A change is taking place in the business world and a change in the advertising world must follow.

To suit an altering climate Clients need a change of focus, of advertising and of marketing.

The new marketing language should be about waste, maladministration, extravagance, incompetence and drift.

The new idea should be the need in hard times for rigor, severity and unsentimentally. The whole ethos surrounding the advertising industry must be of a ruthlessly businesslike instinct to cut the fat, strip waste, provide true accountability, sack the incompetent and, last but by no means least, finally understand the meaning of the word “communication”.

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I hate to break bad news to you but if you sell on yield and returns you are nothing more than a bank clerk. Bank clerks don’t earn much and neither will you if you don’t get away from this nonsense.

I am bombarded constantly from sales organizations with the latest ad, greatest product that will make it easy to sell. If I concentrated on that I would be working at the bank.

Nothing wrong with working at the bank except I make more money every 2 weeks than most bank clerks make in a year.

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An article entitled, “For better or worse, adults learn to say it with emoticons” by Alex Williams points out the juvenile nature of emoticons, yet it also pinpoints the growing acceptance of the symbols among adults.

For those unfamiliar with the term emoticon you may recognize them by their smiley faces in email correspondence.

Emoticons are blasted by critics as making full use of the English language an archaic notion. Users started out in the 90’s using simple black and white smiley faces or even symbols such as  to demonstrate their emotion.

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Working with insurance agents over the years I have found one commonality… they fear technology. Of course, not all do, most of you reading this online article probably don’t… but in my experience I find fear of technology generally to be true. Some agents I work with still refuse to use email.

What they’re missing out on is an abundance of fresh, precision targeted leads that can only be found on the web.

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There’s plenty of competition for the price shoppers, and you don’t want to play that game. Price shoppers are the worst clients you could ever ask for, so why would you ever want to attract them? But that’s exactly what you’re doing when you offer to quote someone insurance.

Let the price shoppers search the internet or bother your competition for quotes, but don’t let them bother you. There is a very good reason for both you and the customer for not simply quoting a price. Isn’t it true that when you quote a price you’re making a quote based on the assumption that the customer knows exactly what they need and why? And how often is that really true?

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You’re excited-you’ve just signed up to be a distributor for Xyz Company. You’re going to be selling the hottest selling product known to mankind-at least that is what your sponsor told you. Then reality hits you like a stink bomb. How in the heck are you going to sell these products?

This is the panic that probably went through your mind right after you signed up in your company. What you probably didn’t know then, was that being a distributor is going to take some business know how and a lot of marketing skills. This herein lies the problem. You, like most new people, may not have either. This leaves people like you with a garage full of products you couldn’t even give away. That too takes some marketing skill.

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Direct marketing is one of the top advertising methods used due to its success rate. This form of marketing is written to speak to your prospects as individuals rather than faceless customers to instantly build rapport, compel them to do business with you, or inform them about your unique services.

Businesses and marketers are aware of the advantages and opportunities of direct marketing due to its success rate. Direct mail is the top method of advertising used by marketers (you’ve seen the letters).

A good copywriter can ignite your customer’s desire for your product through persuasive, powerful copy that will prompt them to act now.

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If you own a brick and mortar business and you play music over the speaker system you are subject to broadcasting (or rebroadcasting) rules that provide for a payment to music licensing companies like ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. If you subscribe to a music service they may have that fee built into the monthly service agreement.

If you play music over your phone system when a customer is on hold you may be subject to payment of rebroadcasting fees.

Radio stations have had to pay these fees for years, but when companies began to broadcast on the web via online podcasts the subject was initially very gray.

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A follow-up tool such as a post card, HTML newsletter, or note card is essential to make sure that your services stay “top-of-mind” with the people that you meet. It’s said that a prospect needs to hear from you seven times before they will make a purchase. So it’s important to create tools and a system to enable you to followup with your prospects once you’ve made that initial connection.

Steps to planning your follow-up method and system:

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Promotional items aren’t just for increasing profits. Non profit agencies and not for profits will find that promotional items can be extremely useful in publicizing the messages that they’re trying to get across to a distracted and distractible public.

One of the biggest challenges in the non-profit sector is publicizing your message. In a world full of distractions and advertisements, it’s easy for your voice to get lost in all the noise. Promotional items and promotional products offer a multitude of ways to make your message heard and remembered by those that most need to hear it. Here are just a few of the promotional items that you can adapt for use in your public awareness campaign.

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