Free Advertising

 What is Free Advertising?

 “Free Advertising” is basically marketing that costs you nothing. 

Zip. Zilch. Nada.  

Advertising & Marketing.

 Let’s be honest:

You can’t run a real business without paying for advertising.

The key to finding customers… making sales… building a customer list…  and ultimately, growing your business –  is Advertising & Marketing.

 “Without advertising, something terrible happens. Nothing.”

To survive and thrive in any business… small or large… you’ve absolutely got to advertise.

Without advertising, “Nothing” happens.

7 Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

1. Throw out your old marketing guide.

It is important to use marketing techniques that are working today. 

That’s why it’s so important to keep current with the latest techniques and strategies so that

 you are always employing the most effective methods that will bring you the best results.

2. Use email marketing

One of the most powerful

and extremely cost effective forms of marketing is email marketing.

 The cost is very low and it offers predictable results. 

It also has the advantage of providing you with personal ownership of the list,

unlike having social profiles and pages on social networking sites like Facebook 

and Twitter where you don’t control or own the sites.

One of the strongest assets you can have, in addition to your website, 

is an email list that you can market to on a regular basis. Treat your subscribers well.

Offer them valuable and interesting content in addition to special offers 

and discounts on your products.

3. Marketing Tips – Build An Effective Website

Your business website is capable of being your 24/7 sales or lead generating machine.

  If you design your website right, you will be able to generate very high quality leads,

calls and sales from customers and prospects.

You need to have your website designed by a professional and then effectively market it. 

 Make sure it is attractive, has clear navigation and is filled with interesting content.

Your website should also be optimized for the search engines so that it shows up highly in

the search results for your most important keyword terms.

4. Be Active On Social Network Sites

Setting up social profiles at the main social networking sites

 such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is imperative these days.

You need to be where your customers are, and they are most likely to be all over these

 sites. You need to offer interesting content to keep readers engaged. 

5.Take mobile into account

More and more people these days do their surfing and shopping using their mobile phones and other devices.  So you need to have your website and advertising campaigns mobile friendly in order to get the best results.  Make sure your website has a responsive design so that it reads well on mobile devices.

6. Make Customer Service A Top Priority

Customer service may not seem like a form of marketing at first glance.  However, if you have poor customer service all of your efforts will be wasted. On the other hand, 
if customers feel like they are being provided with good service and are well taken care of, they are much more likely to become repeat customers and tell their friends out your products or services.

7. Marketing Tips – Encourage Customer Feedback

Encourage customers to provide reviews, give testimonials and offer you feedback.  When prospects see that customers are active and giving their personal experiences about your products, the trust level in your company and products will go up dramatically.  Word of mouth is the most valuable form of marketing.  So if you can establish good rapport with your customers, they will also be more encouraged to share their experiences about your products with people they personally know.

The above Marketing tips and Techniques for Small Business are the foundation and starting point for your success.  Be sure to take the time to implement the advice given in these tips.  Focus on marketing fundamentals and you will be successful.  Also be sure to track your results so that you know which marketing techniques are working the best for you.  Successful marketing is all about continuously trying out new methods, refining them and expanding those that are the most effective and profitable for your business.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Humor in advertising

Does using humor in advertising and marketing help you sell more? 

Or should it be avoided?

John Caples, author of one of the most famous advertising headlines – ”They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano but When I Started to Play!” said:

Avoid humor. You can entertain a million people and not sell one of them. There is not a single humorous line in two of the most influential books in the world, namely, the Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog.

The grandfather of modern advertising, Claude Hopkins, said:

Don’t treat your subject lightly. Don’t lessen respect for your self or your article by any attempt at frivolity. People do not patronize a clown. There are two things about which men should not joke. One is business, one is home. An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may gain attention by wearing a fools cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects.

But then check CBSnews.com and you will see this:

Ignore those snobs who say humor has no place in sales and marketing, that prospects don’t buy from clowns, or you should never poke fun at your own brand. They do not understand the likeability factor of humor.

In his Ted talk, Dan Dennett, an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist, shares why people get attracted to these 4 things: cute, sexy, sweet and… funny. He describes how evolution wired us to search and respond to these 4 triggers.

The reason why many advertising and marketing experts suggest you do use humor, is because it’s fundamental to forming positive relationships. We buy from people we like, and humor is the easiest and fastest way to get there.

Using humor in advertisement and marketing make your offer seem more “human” and builds relationship with your audience

Any campaign you work on has the objective of selling. But if you break down the process, sales never come first. You have a list of steps your prospects need to go through before they are ready to see the offer. And every step has a different objective. It can be to engage prospects by asking them questions, increase social interaction with social media share buttons and comments, or evoke particular emotions. Here is when you want to focus on humor. And all these steps indirectly prepare your prospects to eventually buy your product.

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

-Ben Franklin

Here are some examples of how various brands have been using humor in advertising with much success:

1. Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club had two main challenges. Firstly, they were selling a product which would hardly be considered fun by anybody. Secondly, they were going against market giants, namely Gillette and Wilkinson.

The strategy Dollar Shave Club decided to go for was… humor. It’s a great example of how using humor can differentiate you among competition, and how to turn a pretty dull product into something people can fall in love with.

Did it work? 10 mln views says something.

2. Gillette – Mow The Lawn

Speaking of razors, what is the best way to promote a product for a little bit more of a touchy subject, like… bikini razors? Most companies go for a serious tone in their advertisement,  being quite neutral in their voice so that they offend anybody. Gillette took a different approach and created this viral video to promote its razors for women. In no place does the video mention the product, yet it’s pretty obvious what it’s all about.

3. Groupon – Unicorn Riding

Groupon is a company that built its success on a revolutionary business model: very good deals for avery limited time. Offers include dinners, spa treatments, travelling, shopping, and many more. And recently Groupon decided to broaden that offer adding… Unicorn riding! It’s a truly hilarious idea that definitely adds to Groupon’s brand and makes it more fun and human. Now I don’t know if anybody decided to take up this offer, but if they did – I’m sure they had a time of their life :)

4. Dumb Ways To Die

Before you watch it, a little warning: it’s quite cruel and harsh.

This campaign is actually a social cause campaign created to make people aware of safely when taking a train – so that people are more aware of stupid ways they can die by not paying attention to easy safety regulations. It’s been declared one of the best campaign of this year and won 5 Grand Prix Awards at Cannes Lions 2013.

5. Apple – Get a Mac

You’ve probably seen this one (if not – where have you been??), but it’s a classic and a very interesting way to differentiate your offer from competitors.

Apple confronted their product against a concrete competitor. In some countries, it is legal to negatively picture other brands. But in those where the law allows this kind of comparison advertisement, it still remains a bit tricky. Nobody likes to those who point at others. So Apple’s idea was indeed ingenious. They didn’t insult PCs, instead using humor they pointed differences between two products. The message is clear: Macs don’t have all the features PCs do, but they are way cooler.

Here is a compilation of the ads rolled out by Apple:

6. Bodyform

Bodyform is a British femcare products brand, selling pads and liners.

They created an amazing video with over 4 mln views, in response to one person’s comment. This person was a man, and he wrote:

Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn’t I get to enjoy this time of joy and ‘blue water’ and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn’t wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen …..you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform , you crafty bugger

Now, Bodyform could have deleted the comment, get offended and all serious, or.. they could get creative. And that’s what they did. In response to this man’s comment, the following video was produced:

7. Nespresso – What Else

A few years back Nespresso launched a great campaign for its coffee, featuring George Clooney. Using celebrity endorsement has its advantages which are not related to humor but  what definitely adds to this campaign is that the celebrity chosen is quite famous for ‘not taking himself all that seriously’. If you want to use celebrity combining it with humor, make sure you pick somebody who is funny.

I personally love this campaign, and it can definitely be attributed to George Clooney and John Malkovich who joined too (and who is one of my favorite actors). On top of that, I simply feel sentimental, as the campaign was shot in Milan at the time while I was living there.

Here is one of the ads from a series of commercials:

8. McAfee – How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus

John McAfee, a computer programmer and founder of McAfee, Inc, is surely one of the most controversial entrepreneurs. In this video not only is he actually making fun of himself, he is doing the same of his product. It is risky, and will definitely putt of some people, but at the same time, with those who will find that video funny, McAfee is efficiently creating a strong and personal relationship.

Now back to you.

What is your favorite funny viral video or commercial? Share them below.

And if you liked this article, like it, tweet it and share with your friends.

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Information change situation

The Power Of Information In Advertising

Sex & marketing

Sex and marketing: how to use sex in your advertising

If you ever wondered whether using sex in advertising helps to sell, here is the answer: it does.

Actually, it is one of the strongest and most effective selling tools. The relationship between sex and marketing is a winning combination for almost any business. However, if you don’t know how to use it, you’re risking putting off your potential customers.

we will look at another factor that can effectively improve your business’s performance: sex. We will go in detail to understand how to use sex and marketing in synergy to boost the results of your next campaign.

History of sex and marketing

The fact that sex sells is not a recent invention. The earliest known use of sex in advertising dates back to 1871, when Pearl Tobacco featured a naked maiden on the package cover.

In fact, the first brands to enter this trend were: saloons, tonics, and tobacco.

In 1885 W. Duke & Sons inserted sexually provocative trading cards of actresses in their packages of Duke’s Cigarettes.

Then in 1970s a hair dye Clairol (by Procter&Gamble) launched its famous campaign under the ambiguous slogan: “Does she… or doesn’t she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure”

When talking about sex and marketing you cannot not mention Calvin Klein and its (in)famous advertising of jeans featuring at that time only 16-year-old Brooke Shields. “Want to know what gets between me and my Calvin’s? Nothing.” slogan was as controversial as effective at driving sales.

How does using sex in advertising work?

We have what is called a lizard brain (or an old brain). In terms of evolution, it is the oldest part of our brain and it’s responsible for survival. It pays attention to 3 things only: food, danger, and.. sex.

On top of your old brain, you have a mid and new brain (I cover the idea of 3 brains in a video), which take control of emotions and logical thinking.

Even though our lizard brain operates on subconscious level (and so we are not aware of its presence), it is continuously working, scanning environment in search of thinks that could endanger you, things that you could eat and things that you could have sex with.

This is why using sex in advertising is so powerful. Whenever a person is exposed to a sexual message, their old brain gets activated. And the second that happens, the old brain takes over. It is very difficult to ignore sexual messages.

We are extremely strongly wired to react to sex. In fact, so strongly, that we will respond to messages that only imply sex. You don’t need to use pictures of fully naked models in your ads. Showing an ankle or a neck will work just as effectively.

A word of advice…

Not every product can be easily linked to erotic elements. The use of sexual messages can still work (you will have more sells), but it can harm your brand in long term, as customers will start noticing the trick.

Also, with the ever more open society, the way that sex is shown in ads is ever more open and direct. For some people that can be off putting. Implied and soft sexual messages are much safer, some claim they’re more artistic, will not turn off any of your customers, and – work just as effectively as a direct message.

Here is an example of an ad using sex without showing female or male body and with no nakedness at all. All that this ad of Beetle is doing is simply driving our imagination by using the right copy (“Topless” which is this case refers to the car not having a roof) and blurring a part of the photo (which is usually used to censor sexual scenes in movies or images).

Sex and marketing today

With ever lore open society and less taboos, sex has become even more present in advertising. The one change that has been observed is combining sex with humour, which brought to live some of the best ads of all time.

Below you can find a list of some of the most effective uses of sex in marketing for different industries:

Cloting & Lingerie

Dolce&Gabbana

Famous for its sexual ads and indeed associated with a sexy look, Dolce&Gabbana rolled out this campaign in 2007. But this time not everybody liked it. Many said that the ad looks like a rape scene and so it was soon taken off. Great example of how sexual messages if too strong can harm your brand and irritate people.

Diesel

This daring ad is a classic. Diesel uses a combination of scenes from porn movies but by using animations, it turns them into everyday scenes. You be the judge:

Wonderbra

The brand that’s famous for directing men’s attention to women’s bust (by introducing push-up bras), is one of the most erotic in its advertising. Wonderbra has always had its unique way to show it, just like this ad below. It is one of my all time favorite – maybe because I’m not the best cook myself :)

Victoria’s secret

One of the top lingerie brands, Victoria’s Secret is known for picking the best looking models and a very sexy look.

But even this brand hasn’t gotten away with their strategy without the critic. One of it’s recent campaign targeted at younger women, PINK, got a lot of criticism from Moms all around America. The campaign portrays teenage women on a spring break in a very sexual ways. Many petition have been said that this campaign encourages young women to behave promiscuously during the spring break – something that parents have been advocating against for many years now.

Alcohol

Jim Bean

No brand, no slogan, no call to action – just pure sensual video. Though quite daring, Jim Bean shows another way to approach sex in advertising – an artistic way. Indeed, this ad could be easily put among short videos.

Cars

Volkswagen

The German brand enjoys experimenting with more daring advertising campaign. You’ve seen the ad for Beetle above. This one promotes new breaks system in its cars. Interestingly, there is no car in the ad – all you can see is a half-naked women in the window.

Cars have been associated with sex for better sales for many years now. It is one of the products that easily link to erotic messages. Producers want their cars to be perceived as sexy, fast, daring, and so most of the advertising using sex, will work perfectly for cars.

Renault

Yet another example how automobiles advertise their features by showing sexual messages. Just like in the ad above, a car is not featured here. The only elements giving away the real product behind this ad is a logo and a small image of a car. The ad is designed to get attention, and it surely does

Phones

Motorola

Featuring sexy Megan Fox… in a bath, Motorola takes a more sensual approach to its advertising. Though the focus is taken away from the phone itself, it does a good a job at presenting phone’s feature in a humorous way.

Now back to you.

What do you think of using sex in marketing? What are the ads and commercial using sex you find most outrageous – or, most effective? Share them below.

And if you liked this article, like it, tweet it and share with your friends.

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