How Much To Pay Your Ad Agency?

By Vivienne Quek

I'm sure this is the interesting question you had pondered often. Even your creative agency returned with a fantastic concept, you would still be wondering if you should accept that $3900 or $59,900 quotation.

What, exactly, are you paying for? Many think that they are only paying for that piece of advertisement or poster, the artwork. That would be very far from the truth. Behind that seemingly simple A4 artwork is a complex web of research, analysis, planning, conceptualizing, copywriting, experience, testing, creativity and execution.

"But there's only a few lines plus one photo and my agency took no more than a few hours!" Sure, it may look simple but, simple doesn't equate to easy. Also please understand that many brains, several hands and umpteen years of experience made that quality and speed possible. One mentor told me "A job that takes 20-minutes to accomplish doesn't mean it is only worth 20-minute of time. Behind that 20-minutes lies 20 years of experience."

It is not always easy to tell when slip-shod work is produced. Sometimes, a quick turnaround can produce a nice looking piece of work. A "nice looking" piece might be just that, eye candy. A detailed, professional critique could tear it to pieces. For example, is the headline relevant (catchy, maybe, but relevant?), is the product shown correctly (it might be upside down, I have seen it!), is there a call to action, is the company logo unduly big that it became an eye sore... and so on.

A correct price is when you and your creative agency agrees that it is a fair deal. So what should you pay for and what price is fair?

Ideally, paying by performance will be fair and it is usually a win-win situation for both parties. However, if a fee-based compensation is better suited and you are using your regular agencies, you can consider these factors against the quoted fees:

* Target Accomplishment - Does the agency always meet or surpass the objective, goal and expectation?

* Work Quality - Does the agency always have a refreshing idea even if based on the same old promotional mechanism you used for the past 3 years? Is there a finesse that made your brochures look a tad more "premium" than your fiercest competitor?

* Delivery Punctuality - Does the agency say "Tuesday" and you only get to see your ads on Friday?

* Service Responsiveness - Does the agency respond to all your queries immediately or do they take their time getting back to you? Is there a dedicated support staff or team other than your AE?

* Calibre of staff - Does the agency have experienced marketers to be your think tank? Do they have daredevils that forge ahead through the creative frontiers?

These should form the basis to determine a fair price. Do not look at the artwork only. That is just one piece of a much bigger picture. And please, do yourself a favour by not doing any of these: * Get 3 quotes and award the job to the lowest bidder. (Seriously, do you buy ALL your dresses at the discount bin?)

* Get 3 quotes and ask the best qualified bidder to match the price of the lowest bidder. (Ever hear of "pay peanuts and get monkeys"?)

* Start bargaining AFTER the agency has delivered the final piece of work

All in all, the idea is to be fair. The creative people have spent many years to earn their stripes. Just as you will not expect your top sales managers to draw the same salary as the junior secretaries, why then would you expect to pay your agency less than the best?

Vivienne Quek is a seasoned veteran in the advertising industry. She has worked in small local outfits to large international agencies servicing multi-million dollar accounts. Today, she runs two agencies providing a wide range of marketing and communications services

Vivienne continues to play an active role in her agencies and blogs to share her experiences with everyone at http://www.versacreations.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vivienne_Quek

Online Merchandising Strategies

Communicating with Postcards

By Carla San Gaspar

Postcard serves as your mini billboard. It stands and serves as your representative in contacting people. They are tools that are perfectly used for advertisements, business reply, coupon cards, invitations and greeting cards. With the postcards you are able to make your business known globally and thus making a successful communication among people around the globe.

First and foremost postcards are regarded as the most traveled promotional tool. These cards may possess designs of significant historical places, images of heroic deeds and occasional designs. At first we only regard them as a tool used this way yet because of the valuable service that it can give but as time moves on these cards were developed and can now be used as a promotional tool for your campaign and advertising.

How do you communicate with clients through postcards?

1.Inform and keep clients aware – with the cards you can simply inform your clients of the latest update that your business can bring. Keeping your clients updated of your business through postcards will be a big wave for a successful business venture.

2.Provide clients with information regarding your location or address – the most important factor that you need to include is your address. This will keep your clients’ on tract on how to easily reach out for you. Your address you write on your cards will serve as the postman guide of delivering the cards right on your client’s doorstep. Your return address will serve as the reference of your clients. Additionally the advantage of having a return address is that in case your clients no longer lives on that place you will be notified because the card will be returned to you.

3.Follow up – your postcard can be used for follow ups. Let say you are promoting something and your prospects had notified you that they are interested with what is advertised and yet they take too long to respond, you can send a postcard for follow ups.

4.Keeping an open communication – by means of sending your clients with greeting cards during special occasions is a plus factor of keeping a good bond between you and your clients. Through the cards that you send somehow you make your clients feel that you really appreciate and thank them for their never ending patronization and support for your business.

Look at this simple tool, they are only small and handy yet it possesses a feature that can make business boom their sales and profits.

Generally in business it is a plus factor that you are able to keep an open communication among your clients. In this way you are well assured that you keep you business alive and come up with many chances of making your business successful.

For more related articles and guides about postcard design and other marketing or promotional products you may visit Postcard Printing

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_San_Gaspar

Web Directories - General Introduction

Free Advertising On the Web

By Erin Kewer

Do you ever wonder sometimes how you are going to get your website out on the internet so people can see it? Finding new places to advertise where nobody else does?

With the internet being so overloaded with work at home jobs, business opportunities and regular jobs it's hard to come across new, undiscovered places to advertise. Here are 8 tips to help you get your website seen:

1) Use message boards. There are lots of topics out there that you can talk about. Get to know people on the boards and introduce them to your company. The more friends you make the more they will trust you. Seek out boards on topics you enjoy. If you enjoy cooking, seek out cooking boards. If you enjoy music, seek out music boards.

2) Get a banner/button made. Exchange links if you can. It’s all about FREE advertising.

3) Plug boards. These are new to the advertising world. it’s a simple 88x30 button and you can submit it to a lot of work at home websites and other company websites.

4) Articles. Submit your articles to message boards and article directories. If you are a subscriber to an ezine, consider submitting your article to the ezine publisher for inclusion in a future edition.

5) Contests. Enter yourself in contests. Some websites have featured companies or mom/dad of the month where you can post your information on their site for a month. Once again FREE advertising. Sponsor contests. The contest you sponsor will be advertised, and your name and website will be attached as a contributor. Run your own contest and submit it everywhere you can, contest websites, message boards and sweepstakes sites.

6) Fillers. A lot of people are looking for fillers to put in their work at home packs. You send them your business card or flyers and they include it in their pack of information.

7) Free classifieds. This is another great way to promote your site. Some sites allow you to post once a week. Other sites allow daily submissions. Be sure to read over their rules before you post.

8) Myspace/Ryze. Myspace and Ryze are two great ways to network with other people that have their own home businesses. Join their networks and share your information about your company with other moms and dads that are also working from home. Also get great resources from these networks on how to build a successful business.

These are just a few tips to help you get your advertising going. There are lots of resources out there that you can use to help grow your business. Find good work at home resource sites to get updated articles and sign up for their newsletters. Join some networks and network with other work at home mom and dads. Have fun building your business and making friends.

***

Erin Kewer has been working at home for 6 years now building a resource website to help other moms and dads run their home business successfully. Contact her at athome@athomeresources.com or http://www.athomeresources.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erin_Kewer

Winning Marketing Strategies - For Spa Professionals

Getting Started With Print Advertising

By Chris Barr

Why Is is Print Advertising Important?

Marketing is one of the most important factors facing your business each day. When you think about it, marketing has a direct impact on every factor involved with your ultimate success or failure. With this in mind, it becomes obvious that a healthy advertising strategy is vital to the health of your business.

Direct marketing offers many benefits that might not immediately seem obvious. Sure, direct marketing generates outstanding short-term results - but it also develops, strengthens, and maintains affiliations between your target groups and your brands, which are extremely important in the future.

Sales, expansion, retention, profitability, lead generation, telephone calls, competition, ROI, strategic planning...sound familiar? They should, because all of these terms (and the list could go on) are key elements to your company's success. Further, all of these terms are directly (sometimes entirely) a result of marketing.

How do I advertise? Why should I advertise? How much will this cost me?

Direct Marketing is used by almost every business in the world for a good reason. It works. Print advertising creates a lasting positive image with customers, delivers a focused message, engages your customer with graphics and photography, creates an emotional response, and defines a call to action.

A friend of mine, who is a successful small business owner in Virginia, always says the following about customers: "If you don't show it, you don't have it. If you don't tell them, they assume it isn't there. If you don't give them a reason, they won't call."

Use newspaper inserts to market your products and services to new customers, retain current customers, lend credability to your business, and increase awareness. Newspaper inserts are a cost-effective and time-tested method of generating short-term results and lasting impact.

Think about the pizza shops in your local area. Pizza shops are print advertising machines. How many pizza menus and flyers have you seen in the last month? The owners of these take-out restaurants advertise heavily because if they know that if don't advertise, you will call someone who does. It's that simple.

If you are worried about the prices, don't be. Print advertising is more cost-effective than ever. For example, you can have 10,000 full color, 2-sided, glossy flyers produced for as low as $375. Once you have the flyers printed all you have to do is distribute them through your area newspaper(s). If you can't afford the daily paper's rates, distribute your flyers through weekly newspapers. Many weekly newspapers offer newspaper inserts for $40 per thousand or less! You can't go wrong with newspaper inserts, and you will quickly realize the impact print advertising has on your business once you start your advertising campaign.

Other benefits of newspaper inserts:

*target specific zip codes

*easy to track results/ROI

*total creative control of content and design

*ability to include coupons, specials, etc

*easy to research competition and plan ahead

This article is free and you may utilize this article on your website as long as you retain the following live links and author information:

Chris Barr is an experienced marketing professional and graduate of Christopher Newport University. Mr. Barr specializes in print advertising, business development, web business strategic positioning, and technical writing. For the lowest prices on printed flyers, newspaper inserts, brochures, menus, and postcards please visit http://www.printanddeliver.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Barr

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING