More Promotion Research.

Business promotion is to running a successful business as practicing scales is to playing the piano well; it may not be a thrilling activity in itself, but you just have to do it! You should spend at least an hour a day on business promotion or planning how to promote your business (and more is better, if you can fit the time in)!
You promote your business by getting the word out. The first axiom of business promotion is that you have to do this consciously. You can't rely on other people to do it for you, no matter how great your product or service is.
The second axiom of business promotion is that like every other aspect of your business, it's a budgeted activity. But business promotion doesn't have to be expensive. Here are ten inexpensive ways to promote your business; all most of these will cost you is some time.
1) Use every outgoing piece of paper, and every electronic document as business promotion.
You have business cards, but you also put out a lot of other documents in the course of doing business. Check these to make sure you're using their promotional possibilities to full advantage.
For instance, business stationery is an ideal business promotion tool. Is your business name, logo, contact information (including URL if you have one), and slogan on your envelopes as well as on your letterhead? Or are your envelopes only printed with your business name and return address? What a waste! Your phone and fax numbers, your URL, and even a memorable slogan should be there, too. It's not just an envelope, it's a business promotion tool! You're sending it out anyway, so why not make it work for you?
The same goes for outgoing faxes, bill payments, receipts; whatever paper you send out should carry your full company message. And don't forget to make sure that your email has a complete signature that provides all your business information and a promotional tagline.
Electronic documents, such as email, are also easy to update with your latest business promotion information, whether it be a special price on your product or service, or letting people know that your company has won an award. If you need information about using signature files with particular mail programs, visit About Email Guide Heinz Tschabitscher's Signature links.
Articles and press releases are also excellent business promotion tools that you can use to promote your business inexpensively. Read on to learn what types of articles and press releases you should write and tips on where to send them to promote your business effectively.

) Writing articles on topics related to your business expertise is an excellent business promotion technique.
Well-written articles can provide free advertising and build positive word-of-mouth. If you're a realtor, for instance, you could write a piece on preparing your home to be shown. If you're a Web site designer, you might write a piece about assessing Web site usability. The more specific your topic, the better. Write a short biographical note, or "blurb" about you and your business to go with the article. Then send it out!
Where? As the goal is to promote your business, ideally you'd like it to appear in a publication that your target audience will be reading. Realistically, you may have to send it to a publication that accepts unsolicited work from unknown authors. Magazines generally have a long lead time, so I would focus my first efforts on the 'Net. There are an astronomical number of e-zines and sites with newsletters that are hungry for content.
One place to look for e-zines to send articles to is E-Zines Net Top 20 Directories. E-zines also provide excellent advertising value; the trick is to find the right e-zine for your target audience. Freelance writing sites also provide a great deal of information on all kinds of publications that might publish your efforts. Make your research easier by starting with a great site that provides all kinds of lists and information on markets such as About Freelance Writers, or FreelanceWriting.com.
Newspapers are also excellent places to place your business promotion article, as they too have a much shorter lead-time than magazines, and are always looking for material. Try contacting the Business editor of your local paper and pitching your article. If this approach fails, you might be able to get your piece into the paper by sending it in as a letter to the Editorial section.
3) Sending out press releases is another great way to get some free business promotion.
The caveat to using press releases as a business promotion tool is that your press release has to actually contain information that is newsworthy, and be engaging enough to get people's interest. Has your business recently expanded? Do you have a new product? Have you been involved in some promotional activity such as sponsoring a charity event? Have you or your company recently won an award? All of these are examples of "news" that you can capitalize on to get some free promotion for your business.
While many business people send press releases to newspapers as a matter of course, don't forget about the Internet. Web sites like mine, for example, that specialize in providing business-related information, are interested in you and your accomplishments. You're always welcome to post your press release or information about your event on the Small Business: Canada forum, for instance.
What else can you do to get some free business promotion? What about using Inernet forums and freebies as business promotion tools or doing some buddy marketing to promote your business? Continue on to page 3...

5) Use buddy marketing to promote your business.
For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.
You might also plan and carry out business promotions with complementary businesses. A pet store and a pet grooming business, for example, might use shared advertising, or run a contest together. This can considerably cut down the cost of business promotion, and allow each business to use promotion techniques that would be too expensive to implement alone.
6) Give out freebies as business promotion.
We're all familiar with hearing or reading advertisements that promise that the first 50 people to visit a particular store will receive a free (____). You fill in the blank. It could be anything from a red rose through an ice-cream cone! We're all familiar with this kind of spot promotion because it works. People love to receive things that are free.
Besides using freebies as business promotions, you can also use them regularly as customer "rewards". For example, I recently had a picture framed; the framer had attached a free picture hanger to the painting's wire, with a small card thanking me for my patronage. It's only a small thing, which certainly didn't cost him much, but as the customer, I appreciate not having to rummage through my home looking for a suitable hanger, and can't help thinking positively about the service he provides. What small, inexpensive things could you give out with your product or service that will get your customer thinking good thoughts about you? Combining business promotion with customer rewards is definitely a win-win situation.
Still looking for more low-cost business promotion ideas? Continue on to the next page, which discusses being a talk show guest and giving seminars as ways to effectively promote your business.

More Notes on Promotion

Promote your business

Personal recommendations are the most effective form of publicity. This is why you must ensure your customers are left satisfied every time they deal with your business.
Other promotional options include advertising, direct mail (online and offline), public relations (PR) and networking. Many small businesses are now using social networking sites such as Facebook and micro-blogs such as Twitter, too.

Devising a marketing plan

Marketing should be part of your everyday business culture, right from the moment you decide to start up. Having a marketing plan can increase your chances of success, but it doesn’t need to be complex, just something that sets out your goals, strategy, structures your efforts and enables measurement.
Market research enables you to identify those you want to sell to (your ‘target market’) or those most likely to buy from you. Segmenting customers into distinct groups enables you to finely tune your marketing efforts.
Ahead of launch, you must make potential customers aware you’re about to start a new business. Having work or sales lined up can help you get your business off to a flying start.

Focus on benefits

Features don’t sell - benefits do. Focus on the main benefits your products or services offer to customers. Summarise them into a few key reasons why people should buy from you.
Drawing attention to your unique selling proposition (USP) could also help your cause. This requires explaining what makes your business special.

Target the right customers

Focusing on your target market’s habits will help you decide how best to reach them. There’s no point in advertising online if potential customers ‘don’t surf’. Advertising in a local paper, handing out flyers on the high street or doing a door-to-door leaflet drop might be much more effective.
Simple forms of advertising can be highly effective, low cost or even free. These include simply getting a sign painted on your van or putting a card up in your local newsagent's window. You could even strike up mutual recommendation agreements with other small businesses.

Stay close to customers

Simply meeting potential customers is often the most effective way to promote your business. Networking can also generate sales.
Word of mouth is the best form of advertising - but it is earned, not paid for. Satisfied customers can be your best advocates, which is why customers’ needs should be left satisfied every time. Much will depend on the quality of your products and/or services, of course, but how you deal with customer enquiries or complaints can be just as important.
If relevant to your type of business, simply following up sales with a brief courtesy call a few weeks later can go down very well. It also provides the opportunity to remind customers about your business. You could even offer them a reward for recommending your business to others, possibly a small cash gift.

Refine your approach

Promoting any business involves some trial and error. This is why you need to put in place a system for measuring the success of your marketing methods, which could be as simple as asking each new customer how they heard of you or including a promotion code for specific campaigns.
If something hasn’t worked, find out why and don’t repeat the mistake. In future, you can concentrate your resources on more effective methods.

dialect Meeting notes.

These are the meeting notes from the 3 meetings we had, we took a simple approach to delegation of each meeting with one scribe writing down the key points.

Design for Enterprise

Here are examples of the business cards and mail shots designed for dialect, we wanted to achieve visibly appealing simplistic designs, they final outcomes are shown below.

Design for Enterprise

Below is a body of work that is based around dialect, a graphic design agency,with a focus on branding and identity. which we have created for a bussiness and enterprise module. The usp of the company is that we would give the client fresh new designs, by having a network of the best new blood in the industry, that  will work with us on the clients work. We needed to come up with a logo as well as a full page spread advert that will appear in creative review. 

The Logo

to come up with the logo we gave ourselves an hour to come up with something that, had a strong identity in itself as well as effectively communicated the name. The name dialect has originated from the language of design, and the voice we give our clients by creating there identity. as well as the different areas of the country we source our new talent from. 

here you can see the chosen logo, the idea behind it was to focus on common language between us and the client. We used brail as the basis for the logo, as this is another was of communicating with people, it also give a strong brand image. didot was the typeface used as its a relatively neutral serifed typeface, that gives the company a certain brand image. the brail will also look good embossed on business cards etc. 

examples of simple letter heads.

Creative review ad

for this part of the process we were asked to put forward an advert as a group we decided to do a full page in creative review at a cost of 8k. however we thought it to be worth the money, as a result the poster had to eye catching, although we decided to go for a simplistic idea, that would take two looks to work out. the quality of print would make the poster, crisp and eye catching. 

we focused on the brail again, and the communication that gives. The company description still needs some work, however as a final layout i think its a good looking advert, that will prove to be eye catching,  and work well with the print quality. 

Promotion-ENTERPRISE

The budget set aside for promotion is £3000

North Leeds Life Magazine

This is the north leeds Life Magazine below are list of reasons to choose to promote our company through them. 

Advertise

9 Reasons to Promote Your Business in North Leeds Life Magazines

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1.  More Readers
North Leeds Life magazines are the most widely read local community lifestyle magazines in North West Leeds, with over 100,000 readers from Headingley in LS6 to Ilkley in LS29.

2.  Better Distribution
We offer the highest circulation of any daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly news-based publication in our distribution areas. 26,000 copies are delivered directly to households and businesses each month and 4,000 copies are distributed through local supermarkets: Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco & Co-op.

3.  A Targeted Approach
Speak directly to the customers you want – we produce three separate editions each month so advertisers can target specific local communities, with no wastage. Reach readers with high disposable incomes in Group A: (Headingley, Weetwood, West Park & Meanwood edition), Group B: (Horsforth, Cookridge, Adel & Bramhope edition) and Group C: (Otley, Menston, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Ilkley edition).

4.  For The Community
We are a locally based family-owned firm, completely independent from any other publishers and with a genuine commitment to local news, events, people, organisations and businesses.  We pride ourselves on being part of the communities we cover and use local suppliers and create jobs for local people wherever possible.

5.  More Than Just Adverts
Our magazines are not just business directories full of adverts – they are packed with interesting, locally-produced, relevant editorial including news, reviews, features, listings and profiles. We offer a high editorial to advertising ratio: averaging over 50% editorial per month, to create an interesting, topical publication that people keep and read.

6.  Tried and Tested
We have been publishing since 2005 and have developed a loyal following of both readers and advertisers. We average 85% advertiser retention month after month, and most of our regular advertisers have been with us for years. Our magazines are highly valued and trusted by residents as a source for reliable local businesses.

7.  Quality and Quantity
High quality, glossy magazine production, averaging 64 pages per edition in a convenient size (30% bigger than A5) designed to fit easily in a handbag, pocket, briefcase or bookshelf. Our eye-catching, full colour magazines are designed in-house every month to create an exciting, easy-to-read publication that is unmistakably North Leeds Life.

8.  Your Advertising Solution
Whether it is advice about how to make the most of your advertising budget or creating advert artwork that will stand out from the crowd – we are here to help! Adverts start from as little as £47 + vat per month (on series booking); we can produce free artwork if you need it and also offer discounted rates on series bookings.

9.  The Digital Revolution
As well as the magazines, we have a growing website (over 16,000 visitors per month) that is continually updated with all the latest local news and events at www.northleedslife.co.uk. We also support our online presence with an ever-increasing number of Twitter followers (@northleedslife), dedicated Facebook page and regular e-newsletters.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO BOOK ADVERTISING:

Tel:  0113 274 8776

Email: info@northleedslife.co.uk

Example of the Publication Pages

Although this magazine is considered relativey low budget, it will get the word around the town and area of leeds that we exist as well as reaching over 1000,000 readers on a monthly basis for a cheap price.£299.00.

Yellow pages are also an option for advertising, although it is perhaps not using the tone of voice we are requiring, as a result of this we have decided against it. cost however is only £350 pounds for a business card size add. however this would to gives the brand identity we were after.

We felt it was important for us to get a solid date base of email addresses and contact information as a result we decided to invest in the database of the 500 top companies in Yorkshire/midlands/north west/south west this is based on turnover and not profit, we thought this was useful as this would enable us to turn there turnover into profit through the means of the re brand. This cost us £380.00.

We also believe as a group it is very important to get our web site, on the first page of Google, this will enable people to come across more randomly, which will hopefully get us more business, this is done by getting key words onto our website.. for example branding and Yorkshire will be on the web site.  

this video explains how to do so and something as a company we will do. 

We are also looking at advertising in the guardian sunday supliment, which has a audience of around 1.2 million readers.. this has an introductory price of 450 for half page, and would provide some more national identity. 

 

We also believed it was important as business starting up as to hold a networking event, getting to no local industries/companies.. we are going to invite companies from the database previously bought that specifically are local. we wanted something fun and that represented our company.. we had £1500, left over this event. We decided to hold the event in central Leeds for accessibility specifically in a cocktail bar, called mook, which has a upstairs to rent, for only 150 which could fit 250 people in it. this combined with a bar tab of 1000 quid would entice individuals from the companies to attend, we would obviously make sure people no that dialect are hosting the event and send the rest of the budget on sending out invites personally. to the chosen companies.