Congrats to Gianluca Mech and Tisanoreica

I had a wonderful time at the Red Carpet reception for Gianluca Mech, introducing his new herbal weight loss products: Tisanoreica Tisanoreica

I also met Mary Murphy from So You Think You Can Dance there! Check out these herbal products at www.gianlucamechspa.com

Growing a Biz Results

Growing a Biz: Maximizing Advertising & Media Results

Guest post by marketing2020

If you are a business owner, manager, or entrepreneur trying to protect or grow a business with the assistance of advertising, you will 1) need a strategic media plan and budget supporting your marketing objectives and 2) you will also have to buy the planned media from media sellers, e.g., television, radio, print, online, direct mail — on a national or local basis.

Planning and buying media is a highly competitive, tricky and knowledge intensive business with over $270 billion in transactions  So, depending on what you buy, a budget of $50,000, your decisions could have  it the clout of $25,000 or 75,000+

Caveat-Emptor

The first rule to buying media is Caveat-Emptor.  Caveat Emptor means, “Let the buyer beware.”  You must understand that the sole purpose of media sales reps is to sell you some of their advertising media inventory (e.g., TV or radio spots, space in a print medium, impressions or clicks on the internet, etc.). They will pitch their availabilities in the most favorable light possible, carefully omitting information that doesn’t support their case. Caveat Emptor.

Media Selling Points

When media sales reps call on  potential advertisers, they  bring a  sales pitch– written, verbal or multi-media. However, media sales reps actually have only three basic arguments to pitch: audience, cost and impact.  A rep may try to convince you that their audience is perfect– in size, demographics, growth trends, etc. Or, they might pitch their cost efficiency, e.g., more audience per dollar.  Or, they might try to convince you that their medium is more impactful than competitive media (e.g., generates more sales, more credibility, etc.) Reps may point to a competitor’s alleged success in the medium (audience, cost or impact?)

Media Buying

As a buyer of advertising media you will examine not one but all of the reasonable alternatives in order to identify the ones which best meet your objectives, e.g., audience profile, impactful in communicating with target, and are  most cost effective, e.g., ROI = Cost/Audience x Impact.)  Ideally, you will make a side by side comparison of media alternatives on which to compare buying decisions for specific media vehicles.

Negotiations

Rate cards are a myth in the 21^st century. Regardless of what is printed on the rate card, almost all media buys are negotiable, including price, inventory offered, timing/scheduling, positioning of ads within the medium, audience or results guarantees, value added elements such as merchandising to trade or dealers, promotions, use of on air talent, etc. It is therefore very important that the buyer have a win-win negotiating strategy firmly in mind prior to beginning a negotiation.

Key to Success: Education

Like most things where the stakes and risks are high, planning and buying advertising media requires that buyers really know what they are doing.  For those without experience there is a new college textbook, Media Planning & Buying in the 21^st Century (2^nd edition) which can help bring readers up to speed. For information, see: www.21stCenturyMediaPlanning.com.

Event Management Companies Use Internet Marketing

 By Coreypal

Fact or fiction, an event management company has many plate’s full of options to consider when pondering how to choose proactive marketing companies to manage their SEO and traffic generation.  Shysters run the mean streets of the many internet marketing websites in existence, and although it’s an unfortunate occurrence for the honest man to run into these scams, the list of ultimately beneficial internet marketing companies can drastically be reduced through some skillful searching, phone calling, and BBB findings.

Let’s face the reason head on why you are reading this: you are a serious business-minded money making event planning guru that wants to check the newest trends and gauge your current company with others so as to raise the bar on your event management services.  Or, perhaps you really do want to learn how to choose an internet marketing company; if this is you, sip the coffee and scroll down.

What Event Management Companies Could Expect

The primary purpose of an internet marketing company is strikingly similar to the modus operandi of a SEO company: to place your company on the map, albeit locally or nationally, and bring the promise of more customers your way for either a ‘per diem’ fee or some monthly membership fee.  The only way it is ever suggested to drop a single dime on an internet marketing company is if they are reachable by phone, reputable to the point their references are easily verified, and they have zero complaints through D&B or the BBB.

Do not go with a company that simply charges you to ‘babysit’ you SEO accounts, no matter how many you have.  Calling Google AdWords will render not only the creation of a solid campaign, but also the creation of a budget that will not move so long as you don’t touch it.  Same goes with Bing, except you need to stay away from the click-happy content network which renders an obscene CTR yet yields few sales for you.

Perform Due Diligence

Also, it is imperative that you check the level of education in the company in question – anyone can call themselves a professional, yet very few have the gait of an expert internet marketing company professional.  Having a brief conversation on the phone will let you know the candor and knowledge of the voice behind the sales pitch.

Finally, you should go with a company that doesn’t use tools online that are free for everyone.  Charging your credit card for something that you could have found yourself is pretty much financial suicide; all of the techniques and tricks of the trade need to be in-house, professionally designed, and have some level of tracking technology for you to view at all times.

 

Check out    http://thecmiteam.com for more information

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