Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Frank Pines
Today Linux is a very potent tool for a successful project in a highly competitive marketplace.
With its certification programs, the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) has constantly raised the bar of excellence. It has continuously provided support to Linux professionals to meet the industry demands for expert skills. LPI has been acknowledged universally as a leader in providing professional help with Linux, Open Source, and Free Software.
The Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) program has been designed to recognize the capabilities of IT professionals, who have proven themselves capable of operating within the Linux operating system. These certificates are distributed to computer professionals in hundreds of cities around the world.
LPI intends to develop and recognize important Linux and Open Source talent around the globe, by providing complete and high standard tests.
LPI offers a formal and standardized program both for students and training centers alike. These programs improve the quality of market and also arm the students with powerful certifications that can be used to enhance their career prospects.
The LPI Certification Program has been developed by Linux professionals and IT institutions, around the world. The Linux Professional Institute depends on the response reports it receives from many of the skilled professionals, who work with Linux each and every day.
Interestingly, the Linux Professional Institute is independent of vendors and has no commitment bias in regard to its service. This has led to diverse and multiple techniques to the general design of the test. It has become one of the most comprehensive and global exams presented anywhere in the world.
The LPI certificate is one of the most respected and requested job requirements, among computer professionals and major organizations, for applicants seeking IT jobs. Many independent companies, outside of LPI, have enhanced the Linux certification program and this is possible because there is no totalitarian authority controlling the Linux operating system.
The vital distinction between LPI and other such programs is that, LPI has been incorporated as entirely vendor-independent and distribution neutral.
The largest corporations in the world have recognized the exam standard and the tests have become a reflection of the standards these corporations expect from their professional IT staffers.
The LPI certification is based on three levels:
Junior Level Administration (LPIC-1): this level consists of two tests the 101 and the 102. They can be taken in any order. This level expects you to work at the command line, execute fundamental maintenance, and set up a workstation with a connection to a network.
Advanced Level Administration (LPIC-2): the candidate needs to pass the 201 and 202 exams to qualify at this level. These tests can also be taken in any order. Also the candidate has to pass the Junior Level Test. You will need to govern an average-sized website by using Linux or Microsoft servers. You will also oversee your juniors and then report to senior management.
Senior Level Administration (LPIC-3): LPI's Certification Program concludes with the LPIC-3 exam. The test papers are 301 and 302.
The LPI exams are computer-based tests done through Pearson VUE and Prometric. LPI exams are also provided in Japanese, German, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish. It takes about two to five weeks to get the actual LPI certificate, after notification of your pass status.
About the Author:
Written by Frank Pines of CDI Communications Inc. - CDI Communications is a leader in implementation of instructional strategies for MCSE, AutoCAD, Sap, Skillsoft, CCNA, MCTS, Cisco, MCITP, MCTS, Microsoft Office, Oracle, Crystal Report, Knowledgenet, SAP, NetG, A+ Training and Linux LPI Certification. Visit CDI Communications Inc. at: http://www.netwind.com/ OR follow Frank on Twitter at: @cdicomp
Read more Articles written by Frank Pines.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Does Your Company Tag Line Pass These Five Crucial Tests?
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Judging from the many disastrous slogans that state tourism boards have happily paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for, even marketing professionals often use totally subjective criteria to select tag lines. Do we like it? Is it catchy and memorable? Does it make us feel good?
I suggest replacing the "feel-good" test with five much more grounded criteria. When you're trying to decide on the best tag line to accompany your organization's name on the web site, brochures, business cards, stationery, ads, mugs and mouse pads, make sure your winner passes these five tests.
1. Does it apply to you and not to competitors? Few people would match "Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations." to any other state than Idaho. But there's nothing in "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime" to indicate Maine any more than Minnesota, Michigan or Montana. If your tag line does not highlight something distinctive about your company, it's not making much of a difference to prospective customers, either.
2. Does it have nothing but positive connotations? I'm baffled about how "Seize the Day Off" is supposed to reflect well on Maryland. Are all the jobs in that state so horrible that everyone there lives for the weekend? Likewise, "Things Look Different Here" could equally be taken as a bad thing as a good thing about Oregon, which used that slogan for many years.
3. Does it have emotional oomph? "Greatest Snow on Earth" is certainly an energetic advertisement for Utah. Similarly, Kentucky's "Unbridled Spirit," which refers to its horse-related traditions, has emotional strength. Your tag line should convey energy rather than being flat and factual.
4. Are the tone and content appropriate for the target market? The District of Columbia has had "Taxation Without Representation" on its license plates, which functions well as an activist slogan for its own residents. But for tourists, that slogan would come across as bombastic and irrelevant. Always keep your target market firmly in mind when generating and screening tag lines. You are not writing it for yourselves but for those you want to attract.
5. Do you have good reasons for wanting to replace the previous tag line? Don't toss it in the trash just because you are tired of it. Remember that because you undoubtedly hear and see your own tag line much more than your target market does, you may get tired of it years sooner than they will. It's very rare for a state to keep a successful slogan alive for more than a decade because politicians and tourism officials get more and more itchy to put their mark on their entity's branding. That's a very bad reason to change. If the audience has stopped responding to it, or it has begun to be ridiculed - those are good reasons to look for a new tag line.
When you weigh your favorite tag lines with these five tests, you reduce the chances of choosing one that exposes your organization to ridicule. You boost the chances of coming out a winner.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Judging from the many disastrous slogans that state tourism boards have happily paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for, even marketing professionals often use totally subjective criteria to select tag lines. Do we like it? Is it catchy and memorable? Does it make us feel good?
I suggest replacing the "feel-good" test with five much more grounded criteria. When you're trying to decide on the best tag line to accompany your organization's name on the web site, brochures, business cards, stationery, ads, mugs and mouse pads, make sure your winner passes these five tests.
1. Does it apply to you and not to competitors? Few people would match "Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations." to any other state than Idaho. But there's nothing in "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime" to indicate Maine any more than Minnesota, Michigan or Montana. If your tag line does not highlight something distinctive about your company, it's not making much of a difference to prospective customers, either.
2. Does it have nothing but positive connotations? I'm baffled about how "Seize the Day Off" is supposed to reflect well on Maryland. Are all the jobs in that state so horrible that everyone there lives for the weekend? Likewise, "Things Look Different Here" could equally be taken as a bad thing as a good thing about Oregon, which used that slogan for many years.
3. Does it have emotional oomph? "Greatest Snow on Earth" is certainly an energetic advertisement for Utah. Similarly, Kentucky's "Unbridled Spirit," which refers to its horse-related traditions, has emotional strength. Your tag line should convey energy rather than being flat and factual.
4. Are the tone and content appropriate for the target market? The District of Columbia has had "Taxation Without Representation" on its license plates, which functions well as an activist slogan for its own residents. But for tourists, that slogan would come across as bombastic and irrelevant. Always keep your target market firmly in mind when generating and screening tag lines. You are not writing it for yourselves but for those you want to attract.
5. Do you have good reasons for wanting to replace the previous tag line? Don't toss it in the trash just because you are tired of it. Remember that because you undoubtedly hear and see your own tag line much more than your target market does, you may get tired of it years sooner than they will. It's very rare for a state to keep a successful slogan alive for more than a decade because politicians and tourism officials get more and more itchy to put their mark on their entity's branding. That's a very bad reason to change. If the audience has stopped responding to it, or it has begun to be ridiculed - those are good reasons to look for a new tag line.
When you weigh your favorite tag lines with these five tests, you reduce the chances of choosing one that exposes your organization to ridicule. You boost the chances of coming out a winner.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Changing Your Company Name: The Good, The Bad and The Unnecessary
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Wondering whether or not to change your company name? Several reasons for doing this are legitimate. Other reasons should make you stop and reconsider.
Most of the time, companies that come to my naming company frantic to find a new name for their firm or for a product do so because of legal problems. They've received a case-and-desist letter, and it's cheaper and wiser to switch than to fight.
Even those who follow corporate name games probably don't realize that Kentucky Fried Chicken falls into this category. In 1991, the company told the public that they were changing their name to KFC because health-conscious consumers were shying away from the word "fried." Since the name change coincided with the introduction of several purportedly healthier menu items, this seemed plausible.
In fact, however, in 1990 the state of Kentucky had trademarked its name and created the requirement that any business using the word Kentucky for business purposes would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees. Kentucky Fried Chicken took umbrage at the idea of paying for a name they'd used since 1952. Their negotiations with the state broke down, and they adopted KFC as their new name.
The second most common impetus for an organizational name change is a word in the name that's gone out of favor with the industry or with the general public. For instance, the Massachusetts State House is considering legislation to rename the Department of Mental Retardation the Department of Developmental Disabilities, in keeping with altered notions of appropriate labeling.
The same goes for company names that sound old-fashioned and out of date. In 2009, a shop called Fotos and Film raises the issue of whether or not they're in step with today's digital photography.
The third good reason for changing your company name is that the name no longer fits the services you perform and the goods you sell. If you launched as Westfield Wire and now you make mainly cables, renaming is indeed in order.
Likewise, geographical growth or relocations can render a business name obsolete. If Gerard County Savings Bank expands beyond Gerard County, it should put itself in line for a name change.
Got a name that people just can't remember or that they confuse with your competitor? One company came to us for renaming because even people who'd previously bought from them couldn't remember whether they were, let's say, MyGrandPhotos.com (correct) or YourGrandPhotos.com (the competitor). Renaming makes sense for that situation, too.
If you're just plain tired of your name, however, forget about a name change. It involves a lot of expense and effort to convince the public to get on board with the new name. Don't go there for frivolous, unnecessary reasons.
The final situation, mergers and acquisitions, which often prompt renaming, depends on the situation. Restaurants that take over from a disreputable or failing establishment do well to signal their fresh start with both a name change and redecoration. However, a company that was humming along fine before the change of ownership should usually continue with the name they had before. In business, longevity and consistency inspire confidence.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Wondering whether or not to change your company name? Several reasons for doing this are legitimate. Other reasons should make you stop and reconsider.
Most of the time, companies that come to my naming company frantic to find a new name for their firm or for a product do so because of legal problems. They've received a case-and-desist letter, and it's cheaper and wiser to switch than to fight.
Even those who follow corporate name games probably don't realize that Kentucky Fried Chicken falls into this category. In 1991, the company told the public that they were changing their name to KFC because health-conscious consumers were shying away from the word "fried." Since the name change coincided with the introduction of several purportedly healthier menu items, this seemed plausible.
In fact, however, in 1990 the state of Kentucky had trademarked its name and created the requirement that any business using the word Kentucky for business purposes would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees. Kentucky Fried Chicken took umbrage at the idea of paying for a name they'd used since 1952. Their negotiations with the state broke down, and they adopted KFC as their new name.
The second most common impetus for an organizational name change is a word in the name that's gone out of favor with the industry or with the general public. For instance, the Massachusetts State House is considering legislation to rename the Department of Mental Retardation the Department of Developmental Disabilities, in keeping with altered notions of appropriate labeling.
The same goes for company names that sound old-fashioned and out of date. In 2009, a shop called Fotos and Film raises the issue of whether or not they're in step with today's digital photography.
The third good reason for changing your company name is that the name no longer fits the services you perform and the goods you sell. If you launched as Westfield Wire and now you make mainly cables, renaming is indeed in order.
Likewise, geographical growth or relocations can render a business name obsolete. If Gerard County Savings Bank expands beyond Gerard County, it should put itself in line for a name change.
Got a name that people just can't remember or that they confuse with your competitor? One company came to us for renaming because even people who'd previously bought from them couldn't remember whether they were, let's say, MyGrandPhotos.com (correct) or YourGrandPhotos.com (the competitor). Renaming makes sense for that situation, too.
If you're just plain tired of your name, however, forget about a name change. It involves a lot of expense and effort to convince the public to get on board with the new name. Don't go there for frivolous, unnecessary reasons.
The final situation, mergers and acquisitions, which often prompt renaming, depends on the situation. Restaurants that take over from a disreputable or failing establishment do well to signal their fresh start with both a name change and redecoration. However, a company that was humming along fine before the change of ownership should usually continue with the name they had before. In business, longevity and consistency inspire confidence.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
When It Comes to Business Names, Acronyms Are FUBAR
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Maybe you'll read the following sentence as it was intended, but I sure didn't. It was the lead sentence in an article in my local business journal:
"CA is a fundamentally different company than it was when I arrived two years ago."
To me, "CA" means California, and that's how I read it. But when I reached the end of that sentence, that obviously did not make sense. Then I thought, "Must be a misprint - they left a letter out - but what?" Only in the fourth paragraph of the article did my bafflement clear up. "We simplified 'Computer Associates' to 'CA' and brought the 'C' and 'A' on our brand mark closer together."
"Oh my gosh, 'CA' is a company name?!" Too bad you couldn't see the expression on my face.
This illustrates one of the problems in creating a company name out of letters. With just about any combination of letters you choose, the acronym is probably already in use somewhere. Indeed, CA is also in use for Cocaine Anonymous, as well as an abbreviation for Canada. On the web, a new company name consisting of an acronym will be impossible for the average person to get useful results for from a search engine.
According to the Web Directory All Acronyms, the letters NSA stand for more than 100 different entities, including No Such Agency. Incorporating an acronym as part of a longer name doesn't resolve the issue of multiple meanings. For example, if you named your company SME Services, thinking of "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises," SME could still call up more than 60 other meanings in common usage, including Subject Matter Expertise and Solid Metal Embrittlement.
Second, because acronyms have no self-evident meaning, they require a very heavy investment of resources to become recognizable and memorable as a company name. True, the now-global fast-food company KFC has done well with its initials by trading on its previous incarnation as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But unless you're also serving more than a billion customers a year with a marketing budget to match, that shouldn't encourage you to follow their example.
And third, acronyms invite ridicule. There are scores of jokes purporting to explain what the letters in IBM really mean:
I've Been Moved (because of the company's relocation policy)
I've Been Misled
It's a Broken Machine
Immoral Brand and Management
I Blame Mathematics
Idiots Became Managers
Imbecilic Bad Micros
Invented By Murphy
and on and on.
Perhaps because we dislike how we tend to be treated by governmental and technical acronym-named organizations, many of us find acronyms geeky and off-putting rather than cuddly and comforting. "Acronyms tend to keep non-experts at arm's length," wrote language critic Amy Gahran in 2003. For example, "the original full name for RSS [which most people believe stands for Really Simple Syndication] is 'RDF Site Summary' - a nested acronym that requires two levels of decoding, and it gets geekier at the second level," Gahran noted.
Most of the time, keeping people at arm's length is not a desirable state of affairs or a goal for a new company name. So ditch the acronyms.
By the way, in case you're wondering what "FUBAR" means, since before World War Two it's been an American military expression for the more vulgar version of "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition."
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Maybe you'll read the following sentence as it was intended, but I sure didn't. It was the lead sentence in an article in my local business journal:
"CA is a fundamentally different company than it was when I arrived two years ago."
To me, "CA" means California, and that's how I read it. But when I reached the end of that sentence, that obviously did not make sense. Then I thought, "Must be a misprint - they left a letter out - but what?" Only in the fourth paragraph of the article did my bafflement clear up. "We simplified 'Computer Associates' to 'CA' and brought the 'C' and 'A' on our brand mark closer together."
"Oh my gosh, 'CA' is a company name?!" Too bad you couldn't see the expression on my face.
This illustrates one of the problems in creating a company name out of letters. With just about any combination of letters you choose, the acronym is probably already in use somewhere. Indeed, CA is also in use for Cocaine Anonymous, as well as an abbreviation for Canada. On the web, a new company name consisting of an acronym will be impossible for the average person to get useful results for from a search engine.
According to the Web Directory All Acronyms, the letters NSA stand for more than 100 different entities, including No Such Agency. Incorporating an acronym as part of a longer name doesn't resolve the issue of multiple meanings. For example, if you named your company SME Services, thinking of "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises," SME could still call up more than 60 other meanings in common usage, including Subject Matter Expertise and Solid Metal Embrittlement.
Second, because acronyms have no self-evident meaning, they require a very heavy investment of resources to become recognizable and memorable as a company name. True, the now-global fast-food company KFC has done well with its initials by trading on its previous incarnation as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But unless you're also serving more than a billion customers a year with a marketing budget to match, that shouldn't encourage you to follow their example.
And third, acronyms invite ridicule. There are scores of jokes purporting to explain what the letters in IBM really mean:
Perhaps because we dislike how we tend to be treated by governmental and technical acronym-named organizations, many of us find acronyms geeky and off-putting rather than cuddly and comforting. "Acronyms tend to keep non-experts at arm's length," wrote language critic Amy Gahran in 2003. For example, "the original full name for RSS [which most people believe stands for Really Simple Syndication] is 'RDF Site Summary' - a nested acronym that requires two levels of decoding, and it gets geekier at the second level," Gahran noted.
Most of the time, keeping people at arm's length is not a desirable state of affairs or a goal for a new company name. So ditch the acronyms.
By the way, in case you're wondering what "FUBAR" means, since before World War Two it's been an American military expression for the more vulgar version of "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition."
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Advertisers and Online Advertising Agencies
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Karin Gamble, All Rights Reserved
Ten years ago I founded NetMediaReps, Inc., an advertising agency for online companies, specifically online newsletter publishers trying to find advertisers for their publications. My decision to found my own company grew out of my frustration in trying to obtain agency representation for my husband's company.
After calling more than 25 ad agencies, I discovered that most agencies charged exorbitant commissions and were only interested in representing large companies with deep pockets. As a new startup, my husband's company fell under their radar and follow up was minimal to nil.
Back then, the internet was just emerging as the new frontier of business and it was apparent that small and medium-sized businessses needed effective marketing representation to compete in this new marketplace, to receive the broadest possible exposure and to find other companies which could help facilitate their growth.
My thought was that these companies had an even greater need for a marketing platform than larger companies to be competitive in the growing online commercial market. I decided to fill that niche and started by signing contracts with several online publishers who needed assistance in selling their ad inventory. The rest is history - NetMediaReps.com was born.
Knowledge of how to do business, and advertise, on the internet has grown significantly over the years and data tracking of take rates, website conversion rates and ROI have become increasingly sophisticated, helping online businesses to better target their advertising dollars in a successful and productive way.
Despite these advances in knowledge and technique, there are still a surprising number of individuals who display a remarkable naivety regarding advertising and who ask questions that indicate the lack of a well thought out marketing plan or a basic understanding of the advertising mediums available to them online. Below are some examples of not so uncommon questions we receive and our responses to them:
Question: Your publisher mails to a list of 500,000 subscribers so I should get 500,000 responses - right ?
Answer: An online publication using a mailing list is like a newspaper. Recipients don't always feel like reading or looking at the publication on a given day. They may be busy, on vacation, disinterested in the topic, or otherwise indisposed. And, like a newspaper - just because they see your ad doesn't mean they want to buy from you - at least not at that given moment. It is, however, a good idea to advertise in publications that archive past issues or editions providing advertisers with permanent or semi-permanent back links and the opportunity of receiving trickle through clicks and sales at no additional cost.
Other factors that can affect response rate are:
The number of links in a publication. Newsletters typically run 1 to 2 web pages in length and are comprised of several sections all of which contain a few to numerous links. As a result reader interest and click activity is diffused across the newsletter rather than focused on a particular ad or link.
Ad clarity. A concise, definitive statement describing what your company is selling and how it benefits buyers is essential as is an unequivocal call to action.
Ad Uniqueness. An ad that stands out generally performs better.
Spam triggers. Generally, words and phrases that are the most effective in evoking reader response are also the ones that trigger spam filters both at the ISP level and the reader's Inbox. Blatant commercial message subjects and ad copy rarely do well.
Message Subject. Shorter subject lines are usually more effective than longer ones. More imortantly, large web-based mail services like Yahoo! Mail, MSN/Hotmail and AOL truncate message subjects that are greater than 38 - 47 characters.
Question: (After receiving ad specs, including dimensions and file sizes.) Will my 700 x 300 pixel ad be accepted?
Answer: Most publishers will strive to assist you in placing your ads but are restricted by their newsletter templates from accepting ads that don't conform to the specs provided. Submitting an incorrectly sized ad simply delays the start of your ad campaign.
Question: Why should I advertise when we are obviously in a recession? Does that make any sense?
Answer: McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending from 1980 to 1985. After 1985, the facts showed that the firms which had kept or increased their advertising budgets during the recession in '81-'82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. The companies who cut their advertising? They experienced paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.
So, when is the right time to market your business? All the time.
Question: I noticed my competitor in your publications - can you tell me how they did, so I can decide if we want to use you?
Sorry. You wouldn't want the details of your campaign provided to your competitors. Our advertisers have an expectation of privacy and confidentiality in regards to performance criteria such as click-through rates, sales and ROI. Ad agencies and publishers have an ethical obligation to keep campaign results confidential.
Even if such information was made available, it would not be that useful. Campaign results can vary significantly depending on the product/service offered, price point, message subject, ad copy and numerous other variables.
Any questions?... e-me ! :)
About the Author:
Karin Gamble is the CEO of NetMediaReps, Inc. (http://www.netmediareps.com), an online advertising agency specializing in ad sales for newsletter publications and web sites targeting a webmaster audience. Karin can be reached by email at info@netmediareps.com or by telephone at (204)254-1750.
Read more Articles written by Karin Gamble.
Copyright © 2009 Karin Gamble, All Rights Reserved
Ten years ago I founded NetMediaReps, Inc., an advertising agency for online companies, specifically online newsletter publishers trying to find advertisers for their publications. My decision to found my own company grew out of my frustration in trying to obtain agency representation for my husband's company.
After calling more than 25 ad agencies, I discovered that most agencies charged exorbitant commissions and were only interested in representing large companies with deep pockets. As a new startup, my husband's company fell under their radar and follow up was minimal to nil.
Back then, the internet was just emerging as the new frontier of business and it was apparent that small and medium-sized businessses needed effective marketing representation to compete in this new marketplace, to receive the broadest possible exposure and to find other companies which could help facilitate their growth.
My thought was that these companies had an even greater need for a marketing platform than larger companies to be competitive in the growing online commercial market. I decided to fill that niche and started by signing contracts with several online publishers who needed assistance in selling their ad inventory. The rest is history - NetMediaReps.com was born.
Knowledge of how to do business, and advertise, on the internet has grown significantly over the years and data tracking of take rates, website conversion rates and ROI have become increasingly sophisticated, helping online businesses to better target their advertising dollars in a successful and productive way.
Despite these advances in knowledge and technique, there are still a surprising number of individuals who display a remarkable naivety regarding advertising and who ask questions that indicate the lack of a well thought out marketing plan or a basic understanding of the advertising mediums available to them online. Below are some examples of not so uncommon questions we receive and our responses to them:
Question: Your publisher mails to a list of 500,000 subscribers so I should get 500,000 responses - right ?
Answer: An online publication using a mailing list is like a newspaper. Recipients don't always feel like reading or looking at the publication on a given day. They may be busy, on vacation, disinterested in the topic, or otherwise indisposed. And, like a newspaper - just because they see your ad doesn't mean they want to buy from you - at least not at that given moment. It is, however, a good idea to advertise in publications that archive past issues or editions providing advertisers with permanent or semi-permanent back links and the opportunity of receiving trickle through clicks and sales at no additional cost.
Other factors that can affect response rate are:
Question: (After receiving ad specs, including dimensions and file sizes.) Will my 700 x 300 pixel ad be accepted?
Answer: Most publishers will strive to assist you in placing your ads but are restricted by their newsletter templates from accepting ads that don't conform to the specs provided. Submitting an incorrectly sized ad simply delays the start of your ad campaign.
Question: Why should I advertise when we are obviously in a recession? Does that make any sense?
Answer: McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending from 1980 to 1985. After 1985, the facts showed that the firms which had kept or increased their advertising budgets during the recession in '81-'82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. The companies who cut their advertising? They experienced paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.
So, when is the right time to market your business? All the time.
Question: I noticed my competitor in your publications - can you tell me how they did, so I can decide if we want to use you?
Sorry. You wouldn't want the details of your campaign provided to your competitors. Our advertisers have an expectation of privacy and confidentiality in regards to performance criteria such as click-through rates, sales and ROI. Ad agencies and publishers have an ethical obligation to keep campaign results confidential.
Even if such information was made available, it would not be that useful. Campaign results can vary significantly depending on the product/service offered, price point, message subject, ad copy and numerous other variables.
Any questions?... e-me ! :)
About the Author:
Karin Gamble is the CEO of NetMediaReps, Inc. (http://www.netmediareps.com), an online advertising agency specializing in ad sales for newsletter publications and web sites targeting a webmaster audience. Karin can be reached by email at info@netmediareps.com or by telephone at (204)254-1750.
Read more Articles written by Karin Gamble.
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