Increasing Sales With Out of Home Marketing

If you are thinking of an advertising medium that has the ability to increase your brand reach and visibility, then you should be thinking of out of home advertising. Right now, this is one of the hottest advertising solutions used by people to create massive popularity for their products. Out of home advertising involves anything from fliers and posters to sky writing and the huge amount of place based media. Its application and processes are so dynamic that old and outdate billboards in their thousands are frequently being converted to top of the range LED billboards that can promote anything that needs promoting. Some of these advertising are restricted to certain time frames. For example, there can be an ad for Nike shorts on one board at 5p.m and another ad for Xbox at 11p.m on the same board.

Not only is out of home advertising exciting and dynamic sending a barrage of messages at potential prospects. It is also the favourite of start-up and SMBs (Small and medium scale businesses) because of the costs. It is very result oriented and affordable. To increase your sales dramatically using out of home marketing, heres what you should do:

1. Location

Like Ray Kroc of McDonalds often said Its all about the location. If your location is wrong, you are not likely to get any results. Know that with the exception of skywriting, most out of home advertising involves the use of a static media. This basically means that your ads will be on posters, beaches as in the case of beach sand impression, billboards and maybe fliers. So when targeting your prospects, be sure to take note of high density areas and high attraction quotient.

For example, a teeth whitening ad placed on the door of a beauty shop is bound to be noticed. The same goes for an ad that is placed in your direct line of vision as you walk into a mall. So, choose locations where your prospects are likely to gather frequently. Shopping stores and malls are an effective place for ads. You can put your sticker on the shopping carts, in front of the cashier and just behind the cashier. This will get noticed fast and is likely to increase your chances of increasing your sales because your prospects are just about to make a buying decision at the point they see your ads.

2. Strong Message

Just think about McDonalds billboard ads and you get the idea. The message is simple: come in, eat and take away. Thats what your message should be like “strong, definite, and unclustered. Most of your prospects are likely going to be on the move. The bottom line with these ads is Get their attention and give them the message in less than 3 seconds. Anything more and you are wasting your time. In fact the advertising association of America (AAA) recommends that the words on all such out of home ads be at the highest, 7 with a strong visual image.

The Affordable Touch Screen Phone

In a world of increasingly popular smartphones people who cant afford a top of the line phone might have trouble finding a suitable cellular device. Many consumers just need a phone for simple messaging and phone call usage. The LG Neon is such a phone. It is a bare bones cell phone with a neat touch screen and a camera that actually takes decent looking pictures.

The LG Neon is a very nice looking cell phone. The phone doesnt have any harsh lines. The phone is smooth with rounded edges. The LG Neon is very small and doesnt weigh much, but it still feels good when held in ones hand. The sliding mechanism works well and doesnt feel shaky at all. Despite the small screen images and text will appear great on it. There are also many different options for customizing the font and appearance of the commands on the phone. The LG Neon does feature a touch screen, but strangely enough it only works for dialing numbers. To activate the touch screen dialer you must first hit a button on the navigator array. Then the buttons are displayed on the screen. The touch screen works well but being able to use it for other reasons is surely missed. Inside the slide compartment is a full QWERTY keyboard. The keys are spaced apart very generously and each button is raised above the surface. Typing on this keyboard is very easy and isnt uncomfortable. There are a number of instant messaging and e-mail linking options, such as AOL, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. Unfortunately Gmail is not supported by the phone because the LG Neon doesnt support POP or IMAP.

The LG Neon is also a camera phone as well. It offers many image capturing and photo controls. Despite featuring five white balance presets, three quality settings, a 4x zoom, self timer, and five color effects the phone is absent a flash. Be wary of taking photos in dark areas. The quality of the video recorded by the Neon is decent. It can appear grainy and the colors will be slightly muted. The LG Neon doesnt allow the videos to be very long, but anyone with a MicroSD card will be able to record longer videos.

The phone lacks any 3G or Wi-Fi support meaning downloading songs and content will take quite a while. It was so slow it took 12 minutes to download a 1MB song. The web browsing also suffers it can be very slow as well; websites take quite a while to load.

The call quality presented by the LG Neon is above average. The microphone on the Neon does an amazing job at isolating ones voice and not picking up any background noise, even in loud noise traffic areas. The speakerphone does not work as well though. Callers and even music played over it will sound very low.

The LG Neon is a satisfactory phone for anyone looking for something that isnt so expansive. It exceeds at providing consumers with a great phone service as well as text messaging, camera/video recorder, and basic web browsing functions.

Designing a Website for Your Targeted Audience

When designing a website, many people tend to get caught up in the fun of trying different designs. It is important to remember that when you design a website, you are designing it for a particular audience. The fact is that the design you choose for your website should reflect your target audience. A website that does not relate to their audiences desires will not see an increase in sales.

When designing a website, the first thing you have to do is define your target audience. Websites are about communication; therefore, you have to determine who you are communicating to. For instance, will your audience consist mainly of men, women, a certain age group, a certain ethnicity…etc? You have to determine why they are coming to site and what they are looking for. Targeting a wide range of people may increase website traffic, but not sales.

You also have to think about the product. For instance, a man surfing the net will not be going to sites advertising womens make up. An elderly person will not go to a site selling acne medication. The idea is to attract shoppers who are looking for your specific product or service.

Once you have identified your target audience, you need to create the right look that will encourage them to make a purchase. This includes the appropriate graphics, advertising and promotional materials, and relevant content that they will find appealing. You also have to consider ease of navigation. If your audience is not that computer savvy, having an easy to navigate website will be beneficial.

Marketing techniques must be considered when designing a website. For instance, if you are selling wine, are you targeting experts in the wine industry or the general public? If you are targeting experts, you do not want to dumb down the site. Experts will have a wealth of technical knowledge regarding the wine industry and the wine itself, so you should present a marketing design that speaks on their level of expertise. Another example to consider is if you are selling a line of womens clothing. You have to design the website based on the type of women purchasing the clothes. For instance, are you selling casual wear, maternity clothes, or professional clothing for the office? Your website will deliver either a professional, relaxed, or family orientated design. Your content and advertising will need to centre on the type of environment the clothing will be worn in. All of these details will help you pick the most appropriate design.

Other design aspects you have to consider include: the most appropriate graphics and sounds, keywords that will reach your target audience, the type of information you will provide that is both relevant to the customer and the business philosophy. As well, you must consider the level of audience interaction that will be expected. This can include discussion forums, entering contests, completing surveys, providing feedback…etc.

Understanding your audience and their needs is essential to creating and maintaining a successful business website. It is important to remember that you may not get a perfect design on the first try. You will probably have to make some minor adjustments. The key point to remember is that your site should be built around your customer, and not your own personal preferences. As well, you may receive feedback from visitors regarding your website which will allow you to fine tune the design.

Designing a website with the customer needs and desires in mind is a critical part of running a successful business. Ultimately, whether one is designing a website for a business, or creating websites for their clients, the design of a website is blended with the business marketing concept.