See the image above? It’s speaking to you, isn’t it? Without any description, your mind is churning. If someone wanted to sell you a beach house, condo or timeshare, this photo would probably be doing some of the preliminary work of convincing you that this tropical paradise is a place to give some serious thought to.

That’s the power of marketing. And it often starts with a simple image.

Marketing is critical to every business of any kind. There are more ways to market than ever and while this can present some obvious advantages, it also means more competition for your prospects attention. After all, there is TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, the print media and of course the internet. Many businesses use some or a combination of all of these to reach their customer base, and as they do the entire marketing environment is becoming increasingly crowded.

How do you get your prospects attention in the midst of what can increasingly be referred to as marketing clutter?

By making your message stand out.

This means that the quality of your message—and therefore your advertising copy—needs to more brilliant than what your competitors are offering. People today are accustomed to a barrage of marketing messages, and they’ve learned to block out most of what they see and hear.

One picture is worth a thousand words

There are two ways to make your message stand out, and one is through headlines. Of course, if you choose that route your headline must have either great shock value or emotional appeal. You can test this in advance with a headline analyzer, which can measure the effect a given test headline is likely to have on prospects. The more emotional impact your headline has, the greater the chance your marketing will have of being investigated further.

But the better way to stand out is through images. One strong image can quickly and effectively convey a message that a 2,000 word advertisement never can. Images create emotional appeal, and that can make the prospect want to know more.

Of course, in this day and time you won’t accomplish this with that old standby, the Polaroid. In an era of computer graphics that can mimic real life, your ad images must do the same. This is true whether you use black and white prints for your ad images. What ever images you use must be brilliant in a way that will draw the prospect to your marketing material and create an emotional hook that can pre-sell the viewer on what it is you have to offer.

The images you include in your marketing material must display consistent excellence too. You will convey the quality of your business through the quality of images that you use not only in your direct advertisements, but also on your website and in any company literature. Those images can have the effect of giving your organization a “feel”—an emotional draw—that tells not only prospects but also your existing clients that they’re in the right place, doing business with the right people.

You want to do this throughout your business operations, but it’s absolutely critical on the front lines—your marketing—if you can have any hope of converting prospects into paying customers.

Finding an expert image provider

If outstanding images and prints are critical to marketing both your products and your company image, it follows that you need to work with the best providers available. The days of working with an in-house print department or the local print shop are over. Technology has raised the bar and that means getting on the cutting edge if you want prospects to notice you.

Print London offers and delivers such services not only in the UK, but globally through remote expertise and 24 hour ordering at very affordable prices. If you’re serious about promoting your products and services—and your company’s image—in the most effective way possible, you’ll need to work with an industry leader.

High quality doesn’t always mean high cost either. Some of the best providers are surprisingly inexpensive. And one additional thought…though cost-cutting often seems like the order of the day, the one area you need to be very careful about cutting is marketing! Marketing is how you reach your client base and where you might want to spend a little bit more. After all, how else will you grow your business?

This is a guest post sponsored by MetroPrint–the source of fast, high quality photo printing in the UK and around the globe.

If you are starting a new business or are trying to succeed in a career, you might be at a loss for motivation, creativity, and inspiration. Thankfully radio stations across the world play pop music that will pick you up out of your rut and give you the strength to continue. Here are some ways you can use pop music to help you succeed at work and meet any goals you have set for yourself.

Think Like a Musician

Most business professionals pride themselves on productivity and constant work. If you get paid by the hour, you probably don’t get a lot of free time to explore new ideas and create new processes that might help your work habits. In an article in Entrepeneur, author John Kao claims that you need to think like a musician in order to succeed in the business world. Instead of taking standardized routes, improvise and create in order to get the most out of your workday.

Justin Bieber and the World Series

You might not think about Justin Bieber, ever… But if you are familiar with the barely pubescent pop singer, you would be shocked to hear he helped a group of grown men win the World Series. Star outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, David Freese, recently confessed to Jay Leno that the team went on a two month spree of listening to Justin Bieber’s song “Baby” before they won the biggest prize in baseball.

A pop song can be used for other reasons than its catchy melody and captivating harmony. It can be a rallying cry for your group of employees, office staff, or just yourself. By pumping yourself up with an infectious riff or chorus, you will have more motivation to get the important work of the day accomplished.

Jonas Brothers Marketing

Pop music has often been associated with sex and fame throughout its history. Elvis started the trend with his swinging hips and today Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga are taking the element of sexuality to a completely different spectrum. While this type of music courts a specific demographic, other young girls simply aren’t ready for such mature themes.

In order to reach a younger audience, the Disney corporation had the Jonas Brothers wear their girlfriend’s promise ring in order to symbolize how pure they were. This type of alternative marketing hit a chord with parents and the Jonas Brothers became a hit. You should apply this to your marketing mix by trying to reach niche markets that may not appear on the surface.

Finding a Spot in Retail

If you have ever seen the movie High Fidelity, you have seen the effectiveness that music holds over people’s purchasing habits. While running a record store, John Cusack’s character plays a brand new song during one of the busiest times of the day. This encourages his customers to ask about the music playing and purchase the record, increasing sales of the overall product. By playing music at your small business or retail location you can increase the subliminal messages and overall tone of your establishment.

Whether your goal is to get employees motivated, increase marketing efforts, or set a certain mood in your office, pop music is there to help you. Don’t just relegate pop as a trivial matter best left for dance clubs and teenage girls. By harnessing the pure power and energy of music, you stream the same energy as the people making the songs.

This post is brought to you by Amanda Green.

By Kevin M

If you’re old enough you might remember those energy commercials where the narrator described some massive energy generation project—years in the works and costing billions—that would provide “barely enough energy to keep the lights on in North Nowhere, Kansas—population 309—for one hour”. No REAL progress on reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil, but that company is hard at work on it!

Did you ever get the impression that those commercials were more about improving the energy company’s public image than on reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil? Or on a darker note, that what they were really trying to do was educate us that there were no solutions to the nations energy problems, and we needed to get comfortable with business as usual? (History has proven the legitimacy of that last point!)

That’s precisely the way I feel about the current “Going Green” obsession.

Everyone it seems, is going green and “cleaning up” the environment. But is that what they’re really doing—or like the energy companies of yesteryear—are they mostly just trying to get us to think better about them?

And—if I may add on a more sinister note—are they claiming to go green as a cover for either charging us more or by shifting expenses over to us, they’re loyal consumers?

Here are a few examples of where I think that may be happening, and I’ll bet you can come up with a few more.

“Paperless” or pay online

What this really means is that if you want a paper copy of your monthly statement—or of any document—the company is shifting the printing cost over to you. And in the process, they’re also saving on postage.

Eco-friendly? Maybe. A financial win for the company? Most definitely.

Paper cups made from “30% recycled paper”

The minority portion that’s recycled is the marketing hook. It makes it look as if the company is environmentally-friendly. But the fact is that no matter what the cup is composed of, it still has to be processed, and that takes resources—to say nothing of the 70% of the cup that isn’t recycled.

Ceramic cups would be more environmentally friendly (can be reused, no ongoing manufacturing processing, no waste for landfills), but they would have to be cleared and washed, requiring labor—and that costs business money. By shifting to paper cups, all that labor—and the cost to pay for it—disappears.

Eco-friendly? Could actually be a negative. A financial win for the company? Absolutely.

Cheap single-ply, recycled bathroom tissue

I know, polite people shouldn’t discuss this in public, but someone has to say something about it. The poor quality of it no doubt saves companies money on an equivalent amount of conventional paper. But since it’s such poor quality you have to use at least twice as much.

Eco-friendly? Doubtful. A financial win for the company? At least a little.

Automatic hand dryers

This one’s a bit complicated. Sure, no paper towels means a) no trees were cut down and b) no additional waste for landfills. But automatic hand dryers are powered by electricity, and from the sound and feel of it, I’d guess it takes quite a bit to keep them blowing. And what does it take to generate electricity? Coal, oil, natural gas. It sounds a bit like trading trees for fossil fuels and acid rain.

The benefit to business? No staff needed to refill paper towel dispensers or to empty the trash, which means lower labor costs. And I’m speculating the added electric costs to power the hand dryers is probably less than the monthly cost of paper towels to stock the restrooms.

But back to paper usage for a moment…drying our hands isn’t the only reason we might use paper towels. And what do we do when one or more of the hand dryers doesn’t work, or when an underpowered dryer doesn’t quite get the job done? We go into the bathroom stalls and pull out the cheap, single-ply, recycled bath tissue—and a whole bunch of it because it really doesn’t work either, right?

Eco-friendly? I seriously doubt it. A financial win for the company? Almost certainly.

Hybrid cars

Is the hybrid car—running alternatively on both electricity and gasoline—little more than an attempt to get a new technology out into the market before it’s ready? I can’t escape that feeling.

The electricity being used to power a hybrid car is highly likely to be generated by fossil fuels, especially coal. Add to that the fact that the hybrid still uses some gasoline! Meanwhile the environmental impact from manufacturing the car isn’t much different from what it would be to produce a gas powered car.

The hybrid 2011 Toyota Prius lists at a base price of about $29,000, and gets about 42 miles per gallon. A gas powered 2011Hyundai Elantra lists at a base price of about $21,000, and gets about 40 miles per gallon. The cars aren’t 100% comparable, but it seems that the fuel efficiency of the hybrid is more than a little overblown.

The environmental impact of a hybrid may be only slightly less than that of a gas powered car, but is that advantage worth paying an extra $8,000 for? I’m not convinced.

Eco-friendly? It’s heading in the right direction, but it’s not there yet. A financial win for the company? Absolutely, and we’re talking big dollars here!

What do you think?

Does a store painted green, or at least generously appointed with green highlights make you go warm and fuzzy on the place? Are you more likely to buy what they’re selling? (hint, hint)? Are you willing to pay more for what they’re selling because they’ve “gone green?” (Another gynormous hint?)

Is “Going Green” a legitimate movement or a marketing hoax? Or is it an attempt to shift costs from the company to us, or to make us pay more for what we’re buying? Do you have other examples of where the practice looks suspicious?

Or am I the only one who’s thought about this???

By William Eve

As a business owner, you should pay attention to every detail and, on top of all, avoid making some basic mistakes because it can cost you more than you expected. In this article you will be presented with some very common marketing mistakes and some possible ways to avoid them.

Not Having a Marketing Plan

As you probably already know, having a strongly developed marketing plan is vital for the survival of every company, especially for smaller ones. However, there are a great number of business owners who realize that they do not have such a plan when they would have needed it and are desperately trying to save their company from a total failure.

There are others who believe that marketing plans should only be developed by big corporations. This is completely false, as it is also very important for smaller companies in order to achieve success. In fact, it is even more important because mistakes can be fixed more easily for big companies, while the small ones are not always able to handle certain situations.

Not Knowing Your Target Audience

Failure to properly define who your exact target audience is for each and every one of the products you offer will undoubtedly lead to a business failure, at least in terms of marketing. You must always take savvy and smart decisions, which are mostly based on adapting the products in order to make them more suitable for the target audience.

Furthermore, it is very important to be very narrow with your definition. Having the smallest number of people possible for your marketing solutions can sometimes represent a very important advantage for your company. Isolate and identify your niche, then market into it.

Marketing Responsibilities

You must always assign a person who is responsible for marketing. If everyone has the same level of responsibility, then no one is responsible for this critical part of your business. As a small business owner, you might not hold the necessary resources for hiring specialized marketing personnel, but you can get the help of a marketing consultant who is specialized in small businesses.

The money spent for this consultant may be the best you’ve ever spent.

Lack of Tracking Mechanisms

Setting up certain mechanisms that can be used for the tracking of your results for each of the marketing campaigns you run is a very important step and you should always consider it. If you lack an efficient way of doing this you will not be able to know if investing in a certain campaign was worth it or not.

No Consistency of Brand Templates

Adding credibility to your branding is one of the most important steps for a successful marketing campaign for your business. In order to be able to achieve this, you should always check parts of your marketing audit, such as invoices, websites, business cards, Yellow Pages and every single component of your advertising.

By doing so, you will be able to decide upon the ideal template for your business in the shortest time possible and gain some extra customers who will appreciate the image of your business. If you fail to think about these aspects from a marketing perspective, then the lack of consistency will probably be obvious to potential customers.

Poor Grammar, Spelling and Copywriting

There are many situations in which you encounter spelling mistakes. Restaurant menus, websites, magazines, newspapers, they are everywhere. And they often they give the impression of a lack of professionalism and poor attention to details. Prospects may assume that the lack of attention to details may be a part of how you operate then take their business elsewhere.

Therefore, it is very important to have someone double check all the texts of your ads and every single document prior to its publishing. Catching and fixing every mistake is very important for every company.

William Eve is the marketing coordinator for the mortgage comparison and application service Home Loan Finder.

Related Posts:

Buy a Business OR Build One from the Ground Up?

Why Most Businesses Fail – And How Not to Become One of Them

7 Ways to Improve the Success of Your New Business

Steady Paycheck VS. Self-Employment – Which is Right for You?

Starting a Side Business – Why Now Is the Time

By Kevin M

“Everyone” is one of those absolute words we should generally stay clear of, but I’m violating conventional wisdom, sticking my neck out and saying everyone needs to have a blog!

You can beat me up for violating protocol, but before you do, consider the seven reasons why I’m making such a bold declaration…

 
1. To CONNECT with the rest of the world, 21st Century style

There are nearly seven billion people in the world and most of us connect with a handful who we’ll connect with in any meaningful way. With a blog we can add hundreds or thousands more—do you think there might be some value in that?

A blog is the cornerstone of finding like minded people in a world that seems to be pulling apart socially even as it gets more crowded. Though it often seems that people are the nexus of our troubles, we can’t overlook that they’re usually the source of our solutions as well. After all, who couldn’t use a few more friends, a few more intelligent opinions or a few more business contacts?

Most of the people we’ll meet through blogs will live in another part of the country, or another part of the world, but that’s pretty stinking exciting, wouldn’t you say?

 
2. To have a VOICE and advance your IDEAS in the world

A blog is an opportunity to get your voice and your ideas out on the information superhighway. Express your opinions at work—to the degree you’re even allowed to anymore(!)—and a few people will hear what you have to say. Put it out on a blog and potentially thousands will read it. Some will forward it to others.

We all have good ideas—ideas that could potentially benefit many people. With a blog you have the venue to express those ideas. Unlike the traditional print media, your ideas don’t need to make it past the editing bureau where they may be modified or killed. And you can put your ideas out there in real time, enabling you to weigh in on events as they happen—you become a part of the grass roots media.

 
3. To build a national and global NETWORK for any future purpose

We can’t possibly know what the future holds, but we can prepare for it in a very general way that can payoff big later. By building connections now—with hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people—we’re setting up a built in stage for what ever we decide to launch, whenever we’re ready to launch it.

A blog gives you a foothold on the information superhighway, a springboard for all that you might do. Even if you don’t have message or a business idea right now, with a blog you can begin building the contacts that will have the marketing in place from the get go. And best of all, it doesn’t have to cost a thing!

 
4. To MARKET any product, service or business you can conceive of

Do you know with certainty what you’ll be doing to earn a living in five or ten years? With the job market being so unpredictable, it’s best to be prepared for anything. One of the best ways to do this is with some form of self-employment, even if it’s only as a side business right now.

You can test business ideas with a blog and add new ones or drop old ones as circumstances warrant, but you’ll have that all important flexibility that every entrepreneur needs. Even if you’re not thinking in this direction right now, you can be ready for a change of either heart or circumstances.

 
5. To create an additional INCOME STREAM

Even if you don’t know what product or service you might want to market, there are opportunities to start earning some money almost immediately. Google Adsense as well as various affiliate marketing programs can enable you to generate a small revenue stream even without having any business ideas of your own.

Your site doesn’t need to be a business site for these programs to work either. Any site topic that draws in a steady stream of visitors can make ad programs work for you, though certain topics do work better than others. And sometimes a small income stream is all it takes to motivate you to take things to a higher level.

Ultimately the solution to career, income or debt problems may lie not so much in a new, higher paying career as much as in the development of multiple income streams, which not only increase income but also provide diversified sources for greater stability.

 
6. To draw OPPORTUNITIES to you

As you broadcast your ideas and peddle your wares on your weblog, and people begin visiting your site, it will open the doors for others to contact you about what it is they’re working on that might be a good fit with what you’re offering. Business and marketing ideas, job opportunities and advertising arrangements are all possibilities, and they will come about without any special effort on your part.

Create a compelling blog, and people and opportunities will find their way to your email. Think of your blog as your own personal billboard, take it seriously, and put out the best you have to offer. Work into a niche where you have above average knowledge and skills and have at least some passion about. People who are interested in the same things you are will find you, and good things will happen from there.

 
7. To TAKE PART in the democratic process since that voting thing really isn’t working

Whenever we vote, we’re accepting a given platform, a package of ideas we can either vote up or down on based on our vote for or against a candidate. That system usually leaves us with just two choices, and we can’t remove certain items from a platform and replace them with others we feel are more important. Charles Hugh Smith (link also in left column) refers to this as a “simulacrum of democracy”, and it has much to do with why the political system is often so unresponsive to changes in world or national circumstances or even to public will.

The internet is the new place for the exchange of free ideas, for the average citizen to come forward with small ideas that may have no other way of becoming big ideas except that we put them in a public place for others to see. In the absence of the public square or of an objective media, a blog may be the single best place to present those ideas. You could launch ideas and concepts that will start on your blog then crawl their way into national policy. Can you do that with your vote?

How do you create a blog? Since I’m relatively new at this myself, I’ll defer to the opinions of some more seasoned bloggers, and highly recommend that you check out the following:

How to make money with a blog by Bob Lotich at ChristianPF.

Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog: Advice From Successful Bloggers from Bible Money Matters. Some free advice, but most is in a paid e-book that’s worth every penny of the $29.95 purchase price.

 
Do you have a blog? Do you agree that having one is well worth the time invested? Can you offer any other advantages to having a blog?

By Kevin M

In 10 Ways To Survive in a Down Economy (published on Christianpf.com June 1) we listed ten strategies to help you deal with the bad economy. Last week we took a closer look at Strategy #1, now we’ll outline Strategy #2:

2. Move outside your comfort zone. Network outside your career orbit; you never know where the next opportunity may come from, or who might assist you in getting there. Pigeonholing yourself into a single job or industry may prove to be a strategic miscalculation in the future.

Most of us have invested a considerable amount of time and energy developing a network of contacts within our respective careers or industries, and in the last article in this series we discussed ways to expand the number of contacts you have, to go wide with many contacts, rather than deep with a few.

Obviously the more contacts you have the better positioned you are in the event of a job loss. However, during difficult times, it is equally important that you make contacts outside of those directly linked to your career. This is especially important if you are in an industry which is being especially hard hit in this economy, such as the many finance related businesses.

Where to Begin

As discussed in Strategy 1, maintain active contact with people in your immediate career circle, only here we’re saying don’t stop there. Start with existing contacts as a base, and then work outward from there.

Network in fields which are loosely related to your career or industry. I say loosely because if your industry is in trouble, it’s likely that nearly all other businesses substantially connected with it will also have fallen on hard times. If you work for a car manufacturer you’ll probably find little salvation in attempting to find work at your company’s parts suppliers. However for all of the same reasons new cars aren’t selling, opportunities may be steady at companies involved in auto repair work. People who can’t afford to buy new cars will likely spend more keeping their current vehicles running. That’s one single example, but there are similar relationships in virtually every industry.

Even though the economy is in poor shape, people still have to live, and in order to do that, they need to buy things. Even if what they’re buying isn’t what your current employer is selling, rest assured they’re buying something else from someone. The job then, is to determine what it is they’re buying and where—and that should yield some career prospects.

Consider networking in businesses or career fields that interest you. Many people have a desire to do a certain type of work, but avoid it because the shift from where they are into the new career will require too big of a hit financially. The reality of the current economy is that many of the recently unemployed are landing in lower paying positions just because “it pays the bills”. If you’re income will drop no matter what you do, can you pay the bills working at a career you actually like? If you truly enjoy the work you do, not only will working become more pleasurable, but there’s a real possibility that you will flourish and grow in the new field, and ultimately generate an income that’s higher than what you’ve known in the past.

Finally, take a chance on some scattershot networking in totally unrelated fields. Network with people in careers and businesses that you’ve never entertained working in. Most of us tend to keep our networking efforts centered in areas that we know—that’s our comfort zone. But it’s important to realize that opportunity can come from any direction, and the more people (in more businesses) that you know, the better the chance of stumbling upon an unexpected opportunity.

Networking Outside Your Comfort Zone

So how do you go about networking outside of your career field, where you may have little knowledge and few contacts?

For starters, the internet has made networking easier than ever and provides a networking opportunity in virtually any career or business of your choosing. It would be worth your efforts to find some career/professional networks in fields which members are reasonably likely to be in a position to be aware of job openings that might require your skills. Being active in a network unrelated to your field will give you the advantage of being the only person in the group with that skill set—which is exactly where you want to be.

There are thousands of blogs and forums representing different industries, and certainly there are a large number who would welcome even an outsider.

Join local network groups, maybe even general business networks, close to home. Face to face networking can be even more effective than joining web groups. Look to meet people and groups and be prepared to tell them your story and what you’re looking for. Just remember that networking works both ways, and be sure to offer support and relevant leads to others.

So why do this? If you’re an accountant and you mostly network with other accountants, what chance will there be of finding an open position that others within the same network haven’t already applied for? Conversely, if you networked with a group of IT professionals, someone in the group might know of a job opening for a good accountant from time to time. If you’ve been successful in management or marketing in a financial concern, could you bring your skills into a completely different industry? Now is the time to try. Make sure to be open and available to keep abreast of what’s happening.

Get to know people you come in contact with. In our everyday lives we come across people who work in dozens of occupations—use this to your advantage. Slow down a bit, listen to their story, and tell them what you’re looking for. Swap emails and exchange more substantive information, even resumes. Every one knows people, and may be aware of someone who’s looking for a person just like you to fill a job.

No matter where you choose to network, always make sure others know why your there—to look for opportunities—which is the same reason everyone else is.

Business Owners

For business owners, moving outside of your comfort zone is even more critical. A downturn in the economy is the perfect time to get connected with sources outside your industry, not so much for possible employment, but mainly for new lines of business.

In many businesses, it may be necessary to face the reality that certain products or services may not recover with the economy. Technology and globalization are taking a toll in different areas, and any product or service you offer—or even your entire business—could be at risk.

Just as with job hunters, you’ll need to go beyond the familiar and look to expand contacts beyond your industry. It’s all about the search for niches, something most business owners are familiar with even during more robust times.

Look for additional product lines that compliment the ones you now carry. Pay attention to the trends (another outstanding benefit of networking) to look for entirely new product lines to create new revenue streams. Gravitate toward products and services you might like to have provided in the past, but were too busy to take on when business was booming.

For many businesses right now, the goal may be not only to survive but also to preposition your business for the next wave. Now is the perfect time to do this, and networking outside your comfort zone is an excellent way to get started.