There is an age-old question business owners large and small face each year.

How much should your business spend on advertising?

There are two answers to this question, one being the more traditional method, the other being the more effective. Let's see which one you choose.

Let's look at 2 home improvements centers as an example.

Business A uses the "percent of annual revenue" approach and consults with an accountant to get an idea how many dollars to allocate for advertising and marketing. So, let's suppose Business A has annual gross sales of $500,000. The account runs a few profit and loss statements, prints some balance sheet and tax returns and tells the business owner, "based on your profits, you should spend $3,500 this year on advertising."

Now, armed with this information, you begin considering which media to use, i.e., how many units of "advertising and marketing" you can buy for $3,500. You meet with the local account executives from print, radio, television, web and direct mail. You learn $3,500 doesn't go very far, but you decide "what the heck, I need to advertise anyway, so I'll just go with the guy I used last year. Didn't work well, but it's something and I'll probably get a tax write-off anyway."

During the year you're approach by reps from different companies, but you "get rid of them" by telling them "we've already budgeted for this year." Of course, it's not working but you can avoid the sales call. Unfortunately, you are also avoiding learning about new methods, opportunities and effective ways to reach you audience.

Business B skips the trip to the accountant. Instead, the smart owner sets time aside to analyze his or her business and asks "what products should I sell," "who should I sell them to" and "how do I get the word out." So Business B decides that its line of garden tillers is especially popular from February through April. Business owner B knows this based on past year's sales. In fact, Business B notices the competition really hits the airwaves each year about this time advertising garden tillers.

So Business B decides "you know, I better be ready to advertise my garden tillers if I want to hit my sales goals." So, Business B makes a plan to sell 25 garden tillers at $750 each. Business B also know that when folks come into the store, they are likely to buy other products, so each garden tiller is really a $1,000 sale. So Business B sets a goal to sell $25,000 in garden tillers and related products from February to March.

Next step: Business B calls in an advertising and marketing professional. They discuss an advertising campaign that helps the business meet its garden tiller sales goals. They agree to a $5,000 budget and set the campaign timing. Wait, isn't that a lot higher than the accountant's plan? Isn't this risky?

Well, business is risky, isn't it. I love accountants, but isn't it riskier making decisions based on someone's opinion who doesn't work in the advertising or marketing industry? But by targeting the right product, at the right time, with the right message and the right results, Business B not only sells $25,000 in garden tillers and related products, but builds repeat customers and increases sales to all products.

So Business B, now sits down and takes the next product or service and repeats the same process. Each campaign can be tested and improved upon.

Business A, meanwhile, has allocated its $3,500 and stubbornly sticks to the "accountants plan," watching Business B take its customer base away.

One day, panic sets in and Business A has to "make up lost ground," only to find it will take many more dollars spent on full page advertisements, direct mail, radio, television and the internet to catch Business B.

The moral of the story: the right plan, the right time, the right budget, the right media equals the right results.

Consult with us on how you can be more like Business B and grow your sales. Call us at 252-413-0418 or write Casey Turton at casey@ncdbs.com.

We're getting lots of positive responses to our new print format: brighter, crisper paper, higher quality images and a more organized layout. Thanks for all the callers who let us know how much they appreciate the Pitt County Women's Journal.

We really enjoy the Community articles we provide because they allow us an opportunity to speak with the "real people' of Pitt County who selfishly help others. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.Meanwhile, our "Women in Profile" section highlights 4 local women who get an opportunity to tell their story.

As far as this website goes, we receive nearly 1,000 visitors each month and track readership by each article. This helps us understand the issues that are most on reader's minds and steer our editorial judgement accordingly.

Our list of contributors is growing because the Pitt County Women's Journal offers timely information from local professionals and experts that we think women care about. Our niche is the woman who works, raises a family, perhaps cares for parents plus her own, is continuing her education, and deals with day-to-day living. This doesn't mean we can't be light-hearted and have fun, but it means we're not really part of the " student bar scene," so to speak. You know what I mean.

It really makes us feel good when a client tells us how quickly they received responses from their ad or article. We know the economy is tough and we love helping. Satisfied clients build referrals for us.

Let us know what you think of the Women's Journal or send us ideas to help us improve.

We love hearing from you!

What's the most effective way to handle print advertising on a limited budget? One large article and hope for the best or many small articles over time?

The answer: that depends.

First ask yourself what it is you are trying to accomplish. Promote a new product or service? Seasonal sign-ups? Launch a new office or location? Or just build up recognition in the market place with a few "coupon" style offers so you can track response.

This means you have to create an advertising "campaign," in other words, allocate your funds to a budget, fine tune your message and set up a schedule for your marketing message.

Readership studies by McGraw Hill have shown larger ads are indeed more effective because "the more you tell, the more you sell." Long text does indeed work for customers who actually want to make a buying decision. They want information presented clearly to them so they can decide if they want to make the next step.

If they delay their decision, they'll want to find you again either on the internet or in print and will look for you in the next edition of the Pitt County Women's Journal. Example, we received a phone call this week from a physician's office who saw an article about a new medical billing company in our Journal, but couldn't remember the company's name. Thankfully, we were able to direct him to our website, where he found the article and contacted the firm.

So, the large article drew the interest, but the smaller article got the follow-up.

Size does matter.

Great articles and advertisements follow a set of communication rules and here's a tip for you. Integrate this into your Pitt County Women's Journal articles for more effective communication with your market.

Client Frame Of Reference (CFOR) is a marketing concept that involves understanding what is important to your customers. This is what they want to read and learn about.

For example, your business power washes homes. Your machinery uses super-hydraulic technology to spray water at certain pounds per square inch levels that would impress any engineer. You do an article on the "space-aged" engineering involved in your process and the net results: no leads.

You change your article using CFOR. Now you write about how power washing will make their old home look new, impress their neighbors and friends and cost a whole lot less than a do-it-yourself approach. You net 5 new customers.

Professionals in highly-technical or complicated fields (law, medicine, real estate) often forget this important CFOR concept and overwhelm the reader with too much information.

Use CFOR in your next article in the Pitt County Women's Journal and see the difference in your results!

There are many ways to answer that question and your best bet is to get with a marketing consultant and review your business plan and sales goals. Cutting back on advertising is often necessary because cash is tight, but to eliminate advertising can sign the death warrant for your business.

Instead, try working smarter.

• If a large majority of the customers who first contact you are women, then you need to be in the Pitt County Women's Journal.
• If the audience you want to reach is working families not students, then you need to be in the Women's Journal.
• If you want to showcase your skills and expertise and have your article appear in a special section instead of lost with the pizza coupons, then you need to be in the Women's Journal.
• If you want to stretch your dollars by getting free exposure on the internet, then you need to be in the Women's Journal.

So, the answer is you can cut back on your total advertising dollars by focusing your efforts on that part of the population that controls the household purse  --- women.

The proof, they say, is in the pudding.

Well this isn't exactly pudding we'll be looking at in the article, the proof is in that tying your Pitt County Women's journal article to your internet marketing plan indeed draws visitors to your site and new customers!

The Pitt County Women's Journal is the only free publication in the Greenville area to offer a free tie-in to its website where your article is posted for 60 days. Note the keywords here, "only," and "free," because we suspect other publications will get on board soon with our idea.

But for now, let's look at a few examples to back up our facts:

Greenville area realtor Pat Taylor (www.pattaylorhomes.com) contributed to the Dec.-Jan issue with an article on the role women play in purchasing a home. She's received 45 new readers and her profile in the Women in Profile section brought 10 more.

Our Allergy Relief Center article by Amanda Edwards who wrote about a non-evasive treatment for allergies has received 44 readers as of Jan. 18th. Her article are extremely popular.

Sylvia Hancock's Women in Profile article was a real winner! 132 visitors read her biography  and information on her role as director of a non-profit organization helping people with emotional and developmental disabilities.

There are more examples, including a home improvements company that received readers and a new customer from the posted article!

Tying the web and print media together really does work! Write me to find out more.

Casey Turton
Editor

The Pitt County Women's Journal, which is part of the national family of syndicated County Women's Journals, places emphasis on articles written by our contributors rather than just trying to be another magazine filled with display ads and coupons. We believe this builds trust and respect from our readers for our authors and in fact, has led many competing publications to attempt to imitate our success.

Our articles are then placed in the appropriate category for you. Why write an article about home health care, only to have it appear in the Sports section next to an ad for bowling balls? Doesn't seem right, does it.

Articles are also "passed along" by the reader, who take them home or to the office and tell others "I read this in the Women's Journal."  How often have you heard someone tell you "I saw this great ad in the newspaper?"

So why are there display ads in the Pitt County Women's Journal?

Our job is to help our contributors target women and most of the time, the display ads are in conjunction with the author's article. This may be to point out a special promotion, hours, location, method of payment or other basic information to assist the reader.

Take a look for yourself next time. The Pitt County Women's Journal is distributed throughout Pitt County to 11,000+ readers.