Expanding your business

Welcome everyone!

Today I want to talk about Expanding your business. Many people I speak with, think that they don’t need to seek the help of a producer or developer of new media technologies. Many I speak with, think that print advertising in the conventional sense is all that they require for their business and that there’s no possible way that what they do crosses over into new media.

Can the same be said for your business? Part of the process of promotion and advertising even solely on the “Print” level, is identifying what the strongest qualities of your product and/or service are, and taking those qualities to marketing or advertising people to have them help you find a niche that will be memorable and moreover make them pick up the phone, drop you an email or stop by your office.

Expanding into new media technologies can make a whole new set of powerful tools come into focus. Knowing what works with the consumer, is an incredibly valuable piece of information. Bringing these things together can net some very profitable gains for your business.

What does this have to do with production? It’s the heart of any good new media or advertising campaign. You may think, “Well, I don’t need any voiceover for this campaign, it’s only print.” That may be true, but print ads are great for reaching a certain audience, and the point of expansion is to reach out to new markets, find new ways to distribute your message and explore ways to stay ahead of the curve, and thus, your competition.

I’ll give you an example. Say you have a “Print” campaign you want to run for your Widget company that we’ve discussed. You get your graphic arts person to get the layout done, and you’re ready to send it off to the newspaper, magazine or other print media for distribution. Hoping for some calls or emails? Let’s examine that.. if you are putting out a print ad for widgets, how will they contact you? By Phone? great, now you have to be on hand to handle questions about your widget or hire someone qualified to handle any and all questions by phone. By Email? Same scenario. This “Print” ad, has now turned the corner into needing more maintenance. In this “Print” ad, did you list the companies’ website address? Oh, well now you have a whole other medium that you’ll be dealing with. Do you have a tool on the website that gathers data from potential customers that they can fill out and you can make into a database? Now we’re looking at email blasts and marketing. You’re going to need content for those.

As you can see, it can quickly become more than a “Print” campaign. All the more reason for you to have proper expansion architecture in place, and a system of new media technologies to handle the workflow.

Many times, the more conventional clients I meet with, haven’t been exposed to this way of thinking, because this is what they’ve been successful with in their business, and they don’t want to change the formula. That’s great! You never want to change what has been working, but you can help them to supplement what they have been doing, and “Expand” into ways to make new technologies and services available to new clients that may expect a company of their stature and position to be positioned in new media and Internet tech as well.

In this new Internet world, most potential clients will wonder why you don’t have a website, or why you don’t have available digital copies of your instructions, support documents and advertising materials. To know how to help expand someone’s business with new media while maintaining their current flow of conventional business can be tricky. You don’t want to offend the person who’s built their business with hammer and nail, and make them feel like what they’ve done thus far is inadequate or out of date. You simply want to help them see that with the development and shift to include an Internet business approach, they could attract new clients, and by providing them with the latest forms of electronic advertising, support and correspondence, they may be able to streamline their own procedures and stay one step ahead of their competition in these tough economic times.

I hope this has provided some talking points, and as always, Join in the discussion and share your thoughts. :)

 

Till next time, bye for now

Adam