Your marketing and advertising won’t be effective if your potential customers don’t believe the claims you make. So how can you prove your that you can do what you say you can?

Tone it down. Even if it is possible, your claim that dieters can lose 50 pounds in a month probably won’t be believed. Make it more realistic and representative of typical results.

Get customer testimonials. Let them see that others have had great results. Testimonials should be specific and include the customer’s real name for the most credibility.

Get endorsements from experts. Respected authorities who say that your product or service is good make you look good.

Positive media coverage will make you a star. Media coverage provides an implied endorsement from a respected source.

Show a track record. Have you been in business for 20 years? Customers are more comfortable doing business with someone they believe will be around if there is a problem after the sale.

Make yourself accessible. Give a phone number or e-mail address where customers can contact you (or support staff) directly with questions. Phone numbers are especially valuable in creating the awareness that you are approachable by clients. Add live chat at your web site to resolve support issues.

Cite statistics from a reputable source to back up your claims. There is a joke that 67.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot. When you use statistics, tell where they came from.

And, never make claims that aren’t true. If you are caught in a lie, it can be difficult or impossible to reclaim the trust of your customers.

Copyright Cathy Stucker. As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker can help you attract customers and make yourself famous with creative strategies that help your business excel. Get free marketing tips and discover what she can do for you at http://www.IdeaLady.com/.

The most important aspect of any business is selling the product or service. Without sales, you are not generating any income and your business will not survive. All sales begin with effective and powerful advertisements. To build sales the ad must get the buyer to act. The ad writer must know what he or she wants the buyer to do.

All ads are written with a basic formula, which is:

1. Attract the attention of your prospect.

2. Interest your prospect in your product/service.

3. Cause your prospect to "desire" your product.

4. Demand "action" from the prospect.

Never forget the basic rules of copywriting. If the ad is not read, it won’t generate a sale. If the ad is not seen it won’t be read. If the ad does not command the attention of the reader, it will not be seen!

Lastly, longer isn’t always better. If you can say what you need to say with fewer words then do so. People are rushed these days and they don’t have time or patience to read a long and wordy advertisement. Sales are the lifeblood of any business. Master the art of effective advertising and you will be on your way to a succesful business.

DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.

We already know this from our history books. If you want to make money today, you must first look back in time to the first time in history that a large portion of our country all tried to get rich at the same time in the same place. The first discovery of gold was at Sutter’s Mill by James W. Marshall in 1948, Mr. Sutter’s mill contractor and builder. This discovery sprang thousands upon thousands of ambitious individuals to get rich which we refer to as the "Gold Rush."

As you can imagine, these people were not that much different from the thousands of new entrepreneurs trying to get rich on the Internet. But out of all those thousands of people seeking their fortunes, only about 4% to 6% of them even found enough gold to feed themselves. And history books tell us that less than 1% ever became wealthy. This is so similar to the Internet of today that the two are worth comparing.

BUT Wait! A completely different group of people became extremely wealthy in those exact same gold fields…

Who were these people who managed to get rich during those hard times?

They were the people who opened little stores not far from where all the people were digging and panning for gold! These people were the smartest group because they chose to sell the tools that they knew all those gold diggers were going to need. This special group of individuals some how knew that it was a waste of time to dig and pan for gold. This amazing group of people wanted something with better odds. They wanted a sure thing!

They knew that the miners couldn’t mine unless they had clothing, tools, and food. So these genius store owners made their fortunes selling the shovels, jackets, pants, wheel barrows, picks, pans, beer, food, hats, medicine and etc. So it didn’t matter to them if a miner found gold and got rich or whether that miner couldn’t find an ounce of gold. It just didn’t matter to the men and women who owned the stores because no matter what, all those people in search of gold still needed massive amounts of supplies to live and more tools to keep trying. The shopkeepers were always there to sell all these supplies!

Whether gold was found or not, during any given day, the shop keepers made the same consistent amount of solid income!

Below you’re about to find out why all this is relevant to you and your Internet income.

You now know that history has proven that if you do exactly what the masses of people are doing to get rich, you’ll most likely fail. And you now know that if you provide products or services to that large group of people that are all trying to get rich, you’ll most likely become wealthy. It’s simple! Turn those gold diggers into your customers!

Just for a moment, separate yourself from the rest of them - sit back and relax. While sitting there, watch what they are doing; pay attention to what they are looking for and what they are using to get it. Once you have figured these things out you will know what to do to turn them into your customers.

But in case you don’t, here’s the simple answer to how you’re about to turn all of today’s Internet gold diggers into your own customers. First of all, you must ask yourself this question: "What is the single most important thing to all of today’s Internet gold diggers? What do they crave and desire the most?"

The answer is "Traffic." In case you’re new to the Internet, the word "Traffic," of course, means visitors to your web site. It doesn’t take Internet marketers long to figure out that even though they have a professional web site up, not a single person is ever going to visit that web site unless it gets advertised. You have to know where to get traffic and generate MORE traffic.

With all that in mind, I’m about to discuss a very important subject and it may be very controversial to some, and even cause me to lose a few customers but I MUST make my point.

You hear this from people around you, your teachers, your advisors, even television, "knowledge is power." Do you agree?

Please explain.

I’ve asked a few people this same question and some have explained, "Well, yeah, without knowledge you have no authority."

"Well, it’s obvious, without knowledge you have no power."

"Knowledge is what gets the job done in your everyday task."

While these are good explanations, I disagree. You’re baffled. Totally understandable because I’m probably the only person on Earth standing up to this worldwide, coined phrase. So I better begin explaining myself before I start receiving hate mails. Allow me to explain by using an example.

Electricity.

Can you agree electricity is power? It has the power to turn your lights on, it’s what plays your radio, and it’s what starts up your car. Or does it? Electricity doesn’t just magically turn your light on, automatically play your radio nor does it mysteriously start your engine. No. The electricity HAS TO BE APPLIED.

Like electricity, knowledge doesn’t magically write your sales letter, knowledge doesn’t automatically file your folders and knowledge doesn’t mysteriously tune up your car. It has to be "APPLIED."

"Where are you going with this," you might ask.

Simply this, "knowledge" is only POTENTIAL POWER. All the knowledge that you hold within you is nothing unless you put it to use. That’s it. If after reading this article and you decide to do nothing then you will have wasted your time and effort. Unless you apply what I’ve taught you, you will have thrown away your money. You can learn from my 4 years of experience or you can ignore it, the choice is yours.

I’m not here to change your mind about anything, I’m just pointing out important aspects to consider and I can only hope it has opened your mind and drive you to take action.

Van Lam is a business opportunity reviewer who speaks his mind and shares his thoughts. He has written a new ebook called, "The Hidden Secrets Revealed." Visit his web site to read the reviews and register at his Private Forum for plenty of free products to download and to chat with other network marketers and online opportunity enthusiasts. http://www.networkersdebut.com

Can it be???

Is there advertising that people actually love?

You bet there is! And you are already very aware of it. The type of advertising I’m referring to is promotional items, also known as advertising specialties. It’s anything a company would put their logo and contact information on, and then give away. They are used by many businesses all over the world to help maintain, and increase the amount of business they do with their customers every day.

Why do people love it? Because we view the item more as a gift from the giver instead of an advertising tool. Have you ever been handed a logoed scratch pad, coffee mug, pen, coaster, calendar, etc. and then said THANK YOU? Of course you have. We all have.

When you accept it, an emotional (almost an obligation to do business with) type of attachment is created in you. A kind of warm & fuzzy feeling if you will. For a long time they’ll remember the gift you gave, and in order to show their appreciation to you, almost instinctively, they’ll try to do more business with you. That’s the secret behind this type of advertising!!!

And that’s why it’s The ONLY type of advertising people love. AND it’ll work powerfully for you too!!

The next time you’re pondering ways to increase your business, consider using promotional items.

Scott Rauber, Biz Promo, LLC - In the business of helping businesses get more business. Master of finding prospects using little or no money.

Pay close attention and make it work the best for you.

No doubt you’ve listened to, and then quickly deleted, messages from account execs from your local radio stations. Maybe you’ve even entertained them in your office. Hopefully you didn’t have to sanitize your phone or office afterwards.

Well, radio can be great way to garner awareness cheaply… ahem, inexpensively… if you do it right. Remember… 97.823% of all radio ads S-U-C-K. That leaves you to carry the banner for great radio advertising. And when you do, you will get noticed. Believe me, you will get noticed.

Why do so many radio ads suck? Between the screaming car ads, nasally voiced business owners who should never get anywhere near a microphone reading their own ads, and the next “turnkey” business opportunity, they are all dressed in their plaid suits and resorting to hucksterism. They want your money and they want it now.

They forget one thing. Well, actually a lot of things, but the main thing they forget that people are not tuning in for their ad. Listeners want Rush, Rome, Al, Laura, music, sports, news, or whatever. People aren’t saying, “Gee, I gotta hear great heating and air conditioning ads today!”

Your ad is interrupting what they listen for. By nature, you are already behind the eight ball before you start in radio. But there is hope.

First off, do NOT let a radio station employee write your ad.

If your exec isn’t a writer (you may luck out in that some radio execs are copywriters in training looking for an agency gig) and you don’t speak up, your ad will probably get written by either: the station producer- who may have already written 4 or 5 other ads that same DAY,who doesn’t have enough time to fully attend to your needs, and thereby wasting your money; OR a disc jockey (strange term- they don’t spin wax anymore, Daddy-O) whose annoyed he or she has to write an ad, or who’s not a talented writer to begin with, also wasting your money; OR by an intern, secretary, or other employee - who may relish the opportunity, but may not have the chops yet, or is being pressured to write something “quick and dirty” so it can produced and on the air — also thereby wasting your money.

You have creative control and the ultimate yay or nay, so feel free to choose your writer. Hint and Shameless Plug : There is a link here to direct you to an excellent radio writer. It’s http://www.brandedbetter.com.

Now, when it comes down to concepting and reviewing scripts, remember this: Radio is called Theater of the Mind for good reason. Use it to your advantage. Recall your disadvantage before starting.

Cleverness will grab attention. But… it must be on strategy to be effective. Give your writer ONE benefit to express. How does that benefit resonate with the target audience? Don’t think if you have a “mundane” or “boring” product or service, there’s no cleverness to be had. Give a good writer enough information, and they will find it.

A few of the BEST radio ads I’ve ever heard was for a soil conditioner. Yup. A soil conditioner. Two voices. One performed by the writer. The other performed by midlevel (read… talented, and nonunion) voice talent. Writer as The Hick Farmer. Nonunion Talent as the Smart Farmer.

Hick Farmer: “Hey, nay-bor…Whatzzat on yer roof?”

Smart Farmer: (obviously) “It’s a satellite dish.”

Hick Farmer: "Whazzit fer…? Talkin’ to the Martians?"

You can almost hear the slack jaw in your head. And it makes you want to hear more. That’s your goal for radio.

Another ad for the same product was even better.

Smart Farmer: "Hey, neighbor… Why so glum?"

Hick Farmer: "Aw… the weeds, the bugs, the disease… my crops are about ruined… I’ve had an awful year. The wife has been pickin’ her tooth for leftovers."

Now, I’m not a farmer. I never heard of conditioning soil. But, you can bet I understood what it did after these ads. And did I mention I was wondrously entertained when receiving this information?

To be fair, these ads were produced by an ad agency with a good sized budget. The campaign also won some ad awards and some industry awards. The point is– a good ad isn’t loud, repetitive, trite, condescending, or tries to jam as many words possible into the time frame. In fact, silence works to your advantage. Silence in radio (or even TV) is like white space on a print ad. It tastefully surrounds the content for maximum effectiveness, drawing the eye (in this case, ear) in to read (hear) the copy.

Voices are important, too. Ever listen to the radio and hear the same voice all over the ads? That’s usually Mr. or Ms. Producer– the person who makes sure the ad gets made. That’s why they don’t have time to write a good one for you. Many freelance writers, myself included, know something about voices and casting, and can probably get you the best talent for your dollar. Some writers can even voice their own copy. And think twice, no… three times about voicing it yourself. Better make that four times.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what length of ad to buy? In most cases, go for the :60. For just a few dollars more, you get twice the time to play with. If you are spending money on radio, use ALL the resources available to you to create the best possible ad. And that usually entails going outside the radio station walls to get it. ~~

John is a freelance commercial writer based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a free monthly e-zine focusing on branding, advertising, and marketing from his website http://www.brandedbetter.com. Speaking with both agency and in- house experience, he knows the most valuable asset of a businees is its brand.

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

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