Different forms of advertising have the ability to reach your market in different ways. The key is to keep it simple and choose a medium that will reach your target market. For Professional Development it is about finally spreading the word about our software after 7 years of development to a market that is looking for a simple yet effective way of managing their website(s) with a system that aligns itself with undoubtedly one of the greatest marketing tools out there, the Search Engine.

Within 8 weeks, we have gone from obscurity to noticeable with 3 traditional forms of marketing, 1 not so traditional, and finally entering into Social Networking (better late than never) combined with the basic marketing and networking we have been doing in the past.

So what marketing have we done that has increased our profile? Sign-writing the car was always a no brainer, but to do so was a big step for us while trying to settle on our branding right down to the font and colours we use. To add a special bling to the car, Stuart and the team from Right Tyre Services kitted us out with a set of Crypt Mags and Pirelli Racing Tyres. Recently we started advertising with GiggleTV, a type of in-store screen medium that plays funny video clips with your ads in-between. Our latest marketing venture, and undoubtedly the biggest, is a billboard at the entrance to the Palmerston North International Airport. Big thanks (scuse the pun :) to Grant and Malcolm of CMN Ltd, these guys are legends with Billboards. Im glad the Palmy wind wasn't at full strength as even the moderate breeze made for an interesting time trying to hand a 6m x 4m sail :) Got there in the end and it looks fantastic! You can't miss it if you are driving into the Palmerston North airport.

Sometimes its the little things that can go a long way in marketing. Take for example your email and adding a signature. When you add a signature to your email, be sure to include your web address along and perhaps a link to your physical address through Google Maps with the usual details such as phone number, fax, address etc. With your web address added, you will be surprised how many people will click on it to check your website out.

We have finally updated our signatures after using the same signature for the last 8 years!! Definitely time for an update. A lot can change in 8 years and now we have Social Networking like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and tools like Blogs. These never existing 8 years ago. To take advantage of these tools, we have added them as part of our email signature also, with links straight to applicable pages. A great way to promote the business further. Feel free to join up to our networks as a friend :)