Publicity

In business parlance, publicity means getting more and more people acquainted with what the business is about. The intention is of course to get more sales done. There are many forms of publicity done, advertising being the most common of them all. But this is not the only way. Even newspaper coverage, press releases, organizing events and launches and even merely speaking about the business to someone is publicity.

Publicity can be leveraged in highly effective ways. When there is awareness about a particular business, more people are likely to get into the idea without giving it much of a thought. This makes the prospecting task much easier for individual representatives.

What are the Pros of Publicity?

Publicity of a business is always for the long term. It will also spread far and wide, depending on the manner in which the publicity is done. People will become aware of the business and will not mind becoming a part of it. This effect is much more pronounced than individual prospecting. Publicity makes branding possible, which is an allimportant requisite for any business.

When a business is popular, prospecting becomes all the more simple. There is no need to waste time on introducing the business because people already have a general idea about it. This will also bring their defenses down and the promoters can move for the kill more effectively and easily.

What are the Cons of Publicity?

Publicity is a double-edged sword. Companies that are hugely popular will be constantly under the media scanner. A single goof-up can be exaggerated several times over and could be a bigger blow to the company than if it were not popular. Companies have to be always on their toes to make sure they do not garner negative publicity.

Publicizing a business is a very costly affair. It needs to be consistent too–one-off publicity never does anything for the business. Hence, the costs tend to escalate to huge amounts.

Information Marketing

Information marketing is a systematic marketing technique in which information about the business is spread wherever it is possible and in whichever manner possible. The most commonly used methods to publicize the business include flyers, brochures and even books and CDs. There is a whole different area of information marketing in the online world too, but for our requirements here, we shall adhere to offline information marketing.

What are the Pros of Information Marketing?

The biggest benefit of information marketing is that it can be very advantageous to people who are very discerning about what they buy. The detailed information present in these materials can provide them with what they need to know and even answer most of their questions. If needed, they will even read the material again and again till they know what they are looking for.

 

There is a benefit also to people who have questions but do not know who to ask. The information manual can cater to the needs of these people and also the people who are reticent to ask questions. In fact, this can be a big selling move because there are a lot of people who have questions about businesses but do not even bother to ask about them to get clarification. Here, this information will tell them all they need to know about the business.

It is not a very expensive method, if done within reasonable limit.

What are the Cons of Information Marketing?

Most people are built to close their minds to unnecessary information, which is what most people take these marketing materials to be. Because of that, they would not even want to spend on what is contained in these information manuals.

It takes a lot of hard work and sophistication to come up with anything that should arouse interest. Even to make a single flyer, a lot of expertise is needed.

Though still widely used, the method is considered quite old-fashioned and does not guarantee that an interested person will show up through it.

SMS Marketing

As the name suggests, SMS marketing is the promotion of some kind of business by sending short messaging services, popularly known as SMS. These SMS are usually within 160 characters, so they are really short and the wording has to be precise. There are various devices used for SMS marketing. The cell phones are certainly the most popular of these; but SMS marketing is also done through a large way on Personal Digital Assistants, Blackberries and even chat messengers.

What are the Pros of SMS Marketing?

The cost-effectiveness of SMS marketing is one of its biggest benefits. It does not cost even 10-20 cents to send an SMS to a person, depending on the provider and that makes this method quite economical.

There is always a surety that the SMS will reach the intended people. With email marketing, there are a lot of problems such as the person may not get the email or may not access the email. With SMS marketing, this situation is highly unlikely to arise because people take their cell phones with them everywhere they go.

The instantaneousness of this marketing method is also of particular note. If the person who gets the SMS is interested in what it says, he or she is likely to take an immediate action. When marketers send out SMS to hundreds of people, they expect and get a lot of responses within 10 minutes of sending the SMS.

It is also a personal method of communication that makes the recipient feel special about getting the advertisement. In a group of friends when a particular person gets the promotional SMS and the others do not, it does make them feel privileged to an extent, sometimes to the point of taking action.

What are the Cons of SMS Marketing?

SMS can also be looked upon as spam. Recipients have the legal authority to take action against the person who sends the promotional SMS, just like people who get spam email can do.

The method is more targeted than cold calling, but still inferior to other methods used to promote businesses on the Internet.

The message needs to be within 160 characters. This brings the practical difficulty of conveying the message and also to make it appealing within this short limit.