Think Beyond Today and Start Branding Your Future

One of the subjects that has been thrown around
a lot lately is branding. I guess it is something
that I have done for years without realizing it.
Yet once I really started thinking about it, I
realized that it is something too many people
spend no time or money doing.

The large companies spend millions doing nothing
but getting their name in front of customers.
I have not had a television in years but the
normal routine of people has probably not changed.
A commercial comes and people are off doing the
dishes, off to the bathroom or finish filling
out your list of things to do for tomorrow.

Even though the mind set of people is to other
things while the commercials are on, advertisers
still spend huge money to get their name mentioned
in a 30 second spot. Why? Even though a lot of
people are doing other things, they still hear
Drink Pepsi or Coke is the one.

Sure these people want you to watch the commercial
and by running it over and over, they hope to
accomplish this. But the real branding here is
for you to hear or see their name. The more you
see it, the more likely you are to remember it
when you are making a decision on what to spend
your money on.

When banner ads stopped producing the kind of
response they once were, prices for them started
dropping. If you need to pay bills this week, it
is not the method of advertising that you would
want to choose but for branding it is great.

A few hundred thousand banner impressions can
do wonders for your name recognition. And today,
with a little shopping around, you can get them
very cheap.

I keep a constant watch on Ebay for banner
impressions. Watch a few auctions and get a
feel for what kind of prices they are going
for. Then start watching for some good deals.

There are a lot of places that will put your
banner on their site with unlimited impressions
for a month, two months or even more.

There have been a few companies lately offering
unlimited banners for the life of their site.
Banners may not be the road to getting rich if
you are trying to sell them but they sure can
be a nice way to get a little name recognition
for the advertiser.

A little word of caution here. Check out the
person who is auctioning off the product. Ebay
allows feedback on every transaction and you
can get a pretty good picture of what kind of
person you are dealing with. Make sure you
check before bidding.

Here is a link to the section that has banner
auctions.

http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/category11763/index.html

So many people think they have to get a return
on their advertising investment today. You will
find those who are very successful are always
looking towards tomorrow.

Start thinking about the long term when spending
money on advertising. A little money on branding
yourself each month will go a long ways towards
assuring your business success in the future.
Think beyond today and start branding your future.