P3 Perfect Planning Productions

Advertising

Many people think that advertising a product means to sell it. But real aim of advertising is to make the general public and potential buyers aware of goods, products and services available under a brand.

Advertising can be defined as a paid form of encouraging, complimenting, and positively showcasing goods and services to a group of people by an identified sponsor;  making advertising a vital component of commerce . That being said, who you choose to represent your goods, products, and/or services is the most important decision an expanding business can make.

If you think that advertising is a modern phenomenon, think again. The earliest forms of advertising, of course, would have been through word of mouth. Advertising - for sales, and lost-and-found - was commonly created on papyrus in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Commercial advertising, through wall or rock paintings that goes back to 4000 BC, has been found in many parts of India, Africa, and South America. Commercial and political advertising displays have been recovered from the ruins of the ancient Pompeii, a Roman city destroyed by the volcano -Mount Vesuvius - in 79 AD.

Today, with the advent of the Internet and its impact on our everyday lives, it has provided new advertising opportunities. As part of the marketing strategies on the Internet, Popup, Flash, banner, advergaming - the practice of using games, particularly computer games, to advertise or promote a product or an organization - and email advertisements, among others, abound.

P3 can help you relate to your consumer market and convey the benefits of the goods and services your company provides. 

Social Media

To make a lasting impact on the user and build a successful business any company should be adept in social media marketing. There are a number of factors to keep in mind while promoting your business online so as to maximize its potential and achieve realistic real time sales. Lehman Hailey believes marketing through social media is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.

Certain popular websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube which have more than five million visitors everyday are considered to be an important hub for marketing. Promoting your business using these sites is a very attractive business proposition since they offer a huge amount of steady traffic everyday. In today's world, social networking is extremely successful and social media marketing is very important to a business because of the sheer number of people that access these sites regularly.

Following are a few pointers that an entrepreneur would do well to remember while utilizing the immense scope of this type of marketing. Firstly, one should always try to give a clear account of the company's product or the contents of the business instead of exaggerating and claiming the impossible because this discourages people from visiting your site whereas a more realistic picture generates slow but steady traffic over time. Secondly, it is important to post as many links as you can wherever there is a provision to do so.

Any business becomes profitable only if the end product promised by the company or the entrepreneur is really as good as advertised and produces customer satisfaction. There is no sure-shot formula for success using marketing since it only gives more visibility to the business and the end sales depend only on the efficiency of the product. However, social media marketing is an important tool that, when properly used is a highly beneficial and promising enterprise.

Public Relations

Call it brand awareness, call it name recognition, call it publicity. It's all the same thing. PR is exposure. Public relations creates exposure of a brand, product, service or business. The exposure comes in many different forms: articles in magazines, blogs online, product reviews, TV segments on the evening news, mentions on radio broadcasts, tweets on Twitter, branding in a newsletter, flyers posted at the local coffee shop, workshops, speaking engagements, awards and recognition, and the list goes on. What's important to note is that the type of exposure is not a one-size-fits-all approach. PR campaigns should be customized and developed around an organization's specific goals and budget. The beauty of PR is that it's adaptable, customizable, creative and always changing to keep up with the latest buzz or to create the latest trends and it's all done through various mediums of exposure.

How often do we read an ad or watch a commercial and think, can X product really do that? Probably pretty often. On the other hand, how often do we read an article written by a reporter and ask that same question? Probably not nearly as often. That's because we look to members of the media to be credible, trusted sources who present unbiased findings through their editorials. If a reporter writes about the effectiveness of a product, it's because he or she has done the research, talked to people who have used the product, talked to company spokespersons, and oftentimes, even tried the product themselves to offer the public a fair and accurate report. This is the same for news about an organization or service. The media do their homework to ensure whatever the story is, it's true and accurate. Most publications uphold a high level of integrity when it comes to journalism. There are, unfortunately, some publications that do not separate ad dollars and accurate journalism, but those publications are far and few between and your PR team will know which publications to avoid contacting for that reason. Bottom line, when an unbiased, third party is able to appreciate your company, product or service, the public will be far more likely to value it as well.

Advertisements on popular TV, online or print media outlets can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a few million. And that's for just one advertisement and you better hope that's the one TV station, Web site or magazine that your prospects are reading. On the flip side, PR campaigns can cost a few hundred to several thousand dollars each month, but that can translate to dozens or even hundreds of media mentions in various outlets and across all mediums, including print, online and broadcast. When you're weighing the biggest bang for your buck, PR will always prove to be more cost-effective in generating exposure.

Your business marketing strategy is the single biggest factor which determines the success or failure of your business. It doesn't matter if you sell widgets from an office in your house, or run a multi-million dollar company. It is just that simple. Get it right and you prosper. Get it wrong and you go the way of many others who have failed before you. This is true on main street, and on the internet as well. No matter what you do, the proper business marketing strategy essentials remain the same, only the application of them has to adapt to the needs of your particular business. Do not confuse business marketing with simple advertising. Your business marketing strategy should affect every aspect of how you run your business. It is the heart and soul of a successful business.