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Co-op Advertising - What Is It And How Does It Benefit The Business Owner

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

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Many business owners today utilize the powerful benefits of co-op advertising. What exactly is co-op advertising and how does it benefit the business owner?

Co-op advertising is a way to split the costs of marketing and advertising between your business and the manufacturer of some products you sell. It can help you advertise further and farther, and let you ride the coat-tails of the quality of the manufacturer’s product, as well as drive overall sales volume for the manufacturer.

While it’s got plenty of benefits, co-op advertising is astonishingly underused, and is critical to growth in a lot of business sectors. Mostly this is because of a lack of education. A lot of retailers have almost no knowledge of co-op advertising opportunities and how they work. Having the manufacturer pay some part of their advertising costs can make a huge difference in driving business to their shop or web site, while cutting their overhead expenses.

Major manufacturers usually set aside astronomical funds for product promotion, much of that tied to co-op advertising. These cover the full gamut of media from online web sites to print to television and radio campaigns.

From a retailer’s perspective, this is like found money and found traffic for their business. It does have a drawback the manufacturer will want to have a fair bit of input into how the ad is structured and run and when and where it’s run, to maximize their brand potential. It’s understandable ? they want to make their business grow too.

The Benefits of Using Co-op Advertising For Your Business:

1. Extends the amount of advertising reach for the dollars spent for your business.

2. More avenues for advertising creativity, albeit within some bounds.

3. The funds freed up in co-op advertising can be used elsewhere, usually for secondary advertising markets, like billboards and telephone directory advertisements.

4. It’s mutually beneficial for you and the manufacturer.

Things to Keep In Mind for Co-oP Advertising.

1. When considering co-op advertising, be sure to coordinate your overall marketing plan. Make sure it is something that will suit your needs before jumping in.

2. If you’re doing co-op advertising from multiple manufacturers (not uncommon in electronics and automotive industries), keep good records for each program.

3. Coordinate with your co-op advertising partner. A new avenue of promotion should get their approval before you spend their money or dilute their brand. 4. While it’s a co-op ad, don’t forget to promote your business name. Make it prominent in the ad; the goal is to get people into your store, not promote the manufacturer at your own expense.

4. While it’s a co-op ad, don’t forget to promote your business name. Make it prominent in the ad; the goal is to get people into your store, not promote the manufacturer at your own expense.

5. Don’t be afraid to pitch a co-op ad campaign to a manufacturer who doesn’t already have one. You’ve got nothing to lose.

6. Expect the manufacturer to help out with advertising costs. Bottom line is, you will be bringing in money for them so it only benefits them to have a co-op advertising program in place. If they do not, go find another manufacturer that does if they are not willing to implement one.

In conclusion, co-op advertising is an important tool to utilize in any business both brick and mortar or even an online business. Co-op advertising is essential for both the manufacturer and the retailer as it saves them money and allows them to expand on the promotion of their businesses. The whole purpose of this type of program is to help develop and plan strategies that will improve the effectiveness of advertising by allowing the business owner to purchase more for less, create larger and more attractive ads and even venture out in promotional methods they wouldn’t have even dreamed about before on a tighter budget. Same goes for the manufacturer.

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