Don't Pull the Trigger on Advertising with Your Eyes Closed

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of  Pixabay

Shoot - Ready - Aim - That's the most common method, small businesses use when implementing their marketing. A common scenario goes something like this.  An advertising sales rep will pitch them on some marketing, and if they like what they hear, they make the buy. Often the sales rep will be armed with some statistics that have little relevance to the business’ target market. But in most cases, the small business owner doesn’t fully understand what the sales rep is telling them. And to avoid looking uneducated, they avoid asking the hard questions. To make matters worse, most small businesses don’t know what their target market is, what their unique strengths are, what their weakness are and who their real competition is. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore all these questions and more as we tackle the all so common problem of Shoot, Ready, Aim.

Marketing 101 – What you need to Know before Buying Advertising

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of  www.flickr.com

You’re a new business owner, ready to buy your first advertisement, so you call the local newspapers, radio and TV stations along with several coupon and website vendors to see what they have to offer. Unfortunately, you have never purchased advertising before and you’re hoping the advertisers will help you figure out exactly what to do. You may not realize that most advertising sales reps are paid mainly on commission and their primary mission is to sell you advertising or they don’t make any money. What happens next is all too often the scenario that plays out. In this article we will follow this scenario and cover a simple 10 step program that will insure you’re buying the right advertising and that your return on investment has the best chance of making a profit. Now let’s get back to that scenario.