We have a Great News that we think that may interest you as a Business owner. It is about a Advertising Agency that are preparing to launch and incredible system to help business to earn constant cashflow.

What is that means? Well, that means that every money that you invest for advertising will be paidback to you from 175% and up. That’s a fantastic gain without lost.

We will advertise all kind of things like - cars for sale, buy, rent, freebees, real estate and much more.

But the system that we just mentioned, will be available only for businesses, home businesses and network marketers. This idea has created for new e-commers and advance businesses.

Why? Because we think; For a business to grow, it needs Cashflow. And just that, is this company will do for you to build a steady Cashflow.

Let me ask you a question: Are you a company or a networkmarkter that pay monthly fees just to see your ADs out?

Well we got a good news for you, with this system you don’t have to pay NO monthly fees, your ADs will stay in the system untill you receive your full amount gain of 175% and up. That’s right.

Did I mention that it will be paidback in EUROS?

Yes, this a prelaunch offer. If you buy an AD package now you will pay in US $ and when this E-advertising agency launch officially all prices gonna be in EUROS.

That’s a fantasic gain for you as a Investor. We believe that this system is gonna be a investors playground. And trust me, it will be.

More info see: http://www.volcanoadsystem.com On this site you get more information but if you don’t find what you are looking for you can e-mail us at: discount4real@myluckymail.com

Bob is excited about his new business. He secured funding. He leased the building. He stocked it full of new gadgets. He hung the sign. He posted a banner on his window that reads,“Grand Opening!”. And now he stands behind the counter, waiting for customers to come flocking in. And he stands there. And he stands there. And he stands there.

And then it hits him: No one knows about his shiny new store!

I’ve seen new and even established businesses make this same mistake over and over again. Advertising is the last thing they think of. They assume that since their doors are open and the merchandise is on display, customers will come running in. But they won’t come. Not until they know how great your new business is! And to do that you need to plan and execute an advertising budget and strategy.

Many times I’ve been called in to consult with a new business to help plan their ad strategy well after their stores have opened when in fact, this is something that should have been done during the initial planning stage.

So is it too late? No, but sometimes it’s a major sticker shock to those who did not put a realistic plan together from the start. Remember that advertising, like your store and your merchandise, is an investment towards your profits.

But let’s say you’re like Bob and your business is already up and running. How do you put together a realistic ad budget? Well most people use a percentage of gross sales as a means of figuring this out. If however, you’re a new business owner with no prior sales, you can base it on industry standards. Use the web and search out other related businesses for a guide. Once you’ve figured what your gross sales should be, think about using 3 to 5 percent as a starting point for your ad budget. Another factor to consider when planning an ad budget is that it should encompass all aspects of your advertising from media placement to creative costs and production of your ads.

And remember: advertising must be done with consistency. Let me write that again. Advertising must be done with consistency. When planning your ad budget, make sure you allot enough funding to allow it to last throughout the year whether your sales will be spread out evenly or are cyclical. If you spread your budget too thin, chances are your ad campaigns may not be heard or seen enough to stay in the minds of consumers. And if your business is brand new, you’ll want to plan on spending more at the beginning for your initial start up campaign.

Some businesses make the mistake of advertising strong for about three to four weeks and then they stop. Keep in mind that consumers have very short memories and with 3000 plus advertising messages that pummel their brains everyday, it’s no wonder! That’s why you have to stay in the public’s eye consistently. Oh, and it also helps to have a clever message but we’ll talk about that in another article.

Once your ad budget is established, the type of advertising you use will be based on your specific business but normally if your business is consumer based, even in these modern web based times, traditional media such as radio, television, print, billboard and direct mail should still play major roles.

Many times I’ve helped clients put together an in-house survey for their customers to fill out. This can be helpful in determining what type of advertising they’ll need as well. Questions like, “What radio stations do you listen to?” “Do you subscribe to the newspaper?” and “Do you shop on-line?” can be useful in getting to know your customer’s habits as well as how to attract more like them.

Consulting an advertising agency is a very good way to get started as well. To find a good agency, try contacting other business owners you know for a referral or perhaps an established business whose advertising style and creative appears to fit your goals.

Remember: planning your advertising budget and strategy is as important as the products your trying to sell. Think about your advertising now and you’ll never end up like Bob: standing behind the counter waiting for customers that never come.

Hal Eisenberg is an award winning copywriter, voice over talent and producer, as well as owner of The Eisenberg Agency, a full service advertising agency specializing in creative ads that get results. Visit his web site at http://www.eisenbergagency.com. Mailto: halacious@eisenbergagency.com.

How much money have you spent in Advertising, Promotion & Marketing? If you’re like most people you’ve probably spent over $1000 or more. Many individuals and companies have spent $2000 to $50,000 in Advetising within a course of 1 Year… Ouch!

We all know that in order to succeed in business, we all have to do a lot of advertising right!… However why are we spending so much on advertising? "Could it be because others are doing the work for us?" I have a clear answer to the question, read on…

So why are we spending so much on advertising? After all we are in the 21st century and we need all the advertising that we can get to compete with our relentless competitors. But the reason why were’re spending so much is because others are doing all the work for us and this means they can charge us as high as they feel…

Many of us are also always trying to compete with the large companies who are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising. Small business need to stop doing this. Consider yourself, as a small business, luckier than the large businesses, because you don’t have to worry about losing money when you do Advertising…

Why because the only advertising you should be doing is low cost advertising like Ezine Advertising, low cost opt-in email advertising, low cost pay per click search engines and low cost classified advertising. My favorite would have to be a Solo Ad in an Ezine or Online Newsletter, it has always given me excellent (ROI)Return On Investment.

Don’t try to compete with the large companies with the fancy graphics and expensive advertising. Let them spend all they want in expensive advertising, many of them don’t realize that it’s extremely risky or if they do know that it’s risky, they simply don’t care.

Take Television Advertising and Banner Advertising for instance… Many companies have spend millions of dollars on it, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and many have failed.

Now don’t get me wrong you can still make profits from other people handling your advertising, but please understand that if others are doing the work for you all the time, you wouldn’t be taking full advantage of the Internet’s Technology. Understand that you too have the same potential as others. So these are what you need to do that will be totally Critical to Your Success and save you from spending too much on advertising…

- Generate tons of Traffic (visitors) to your Business!

- Put together a Powerful Presentation for your visitors!

- Learn How to Advertise for FREE!

I really want to introduce you to some powerful FREE Tools that will let you do all 3 and also allow you to have the same potential that others large companies have when it comes to Advertising and Marketing. Please do not be afraid to "educate yourself" about how to use free tools and resources to generate massive traffic to your web site and still compete with the large companies, small businesses are rising at the speed of light. This is your turn to get the "free knowledge" you need to compete.

I’m not saying that you should stop spending money on Advertising, if your advertising is making you money today… continue doing what you’re doing, just use the free resources as a Powerful Supplement to your business for FREE Advertising!… Even if you have to use Bulk Opt-in Email Advertising. You should take advantage of any Email Marketing software that does that…

Copyright © 2005 by Koffi Amouzouvi

Koffi Amouzouvi is the "author" of a FREE Newsletter called "Specialized Info Newsletter" to help customers use the Most Powerful Marketing Software in 2005. http://www.gemini3style.com

Q: I’ve never really done much advertising for my business; I’ve always relied on networking and word-of-mouth. Now I’d like to launch a small campaign, but I’m frightened it will cost a lot of money. How can I figure out where to start?

A: The first thing you must do is calculate your minimum and maximum allowable ad budgets:

· Step 1: Take 10 percent and 12 percent of your projected annual, gross sales and multiply each by the markup made on your average transaction. In this first step, it’s important to remember that we’re talking about gross markup here, not margin. Markup is gross profit above cost, expressed as a percentage of cost. Margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of the selling price. Sell an item for $150 when it only costs you $100, and your markup is 50 percent. Your margin, however, is only 33.3 percent. This is because the same $50 gross profit represents 50 percent of your cost (markup,) but only 33.3 percent of the selling price (margin.) Most retail stores in America (carpet, jewelry and so on) operate on an average markup of approximately 100 percent, some operate on as little as 50 percent markup and others add as much as 200. More expensive items, such as cars, recreational vehicles and houses, typically carry a markup of only 10 to 15 percent.

· Step 2: Deduct your annual cost of occupancy (rent) from the adjusted 10 percent of sales number and the adjusted 12 percent number.

· Step 3: The remaining balances represent your minimum and maximum allowable ad budgets for the year. At this point in the calculation, you may learn that you’ve already spent your ad budget on expensive rent, or you might also learn that you should be doing a lot more advertising than you had previously suspected.

Now let’s calculate an ad budget. Assume that my business is projected to do $1 million in sales this year, I have a profit margin of 48 percent, and my rent is $36,000 per year. The first thing to do is calculate 10 percent of sales and 12 percent of sales ($100,000 and $120,000, respectively).

Second, we must convert my 48 percent profit margin into markup, because markup is what we’ve got to have to make this formula work. Most business owners know their margin by heart, but never their markup. To make the conversion from margin to markup, simply divide gross profits by cost. Dividing $480,000 (gross profits) by $520,000 (hard cost) shows us that a 48 percent margin represents a markup of 92.3 percent. Bingo.

Now we multiply $100,000 times 92.3 percent to see that our adjusted low budget for total cost of exposure is $92,300. Likewise, we multiply $120,000 times 92.3 percent to get an adjusted high budget for total cost of exposure of $110,760. From each of these two budgets, we must now deduct our $36,000 rent. This leaves us with a correctly calculated ad budget that ranges from $56,300 on the low side to a maximum of $74,760 on the high side.

Most advertising salespeople will tell you that "5 to 7 percent of gross sales" is the correct amount to budget for advertising, but don’t you believe it. It simply isn’t possible to designate a percentage of gross sales for advertising without taking into consideration the markup on your average sale and your rent. Yes, expensive rent for a high-visibility location is often the best advertising your money can buy, since a business with a good sign in a high-visibility location will need to advertise significantly less than a similar business in an affordable location.

To prove this, just look at the example above and change the rent to $75,000 per year. In this case, the ad budget would range from $17,300 to $35,760, representing just 1.7 to 3.5 percent of sales. The formula I’ve given you is the only one that reconciles your ad budget with your rent as well as the profitability of your average sale. Good luck!

Steve Moundzouris, 423-653-2201 BigWater Media Group, Bigwater Media Group is a full service advertising and marketing agency.

http://www.bigwatermg.com

In the sign industry we commonly refer to the material that the sign is made out of as the substrate. Examples include, wood, vinyl banners, aluminum, coroplast, etc. But what many customers do not realize is that they can purchase vinyl lettering or vinyl decals and apply them directly to typical substrates themselves. Translation – saving money by buying blank substrates inexpensively at local hardware stores such as Home Depot and Lowes and avoiding the prices sign companies need to charge to apply the material. Although you do pay tax by buying locally on the substrate, you can save tax on the vinyl by ordering over the internet.

What are vinyl letters and/or vinyl decals? They are letters (or images) that come prespaced according to customer specifications as words, phrases, or sentences on pre masking tape. The lettering is self adhesive and by removing the paper backing, they can be applied directly to almost any substrate, car, boat, truck, windows, snowmobiles, jet skis, vans, store fronts, etc. Make sure the surface is extremely clean and free of dust or lint. Once the lettering or decal has been aligned, simply rub over the masking covering the vinyl and then remove it. The result will be perfectly spaced lettering or a decal designed as ordered with a professional look. Most sign companies will allow you to purchase multiple lines of vinyl lettering with the spacing between the lines defined by you. You can also usually obtain a combination of vinyl lettering and images on one decal.

Another tack you may wish to consider is to have the entire sign printed on vinyl made to fit the substrate you prepurchased (with a small bleed of additional vinyl to wrap around the sides). We must caution you that this is a bit more tricky to apply than vinyl lettering, but problems can be overcome with care and some suggestions. When applying the vinyl to the substrate, remove the paper backing about two inches at a time, align, and then press or roll it on the surface. We recommend a roller for the application (roller applicator). Once the first part is properly aligned and applied, remove another two inches of the backing and proceed in this manner with the rest of the sign. Another trick is to moisten the substrate so you can move the vinyl if you accidentally align it improperly when first applied. The water prevents it from adhering permanently for a few seconds.

When you apply vinyl, it is inevitable that you will run into the “bubble” problem. Tiny bubbles of captured air will form under the vinyl. Usually these can be worked out with the roller but in some circumstances, they will remain. A blow dryer (not too hot) can be used to heat the vinyl up so that the air can be rolled out easier. Under some circumstances if the bubble is large, the vinyl can be heated and the bubble punctured with a pin (careful here – only a tiny hole is needed). Be careful not to heat the vinyl too much because it can permanently deform it.

Recently, a new product has been introduced which enables the vinyl to be adjusted if it is pressed on but incorrectly aligned. The adhesive does not seal permanently for a few hours after it is applied. The material is a bit more expensive but well worth it if you are inexperienced. Don’t feel bad. I know many sign companies that are now going to the easy stick vinyl to avoid large overhead costs caused by mistakes with the old permanent seal vinyl.

To learn more about Magnetic signs and other types of signs please visit http://designasign.blogspot.com/ To purchase Magnetis, Vinyl and just about every type of sign imaginable visit http://www.designasign.biz

How To Gain FREE Advertising That Will Make You Rich!

Okay-Just What Exactly Is “Free Advertising”???

Before I get into the specifics of actually HOW to get free advertising - it’s important for you to completely understand exactly what free advertising is.

“Free Advertising” is any mention, listing or “blurb” about your product in a magazine, newsletter, book, manual, directory etc. You see, advertising does not have to be paid for. There are tons of ways in which you can attract public attention to your product or business…and never pay a penny!

Imagine seeing your profits soar thanks to publicity you gained for FREE. It’s one hell of a buzz I can tell you. So let’s take a look at a way to gain free publicity which is quite literally making people tens of thousands of pounds…

Viral Marketing

This method is mainly applicable to gaining free publicity via the internet. If you want to make big money these days you’ve got to be involved in the net somehow. And viral marketing is proof of the amazing power of the internet. This method is HUGE in America. Viral marketing is the key to the success of the massive site Hotmail.com. That’s right. Hotmail used this technique to get their name out there and recognised. Now it’s your turn to do the same.

Whilst viral marketing may sound nasty, it is a truly powerful way to get your name noticed. You see, people will be spreading your marketing message without even knowing it. This is a great way to sell a truckload of your products, and have other people doing your marketing for…you guessed it…FREE!

The easiest way to explain viral marketing would be to use hotmail as an example. In case you didn’t know hotmail offer free email. The way they make money is through selling advertising on their site. Obviously the more people that see the advertising on their site the more they can charge for companies to advertise.

Now this is where viral marketing comes in. Every time an email is sent out from a hotmail user, at the very bottom of the page is a marketing message that says “Sign Up For Your Own Free E-Mail Address At Hotmail.com”. So every time an e-mail is sent out people are unwittingly helping hotmail market their site. It spreads like a virus. Their own customers are helping them market their web site!

How One Free eBook Could Make You Very Rich

Now don’t panic. You don’t need to have to write your own ebook (electronic book). I’ll show you a way where you can get FREE products on any subject for you to turn into your own personalised eBook in just a second. But eBook viral marketing can make you a whole load of money. eBooks don’t cost a penny to send as you can send them via email or as a download, yet they can make you tens of thousands of pounds in extra sales. I’ll give you a concrete example of how this work’s in a second.

Rather then selling your eBook for £10, £20 even £30 why not give it away free? Why? What is the point of giving away free information I hear you ask. FREE advertising that’s why. Here’s an example of how I increased the traffic to my website without paying a penny.

I created an eBook called “How To Make £5,000-£10,000 A Month From Home”. At the bottom of each page was a little note saying “Receive Personal Millionaire coaching at www.millionaire-enterprises.com”. What I did was to offer this eBook for free to all my customers and even those who visited my site but didn’t buy anything. And here’s the clincher. I offered full resale and giveaway rights with the eBook.

And this is where viral marketing kicked in with my business. Some people who got my free eBook would not do anything with it. However others would pass it on or sell it. These people would then pass it onto others, who then in turn passed it onto even more. Are you starting to see how this works?

Within a matter of months the name of my site was being seen by thousands. Thousands of people were seeing the name of my site time and time again as they read the eBook until eventually curiosity got the better of them and they just had to visit my site to see what all the fuss was about. Now if your sales message is good enough, you can turn these thousands of people who it’s likely would never have seen your sales message into customers!

And the eBook continues to be spread around like a virus even now. With each day that goes by more and more people are seeing the name of my site. Isn’t that amazing. I’m not a penny out of pocket, yet have gained tons of new customers due to a service that is free. Perfect.

Ezines Can Market Your Product To Millions!!

And here’s another amazing trick using eBook viral marketing – E-zines.

An e-zine is basically just an electronic newsletter delivered directly to peoples email. The subjects covered in e-zines are literally endless. This is how free advertising in an e-zine aimed at your target market can make you more money then you could ever have hoped for.

Again it involves eBooks, but you can adapt the whole of this article to whatever you are selling. Here’s an example of how I used it to promote my business. I am not saying this to blow my own trumpet. But it will be easier for you to understand should you see a real life example of how it works.

Due to the fact my target market are business opportunity seekers I did a simple search on the net for “business opportunity ezines”. I then found a site which I advise you use too – http://www.ezines1.com/. Here I found a comprehensive list of thousands of bizz opp ezines.

Now here’s the clever bit in gaining 100% free advertising. I contacted each ezine offering them a copy of my eBook “How To Make £5000-£10,000 A Month From Home” to give to their ezine subscribers. I explained that their customers would be delighted at receiving a quality free money making ebook. All they needed to do was contain in their ezine a link to my website. This worked fantastically.

One ezine alone might have 10,000 subscribers. There were thousands in my market. If the ezines decide to go with your free eBook offer, and the majority will, you can be reaching hundreds of thousands of potential new customers. And remember, it won’t stop there. Because these will all have giveaway and resell rights to your book. So they can all then pass your book on. And with the name of your site at the bottom of every page you’re really going to notice the massive difference to your bank account thanks to 100% FREE advertising.

Warning…Entrepreneurs DO NOT Want You To Know This…

There’s a closesly guarded secret of the rich. It’s a secret which enables you to get FREE videos, FREE books, FREE audiocassettes etc for you to sell for profit. It’s called the public domain.

The public domain contains a limitless supply of copyright free products. This means that they are there for you to do with as you wish. You can sell anything in the P.B for 100% profit if you wish (for example did you know that the copyright had expired on all of Charles Dickens novels? You could get them out of the public domain, put them all onto a C.D. Rom and sell them on eBay as “The Ultimate Dickens’ Collection”. See the power of the P.B!). But as we are talking about viral marketing I’m going to show you how the public domain can make you money!.

Simply go to www.altavista.digital.com and search for the following keyword terms:

“public domain”, “reprint rights”, “free reports”, “duplication licence”, “unlimited duplication” (Ensure you use quotation marks when searching on altavista)

Then search through for an item relevant to what product you are selling. For example, if you were selling business opportunities it would be pointless offering the resell rights to the “Ultimate Charles Dickens” collection. You want to have a free book that will excite your potential customers into getting it and spreading it.

Once you have found the book you wish to use as a free bonus simply type the name of your site on the bottom of each page. And there you have it. Your FREE eBook that can and will gain you thousands and thousands of free custom!! Take a look at my eBook if you so desire and you will see exactly how the layout entices people to the site.

This Works…Try It Yourself And Watch Your Profits Explode!

Imagine an upside down pyramid. This is how viral marketing is. The tip of the pyramid represents when just a handful of people have your eBook. But as they spread it the pyramid starts to get wider and wider and your profits start to explode.

I know that this might seem an unusual way of marketing to you. It did to me when I first heard it. And there’s a reason for that…Its brand new to the U.K. That’s right, thanks to money master you are way ahead of the pack in the U.K. Whilst this is a massive marketing method in the U.S it is virtually unheard of here.

Using the power of viral marketing, tied in with the product of the moment – eBooks- you can spread your message and your information all across the internet and pull people to your web site. Which is fantastic. Because you ALWAYS make more sales if you pull people to your products rather then push them. (an advert would be an example of pushing them to your site).

I have used eBooks as an example of viral marketing. However you can adapt this method to whatever line of business you are in. It may just take a little time to come up with a winning idea

Viral Marketing is a free way to market your product to potentially millions of customers. I hope you will use this amazing new method to watch your profits explode.

Happy Banking

Jonathan Street

Jonathan Street is a master at making vast sums of money for very little investment. Direct mail, mail order, selling domain names, eBay…you name it - he’s making money from it. He’s also the author of "How To Make £5,000 - £10,000 A Month From Home". A book which he invites you to get for free from his ever popular web site.

Jonathan learnt how to make his fortune from 3 ordinary people who built a $50 million+ empire from home. Now there’ll let you copy their proven system.

For FREE info and to get a copy of Jonathans book go to: http://www.millionaire-enterprises.com

People say it all the time: "This advertising costs too much!" They practically go into cardiac arrest when they see how much the advertising for certain media in certain markets is going to cost them. It is pretty easy to get sticker shock when you see that a sixty-second radio commercial on a popular Los Angeles station could cost you a thousand bucks. Each. Or when you realize that all the "Dot.com" businesses in Silicon Valley have made radio spots on top stations in the San Francisco market cost as much as $2,500. A Minute. Or when you realize that a newspaper ad in your city barely bigger than a Hershey Bar will cost a couple thousand dollars. It’s easy to automatically think that’s a lot of money. Now here’s the important question for you, the advertiser: Does the ad actually cost too much?

So what’s the answer? The savvy advertiser will tell you that the cost of the ad is not the issue. What’s important is the return that the ad will bring. if you were charged even as much as $40,000 for a sixty-second radio commercial that generated enough sales to make you a profit of $50,000, then would the $40,000 be A LOT? The answer is NO! Of course not! You’d be a fool not to beg, borrow, or steal the $40,000 so you could make the $50,000 profit! Try getting that kind of return in the stock market!

How do you think that these big companies can afford to spend a million and a half dollars for a thirty second TV commercial during the Super Bowl? The know that an enormous amount of people will see it–enough to make the return on investment a good deal.

The point is simple; you’ve got to figure out how much money an ad will make you before you draw a conclusion of whether or not it costs too much. So how do you do that? It’s actually pretty easy. Here’s a simple process for determining the Return on Investment, or ROI, of an ad. First, you’ve got to know how much profit you make on each sale. For instance, if you buy it for $50 and sell it for $100, your gross profit is $50. Step two is to figure out what your closing ratio is. If, on average, you close one sale for every four people who inquire, that’s a 25% closing ratio. If 9 out of 10 end up buying, then your closing ratio would be 90%. This is simple math.

Now, figure out what your break-even is. Do this by taking cost of the advertisement and divide it by the amount of gross profit per sale. Remember, we already figured out what your gross profit is a second ago. So how much do the ads costs? If the ads cost $1,000 and your average gross profit is $50, that means you’ve got to make 20 sales to make back the $1,000–that’s your break-even point–in this example, it’s 20 sales. Fourth and last, figure out the number of leads you need to generate from the ad if you are to break even. To do this, you’ve got to know your closing ratio, which we just figured out also. Let’s say it’s 25%, or in other words, you close one out of four people who inquire. So if you close 25%, and you need 20 sales to break even, that indicates that your $1,000 worth of advertising needs to generate 80 leads to break even.

Now I know that all sounds kind of complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. We just calculated in the example that if the $1,000 ads can generate 80 leads, you would break even. That’s a return on investment of 0. I’m not saying that your goal is to break even. I realize that you are in business to make a profit. But let’s start with breaking even; that’s the bare minimum you can accept when running an ad. At least you didn’t come up with a NEGATIVE return on investment!

So let’s say your goal was to double your money? What would have to happen to your numbers? That’s right, you’d have to double your lead flow, or in this case, generate 160 leads instead of just 80. That means that if you generated 160 leads, you would generate a profit of $1,000–again, on $1,000 spent. In other words, you’ve doubled your money. Your return on investment is 100%. That’s pretty easy to follow, isn’t it? By way of review, what we’re trying to do is calculate your return on investment for your advertising. Here are the four steps again. Think about your numbers in your business.

What’s your gross profit per sale?
What’s your closing ratio?
What’s your break even…in terms of number of sales needed?
How many leads does your ad need to generate for enough sales to break even?
What’s your return on investment on any given number of leads that you generate?

Now realize something important here. What we’ve just done in this exercise is figure out how many leads you need to generate to break even on the cost of the advertisement, and then calculated the ROI for how many ever leads your ads end up generating. That’s a good piece of information to have, but now I want to take it a step further. Let’s figure out what’s known as the Lifetime Value of a Customer. What if your average customer brings you a $50 gross profit per sale like in the example we just went through? Is that the only time that customer will ever buy anything from you? How many times does that average customer come back in the course of a month, or a year?

If your average customer shops with you one time a month and makes you $50 of gross profit every time, that customer is now worth $600 a year–in profit. And if you know that your average customer stays with you for 3 years, now that $50 a month client is worth a tidy $1800. So now how much would you be willing to spend to accrue that client? What if those were your average numbers, $50 a month for 3 years. Then in the example earlier, remember where we broke even with 80 leads and just 20 sales? Now those 20 customers would be worth an astounding $36,000 over the next three years. And it only cost you a thousand dollars worth of advertising. Now your break-even looks a lot better doesn’t it! If you could accrue a $36,000 annuity every time you ran a thousand dollars’ worth of ads, you should mortgage your house and spend as much money as possible on advertising!

Now, a couple of words of advice when figuring your return on investment for advertising. First, always estimate your numbers conservatively–or in other words, on the low side. Always figure on getting a lower number of leads than you’re hoping for and expecting. Always count on a lower closing ratio than you’re used to. If you calculate your numbers using conservative figures, then you’ll do fine if your results are actually lower than projections…and in the event that you do as well as you had initially hoped, you’ll just make more money than you expected.

Let me give you a real-life example to better illustrate ROI. There is a company who was promoting seminars where they would attempt to sell a service that cost $8,000. When they were starting to do advertising to promote these seminars, the question of how much budget should they allot came up. They wanted to start filling seminars with about a week after starting advertising, so they decided that fax broadcasting would be the best way for them to quickly get the message out about the seminars. Faxing can be done for as little as 7¢ per page in some major metropolitan areas, so they came back and said they thought they would want to send out about 25,000 faxes a week for the 5 weeks they would be doing seminars. When asked how many sales were they planning on generating, they said because of a unique financing plan that allowed them to sell their package on a low monthly payment basis, they thought they could sell at least 100 packages in that 5 week time period.

Well, 100 packages is a lot, and they were told that they would have to do at least 100,000 faxes a week for the 5-week period to get the number of leads required to sell that many packages. The man got his calculator out and did some quick math and realized that he had to spend $35,000! 7¢ times 100,000 faxes times 5 weeks! That number–$35,000–sounded so huge, it caught him off guard. His idea was to spend just under 2 grand a week, or a total of less than $9,000. Big difference. That’s called "sticker shock."

So what he did was figure out the ROI, according to the steps previously explained. Again, first, figure out your gross profit per sale. His was about $3,250. Second, figure out the closing ratio. He thought his would be about 20%. So then, how many sales would he need to break even on a $35,000 advertising expenditure? Well, 35 thousand divided by $3,250 gross profit per sale is about 11 sales. Just 11 sales to break even. So if his closing ratio was just 10%, he’d have to generate about 110 leads to break even. 110 leads on 500,000 faxes?

Easily attainable. The last thing to do would be to figure out how many leads he’d have to get to reach his goal. His goal is 100 sales, and his closing ratio is 10%. That means he’d have to generate about 1,000 leads. On 500,000 faxes sent out, that’s like a two-one-thousandths of a percent response. That is very reasonable. He’d generate a total gross profit on the deal of $325,000…and if you subtract out the $35,000 advertising cost, that’s still a healthy gross profit. His attitude toward the $35 thousand changed instantly.

Well, do you see how that works now? Just run through your numbers and you’ll know how much money is a lot of money when it comes to advertising.

Rich Harshaw is the founder of the Monopolize Your Marketplace system and CEO of Y2Marketing Business Marketing Strategies

A few years ago, I analysed the statistics of where one of my clients, M & M Pest Control in Sydney, generated all their leads from. As a result of this, Ray Milton, the director of the company said:

“Scott measured the results we were getting from our advertising, and as a result, this confirmed my decision to eliminate over $42,000.00 in unnecessary expenses – because it wasn’t paying it’s way”

$42,000 is a lot of money… in anyone’s language!

What did I do? I simply analysed his advertising expenses… and identified whether or not the ads were generating a strong yield for his investment.

And I’m willing to bet you could do the same for your business.

Right now, you’re probably thinking… in the words of Pauline Hanson…

“Please Explain”

Listen. I’ve met with hundreds of businesses that advertise in the Yellow Pages. And most of the time, I ask them “What return on investment do you receive as a result of your advertisement?”

To which 9 times out of 10, the answer is as good as a blank stare!

How much money are they burning? Investing $20,000 on an ad (or $1,000 or $5,000, or $100,000 – the same principle applies) and not even know what their returns are!

Would you hire a salesperson and not ‘give a toss’ about how much income he was generating.

No! No! No!

So why on earth would you do it with your advertising dollar?

Some people say it’s too hard. Their staff won’t find out for them. My advice. Fire those staff, because they are costing you BIG money!

Listen, all you need to do is:

1.Code all your ads with a reference code to identify the source of the inquiry

2.Train your staff to ask one simple question: "Where did you hear about us?"

3.Enter the details into your computer.

4.Analyse the statistics.

And you need to be as specific as possible. One of my clients, a spit-roast caterer in Sydney measured the results of a series of ads in the local yellow pages directory. You know what he discovered? Only one of the directories was generating a strong return on investment – the rest were losing money!

Priceless knowledge. And in the world of advertising…

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

So unless you want to be like John Wannamaker, the ‘father of the modern department store’ who once said “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half it is” then grab the bull by the horns and start measuring the results of every ad you run… right now!

Yours in profits,

Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS

Visit my web site for your complimentary copy of my ebook (valued at $29.95) and free subscription to my valuable ezine "Copywriting Selling Secrets" where you’ll discover how to write ads and sales letters that make people line up and practically beg you to take their money.

Here’s the address: http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

One of the most powerful offers you can use in your advertising is the word Free.

But, you may well ask… how can I make a profit giving my products and services away without charging for them?

Which is the exact reason why you need to understand the ‘LVC Formula’ which stands for the Lifetime Value of a Client!

Here’s how it works. Let’s imagine for a moment you own a beauty salon. Now if you get a new customer, they may pay you $80 for their first treatment.

But how much is this $80 client really worth?

After all, most clients will continue to buy off you for many years to come.

For instance, let’s imagine your average client returns for a beauty treatment 8 times a year… and remains a client for 2 years.

$80 (price of consultation) x 8 (purchases a year) x 2 (number of years)

Now if you have a calculator handy, you’ll work out the value of this client as $1280.00.

And if your profit margin is 40% this calculates to a $512 profit per client.

Let’s imagine we sent a letter to all the nearby businesses offering women a free manicure valued at $30.00 (I’m not a beauty therapist, so please forgive me if all these figures are way out).

And if the manicure costs you $7 in products and 30 minutes of your time (which if you’re not busy… you’d just be sitting on your butt anyway!)

So effectively the $7 investment could have just made you $512 in profit.

And how easy is it to give away a free manicure?

Or for other industries…

·A free car service
·A free dancing lesson
·A free consultation
·A free ice cream
·A free report of some sort

The secret lies in giving away something which has a high perceived value, but actually costs you very little to produce.

Why does it work so well?

Using the word ‘Free’ in your advertising STOPS inertia. You see, people are happy with their current hairdresser… or their mechanic.

But when they get an opportunity to trial a product or service for FREE – there’s something irresistible and risk free about it, isn’t there?

A word of warning though. Make sure you offer the best possible service… otherwise people will not come back, and you’ll get a bad name very quickly.

And of course, where possible, make sure you collect a database… and measure your results.

What could you offer for FREE? Write down a few ideas now… and start implementing this stuff.

It could have an almost overnight effect on your sales.

Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
Level 12 / 418a Elizabeth Street
Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
1300 88 21 91 / + 61 2 9282 6445

Scott Bywater is a professional direct response copywriter and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To get a complimentary copy of his special report ‘7 Ways To Increase Your Turnover… No Matter What The State Of The Economy’ (valued at $29.95) and a free subscription to his "Copywriting Selling Secrets" ezine where you’ll discover how to write ads and sales letters that make people line up and practically beg you to do business with them visit his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

Many entrepreneurs believe that they understand what public relations is, but very few do. Publicity and public relations can be used to boost your business by thousands of dollars a week or kill it; the trouble is using it to your advantage.

I’m going to cover a few of the basics for getting good publicity and why you need to do them. If you do, you can be assured that you will be increasing your business at a rapid speed. Publicity, if used correctly, can be many times more valuable than advertising, and best of all, it’s free.

1. Always be honest- when you are talking with a journalist, either through email or the phone, you must always be honest. Journalists have a sort of BS detector and can see what is truthful, what is hype and what is outright lies. If your new, they’ll probably excuse some hype for the first time but they will never forgive you if you outright lie to them.

2. Know what is news - if you are launching a new web page about your cats, that is not news. Honestly, no one cares. I really shouldn’t be saying this, but you would be amazed at the number of people who put out news releases on subjects that no one in their right mind would consider news. However, many entrepreneurs don’t realize when they are sitting on a publicity goldmine. For example, if a celebrity is a happy user of your product, if your company is putting out an interesting or unusual product or service or your company has come up with an extremely innovative product, then you probably have some news on your hands!

3. Know whom to target- when you are releasing a new hairdryer that increases efficiency by 40%, you can call the product sections of the news organizations near you. however, you would be ill advised to call an organization that has nothing to do with your products, “cat monthly”, for example. “pr spam” is a much-feared problem for journalists and pr practitioners alike. My rule is that you can send a release to a journalist you don’t know if you believe that it is very well targeted. I’m not like a few people who believe that you need their express permission; simply by being journalists and posting their information, they are inviting news. However, this being said, don’t spam them.

Try to keep these rules in mind the next time you are looking to get some major publicity to skyrocket your business. Keep to common sense and use old fashioned networking, and you too will be sitting on a publicity goldmine!

Bryan Thompson is a young entrepreneur and founder of Press Release Writing Online (http://www.prwritingonline.com). In his experience as a freelance publicist, writer and entrepreneur, he has worked with dozens of small, medium and large companies. He is also writing a book on the basics of Publicity for small businesses and managing several other businesses at the same time. You may contact him at info@prwritingonline.com.