Save Money AND Reach Your Audience
HOW DISTRACTED
IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
Surprising 2009 statistics from a notable professional association:
- Average work time since 1999 has increased 20%
- 75% of managers work more than 40 hours per week and must manage 600% more information than 20 years ago
- Professionals average at least 10 hours per week in meetings
- Employees spend 18 hours a week dealing with interruptions
- The US Postal Service processed 203 billion pieces of mail in 2008 (That’s 7,700 pieces each second!)
Sounds like a lot, right? Now contrast that with these two findings:
-
The Radicati Group found that the number of emails sent PER DAY in 2008 was near 210 billion
-
CTIA reports Americans sent more than 1 trillion text messages in 2008 And research conducted by the ePolicy Institute found that employees spend as much as 20% of their workday reading and responding to email.
THE BOTTOM LINE? Today’s audience is starved for time and inundated with information. If you want your message to cut through the clutter, it must be relevant, timely and creative.
Reprinted from The Corporate Communicator, a free e-zine dedicated to helping professionals communicate more effectively with employees, customers and the media. To get the latest industry news, research and best practices at your fingertips, order a FREE subscription at http://www.thecorporatecommunicator.net
So what does this mean for the “average” small business owner? Odds are you’ll need to go “outside” yourself and your organization to find a proven and experienced talent capable of understanding your business and your market and your customers and your message.
It’s generally best to avoid formal “Ad Agencies” or “Marketing Agencies” because they are more likely to pursue industry recognition awards than sales for your company. Be especially hesitant of those that call themselves “full service” unless you have Fortune 500-level budgets to dispose of.
Second, ad agencies and marketing agencies (NOTE that many of these now call themselves “Groups” to escape the high-price stigma) are likely to charge excessive fees.
Their norm is to charge you 15% of all media costs (broadcast time and print publication space and Internet banner fees) they book for you (which of course you can “book” for yourself to bypass that “agency commission.”
…PLUS 17.65% of all production costs (which include costs of illustrations, photography, printing, studio production, editing, graphic design, list rentals…you name it!)
…PLUS other fees that are rarely evident until the moment something is needed to be finalized. Don’t you love financial surprises?
This translates to : SHOP AROUND! There are plenty of good, qualified, experienced freelance writers and small one-man-band and one-woman-band businesses that can provide far better quality creative sales writing and design services for far less money than the big city slicker organizations!
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Input aways welcome: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar
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