Advertising 101

| February 2008 Posted in Business |

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Tired of Working? Start Making Money from Home!

These words were written on a sign I saw the other day while stopped at a traffic light. The sign was about 1 ½ feet by 1 ½ feet. A bright neon green, written in black permanent marker, stuck in the ground with a wooden stake and barely standing 3 feet off the ground. It was surrounded by at lest 15 other signs with advertisements about the same thing.

I see signs like this all over the Valley that I live in, people trying to advertise their business without spending any money. The reason this sign caught my attention wasn’t because it was placed in an ideal location, or because they used some fancy designing and it defiantly wasn’t because of what the sign was advertising.

It caught my attention only because of what it said, “Tired of Working? Start Making Money from Home!” After getting over the initial wave of laughter that I was much in need of, having been in traffic for about an hour, I said to myself, if making money from home doesn’t require working, then I must be doing something wrong! As my mind start reviewing these few words I become astonished by the idea that so many people are sold on getting rich quick that an ad like this just might work. I also contemplated the type of individuals an ad like this might attract.

If you would again picture what the sign looked like, neon green, black permanent marker, 1 ½ feet by 1 ½ feet, 3 feet off the ground and surrounded by tons of other signs just like it, on a somewhat busy intersection. Then picture the words, Tired of Working? I bet we all get tired of working sometimes, but most business owners understand the important principle of work. Nothing is ever free and everything requires some amount of work. What type of individual do you think an ad like this is going to attract? Probably someone who hates their job and hated the last 8 jobs they had this year. Someone who wishes they had more time or more money, because they are just to busy and to broke to do what they want. You might get calls from people who have tried every other get rich quick scheme that they passed by on the road.

If by now you are still puzzled as to why I have been talking about this sign, then you have not learned the value of advertisement. And you may not understand how much work is really involved in running a good marketing campaign. Any successful business owner will tell you that any business not bringing in new business is on it way out of business. And how you promote your products or services is what will show your potential customers the value of what you do.

When advertising your company, you need to always consider a few very important things.

1. How much money are you willing to spend

2. Who will manage your marketing campaign

3. What goals do you want to achieve with your campaign

4. What type of customer are you trying to attract

5. Where to advertise

6. Presentation (design, word choice, etc.)

7. Which method is going to best match the message