Brought to you by Concept Marketing Group, Inc.

Unsubscribe instructions, past issues, and additional information can be found at the bottom of this email or by visiting http://www.marketingsource.com/newsletter/

In this issue:
Marketing Article: Advertising for the perplexed
Marketing Article: Calculating The Return On Your Postcard Marketing Investment

Reach over 35,000 Association Contacts and Executives
Online Annual Subscription - Unlimited Downloading
Regular Price $595   Sale Price $525 (a $75 Savings!)
Special Pricing through February 28th, 2005

Each listing contains address; telephone, fax and e-mail; contact name and title of a decisionmaker; description of the organization; membership size; staff size; publications; and conventions/meetings.

Data is updated on a daily basis. The information you receive is burned on cd-rom and/or printed the day you order to ensure you receive the most accurate data!

For more information or to order, call 800-575-5369 or go to http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/

One of the more frightening realities of business is that in order to make money, you often have to spend it first. For independent software developers, the costs of doing business are usually very low. There are often no expensive offices to purchase or lease, a limited amount of hardware to buy and maintain, and for most, no stock to tie-up precious capital.

For many developers, the first and most obvious option for productive spending is advertising. And for the online business, there is no shortage of options to choose from.

Most websites offer some form of graphic or text advertising, and there is a bewildering variety of mailing lists, newsletters, and regular mailings. And that's before you even begin to consider the printed media.

However, before you even start to think about where you want to advertise, you need to consider why you're advertising in the first place.

For many companies, the aim of an advert will simply be to increase sales and make more money. Other legitimate reasons for wanting to advertise can include raising the profile of your company or product, increasing brand awareness, and testing new pricing strategies or new markets.

From the outset, it's important that you are clear about exactly what it is that you want to achieve. From there, you'll be able to choose where to advertise.

When selecting a venue, an important factor will be how targeted the audience is, as this will have a major bearing on the price that you should be prepared to pay for the ad. In general, the less targeted the audience, the less money you should part with. And even though it's not always the case, you might want to consider spending a little bit extra for a highly targeted advert.

The next obvious factor is the price.

First of all you need to know how much you will be paying, and whether this is a flat fee, a cost per click, paying per exposure, or some arrangement.

You also need to consider the costs involved in preparation. If you're using artwork, you may wish to use a professional designer to create it, and don't overlook that the graphic might have to be in a specific format. More importantly, you have to take into account the amount of time that you will have spend on arranging this.

You also need to consider the time period that you're hoping your advert will cover. If the ad will be on a website, then you'll probably be looking at days, weeks or even longer. If so, then you should find out whether you can change the content of the ads as you go. If this is what you want to do, all the ads should be prepared well in advance, and the total costs of these should also be factored into the budget.

A good starting point in finding a suitable place to advertise is to learn from the experiences of others. As an ASP member, you have access to the private newsgroups, where other members will often be considerably more open, detailed and revealing than they might in public.

When you think you've found the right venue, read through whatever information you can find on their website or in their publications, and only then contact the person who handles these matters.

Present them with a general introduction to yourself, your products and your needs, and don't be afraid to ask questions right from the start. Ask about their terms, payment terms, conditions, and whether they offer any form of guarantee or minimum response levels. A little bit of optimism never did any harm!

You'll also want to find out if there are any deadlines or timescales to consider, and whether they will publish your ad "as is", or reserve the right to edit it to suit their content.

Bear in mind that whoever you contact is likely to know their audience very well, so make sure that you ask for any guidance, tips or pointers that they can offer. Find out who will see the ads, what behavioural patterns you might expect, what outcome or response rate you might get, and whether they can offer any helpful suggestions.

Also find out who else has advertised with them in recent months, and ask if you can have their contact details. Make sure that you chase these up, and ask them outright about their experiences.

Leave nothing to chance, and find out whether there will be a contract to sign, and any commitments that may be involved throughout and beyond the advertising period. It's also a good idea to find out how flexible they may be. For example, if the ad will run for a number of days or longer, can you change the content of the ads with little or no notice?

At this point, it's very important to keep in mind that you are the customer. Don't be afraid to ask questions, don't be worried about bargaining, and make very sure that you're getting all the information and answers that you need. If not, move on. There are many other places to advertise.

Assuming that their answers meet your satisfaction, you are then in a good position to negotiate. The web is full of advertising, but even the more popular websites and newsletters often find it difficult to sell all their advertising space nowadays.

You might also want to ask them whether some form of trial period may be possible. If they're very confident of a high click and success rate, then they shouldn't object to an ad going out to a smaller test group, or perhaps a normal ad running for a number of hours.

When it comes to the actual payment basis, the ideal scenario would be a vendor offering high-quality, targeted advertising, with payment based solely on a commission basis, with no sign-up fee or base rate.

This is, however, a little on the unlikely side. A more realistic option will be advertising that is based on a flat fee, most (or all) of which will be paid for in advance.

When the terms, price and payment conditions have been dealt with, you're then ready for the content of the ad itself.

The following article will look at the importance of knowing your target audience, what to include in the ad, and how to know when to call in the professionals. We'll also be looking at the importance of implementing a good tracking system, and how to follow up an advertising campaign to gain from your experiences. In short, we'll be looking at everything else you need to help make your ad campaign a successful one. Until then, be seen, be sold.

---------------------
About the Author: Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UK-based company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com

This article may be used freely in opt-in publications, RSS feeds, printed material and websites, provided that the full and unedited resource box (About the author paragraph) is included and all links remain active. A copy of the issue/material or a link to any online posting would be appreciated but is not required. Send an email to dave@sharewarepromotions.com .

Speaking as someone who has been in the graphic arts for a long time, I have a real bias toward pretty postcards. After all, we designers just love to make things look nice.

Then there are people like Postcard Marketing Secrets purchaser Derek Scruggs, owner of the Escalan marketing consultancy in Boulder, Colorado, USA. He recently sent a rather homely looking postcard that said: Isn't this the World's Ugliest Postcard? So why are you reading it?

Here's why: because it got your attention. Somtimes marketing is about winning ugly, not being the beauty queen. Are you winning in your marketing? Find out by starting here:

Free 5-Point Web Site Checkup! Get yours at http://www.escalan.com/ Or call Derek Scruggs at 303-543-1186

Now, here's Derek, reporting on his postcard marketing results:

"About six months ago I bought the e-book Postcard Marketing Secrets by Martha 'The Passionate Postcarder' Retallick. Loved it! After a false start, eventually I got around to it and now am sending postcards on a regular basis. My house list is pretty small at the moment, so I wasn't expecting much in the way of response...

"...and I was right. My door is still standing. It wasn't kicked down by mobs of prospects. BUT...

"...I did get one good response... [T]he Postcard did its job: it inspired someone to contact me to learn more about Escalan.

"Interestingly, this person has been a subscriber to eViews [my e-zine] for several months (you know who you are :), but it was only after receiving the postcard that she called me.

"WHICH IS NOT TO SAY that email doesn't work and postcards do. It merely illustrates the importance of multi-channel marketing. You never know what is going to scratch someone's itch, so you must always test new ideas and media." Next, we're going to have Derek do the math on that mailing:

Postcard Quantity - approx 150 Printing Cost - approx $30, photocopied at Kinko's Mailing Cost - .23 x 150 = $34.50 Total Cost - 64.50 Cost per Postcard - 0.43 Response Rate - 0.67% Number of Responses - just 1 Number of Sales Closed - 1 Closing Rate - 0.67% Average Sale - $6,000 Total Revenue - $6,000 Revenue Return Rate ($N returned per $1 spent) - $93 The percentage rate of return is 9,302%.

And for a one-time mailing of an Ugly Postcard, that's pretty impressive. But Derek, being the persistent guy that he is, says, "I think the real ROI metric will be evident in 6-12 months. That way I can divide total cost into total revenues." Tools You Can Use

While we're on the subject of doing the math, here's a great new tool for you to use: the Postcard Marketing Return on Investment Calculator! Give it a try at:

http://www.PassionatePostcarder.com/marketing.html

You can plug in numbers from a recently concluded postcard marketing campaigns, or for one you're planning, and the ROI Calculator does the math for you!

Happy number-crunching!

-------------------
Martha Retallick, "The Passionate Postcarder," hails from Tucson, Arizona, USA. She is the author of Postcard Marketing Secrets, a downloadable PDF manual will show you how to put postcards to work for your business—profitably. Learn more about it at: http://www.PostcardMarketingSecrets.com