'Business 101' series concludes with lesson on marketing

By Erin O'Connor

Staff Writer



AGAWAM "It's better to tell 500 people ten times than 1,000 people once," said Craig D. Swimm of WMAS-FM radio in Springfield.

That was soem of the advice business owners heard at a workshop on media presented by the Agawam Small Business Assistance Center (ASBAC) on Wednesday.

The Center presented it's final free "Business 101 Workshop" for the 2006 spring series at the Agawam Public Library.

"Some people feel that advertising is very expensive, but this panel of savvy professionals will tell you the real story," said Dee L. Emery, ASBAC board member and host of the workshop.

The panel consisted of Jim Powers, owner of Technographics, speaking on web design, web site advertising and hosting; Craig D. Swimm of WMAS-FM radio in Springfield talking about the benefits of radio advertising; Barbara Perry, vice president of sales of Reminder Publications representing print media; Vincent Traina owner and president of VPT Consulting talking about why a business should consider an advertising agency; and Jamie Rickard Account Executive for WWLP talking about advantages of television advertising in business.

Members of Agawam High School marketing classes were present for the workshop.

" It sparked an interest in me," Sean Walsh, a student said, "I would like to start my own business someday."

The workshop lasted slightly over two hours in which the panel exchanged information each other and the audience.

"Any medium used in the right way will get you results," said Swimm, "You should talk to your clients like your talking to your best friend."

"The web is very interesting," Powers said, "In that all services here, you can use them to direct the public to your website."

Powers also mentioned a new and upcoming advertisement technique called podcasting.

"When someone downloads to their iPod, say a 15 minute show then in that you can sell a 30 second spot for advertisement," Powers said. He mentioned that this is a new and not fine tuned system thus far.

A section of the workshop covered target audiences.

"You want to find your target market and then make the first sentence of your ad jump out at them," Swimm said, "A program through Arbitron will tell me when a 38 year old man who drives an Audi is listening to the radio," said Swimm, "we will talk at this time on our radio show about items that will not offend this target audience."

Rickard spoke about how the most hits for the WWLP website is for the weather page.

"Everyone is checking out the weather when at work," she said, "therefore this is one of our most highly advertised sites."

Ferrero asked about new businesses starting up and what the most cost effective route for advertising would be.

"Print can really work with what your budget is," said Perry, "I have ads that go anywhere from $2,000 a year to $100,000 a year."

The workshop concluded with Derek "Dan" Jarvis, executive assistant of ASBAC and manager and producer of Special Projects, WGGB-TV discussing The Valley Press Club's 2004 Media Guide.

The guide offers advice on how to reach and deal with the media in Western Massachusetts. For more info on the guide, call at 335-8551.

The next workshop series held through ASBAC will occur in the Fall and will center around the theme of "Networking; getting out there and contacting people." For more info go to www.asbac.net.