Seven Steps You Can Take to Capitalize on the Mobile Video Viewing Shift

With consumers migrating to mobile devices to view video content, mobile video marketing has become a necessary component for video communications. First and foremost, video content needs to be optimized for the mobile environment. Also, since viewers access mobile video across different devices, the screen size needs to be considered. By now you—marketer, brand manager, PR practitioner, executive—have figured out that in this new, content-driven, multichannel environment your brand is now, among other things, a content publisher.

You've also likely figured out how important and effective video as a medium can be for engaging consumers and bringing them into your sales funnel. And just when you had the whole YouTube video, Web surfing thing figured out, the ground beneath your marketing strategy shifted.

One trend is moving faster than most: Through apps or the mobile Web, on a phone or tablet, consumers are watching more and more video on mobile, and now you have some figuring out to do lest you get stuck in the last century.

With more than half of US consumers using smartphones, the time to plan your mobile content strategy is now. Here are seven steps to get started.

Further more information at Marketingprofs

By Frank Sinton

Feedback Acarre Community Media

Execute Your Video Content Strategy in 8 Steps

When deploying a content strategy for B2B video marketing, the goal is to maximize viewer impact measured through analyzing a campaign's ROI. One video per message generally works the best. Selecting the correct distribution channels is also a key factor. With B2B video communications campaigns, it is important to consider resources beyond the YouTube video sharing site (since many organizations block direct access to YouTube). In my previous post, “Using Video Content to Drive Brand Awareness, Leads, and Sales,” I took you through the first four steps of the definitive B2B video marketing strategy.

In this second post, we focus on executing your video content strategy, maximizing impact, measuring results, and ensuring that you create sustainable campaigns that add long-term value to your organization.

Step 1: Execution

Now that you’ve completed the planning stages for your video content campaign, including defining the objectives, target market, video style, length, and tone, it’s time you got the ball rolling and produced your first video. But what steps do you need to take?

The first thing you do is take your overall campaign and break it down into single, discrete messages, and hold yourself to one per video, where possible.

For more to review this post, please visit ContentMarketing

By Mark Walker

Repost Acarre Community Media

Facebook Video Ads ("Could Appear In Newsfeeds As Soon As July")

The online battle for TV ad dollars continues to heat up. Yahoo, AOL, YouTube among others, and now Facebook are all facebook-logo-newaiming their sites on the burgeoning online video ad market and a share of TV’s outsized ad budgets. As first reported in December, Facebook has been shopping new video ad units to agencies. Now it appears Facebook will be bringing video ads to users’ newsfeeds in July, according to The Financial Times.

The video ads will appear in newsfeeds on desktop computers as well tablets and smartphones and be set to autoplay on mute. If a user clicks on a video ad, it will restart with sound. Facebook is reportedly seeking CPMs in the “low $20s”, a bit lower than the average $29 CPM of broadcast television according to MagnaGlobal.

Among the concerns from analysts and others are how users will react to having yet another form of advertising in their newsfeeds, as well as how the load time of video will affect user experience on mobile devices. Performance on mobile is of particular concern for Facebook as it works to allay investor worries that it has not moved quickly enough to monetize mobile traffic. The company showed a 54% increase year-over-year in mobile users in its Q1 2013 earnings, and mobile advertising accounted for roughly 30% of advertising revenue during the quarter. Yet, the company’s stock price has been hovering under $30 since February.

For more information this post, please visit Marketingland

By Ginny Marvin

Repost Acarre Community Media

The Online Advertising for 2013 part 2

Problems of online advertising

A. Privacy

The use of online advertising has implications on the privacy and anonymity of users. Hosting the banner images on its servers and using third-party cookies, the advertising company is able to track the browsing of users across these two sites.

Third-party cookies can be blocked by most browsers to increase privacy and reduce tracking by advertising and tracking companies without negatively affecting the user's Web experience. Many advertising operators have an opt-out option to behavioral advertising, with a generic cookie in the browser stopping behavioral advertising.

B. Malware

There is also a class of advertising methods which are considered unethical and may even be illegal. These include external applications which alter system settings (such as a browser's home page), spawn pop-ups, and insert advertisements into non-affiliated webpages. Such applications are usually labelled as spyware or adware. They may mask their questionable activities by performing a simple service, such as displaying the weather or providing a search bar. These programs are designed to dupe the user, acting effectively as Trojan horses. These applications are commonly designed so as to be difficult to remove or uninstall. The ever-increasing audience of online users, many of whom are not computer-savvy, frequently lack the knowledge and technical ability to protect themselves from these programs.

C. Limitations

• One of the challenges that Internet marketers face (as does the general public) is that many internet products are outright scams or promoted with deception making it difficult to know which one is worth buying. This is especially the case with products that are supposed to train or aid Internet marketers in making money. While the quality of products has improved in the past few years, ethics are often still missing in online marketing. Many so-called money making products are "empty boxes" in which there is essentially nothing there, yet a buyer is to make money by reselling this empty box to others. Pyramid schemes are also still prevalent.
• The consumer is unable to physically feel or try on the product which can be a limitation for certain goods. However a survey of consumers of cosmetics products shows that email marketing can be used to interest a consumer in visiting a store to try a product or to speak with sales representatives; from here a purchase decision can be made 
• The marketer will not be able to use personal interaction to influence the audience as the marketing is completely based on the advertisement and the information that the advertisement might lead to (websites, blogs and other channels).

D. Security concerns

Information security is important both to companies and consumers that participate in online business. Many consumers are hesitant to purchase items over the Internet because they do not believe that their personal information will remain private. Some companies that purchase customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from their promotional redistribution, also known as opting out. However, many customers are unaware if and when their information is being shared, and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies if such activity occurs. Additionally, companies holding private information are vulnerable to data attacks and leaks. Internet browsing privacy is a related consumer concern. Web sites routinely capture browsing and search history which can be used to provide targeted advertising. Privacy policies can provide transparency to these practices. Spyware prevention software can also be used to shield the consumer.

E. Ethics

Online advertising encompasses a range of types of advertising, some of which are deployed ethically and some are not. Some websites use large numbers of advertisements, including flashing banners that distract the user, and some have misleading images designed to look like error messages from the operating system, rather than advertisements. Websites that unethically use online advertising for revenue frequently do not monitor what advertisements on their website link to, allowing advertisements to lead to sites with malicious software or audience-inappropriate material. The ethical propriety of advertisers that use web searches for competitors' brands to trigger their own ads has been questioned.

Some argue that website operators who ethically use online advertising typically use a small number of advertisements that are not intended to distract or irritate the user, and do not detract from the design and layout of their websites.Many website owners deal directly with companies that want to place ads, meaning that the website linked to by the advertisement is legitimate.

The use of technologies like Adobe Flash in online advertising has led to some users disabling it in their browsers, or using browser plug-ins like Adblock or NoScript. Many sites use centralized advertising services whose advertisement may be blocked as a side effect of security and privacy measures, because the services require JavaScript and cross-site requests to function, while such features are often not necessary to use the sites and are a potential source of vulnerabilities.

Some companies perform customer engagement studies in online marketing to insure consumer satisfaction, through the use of online compliance centers, building and deploying fraud detection tools, while inspecting websites and publishers to insure website pages offer the highest degree of information security and compliance with Can Spam Requirements.

For any question or suggestion. I hope we can share about tips internet business. thanks

Source : Encyclopedia, SFI- Marketing Group

The Online Advertising for 2013 part 1

Competitive advantage over traditional advertising

One major benefit of online advertising is the immediate publishing of information and content that is not limited by geography or time. To that end, the emerging area of interactive advertising presents fresh challenges for advertisers who have hitherto adopted an interruptive strategy.
Another benefit is the efficiency of the advertiser's investment. Online advertising allows for the customization of advertisements, including content and posted websites. For example, AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdSense enable ads to be shown on relevant web pages or alongside search results.

Types of Internet marketing

Internet marketing is broadly divided into the following types:

• Display advertising: the use of web banners or banner ads placed on a third-party website or blog to drive traffic to a company's own website and increase product awareness.
• Search engine marketing (SEM): a form of marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of either paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion, or through the use of free search engine optimization techniques also known as organic result.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
• Social media marketing: the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Email marketing: directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using electronic mail.
• Referral marketing: a method of promoting products or services to new customers through referrals, usually word of mouth.
• Affiliate marketing: a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.
• Content marketing: the process of creating specialized content such as infographics, blog articles and ebooks to attract more customers.
• Inbound marketing: involves creating and freely sharing informative content as a means of converting prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers.
• Video marketing: This type of marketing specializes in creating videos that engage the viewer into a buying state by presenting information in video form and guiding them to a product or service online video is increasingly becoming more popular among internet users and companies are seeing it as a viable method of attracting customers.

Revenue models

The three most common ways in which online advertising is purchased are CPM, CPC, and CPA.

• CPM (Cost Per Mille) or CPT (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)

• CPV (Cost Per Visitor)

• CPV (Cost Per View)

• CPC (Cost Per Click) or PPC (Pay per click)

• CPA (Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition) or PPF (Pay Per Performance) The following are common variants of CPA:
  • CPL (Cost Per Lead)
  • CPS (Cost Per Sale), PPS (Pay Per Sale), or CPO (Cost Per Order)

• eCPM: Effective CPM or eCPM

• Fixed Cost

• Cost per conversion

Geo-targeting

In Internet marketing, geotargeting is the methods of determining the geolocation of a website visitor with geolocation software, and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as latitude and longitude, country, region or state, city, metro code or zip code, organization, Internet Protocol (IP) address, ISP, and other criteria.

Though, as seen above, the large majority of online advertising has a cost that is brought about by usage or interaction of an ad, there are a few other methods of advertising online that only require a one time payment. The Million Dollar Homepage is a very successful example of this. Visitors were able to pay $1 per pixel of advertising space and their advert would remain on the homepage for as long as the website exists with no extra costs.

• Floating ad: An ad which moves across the user's screen or floats above the content.
• Expanding ad: An ad which changes size and which may alter the contents of the webpage.
• Polite ad: A method by which a large ad will be downloaded in smaller pieces to minimize the disruption of the content being viewed
• Wallpaper ad: An ad which changes the background of the page being viewed.
• Trick banner: A banner ad that looks like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert.
• Pop-up: A new window which opens in front of the current one, displaying an advertisement, or entire webpage.
• Pop-under: Similar to a Pop-Up except that the window is loaded or sent behind the current window so that the user does not see it until they close one or more active windows.
• Video ad: similar to a banner ad, except that instead of a static or animated image, actual moving video clips are displayed. This is the kind of advertising most prominent in television, and many advertisers will use the same clips for both television and online advertising.
• Map ad: text or graphics linked from, and appearing in or over, a location on an electronic map such as on Google Maps.
• Mobile ad: an SMS text or multi-media message sent to a cell phone.
• Superstitial: An animated ad on a Web page from Enliven Marketing Technologies. It uses video, 3D content or Flash to provide a TV-like advertisement. Used to be known as Unicast Transitional ads as they were originally made by Unicast Communications but the company was acquired by Viewpoint Corporation in 2004, which then changed its name to Enliven in 2008.
• Interstitial ad: a full-page ad that appears before a user reaches their original destination.
• Frame ad: an ad that appeared within an HTML frame, usually at the top with the site logo. As the user browsed the site, the frame would not change.

In addition, ads containing streaming video or streaming audio are becoming very popular with advertisers.
 Source : Blog, Encyclopedia, SFI- Marketing Group

The UK affiliate market is still growing - it was worth £4bn in 2009, up from £3.8bn in 2008, with over £240m being paid in affiliate commissions (source: Econsultancy). With such high stakes it's an unsurprisingly competitive market where mindshare matters.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a popular marketing model, using 3rd party websites to drive traffic to your website in return for a commission on any sales generated. It's a low risk investment because, set-up and admin costs aside, you pay for sales, not clicks. This enables you to set commission levels that work with your margin structure to control your ROI.
A traditional view of affiliate marketing assumes a push-pull exchange with brand owners creating content/offers and their affiliates promoting these assets, usually via an affiliate network like Affiliate Window or Commission Junction.
However, the smart money is on partnership, viewing an affiliate as a strategic business partner with whom you can build a long-term, mutually beneficial commercial relationship. This article takes a peek at why relationship building should be the cornerstone of your affiliate program.

Why is partnership important?

Most affiliates with significant visitor numbers (let's assume over 5000 visits per month) are running their websites as a full-time business. It matters to them who they work with and how seriously their partners take them.
Put yourself in their shoes. Brand X hasn't spoken to you since you joined their program; all you get are generic promotion banners to put on your website. The eCommerce Manager at Brand Y e-mails you every week with trading updates and special offers. She calls at least once a month to find out what you're up to and how business is doing. You get to know her; she asks what she can do to drive more traffic and sales via your website.
Who would you give more affiliate love to? It's not rocket science but it takes care and effort to nurture lasting relationships. The power of affiliate marketing lies in working together to produce compelling, creative offers for your affiliate partners' customers.

How do you build partnerships?

Whilst any human relationship demands the ability to respond to opportunities and issues as they arise, structuring your communication will help you manage your affiliate base.
The following are proven techniques:

• Publish a monthly newsletter to your affiliate base to keep them updated with your business news
• Send personal e-mails to your top affiliates at least once per month - the subject should suit the demands of the partnership
• Call each of your top affiliates every month to see how they're doing and find out what else you can provide them to help them drive traffic to your website
• Produce fresh campaign assets every month to give your affiliates fresh content to show their customers
• Run special promotions unique to top affiliates to reward them for their support
• If you're lucky enough to have a few affiliates that deliver a chunky revenue stream, go and visit them every now and then - take them out to lunch, buy them a few drinks and get to know them better
• Attend industry events where affiliates and merchants come together to discuss what's going on - you get to meet the people behind the websites and you learn what other people are doing
• Get stuck into affiliate forums and discussion groups online to get your name out there and to learn - Affiliates4u is a great place to start

Whatever you do, make sure that you maintain the personal element to communication. It's helpful to use a framework to structure affiliate management but the framework should be used to support your efforts, not to define them.

With which affiliates should you build relationships?

You've got thousands of affiliates - have you got to do this with every single one? Not unless you want to cry yourself to sleep! The challenge is to identify best performing affiliates as well as those who you think have the greatest potential to add value and drive relevant traffic to your website.
Finding the best performers is easy - look at your affiliate reports to see who drives the most traffic and how the traffic is converting to revenue.
Defining which websites have the greatest potential is a bit more involved. First, you should define what makes a great website for your brand - is it audience reach, or quality of user experience, or both or something else? Once you have these criteria, each time you vet a new affiliate application, sense check against the list and if the website ticks the boxes, add the website to a list of ‘ones to watch'.
There's no hard and fast rule for the maximum number of affiliate partners with whom to maintain a direct relationship but it's advisable to restrict this to 10-20 for each person in your affiliate team.

How can you manage an ever-growing affiliate base?

The best way to manage your affiliate base is to divide it into logical segments:

• Create a segment for Super Affiliates, those that regularly drive the most traffic and revenue
• Set a reward structure that incentivises improved performance e.g. partners in the Super Affiliate segment will be rewarded with a higher commission of 15%.
• Set criteria for each segment so that affiliates can see what they have to achieve to progress to the next segment e.g. each affiliate must generate 50 or more sales per month to join the Super Affiliate segment.
• Run tactical and seasonal campaigns alongside your core commission structure to drive traffic and revenue e.g. offer a £100 cash bonus for the first affiliate to generate £500 revenue for your new product range.
• Produce campaign assets (banners, text, video, landing pages etc) that are global (i.e. available to every affiliate) and local (i.e. only available to specific segments) to improve your targeting
• Explore the potential of optimised landing pages for a few of your affiliates
• Review your affiliate base at least every 3 months to prune - remove websites that no longer meet your partnership criteria (but make sure you inform the website owners as to why)
• Use your web analytics, not just affiliate reports - dive into the detail of how affiliate traffic performs in comparison to other digital channels and look at how you can improve your website to drive conversion

Conclusion

Make sure that you stay in touch with your affiliates. Send e-mail newsletters to every affiliate partner informing them of business news, latest offers, new products and any changes to your affiliate program. Don't forget that behind each affiliate website is a person and most people like a little bit of attention. For more information visit at internet advertising bureau UK.


Published : WEBCREDIBLE.CO.UK
Republish : Acarre Community Media

Industrial Video Marketing Strategies - Part I (Reprint)

More smart industrial marketers are recognizing the power of online video marketing. The benefits are numerous, not the least of which is a significant leap for your website in terms of SEO. What use to be a marketing tool reserved for the BtoC space has finally migrated over to manufacturing and other industrial companies as they seek new ways to engage with their online audience.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is really not a huge difference in how an industrial company should approach a video marketing campaign as opposed to a retail business. Of course there will be a shift in the creative approach and the viral marketing strategy. Industrial business video content will no doubt be much more conservative and few industrial companies can depend on social media sites like Facebook to spread their video virally. This is where the differences end, however.

Just as with any other marketing initiative, the core fundamentals of establishing goals and objectives will ensure a more successful outcome and provide insight into ROI. Remember that goals are the end results you are predicting you will achieve. For example, a goal might be "improve brand image and credibility." Objectives are the steps you must take that will enable you to achieve your goals. They are generally short-term and might include items like "post one new video per month on all social media sites and website," or "obtain 15 specific online mentions per video each month."

Begin with this process and your efforts will be much more purposeful:

1.Establish goals that, if achieved, will be worth the investment you're making.

2.Establish objectives that will enable you to achieve the goals.

3.Measure the achieved goals against your investment to determine ROI.

Just remember that whether BtoC or BtoB, the videos you produce must appeal to YOUR consumer. You may be selling to businesses, but the video will be viewed by individuals within those businesses. Understanding their interests, needs, and problems will allow you to provide videos that get watched, commented on, and shared.

In Part II we will discuss specific strategies for content, viral marketing, and SEO for industrial videos.
For more information about this on http://www.marketectsinc.com.

Author : Kerry O'Malley
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Can Mobile Marketing Benefit From Mobile Commerce? (Reprint)

According to the latest predictions, mobile marketing will hog the limelight in the coming years as far as the field of digital marketing is concerned. This is primarily because more and more companies are realizing that there is a lot of potential in this particular arena. With the passage of time, the attention has been slowly shifted from the computer to the mobile phone. Mobile commerce or m-commerce services are nothing but buying and selling of products and services through the mobile phones. They make use of the wireless application provider sites to reach out to their audience.

Now, as far as mobile marketing is concerned, it includes the ability to zero down on a particular group of consumers. They could belong to a particular age group, geographical region as well as educational background. This specific medium of targeting the customers is extremely beneficial in this age of smart phones. If you are the owner of a business, you have to look for subtle ways in which you can promote your company. If you follow the method of texting, you will reap the benefits of viral marketing as the recipients of the messages usually forward them in case they are offer or discount coupons. It saves you a lot of time as well as money because you do not need to create a promotional message and the text can be sent to a large number of consumers in a matter of minutes.

A fact that has been established from a latest research is that, the paper coupons have taken a beating from their mobile counterparts as far as the redemption rates are concerned. For the mobile coupons, the redemption rates are more than 50% whereas for the paper coupons, it hardly touches the 2% mark. This explains why mobile coupons have become so popular these days amongst the retailers as well as the advertisers.

M-commerce has been able to successfully overtake e-commerce by enabling the users to break away the limitations imposed by wired means of communication. Thanks to these technological advancements, m-commerce services have been picked as the preferred form of transaction.

As far as the buyers are concerned, they can now purchase goods online even if they do not have access to a computer. Be it a hotel booking or a purchasing a movie ticket, it can be done in a matter of minutes through the hand-held device called the mobile phone.

In case you are the owner of a business, with the help of m-commerce services you can carry on with the transactions while you are on the move. You do not have to carry a heavy laptop along for such purposes anymore.

With the arrival of mobile commerce

, buying, selling as well as promotion of products and services has indeed evolved for the better. More and more people therefore are using this particular means to fulfill their marketing as well as sales requirements.

Ashley Forrester is a prolific writer. She is an expert in the domain of mobile commerce and has authored several articles on mobile commerce and mobile marketing trends. For more information visit http://www.cart2mobile.com.

Author : Ashley Forrester
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Questions to Assess Your Notepad Design (Reprint)

Are your custom notepads truly fit for marketing purposes? Notepad printing has of course been used for many purposes, and marketing is one of the more alternative but surprisingly effective uses for them. However not all types of notepad printing can be used for marketing.

So, to help you determine if your own color notepads are good for marketing, here are the five basic assessment questions that you should try to answer. Just go through the steps below and you should see if your custom notepad printing will work.

1. Is your header logo and design distinct? – For a color notepad to be used for marketing, its header logo and design should of course be distinct. This allows people using the notepad to recognize and identify the maker of the notepad, and hopefully trust it more in the future.

So you should always assess if your own color notepads have header logos and designs that are distinct and different from the rest. It must have something really original so that people won’t ignore it as they use the notepad. If it does not have that distinct header element, then you might as well not use them for marketing.

2. Is your design in full color? – A good color notepad for marketing is always printed in full color. Full color notepad printing allows designers to use full color graphics in their designs for the logos, headers, watermarks and footers in the layout. So you should ask yourself if your printing options for notepad printing are set for full color or for single color prints. Make sure that it is set for full color notepad printing if you really want you use those custom pads for marketing purposes.

3. Does your notepad have a call to action? – The next question to ask is if your notepads have a “call to action”. For those new to marketing, a call to action in a printed or visual marketing medium is the part of the print where you convince people to respond to the marketing message. This is crucial for the print to produce any kind of result in marketing. Typically this is something like a statement that says “buy now!” or “contact us now!” Your color notepads must have this if they are truly aimed for marketing. So check and see if you have this element.

4. Is the size of the notepad easily mobile and easily kept? – Also, you should ask yourself if your color notepads have the proper size and dimensions for it to be mobile and be easily kept. Marketing notepads must always be small enough so that people can easily carry them around. This allows for better distribution for marketing purposes and for better acceptance by the market in general. So make sure that your custom notepad’s size is appropriate for a more mobile marketing campaign. Anything smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches should be good.

5. Is your notepad easily functional and useful? – Finally and perhaps most importantly, you should ask yourself if your marketing notepads are functional and useful. If your designs take too much space and make the notepad hardly writable then your marketing notepads fail. Make sure that your notepads have ample space for note taking so that they can still be relevant and useful for your market.

That is your 5 assessment questions for marketing notepads. If your custom notepad designs pass these questions then you have a good print design there for proper marketing. For more article please visit http://www.unitedgraphics.com

Author : Brent Durell
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Mobile Text Message Marketing

Marketing is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. Without a marketing strategy and targeted advertising, many businesses simply do not make it. Many business owners think that simply having a store front or running an ad in the yellow pages is all they need to do and soon realize, it's not that easy.

In today's world, businesses big or small are finding more and more challenges when it comes to traditional marketing strategies. Running an ad in a local publication or paying for a spot in the yellow pages, just doesn't produce the same results they once achieved and are very expensive.

The reason why this is happening is that we are in a rapid changing communication age. With the birth of the Internet and number of internet-ready cellphones expanding globally, the effects on marketing are tremendous and are taking the marketing challenges to a new level. International businesses large or small are facing the same challenges.

The technical requirements associated with setting up a website, understanding social media, creating campaigns that will promote brand and convert traffic into buyers, are all part of the requirements necessary to market a business in today's world. The problem is many business owners need to focus on running the business and do not have the time, can't manage, nor have all the skillset required to create and manage an effective marketing program.

One new marketing method that will have a tremendous impact on businesses globally has to do with mobile text marketing. Mobile text marketing targets cell phone users in a very unique way. Similar to the time when e-mail marketing was brand new, mobile text marketing has a much higher response rate. With response rates at 90% plus, business owners need pay attention and incorporate this strategy into the overall marketing strategy.

There are a lot of reasons for the high response rate in mobile text marketing. Here are a few:

* When a user receives a text message they almost never ignore it due to the alert features on cell phones.

* It's considered more personal than an e-mail because it is used primarily by personal friends and family. So, the user always responds to a new text.

* Most businesses have not yet utilized this strategy so; the opportunity is here right now to be on the cutting edge of this new marketing concept.

* Users do not ignore the messages when received.

* Messages are short and to the point.

* Newer cell phones display the message right on the front of the screen.

* Users almost always have their cell phone on them.

* Cell phones do not require internet access to receive a text..

* Almost every cell phone made today has text messaging built in.

The most important factor is that cell phone users out number internet users worldwide. With the rapid increase in internet-capable phones, there will also be a proportional increase in a business' ability to market to a cell phone user.

For those who don't know, here is how mobile text marketing works in general. Let's say you want to run a campaign to offer a discount for a product, service, or an event. As a business owner, you would target your existing customer base first. You would offer a coupon or discount, when a user sends a text message from their cell phone to your advertised campaign word. An example of this would look something like the following:

To receive a discount today, text "specialoffer" to 41242

What happens is the customer wants to receive a discount, so they text the word to the number. Then they immediately receive a response back with a promo code or message authorizing a discount. They are also informed they will receive future discount offers and can opt out anytime. Your customers are ok with this since they are already patrons of your business. This process all happens automatically.

Now, a month later you decide you want to have a sale or run a special on the weekend. If you didn't have a mobile marketing strategy, and in order to let your customers know you're having a sale, you would need to run an ad in the newspaper, pay for ads on TV, run an ad on the radio, send mail outs or some other means to let them know. This is expensive and takes time to plan and the customers response time may not coincide with time advertised was received.

But, as a smart business owner, you simply send out a text message to your existing customers and because you know they will read it, your sales are a success. You managed to increase business with the least amount of effort and greatest response.

With traditional marketing, the customer would need to read their junk mail, newspaper ads, or be in front of the TV at the exact time your ad ran. But with a cell phone in hand, your customer receives your promotion. You didn't need to pay for expensive ad materials or hope the customer was in the right place at the right time.

Did I say this was powerful, cutting edge stuff?

There is an added benefit to marketing this way. Consumers do not receive junk mail from you and you won't kill a tree to run an ad in the local paper.

Did I mention it is good for the environment?

In today's world, a customer will jump at the opportunity to do something good for the environment. This is especially true when it doesn't require much effort from them. I think most of us would be willing to receive a promo code to our cell phone in comparison to a bunch of junk mail at home that fills up our mailbox and usually gets tossed in the garbage and then finds its way to our landfills!

There is also another advantage over traditional advertising. I call it the on demand factor. This makes it a must strategy for restaurant owners or businesses that operate in a daily entertainment industry.

Here is an example of the on demand marketing factor. Let's say you own a restaurant. You expect the coming weekend lunch crowd to be slow due to an event in the area during that time of day. So, you have a message sent out to your mobile list letting them know they can get a free appetizer at lunch - but for this weekend only. You do this two hours before lunch to a hundred people on your list. Then an hour later you decide that the response wasn't enough to fill the seats up completely and you believe you will have a few open seats. So, you quickly have another message sent to another hundred people.

The result:

An hour later you have a small line at the door. You managed to let your customers know about your special for the weekend only. You also filled the seats and maximized your business without over promoting. You wouldn't want customers that would have come to your restaurant without a promo code to be turned away due to an extra-long wait.

On demand marketing lends itself to maximum flexibility in timing and number variations. There is no other marketing strategy that has this type of on demand capability. I wonder what happened to the other restaurants in the area that didn't have a mobile marketing strategy.

To this point we have only targeted existing customers. You can build your customer base in a more powerful way. All of the traditional marketing methods still work and can augment your mobile marketing strategy. It is important to not be tied to other marketing channels for all your marketing needs.

One reason to not be handcuffed to traditional marketing channels is that they dictate to you the options and the cost for advertisements. Most of them can be expensive because of the media that must be designed for the ads. The biggest factor is that the consumers of a particular media channel belong to that media company. But as a mobile text marketer, you can place your mobile text campaign word on printed ads, radio ads, and TV ads. This will enable you to capture more leads. When the consumer opts in to your mobile marketing list, you can then market to them over and over without paying the original media company another dime.

Building a list is one of the most important business strategies you can have. A mobile marketing list is the most effective.

Mobile text marketing may not work for every business. There are a few businesses where this strategy is very exciting. Here is a list of some businesses that could benefit:

1. Restaurants

2. Salons & Spas

3. Bars & Night Clubs

4. Florist

5. Theaters

6. Vacation Rentals

7. Events and Nightly Entertainment

8. Department Stores

9. Any service that the consumer does regularly

10. Most business that advertises a lot.

As you can see there are a lot of businesses that could save money on their advertising expenses while increasing their ROI.

So, how does a business owner get started?

Well if your business is a big brand, you can lease your own short code for $500 to $1000 a month. A short code is the number the campaign word is texted to. You will also need to pay web programmer money to develop a campaign management system to receive and respond to opt-ins. This can cost thousands of dollars to develop.

Option two; you can contact a mobile marketing consultant such as Rapid Action Marketing or Mobile Helpers and they will help tailor a marketing strategy to the size of your company and manage your campaigns for you. Plus they help build your list and leaving you to run the business. When you want to send a special offer out to your mobile list, you simply call and they will take it from there. They also implement various techniques to help increase opt-ins for your campaigns.

There are also many mobile text marketing platforms available. Most are tailored towards the big boys of marketing and priced accordingly. There are two in particular that I have found that offer all the features in the expensive services but at a price starting around $15 a month and as much as $1000 plus per month.

For the mid-size business, I recommend option two as the text marketing firm can get your mobile marketing campaign started right. But, for the smaller business a self-management option maybe the only option.

They will help tailor a marketing strategy to the size of your company and manage your campaigns for you. Plus they help build your list and leaving you to run the business. When you want to send a special offer out to your mobile list, you simply call and they will take it from there. They also implement various techniques to help increase opt-ins for your campaigns.

There are also many mobile text marketing platforms available. Most are tailored towards the big boys of marketing and priced accordingly. There are two in particular that I have found that offer all the features in the expensive services but at a price starting around $15 a month and as much as $1000 plus per month.For the mid-size business, I recommend option two as the text marketing firm can get your mobile marketing campaign started right. But, for the smaller business a self-management option maybe the only option. See Author Bio for recommended services.

To get more information on how to market your business via text message marketing. Please visit  http://wwwyeptext.com

Author : Eric Sullivan
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Developing A Strategy For Real Estate Mobile Marketing

Realtors are constantly seeking new ways to control business costs, in a slow market. Placing print advertisements, and printing up fliers to leave at listings, may eat a sizable portion of a realtor's budget. Fortunately, real estate mobile marketing, as part of an overall digital strategy, provides a no-paper, low-cost avenue for reaching potential clients. This type of marketing also helps realtors to be more proactive with advertising, rather than reactive.

Mobile marketing is defined as communicating with customers via a mobile device. This capability appeals to a clientele that is rapidly growing more technologically sophisticated. Realtors who have mobile capability may assist buyers twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This availability gives the realtor a competitive advantage, in the recruitment and retention of clients.

Realtors are set back in a reactive position with print ads, and even with websites. In both cases, realtors have to wait for clients to contact them about the property. Even fliers will never be picked up unless a client actually sets up a property showing. Ideally, realtors should be able to proactively market their listings to potential clients. Mobile capability will give realtors a platform in which to be more assertive, while, at the same time, saving money.

Digital advertising may be realized in a number of ways. When realtors list a new property, for instance, they may choose to send the information to clients, using text messaging. Or, when an open house is about to begin, realtors could sent a text message to interested clients in their database.

Realtors should also take advantage of SMS. For instance, realtors could establish a service, in which clients could text a keyword to a specific number, and then receive property listing information, right on their smart phone. SMS would replace the hassle of printing and carrying fliers to every property site, producing a savings of both time and money, while still delivering a valuable service.

Advertising is only one aspect of an overall digital strategy. Many clients use their phones to look at property information online. For this reason, realtors should ensure that their websites are easily navigated with a smart phone, and that they do not publish too much Flash content. Additionally, good visuals on a website are important, and realtors may even consider adding a video element to their pages.

Of course, there are even less expensive alternatives for digital strategy. One idea is for realtors to list homes on real estate websites, like Zillow or Trulia. Both of these websites feature high-quality mobile applications, and are rich in visual features. Another idea is for realtors to use social media to communicate with their client base.

Real estate mobile marketing gives realtors new, fresh ways to reach out to potential clients. Web and phone-based services offer convenience to clients, at a low cost to realtors, thus helping them to recruit and retain more prospective buyers. Utilizing all of the capabilities of computers and smart phones allows realtors to match their services to the technological savvy of their client base. Click here for more information http://interactive-mobile.com.

Author : Dave Spearson
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Know How Popup Advertising Plays an Important Role in Internet Marketing (Reprint)

Popup advertising can be very useful depending on how they are used. Most of the internet marketing experts and companies use this advertising strategy for obtaining the best results. The primary purpose of this method is to pull up the web traffic to a particular promotional website. Apart from this, popup ads will also help the business to draw more email addresses, which will be important for generating good contact lists and customer data base. This will in return help the company for email advertisement campaign. Usually, this is considered as a form of online advertisement. These are some of the major reason why it used in the internet marketing. When popup advertising is used in online marketing, it will help the website to maximize the distribution of the product information to many people. The usage of this online marketing strategy can become useful, useless or even harmful to your website. Therefore, if you are planning to use this technique for your website, it is very important to understand the process thoroughly and then use it for obtaining effective results.

The main aim of the popup advertising is to attract more web traffic to a promotional website. This could be done when certain website will be viewed by the visitors. When a visitor will visit a website, a pop up window will be allowed to appear. These ads will convince the visitor for visiting certain website for getting some freebies. Moreover, they will also provide useful information for the visitors. When the visitor is bound to visit the website, he has to click on the ad. However, when you are using such popup ads, for your website, it is very important to make sure that you are using the right graphics and words. In some cases, the visitor will neglect the pop up ads if it is very bright or in striking color. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that the ad is created in the right way, which suits your business. In order to enhance the ad, you can also give it a blinking effect. The pop up ads should be simple in appearance yet attractive for the visitors. The first glace only should convenience the eye of the visitor.

Another great advantage of using popup advertising for web advertising is that, it will help the company to generate email addresses, which are very useful for list building. When you are using pop up ads, you will be able to use it either non-permissive or in opt-in way. In opt in process, the pop up window will appear when the user is about to go away the promotional website. In some times, it will also appear when the visitor is halfway by visiting it. These pop up ads will ask the user whether he or she needs to receive newsletters about the products or services they are promoting. Here the visitor has the power to either enter his email address or even to neglect it. However, this depends on the choice of the user. When you are surfing on the web, you will be able to find pop up windows that will even provide you information on wellness, health as well as the latest trends. These ads are more informational than promotional.

Non permissive is another option of generating the email addresses with the help of pop up ads. In this list building process, the pop up window will come out by offering downloadable useful applications and unbelievable freebies, as an online advertising process. This process is also some times known as banner ads. Or  more article about this please visit http://dylank.williams

Author :  Dylan K. Williams
Repost : Acarre Community Media

The Art of Advertising and Branding (repost)

Nowadays, it is quite fascinating how companies from different industries try to constantly outdo one another. If you are not observant enough, try checking out the all the creative advertising and branding strategies they use to their advantage just to gain at least a few significant steps ahead from their competitors. Its a constant battle on who gets to most patronage from consumers, which will equate to a bigger market share that would ultimately mean generating higher sales.

The art of advertising and branding is quite complicated than an ordinary person would normally think. All concepts are painstakingly developed and deliberated, researches and endless surveys are made to determine the markets current preferences. This is all geared towards making an intelligent forecast and calculation on the consumers reactions to certain products, and what would be the most effective approach in introducing such product in the market. In advertising and branding, nothing can be attributed to simple stroke of luck or an instant, phenomenal success. Everything is a product of grueling work. That is why advertising think tanks employs an elite team of highly creative people to conceptualize and ensure a certain products success in the market.

So how can one correctly gauge the victory or failure of any advertising and branding effort? Well, its quite simple, really. You can try showing a certain image, logo, color combination, a pattern or a tag line to a number of consumers, and if they are able to properly identify the product behind it, you one can say all marketing efforts have achieved a certain degree of success.

The very first key role of advertising and branding is generating awareness and recognition of a certain product or service. The second most important thing is to actually condition the minds of consumers as to what image you would want them to associate with the product, whether its cheap, durable, dependable, etc. This is the intrinsic value of advertising and branding and can be a little harder to determine. For example, if you mention toothpastes, what brand would first come to mind to consumers? Or if you ask for a most wonderful vacation hotspot, what would be the first word they would be likely blurt out? This does not necessarily mean they have actually been to that particular place, its their perception of the place for what they have seen and heard that made them believe its actually the top choice.

However, on the other side of the coin, once having established a very strong and powerful brand name, companies will find it hard to step away from its shadows. If in the future, the company would want to project a new image, or take on a different market position, it can be a difficult task to veer away for the identity that have been established. This would take another series of powerful marketing effort to transform the image of the product. It all whole new ball game, and a very expensive one at that. This is the beauty of advertising and branding. It is certainly the most powerful marketing tool that can make or break a company.

Author : mter9248
Repost : Acarre Community Media

How to Create Culturally Appealing Ads (repost edition)

Culture is the beliefs, social norms and traits of a group. Culture affects everyone in everything they do. From personal relationships to the business culture at work, the way we conduct ourselves is defined. Culture helps us understand each other.

When you are creating your advertising strategy, you need to think about your target audience and the cultures that define them. Cross-cultural communication tries to lessen the negative impact of clashing cultural differences by assembling common frameworks for people of different cultures to interact in. In the business world, cross cultural communication is used in areas such as negotiations, human resources, Web site design, and of course, advertising.

Products are generally designed and marketed at a domestic audience. When companies want to take their business international, they generally take their advertising campaign with them. However, the advertising campaign used domestically will rarely work internationally. Different perceptions and values exist abroad, which leaves the original advertising campaign obsolete. Therefore, it is vital to any cross-cultural campaign to understand the cultures you are going to advertise to.

Here are a few things to consider when launching a cross-cultural advertising campaign.

Language. Okay, duh. You know that there could be language barriers or nuances that need to be worked out to get your message across. You should consult with a native speaker, if possible, to check that none of your language is offensive and means what you think it means.

Even the big guys make this kind of mistake. For instance, Ford marketed the Pinto in Brazil. Sales were falling rapidly and they did not know why until someone told them that Brazilians did not want to drive a car whose name means ‘tiny male genitals’ in their language.

In addition, the ideas behind the language used needs to be suited for many cultures. Mainly religious cultures disapprove of one game manufacturer’s slogan to “Challenge Everything.” Religious cultures do not challenge their religious leaders and their gods.

The way you communicate. How you present information can make cultures cringe or accept your message with open arms. For example, you can communicate explicitly or implicitly. Explicit advertising communication assumes the customer does not know any background information or anything related to the product. The United States uses explicit communication. Implicit advertising communication assumes the customer is well informed about the product and related topics, and that the customers will understand the message from what is implied. Japan uses implicit communication.

Colors, numbers and images. Just like colors can mean something to gangs, in different cultures, colors have meanings. For instance, in China, red is considered a lucky color. In Japan, black is considered unlucky. If you use color printing, or even if you do not by using the standard black and white motif, be careful where you use these colors.

Numbers can also be considered unlucky or lucky. In the United States, the number 13 is considered unlucky and is not usually used in advertising. In Japan, the numbers four and nine are considered unlucky because of their pronunciation.

Images or photos can also offend cultural norms. Women in bathing suits on billboards are common in the United States, but infuriate people in the Middle East.

Consider cultural values. If a culture values its religion, it is best not to poke fun at any religious leader or image. For example, if you want to advertise in Asia, it is not a good idea to poke fun at Buddha. If a culture relies on and values family, do not downplay family values or promote individuality.

Author : Kayemarks
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Twitter Marketing To Boost Your Business Growth (reprint)

As the world’s second most popular social networking site, Twitter is a marketers’ dream.

However, some people still see Twitter as a teenager’s platform to share what they had for lunch and what they bought at the mall. The stigma around Twitter is that it’s all twaddle and nonsensical conversation, without any real-world bearing.

The majority of the Twitter users are far from that very small portion. From some of the top Fortune-500 companies and internationally ranked businesses, Twitter is a multifaceted media platform that provides marketers the ability to engage in real-time dialogue with customers, promote products and create buzz.

1. Have an Ear to the Chatter

The Internet is king. Whatever needs to be said, posted, shared or argued about is online. The world’s pulse is rhythmically beating to the tune of wi/fi. Twitter’s beauty is the fact that it’s an instantaneous connection to the collective conversation.

Twitter offers an incredible insight into what your customers, competitors and colleagues are thinking, saying and feeling about you, your products and your image.

2. Connect with customers

Twitter is the equivalent of sitting down with all of your customers at once over a cup of coffee. The intimacy and relationship building is what separates Twitter from any other social media available.

At its root, Twitter is a conversational tool.

Pose questions to your customers. Challenge the Twitterverse to improve your latest product. Listen to what they have to say about your customer service representatives. Provide a safe place for your customers to register complaints and genuine feedback.

3. Connect with businesses

Create new B2B connections through your Twitter page. The best way to begin these new relationships is to follow industry leaders and companies that you respect. Engage in thoughtful Twitter-banter, and as often as you can, ReTweet relevant Tweets.

Twitter broadens your scope: you’ll stumble upon industries that you may have never considered as a potential partner or inspiration for business practices.

4. Promote products

Though this list seems to be in no apparent order, but it rather is. These four reasons outline why marketers need to have a Twitter presence, but it’s also a blueprint for success and how you need to approach your account.

Promotion or creating a buzz should be the very last thing you tackle in the Twittersphere. After you’ve focused on listening and connecting, then promoting your products becomes a part of the conversation rather than a blatant or cheesy attempt to drive sales.

Twitter is an on-going conversation. Would you ever ask a new acquaintance to borrow their car on the very first meeting?

For more information at : Twitter Marketing For You

Source : Dhaval Joshi

SMS Marketing and its Benefits

Now days most of the people are having mobile phone. SMSs are very effective service at very low cost. Businesses can greatly benefited from bulk messages.The advantage of the mobile phones is that you can call as well as send messages by it. In fact SMS comes next to phone call now-a- days. It is a very easy process to connect with someone. Because of this SMS has become the means of marketing.
Sms marketing can be used to retain old customers and bringing new customers. Another advantage with SMS is that you can contact multiple recipients at the same time. SMS(short messaging services) is increasing at an enormous rate and has gained its popularity as a business tool. Quickly convey your message to groups of people in the same way as email. IM experts offer f lexible web based mobile marketing tools at the right price.
The major areas where SMS marketing is used are banks, drink firms, entertainment and leisure venues. Along with SMS, the MMS, which includes picture messaging, is also increasingly becoming an essential marketing tool by these organizations. This is possible after the development of needed software and tools that allows your SMS and MMS from your desktop through a web-based service or by using downloaded software. Through SMS marketing you can send large number of SMS at one time.
Benefits of SMS Marketing:
* Text messages are received virtually instantly making it the perfect solution for distributing information, whether that information is coupons for products, time-sensitive information, or anything else than can profit a business through timely delivery.
* As 94% of all text messages are read, your marketing message will be seen by almost all of the subscribers in your SMS program.
* Since your subscribers have opted-in to receiving your offers and promotional messages, you know they have an active interest in your business, and your products.
* With text messages sent and received within minutes of starting your campaign, you can use mobile marketing for ad-hoc purposes, such as driving traffic to your store on slow nights ("Make a purchase within x hours, and receive a xx % discount!"), or clearing out overstock items before end of month. This is the new "Blue Light Special"!
* Mobile marketing can be used for a wide range of purposes: announcing new product, one-day specials, new store openings, special events etc. Subscribers can be treated as an exclusive group for offers and information that only they have access to, increasing loyalty, purchases, and speed of communications.
Disadvantages of SMS Marketing: As far as advantages are concerned there are also some disadvantages of mobile marketing which are given below:
* Mobile phones are very personal items and some people dislike receiving marketing messages through them.
* Your message is limited to 160 characters, which isn't many words to explain your offer.
* SMS marketing has limited appeal to new businesses because of the problems associated with opt-in SMS lists.
So, SMS marketing is a good way to expand business for business people and also a useable tool for individuals to transfer their information to other person without wasting time & energy.

Source : Google, BlueOcean Tech, Articlecat

How to Get Your Website Known?

How to get your website known to more people? How to make others find your website? In this article, ten tips are introduced.

1. Do active promotion

You can promote your website by email, BBS and so on. If you see a chat room when you are browsing the Internet, get in and leave some messages about your home page. When you see the message, write some comments to promote your home page. You may use mass-email or participate in some large email list to publish the information of your home page so as to improve efficiency, but pay attention, do not use any bad language, or it will only give the opposite effect. Although these methods are time-consuming, they are most probably to get you direct effect.

2. Do search engine optimization
SEO aimed at large search engine top rank is preferred, such as Google, Baidu, etc. Choose your own focus, first grade or second grade optimization for music, mp3 download, movie, game, etc., or even keywords optimization. There are many websites that introduce SEO on the Internet, so here we do not discuss it in detail.

3. Build links
A good link can bring you hundreds of ip. If you can have a link on a quality website, high daily traffic is also possible. In addition, you may obtain PR value from the link. Many websites place great emphasis on this Google value.

4. Use blogs
The method to increase traffic through blogs is to sign up on each blog and then add the address of the website you want to promote in your account. After that, you have to write some articles that are worth to be searched. This method has been used a lot. A website has not only been rewarded with high PR value, but thousands of ip every day.

5. Bulk tools
Bulk tools do not have good efficiency, except that it is on those large websites, such as Baidu post bar, Sina, etc. If so, daily traffic of thousands of ip can be normal.

6. Bulk mail
There are a lot of techniques. Now some websites provide friend associated method to send email, this can be tried.

7. Malicious code, software or virus
Do not use such things! People will hate you!

8. Mass massage
It is applied to some game sites and chat rooms, the results being different.

9. Forum post
Post articles on forums, better with high weight. As long as you persist, daily traffic of thousands of ip is not difficult.

10. Get traffic service
Buy web traffic at http://www.buytrafficonline.com. It offers real and unique ip at low prices.

Source : Articlealley, Google

Read more at http://www.articlealley.com/article_2215190_3.html?ktrack=kcplink

How To Set Your Trade Show Exhibit Apart Using Portable Displays

For success at a trade show, it is important to choose a design for your exhibit that is as smart and original as your business. Creating a memorable presentation for trade show guests will increase the visibility of your products or services, attract new customers, and keep your competitors in awe. However, it takes more than an attractive modular setup to develop an appealing display. The use of portable trade show displays - including pop up displays, banner stands, and literature racks - is a great way to spice up your exhibit and create a unique experience for visitors.

The Advantages of Portable Displays

Typically, bigger is considered to be better at most trade shows. With hundreds of exhibits competing for attention, it is important to create a booth that can rise above the rest - literally. Many businesses rely on modular displays that are both tall and wide to draw in the crowd. While modular displays attract visitors to your booth, it is the portable displays that keep them there.
A well-placed banner stand can be used to create a personalized experience for your visitors. Rather than having to digest all of the information on your main display, they can visit a smaller display that is dedicated to a specific product or service. This makes it easier for guests to focus on aspects of your business that they are interested in.

Portable displays also add variety to your trade show exhibit. Adding an assortment of displays to your exhibit will allow you to mix and match the colors of your display for an eye-catching theme.

Perhaps the best advantage of the portable display is that it is easy to set up. Many portable displays are light enough to be carried without assistance. A banner stand or pop up display can easily be taken apart and conveniently stored.

Types of Portable Trade Show Displays

When it comes to trade shows, portable does not have to mean small. The average portable display stands at 10 feet and can be seen for miles around. Custom displays are typically made from fabric, vinyl or plastic. Quality inks and dyes are used to produce sharp graphics and logos. Here is a look at the different types of portable displays that are often featured at a trade show booth.

Pop Up Displays - The wide, curved surface of pop up displays often creates a museum-like atmosphere for guests. This platform can be used to present information and visuals as if they are on display at a gallery. The panels of pop up displays can be rolled up when they are not in use but create the same solid appearance as a permanent fixture.

Banner Stands - An assortment of banner stands adds can be used to create an impressive visual presentation. A banner stand allows you to customize your exhibit because they are easy to arrange in any pattern. A banner stand can catch the attention of passing guests by displaying attractive pictures of your products.

Literature Racks - A literature rack is one of the most important items that you can have at your exhibit. Chances are, your representatives will not have the chance to speak with every single guest who visits your table. However, a couple of well-placed literature racks can help you promote your business to people that you didn't have the chance to speak with.

Portable displays are the key to developing a positive image for your business and its products. The thoughtful use of a portable display, whether a banner stand or literature rack, will help you create a trade show exhibit that stands out.

Find out more about portable display. Get more information on banner stands and banner stand.

Source : articlealley, smashhitdisplays.com

Read more at http://www.articlealley.com/article_2208275_3.html?ktrack=kcplink

E-Book - text and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices

Advantages using E-Book

There are over 2 million free books available for download as of August 2009. Mobile availability of e-books may be provided for users with a mobile data connection, so that these e-books need not be stored on the device. An e-book can be offered indefinitely, without ever going "out of print". In the space that a comparably sized print book takes up, an e-reader can potentially contain thousands of e-books, limited only by its memory capacity. If space is at a premium, such as in a backpack or at home, it can be an advantage that an e-book collection takes up little room and weight.

E-book websites can include the ability to translate books into many different languages, making the works available to speakers of languages not covered by printed translations. Depending on the device, an e-book may be readable in low light or even total darkness. Many newer readers have the ability to display motion, enlarge or change fonts, use Text-to-speech software to read the text aloud for visually impaired, partially sighted, elderly or dyslectic people, search for key terms, find definitions, or allow highlighting bookmarking and annotation. Devices that utilize E Ink can imitate the look and ease of readability of a printed work while consuming very little power, allowing continuous reading for weeks at time.

While an e-book reader costs much more than one book, the electronic texts are generally cheaper. Moreover, a great share of books are available free of charge. For example, all fiction from before the year 1900 is in the public domain. Also, libraries lend more current e-book titles for limited times, free samples are available of many publications, and there are other lending models being piloted as well. E-books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on-demand book printers.

An e-book can be purchased/borrowed, downloaded, and used immediately, whereas when one buys or borrows a book, one has to go to a bookshop or library during limited hours, or wait for a delivery. The production of e-books does not consume paper, ink, etc. Printed books use 3 times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce albeit they do not require a machine for use (out of context)Depending on possible digital rights management, e-books can be backed up to recover them in the case of loss or damage and it may be possible to recover a new copy without cost from the distributor. Compared to printed publishing, it is cheaper and easier for authors to self-publish e-books. Also, the dispersal of a free e-book copy can stimulate the sales of the printed version.


^Production
Some e-books are produced simultaneously with the production of a printed format, as described in electronic publishing, though in many instances they may not be put on sale until later. Often, e-books are produced from pre-existing hard-copy books, generally by document scanning, sometimes with the use of robotic book scanners, having the technology to quickly scan books without damaging the original print edition. Scanning a book produces a set of image files, which may additionally be converted into text format by an OCR program. Occasionally, as in some e-text projects, a book may be produced by re-entering the text from a keyboard.

As a newer development, sometimes only the electronic version of a book is produced by the publisher. It is even possible to release an e-book chapter by chapter as each chapter is written. This is useful in fields such as information technology where topics can change quickly in the months that it takes to write a typical book (See: Realtime Publishers). It is also possible to convert an electronic book to a printed book by print on demand. However these are exceptions as tradition dictates that a book be launched in the print format and later if the author wishes an electronic version is produced.

There are some parts of the industry where there are particularly notable leading firms. In the general field of science-fiction and fantasy, Baen Books, an American publishing company established in 1983 by science fiction publishing industry long-timer Jim Baen (1943–2006) has a well-established position. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that specializes in space opera/military science fiction and fantasy (though it does not restrict itself to these subgenres). It is notable for releasing books without DRM in a variety of formats, before hard-copy publication, and pre-releasing ebooks in parts before the hard-copy release. Many older titles are available for free, especially the first book in a series.


^e-Readers
e-Readers may be specifically designed for that purpose, or intended for other purposes as well. The term is restricted to hardware devices and used to describe a category type.

Specialized devices have the advantage of doing one thing well. Specifically, they tend to have the right screen size, battery lifespan, lighting and weight. A disadvantage of such devices is that they are often expensive when compared to multi-purpose devices such as laptops and PDAs.

Source : Wikipedia, Google Trends, Forbes, Highbeam, freewritingadvice, NY Times, ala.org

Online advertising to your Business

Competitive advantage over traditional advertising

One major benefit of online advertising is the immediate publishing of information and content that is not limited by geography or time. To that end, the emerging area of interactive advertising presents fresh challenges for advertisers who have hitherto adopted an interruptive strategy.
Another benefit is the efficiency of advertiser's investment. Online advertising allows for the customization of advertisements, including content and posted websites. For example, AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdSense enable ads to be shown on relevant web pages or alongside search results of related keywords.

 

Revenue models

The three most common ways in which online advertising is purchased are CPM, CPC, and CPA.

• CPM (Cost Per Mille), also called "Cost Per Thousand (CPT), is where advertisers pay for exposure of their message to a specific audience. "Per mille" means per thousand impressions, or loads of an advertisement. However, some impressions may not be counted, such as a reload or internal user action.

• CPV (Cost Per Visitor) is where advertisers pay for the delivery of a Targeted Visitor to the advertisers website.
• CPV (Cost Per View) is when an advertiser pays for each unique user view of an advertisement or website (usually used with pop-ups, pop-unders and interstitial ads).

• CPC (Cost Per Click) is also known as Pay per click (PPC). Advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their listing and is redirected to their website. They do not actually pay for the listing, but only when the listing is clicked on. This system allows advertising specialists to refine searches and gain information about their market. Under the Pay per click pricing system, advertisers pay for the right to be listed under a series of target rich words that direct relevant traffic to their website, and pay only when someone clicks on their listing which links directly to their website. CPC differs from CPV in that each click is paid for regardless of whether the user makes it to the target site.

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or (Cost Per Acquisition) advertising is performance based and is common in the affiliate marketing sector of the business. In this payment scheme, the publisher takes all the risk of running the ad, and the advertiser pays only for the amount of users who complete a transaction, such as a purchase or sign-up. This is the best type of rate to pay for banner advertisements and the worst type of rate to charge as it ignores any inefficiency in the sellers web site conversion funnel.
  • Similarly, CPL (Cost Per Lead) advertising is identical to CPA advertising and is based on the user completing a form, registering for a newsletter or some other action that the merchant feels will lead to a sale.
  • Also common, CPO (Cost Per Order) advertising is based on each time an order is transacted.
  • CPE (Cost Per Engagement) is a form of Cost Per Action pricing first introduced in March 2008. Differing from cost-per-impression or cost-per-click models, a CPE model means advertising impressions are free and advertisers pay only when a user engages with their specific ad unit. Engagement is defined as a user interacting with an ad in any number of ways.

• Cost per conversion Describes the cost of acquiring a customer, typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an ad campaign by the number of conversions. The definition of "Conversion" varies depending on the situation: it is sometimes considered to be a lead, a sale, or a purchase.

Privacy

The use of online advertising has implications on the privacy and anonymity of users. If an advertising company has placed banners in two Web sites. Hosting the banner images on its servers and using third-party cookies, the advertising company is able to track the browsing of users across these two sites.
Third-party cookies can be blocked by most browsers to increase privacy and reduce tracking by advertising and tracking companies without negatively affecting the user's Web experience. Many advertising operators have an opt-out option to behavioural advertising, with a generic cookie in the browser stopping behavioural advertising.

Becareful with Malware
There is also a class of advertising methods which are considered unethical and may even be illegal. These include external applications which alter system settings (such as a browser's home page), spawn pop-ups, and insert advertisements into non-affiliated webpages. Such applications are usually labelled as spyware or adware. They may mask their questionable activities by performing a simple service, such as displaying the weather or providing a search bar. These programs are designed to dupe the user, acting effectively as Trojan horses. These applications are commonly designed so as to be difficult to remove or uninstall. The ever-increasing audience of online users, many of whom are not computer-savvy, frequently lack the knowledge and technical ability to protect themselves from these programs.

Ethics

Online advertising encompasses a range of types of advertising, some of which are deployed ethically and some are not. Some websites use large numbers of advertisements, including flashing banners that distract the user, and some have misleading images designed to look like error messages from the operating system, rather than advertisements. Websites that unethically use online advertising for revenue frequently do not monitor what advertisements on their website link to, allowing advertisements to lead to sites with malicious software or adult material.
Website operators that ethically use online advertising typically use a small number of advertisements that are not intended to distract or irritate the user, and do not detract from the design and layout of their websites. Many website owners deal directly with companies that want to place ads, meaning that the website linked to by the advertisement is legitimate.
The overuse of technologies like Adobe Flash in online advertising has led to some users disabling it in their browsers, or using browser plug-ins like Adblock or NoScript. Many sites use centralized advertising services whose advertisement may be blocked as a side effect of security and privacy measures, because the services require JavaScript and cross-site requests to function, while such features are often not necessary to use the sites and are a potential source of vulnerabilities.
Some companies perform customer engagement studies in online marketing to insure consumer satisfaction, through the use of online compliance centers, building and deploying fraud detection tools, while inspecting websites and publishers to insure website pages offer the highest degree of information security and compliancy with Can Spam Requirements.

Source : Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, Associate Program