The ultimate purpose of marketing, advertising and sales initiatives is to get the potential customer to do something.

In most cases, this means moving that customer from the education and consideration stage to the purchase stage. Marketing gifts, especially smart promotional hats make a strong impact on the way a marketing strategy goes. However, direct response advertising and marketing is one of the more immediate tools in the marketers’ arsenal to move potential customers into action.

At its core, direct response advertising is a marketing message that incorporates a “call to action.” While usually thought of in terms of television advertising, direct response advertising can actually be a part of just about any marketing media from effective newspaper advertising to billboards, magazine advertising services and online ads.

The distinguishing characteristic, of course, is the call to action. Usually this call takes the form of a telephone number, Web site address or mailing address - often a combination of the three.

The main idea is to broadcast a marketing message and encourage potential customers to act on that message while it is still fresh. The hook for the call to action can include special promotions such as a $10 discount on long distance “if you call now,” solicitations to purchase products or services, or a packet of information. For marketers, these advertisements represent a cost effective tool to reach consumers. The ultimate goal of an ad can range from closing sales to generating prospect lists or even recruiting employees. By having a direct connection with the potential customer, a smart marketing idea can move him into action, realizing the main aim of any marketing company.

You’ve always heard of residual income I take it, but have you heard the term, residual advertising? What is it, and why is it so important? I’ll tell you…

When you join a business opportunity you know that the lifeblood of your business is advertising right? If you are one of these people that have a limited budget, you should consider what I call residual advertising…For instance, let’s say you place a solo ad in an ezine, once that ad runs, that’s it…Solo ads do have a wide audience, however the drawback is that it will probably get deleted by 90% of it’s recipients…This is just a fact.

This is what I call instant gratification advertising…What makes more sense, is to say mail fliers or postcards…People tend to hold onto a well written direct mail piece as opposed to an “online” ad. I know I have postcards pinned to a cork board, so that “one day” I’ll get around to checking it out, same with fliers or letters.

Magazine advertising is another great example of residual ads. People hang onto mail order publications for months to even years! Case and point, I ran an ad in a popular work from home publication and I got an inquiry for more information 2 years later! I wasn’t even working that business anymore!

If you play the numbers right, residual advertising can pay bigger dividends in the long run! Even if you can only afford a classified ad or say a 1 inch display ad, it could still outpull a solo ad or other online methods…

Concentrate on doing things that will “stick” longer and you just might see better results!

I’m a big fan of directories, blog posts, article submissions etc ….This is an example of “residual” advertising…You do something once, and as time goes on, that work you did will be quietly building you an audience not to mention getting your websites indexed into the major search engines!

Ah the search engines! This is the grandaddy of residual advertising…Even if you’re on page 20 in the results…it’s there, working it’s way up….

You had or did something done once and it’s paying dividends over and over!

If you have the budget to constantly use 10 to 15 solo ads a week and do big pay per click campaigns more power to you, but if you’re on a budget, look into postcards, direct mail, magazine ads, directories, articles and the like. Yes success will come slower, but you won’t go broke in the meantime.

Advertising should be a combination of doing a little bit in allot of different places. Don’t discount the humble business card, yes it’s an outdated method, but they are so cheap to have printed, why not?

Do a little each day, don’t treat you business like a hobby and it will grow over time…and never ever give up!

For all you Entrepreneurs and would be Internet “gurus”…Pay close attention to my blog in the upcoming weeks, because I am going to be offering something that will blow your socks off!

I will be offering ways that you can quickly learn PROVEN FREE advertising methods, Joint Venture Marketing and other low cost methods and strategies to send your profits into the stratosphere! This is something you will want to take a serious look at!

With the soaring prices of fuel, food and who’s what’s next…YOUR online budget is not too far from taking a hit…NOW more than ever you will need to get creative…You will need to find ways to stay in the game and reduce your costs!

This IS your answer! You will also discover “How to get FREE publicity”, How to get FREE ads from publishers in 100’s of different books, manuals, directories and more!

You’ll find out how to implement the fastest, lowest cost ways to get OTHER people to sell your products quickly and easily! This barely scratches the surface of what you’ll find out about!! Stay Tuned!

How to write a Solo ad…

Ok, by now you’ve heard that Solo Ads are the premier method of advertising on the Internet right? Yes! Submitting your stand alone ad in targeted Ezines is by far one of the best places to promote your home business opportunity website!

So how do you write one? Well, as with any method of advertising, you must first start with the “A.I.D.A. formula which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire & Action!

Solo ads are no different; you are trying to capture the reader’s interest as fast as possible!

In the first sentence, use a strong statement such as “By joining our group of millionaire mentors, you will have ALL your sales closed”! You can earn thousands per week!

It’s always best to spend a little time looking over the clients website or your website, or whatever the case may be…You want to extract the best selling points or “benefits” that showcases the compensation plan (if writing for a business opportunity), because this is why people join a home business. They don’t join because you or your client is selling the hottest new jungle juice from the Amazon; they are joining to make more money, plain and simple.

NOTE: You can write a solo ad on any subject, however most solo ads are used for advertising a business opportunity in ezines…See http://www.topchoiceadvertising.com

As you write, it’s a good idea to insert a period in words like income…For example type it like this– in.come, or we.alth etc. The reason you do this is because these words have become associated with spam. By using the period to break up of the word, spam filters will be much less likely to find them, thus increasing the deliverability of the ad to people’s inbox.

A good program to use is called www.xmailwrite.com is works like Microsoft word and it catches words and phrases to tweak right there, so you know you have a spam trigger compliant ad and the best part is, this software is free!

Touch on the highlights of the business, mention the benefits but be careful not to over do the “features”. For example, people don’t care that XYZ company is debt free and has been in business for 20 years…It’s good to know, but that’s not why they are considering joining. Drive home the money earning potential, the time freedom they will enjoy by joining that particular opportunity with you or your client!

Keep the paragraphs at no more than 4 lines each, preferably 3 lines. Set your margins to wrap at 60 characters, (spaces aren’t included). These are specs set by the ezine publishers

Most solo ads can have 15, 20 or unlimited lines in overall length, but don’t get carried away, I have found you can capture all the benefits in 20 line or less.

I find it’s good to use about 5 bullet points mid way down in the ad to break up the mundane paragraphs, but it also draws attention to the “key” selling points!

A great way to close the letter is with a PS..at most write no more than 2 sentences in this PS, then follow it up with a PPS, also use no more than 2 sentences. Make these your strongest 2 offers because people will naturally scroll down here after reading the headline and sub headline…

So let’s recap, Start out with a strong sentence, in the body, write about benefits, and the potential income people can earn, but do not make income claims, do not say by joining XYZ company you make $5,000 per week, stay general…Say, things like, “you can earn several thousand per week, etc etc. The FTC has strict guidelines on making claims like this.

Write bullet points for the “strongest” benefits, close with 2 good PS and PPS paragraphs.

Before the first PS, use the clients name, email and phone number, or whatever they choose.

In closing, you will need to come up with a subject line.

Pick the strongest possible phrase to use here! This is very important! If people don’t get past the subject line, the solo as is useless! Choose your words wisely here!

I find phrases that are vague and ambiguous work great like!

Have you seen this on the nightly news? Have you heard about this yet?

Or

What you were never taught in school about making money!

People over use phrases like “make money at home” or Get rich now by joining XYZ opportunity! Avoid these like the plague, they do not work anymore!

If you are promoting an offer that you see being advertised a lot, steer clear of any similar styles of titles, now you need to be VERY unique or people will never get past your title thinking Ok, I already know what this ad is about…Be creative!

So there you have it…This is how you write a solo ad

Don’t want to mess with writing one yourself? EMAIL ME now! We’ll write it

dodge445@yahoo.com

If so, you are in luck! Myself and my two wonderfully talented business associates can be the missing link you’ve been searching for! We take what I like to call a 3 pronged approach!

I specialize in marketing/advertising and research for the Home business arena. I have collected a HUGE resource of advertising sources over the weeks, months and years and I have put them all into one giant E-book manual! I cover topics from the better Ezines to place your solo ads in to Opt in emailing, to Cheap TV commercial websites, and MUCH more!

My other business partner specializes in writing articles, press releases, blog posts, link building to your websites and more! She is a very talented writer and gets her work done in a quick manner! Articles & Press Releases are a great way to get the word out on the web about your product or service!

My 2nd business partner, specializes in Youtube Video creation, Myspace campaigns, Craigslist ad placing, CL Image ad creation, banners, blogs and more!

Together the 3 of us have a synergy that can mesh together well and we CAN bring your business more attention! If you need more Opt in leads/ or sales, then I highly recommend you contact me at dodge445@yahoo.com TODAY!

Welcome one and all! Welcome to my new Blog! I plan on having some exciting & informative things to read, so please be sure to come back often…I consider this a “work in progress” right now…I am pretty new to the Blogging “scene”, but thanks goodness I have a good friend who has been gracious enough to show me the ropes…

My expertise is more in area of Solo ad writing for Ezines, and researching top notch online advertising resources! I plan on having a plathora of great marketing related content here! There will probably be a good assortment of money making opportunities as well! I will have a number of services in addition to solo ad writing…

One in particular is a Post Card Prep Service! For those in Mail-order who don’t have the time or inclination, I will place your mailing labels and stamps on the Postcards for you for a fee of .10 per card…

All you do is send the material and I prepare for you! You also pay the return shipping! I strive to be the “Time Saver Service Guy”!!

Thanks and see ya soon!!

In fact, while you’re here, if you are in need of quality online advertising, then you just might want to see this website www.topchoiceadvertising.com

Thanks, Craig