Advertising

Its so much easier said than done. Advertising.
Someone once told me that whatever your advertising dollars are, quadruple them.
I thought they were crazy, but no they were right.

Let's start with a few little basics. What is advertising? Well its, the word-of-mouth buzz, the free press, the online ads, radio spots, focus groups, newspaper, magazine and trade journal spots. Its the trade shows and the brochures, price lists, hang tags, labels, giveaways and the free product sent to editors, sales reps, buyers and donations. And don't forget the website, blogs and all of the manpower behind the development, function, execution and support of these items. So in a nutshell, advertising is huge.

They were right.

So what do you do first, second...or last for that matter. This is definitely tricky. The best advice I can render is that you remain positive with all of your experiences. If you don't, you'll become too discouraged, too fast. So get used to the idea that everything has a take home message. You may do a tradeshow & low & behold, a major hurricane wipes out New Orleans & the attendance is WAY down. That happened to me. You may decide to do a trade show, without visiting it (a no-no), and out of a potential 65,000 attendees, you only get 100 business cards and write orders for the only half the cost of the trade show. Another situation is that "you're global" and you buy into the really expensive website design that doesn't quite speak your message or even clearly define your message because you haven't truly formulated it yet. trust me, there's nothing worse than someone saying "I like the floating hearts, but what is it you sell?". And then of course there is the advertising. Way too expensive for you.

So what do you? Start really small; people like the hometown appeal; the root for the under-guy type thing. Use that to your advantage & make some mistakes. No make lots of mistakes. Before you know it, the press releases will become second nature; you won't hang on everyone's word; you'll develop confidence and your elevator pitch. Its a "must have" for all unknowns.

I could complete a dissertation on this topic, but, I believe I have made my point.

Advertising is huge. You need to play one aspect of the game & play it well.

Tell me what you think....

Lynne