No Budget Advertising

The rules of the game have changed.

In fact the rules have changed a lot - in YOUR favor!

What is the game? What are the old rules and what are the new rules? Keep on reading. You'll be glad you did!

As a web designer, my job is - very simplified - to create and post information in its various forms on the internet.

A very basic yet profound definition of the internet is: A worldwide communications network. There are other - more technical - definitions but the term "worldwide communications network" is the most practical for its intents and purposes.

As a business owner or a marketing professional you have goods or services and need to communicate that fact to the world - or the portion of the world that would have an interest in what you have to offer (your target audience).

You may have guessed it by now. The name of the game is: Advertising - also known as "the business of drawing public attention to goods and services" or "the public promotion of some product or service".

The old rules of the game state:

1. There is no such thing as free advertising.
2. Only big corporations can afford big advertising campaigns.
3. The more people you reach, the more expensive the advertising.

I could probably go on but let's leave it at those 3 rules to keep things simple. It is important to understand that for the mainstream media these rules are pretty much still in effect and that most decision makers in organizations are so conditioned to this set of rules that they automatically transfer them to any and all types of media - including the worldwide communications network!

However a good number of fairly young organizations apply a new set of rules - some with tremendous success. The new rules of the game simply state:
On the worldwide web.

1. ...advertising can be free.
2. ...anyone can afford advertising campaigns because they are either free or very inexpensive.
3. ...you can potentially reach as many or more people than with the mainstream media.

It seems that the younger generation has it easier to understand and play the game by the new set of rules because they don't have to overcome the obstacle of unlearning the old set of rules.
Few people seem to grasp the fact that something that comes for free or for next to nothing can have a great value. Perhaps another drawback is that playing the game has become so incredibly easy that some people don't take it seriously. Here is a short list of how to play the game:

1. Have plenty of relevant and frequently updated content on your website. This will not only help your search engine rankings but will also increase your credibility and exposure within your target audience.


2. Post relevant content on blogs. Vertical and horizontal online content generates traffic. It's as simple as that.


3. Write press releases and submit them to online and mainstream media outlets. On the internet, you are the publisher! You are no longer depending on the media, hoping they'll pick up your press releases.


4. Create and post audio - or even better - video content. People love web video! There are plenty of video sharing sites out there which host, index and share your video for free. Take advantage of it. "Air" your own TV style commercial - absolutely free!


5. Run email campaigns. A great way to directly contact your target audience with announcements, promotions and special offers. Unlike traditional direct mail campaigns, this doesn't cost you any postage AND your email managing system lets you track the success of your campaign (number of email opens, click through rate etc.).


6. Write and submit articles and/or e-books on your subject. Share (and automatically promote) your expertise! Search engines are constantly crawling the web for content. Make yourself available so your potential customers can find you.


7. Make all of the above interesting from your target audience's point of view. You already know your target audience. What are their needs and wants? Where do they hang out? What appeals to them? These considerations will largely determine your writing style, use of keywords and the look and feel of any visuals. Have fun!

http://www.InYourDreamsProductions.com

It Moves

The Impact of Motion Graphics

The significance of visuals for reaching target audiences and effectively communicating is undeniable and cannot be overstated. Designers, Presenters, Publishers, Sales People, Marketing Professionals, Broadcasters, Webmasters and many others use graphics to illustrate, entertain, emphasize, explain, enhance etc.

Graphics open doors. Graphics sell. Graphics promote. They market, they package, they brand.

Since the world around us is not static, it seems only natural that change and movement tend to get our attention first. With the advent of computer animation comes movement - wherever and whenever possible: Movies, Television, Computer Software, Handheld Devices, Digital Signage, Web Sites.

I couldn't help but notice the interdependent and mutual design influence between TV commercials and web based advertising; the sleek Web 2.0 look and feel has made it onto the TV screen while TV-style full motion graphics are impacting internet sites and web based advertising.

Many motion graphics have been perfected to works of art. Movie Titles, Television News Backdrops, Logo Animations, Web Site Intros, Advertising - and the list goes on - are in many cases so well done, so creative and so polished, they can take on a life of their own, they are entertaining, they are fun to watch! What better way to get the viewers' attention?

At the beginning is the idea. A creative concept is the first and most important step to a successful commercial - or any other type of visual communication. A close second is the professional execution of that big idea. Then tweaking, revising, polishing until it's just right.

Employing the services of a creative professional or a production house to present your business, product or service is a small investment that most likely will pay off many times over. Motion Graphics may help catapult your business to the next level. Don't underestimate the impact of Motion Graphics!

More information on Motion Graphics and extensive portfolios may be found at http://www.InYourDreamsProductions.com .

Five Steps to a Successful Web Presence

With all the information overload on web development and search engine technicalities, it can be easy to lose focus of the initial purpose of a website. A website is only as good as its performance - whether it is to build a community for social networking, to inform the public about pressing issues or to sell goods or services to a defined target audience, to advertise, to share, to network ...

Following is a list of five basic but crucial steps that are intented to serve as an outline when it comes to planning and creating any kind of web presence.

1. Arriving at the initial concept or idea. What type of business or organization will be represented? How and where is the information, business, product or service to be positioned (local target, market segment etc.)? What is the intended message? Who is the target audience? What is the desired response from that target audience? This initial conceptual phase is very important because it determines the design. In other words: Form follows function.
2. Graphic design, layout, color scheme, in many cases corporate identity design (otherwise known as logo design) to arrive at the overall look and feel of the website. At this stage web designers usually submit a first, so-called mock-up or design suggestion which may be just an image or a very simple web page to show some of the planned interactive and graphic elements such as logo animation, mouse-over effects etc.
3. Determining the website architecture: How is the content going to be structured and how are the various categories and subcategories going to be organized. Ideally a designer/developer will stay in touch with their clients during each step to ensure that both are on the same page regarding the desired outcome and to get the needed feedback.
4. Upon approval of the presented concept and mock-up(s), the designer/developer will move into the production phase which means creating the optimized web graphics and html documents, active server pages and rich media elements such as flash objects as needed. Building websites as so-called hybrid sites - meaning combining html and flash - is advisable because it will have all the visual interest and rich media capabilities while at the same time taking advantage of the search engine friendly html code. In other words, a hybrid site really offers the best of both worlds - which leads to the next step:
5. Natural or organic SEO or Search engine optimization. Once the site is fully produced and the client is happy with it, the site will go live - meaning it will be placed on a web server and will be accessible to the general public. It is important to make sure that people searching for what the website has to offer will actually find it. Necessary requirements are: Solid code that has been tested in several browsers, proper meta tags and titles, text navigation whenever possible, image alt tags, an xml based sitemap and a robots file, incoming and outgoing links, open directory and search engine submissions, google verification - among other things. The most important and powerful SEO tool however is to have a wealth of relevant and keyword rich content work for your site. This can be accomplished through regularly posting content updates on your own site, through blogging and through web video postings accompanied by its content in text format and deployed on multiple video streaming sites serving as rss aggregators. Other websites which function as rss readers will pick up the syndicated video and text content and re-publish it. Internet search engines will automatically "spider" and index content on the available sites for maximum exposure of your message.

The Power of Web Video Advertising

Internet users more and more expect rich, visual, entertaining and engaging online experiences and tend to stay longer on websites with enhanced multimedia content.

With Web 2.0 technology and more internet users having high speed internet access, web video has become very popular - especially when combined with other types of rich media.

Web video is no longer only for user generated content and social networking - it has become a very effective yet inexpensive tool for marketing and advertising.

There are many reasons why web video is so popular:

• It is entertaining.
• Information is being conveyed in an audio-visual format - just like on TV.
• Video is the closest format to a real world experience.
• It is believable because a human being offers a solution.

But there is more:
Web video promises the reach and emotion of traditional television plus added benefits such as on-demand availability, interactivity, measurability and more precise target audience penetration when combined with search engine optimization.

Since with web video there is no cost for "air time", your video can have any length, it can stay online as long as needed or desired, on multiple high traffic video outlets, on your own website or landing page, you can use it in as many email campaigns as you wish and it is not limited to a schedule - it is available 24/7 on demand - the number of views is virtually unlimited. It is like having your own FCC license, your own TV channel.

All forms of web video: streaming, embedding, viral distribution and desktop push are generating hits, impressions and "time spent". "Time spent" is the new currency in internet advertising because it always precedes a buying decision.

Utilizing internet distribution outlets and natural search engine optimization with your rich media content means: Your distribution budget is the fraction of the cost of using traditional media.