Do TV ads provide more credibility than online advertising?

Being a PR/advertising consultant and also having previously been in the position of a small-business co-owner who made advertising decisions (and was the pitchman), I'll offer this advice: Ultimately, it's the business and word of mouth from repeat customers that gives the business credibility. No amount of slick ads can stop an unhappy customer from telling a dozen friends about you. By the same token, you have to work twice as hard to get them to tell even three friends about you.It depends on what product or service, and it really depends on your target audience.

We sold home decor: Asian furniture and accessories and oil paintings (one store for each). The furniture store had been around for 25 years at that point, but when we opened the oil painting gallery in 2002, we did a huge media blitz. Not only did we have press-releases go out,but we also had TV commercials done for each business, featuring one of the co-owners.

For the Art store, the co-owner who happened to be a voiceover guy in his spare time thought of the best way to eliminate cost for talent--and the best way to ensure our message was delivered exactly as we wanted it to be delivered.. (Yours truly is shown during a break in the filming. ) All three of the owners had some experience in media & advertising in various formats, including TV, radio, print ads and direct-mail. We did the entire thing, except taping the commercial, ourselves.

We did write and have a heavy hand in editing it, though (read on) We started running it on cable--you can really focus in there, up to geographical area, plus a good ad rep will know what your product's demographic (target audience) is--you could be wrong about it--and know know who watches what, so they can advise l you what channel to advertise on during which shows. For us, it was a slam dunk, before we even picked up the phone. TLC's Trading Spaces, which was very hot at the time.. You're looking to see how people are re-doing their house, we want you to see us.

We thought our target demo was primarily age 30-70 or so, money to spend, into home decor--and we were right. We also ran it on Food Network, Lifetime, a few others... And here's the kicker: If cable companies do not have a local commercial to fill a local ad block, they may put in one at random, at no charge.So you may run on some channel at 1:24 a.m...but anything's better than nothing. If you do go the cable route, ask your rep--no, tell your rep that you'll gladly take any empty spots they can't fill if they'll be free.

We got the report and while we'd selected ad blocks on about 10 channels, we'd actually run on about 20 at one point or another. We eventually turned to an over-the-air broadcast television station, and the signal could have gone anywhere. We just had to make sure we had the right timing.

That was a dud for us. But after about 6 months of TV, whenever people told us where they'd seen the exact same spot, the channels they were giving us were channels we'd never been on. We also advertised in local papers.

The papers we thought would draw the most people--the largest papers-didn't. Our biggest draw was from one publisher of two tiny community newspapers, where we became a bigger fish in a smaller pond. And there was more wiggle room to negotiate deals.

And soon enough, whenever people told us where they'd seen the exact same ad, , the papers or magazines they were giving us were places we'd never paid to advertise.It's free to advertise on craigslist--worked very well for me--and the slight fee eBay charges got me customers literally from Fresno to France. A well-designed website that featured both stores made us a top supplier for one particular item--we used to buy them by the truckload, and one guy who was searching for them on google found us and called us--and he was a repeat customer He was in New Hamphire. A good handful of our picture frames are hanging in the main administration building of some University in California--that woman bought a lot, too.

We had repeat customers who often CAME IN from Minneapolis. One woman even saw something on our website and wanted it so badly that she and her husband took three-day weekends to drive down from Minneapolis to come get it. We're in Saint Louis, Missouri.

I got very sick in 2005 and left the company, so I never got to fully explore the possibilities of online ads--and they've changed since then. But I've also previously been in hospitality, and how hapy your customers are ultimately comes down to the quality and satisfaction with the product or service, though.. Our store's large HQ closed two years ago this month--we were "want" stores, not "need" stores.. Our company had a reputation of being the leader in its field in The Midwest, so the name of the older company was well known. So we advertised a little further out.

Your ad has to be written well and present your product or service well--our TV spot scrolled though about 100 different paintings, 4 on-screen at a time. We had a very big hand in the post-production--the editing of it to make the raw tape into a commercial. I mean in the studio, making decisions on how it looked every step of the way.

I produced a demo radio spot (attached below) from the TV spot's script but we decided to never do radio. The expense was too great and we had no guarantee of ROI. Cable and print, combined with targeted direct mail (in ways we'd never done it), turned out to be the best for URL4 matter what medium you use, you need to negotiate your rate or terms--like we did with the empty cable slots.

Comedy Central at 2:53 a.m.? Free? Why not? Online ads don't do much for me, but maybe it's because sometimes they appear where I don't expect them.

If the whole process of placing the ad is automated there may be no way for you to say, "OK, I'll guarantee that I'll run it for 2 months but I want 20% off." Definitely design a 468x60 and a few other size banners (or have them designed) for use in link exchanges--where similar businesses lead each other to each other. Sometimes the online ads don't even ads appear as ads at all.

. Maybe get into an affiliate network and offer a part of the sale to someone who drives traffic and gets a sale through your site. Your product appears on someone else's site but they don't actually have it--you do.

I'm building several sites right now, all 100% done with affiliate networks--I have no intention of ever seeing the individual products or even knowing who the customers are, but I have specific knowledge of certain industries, can pick products to offer (I was also one of the three merchandise buyers for both stores), and I have no problem creating an online store and getting a commission for my efforts on the sale of them. Commission Junction and ShareASale and Gogle Adsense are three big ones. There are dozens.

Let's say you offer a 25% on each sale and the network processing fee comes out to 5%. Why would give away perhaps 30% of your sale to the affiliate and the network? Why NOT get 70% of what you might have gotten--without lifting a finger?

*Media Consultant for hire.

It depends on business type. Small businesses should go for tv adz locally within their target market. Locally means within region, cable advertisement or specific channel.

Online advertising suitable if they target more than a country, link to e-commerce and have their business website. Online adz much cost affective than TV adz and work well with social media marketing, facebook advertising, twitter updates and corporate blogs.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.