But the cost to Small Business in time and money can be prohibitive.

Images are needed for:

• Web sites
• Digital marketing Catalogues
• Even for HTML email campaigns
• As well as traditional media advertising

Not having images or having low quality images can seriously detract from a Small Businesses Marketing effort.  Detraction that in a competitive market can directly impact on sales.

A key cost driver is often the high volume of product images needed

Many small businesses, particularly rental and hire can have hundred’s if not thousands of products.  Hence paying to have each product photographed is literally cost prohibitive.

Taking adhoc images or using supplier product photographs can create an inconsistent image appearance.

Images with different sizes, backgrounds, borders, orientations etc when placed on a web site or catalogue can look terrible.

Creating a negative perception in the client’s/ prospects mind.

The issue becomes how to create consistent looking photographs/ images that enhance your brand’s advertising appeal and impact regardless of the advertising medium.

Creating Low Cost Quality Product Photo’s

However there are some very effective ways of creating your own consistent high quality images.

Creating you own in-house photography studio is actually far easier than your think.

In a series of step by step video’s you can see how to create these product photographs.

We have collated these from YouTube and all are accessible on our YouTube channel – how to photograph your own products

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

On face value the question would seem quite silly, but it is not.

Print Media advertising has a been a key part of the hire industry and rental industry advertising mix for decades!

But is print media advertising it still effective?

Traditional newspapers and serious print media are under serious threat. Not convinced, then consider this – In 2009 alone nearly 90 USA newspapers or magazines have closed or migrated to just web delivery.  Taking nearly 9000  jobs with them!   Erica Smith a journalist herself has been mapping the decline of the traditional media for years, her blog is universally regarded.

Update an article just published today, 1 Sep 09 on social mashable that Newspaper revenues have declined by 29% compared to the same quarter last year.  This is a dramatic drop.  To read the full article click here

Why the decline?

The traditional business model of Newspapers is advertising revenues fund quality journalism which attracts a readership demographic. The attracted readership demographic appeals to particular advertisers who in turn then pay for the newspaper advertising. However things are changing:

1. Increasingly people would rather go on line and read what they want from where they want when they want.
2. Secondly, user generated news content is replacing serious journalistic analysis and commentary.
3. Finally, as readership has declined companies etc have moved their advertising from print to digital.

So back to the Political Cartoonists

Political Cartoonists have become a barometer of the health and relevance of the Traditional Media.  As one USA political cartoonist during a NPR radio interview stated, a decade ago their were over 300 print media employed political cartoonists in the USA now their are less than 50. The reason is that the advertising revenues of newspapers has declined, forcing newspapers to cut back on staff, including the visual editorial staff such as cartoonists.

Cartoonists like journalists are critical in attracting or maintaining a readership. Each incremental loss of such staff, eg cartoonists, reduces the newspapers readership appeal or reach into a market demographic. It is this market demographic reach that appeals to the advertisers.

So if newspapers are cutting back on quality journalism, including political cartoonists then the effect could be a reduction in their readership. Therefore if readership declines (market demographic reach), then the effectiveness of advertising through such newspapers begins to become a consideration.

Print Advertising

The question then arising for all businesses (or our focus specifically Hire and Rental companies) becomes is newspaper advertising still an effective marketing channel?

Judging from anecdotal evidence many businesses,  hire and rental companies included,  have voted with their keyboards and have begun to spread their marketing budgets into on-line marketing and even social media. Evidence also exists in other industry sectors, eg in a recent article in Tire Business one owner cited that in 5 years his print advertising budget had been reduced from over 50% to 11%, (click on quote to access the full article – well worth reading)

..., who operates 15 stores across Michigan, said half his ad budget goes to direct mail and TV, but only 11 percent goes to newspaper advertising. Five years ago, more than half of Northwest Tire’s ad budget went towards newspaper ads.

The Answer

So the question was what have political cartoonists got to do with advertising trends? Well the answer is – as the number of employed political cartoonists in the traditional print media declines so does the business spend on traditional print media advertising.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration.

Hire and rental management systems like HireEzy make the use of such on-line marketing easy to use and part of the natural hire and rental business process.  For more information contact us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

Getting it wrong can be a limitation on growth – or worse!

There is quite some theory behind naming, logo design and colour.

We have put together this list to help you get to grips with some of the theories.

Spending time on name, logo and colour is well worth the effort.

Examples of Getting it Wrong

Here are some examples of getting it wrong:

List of bad logo design’s and names

The Worst Bad, Ugly and Horrible Designs

What Makes A Good Logo?

What Makes a Good Logo

Top Ten Logo’s of All Time

Thought Provoking Logo’s

50 Clever Logo’s

Developing an Image

Logo Design – How to design a logo

Colour Theory – Theory behind Colour

Color Symbolism - What Different Colours Means to Different Cultures

Colour Considerations – What different colours mean for business

Thinking of a Company Name

Considerations – What You Should Consider

A Process – An approach to developing a name

Name Generator – Automatic Name Generator

SEO Impact – Think SEO Before You Name

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There appears to be a perception amongst some that social media marketing and traditional marketing are unrelated.

This is not the case!

The following well written article explains how traditional marketing still has an effective role and how it supports social media.

Is Traditional Media Still Relevant In A Social Media World?

Posted using ShareThis

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• Why Measure ROI Of Social Media? (regulargeek.com)
• Twitter Isn’t Over-Hyped; It’s Just Misunderstood (markevanstech.com)

The primary purpose of most Marketing for most Small to Medium Businesses is to generate leads.

However many of the traditional Hire and Rental Company marketing techniques and tools that have been the bedrock of the industry are now being challenged.

• Yellow Pages.  Yellow pages is declining
• NewsPaper.  There very existence is under threat
• Television. Advertising decline

The problem faced by traditional media is substantial and in some cases probably terminal.

To understand the problem traditional media faces,  view the slide deck below.

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• New Survey: The Impact of Sales 2.0 Tools (thecustomercollective.com)
• Cost-Per-Lead Figures Vary by Vertical (marketingvox.com)
• Why Internet marketing is just getting started (mikemoran.com)