In today’s fast paced environment, interaction with family and friends is often relegated to a few left over minutes here and there, leaving many people feeling isolated.

Radio fills the gap. Radio provides a one on one emotional experience. It creates a connection that is a personal and unique experience for each listener. It’s just you and the voice on the radio, speaking to you.

TV and print media are mass media. Eliciting an emotional response from print is almost an impossibility. TV is emotional but not personal. You know it’s you and the thousands of others who are watching, besides which it’s beyond the budget of many businesses.

As an advertiser, you have an opportunity to speak directly to your customer, using words and phrases that have meaning for them. Radio can relate messages that have synergy with campaigns in other media, but shouldn’t be written in the same style. Effective radio is a conversation with the customer. It’s your chance to tell a story.

How interesting would you find a story that started with the company name or, “ We have friendly, knowledgeable staff. Stop in and see us. We have 20 colours of sofas in a variety of sizes and styles.” Boring isn’t it? So why do so many advertisers do it?

It’s easy to talk about your business and what you want to sell. It takes more time and effort to find out what your customer wants and talk in terms of their buying motivation, but it’s worth it. It’s easier to get quick results by announcing a sale, than it is to build a relationship with the consumer. Where do you think those sale shoppers will be when your competition is having a sale, not at your business I bet?

Another of radio’s great strengths is its ability to reach a defined market segment. When you buy newspaper advertising, you buy the whole and very general readership, all the demographics and special interest groups. Now it’s not a bad thing to reach more people, but if you have a limited budget you can spend it very quickly in your daily paper, on one ad,…. one day, ….one time. That’s not great frequency and just hit and miss reach. What if your best prospects don’t read the paper on the day your ad runs?

Radio gives you an opportunity to target the age and interests of your segment of the market. With a budget large enough to cover the cost of a reasonable sized ad in your daily newspaper, you can buy a whole week of radio commercials.

Don’t get put off by commercial prices at the top stations. It is not about reaching a huge number of prospects a few times. It’s about reaching a smaller number of listeners enough times for them to think they know and like you, and want to do business with you. Spend time and money creating a message that conveys a message your customers can relate to.

Have you ever bought something you just had to have, and then gone home and explained logically to a family member why it was an essential? You bought on emotion and justified with logic, the same thing your customer does. Forget generic when it comes to radio. This is one time it pays to get personal.

In the US the norm is 60 seconds for a radio commercial in Canada 30 seconds. If you’ve got a great story to tell and you’re a good storyteller, then use 60 seconds otherwise the shorter commercial is better. The only thing worse than boring the listener for 30 seconds, is boring them for 60. Frequency to raise awareness for your business name and purpose in speaking to them can be achieved economically by adding a schedule of sponsorships and/or 10-15 second messages.

This is an example of a 30 second radio script that connected with the customer. How do we know it was good? Sales increased.

Unbeknownst to your co-workers, you are a connoisseur. Sure, you have tattoos and a problem finding your inner-self, but you crave adventure and You! Know! Food! So, in this world of new awareness, reward yourself with a world of flavours. Wrapzone. An ambrosia of foods, and devilish sauces harmoniously heaped on a tortilla. The silver gift wrap is free every day! Experience-Full-Fillment. Wrapzone.

On radio, as in all your advertising, you need to keep it simple. A soliloquy well read is much more effective than something with too many words, multiple focus, lots of sound effects or a conversation between a two or more people.

Points to remember:

Radio is an opportunity, use it to your advantage, some of your competitors never will.

Negotiate; the price isn’t always the price.

Don’t get too hung up on the price per commercial. Ask for pre-emptable no charge commercials to augment your campaign.

Find out when your commercials will run. If you choose a station based on the number of commercials included in a package make sure they are not bumping up the numbers by running them all 6pm – 5am.

If you have a small budget focus on one daypart to increase the number of times a listener hears your message.

Writing and production are included in the price but that doesn’t mean the message they create for you will be effective. You need to be involved in the creative process.

You can be too creative. Don’t make listeners strain to try to figure out what you are saying.

If you haven’t got the budget to do a heavy enough campaign to make an impact, save your money until you do.

Ask how the station schedules their commercials. If they have long commercial blocks you have to work especially hard to stand out from the 5 or 6 (or more) other messages.

Keep your message simple.

Nancy Fraser worked in radio for over 20 years. She owned and operated her own specialty retail store, and held Management and Sales Executive positions in media and communications. Free information and tools on effective advertising and marketing are available in Notable News at http://www.notable-marketing.com

Imagine tossing a pebble into a crystal clear pond on a still day, & watching the ripples make their way to the shore. A tiny cause has a massive effect.

But on a windswept stormy day? You could hurl the largest boulder into the same pool, and the effect would be felt for no more than a few feet.

So it is with marketing new ideas.

Your prospects are in a trance that is like a still pool of awareness. They are in an “I’m worried about money” trance. They are in an “I wish I could finally find that somebody special” trance. They are in an “I’m sick of my dead end job” trance, & so on.

If you enter that trance with your words, your prospects will follow you. They will accept your suggestions. They will give those suggestions power, like the pebble that makes its presence felt on the shore, because receiving your message is effortless.

On the other hand, any striving on the part of your prospect to maintain their attention on your message, because it fails to harmonize with their trance, & no power will be granted.

“Belief Is All-Powerful!”

To enter the buyer’s trance, begin your sales message by showing where your position agrees with their accepted beliefs.

As you move forward, make a logical connection between that which is accepted, & another conclusion that is a step closer to the new conclusion you wish to promote.

This act of mental agreement creates momentum.

For example, let’s say your target market believes that Guaranteed Investment Certificates are the best way to invest for their retirement. Are they likely to listen to you if you boldly proclaim the superiority of Mutual Funds?

But would they give you some attention if you began with, “Would you be interested in more of the kind of money growth you’ve enjoyed through Guaranteed Investment Certificates?”

And then, “If there were a low risk strategy for using GICs, together with Mutual Funds to increase your returns by 53% or more, would you want to find out about it?”

And then, “Give me just 15 minutes, & I’ll show you the failsafe secret to an earlier retirement!”

By establishing empathy in your sales message, you enter the trance. And you can begin marketing new ideas.

Each successive point or question should do three things.

1) Echo accepted belief.

2) Introduce a new element that when logically combined with the previous conclusion, creates a new hypothesis.

3) Raise the level of commitment to the new idea.

You begin pursuing small yes responses, & gradually grow those agreements into bigger YES responses, until your final call to action.

Do you see how this works?

Use questions, statements, & logic that get your prospect thinking YES & OK!

Why Does It Work?

To be human, is to have unlimited freedom of choice. We are able to consciously decide our response to every stimulus. This is our god given gift.

However, we forget this. Instead, we are a bundle of conditioned responses. We hypnotize ourselves into believing that external circumstances give rise to our thoughts.

For instance, if I were to say to you that you are stupid, you would probably become angry. You would think I was a jerk for saying so. That is a choice you make.

You could just as easily make a choice to ignore my remark. You could make any choice you wish. You could even decide to think that I am a jealous fool, & feel sorry for me. The choice is all yours.

On the other hand, if I were to say to you that you are brilliant, you would no doubt feel pleased with yourself. Again, this is a choice. You could just as easily decide to pay no attention to my opinion.

But you forget you are making a choice. You automatically become angry or flattered, depending on the stimulus. You are in a trance of your own making.

To be human, is to be filled with such conditioning.

When we accept a logical conclusion that contains our own beliefs, we are conditioned to accept another one, & then another. Until without even realizing it, we have before long accepted a new belief that we would not have accepted, had it been forced on us in the first place.

Such is the judo of persuasion, & marketing new ideas.

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada. Recently, Daniel & world-renowned publicist & copywriter Joe Vitale teamed up to co author “Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies – From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century!”, a tribute to the late, great Robert Collier.

Let the legendary Robert Collier show you how to write words that sell…Visit the below site & get 3 FREE Chapters! http://www.Advertising-Online-Strategies.com/ad-strategies.html

This is the third article of a three-part series. I’m illustrating the marketing challenges of PrescottWeddings.com, a small business.

If you don’t remember anything else about marketing, remember this: Frequency is king.

The more often you can get your name in front of your potential and current customers, the more likely you will make a sale.

Depending on what study you look at, people need to see your message anywhere from three to 27 times before they act upon it.

And, if you want to brand your business, then you need to get it in front of your customers as often as possible.

How do you think Ivory Soap, Campbell Soup and Tide all built their brands so deeply into our minds? Through years and years of repeatedly advertising. That’s why those brands pop into our head when we think about soap, soup or laundry detergent.

So if you want to build your brand, then you need to advertise frequently.

There’s another benefit to advertising frequently. It also helps your current customers.

People like to know they made the right decision after they purchased something. How much reassurance they need depends on how much they spend, but everyone needs some confirmation they made the right decision. Your advertising can help.

Studies have shown that people are more aware of car ads after they purchased a car — specifically car ads of the model they bought. And they’re more likely to both believe and approve of the message. Again, because they want to know they made the right decision.

So there are many good reasons to advertise frequently. Does that mean you have to spend a fortune? Not necessarily. There are a few tricks you can use to get the frequency you need at a low cost. (These are print tricks — other advertising outlets, such as radio and online, we’ll talk about in future issues.)

1. Make your ad as small as possible. Small ads cost less. See "Advertising on a Budget – Part 2: Thinking Small" for more information on shrinking your ad.

2. It’s better to schedule your ads to run all at once than spread them out. People will never remember when they don’t see your ad, only when they do. If they see your ad a lot in one week, they’re going to be under the impression you advertise all the time because they won’t remember NOT seeing your ad other weeks.

3. Take advantage of any frequency programs your newspaper offers. And definitely sign a contract — don’t run ads under the open rate.

Here’s how it worked for PWC.

The newspaper had a program called "3 For Free." If you ran an ad three days in a row, you got the next three days for free (the paper was published six days a week).

We designed a tiny ad — a one by two inch ad — and we ran it six days in a row. Then we skipped the next three weeks and did the same thing again the next month.

After a year of doing this, PWC had people coming up to her telling her they saw her ad "all the time." Business owners wanted to advertise on PWC because they could see the commitment PWC had to advertising. Brides and grooms were visiting PWC on a regular basis because they were being "reminded" monthly.

What did all this cost? About $100 a month.

But, a word of caution. It takes time to build a business and a brand. It won’t happen overnight. But it will happen, especially if you remember to keep getting your name in front of your customers and potential customers as often as you possibly can.

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com

This is the second article of a three-part series. I’m illustrating the marketing challenges of a small business, PrescottWeddings.com.

Our goal was to both build the PWC brand and drive traffic to the Web site. Advertising regularly was essential. Yet it was also essential to keep our costs down. So we leveraged our monthly newspaper advertising to stretch our marketing dollar as far as we could.

How did we do that? We "thought small."

We bought one inch by two column inch ads (a column inch in this particular publication is approx. 1.88 inches). The ads were one inch high and almost 4 inches long.

To reflect the small ad, the copy also had to be short and sweet. Like so:

www.PrescottWeddings.com. Everything you need to say "I do."

Just the name of the business and the slogan.

We put the name in large type and made the tagline much smaller.

Did it work?

The first day this ad ran, we garnered 350 hits on the Web site and several phone calls from business owners who wanted more information.

And that was just the beginning. Hits steadily grew during the campaign, and every time it ran we always noticed a jump.

Not bad for a little ad.

Conventional wisdom says bigger is better. And while it is true that big ads stand out (after all, they do take a big chunk of real estate on the page) it doesn’t mean big is the only way to go. Small ads can pack a punch too.

Why did the PWC ad work? First of all, it got noticed because it stuck out (yes, small ads can stick out). It had an odd shape — long and thin, not a square like so many other ads. The name was big — bigger than many other fonts surrounding it. (But not so big that the ad lacked sufficient white space.)

But probably the biggest reason it worked was because the message was simple. This is clearly a Web site about having a wedding in the Prescott area. Therefore if you’re involved with weddings, whether as a business or on a more personal level, and you’re also associated with Prescott, then this is a Web site clearly worth taking a peek at.

People instantly got the message. And they got it even if they only scanned the paper. It was quick and painless for them — something all ads should strive to be.

What’s also interesting is how this ad hit its target market. I’ve spoken to people (mostly men) who have no interest in getting married and have never seen the ad even though they read the paper. Conversely, businesses in the wedding industry and brides have said they see the ad all the time.

Now, you may have a business name that doesn’t capture your business’ products or services as well as PrescottWeddings.com (my business name for example). In this case, why not think of a catchy tag line you can use in those small ads to drive people to your Web site?

Web sites can be huge, wordy, information-stuffed selling tools. So use short, sweet one-message statement to get people to go look and learn more about your business rather than try to shove everything in an ad. Don’t forget to include your business name and logo for branding purposes.

Okay, so small ads with one simple message work. For the final key in PWC’s marketing program, check out Part 3: Frequency, frequency, frequency.

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com

Achieving sales is probably the biggest challenge a web business owner has. It requires a balanced mix of the right products, competitive pricing, optimal web design, aggressive advertising and attracting the right online visitors.

While all of the above are equally important in achieving abundant sales, none of them will work at all if you don’t target the people that are most likely to buy your products or services. These people are known as your target or niche market. Focusing in on your niche market will allow you to find only those that are ready, willing and able to buy what you have to offer.

Your niche market provides you the competitive edge over larger corporations because larger companies tend to market to a much broader range of people. Their promotions are more generalized and less focused. For them, the smaller markets are not worth bothering with. This now becomes your opportunity to capture those highly defined niche markets that they left behind.

Defining your Market

In order to find these people you must first determine who they are. This might sound like a simple or perhaps insignificant question at first but it can possibly make or break the success of your sales if you don’t give it some serious thought. Here’s how to get started.

Think about the following and jot down all those that might apply to people interested in your products or services. Don’t rule out any category completely. Think about each group of people and how they might apply.

Age Group:

infants, Children, teens, young adults, baby boomers, middle aged, elderly or all.

Gender:

Male, female or both

Marital status:

single, married, divorced, widowed or all

Ethnic or religious backgrounds

Occupations:

Executives, doctors, lawyers, housewives, business owners, teachers, blue collar, white collar, students, out of work, etc.

Health Status:

healthy, diseased, home bound, active, sedentary, etc.

Interests:

sports, hiking, music, arts, computers, reading television, animals, home decorating, cars, walking, running, relaxation, health conscious, age conscious, physical fitness, etc.

Income status:

low income, middle income, high income, no income.

Education:

high school dropout, high school, college, MBA PHD, hates school, loves school, etc.

Certainly all categories are not listed above, however these can get you started on thinking about all the possibilities.

Next, it’s important to determine what benefits you are offering. Examine your products or services carefully listing all the benefits that you can think of. Perhaps take a poll of your existing customers and ask them what it is they like about your products or services. What benefits them the most.

Once you have a listed all of the benefits, think about what people would be interested in these benefits based on your list above. Then put them together to assist you in reaching a market that will bring you sales.

Reaching Your Target Market

Search engines are the best way of finding a targeted market because those searching on the web can type in exactly what they are searching for and receive the targeted traffic the search engines so proudly advertise.

But attaining good placement on the search engines is often difficult and time consuming.

Ezines and newsletters are a very effective alternative.

Most ezines cover specific subjects such as finance, marketing, health, internet, etc. Your job will be to find an ezine whose topic matches your target market. To do this you must locate an ezine directory. Directories usually list contact information, advertising rates, and circulation. Once you find a targeted ezine then place your ad. Be sure your ad includes as many of your product benefits as the ad will allow.

The idea is to define your target market specifically enough so that you can find the appropriate place to advertise and then create sales messages that make your readers feel you are talking directly to them.

You’ll be amazed at the amount of traffic you can receive by finding your target market and reaching them in the appropriate location.

Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. Elizabeth’s sites can be viewed here: http://www.pro-marketing-online.com http://www.homenotion.com

Copyright © 2004 Adlite Enterprises All Rights Reserved.

Advertising, when done well is a very effective way to increase your customer base and ultimately grow your bottom line.

Many businesses have no idea how to advertise; they do a little bit here and a little bit there and end up saying that advertising doesn’t work. Advertising, like everything else in business, requires a systematic, consistent approach. Even when you are getting results, tweaking a good message can make it a great message.

Fundamentals of good advertising:

1. Use a great title…not a cute title but one that grabs attention and communicates what the purpose of the ad is. If you start the ad with the name of your business, you will discourage a large portion of prospective customers from reading your ad because if they don’t know what you do they will often assume you are not speaking to them.

2. Test titles and messages on an on-going basis and measure the response, small adjustments in the ad can increase response by 100% or much more.

3. Take the response you got from an ad and divide the cost by the response to see if it was worthwhile. An ad that doesn’t elicit a response is too expensive no matter how little you spent on the advertising. Give it time don’t just advertise once.

4. Don’t advertise everywhere. Initially choose one medium and one company for your advertising and stick with it. Once you have figured out what works add another medium or company to the mix.

5. Before you place your ad, look at the characteristics of the audience and consider if it matches your target market. Don’t make the mistake of assuming everyone is your target market because they are not. Even if your product has a broad appeal when you consider all factors of who buys you will be able to identify demographic or specialized interest groups that will provide a better return on your advertising investment.

6. Don’t always blame the medium for your lack of result. Once you have identified the unique characteristics of your market it’s incumbent on you to speak to that market using phrases, and communication styles that they relate to. If the publication, radio station, TV station etc. has thousands or hundreds of thousands in their audience and no one responds after a few weeks of advertising, take a good look at what you are advertising and more importantly how you are communicating the information.

7. When you have developed an ad that is working, test small changes to see if you can boost the ad response even more. Make one change at a time to ensure you can identify what the strongest pluses of the ad are.

8. Have you ever heard someone say that they turned their money over to a money manager of some sort and before they knew it, they had lost thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars? You wouldn’t do anything that foolish would you? Well then why would you turn full control of your advertising dollars to a media sales person for them decide what to advertise and how to communicate it in an ad? Most media reps have your best interest at heart…they want you to get results because it will make their next sale to you that much easier but the ultimate beneficiary of successful advertising is you and you had better be involved. Ask your rep to educate you about their medium and give you some information on their audience. Take the time to read it. Advertising is not an expense; it’s an investment and requires attention to ensure success.

9. If a prospect reads your ad, is there something in the ad that says what you expect them to do? Do you ask them to call and give an accurate phone number or do you want them to come into your store and you give them the address. I don’t know how many times I have seen ads that left off the address or the phone number has a wrong digit or isn’t there at all. If they need to make an appointment, clearly articulate that in the ad.

10. When someone responds to your advertising, make it easy for him or her to do what you expect. If they have to keep playing telephone tag to try to connect with you then it’s going to reduce the effectiveness of your advertising dramatically.

Nancy Fraser is the President of Nota Bene Consulting. She has been helping clients improve their advertising results and grow their businesses for over 20 years. Free advertising and marketing information in Notable News http://www.notable-marketing.com

This tactic of the game was hard for me to master and at first I failed many times. I carried my business cards only in my briefcase, because I thought they were only used in business. Wrong! I missed quite a few opportunities to toot my horn because of that misconception. Not only did I miss the opportunity, but when it did arise, I looked like an amateur. Here’s what happen on one of those occasions.

One day while standing in a bank line waiting to make a deposit – by the way, it was the merchant bank line; a nicely dressed gentleman noticed I had several checks from different companies. He asked about my occupation. I cheerfully explained my business and qualifications. He stated that he was impressed and promptly asked for my business card. Oops! I didn’t have one in my possession. I had to meekly admit that I did not have one with me. He now realized I was new to the game and in a teaching tone, he suggested I should carry them in my wallet. He went on to explain, that I should never be without one. I was too embarrassed to ask for his business card and was elated when the teller said “next.”

New to the game, I truly didn’t think people would just ask you for a business card. When I related this incident to my boyfriend Tim, he chimed in.

“Why wait for people to ask? Don’t be a secret agent; leave them for people to find.” He continued, “When you leave a tip on the lunch table, leave your business card.

“What?” I questioned, “I don’t think a waitress or buss boy would use my services."

"You don’t know that." he calmly continued, "Besides they may know of someone who needs your services. Standing in lines or elevators are the best places to sell yourself," with that he winked and said, "you’ve got a captive audience."

### Gina Novelle (copyright 12-2004)

Gina Novelle is a published free lance writer. Her company sponsors the web site http://www.thirdpocket.com, a support site for the self-employed. Her book, “Business Secrets Men Don’t Tell Women” reveals how women and men view self-employment differently and will be available in 2005. She currently offers her services as an Ezine Writer to optimize search engine ratings. gina@exclusivemarkets.net

There are several ways to advertise and get the word out about your business online and the best of them include f-ree search engines, pay per click search engines, writing articles, utilizing press releases, doing joint ventures/ad co-ops, and posting to message boards and forums related to your target market.

But one advertising method that’s neglected by most online marketers is off-line advertising.

There are several low/no cost ways to advertise off-line and I want to share 3 of them with you.

1) Business Cards

If you are serious about your business you must have business cards. They are cheap and are a great way to attract potential prospects or customers. Simply hand them out to people who you feel may be interested in your business.

Also, whenever I visit a restaraunt, bar, or club, I’ll leave my business cards in all of the bathroom stalls. (Just make sure nobody is in there of course… lol!)

And don’t laugh at this! It really works. When I visit the bathroom an hour or two later, I’ll find that all of my business cards are gone and I’ll have a fresh new set of sales the very next day.

You can get f-ree professional looking business cards at VistaPrint.com, all you have to pay is shipping and handling:

http://www.vistaprint.com

2) Flyers

With today’s technology, flyers are very easy to make. You can simply design a flyer online and just print it out and make copies. Then you can post them in area businesses where you feel your potential customers may hang out. (Just make sure you ask permission from the business owner.)

Or simply hand out your flyers to people you meet on the street. Many bars and clubs don’t have a problem with posting flyers in their establishments either, especially if you are a patron.

And don’t forget about supermarkets! Many have bulletin boards, at least here in New Jersey where I live, and you can post your flyer there. There are hundreds of people walking into supermarkets everyday and they are in a buying mentality. Take advantage of it and post your flyers often.

Here’s a site that lets you create and print flyers or brochures online for f-ree:

http://www.mybrochuremaker.com/

3) Automobile Advertising

What… ? Yes you read that right! Your car is not only a driving vehicle but a great advertising vehicle as well. You can stick magnetic signs or plates on your car with your company name and/or domain name for all to see.

Your business can be exposed to hundreds, if not thousands of people everyday whether your car is parked, you are driving, or even when you are stuck in traffic. It’s fairly inexpensive and a great way to "drive" home your message.

Here are a couple of sites to check out for this very sort of thing:

http://www.iditplates.net

http://www.magneticsigns.com

Those are just a few of the ways to advertise off-line. I’m sure you can come up with other clever ways as well.

You’ve got a brain… use it!

Al Martinovic runs a successful "niche" business at http://www.ineedsmokes.com and publishes a popular internet marketing newsletter at http://www.milleniummarketers.com

Reach and frequency are terms generally used when planning advertising campaigns. However, the concept of reach and frequency applies to any promotional activity you undertake: direct mail, direct selling, and even networking.

Reach is the number of people you touch with your marketing message or the number of people that are exposed to your message. Frequency is the number of times you touch each person with your message. In a world of unlimited resources you would obviously maximize both reach and frequency. However, since most of us live in the world of limited resources we must often make decisions to sacrifice reach for frequency or vice versa.

For example, an air conditioning repair service who has decided to do a direct mail piece has to decide whether to mail the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex once or to mail a quarter of the Metroplex four times. An attorney who receives many of her clients through networking may have to decide whether to attend one weekly networking meeting or four different monthly meetings.

When faced with decisions of reach vs. frequency remember this rule of thumb:

Reach without Frequency = Wasted Money

Marketing is the process of building a business relationship with potential customers. Have you ever established a lifelong friendship with someone you had contact with only once? Probably not. Generally friendships (and all relationships for that matter) grow as a result of frequent contact over time. Even when the potential to form a great friendship is there at the first encounter, it is unlikely it will grow without nurturing.

Seth Godin in his book Permission Marketing uses an analogy of seeds and water to demonstrate the importance of assuring adequate frequency in your promotional campaigns. If you were given 100 seeds with enough water to water each seed once would you plant all 100 seeds and water each one once or would you be more successful if you planted 25 seeds and used all of the water on those 25 seeds?

While intuitively and even conceptually we understand the importance of frequency to successful promotional and sales campaigns, somehow when it comes to actually implementing the campaign, we opt to sacrifice frequency for reach. And then we complain about the ineffectiveness of our promotional efforts. Undoubtedly one of the biggest wastes of marketing dollars is promotional activities that are implemented without adequate frequency.

When faced with the decision of mailing one direct mail piece to 10,000 people or mailing to 2,500 people four times think about the fate of those 100 seeds you can water only once. Unless you have water rights and can obtain additional water, opt for less reach and more frequency.

© 2003 Strategies-by-DESIGN. May be reprinted with credits and contact information.

Julie Chance is president of Strategies-by-DESIGN, a Dallas based firm that helps small businesses and service professionals Map A Path to Success by attracting potential clients and turning them into loyal customers. Strategies-by-DESIGN provides consulting, training and skills based coaching in the area of marketing strategy development. For more information or to sign up for our free marketing tips e-newsletter go to http://www.strategies-by-design.com or call 972-701-9311.

Ask anybody who has been in business for a long enough and they will tell you how newspaper advertisements have for decades helped to build countless small businesses.

The advantages of a newspaper advertisement are many, but what has attracted small business entrepreneurs for decades is the speed at which a struggling entrepreneur (short of funds as many starting small businesses always are, and looking for customers fast) is able to get a very quick response.

Many extremely successful businesses today started off booking tiny classified newspaper advertisements, grew into larger display advertisements (that were still very tiny) and today are multi million dollar enterprises commanding lots of respect. If folks were laughing then because of the tiny advertisements, you can be sure that they are no longer laughing today.

Many of those who know all this stuff are not aware of an amazing new development. That there is an equivalent of the highly effective newspaper advertising online. And what’s more it is FREE.

Most people know that free articles posted at relevant web sites with a good detailed resource box leading back to your web site or free course or whatever works for you, is the most effective way of advertising online. However there has always been one very important missing link. And that is high readership.

Newspapers tend to have very high circulations and that’s how small businesses would manage to get such a good response from those tiny advertisements placed. The problem with online articles is that in order to have a high enough readership, you will need to post an article at numerous different sites and you may require quite a number of articles to get the good response you seek. It usually takes a while for the articles posted and the viral effect (that good articles enjoy of being reposted over and over again) to take effect and give you a good regular response similar to good offline newspaper advertisements.

Not any more. Smart entrepreneurs are now combining their free articles with the amazing Ebay site to reproduce an effect that is even better than the newspaper in the old says. Better because it is mostly free and yet has the potential of pulling in the sort of targeted traffic that no daily newspaper on earth can even dream of. The key words here are "targeted traffic."

All you need to do is register with Ebay. And you don’t even need to sell anything. You just have to use your Ebay about-me -page.

Ebay has well over 1.5 billion page views per month. There are well over 40,000 people who sign up for Ebay every day - Sunday included.

Of course there’s serious money to be made from the auctions or by selling something with a fixed price. But you can profit on Ebay even if you are not selling anything. You can use the About me page to put in all sorts of information including a link to your article or web site. Just by learning how to do this, you can dramatically increase traffic to your posted articles or even to your web site. This highly targeted traffic is bound to yield sales for you, whatever it is you are selling. The traffic is targeted because you select your section in Ebay carefully.

I found Brian McGregor’s ebook, "The Ebay Formula," extremely useful in helping me understand how to use Ebay to drive my traffic and profits. You can get the ebook now by emailimg me personally at ckyalo@yahoo.com

Despite all the hype on the net these days, there are a few really amazing things that you can do with the internet, this has to be at the top of the list because it gives one the potential to earn some of the incomes the hype guys are throwing around. Those are the figures I’m going for myself and I dare admit that I’m getting there quite fast.

When you do get those high numbers please remember that you First heard of this amazing secret from me.

Christopher Kyalo has over 20 years experience in marketing and creative writing. Order his FREE COURSE:HOW TO ADVERTISE FREE ONLINE by sending a blank email to bizboom@freeautobot.com. He can be reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com