General FAQ
What is Effective Advertising Solutions?
What does an advertising agency do?
What’s the difference between a design firm
and an ad agency?
What are your business hours?
What’s the best way to communicate about my
project with EAS?
What is Effective Advertising Solutions?
Effective Advertising Solutions is an advertising agency/design firm.
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What does an advertising agency do?
An advertising agency is usually hired by a for-profit business, but it can also be hired by a not-for-profit or government agency. The agency is hired to evaluate a business, it’s company identity, marketing, and advertising program and helps by developing a more effective identity, marketing and advertising program. A better advertising program will improve sales, advertising response, company/brand awareness, and could increase in-house productivity.
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What’s the difference between a design firm and an ad agency?
A design firm designs advertising and related visual communications for businesses. The main difference is that agencies spend more time and focus on strategic marketing, advertising strategy, and offer other services such as media placement to offer their clients full-service.
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What are your business hours?
Monday-Friday 9am – 6pm EST.
You can call our Toll-Free number at 1-888-EAS-4-BIZ (327-4249) and leave a message at any time. Often a representative will be in the office after hours to assist you. However, the recommended way to communicate with your agent about an active project is to log into the project management center available 24/7.
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What’s the best way to communicate about my project with EAS?
The best way for a client to communicate about a project is to use our project management center. When you start a new project a representative from EAS will email you a username and password to login. To login go to www.easinteractive.com and view the top right corner of the web site. Once you’re logged in you will see a list of your company’s active projects to choose from. Once inside a project, you can leave messages, upload files, leave comments, and much more. All communication will be safely stored inside that project for future reference. Your agent at EAS can view all of your postings and you can view all of his. Our project management center makes it very easy to organize all information regarding a project into one specific location available 24/7. If you have an urgent concern with your project please call 1-888-EAS-4-BIZ (327-4249) and speak to a representative. If you’re not yet a client please contact us by filling out the form on our contact page.
Advertising FAQ
What is a specialty shop?
Aren’t specialty shops cheaper?
Doesn’t the fact that the specialty shop specializes in one type of advertising mean that they do it really good?
Why shouldn’t I let a print shop design my flyers or business cards for me?
What’s the secret to creating effective advertising?
What is an advertising campaign?
What is strategic marketing?
I know some photoshop, can I design my own stuff to save money right now?
Can you explain how you came up with the slogan "Your image defines you"?
Why is having an advertising agency necessary?
How long before I can expect to see results?
What is a specialty shop?
Our definition of a specialty shop for advertising is a business that focuses on producing only one type of advertisement. That may be a business card company that only designs business cards, a logo company that only produces logos, or a website company that only produces websites.
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Aren’t specialty shops cheaper?
Yes, in some cases they are. But your goal when developing advertising should be to produce results so your business can be successful, rather than saving a few bucks. Specialty shops may offer a low price and quick turn around, but your company image and advertising will significantly suffer from the lack of an agency’s proper research, strategy, and professional execution. Successful companies are not created when they approach their advertising with this ineffective a-design-is-a-design approach. Don’t get us wrong, specialty shops could employ good, creative designers, but they will not have the time, expertise, or the available resources to first develop the strategy for your company’s advertising to produce results. That is the bottom line of creating advertising.
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Doesn’t the fact that the specialty shop specializes in one type of advertising mean that they do it really good?
If you were to go the route of getting a logo shop to do your logo, a print shop to design your business cards, a website company to design your website, and an agency to design your magazine ads your corporate image would be inconsistent and all over the place. Your advertising, and your company, would eventually fade into the generic clutter of advertising that we are constantly barraged with. When EAS develops you a custom strategic marketing program we can use that theme and integrate it into different advertising formats, mediums and designs. We’ll create a consistent company image and strategically designed supportive advertising that will produce results.
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Why shouldn’t I let a print shop design my flyers or business cards for me?
We design many types of advertising in addition to flyers or business cards. Our professional Art Directors oversee the design, and when it’s finished we send the final to a print shop or other vendor to mass print, publish, or reproduce. These types of providers should only be used for their specialty which is printing, website hosting, etc. at the end of the design process rather than at the beginning. The difference will be the quality of the message within your advertising. THEY GET PAID TO PRODUCE A PRODUCT, NOT TO MAKE YOUR ADVERTISING PRODUCE RESULTS! Let the advertising professionals do the advertising and the printers do the printing.
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What’s the secret to creating effective advertising?
Make it specific, targeted and direct. Use a well-rounded approach and approach your marketing from many angles all directed towards a common thoroughly planned-out theme. Get inside the heads of your customer and tailer your advertising around targeting them. Always remember the importance that advertising plays for your business and prioritize accordingly.
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What is an advertising campaign?
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). Advertising campaigns appear in different media across a specific time frame. The critical part of making an advertising campaign is determining a campaign theme, as it sets the tone for the individual advertisements and other forms of marketing communications that will be used. The campaign theme is the central message that will be communicated in the promotional activities. The campaign themes are usually developed with the intention of being used for a substantial period but many of them are short lived due to factors such as being ineffective or market conditions and/or competition in the marketplace and marketing mix.
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What is strategic marketing?
Strategic Marketing attempts to determine how an organization competed against its competition in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competition. When Jack Trout says that marketing is ‘the war between competitors’ and ‘the conflict between companies’ what he is really doing is defining marketing at the business level.
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I know a little photoshop, is it wise to design my own stuff to save money right now?
Most business owners don’t have the time, energy, resources, or skill to develop and manage an EFFECTIVE advertising program on their own. Highly successful entrepreneurs know that it's much wiser to let professionals do the jobs for them outside of their realm of expertise. Our logic is this: Let's assume you have the ability to potentially earn up to $100/hour in your business/specialty. Let's also assume it will take you 1 hour to mow your lawn yourself. You might rationalize that your saving $25 by not hiring a lawn service to mow your lawn for you. My rebuttal would be that you could have made an additional $75 if you spent the same amount of time perfecting your skill and working within your specialty. So, in essence you aren't saving any money - you're actually losing potential income! Not to mention a professional can turn-around designs much quicker so your loss of potential income may be even more drastic. In addition, our example isn't even considering the difference in the quality. It is much more cost-effective and productive to focus on your business and let the professionals at Effective Advertising Solutions handle the designing for you.
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Can you explain how you came up with the slogan "Your image defines you"?
Despite your best interests, the general public doesn’t see your company how it actually is, your true identity, since they are not customers yet and haven't yet used your service. Rather, they see it from an outside perspective - advertising, marketing, and public relations. If you don’t design, manage and control how your company appears, then the public will think about you whatever they want to think, what your competitor wants them to think, or even worse, you won’t even stand out enough to be noticed.
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Why is having an advertising agency necessary?
Marketing, advertising, and design are all essential to a business for success. This combination should be the next highest priority after only the actual product/service itself and the running of the business. Consider this scenario: Let’s say that you’ve developed an excellent product. There’s not much good that will do unless potential customers know about it. So you start advertising. But just because you advertise SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE that doesn’t automatically mean the right people in the right place will find it. Even if the right people do happen to see your advertisement, it may not be designed effectively to convey the right message or grab their attention. With the realization that most products/services won’t appeal to everyone, it’s wise to develop a strategy directed towards appealing to a specific consumer. And it has to speak louder than your competition. Your product/service should be advertised in places where your consumers will see it, in mediums that will keep their interest, and designed effectively so as to grab their attention and appeal to their needs/wants. This is what we do. We work with small businesses. We will work with you to develop an advertising program that will fit into your company's budget.
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How long before I can expect to see results?
Advertising success doesn’t come overnight, and neither do the results of a thoroughly thought-out marketing strategy. You can expect spikes in sales when we launch a new advertising campaign with call-to-action advertising, but your goal should be your businesses long-term success. We offer stastical analysis tools to examine your ROI and your advertising return rates. If something is not working, then we will hone in on the problem and correct it. Your business success, a direct result of your advertising, marketing, corporate identity, sales, and positioning success, will need to be consistently evaluated to make sure your right on target.
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Billing FAQ
My advertising budget is small, is there anything I can do?
Isn’t business advertising expensive?
Why are advertising agencies expensive?
What is Effective Advertising Solutions doing differently to be affordable?
What is your hourly rate?
Do you offer a discount for repeat clients?
Is it safe to pay with a credit card online?
My advertising budget is pretty small, is there anything I can do?
We know what it’s like just getting started so we’ll try to help you out as much as possible. When you contact us, use our contact form and select the appropriate budget. When we contact you we’ll discuss the options available for you in your price range. We also have custom payment plans available.
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Isn’t business advertising expensive?
The mere placement of advertising and other media isn’t cheap, not to mention the cost of creating the strategy and the design of the advertisements themself. But since advertising is so essential to your business’s success, it’s generally worth investing the extra costs to develop a good advertising program. Without a good advertising program a small business just starting out has a very little chance of success.
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Why are advertising agencies expensive?
Many of today’s advertising agencies still use the old business model of days past. Two main culprits that hold agencies back are still being used today: Spec Ads and Media Buying on credit. Spec Ads are mock proofs created in advance without compensation. They are often presented in a professional setting to potential clients with the hopes that the client will like it and decide to purchase it. As you can imagine, this creates a lot of unnecessary, uncompensated work, not to mention extra expenses in labor, travel, and other overhead. Media Buying is when the agency buys placement for a media spot with a 3rd party (ie. magazine page, radio spot, etc.) on behalf of the client. The problem is that placement is traditionally purchased first by the agency and then reimbursed later by the client. The agency then needs a large cash flow on reserve, with an accounts receivable nightmare of collecting payment for all of the invoices, not to mention the inherent risk involved. These two extremes unique to only advertising businesses raise the bottom line even further for the business, and essentially, the bottom line for their clients as well.
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So what's Effective Advertising Solutions doing differently to be more affordable?
We use a custom project management system as a communication tool with our clients. This makes communication easier and more time and cost-effective. We do not offer speculative “spec” ads to clients. We offer media buying services but we have a different format for that as well. Our spec ad and media buying policies are explained in more detail in our Advertising FAQ.
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What's your hourly rate?
Advertising agencies and design firms are compensated in two ways. Direct charges for design/marketing services provided, and/or commissions on media placement. Commissions on media placement are traditionally 15-17% of the cost of placement but may vary per project. Direct charges are based either hourly or per project. The hourly rate depends on the services provided. The more Senior Designer’s, Art Director’s or additional staff needs to be involved with the project the more the average hourly rate will be. Industry-wide, the national average amongst agencies and design firms can be anywhere from $100-$250+ per hour. Our average rates lean competitively towards the modest end of that scale.
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Do you offer a discount for repeat clients?
Absolutely. We appreciate and value our clients very much and want to do what it takes to keep them happy. We know that EAS couldn’t survive without our clients running ads every month and paying their bills on time every month. Our founder strongly believes in “You get what you give.” so we take the time often to let our clients know we appreciate them. We will soon be offering specials through our newsletter available only to EAS clients.
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Is it safe to pay with a credit card online?
Yes. We currently use PayPal as our payment processor. PayPal uses the latest technology and proprietary procedures to protect the security of it’s members transactions. PayPal is an industry leader in payment processing with currently over 100 million accounts. Click HERE to visit PayPal’s website for more information on their Data Security and Encryption policies.
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Project Management FAQ
How do I get a username/password to login?
How do I get a username/password to login?
We want to keep our project management login less bulky and easier for our clients and us to manage our projects. One of the ways we accomplish this is by only allowing access to our clients. To become a new client you can start a project with us by visiting our contact page and filling out the form. Once we begin a project we will create an account for you and provide you the login information.
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