Free Ad Design?
Free Ad Design?
For any business owner that has spent time and money creating a brand, accepting free creative services from a publication is like Jack Nicholson’s obsessive/compulsive character in “As Good As It Gets” using a restaurant’s silverware instead of his own bagged plastic flatware; there’s simply too much risk involved. For a certain amount of time, that ad is the face of your company, representing everything your company stands for. A poor looking ad is the equivalent of having a salesperson go to a client meeting and begin the presentation by picking his nose. A poor impression from that ad on a potential customer can be just as lasting as an encounter with a hygienically-challenged salesperson.
This is not to say that there are not talented designers at local and regional publications who have the ability to create very good ads, because there are. Do you want to take the chance that your ad will be assigned to that particular designer? And if you advertise in multiple publications, each one will turn out differently, muddling your branding.
In-house designers at publications have varying levels of training and ability, but they share some common bonds. They are generally overworked, underpaid and underappreciated because their work does not directly generate revenue. Their motivation may be to create great looking artwork, but unlike advertising agencies, in-house designers are not dependent on the client’s happiness to keep receiving a paycheck.
Many small business owners are very supportive of other local business owners and often go out of their way to purchases locally-made products or use locally-owned service providers. It may come as a shock to the small business owner to learn that the latest trend in advertising design at publications is to outsource the work to designers in India or elsewhere. Large newspaper companies including Media News Group (57 daily papers), The McClatchy Company (30 daily papers), Sun-Times Media Group (95 publications), and Gannett (85 Daily papers/900 publications) are all sending at least some of their advertising design to India. The distance and time change issues involved not only reduce the ability to communicate exactly what you’d like your ad to look like, they also reduce the ability to make last minute adjustments when an ad proof isn’t right.
It may appear that using a publication’s free design services is a good deal, but when compared to the cost you are paying for the space, is it? The results are likely to prove otherwise. Since you can use the same ad, or slight variations of the same ad in any publication you choose, design by an advertising agency provides the best and most consistent image for your business. Great design that leads to increased sales is a much better value for a business than “free” design could ever be.
Free Ad Design - To learn more about this author, visit Heather Mayoros's Website.
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As an incentive to get more businesses to advertise, the majority of local and regional newspapers and magazines offer “free” advertising design to their customers. The idea of free advertising design can be appealing to business owners who have just signed up to pay hundreds of dollars for ad space in the publication, but as the popular phrase goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
For any business owner that has spent time and money creating a brand, accepting free creative services from a publication is like Jack Nicholson’s obsessive/compulsive character in “As Good As It Gets” using a restaurant’s silverware instead of his own bagged plastic flatware; there’s simply too much risk involved. For a certain amount of time, that ad is the face of your company, representing everything your company stands for. A poor looking ad is the equivalent of having a salesperson go to a client meeting and begin the presentation by picking his nose. A poor impression from that ad on a potential customer can be just as lasting as an encounter with a hygienically-challenged salesperson.
This is not to say that there are not talented designers at local and regional publications who have the ability to create very good ads, because there are. Do you want to take the chance that your ad will be assigned to that particular designer? And if you advertise in multiple publications, each one will turn out differently, muddling your branding.
In-house designers at publications have varying levels of training and ability, but they share some common bonds. They are generally overworked, underpaid and underappreciated because their work does not directly generate revenue. Their motivation may be to create great looking artwork, but unlike advertising agencies, in-house designers are not dependent on the client’s happiness to keep receiving a paycheck.
Many small business owners are very supportive of other local business owners and often go out of their way to purchases locally-made products or use locally-owned service providers. It may come as a shock to the small business owner to learn that the latest trend in advertising design at publications is to outsource the work to designers in India or elsewhere. Large newspaper companies including Media News Group (57 daily papers), The McClatchy Company (30 daily papers), Sun-Times Media Group (95 publications), and Gannett (85 Daily papers/900 publications) are all sending at least some of their advertising design to India. The distance and time change issues involved not only reduce the ability to communicate exactly what you’d like your ad to look like, they also reduce the ability to make last minute adjustments when an ad proof isn’t right.
It may appear that using a publication’s free design services is a good deal, but when compared to the cost you are paying for the space, is it? The results are likely to prove otherwise. Since you can use the same ad, or slight variations of the same ad in any publication you choose, design by an advertising agency provides the best and most consistent image for your business. Great design that leads to increased sales is a much better value for a business than “free” design could ever be.
Free Ad Design - To learn more about this author, visit Heather Mayoros's Website.
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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