Above And Beyond Promotion

Posts Tagged ‘method’

Get Affordable–Even Free–Targeted Advertising In Magazines

Word Count:
406

Summary:
By now most of us have tried just about every advertising method available. From ads on Google to website banners. And even though you may have found an advertising method that works, you’re probably still looking for more.

I’m often surprised by how many home-based business owners and opportunity seekers have never thought of advertising in magazines. Magazines are the original targeted media. While TV shows and newspapers may try to appeal to a very wide audience featuri…

Keywords:
marketing,advertising,small business,home business,magazines

Article Body:
By now most of us have tried just about every advertising method available. From ads on Google to website banners. And even though you may have found an advertising method that works, you’re probably still looking for more.

I’m often surprised by how many home-based business owners and opportunity seekers have never thought of advertising in magazines. Magazines are the original targeted media. While TV shows and newspapers may try to appeal to a very wide audience featuring many different kinds of people, magazines have always focused their efforts on a tightly defined audience.

For example, look through the magazine rack the next time you’re at the grocery store and you will see dozens of different magazines focusing on everything from cars, fishing, crafts, home decorating, relationships, and business. All these magazines cater to a different audience with different tastes and buying habits.

By choosing magazines that focus on your best potential customers, you almost guarantee your ads will be successful. It’s an old rule in marketing that getting your ad in a magazine that intensely appeals to your best customers will get you ten times the results than advertising in a famous mass appeal publication like Business Week, Time, or Newsweek.

That’s right, advertising your home-based business in Home Business Magazine will most likely get you far more response than getting your name in Newsweek.

And this is REALLY good news for those of us working from home. Smaller, more tightly-focused magazines almost always offer very affordable ads, usually in the back of the magazine. While full and half-page ads can cost hundreds or thousands, you can advertise in the back for about the same cost as putting a classified ad in your local paper. Then, as very few people know, there are also ways to get FREE ads in big magazines. Either way, it’s cheap, targeted, and it could be your best path to new profits.

And don’t let that “back of the magazine” position discourage you. More than half of people read magazines from back to front. Businesses advertising in the back actually have the most visible spot in the magazine.

The weeks ahead are traditionally a time when magazines drop their advertising rates. Place your ads NOW to take advantage of low rates early in the year which, incidentally, is the time of year when the most people are interested in joining a business opportunity.

Viral promotions are one the best methods of marketing a product or service online. One of the easiest viral marketing methods is the use of giving away free ebooks that contain valuable information. Enticing a prospect with free information on the front offers a non-confrontational method to get your prospect to take action. It builds a trusting relationship with your customer as you communicate with them in the e-book and future follow-up messages. Due to this fact they are more likely to purchase from you in the future as opposed to just promoting your product or service on the front end.

People come to the Internet to learn and research topics. However, the Internet is crammed with advertising. Everywhere you go you’ll find advertising. You see advertisements in the form of pop-ups, pop unders, banners, classifieds, articles, text links, spam, etc. People are bombarded with advertising hype every minute of every day when online. When you capture an interested customer offer them a free e-book on the subject matter in exchange for their e-mail address. This is non-committal and easy. You are not screaming, “BUY MY PRODUCT” but saying, “try this free information for your e-mail address”. You are giving the customer a chance to see for himself or herself if what you have is what they want.

For example, say you are selling web hosting. Offer a 5-10 page e-book on how to pick the best web hosting services. Within this free e-book have your affiliate links embedded in the text of the e-book. You will come across as an authority on the subject matter and they will begin to trust your recommendation. Thus, they will eventually buy from you.

Viral marketing is a great way to build your mailing list. Once the customer has given you their e-mail address and received their free e-book, you can then send them follow-up e-mails on the subject matter through your autoresponder and eventually funnel them into one of your affiliate programs.

Offering something free on the front end of a sale is an old method to gain customer loyalty and trust. It has been used for hundreds of years and is a proven method to grow a business. Remember to write something of value and at no cost. There are also products out there that have already been written that you can get for a few bucks. You can look at Reprint Right sites, Public Domain or look around within the market niche you are trying to penetrate and see if someone is already doing this. You can then use theirs a template (don;t ever copy!) and re-write it adding in your own element, different benefits and tips and tricks.

The great advantage to article marketing is that it is free. It does take some time though. Here are some of your options for this great free advertising method. My favorite is to write your own articles.

You can write your own articles. Like I said before this method is true free advertising. Read the rest of this entry »