October 2004 · Building a Better Mousetrap

to the October issue of M45 Momentum, a monthly e-newsletter for the business community featuring tips, trends and trivia from the experts at M45 Marketing Services.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said something to the effect of "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Building the mousetrap is only part of being successful in your business-you have to let the world know that you HAVE a better mousetrap, and you have to tell them WHY they should buy it. And in order for the world to beat a path to your door, they have to know where your door is. In other words, you have to market your invention, or your product, or your service. That's where M45 can help. The M45 professionals can help you develop a plan to market your "mousetrap," illustrate it, provide technical documentation for it, tell the media about it, write and design brochures about it, and create a website or CD-ROM that will have the world beating a path to your door.

Having trouble with the formatting? An HTML version of this newsletter is always available at www.m45.biz/resources/momentum/10_2004.asp.

Digital Media—a better mousetrap? What is more interactive than a Website, more portable than a brochure, less expensive to print than many flyers, and can literally sing your company's praises? Easy—a CD-ROM, the media tool that might be the "better mousetrap" for your business, product, or service. The obvious advantage of a CD, or even DVD-ROM, is that it stores a vast amount of data. Plus, interactive CD-ROM production is an extremely economic way to promote your business or distribute information. We've worked with clients to put complete libraries of product information in multiple languages on a disk as a promotional and reference guide for their customers. Other businesses that we've helped prefer to recruit or sell services by greeting their prospects with multimedia presentations or movie clips. Absolutely everything in your company's website, documentation, marketing materials or digital portfolio can be delivered on disk, regardless of a viewer's computer platform or Internet connection. It's also a snap to incorporate samples, interactive forms and live links to updated information in your CD browser. At M45, we'll also help you make a great first impression! In addition to designing the dynamic CD interface, we can create an enticing, professional CD label and case or mailer. Call M45 today at 815-232-2121 to find out more about the potential of this exciting medium.

Your website is a critical piece of your total marketing efforts, and it should reflect your company's message along with practicing good design. The following sites offer helpful hints for a first time design or a redesign to freshen your pages. Of course, if you want additional help applying sound design principles to your website, we can help! Six Tips to Improve Your Business Website Website Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make Correctly (or you'll have to do it all over within a year) Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask

Marketing and media budgets are expected to continue their growth in 2005, with all forms of online marketing expected to increase at rates almost 50% higher than in 2004.

But with the billions of pages of information that exist online, more creative methods are sometimes necessary to get potential customers to visit your website. A variety of new, old and not so old media can work together for maximum impact. For example, CD-ROM direct mail marketing can work very effectively with your company's online presence.

The distribution of content on CDs or video can generate responses as high as 60 percent. Studies show that a business can expect that more than half of those who receive a CD in the mail will view it at least partially. And Brandweek magazine has reported that the "CD-ROM is more vibrant than ever and rapidly increasing as an extraordinarily effective marketing tool. In entertainment, retailing, publishing, automobiles and many other categories, CD-ROMS are fast becoming a standard mechanism for achieving corporate market objectives."

e-Trick or Treat for a Great Cause!
This Halloween, you can provide a "treat" to the United Way by sending email to M45! It's no trick...just send a message to info@m45.biz with "Trick or Treat" in the subject line by Friday, November 5 (just in case you're partying on Halloween and miss reading this newsletter!). M45 will make a donation of 45 cents to the United Way for each person who responds. Happy Halloween!

• Check out the animated infomercial "To Build a Better Mousetrap" from Blackmire Industries. Be warned…it's a little graphic, and some mice do die.
• University of Michigan art students were introduced to the history of design through an assignment that stipulated only those engineering principles known to Leonardo da Vinci could be used to build a better mousetrap.
• And just for fun: Engines of Our Ingenuity: A Better Mousetrap and Mayfair Hardware.

M45 Marketing Services
524 West Stephenson Street, Suite 100
Freeport, IL 61032
815-232-2121 - Phone
815-297-0166 - Fax
www.m45.biz

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