With so many media venues available in this information-laden age, it can be tough to decide how best to spend a marketing budget on promotions. Are promotional pens more effective than social media messages? Are gift baskets and promotional bags a greater draw than discounts and frequent shopper cards? It helps to see things through an advertiser’s eyes.
Advertisers look at promotions in terms of cost per impression. CPI, also known in the business as CPM–cost per thousand–is the best measure of a marketing dollar’s true value. In 2010, the Advertising Specialty Institute looked at CPIs for various forms of advertising. This study paralleled a similar survey in 2008, providing a longitudinal look at advertising efficacy. Both surveys agreed on a few common points.
Promotional products’ CPI came out consistently lower than most other advertising forms. Only internet advertising could match the low CPI of promotional merchandise. Read the rest of this entry »
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Communication is the oil in the engine of any business and yet is it often neglected, careless or squandered – especially in meetings. Few people look forward to business meetings because they are frequently felt to be unproductive and a waste of time. But all too often they are also reluctant to put in the required effort to prepare in advance, be on time and stick to the agenda!
You can’t have it both ways
If any of the meetings you attend are unproductive; what are you doing about it? Are you contributing to the late starts, lack of focused agendas or digressions that make the meeting run over? A little self-discipline and efficient time management can transform the effectiveness of meetings, improve decision making and develop powerful teamwork. But it is all about keeping the fundamental principles in mind.
There is a popular and often misquoted piece of research from the 1950s by George Miller that the maximum number of items a person can hold in their mind at once is seven. More recent findings show that actually we can only hold about 4 items or concepts in our mind at any one time. It reduces rapidly to only one if things get more complex, if we are tired or if we are over or under-stressed in any way. For example, you may find it easy to keep 4 numbers in your mind, but can you recall the four sentences in this paragraph without rereading? Read the rest of this entry »
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There’s a common misconception that innovation is just for large companies. However, identifying and developing creative ideas can benefit companies of all sizes – including small businesses that are just getting started. Don’t wait until your business grows to a particular size to begin developing an innovation strategy – you may miss some great opportunities.
You don’t need a Research & Development Department or an Engineering Staff to take advantage of creative thinking in your business. In fact, many small businesses can bring creative ideas to market faster than large corporations because of their smaller size. Take advantage of the flexibility available to small companies and start the innovation process today. Read the rest of this entry »
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