What is your Brand?

Your brand consist of you and your company's reputation. How do you want your customers or the world to view your company? It is presented through the quality of your product or service, your relationships with other businesses as well as your customers, the images through your graphics and videos, and the press releases that are written about your company. Whether you like it or not you already have a brand and it is constantly developing. When you realize this you should take all initiative to determine how you want to be presented to the world. There are factors in branding that are out of your control but, you can't just go with the flow because really you have a whole lot more control of your brand than you think.

Branding is a repetitive process and requires patience but is well worth the wait! You must make sure that you stay in your potential clients face, that they constantly hear and see you if you want to be great. No matter how small or large your business begin focusing on branding now. Brainstorm with leaders and management and figure out what the message is that you want to convey. Even if business is going well branding ensures longevity, as customers get to know your company on a large scale through association they will look to your brand to fulfill certain needs without even realizing it.

Marketing, advertising, and PR are all, for the most part, in the "brand control" business. So, it is important to be open about your beliefs and your mission as an entrepreneur or company. If you are marketing a product and the commercial is not fitting with the reputation you have consistently been building it could impact your business negatively if the timing isn't right. Granted, there are times when you may need to reinvent the wheel, but most times it's not necessary, like if McDonald's changed from the "golden arches" as it's logo, it would be pointless and a waist of money and unless you read the sign or have seen the news you may ride right by it without getting your double-cheeseburger for $1.19.

Do you need ideas for developing your brand? click here

Grow Your Small Business Using Local Business Marketing

Small businesses depend on local consumers or excellent marketing to gain profitability. However, it is often seen that small businesses keep low budget for marketing. One of the best ways to ensure you are maximizing your marketing potential is to use local marketing sources and develop relationships in your local business community. There are many ways you can do this; so you should choose the ones that best fit your business model. In order to provide your marketing efforts, you should identify the demography of your customers. This article will tell you how to grow a small business utilizing local business marketing.

    Make sure you are almost completely set up before launching a local marketing campaign, if you are starting a new business. It is a great idea to research avenues and plan up to 6 month advance while you settle a lease or get your business license. However, you should be within about 1 month of your opening before getting your name out in the public, or else they may search for you and see that you are unavailable. In some cases for small businesses that are already set up, you may consider re-branding your business. You should consult a professional graphic designer or web developer to make sure your materials are of professional quality. The investment will pay off in the long run.

Here is some very cost effective advise. Most of which, you can do yourself!

Make sure that you first, set up a website. Even if you are trying to market locally, most people look for local businesses online, using Google or other search engines. Have a website with details about your services, contact information and directions to your store.

    Take advantage of free online marketing. Sign up for a free Google places account where you can list your address, telephone number, a link to your website, a description of your services and even a picture. There are a number of places outside of Google where people may look for your business details.
Sign up for a LocalTabs, BookMyCity, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Yelp and CitySearch accounts. You should set up a business account on Facebook and suggest to your friends that they "Like" your account. You may want to appoint someone to update these regularly. They are great tools when used regularly to share photographs of your work, your patrons (with their permission) and any promotions you are offering. Include your Facebook address on all of your printed promotions.
        Write a blog, if you are fond of writing and you feel you have something to share about your craft or your locale. You may offer tips, photos, videos of your business in action or any other information about your business that might be attractive to a potential consumer. Remember that successful business blogs are ones that give out something more than just promotion for a business. They offer insights into a craft or locale. A regularly updated blog will gain followers and it can be linked to your website, Facebook and Twitter.
        Get to know your local reporters in the business section of your local newspapers. They can be the keys to local promotion. You may first inquire about paid advertising and then ask if there are free business listings on the newspaper's website. Network with them whenever possible.
        Encourage customers to refer to your business and to write reviews on your website, Google Places or Yelp. Not all reviews will be good, but if most are, then it will attract business. In a referral scheme, some salons offer $5 to $10 off haircuts to people who refer customers. You can easily incorporate this idea into any business setting.
        Email local bloggers. Invite them for an extra discount at an opening to encourage them to write about your store. If you have your own blog, develop a relationship of linking to each other's blogs. Perhaps you can be a guest blogger on another site to help draw business from the same demographic.

    Have a grand opening or make over your business and have a grand re-opening. You can attract people to your business by offering a sale over the first few days, refreshments or a drawing for a large gift certificate.
        Consider getting a local promoter involved, if you have the budget for it. At the launch of a business or campaign, it may be important to look for outside help. Later on, you may be able to fully rely on free online promotion or email blasts. This is an important step if you are just breaking into the local area. If you don't know a local promoter, you can try MatchLocal to set you up with local marketing solutions.
        Send out a press release to all local newspapers, and use any connections you have made to local newspaper writers in your business section. While it may be very hard to garner a section in a large city's newspaper, smaller towns often enjoy writing a story about a new business.
        Set up a sign-up list to receive e-newsletters from your business. This will help you grow your email list. Ensure you tell people that you will not share their information and you will let them know about local promotions and new products.
        List your event in all the newspapers in your area, beginning a month in advance. Also, create an event on Facebook and send it to your followers. Call local radio stations and ask if you can get listed on their announcements. Ask local businesses if they would be willing to trade promotions so that you can put up a flier in their store.
   Get a listing in your local phone book. This is important especially if you cater to an older demographic. Many people still have a book in their home or in their car that they reference. A regular listing may not cost very much, and you can pay to put your listing in bold or list it in the yellow business pages.
   Get listed on all online search engines you can find. This can include Google Maps, Bing Local and Yahoo local. There are a number of online yellow pages where you should submit, such as Merchant Circle, Web Local, Yellowpages.com, Local.com, Bizjournals.com, Insider Pages and Super pages.
    Submit your business listing to major data providers, such as Localeze, infoUSA and UniversalBusinessListing.org. These companies sell or share local listings and you may find your business listing in places before you request a listing.
        You may need to pay for some of these listings. You should weigh the cost against your total marketing budget. Google, Bing and Yahoo, however, are essential steps in local marketing and should be done no matter what.

Paid Local Business Advertising

    Consider some paid advertising in your area. This should be done when you have completed all of the free paths. However, some of the following avenues are tried and true advertising campaigns that work in local areas:

    Buy an ad in the most popular local newspaper for your demographic. Remember to haggle. Ad salesmen at papers have the ability to give a little, so see if you can get 2 ads for the price of 1, or a month of ads for a promotional article.

    Buy radio ads. Time them so that they come out when you are having a big promotion. Radio ad sales people are also allowed to haggle. See if you can get a bulk ad rate or a free promotion during a commuter time radio show.

    Buy a billboard. This is often a large expense. However, if your main demographic is commuter traffic and you can place it in their path, it may pay off.

    Do a bulk mailing card to your local addresses that includes a coupon. This is often called direct mail. You can send a card promoting new products, and it is more likely to be saved instead of thrown away if it has a coupon.

    Do a Groupon. This new way of advertising allows you to give people a chance to buy a service or product at a large discount, as long as a certain amount of people buy it. Many newspapers and local services are now offering discounts this way, so research it well.
        Remember to make sure your discount or gift certificate is profitable. Not only will your products be discounted, but the advertising entity will also probably take a percentage of your profits. Go over the figures and consult a financial adviser to make sure it will not prove unprofitable. This is a strategy best taken if you need a lot of new customers.

How Much Does a TV Commercial REALLY Cost?

DANIELMALL APRIL 13, 2014 BLOG

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How Much Does a TV Commercial REALLY Cost?

What goes into the creation of a TV commercial? And, what you most likely want to know, how much do they really cost? If we had a penny for every time a client calls us to ask how much a commercial costs, we would have a billion dollars! As with any project, the price will depend. It could range from as little as $2,000 to over $1,000,000.

I like to separate the production of TV commercials into 3 phases: pre-production, production, and post-production.

Pre-production is the process of determining which creative direction the client wants to go, budgeting, location scouting, licensing, and the hiring of the production team, actors and extras. This process can be the most demanding of all. With the pressures of the client’s target production date, coming up with all the resources needed in a short amount of time all while trying to stay within budget can seem impossible. Many clients assume creating a commercial is as simple as picking up a camera and shooting, but even with the smallest of budgets, the planning process takes a significant amount of time!

Production is what I define as the actual days of shooting. This is when you’ve got all the cameras, sound devices, and lighting equipment armed and ready to go. It is less stressful knowing you have all the locations, actors, and other resources squared away, but many things can go wrong. Nonetheless, this is my personal favorite stage of production. This is where I get to have fun! Being on a film set is magical. Surrounded by all the tools that will inevitably turn your vision into reality is just mind boggling.

Post-Production is where everything comes together. All the hard work put into getting the resources needed for production, and later capturing it all on film, now depends on the magic of the editor. The editor literally takes all the footage captured during production and pieces it all together according to the guidelines defined by the client and the director. Editing can take anywhere from 1 to 30 days depending on the scale of production and the amount of extra graphics needed. This is also the stage where color is added to the footage to give it that “filmic” look. If needed, voiceovers are also performed during this stage.

How much does this all cost?

If you read my article on music videos, you’ll know what I’m about to say. Ultimately, it depends on the quality and resources needed. But REALLY what it boils down to is quality. What I mean by quality is the level of uniqueness and creative input. This can best be explained by showing you examples. You can get a commercial done for $2,000, and you can also get one done for $1,000,000. Take a look at the videos below to see what I mean.

$2,000 Commercial Example

This commercial is catchy, and has somewhat of a storyline. The audience is able to understand what the product being sold is, it’s pretty funny, has basic camera work, graphics and a voiceover. To some, this get’s the job done. If you’re a new dealership or a business on a tight budget, a commercial like this can do the trick. However, although this commercial is the cheapest of the group, it can also be the most expensive. Here’s why. In advertising, the goal of a commercial is to get the audience to either buy your product or service, or remember your brand or company. A commercial like this will get your company on TV, but the likelihood of people remembering you, is very slim. The company behind this commercial would have to air this commercial more times to leave a lasting impression because it lacks uniqueness and creativity. If it invested a little more, they would have received a commercial that was 10 times more creative and unique and saved more money by having to air it less. When it comes to video production, you get what you pay for.

Get a free TV Commercial quote on the house: Free Quote

Now for the expensive stuff

$1,000,000 Commercial Example (Kia)

This has to be one of my favorite commercials of all time. This commercial is not only unique, but insanely creative and visually compelling! Firstly, the creators somehow incorporated the concept of one of the best movies of all time (The Matrix) with a new luxury car by Kia. Did you see the visual effects at the end? Talk about amazing. If you want your audience to remember your product, this is the way to go!

Here’s another example:

$1,000,000 Commercial Example (Sony)

This commercial is visually compelling with graphics that pull you into the TV. An INSANE amount of time was put into the creation of this commercial; you can tell why it’s worth a million dollars!

Get a free TV Commercial quote on the house: Free Quote

Could you see the difference?

The first commercial was cheap, but had it’s disadvantages. The other commercials were a bit expensive, but served their purpose! There’s a reason why Superbowl commercials tend to only air once or twice! It’s because they don’t need to air it multiple times to grab their audience! A handful of exposures does the trick due to the uniqueness and creativity of the commercial!

Think of Quality Video Production as an Investment.

It is up to you to decide what will suit your needs. Right now, you may be in the market for a cheap $2,000 commercial, and that’s okay! Many companies start out this way! However, if you want to take your company to the next level, you won’t regret having a quality video done. Think of it as an investment. Ask yourself, “would I buy my product or service if I saw my commercial on TV?” We guarantee that you will have much more success with a commercial you can be proud of!