as long as you need them to. Inspect your sign(s) regularly for cleanliness, aging and operability.

And remember: If they don't see your sign, they won't spend a dime!

Marketing Techniques - Strong Presence

Not all marketing is about actually pushing one product or another. You don't have to have a sale to talk about, a new product to mention, or even existing products to boost up. Simply telling people that you exist and that you're there is often all you need for creating a strong presence in the marketplace.

I've come across quite a few people who don't realize that this is just as much a form of marketing as anything else. They'll lament that they don't have any upcoming sale and so they don't know what they're supposed to put on their advertisements.

Take some times to go someplace where you know there are a lot of posters around. I say posters because these are often used as a very effective and strong form of presence marketing.

I'm sure that if you take the time to really look at a lot of these posters you'll begin to notice that many of them aren't talking about anything but the company in general. They might mention some issue people might have to deal with in life, and then say how the company can help them out, or improve their situation.

The point of poster printing like this is just to let people know the company exists. That is a very important part of marketing as well because quite often you aren't going to get a sale until a person needs to buy something from you.

I'm not going to bother with a store unless I actually need to shop there. A sale might be enough to get me to come, but even the best sale won't make me buy something I don't actually need.

When the time does come when I need something I then have to be able to think of a certain place to shop. If I don't know much about a place then I'm not going to think of them.

The more poster printing you get done that focuses on just letting people know about your store the more people there will be that will think of your company when they need something.

Your job is to find some good locations you can use to put up your posters in. Find spots where you know your customers are going to frequent. That means every time they go there they'll see your company name over and over again.

They might not need to buy anything from you the first few times but that doesn't mean you aren't effectively advertising to them. As time continues they'll reach a point when they do need your services, and because you had a strong presence, you'll be the first company they think of.

Sometimes the greatest challenge of marketing is just getting someone to think of you first. The stronger your presence is, the greater the chances are that company will be you.

Advertising Marketing Online

There are many ways to market and advertise your products, both online and offline. Newspaper, radio, magazines, flyers, ezines, banners, internet marketing, business cards, The websites below offer the best in advertising marketing online, marketing, advertising, internet marketing and advertising, email marketing, online advertising, free advertising and more you can visit www.sales-letters-creator.com You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one knows about it who cares.search engines, word of mouth, leads, opt-in leads and more. Right now there are two very effective ways for advertising and marketing online.

Article marketing with pay per click advertising, you can get a first page placement for targeted keywords relating back to the theme of your website.

Depending on the type of product or service you offer you can place small ads and only get billed as low as 0.05 cents for every time someone clicks on that ad. This is a very quick and cheap way to advertise and market online. A very good place to advertise online with pay per click advertising is Search Feed. You can learn more about them another way is to write or pay someone to write articles for you around keywords that people are searching for. This is particularly effective for niche products. For example if you have a product and website for picky eaters you will get more targeted traffic to your site then you will for a website built around food. Advertising and marketing your product online thru articles works great if you write a good quality article filled with keywords relating back to the theme of your product;

By submitting articles to directories you can develop traffic back to your website by putting a link in the article. This is good for your prospect as well as search engines will give you credit for a back link or go to www.sales-letter-secret.com The more back links you have, the higher you rank with a search engine and the closer to page one you will be placed for specific keywords. This is called organic traffic and it is free traffic that costs you nothing when someone clicks on a link pointing back to your site. To learn more about marketing with articles visit Idea Marketers.

This is the premiere website for marketing your article online. Once you master the techniques of advertising marketing online with articles and pay per click advertising you will really start getting targeted traffic to your site. Of course another important step is how your website or sales letter is designed for converting that traffic into sales. We will leave that for another article. For now just get started right away with your own advertising marketing online program.

Do You Really Save Money With Wholesale Prints?

It is a known fact that you get bargain deals with wholesale orders. In fact, you get a significant price cut compared to retail purchasing. But does the same principle apply to wholesale prints? If so, why? If we dissect the process of offset, you will get a better idea of printing in large volume.

Method of offset printing

Offset printing is an impression technique achieved by multiple transfers of images, from the plate to a rubber blanket and lastly, to the material like text and cover stocks. Clearly, offset printing requires more than a simple stamp printing process or even digital printing.

It starts with your file being converted into film. The image on the film is then transferred to a plate which is one of the notable expenses of each printing batch. In the case of 4 color printing, four plates are required: one each for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each of these plates would register, although not directly, on the paper, and these are done at extremely fast rates.

Cost of production

Truth is, the cost of paper and ink is quite minimal. What contributes much to the total expense are the plates. The operation cost is divided among the printouts. This is why ordering wholesale quantities can tremendously bring down the cost of each printed piece. By ordering more copies, the cost is divided among more pieces so the unit cost becomes less.

For example, the cost of printing 50 posters is $350. It appears that the price of each piece is $7. But if you order 100 posters, the price become $360. You doubled the quantity but added only $10! The unit price drops to $3.6, nearly half of the unit cost with 50 printouts. Increase the quantity further to 200 posters and you pay only about $8 more. With $368 at 200 copies, the unit cost is cut down to about $1.80. With less than $20 more, you get to quadruple the number of your posters, allowing you to reach more people with widespread advertising.

This makes offset printing a very ideal candidate for wholesale prints. As for short run orders, digital printing is the suitable option since the costs prior to printing is low, and the charge per piece remains uniform.

But is offset printing good?

Aside from its cost effective offering for large volume printing, the quality of offset printing is among the best. Color impressions are impressive. The details of images are clear and texts are clear. Moreover, the print results are consistent so you are assured that you get the same quality from the first print down to the last, even if you order 20,000 copies.

And as mentioned, the rate of offset printing runs at about 50,000 per hour. This means that even if your order thousands of copies, you can get fast turnaround times.

The next time you consider cutting down your print quantity to less than a hundred copies, think of the additional printouts you would get by shelling out a few more dollars for wholesale prints. With better and more ad exposure, you can easily get an ROI on those few bucks.

Pay For Performance - P4P - Advertising

Businesses around the world invest, or to be more precise, they spend, untold numbers of dollars to advertise, market and promote their products and services to make sales and gain new clients. In an economic downturn these expenditures may be reduced due to cost constraints and consumer reluctance to buy.

As an example it costs around $1,000usd for a small classified advertisement in the weekend editions of major USA newspapers, $2-3,000usd for a similar placement in monthly travel magazines. Radio spots, from 'cheap and nasty' during the hours when nobody is really awake to prime time messages to thousands, the majority of whom may not be interested and many of the rest may just go to a competitor. In effect, business advertisers may often pay for 'lack of performance'. Either the advertising copy was ineffective or the reach of the medium and quality of the audience was ineffective.

In other fields of endeavour we work, perform, produce and then get paid. Why not in advertising?

It may be the time to rethink the effectiveness of our advertising spend and to rethink who we spend it with, what we spend it on, when we should spend it, where we should spend it, why we are spending it, how we should spend it? Or even, 'if' we should spend it.

In other words, how can we get more value from our advertising spend? Is there a better way?

The internet affords us all exceptional opportunities to showcase our wares but the same problem arises: how do small businesses let the world know about their own websites when contending with the major players who are always able to buy more 'googling' stuff than they can?

As well as being approached by media reps from local to national newspapers and magazines, small businesses now get inundated with internet offers such as: 'top 10 search engine rankings for your website; 50,000 hits guaranteed; increased visits assured with our email programs to our double opt-in email clients.' And so on and so forth. The emails arrive daily to inboxes everywhere.

Businesses do not want looky-loos clogging up their websites. They want committed buyers to review and compare their products to others. They do not want to give their hard-earned money to advertisers who simply want to sell advertising space. They want advertising partners.

Businesses should be given the opportunity to work with a 'pay for performance' option for their own advertising spend. In other words, "work with me, perform with me, produce with me, get results with me and then bill me." The P4P partnership could generate more advertising revenue than the old system of "just pay, shut up, wait and be thankful for what you get." Let's consider a P4P arrangement where a percentage of sales is given to advertisers who produce sales. Many businesses might welcome such an opportunity to partner with forward-thinking advertisers. Just consider how much more advertising copy could be placed.

An example:
A business that operates websites that offer travel in over 70 countries and with products available to travellers in all countries. This company needs to advertise in every country, in all traditional media and in all e-commerce media such as e-newsletters, ezines and websites plus tv, radio and of course the electronic social media. To do this would take an enormous budget, which is not available, but to do this on a P4P arrangement could lead to sales growth that could never be realized with the traditional methods. There could be many similar businesses around the world that could also grow more quickly. Advertisers who are willing to accept a radical change in their business practices by operating a P4P option could also benefit from the business growth of the thousands of global businesses that would embrace this innovative new concept. Sharing the risk of both success and failure. End of example.

The way we now advertise, market and promote business must change. Advertisers should consider P4P and share the risk and the greater rewards for performance. The advertising industry could experience more business, more profits and lead global economic recovery.

More global businesses will readily accept a P4P partnership. Businesses and advertisers can perform together and make better returns for both by sharing the risk and producing improved sales. However, the P4P format should only be implemented when both parties agree that it could produce better incomes for both parties. If advertisers consider that there would be no benefits for them with a P4P arrangement, the business has to also rethink their own advertising methods and lack of confidence of the advertiser for declining the arrangement. A catch 22, but real world.

Although most businesses do not want window shoppers, looky-loos, timewasters, or those who unfortunately cannot afford to buy, they must also be aware that, in travel anyway, "today's backpacker may be tomorrow's luxury travel buyer" and should be nurtured and even developed as future customers. A P4P partnership of media and business could develop improved campaigns leading to healthier long-term business growth for all partners.

A recent real case example for internet advertising is as follows:
An internet marketing company stating that they had 'a list of 3,000,000 enthusiastic travellers' recently approached a local business. Before even asking for the cost of using their services the business owner switched the tactics by offering them the opportunity to send their message to this list over a period of months, but on a P4P basis (at their cost). The business owner offered to pay them $10usd per sale (out of a $35 total sale). Their comments, "we do not do business that way."

The retort from the business owner: "if you are not prepared to try and get 1% (yes one percent) of your database to buy my offer (30,000 x $10 = earnings of $300k), it appears to me that you do not have any confidence in your own database, my offer, or my product, but you would take my money upfront even though you have no belief in the success of the mailing. This is not the way I want to do business and you are not the company I want to do business with."

If advertisers believe that your advertisement will work for you why would they not want to earn a better income from a P4P arrangement? Or do they really have an in-house ethical conflict between editorial and advertising departments? If so, what are advertorials and the published press releases sent from public relations agencies?

Over the years all types of businesses have been convinced by all forms of media to advertise but rarely are they asked to assess the results of the advertisement. Advertisers keep taking the money. Businesses keep on doing the same thing because they have been convinced that they need to be seen and to "do it this way." Well, maybe it's time for a change.

The present economic climate is causing stress and strife around the world. Advertisers could find that they have so much white space available forcing them to print thinner newspapers and to offer discounted rates to their recession-proof clients. But what if these advertising agencies and media outlets started to work on a P4P basis with all types of businesses to create new partnerships of media and frontline operations from restaurants to who knows what? A win for the media, a win for the businesses and a win for the buyers who stay informed and are kept aware of local, regional or international opportunities. And maybe full staffing, thick papers and magazines, robust ezines and e-newsletters that will make us all feel more confident about the economy.

Not all situations will allow a p4p partnership but there are enough out there to reward all parties and all we need to do is develop simple operating systems to make this new way attractive and secure for all participants.

The business in the example above could operate on a P4P basis. It could have a P4P arrangement with many different partners in many different countries at the same time. Any downside for the media partners would be minimized by their thorough understanding of the business services and products. They would know the wants and needs of the business and so be in a position to not just accept an advertisement but to be totally involved in the generation of leads and buyers. All partners could get the maximum benefit from the opportunity because the only way to earn revenues is to produce results by better use of skills, creativity, contacts and advertising reach.

A simple method for internet businesses is for unique pages or URLs to be set up for each P4P operation so that accurate assessments can be made of the specific promotion and the fees based on the same statistics and buyers. Another 'comfort-zone' action could be for the media P4P partner to collect the 'gross takings' and to remit the net after deductions, to the other partner. Vouchers can be created giving all parties an audit trail. Trust is paramount in P4P partnerships.

Many small businesses will survive and help save the global economies. Big business will continue heavy layoffs, cutbacks and corrections until the good times roll again, which could be a long way into the future. Let's take action now.

Small business together with Small Internet Media (e-newsletters, ezines) and other Smart Media can try new ways to pull us all out of the economic mire. If they seriously consider this new way of advertising, marketing and promotion 'with' their clients, not 'for' their clients, they can "get going now, or they can sit back, take no risks, take no chances, ignore P4P opportunities, downsize, get laid off, change careers, move away or just keep doing the same old thing and stagnate."

Thousands of businesses around the world would welcome approaches from all forms of media to advertise, market and promote within a P4P partnership arrangement. This could be a simple way to not only help business survival in the recession but will enable us to prepare for future growth.

We go to work, perform our duties, finish the job, produce results and then we get paid. Why then should we not expect to pay only for the 'results' of' our advertising and not just 'for' advertising?

Imagine the global acceptance of P4P. Businesses would be able to advertise anywhere and would never again have budgetary restrictions to advertise, market and promote sales. Media businesses would be getting new clients from places that they would never have considered and at the same time, helping their own clients to expand. Why don't we do it?

Just because; "We don't do business that way" is unacceptable!

The positive side of an economic downturn is that new opportunities arise for creative and progressive entrepreneurs to start new ventures such as P4P advertising. They are out there.

Reaching Your Targeted Audience With Text Message Marketing

Bulk SMS (short message system) companies offer you the opportunity to send a single text message to all your customer's cell phones at one time. This is similar to sending bulk email with much better open rates and response. 94% of all text messages sent are opened and read making Text message marketing or SMS marketing a very effective and inexpensive form of advertising for your business.

So how do you get all these cell numbers to send your messages too?

One is using your existing customer list. Some SMS marketing systems allow you to import your existing email list to send an email through their system with a link to opt in to your SMS system to receive something of value to them.

For example: xyz company invites you to join our text message system to receive valuable weekly coupons via a text message to your cell phone. Click the link to opt in.

If the system you choose does not have a email system, then use your existing email system to send the invitation and use a keyword such as "invite" to your systems short phone number known as a shortcode.

For example: xyz company invites you to join our text message system to receive valuable weekly coupons via a text message to your cell phone. On your cell phone text the word "invite" to the number 12345.

You may also use this invitation using standard postcard mailouts.

The other way to build your opt in list is to entice your audience to join and receive something of value instantly via text message. A restaurant might have table tents inviting it's customers to join and receive 10% off their meal or a free dessert. By texting a keyword such as dessert to the shortcode 12345, they will get an auto response message that might say, Thank you for joining. Enjoy your free dessert. Show this message to your server.

Now that you have a targeted audience, it provides direct and instant response to you marketing campaigns. These are people who have asked to receive your information and may already be your customers. These messages will provide greater response than all your other advertising efforts.

Get an Edge With Promotional Electronics Items

Living in the modern world, you have probably figured out that we are deeply integrated with electronics on a business and personal level. A great way to tell others about your business is through promotional items with an electronics edge. Use small items such as a USB Flash Drive or a MP3 player to advertise your business at a trade show. Or give away radios, clocks and cameras as prizes. All you have to do is have your company name, logo or motto imprinted on the item to get instant advertising.

Have you ever sat down with a client only to find that you couldn't communicate because they brought along a young child who doesn't want to sit through a meeting? Try holding a coloring contest where the winner wins a prize every month. The prize can be a watch or an MP3 player with your company logo printed on it. The child will most likely be happy coloring for the contest, and you and the parent can hold your meeting undisturbed.

Promotional items in the electronics field vary in price range from under two dollars up to approximately one hundred dollars. These prices include a choice of one color and one imprinting on location. Items in the higher range are wonderful gifts that show appreciation for your team.

Award a team member's sales record with a web camera so they can hold web meetings in company style. Send other team members on the road with a Cuvette Mobile Phone Holder. Show customers you appreciate them with unexpected gifts like a flashlight keychain clock. This shows them that you appreciate them and their business and also gives a message that you want to continue working with them in the future.

Another great way to show customers your appreciation is with simple gestures like having pens with clocks on them available in your office. Consider your audience and match an appropriate promotional item with something they would enjoy. Go to a college fair and distribute little flashlights or USB Flash Drives to the students. Go to an automotive shop and distribute electric tire air pressure gauges.

As you prepare your logo or wording for printing, keep in mind that you want to create an image or thought that makes customers want to do business with you. Let the electronic promotional products help you do this.

The Smartest Babysitting Business Card Ideas

This is one business that you can be sure of, as long as there are going to be human beings on this world babies will have be born. The days babysitting was looked down upon are long gone.

Now days it is a full time job like any other. Baby-sitting has developed to be a full time thriving business. It is a preference job for teenagers looking for part-time or full time babysitting job and the managers for these businesses are teenagers themselves. The number of people employing their services has increased tremendously. A lot of career moms depend on these babysitters.

Baby-sitting being a serious business also needs some very innovative card designs. These business cards are what promotes and sell your business. I have been highlighted a few design ideas below;

* Include all useful information in your card-incorporate all information your prospective customer will refer from time to time. This information may include details about your organization, something specific. Put an unique information like a calendar on one side, your client will have a reason to draw out your card to check dates when it is required, hence reminding them about your business all the times.

* Make it a referral card-A referral card makes it easy to introduce prospective clients to your business. On one side, you use it to invite people to events while the other side it has details about your organization.

* Design it two sided-One side is information about your organization while the other side you can use it like a billboard advertisement. Let it be very eye catching just as you find on a billboard. The text should be simple enough to the prospective clients.

* Design it as if it is a note card-Design it in such a way that you can jot notes on one side while the other side is all about details concerning your organization.

* Design them like a card pad-Print the cards on lighter papers and tack the finished cards on notice boards or any other convenient place.

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