Digital World Expo debuts an annual forum for professional education in all forms of interactive marketing, media, communications and advertising. Attendees will learn, train and build awareness of technology application in media and what’s to come. Four areas are presented to meet the needs of today’s media professionals in digital advertising, marketing, public relations, development and strategy:

Will Assurance Advertising be there?

Our very own Shahab Zargari will be one of many choice speakers of the event! You won’t want to miss his session!

Classroom-Style and “How-to” Instruction

• Seasoned professionals and newcomers finding over 30 classes ranging from viral campaigns to virtual worlds.
• Digital media channels discussed with attendees walking away with applicable takeaways for “next steps”.
• Social Media, Viral Campaigns, Video Advertising, Display Advertising, Behavioral (and data) Targeting, Mobile Advertising, APPs, In-Game Advertising, Analytics and more designed in both “beginner” and “advanced” attendee formats.

Media Opportunities

• First-hand exposure to media placements offered by publishers, creative agencies and service providers.
• Interactive exhibits featuring today’s opportunities across all channels.
• New media channels and strategies presented in an exciting atmosphere.

The “Future” of Media

• Our “digital future” witnessed through special interactive exhibits and keynotes.
• High-profile brands and professionals engaging attendees in a fun, high-energy atmosphere as they experience what’s to come.

Entertainment and Networking

• Accents with special attractions and events appealing to all the senses.
• Specialty acts and casual game tournaments presented for everyone’s participation and enjoyment.
• Cocktail “Mixers” in unique venues during evenings of assembly.

DATES: Sunday, Sept 25th – Tuesday, Sept 27th, 2011

Digital World Expo’s mission is to bring more focus on education in an engaging and fun atmosphere. Classroom sessions, hands-on activity, and engaging media opportunities will arm attendees with tools and next steps for their business endeavors at an affordable price. Become a registered attendee today for the conference you will never forget!

PRINT and eBOOK editions out now!

The ultimate advertising survival guide!

The book features tips, case studies and easy to digest how-to segments for all business owners and marketing managers.

What’s In It For You?

Without this book, you will be hurled into the world of trial and error, which can be costly.

Consider the small price of this guide as a way to invest in your marketing, advertising and social media education. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration in the process.

This guide will teach you the in’s and outs of gaining expert status in your niche or brand.

You’ll learn how to create a powerful campaign that people will not only be receptive to, but will remember and respect. You will have people beating down your door to buy your products and services.

CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO READ TESTIMONIALS FOR THE BOOK AND TO ORDER YOURSELF A COPY NOW!

ISBN 978-1-257-90685-7

Check out this Flowtown infographic to see how! Just click on the image to make it large enough to read in detail!

There are many ways to perform a market test to make sure your ideas help sell your product or service. Here are two you may be able to use if you don’t already have a testing process in place.

1) Place a few TV ads in a small region-

Choose the area and shows or events specifically to match your target demographic. Don’t put ads up in areas and times that your target market cares nothing about. For instance, it’s probably not a good idea to play commercials for a surfboard in Kentucky during Days of Our Lives. This would be a waste of your money because your commercial’s call to action will fall flat on the viewers.

This test works best with direct response but can also work well if you have a strong call to action.

Once the ads have been placed keep track of everything!

For the duration of the test (two weeks, one month) monitor the amount of orders, and the type of people that are calling (income, age, sex etc).

2) Do a field test for your product and commercial-

Good ads don’t save bad products. Before you throw away your money on advertising make sure people see your product as something they would be willing to buy. This is going to take some legwork (if you work for a large company it’s time to grab the interns!). You’ll have to ask everyone possible and a good place to get started is at a trade show.

Sometimes you can set up a test online by use of a blog or even set up a center right in front of your store (or one of your store locations) or even at a busy park on a weekend. All you have to do is ask people walking by to be part of your study. If you have trouble finding test subjects bribe them with candy or prizes (just try not to be creepy).

Test sites are especially good for testing the commercial itself. Play the commercial for the subjects (this is as easy as bringing your laptop, tablet or iPad… or can even be done online with a podcast and virtual questionnaire or poll). Once your volunteers have watched the commercial you ask them a series of questions: Does that product seem like something you can use? Were you entertained by that commercial? Did the commercial make you want to sign up/find out more/run and buy it…?

Make sure you write down everything from the subject’s responses to their ages and income levels. It’s a good idea to develop a questionnaire to give them at the beginning as well. That way you can compare their thoughts before and after seeing your advertising materials.

Once analyzed you will notice certain things you already knew and other things that you had no idea about. Once you’ve figured out what people want you can implement changes and watch your business grow by leaps and bounds.

I hope that was helpful,

Happy marketing!

People don’t always “need” your product; unless you’re water or power and with the advent of alternative energy like solar and home-based wind turbines the latter is also up for review.

Hopefully, however, through the use of targeting you should be able to find out who is eventually going to need your services. But what happens if your target doesn’t think of YOUR Company when they need you the most?

What are you going to do to stand out in their minds as opposed to any one of your competitors?

Always start online

People are constantly on the internet these days so make sure you have an excellent SEO and positioning campaign to ensure potential customers have easy access to your website (this is very important and if you need help with this, don’t hesitate to contact us).

Whether it’s online or in the physical world, only repetitive advertising can turn your business or product into a household name.

In my experience most startup businesses run an ad in a local magazine and use the bare minimum “free design” that comes from that media company.

The fact that there has been no positioning, targeting or any fore thought into the design or copy on these “free” designs is a major problem. People aren’t interested in boring designs that look and sound like all the rest.

Avoid print ad mistakes

Usually the new business will end up pulling the ad after running it two or three times because they get no response, then they resort to only word of mouth to generate new clients.

Avoid falling into this predicament at all costs!

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to promote your business, true, but you will never experience real growth without the use of repetitive advertising.

Companies that can’t utilize direct response won’t be able to quantify how many people came in from one specific ad; so don’t give up too soon. If you stay consistent and memorable for your target market, you’ll notice an increase in customer traffic over time.

Rules to advertise by :

1. Make sure you do good targeting

If you put your ads where your target market can’t see, hear or feel them, then you may as well throw your money in the trash. There are tons of books you can read on the topic of targeting and I have even written a few blog posts on the subject– if you do a quick search on this site you’ll find them easily.

2. Run the ad everywhere all the time

People have to see or hear your message at LEAST seven times before it registers and then seven more times before it is actually committed to memory.

3. Make an impression on potential clients

Getting people to notice your ad is about placing quality, attention-grabbing ads in as many mediums your target consumers will be exposed to.

Putting advertising concepts together

Now, I’ll use a fictional video game company as an example.

XYZ Games, a new independent gaming software company, has a new “shoot-em up” game targeted to Males between 16 and 25.

The first thing they do is put together a website equipped with: Blog, Facebook and Twitter. Then they run a banner or link ad on as many websites catering to their target audience as they can budget for.

Next they place ads in a magazine, publications like Wired or FHM. The ad will be placed consistently for at least 6 months.

Lastly they use television to really demonstrate the quality and excitement of the game while also making sure the channels and time slots are appropriate for reaching their specific target consumer.

There are hundreds of other mediums like DVD previews or video game previews that can and should be used. This is just one version of a marketing mix that they chose to start with. Over the next six months the response will be measured and the marketing mix can be shifted and changed based on the findings.

As you can see deciding on the proper outlets can be daunting so if you need help don’t hesitate to call.

Until next time…Happy marketing

If you’ve ever heard of the four P’s of advertising you know, before I even say anything, that the four most important pieces of an ad campaign are Product, Price, Positioning and Placement.

Today we will be talking about that last element, Placement.

Placement has two parts:
1) Where the public can obtain your product or service.
2) Where advertisements will be placed to inform people of your product or service.

Since every business has drastically different ways of bringing their products to market we will focus on #2.

Getting your product in front of the right people

Assuming you have a target market in mind, you now need to put in some research time.

Where do they eat, work, play and live? Who do they socialize with? What is their family set up?

Once you have this information we can pick the most effective mediums. Think of what type of advertising they would be exposed to. Know the amount of time they will be commuting, watching tv or reading magazines, etc.

Finally we need to advertise enough times in each medium to ensure that the average target consumer will be exposed to your advertising a minimum of seven times within a three month period. If you put one ad in one magazine for one month you will most likely not get the response you’re looking for.

What we’d like to see is for you Nay Sayers to stop complaining that advertising doesn’t work. Instead, get proactive, check your system and make sure you’re doing it right! Or call a pro in to help you out!

Happy Marketing!

For those of you who remember our Gaining Your Customer’s Trust article, you will remember that one of the most important things businesses need to realize (something that hasn’t changed in millenia) is that you must show your prospects that you/your product will meet the right balance of Needs versus Wants based on what will benefit their life/business.

Recently we came across a thorough analysis and breakdown of six habits of effective marketers on the DesignDamage Blog, and we urge you to read it too!

While, as Eric Tsai puts it, “most business owners, experts and professionals understand the importance of providing non-promotional, educational content during the beginning of the relationship with a customer,” that doesn’t necessarily mean those same folks (you or your agency) have mastered the best habits around.

CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH THE FULL ARTICLE

Managers have the daunting task of trying to stay on top of all day-to-day activities, training staff and servicing clients; developing a good tracking system for your staff can give you the time and the edge necessarily for success.

Keep your staff in the loop

First organize your sales process into steps, if you have not done so already. For example: Step one- meet and greet. Step two- needs assessment; and so on.

Next develop a system of organization that you can be comfortable checking. It’s always good to have instant access from anywhere at any time.

Also remember that sales never end; even when you’re not on the sales floor you are looking for prospects and handing out business cards. Logging these prospects into your system at any time of the day or night can keep you and your staff on top of these prospects.

The next step to good organization is having everyone on the same page. If you are already using a system make sure you train everyone on the specifics of the program as well as how you specifically want them to use it. This type of training is essential to avoid any employee from veering too far from what you expect from them.

In the rare case your system is still analog make sure everyone knows when and how to log their info. If your system is digital make sure pass codes are up-to-date and that all staff receives continuous training.

The best way to incorporate the continuous training is to hold weekly training and progress reporting for your staff.

First, ask everyone to explain where they are in the sales process and how they plan to find more clients.

Next ask if everyone is current on their logging of new prospects. Make sure to check and see if everyone has completed what they said they did.

By making this a weekly habit and making people responsible for their actions you’ll find that after a while your staff will police itself; putting an end to the constant nagging that is the biggest culprit of staff burnout on the sales floor.

Another benefit is that you yourself will have greater access to your staff and will be ready for problems before they come up.

In conclusion; management sales and organization can bring you more money

Give your staff the cutting-edge in sales tracking and organization and you’ll surely see an increase in sales that means bigger paychecks for all.

Remember great businesses are great because of the systems they use to making things efficient. This is one of the fundamental ideas companies like Walmart and Mcdonalds used to get to the top. It’s time to put these ideals to good use, don’t you think?

A great book that goes over this is “The E Myth” by Michael E Gerber. If you haven’t read it, I do highly recommend it. It’s easy to read, fairly short and has some of the finest management and business tips to this day, and the book was first published in 1985!

If you have any questions on types of programs or organizational tools feel free to leave a comment. We are, after all, here to help you learn and make more money!

Over the past couple of days I’ve been noticing that certain types of companies have not only survived the economic downturn but are actually increasing their successes. How have they done this?

Well, the main trend between the companies is that they are utilizing cutting edge technology making the lives of their customers and their employees much easier, as well as using this technology to market their products more effectively.

I like to call it the “lazy technology trend.” And I think we can all learn from it.

Lazy Technology in business

What do I mean by lazy technology?

I’m not talking about technology for people too lazy to get out of bed. What I’m talking about is technology that feeds the basic human instinct, driving us to make things faster and easier.

Man made fire so it would be easier to eat and stay warm. Man invented the wheel to transport people and goods with less effort and so on.
If you follow this “lazy instinct” through the ages to modern day life, you reach a world where technology is king and fast information is his sword. You can be either knighted or beheaded by it.

Google, one of the most successful companies of our time, has always made it priority to feed this “lazy instinct”.

Their products allow people to make simple searches of the internet, email and video chat, store information, share information, use of word processors, all available on the home page. The list of lazy products they offer is growing daily.

Another example of lazy technology would be Netflix. Originally started as a website where you pay a monthly fee to rent DVD’s by mail.

Now with the use of new technology they have made renting movies and T.V. shows instantly from your computer or TV (with the use of an inexpensive adapter, X-box, PS3 and coming this spring for the Wii) an included part of the monthly service: making Netflix so much more competitive that they’re even taking clients away from cable companies.

An interesting lazy tool for businesses using twitter is Twuffer. Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose announcements or posts and schedule their release days, weeks, even months in advance.

Companies can use this technology to schedule tweets for upcoming campaigns, promotions, specials, contests etc.: letting twuffer do all the work for them at the appointed time.

Staying on top of technology

All modern day businesses should utilize new technologies to make their products easier to use and more accessible to customers.

Microsoft had to learn this lesson the hard way. They’re just now becoming more competitive online but for years they focused only on building software that you buy at the store. The problem is that the internet and web let people get what they need instantly.

This made it hard for Microsoft to sell their products and gave companies like Google an opening into the market.

A great way to stay on top of available technology is to watch companies similar to yours (especially direct competitors) and find out what they are using to make customers lives easier. Take those ideas and improve on them.

The funny thing is, because of our lazy instinct, technology just keeps building on itself getting infinitely faster and better. To some this is a scary thought because of the competition and uncertainty technology creates.

But I feel it gives us a chance to actually make money and reach more people.

What an exciting time to be alive and in business.

You can now download the entire high-quality presentation as an ebook by SAVING THE EBOOK FROM THIS LINK (right click on PCs):
Five Reasons Why Businesses Fail – CLICK HERE AND CHOOSE “SAVE AS” TO GET THIS FREE EBOOK!