you-earnmoney|Blogging Tips

by: Mark Warner


It is no secret that marketing is one of the most important parts of today's businesses world. The average person may not realize how much Hollywood studios, computer software companies and fast food restaurants spend on marketing every year, but it is safe to say that it is often more than development. Some big budget films now have 70-100 million dollar budgets just for marketing, an unheard of amount even 10 years ago. However, even with all this money and supposed expertise, some marketing campaigns fall flat on their face. Let's take a look at a few common sense tips companies can follow to get the most out of their next marketing campaign.

Ignore the web at your own risk

While Arizona Senator John McCain happily announces that he not only doesn't know how to use a computer but that he's never been on the Internet before, he is not representative of the overwhelming majority of the American population. More and more people are not only working online, they are entertaining themselves online and the television is being pushed into the background. Not only is advertising online often cheaper than more conventional methods of advertising, but you reach the most coveted demographic online, as well, males 15-39. Granted, if you are selling life insurance and burial plots, you might want to reduce your online marketing budget, but if you are selling any other product or service in the world, the best bang for your buck is going to be in cyberspace.


Treat your audience with respect

It doesn't matter if you are selling sugar cereal to 9 year olds or if you are selling the new Coldplay CD to teenagers and adults, people across the board are smarter today than ever before. The quickest way you can alienate a potential audience is by either talking down to them or insulting their intelligence. That's not to say that you need to have a highbrow advertising and marketing campaign that would fit into the pages of the New Yorker; it simply means that if you make outrageous and incredible claims about your product or service, it had better live up to expectations. The days of the snake oil salesman are numbered.

Avoid blanket marketing

One of the most amazing occurrences in the cable television age is how fragmented and niche we've all become. It use to be that there were only a handful of networks(3 major ones + PBS), and if you wanted to run a television commercial, you tried to make it appeal to as many people as possible. The days of blanket marketing are long dead, however. Today, we have hundreds of channels, thousands of magazines and millions of websites. You are far better off creating a dozen marketing angles for your product that you can niche market to different groups to try to reach as many people as possible. Yes, it will take extra time and yes, it will take extra money, but if you don't, your marketing campaign is likely to be dead on arrival.