for your marketing

for your marketing 9

2008-03-27T20:07:00.004+07:00

Are You Using Right Tool for Your Network Marketing?

Author: Tsuyoshi E. Suzuki

Nowadays, MLM is very popular in our society. The network marketing industry is undoubtedly one of the best business models offering a fair chance for an average person to make his millions. If it is your "pin-point" passion, you may certainly want to take note and put into play these 50 "best practice" marketing techniques.

In these times it boils down to how much do you want to exit the rat race to take back your life and what's that worth to you? Answer that to determine your budget and don't spend a lot of it on network marketing training because you don't need too. Well, you ask, why don't people make it to the top of it?

Most network marketers fail because the marketing methods that they are taught don't work 95% of the time. There are things besides prospecting website and tools that can contribute your success, but you should start with the prospecting website and tools and then move on to other marketing ideas. If you want to achieve the success, especially while doing your network marketing online, you will need to use various tools. You need to have right tool to be successful.

In addition to all this, when you combine the power of the internet and the ingenious compensation plan of many network marketing business, the average person can achieve staggering levels of financial success. Once you have made the decision to start up in MLM system, make a commitment to spend between 10 to 15 hours a week to start this business. Does the ability to start a home based business with limited risk and for less then a few hundred dollars (in some cases for free) sound good?

Better still, you can start your network marketing business for a few hundred dollars. The opportunity must facilitate work on a part time or on a full time basis so that one may work on his or her business as much or as little as he or she can and still earn a profit. Although some money may have to be invested in order to make real income, a home business based must be feasible even for those with very little money to invest.

It's really the best illustration to visualize what is required if a Network Marketing Plan is going to make YOU the kind money promised. OK, now let's take a closer look at the goose to see if it really can lay the golden eggs everyone promise The BIG selling point of every plan regardless of size or product is always the commission and bonuses you'll earn from your DOWN LINE. The product benefits needs to be explained and matched against a specific or perceived need.

Be sure of the Network Marketing Company you hook up with. Of course you get a continual salary because of your downline from the MLM like royalties for artists. Frankly that's why it is pretty darn good because those owners and managers have these facts, and arranged to have most of the answers to remove the majority of the obstacles.

In a way Network marketing is the same as MLM or Multi-Level Marketing a term that has been thoroughly abused by scamsters and frauds, mostly on the Internet. Historically, this is why the largest and most successful companies have had, as their mainstay, consumable products that are proprietary. Because network marketing is really the most efficient way of selling products.
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The 7 Lies of Network Marketing

Author: Daegan Smith

When you are looking for ways to make money, you will most certainly look for all possible avenues of an honest living and make sure that you get the most for an investment, if you have to make one. You may also have encountered network marketing, and because of the negative images surrounding it, you might have been discouraged to join. Your hesitance is understandable, but guess what, you might have heard the 7 lies of network marketing before, and you need to change a bit of your mindset in order to see how network marketing can help you.

Network marketing can actually help you earn cash if you do it right, so take a look at this list before you dismiss it entirely.

1. Network marketing requires you to pay out with a lot of money. Not all marketing schemes require you to make an investing, in fact, some of them will require a small fee in order for you to start purchasing things, which you can then sell. If you encounter a network marketing scheme that tells you to pay up front with an exorbitantly high amount, and you are made to expect a lot of returns that sound unreal, then the deal might be a scam.

2. All network marketing schemes are scams. Sure, there are some bad guys out there who want to get your money and run, but not all marketing schemes are out to ruin your life. There are actually extremely good people who want to help you succeed, so do not be afraid to try out a scheme, better yet, do not be afraid to ask the network marketing scheme officers questions, and do your own investigating to check how good a scheme is.

3. Network marketing will not earn you any money. Network marketing can actually pay out generously, and if you do it right. If you are able to get stable and reliable down lines, you can actually earn a lot of money!

4. You can earn millions through network marketing, and within the first few weeks of work. Now do not get your hopes up too high, network marketing requires some degree of work from you, so do not believe network marketing offers that tell you that you need only a few tasks done before you can start laughing all the way to the bank.

5. Network marketing is illegal. It is not.

6. It requires you to have loads and loads of friends and to network constantly. Well, you do have to network constantly, but if you are able to pick out three or four friends who share your aspirations, and who are as sales-savvy as you, then you will fare better than people who have hundreds of friends but only a handful who are able to meet the sales-savvy levels of network marketing.

7. Network marketing products or services are of low quality. People actually buy such products and services, and money is made off them. You only need to pick the right program that has products and services that you believe in so that you can sell them better.

These are only 7 lies, and there may be more misunderstanding, thanks to negative images often propagated by mass media. To find out more, do your own investigating, and see how it might be able to help you. Who knows? You might find a good program that has the right fit for you, and you can start networking, selling, and earning.
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Brand Marketing

Author:Natisha

A brand helps in differentiating one company from another. Brand marketing is the process of developing the right image or corporate identity of your company to the marketplace. It is a marketing technique to reach the target audience of a product. A company’s brand extends to its employees, clients, the media and even the general public. The main elements of good brand development include target market research which involves collecting information on potential clients’ needs and preferences, features and benefits of your product in which the target market will be interested in, webpage designing that augments the impact of your business and makes the users experience with your product or service a long lasting memory.

Brand building or brand marketing comprises of brand name development, brand design, logo design, brand communications, corporate branding and product branding. An important and most common route of a good marketing strategy is commercials through which a firm can convey its message clearly and directly in any mode in which they are interested.

A strong brand is an organization's most valuable assets online and offline. An important part of web marketing is brand marketing. The creation and development of a well-differentiated brand helps in reaching customers in a way that is compatible with their beliefs, language, needs and expectations. You can also make one of the best brand impressions through search engines, where users search for a specific product or service, and find your well-constructed brand presented in search engine listings.

Branding seeks to certain an impression with respect to the qualities or characteristics of a product that makes it special or unique. A brand image can be built by linking an "image" to a product or service and branding it into the consciousness of consumers.
Brand recognition is acquired when a brand is widely known in the marketplace. The ability of creating and retaining a brand is called brand management.

Brand marketing must be conducted in such a way that the product or service is well-matches customer expectations and ensures long term association.
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for your marketing 8

2008-03-25T10:17:00.002+07:00

Warm Up for Cold Calls
Author: Aaron Siegel

When closing a sale over the phone many of us think it is easier than in person. In many ways that may be right.

You don't have to worry about the garlic bread you ate with your lunch or maybe the tomato sauce stain that resulted from the delicious Italian spaghetti served with your garlic bread. If your sweating from being nervous from the conversation, your potential client isn't going to see it.

Phone sales just may be easier when it comes to presenting a sales pitch, but there are plenty of pitfalls that await any sales challenge.

One pitfall many salespeople may come across is not being fully prepared for the call. You may get excited and think you have all the answers but a prospect can easily turn the tables on you asking detailed information that you may have never considered as part of the introductory sales process.

Never expect one prospect to act the same as the other, these are individuals not a graph chart of a segmented market. Be prepared for the unexpected.

Make sure you have all pricing sheets (including special terms and conditions), product alternative lists, technical information, selling highlights, etc. so that you are ready and prepared for any questions that may be thrown at you. Make sure this information is stacked and organized so it can be easily referenced.

You do not want to be putting your potential customer on hold and you do not want to have too long of a delay in between questions and answers.

When calling a prospect always assume they will be answering the phone. You will find you can easily be thrown off guard if you relax with the notion it will be another voice mail or secretary. It has happened to all of us I am sure, just don't let it happen again. Nothing can make a prospect more uneasy than an unsure voice that sounds as if they have just been caught stealing from a cookie jar.

Another important aspect to being prepared for a sales call is to have a sheet made with questions for the prospect. These questions are important for you to better understand your potential customer and what their needs may be and how your product may satisfy their needs. Keep the questions relevant to your product and address barriers the person may have in obtaining the product. Keep in mind that some of the questions should also lead to what void your product can fill in their lives and the solution it provides.

Remember when making a phone call to acquire new customers that it is your first impression that is going to be the most important. They call it a first impression because that is exactly what it is. You cannot take back the damage done by not being prepared although you can always try to repair it with a second one. Avoid the extra work by doing it right the first time with preparedness.

In short be prepared mentally and have all you will need to educate your prospects and get them buying from you.
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How to Lose Your AdSense Account By Advertising
Author: Aaron Siegel

When you are looking for instant gratification for your website, there is a type of advertising package that gets you excited. It offers instant legitimate traffic to your site. Will you pass it up?

It looks excellent and seems almost fool proof. You have probably heard of it, redirected web traffic from expired domains. The concept is simple and seems innocent enough when looking at it. A company buys expired domains with existing links, search engine listings, and a loyal following of Internet surfers that some webmaster just gave up on or couldn't afford to run anymore.

You have been dying to get more sales from your website and you see a company has purchased thousands of expired domains with actual traffic still pouring in to them, or at least that is what they say. I am not going to say their necessarily lying, but I will say it is important to read this before you continue on with a decision of purchasing this traffic.

The catch line usually is that the domains registered with this traffic seller are all sectioned into industry categories of relevance that you can rent, making it highly targeted traffic to boot. So your getting into your wallet ready to spend a hundred dollars or less for thousands of eager online shoppers for your product. You see your site fits a category that you know you can entice visitors to buy from or at least get some AdSense clicks from ... STOP!

Right off the bat I will tell you, if you value your AdSense account at all, this method of promotion can destroy your reputation with Google AdSense. How can it destroy your AdSense account and how does AdSense even relate to the domain traffic to your site? Sit tight and I will get to that subject as soon as we get finish the subject of redirected domains.

A redirected domain is just as you would think. You pay for temporary placement on multiple domains that have traffic generated to them. Pay close attention to the word I just mentioned, generated. Many of these companies, if not all will say their bought domains have legitimate traffic coming to them through searches, natural browser requests, etc. however you might find that almost all of this traffic is coming from one major source.

What would this source be? You won't like to hear it, but you might as well know, it comes from traffic exchanges. Traffic exchanges are not the advisable method to generate sales for any site other than maybe an MLM, traffic exchange, or marketing site. This is due to the fact that traffic is generated by other users trying to generate traffic to their sites as well. Most sites are ignored in an attempt to rack up points for views to their site.

Another method is having your site pop-under or pop-up when visiting a specified URL. While this method of traffic generation can work for some sites with good landing pages, not all redirected domain traffic companies play by the rules and to cloak a pop-up or pop-under from a user they can modify the opening browser window to be the size of a mere dot that a user would never be aware of. This of course would count as a visit to your site.

This has been discovered on more than one occasion as I myself tried to capitalize on additional low cost advertising methods and while being ineffective they can be harmful especially to an AdSense account.

If you read Google's TOS you will specifically see traffic exchanges and pop-under/pop-up forbidden for any landing page with Google AdSense code on it. You break these rules you may face a warning, but at times many have faced the penalty of termination. Knowing the risks involved with this type of advertising you are best to keep your site and your AdSense account as far away from these companies as possible.

If the sound of redirected domain traffic does appeal to you, the only way to guarantee yourself the traffic is legitimate is to order expired domains yourself. There are membership based sites dedicated solely to finding these types of domains in your niche and you just pay for the domain and forwarding service aside from the membership fee.

If you plan to test any method of new advertising that you are not 100% sure about always make sure to create a landing page without your Google AdSense code. You never know when you will be told lies over the Internet. Take this precaution and you will save your coveted AdSense account from termination.
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Become Successful Distributor in MLM Network
Author: Tsuyoshi E. Suzuki

A good MLM training newsletter is worth a million dollars to a distributor in Network Marketing. If you've been in this business for any length of time, I bet you have heard a lot of recruiting trainings, and there are some incredible teachers and trainers out there to help you.

There are many MLM Secrets out in the industry that can make or break your Network Marketing Success. Your answer has just painted a picture of your recruiting destiny in the industry. These are some rules of response for Recruiting.

Many people get into network marketing with the thought that all they have to do is find a couple of people and then just kind of sit back and watch the checks come in. The most rewarding advantage of MLM is that you are helping people achieve their dreams.

There can be many reasons for giving up on MLM, but we have found that some reasons that people never reach Success in their career. Some people may falsely believe that it is just for salespeople, but that's just flat out wrong. There are many expectations you can have for your Network Marketing business, but there are also the WRONG expectations as well.

Most of the answers you would get from the average MLM distributor lack the true understanding of what business you are in. In network marketing, you are in the business of change. If you really think about it, prospecting is simply the tactics and strategies of finding people to talk to about your business.

In network marketing, whether online and offline, the Fortune is in the Follow Up! If you are going to be successful recruiting on the Internet, you MUST follow up with your interested prospects. Would you discover a gold mine and not finish the digging? All recruiting is, is connecting the prospects heart to the Hope and Possibility that they CAN have the life they have always dreamed of, and you will help them get it with your products and company.

A Network Marketing distributor website with PULLING POWER is a strong indication of the seriousness you and your company project, and most companies today have a website that can be pointed to and accessed for information and links. There will always be a risk when you join a network marketing company because you are simply a distributor of a product or service. If you already are in a home-based business and it doesn't seem to be going as well as you had planned and you truly believe in the business and the product, then maybe you just need to develop some skills.

But don't forget that with an online business, you are leveraging your time and effort with almost the same amount of results. You should not buy opportunity seeker leads for your network marketing business. The lures in your tackle box are many and varied.

No matter your knowledge of Internet you may have, there is a possibility that you have not familiarized yourself with one of the more popular type of MLM Network, the Affiliate Marketing network
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for your marketing 7

2008-03-22T10:42:00.006+07:00

Where Does Social Media Fit In With Your Marketing
Author: Ingrid Cliff

But where does social media such as forums, blogs, social bookmarking fit with your overall marketing strategy?

Social media does not replace all of your other marketing - it just changes the mix.
When I look at a company's marketing I categorise it into two main areas - Online and Offline. I then break these down into further categories.

Online:* Website & Search engine strategies * Customer strategies* List building strategies* Sales strategies* Social Media
Offline:* Hands-off strategies (where you communicate with your customers indirectly) such as advertising, marketing collateral, direct mail, sponsorship, press releases* Hands-on strategies (where you communicate face to face with customers) such as trade shows, seminars, events, client nurturing* Shared strategies (where you work with others to jointly grow your businesses) such as networking, alliances, joint ventures, referrals

When a business is looking at marketing, they need to look at the right blend of these strategies to meet their specific goals.

Social media is just one part of the blend - but there are many reasons I love the Social Media for small business.

For starters the big one - it's almost totally free! The only cost with much of the social media strategies is time if you do it yourself.

You can target your social media strategy so it also achieves the side targets of all of your other online strategies - more loyal customers, bigger list, better sales, and increased search engine presence.

The downside is it can be tricky to learn what to do; many of your peers and colleagues look at you as if you have suddenly grown two heads when you talk about it (so peer support can be quite low); and if not done correctly it can suck up hours of time without much result.

Off-line strategies are more traditional and have been proven to work over the years. The downside is they are often quite costly and in many cases you don't get the results you were hoping for.

I know of people who have paid $3000+ for a tradeshow booth plus fit-out and printing costs, as well as wages and time and ended up with very little result.

With all marketing strategies - both online and off line, you need to calculate return on investment. You want to see how much the strategy costs to acquire a new customer.

So in the case of the tradeshow - let's assume they spent all up $5000 on the show and acquired 10 new customers - the cost to acquire each new customer was $500. You need each customer to spend more than $500 with you over the life of their history with you in order to generate a return on investment.

I recommend businesses run the stats ruler over their networking activities in particular. Add in the membership fees, annual fees, meal fees, lost earning time (if appropriate) and then calculate how much new business you have generated from that process.

This is very confronting for many people - they may enjoy their networking but when they run the financial ruler over it they find they are paying out much more than they are getting back in financial return.

Of course not everything is about money - if you are getting your personal needs for connection and being part of something bigger met, then your investment in networking is a worthwhile one for you personally. Just be clear it is not really a business strategy but a personal strategy and you will go into your next session with a slightly different outlook and will gain more from it as a result.

So back to where social media fits with your marketing strategy.
Well it all depends on what you want to achieve, the demographics of your market, the amount you have to spend and the time you have available. In my experience it is something worth adding to your marketing blend.
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Spread the Word About Your VIP Service
Author: Art Gib

Your restaurant is only as good as the word of mouth about it. If you're not causing a stir with your good service, you won't be bringing in the high quality clientele. Champagne buckets and personalized meal plans only go so far to cause your clients to do the marketing for you. You need to learn how to effectively market your VIP service too.

Be as Good as Your Reputation
When you want good word of mouth, you need to make sure your restaurant can hold up under scrutiny. That is, you need to be as good as you want people to think you are. Try to come up with a list of special services you can offer to your clients and then make sure that every guest gets a taste of this list.

This can be something a simple as a free drink with dinner or beautifully arranged meals -- it doesn't have to cost you any money. But create an impression with each and every guest when they eat at your restaurant. This is going to get people talking and it keeps people coming in.

Advertise Where Your Customers Are
Advertising is somewhat of an archaic form of marketing, it seems. After all, you don't see world class restaurants advertising in the newspapers. What you need to do is look at where your ideal customers already are. For example, if you want to appeal to the rich and famous, you need to be advertising in the hotels where they might be staying. Talk with the hotel to see if you can get
listed in the services they recommend to their guests so that you can get and stay noticed.

If you are looking to cater to the business class, you need to advertise with tourism bureaus and with travel agencies. This way, you will encourage a trip to your restaurant as a part of their travel plans.

When you're a healthy restaurant, you might want to advertise at fitness centers and spas as a part of a healthy spa day -- check with the businesses to see how you can both benefit from this type of situation.

Press Releases Work
Creating validity for your restaurant is one of the most important marketing tricks you can learn. Write or have someone else write up a press release that explains the benefits of your restaurant. This release should be sent to press release websites as well as to your local newspaper entertainment section to help spread the word about your place.

Honestly, people believe everything they read and see online, so getting your restaurant 'noticed' in this way is going to bring more people in the door. This article should be factual without being sales-y and it should describe various things your restaurant offers that no others do. Since it looks like 'news,' the reader will be more likely to find out more.
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The Maven Matrix Manifesto Revealed, Review and Guide
Author: Dr. Robert C. Worstell, Phd

The reason for the importance of the Maven Matrix Manifesto
To begin with, Jay Abraham has considerable weight with me, mostly as I've been able to get some of his tapes and listen to them. While he deals with this scene of being important in his field - and makes good money through what he does - you have to be able to reject any of what he says and test it against real-world applications: ie. how can you immediately use it, how can you apply it to future projects, how would this have changed what you did in the past. Action is the word to apply.

Next point - I don't like the title, I don't like the artwork. But the basic data is why I'm writing this.

Now, you have to go beyond the pitch to get to the data. And that's why I boiled this all down for you and put it up on the web as a series of Slideshares.

When you download their extensive PDF, go to page 35. This is where the real data begins. And it stops at page 68. 33 actual pages of data from 88. Everything else is their using the maven matrix and general sales techniques on you.

I say in my slideshare that every single penny you invest with them is well worth it - providing you actually USE it. And I repeat that mantra several times throughout: you only get out what you put in.

Let's get into the review:
The Overview
The reason you are studying this is to climb to the top of your niche as the de facto expert and market leader for it. And so then reap the benefits in terms of traffic and subscribers and income.

All this Matrix does, besides some important strategies, is to position you and create a brand out of your persona. That's the key point. We're really just buying a new suit to wear - which is going to make you stand out from the crowd. Perfect thing to get attention - which you can then convert to regular subscribers and continuing sales.

What we are going to do is use the working principles of "old school" advertising with new techniques. All the "old" books on advertising principles and copywriting work, just as good as ever. These are just some modern tweaks.

The Eleven Points
There are eleven points to the matrix. Let's just drop right into these and tear them apart.
1. Gain Your Market's Trust - do your homework on the niche you are in and find out how it works, what the problems are. Boil this down into a blanket statement - a personal story of how you've been there and done that yourself.

You're telling a story which readers will embrace. People think in stories. Remember that. This is how they figure whether their own life-stories are valuable or not - how to improve it, etc. The more credible story you tell, the more trust you build.
And burn this into the inside of your skull: "All Marketing is Conversation. Conversations Depend on Trust."

2. Establish Your Maven Persona - develop a distinctive character. People love characters and will follow a poor story line or weak plot to find out how that character deals with that scene. You can find tons of characters in classic fiction and modern films which people want to follow. Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Lion King, Little Mermaid - you identify with some character trait.

Again, people are working to find out what to do with their lives. They compare their hero/heroine with their own emotional or analytic response. "What would Jesus do?" is a classic approach to this. This is simply how people think - the technical term is "transference." Those charater traits are the ones people actually trust. What's predictable, what helps them feel secure.

They list 24 common character types, but you can roll your own instead of trying to fit into someone else's mold. Play around with this, study the real characters in the popular media, and you'll soon find those traits which resonate with you - these are the ones you trust.

3. Develop your market vision. I'd actually put this first, much as Napoleon Hill in his Think and Grow Rich. You have to know the problems of that niche, but you also have to have a driving vision to achieve and revolve your life around this. Everything really needs to decide what they want to accomplish, for themselves personally, as well as for their niche.

It's what you want to do for others that is the important part. You can't get without giving. So the more you do for others to make them rich, happy, successful, healthy - that is how you are going to get help with your own wealth, happiness, success, health, etc.

All market leaders have a vision for their niche, their industry. Fred Smith (Federal Express), Tom Monaghan (Domino's Pizza), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Roy Kroc (McDonald's), Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) - all these have created revolutionary new ideas for their particular industry - and took over their niches as a result.

It's not falling in love with your product, or your business, or its growth. Your key to success is to fall in love with the success and growth of your clients. Their success is your success. Period.
The day of the "consumer" (one who consumes) and the "customer" (a creature of habit) are over. The days of real conversations and real service to help your client succeed are the rising tide.

4. Tell Your Creation Myth. The text book for myths is Joseph Cambell's "Man With a Thousand Faces." He studied all the legends and myths and boiled them down to a single outline. Everything fits into this mold. Really.

The creation myth these guys are talking about is the story of where you started and how you got where you are today. Simple. Keep it that way. People want to understand and trust you. Your own humble beginnings tell your story and reflect on your character. See how these things (story, character, trust) all keep coming together?

As they put it, "You have to reveal your hops and dreams, your current frustractions, your personal failures, what you've achieved so far and what you're still struggling to achieve."
One of the all-time great creation myths (outside of Horatio Alger) is Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Great for study. And there are others out there. Napoleon Hill tells many stories of successful people. Stephen Covey is another great source.

5. Develop Predictable Behaviors - develop trust by being predictable and regular. You have certain "trademark" behaviors, idiosyncrasies. These are what make you an individual. Recognize these, amplify them if you want to - but Be Yourself. And people who like these traits will return to you over and over - as long as you stay the same.

Look over who you trust. What do they do that you like and admire? Have they "always" acted this way? Look over those you don't trust. Chiefly, they change frequently and are unpredictable. They usually don't follow through on major projects or plans, and require a lot of structure in their lives (consider a sturdy corral for excitable livestock...).

6. Become a polarizing figure. You want to create discussion, controversy. Essentially: have strong opinions and state them. Particularly if they have to do with improving the success of your clients: product quality, service integrity, fair and honest treatment.

Don't be politically correct. The most PC people are in the graveyard - they no longer offend anyone. Be yourself - vigorously. Stand up for what is right and sensible - and those things which make your clients' lives easier and more profitable.

While they give really polarizing figures as examples, you don't have to be a "Rich Jerk" in order to succeed. Just be yourself - AT HIGH VOLUME. The point is to be able to attract attention so you can get the conversation started.

7. Develop your own Phraseology. Essentially - create and use trademark phrases which become viral messengers for you. These are special tags or nomenlature which tell about you and your products.

This is common to all silos: pollitics, religion, any technical industry, cults, you name it. Everyone describes their products with special terms, which are often trademarked so no one else can use them. This can also extend to motto's and advertizing phrases. Coke and McDonald have had many memorable slogans and jingles. Viral marketing at its finest.

8. Use a Signature Communications Channel. They tell about a guy who turned a family liquor store into a $50 million business, who has showed up on major late-night and afternoon-talk shows. He started weekly videos on wine for the "average Joe".
Some use "manifestos", others use special reports or blogs. Often this can be a syndicated channel for this news. Even commenting on social media, such as StumbleUpon or FaceBook can qualify you.

Again, the point is distinctive predictability that instills trust.

9. Create a Velvet-Rope Community. Essentially, offering exclusive and increadible access for an incrediblly high price. BUT - you're giving value beyond measure here - which pays incredibly to your bank account and to their success.

The point here is that mavens have only so much time to spend and so when you get personal access, it's worth much more than money. But value is what you say it is - a sale price is determined between the seller and buyer. High-priced houses are more than just a sales job. They are actually worth that much to the buyer.

10. This leads to Evangelists - turn every client, every affiliate into devoted and walking advertisements for you. Essentially this is done by the quality of service you provide, plus their own success as a result of your interaction...

11. Accelerate the process through Mentors. Everyone has mentors. Teachers in school, sports heroes, even the stories you read and the legends, the myths you've encountered. All these send you messages, teach you lessons. Whether you meet with them in person as a coach, or counsellor, or you simply read their books or listen to their tapes.

What you put into those coaching sessions says what you are going to take away. How you apply yourself to those references is how successful you're going to be.

That is the take-away from this Maven Matrix. After this point in the PDF, they simply go head into the sales pitch. And every single penny you invest with them could come back to you twenty-fold.

But my reason for this review is simple:
You can be bigger, greater, more effective, more successful than you've ever thought possible before. Take these guys' advice to heart and become greater than you ever thought possible.
You are special. You have solutions to common problems that other people haven't thought of - save them the time of having to figure it out for themselves. Take the chance.
One life. One future. Yours.
Your choice.
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for your marketing 6

2008-03-15T10:17:00.001+07:00

5 Helpful Tips on Conducting Market Research
Author: Michael C. Podlesny

On occasion I visit the local library to do some research. As opposed to just surfing the internet at home, the Library is one of those places where it is quiet, has all the material I will need for whatever project I am researching, and it is filled with many expert librarians schooled on the art of finding information.

This got me thinking about what to write about in my next article that gets posted on our website and business blogs. We`ll get to more on that in a moment.

While talking to a couple of the librarians, I was shocked to hear that out of the 40,000 plus residents we have in our city, less than 20% of them actually have a library card. To me that card represents any, well almost any, piece of information I need to conduct my business.

That brings me to today`s topic. Using your library in conjunction with information that you already have from your own business to do proper market research can help you tremendously. Today I want to cover 5 tips you can use to do research that will teach you how to get to know your customers and competitors.

Customers
Start by asking you customers for information. Get them to fill out a card and return it to you. On that card, ask a few questions for the information you seek. Customers a lot of times are more than happy to provide this information.

Your Own Business
You have invoices, sales receipts, credit applications and a whole slew of other documents with pertinent information on there that can give you statistical data you need to make better decision about what direction to move your company to. See what these items tell you about sales and customers.

Trade Associations
Trade associations exist in your business sector and chances are there are many of them. This is where your local library and librarian can assist. Visit them and ask where you can obtain a list. They may have a book there that you can make copies of to help you with this research. According to S.C.O.R.E., "Use your trade associations. Read their studies and journals or call them when you need information."

US Government
Yes good ole Uncle Sam is there to help you. The federal government has so many programs and buildings full of information that many Americans don`t even realize exist. There are federal employees out there whose main job is to be the expert on a certain topic. I was reading a book the other day and it talked about how a person was starting a farming business and wanted to know about potatoes. He called the federal government in D.C. and eventually was put in touch with a person whose main job is to know everything there is about the business and agriculture information of potatoes. That information to that potential business owner was like walking into a gold mine. Uncle Sam has your information also; pick up the phone and call.

Advisory Board
I talked about this topic in another article that I wrote that can be found on our website. Create an advisory board. I won`t go into much detail on this subject since you can read the previous article. I will tell you this, an advisory board can help you with a lot of creative ideas and more information you need to excel your business.

So there you have it five useful tips to help you complete some market research. Implement these and you will be on your way to improving your business. Do not forget about the library. If you do not have a card, go get one. It is free (in most cases) and every library is worth their weight in gold.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

How Direct Mail Marketing Can Go Wrong
Author: Kaitlyn Miller

Direct mail marketing is one of the most popular campaigns done by many business owners and marketers. Often with a choice among ads such as marketing booklets, postcards, and advertising catalogs, this is a sales technique that works well when done right because you are able to send your message directly to your target audiences. It is particularly very effective with advertising catalogs as direct mail marketing encourages ordering from the print ad itself.

This type of advertising is also very successful for most marketers because the ad message that was created is aimed at those people who are more likely to buy from you. Hence, you have more opportunity to provide a personal ad that can get a positive response from your target clients.

And here’s a huge plus: nothing beats seeing a full color booklet or catalog brandishing the things you’ve recently seen and wanted to have, delivered directly to your mailbox or your door slat, or whatever is appropriate.

But sometimes, the ever reliable mail delivery can get pretty annoying, especially when you have to endure all those direct mail marketing ads sent to you by everyone who has his or her own business to promote. Sure, they may be informative, helpful and economical. But they do become sneaky, too forward and aggressive, and most of the time, verging to the obnoxious.

Let’s face it. Even if you get excited just looking at those flashy and brilliant color pictures in the catalogs that they make you want to drool and order as many items as you would like, the fact is, when you get to receive so many direct mail marketing ads everyday, it can be rather oppressive.

Because of direct mail marketing, many retailers have gone to selling their customer database just so they could augment the rising costs of printing and mailing their ads to their target clients. Hence, you find as many kinds of catalogs and booklets in your mailbox everyday, even from those retailers that offer products and services you do not need or want. Some more paper to add to your growing collection.

This is when your ad becomes tacky. Because your print ads go to people who doesn’t have a need for what you have to offer, often, your words and message that you believe are relevant is instead looked upon as something cheap and done in bad taste. Even if your intentions are good, or however fine your writing of your ad copy, it is still a misplaced sentiment when handed out to a person that doesn’t have a need for your business.

So before you decide to choose direct mail marketing as your promotional campaign, you might want to consider looking at the pros and cons first. Because what a direct mail ad can give may just be as beneficial with another media campaign, with less costs of course.

Just think about it.
(Copyfrom:www.articesbase.com)

Ari Galper Interviews Ed Rush
Author: Chris A

The first thing that hits you when you listen to Ed Rush talking is the understated tone of his voice.
Yet in the past three years he's had sufficient marketing success to make us all sit up and take notice.

With softly spoken words Ed responds to the interview questions with an easy deference that fools the listener into thinking that maybe he's just an average Joe who managed to hit the right buttons at the right time. Then he relates what he did before he became a successful internet force. He flew F18s in combat.

Well, maybe a guy who can do that is always going to score high, but what can an ex combat fighter pilot tell hardened marketers about on-line selling?

To get the full story from this interview you need to hear it through. Listen to the man quietly relating his learning experiences. Hear him laugh at his own mistakes and own up to naivety. However, for those who really don't have the time, here are some of the most salient points.

On the back of his decision to move from full time defense flyer to reservist, Ed discovered the existence of the ebook and decided to write a 'how to'. Following the best practices of non fiction literature he chose a subject in which he was well versed. Fighter pilot tactics.

Recognizing that not everyone has access to a jet plane he decided to aim his product at gamers. It could have been a winner but for the fact he realized it couldn't be done without risk of breaching national security regulations.

So he shifted his ebook subject to - How to become a candidate for the job of fighter pilot.
This one hit the mark.
Lesson #1 - Choose a product that will sell.

Having produced his book Ed set about marketing it, and in doing so started to learn his new trade.
The first web sales page and cover ad were, by his own admission, a little rough around the edges. That said, the product did start to sell, allowing him space to think about what improvements were necessary. To find his direction in this, Ed turned his attention towards on-line discussion forums. Here he discovered that providing well informed answers and including his web address in posting certainly did generate traffic. He also commenced a study of the acknowledged masters of internet marketing and had the not uncommon experience of discovering an email testimonial he'd sent to Perry Marshall appearing in articles on numerous sites.
Lesson #2 – Participate in on-line discussion. Always be sure to include your web identification and site address in on-line conversations.

A continued learning curve led to improvements in the website and advertising copy and recognition that the best way forward appeared to be experimentation and testing. To assess the level of click traffic on a potential product, Ed’s preferred method is to ‘buy a bunch of clicks’ and test it. As he says – “there’s nothing like real life, flesh and blood people with their finger on the button”. This method also works for keyword and key-phrase testing and Ed undertakes this basic testing as a preliminary, placing it before product launch.

Of course testing continues after launch, Even if the product is going well, marketing copy and keyword selection can always be improved. First attempts rarely producing the best or most enduring results. Ed relates the tale behind the first Google ad for his Fighter Pilot Productivity site. With the line - "Learn the secrets the government doesn't tell you about how to become a fighter pilot" - he thought he had a winner. While it did, and still does, generate click through it performs at only around thirty percent of later editions.
Lesson #3 – Always seek to guess what goes on inside the head of a potential customer, but never assume to know.

Ed is avid in his conviction that continual testing is the key to success. He takes his lead in this from Joe Sugarman who claimed that as he was not smart enough to figure out how a market strategy would work he needed to test every part of the plan.
Lesson #4 – Be systematic and procedural in your marketing and testing.

While he knew the theory behind continuity strategies, Ed didn't take the plunge of introducing membership until he had two successful sites running and earning. When he finally created members only functionality, he upgraded both sites simultaneously and doubled his business inside one and a half months.

He was so taken aback with the result he spent a week kicking himself for not taking the step eight months earlier.

Membership fees for his sites now take care of all overhead cost and provide a percentage of profit.
Lesson #5 – Be a farmer as well as a hunter.

Ed has now grown four Internet businesses and along the way has also experienced a failure. The trick here he reckons is to accept that a product is not going to sell as early as possible. If performance testing is methodical, this will be apparent at an early stage.

Scaling up an established business can be done by introducing new products, membership and continuity and expanding in-demand elements of an existing product. In Ed's case this meant producing separate manuals to cover specific aspects of his subject in depth.

Live chat has also played a part in this success story. In a virtual face-to-face with a potential client you can ask direct questions and get interesting answers. People open up more and you get to know what they are thinking. This points the way to more penetrative marketing copy. Tracking and testing can also be an effective use for forums such as LivePerson. During the interview Ed was told of an approach using a live chat address in a Google ad to generate closer contact with the potential client. He paused the interview briefly to make notes, underlining the next lesson.
Lesson #6 – Never stop learning. Learn from your customers and learn from the experts.

Through the interview Ed Rush’s basic philosophies become clear and they are all based on training.

He says training up, training down and training across, meaning training the people you work for, training the people who work for you and training the people you work with, is key to handling work load weather you’re flying a fighter plane or running a marketing project. Take control and ensure everyone knows what you expect and what to expect of you.
Lesson #7 – Training is the key – train to be as good as anyone if not better.

Ed says – “In the movie Top Gun, the characters Maverick and Gooch are supposedly gifted in all the things they do. It’s all a load of baloney it’s actually the guy who trains well that does well.”

The same applies in marketing.

Ed Rush is a Marine Corps fighter pilot, author, and info-marketer. His Fighter Pilot Performance for Entrepreneurs program teaches small business owners Top Gun strategies for accelerating productivity, profits, and peace of mind He can be found at www.FlightPlanToWealth.com.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

for your marketing 5

2008-03-14T12:56:00.002+07:00

Online, Home-based Business With Digital Art, Design and Inkjet Printing
Author: owen monilla

For people who’d like to start up a home-based business, there are actually a lot of ideas that you can adopt. Inkjet printing is a popular choice, wherein you can provide custom designs for invitations, banners for parties, designing stickers for campaigns and more.

Printing and Design Business Online and at Home

There is no harm in trying. Every successful people have started small. And they have also failed one way or another. But now, through technology and the world wide web, you can start your very own business at home and partner up with a printing company to make and deliver your goods.

1. These days, you have to work harder in order to survive. If business is the way to do it, then do it. Offering your design services for invitations, stationeries and such are a big hit. Custom and detailed patterns are something people are truly paying for.

2. Remember that you have to earn, but that won’t be easy. In business, you must first learn the trades before finally adopting a formula to be successful and stable. But what’s important is that you have to take the risk, start and grow little by little.

3. Start pondering on your ideas – this is your best capital. The world of print and design offers a great variety where you can exercise your own art and eye for detail. Relax and look around you. You might get an idea by just observing what’s on the boom and what’s not.

4. Let’s focus on inkjet printing. If you know the basics about computers, especially software applications wherein you can manipulate designs and pictures, then you’re on a good start with the printing business.

5. With the very low cost of printing, you can always afford to innovate and offer additional services for people to patronize you.

Here are some ideas of services that you can offer to make people notice you and make them want to try you out:

1. Offer a wide-range of products that you can print on. Do not just focus on one, especially if you have the capacity to do it. Depending on the print partner you have, you can offer design services for company give-away materials like t-shirts, calendars, notepads, journals and more.

2. Seasonal events and important occasions would help you venture into greeting cards and invitations. Customized programs or pamphlets and more.

3. Touching up on photos allows you to explore your digital art skills. You can then print your customers posters through your printing partner.

4. Offer free frames or free albums for your printing services. Know what your competitors are doing. You may opt to go with the flow or beat them by offering various promotional schemes.

5. Invest in your own talent and send out your own postcards. Get people to visit your site and what you are the services you can offer them.

6. Be visible online. Know the trends, who’s getting married, whose birthday people are celebrating and more. Know about the happenings and events in your area. By getting such information, you can market yourself to people who might be in need of your design.

7. Present yourself as a one-stop-shop for art pieces can put up in their own homes. From your own digital art posters, to canvas prints and more.

An inkjet printing company is one of the best partners you can have for a a home-based, online, design business. With this combination, it is a win-win situation. So push hard and persevere for there is no other way to go but to the top.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

How Putting Up A Good Show Means More Client Recognition
Author: Anna Stenning

When organisation an exhibition of any sort, be it conferences, charity events, in house staff event, networking with other businesses or representing your own brand at a specified trade show, presentation, organisation and teamwork is key. Putting a good exhibition display is your ticket to gaining new client portfolio and show off what services and products you have to offer. Finding the right pop-up displays, exhibition stands and banner stands are the key to making a big impact.

To begin this process, it will help to research the various pop-up displays you can use and whether it will hold various sized graphics. This is the most important part of process as you will need to plan how will be exhibiting the company services, whereabouts you will be situated and how you going to attract the attentions of potential clients.

It is also vital that you look what each exhibition equipment will look when assembled as it may look good on screen but if you have a specific graphic, then this may not look on a curved pop-up display frame. On the other hand, perhaps you have chosen to use multiple banner stands but the graphic you will be using may not look as seamless as you want it to when they are joined together. Always find out what the product will look like before purchasing.

The next step to take is to work out a budget, having gained an idea of what you can use for your exhibition how much will these cost? Will you be holding more than one exhibition? Is it cheaper to rent or would you prefer to buy your own equipment? Are you working towards a tight budget? These are the questions you will need to ask yourself when planning an exhibition of any size and it is usually best to do this within a team of people.

If you have been given full responsibility of running the event, then perhaps you could make your life easier by delegating specific responsibilities to other people, whilst at the same keeping on top of all functions.

With exhibition equipments it is always a good idea to seek external agency or specialist advice. Many companies approach specialised designers and exhibition organisers to help them put up the best possible event to promote their company. In many trade exhibitions, each company are competing against each other to stand out from the crowd, therefore people often find it useful to interact with clients, provide sample product demonstration, present current client testimonials, display brochures and leaflets, and have contact cards designed for people to take away.

Having all of these perfected takes time, so do not leave it to the last minute and start early. This way you can ensure little or nothing will go wrong on the day.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

Your Marketing Budget is Hard to Come by - so Spend it Wisely!
Author: Diane Costa

If I had a dollar for every person that said “If Only...”

The sad truth is that at least once a week I see a new client who has called me up in distress. NO - not because their parrot died, but because they all seem to feel the sense of their advertising and marketing dollars going down the drain. Money out and no sales in. Sound familiar?

I am sure at one stage in a person’s career; they have spent money unwisely or made the wrong advertising or marketing decision. I mean, look at some of the global companies you see – here today, gone tomorrow. It’s part of a learning process we must go though to be better business people, right?

Wrong!

With the right advice, you can ensure your marketing dollars are spent with a better chance of getting the results you want.

Here’s a perfect example of a recent & true scenario.
Client X decided to embark on doing their own research and own direct marketing campaign. The results and costs shown below are factual.

Client X: Objective – To obtain new clients and build sales.
Mechanism – Purchase a database and send direct mail.
Action: A new brochure is made and 10,000 printed.
Artwork cost $ 500
Printing cost $ 1800
Postage cost $ 4,500
Envelope cost $1000
Label and fulfillment cost $ 1,000
Database cost $ 3500
Total cost $ 11,300
Divide by 10,000 = $ 1.13. Not too bad per mailout really.
Results
Maybe 2% response rate = 200
Maybe 10% of the respondents buy = 20 sales
Each sale if only a one off must make $ 565 to break even.

Using the above calculations, why did the customer call me in distress? What could have went wrong and why did his money go down the drain?

The distress call was because the client rented a database from a company that guaranteed a 95% deliverability or your money back. That’s all and great, and a good way to have confidence in a company supplying rental data. Just as well they got that guarantee as the client received approx 75% of the direct mail envelopes returned to sender. Why? Most of the people had moved or were deceased or for some other reason. The data rental company came good on their guarantee, but what about al the other costs incurred?

That left them with a whopping $ 9025 down the drain. Gone. Kaput. Sayonara. Not to mention the time wasted by the client and their staff.

What could the client have done better? Is there anything the client could have done to avoid what has happened?

Basically, there are some precautions I suggested the client could take.
These would be:
(1) Ask the data broker how long they have been in business?
(2) Ask them are they ADMA qualified and then contact ADMA (Australian Direct Mail Association) to see if they are a listed provider
(3) Ask the broker who their current clients are and contact one of their clients for a referral.
(4) Ask the broker what percentage of their business is repeat business.

These four simple questions, may have avoided the whole issue as there are just as many bad and unethical list brokers out there as there are good ones. Know who they are and look at past work they have done and past clients. That way you can have more confidence.

Alternatively, put the responsibility on a marketing agency or direct mail agency to do this research for you and use reputable suppliers. That will solve all your problems! And probably save you a lot of time and money too!

TIPS

Here are a few tips to help you avoid throwing advertising and marketing dollars away.

Mail Drops
If you are doing a mail drop, don’t just do it once, you will get a much better response and bang for your buck if you do it 2-3 times in the same area. Remember, advertising is about memory recall.

Print
If you are running a print campaign, don’t let your advertising rep try and sell you a one off feature or one off ad. Ensure you have the budget to run a series of ads at least over a min of 3 weeks. Its better to go with a smaller ad more often than a one off larger ad. Advertising is about repetition and building your brand and confidence in potential customers.

Enews
If you are wanting to send an Enews – Don’t send a crappy text, red font, blue font email. It will probably be detrimental to your business more than assistance. Always keep a professional look, invest a few hundred dollars and have the Enews developed by a professional.

Radio
If you are taking radio advertising, don’t get sucked in to buying up front by your radio reps. They may try and sell you “Run of station” which means they are simply filling the gaps where they couldn’t sell. Get a plan together and ask your marketing consultant for advice.

TV is affordable!
We can cut a great ad for under 10k and your 30 sec spots generally are cheaper than radio – you can grab a 30 sec spot from $ 100!

I truly hope my advice has helped you, and I'd love to hear your feedback. You are always welcome to drop me an email with your question or phone me up for advice – we are always here to help!
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

for your marketing 4

2008-03-13T14:23:00.003+07:00

The Art of Online Offset Posters and Ordering
Author: owen monilla

An art form captured on paper, enlarged and placed on a certain spot can be quite an eyeful to look at. Offset posters have proven its strength as an advertising medium, whether for brands or for promo announcements, event notices and more popularly, movie posters.

Such type is made to be seen by a lot of people for a period of time. So for businesses, it is only but practical to plan and design posters ahead, and to print it in good quality for durability. In this manner, you have posters that are as interesting and as steadfast no matter the circumstances may be.

Technicalities You May Want to Know About

1. The paper.
When you go about asking various printing companies about this type of option for your materials, some of the more popular being used are these two: 100 lb Gloss Text and 100 lb. Gloss Cover. The two differ in price and quality, but both are durable materials, Both too are ideal for color and image reproductions.

2. The sizes.
There are standard sizes for offset posters but other printing companies allow you to have custom sizes depending on your need. Nonetheless, you can easily print from a size 8.5 x 11 to a 27 x 39.

3. The inks. UV protected inks will not fade easily, thus making your tools able to last for a longer period of time.

4. Full Color Quality
Go for full color printing and lavish your prints with colors that communicate beyond words. Full color quality makes your prints more life-like in nature and capture the closest and best possible replica of your original design.

5. Finishing touches
Your materials can also have the added protection through coatings. Aqueous coating applies a soft sheen to your posters. More a more vibrant and striking poster, you can request for a matte or UV coating.

How Do You Go About the Process Online?

You can easily shop for your posters and promo materials online. The process can even be done easily with these simple steps:

1. Ready and prepare your design in the requirements set forth by your printer of choice before ordering. Check for bleeds and if your files has been converted from RGB to CMYK.

2. You can easily get printing quotes online and get a working figure that would fit the range of your budget.

3. Go to the product page of posters and choose offset. Choose the size you need, the quantity and turnaround time.

4. Most websites that do transactions online make you sign up for an account on their site to be able to verify your billing and shipping information.

5. Upload your design and choose whether to get a proof or waive it.

6. Upon agreeing to the company’s terms and conditions, your materials will be ready to be printed when you have made the full payment and approved the proof.

Offset posters are effective as a marketing tool, especially for launching big events, products and so on. So sell your service and all that you have to offer as a business with these materials and make heads turn your way.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

Click Fraud - Ways to Identify and Tackle it
Author: Steve W Sharpe

Identifying and tracking examples of click fraud is the first step to eradicating the problem. Click fraud is an enormous drain on the resources of advertisers operating on a national and international scale, estimated to occupy around 30% of all pay per click advertising spend. With so much at stake, its no wonder the search engines are investing so much time and effort into devising solutions.

One way in which Search Engines and other pay per click programme providers have attempted to curb the growing click fraud problem is through introducing IP address repetition algorithms. These formulae are designed to pick up on suspicious click patterns emanating from a singular IP address, which can help to uncover the existence of click farms and competitor-led sabotage, as well as identifying potential fraudsters at source.

However, there is an array of problems with this method of attempting to identify the fraudsters. Firstly, fraudsters logging on through a dialup modem, DSL line or cable modem can almost completely bypass this check, as with every new online session, a new IP address is generated. Furthermore, there is an extensive range of software available to alter IP addresses, which again can be used for 'cheating' the algorithm. Cookie and session tracking are other methods by which search engines can attempt to uncover potential fraudulent activity, but again there are ways around these for the fraudsters.

More comprehensive software is being developed which profiles and reports on the browsing habits of each click-through to enable companies to track and monitor suspicious behavior, although this could be seen by many as intrusive and ineffective as anything on a small scale is still likely to go unnoticed, based on the vast coverage of ads across the internet.

The problem of click fraud recently hit the headlines with a class action raised against Google, prompting Google to offer $90million as a potential settlement. Perhaps an acceptance of their responsibilities, Google's offer goes some way to suggest the extent of click fraud, and its vast costs to the internet economy.

There are a number of self-help remedies that can be implemented to keep an organization out of trouble. The first of these remedies is the reliance on search engine optimization and organic listings. If a site is well and truly optimized, it could eventually realize a ranking that another site is willing to pay $2.50 a click for. Similarly, with organically high rankings there are no clickthrough rates, therefore the costs associated with PPC are not applicable. Although the process is significantly more laborious and takes significantly longer to see results, the SEO process is much cheaper in the long run, and with an estimated 25-30% of all clicks being performed fraudulently, an organically high listing can save money which would otherwise be drained by click fraud for more beneficial reinvestment.

Year on year, as the pay per click advertising market continues to grow and expand, surely click fraud will follow suit. Unless an effective means of preventing click fraud is developed and successfully implemented, buyers will steadily lose confidence in the advertising medium and turn to more effective, less wasteful marketing methods, which would seriously hit the search engines and could potentially threaten the online economy as a whole.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

Postcard Printing and Your Message, Audience, and Campaign
Author: owen monilla

Postcard printing is but one of the many ways you can use to promote your business, brand or products and services. And as any business owner or a professional who is looking into print advertising or mail marketing, you need to look into printing companies services that are aligned to your business print needs.

A Few Notes of Postcards

Choosing the right one should be really thought of real hard because you’ll be spending your money and investing in it. And as all investments, they must have rewarding returns. If you are new to the idea, you need not worry because postcards can target your potential clients well.

Combined with mailing and list services, you hold in your hands the ability to tap into all sorts of market, demographics, and location.

So while the potential are great, you have to easily overcome the sometime intimidating process of online printing. Yes, it is true that you do not approach a blank sheet lightly. Yet again, with today’s technology and printing companies stepping up in their game, you can actually let your imagination run wild.

There are many possibilities with postcard printing, the details, texts and images you can achieve and combine. So follow these tips and start thinking of your postcard design and copy. Let[s start the ball rolling.

The Design Process

• You need to be involved as much as possible with this stage. But if this is really not your cup of tea, then you can go directly to a printing company and ask for suggestions. Some online printing sites have stored templates and designs that you can use to suit your needs. And these may even come for free.

• All you have to do is modify some parts, add your image or logo and edit the text to your own and you’re done. If you want to experiment a bit, you can use and experiment with the various command and design tools available.

Colors

• You have to bear in mind that the success of postcard printing relies on the colors too. Get colors that are bright and brilliant. Study certain combinations, themes and contrasts.

• And whatever you decide on, look at your design from the perspective of your clients and decide on what details are appealing and attractive, and which ones need editing.

Direct-Mail Postcards

Always ask your printing company if they offer mailing services to go with the postcards that you avail from them. Send out your postcards to a specific list of people that matches your target client.

Non-Mailed Postcards

You can also do marketing without mailing the cards out. Give them out during events or simply turn them into rack cards your readers, clients and such can easily pick up. Do this for event announcements or awareness campaigns and such. Such postcards can usually be stored and displayed in your store, or hotels, nightclubs and cinemas.

Whatever way you choose for your postcard printing to be done and how you want to send those out is up to you. You just have to gauge all your options and choose what will work best with your specific strategy, message, and audience.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

for your marketing 3

2008-03-12T14:50:00.007+07:00

10 Copywriting Tips I Learned From My Cats
Author: Cathy Goodwin

Copy refers to the words on a sales page or advertisement. Copywriting refers to creating the message and writing up the actual words.

Disclaimer: This article is based on my own cats. Yours may be different.

1. Walk on the edge and take some risks.

My cats balance precariously on narrow ledges. They leap to the top of the refrigerator or the cabinet. Often I never know how they got up and how they get down. They just appear.

Good copy calls for walking on the edge. The best copywriters say, "Take risks! Dare to offend!"

But, like cats, the best copywriters know how far they can go. They rarely get stuck out on a limb with no way to get down.

Some top copywriters go over the edge on their own websites, using colorful language (think Tony Soprano) and graphic images. They're expert climbers who learned all the tricks before most of us opened our first web site. And they know their audiences very, very well.

2. Look like you're having fun.

It's no accident that we say a happy person looks like a cat who swallowed the canary. Ever meet a cat who needs a Life Coach to find the purr-fect life? Cats look very pleased with themselves, whether snoozing, staring out the window, or looking smug after polishing off the last piece of roast beef you saved for your lunch.

Great copy sounds happy too. Enthusiasm crackles through the words, sending a message: "This is so terrific! I just can't wait to share!"

3. Expect to be appreciated.

Dogs beg for attention. Cats take it for granted. "We deserve everything we get, and more," they say -- whether they're pure-bred Siamese or funny-looking calicos.

Good copy comes across as confident. "Of course you'll like our service. Why wouldn't you? We deliver great value and we know it."

Cats know: When you expect a reward, you're more likely to get it.

4. Aim directly for your target audience.

Cats walk into a room and jump directly into a very specific lap. Some cynics claim cats move right to the person who's allergic or anti-cat.

You're probably anticipating this analogy: Write copy with a specific person in mind -- someone who represents your target market. That's the first lesson we learned in Copy School.

Don't try to please everyone. If your target turns out to be allergic to your service (or at least to paying for your service), find another. Just don't give up and try to please everyone.

5. Engage your audience.

Forget the myth of aloof cats. Mine jump into laps of total strangers and try to rub noses. When guests look puzzled, I have to explain, "She wants you to rub her ears." (If you're not a cat person, you may be feeling somewhat ill right about now. But keep reading: there's good info here.)

Copy also gets your readers involved. Good copy gets them reading one sentence after another, perhaps jumping to colored text boxes and bold type. Keep them reading: the way my cats motivate visitors to keep their attention focused long after you planned to get up and leave.

6. Command attention.

Have you ever attended a social gathering where everyone talks politely -- until a cat enters the room? Suddenly conversation comes to a halt. The guest of honor wants to pick up the cat, who may or may not agree with the idea.

Needless to say, great headlines stop readers cold. Surfers want to stop chasing the waves and spend more time on your site. Maybe they'll even browse a few pages...and then a few more.

7. Keep clean and beautiful no matter what.

This one's a no-brainer. I may be a fair-to-middling housekeeper, but my calico cat keeps her white fur free of smudges. Hair stays in place (except when it's standing on end or dropping onto the sofa).

Great copy looks fresh and appealing. Headlines line up and you rarely find grammar or spelling mistakes. You'll want to dig in, read and stay awhile.

8. Choose a background that shows off your looks.

Ever notice that cats seem to choose a background that makes them stand out? White cats choose dark cushions. My tabby avoids prints; my calico favors small places where she can curl up and demonstrate "cute."

Copywriters encourage simple backgrounds that make the text stand out. Black type on dark green? No way! Distracting graphics? Wild colors? Your message disappears like a black cat on a cold winter night.

9. Add a human touch.

Ever notice how many advertisements include a cat? It's not because cats make easy props. As models, they're temperamental and amoody. They resist being shoved into poses. When freaked out, they've been known to scratch their highly-paid human colleagues.

But cats make a cold scene seem warm. They make Beautiful People seem human -- well, almost.

Great copy sounds like a real person. You feel like you're having a conversation with the writer. On your website, copy makes visitors feel like they're old friends.

10. Who cares if someone hates you? There's always another food dish around the corner.

Cats know: somewhere, love is waiting. So they won't stoop to eat bad food or tolerate an indifferent owner.

Great copy never sounds hungry. Great copy recognizes that not everyone will become a client -- and that's a relief. Because with a value-driven product and a viable market, great copy attracts more than enough buyers -- and makes it look easy.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

How Financial Advisors Can Stop Striking Out - One Financial Advisor at a Time
Author: Jim Dew

The financial industry must continue to ask itself, "Why does the public needs us?"

I know this question makes many financial advisors feel uncomfortable. But if we do not continue to ask ourselves this question, we could find ourselves out of a job. Why?

Whether we ask ourselves this question or not, others are asking it.

This perennial question of, "Why does the public need stockbrokers and financial advisors" has been raised again by three professors in their paper, "Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Brokers in the Mutual Fund Industry."

In this paper, professors Bergstresser, Tufano, and Chalmers uncovered why consumers pay advisors to choose mutual funds for them. What they found does not reflect well upon the financial advisor community.

Do Financial Advisors Help Clients Choose Better or Better Performing Mutual Funds?

Most financial advisors tell clients that their chosen funds will perform better than direct purchase mutual funds. Unfortunately, Bergstresser, Tufano and Chalmers found the reverse to be true.

They found that investors suffer by paying on average 3.6 percentage points in front-end load fees, as well as higher annual marketing costs in the form of 12b-1 fees. They also found that the financial advisor recommended funds underachieved as compared to the direct purchase mutual funds.

In a recent year, not only did investors pay about $15 billion in sales charges and 12b-1 fees, but they spent an additional $24 billion on management fees. Think about this, these investors spent nearly as much paying advisors to find the funds as they did to the money managers to manage the funds. With this being the case, financial advisors had better do a great job finding funds for their clients.

Did they?

Investors who bought directly from the mutual funds earned almost a half a percent higher than those that had advisor recommended funds. If you took out index funds, the gap was almost two thirds of a point.

But wait there's more!

These differences were calculated before accounting for 12b-1 fees. When included, funds bought directly beat advisor recommended funds by almost a full one point.

So Why Do Investors Use Financial Advisors to Pick Their Mutual Funds and Investments?

The average mutual fund investor is higher educated and wealthier than the average consumer. So it can't be because they don't think they're capable of doing it themselves.

I believe one of the authors of the study to be charitable when he hypothesized that advisors bring a service to their clients by taking the emotion out of investing. Though when you look at the data, it appears that investors using advisors chase short-term returns as much a self-directed investors. And yes, it was found that advisors are as likely to chase short-term returns as anyone.

This study uncovered yet more unflattering details. It found evidence that brokers usually recommend funds with higher loads. So not only do advisors generally not pick the best mutual funds, they also recommend underperforming funds with a preference to higher sales loads. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why too many advisors do this.

The question is, what as an industry are we going to do about it?

What You Can Do as a Financial Advisor to Change How People Perceive You

Every change starts with one person.

How much research are you doing for your clients?
Whether consciously or unconsciously, are you recommending funds with higher fees? Are you providing service equal to the amount of extra fees a client pays for the funds you recommend?

Only you can answer these questions

We are in the information age.

Studies like "Why does the public need stockbrokers and financial advisors" are going to come around, become distributed and get publicized more often. You might as well get used to it.

As financial advisors we need to step up to the plate and start doing the right thing by our clients or we're going to find ourselves out of business, one advisor at a time.

The public does not mind paying fees. What they do mind is an advisor not disclosing the fees. If we think we are worth the fees, then as financial advisors we should feel no need to hide the fees. Instead, we should fully disclose them and explain to our clients why our advice is worth it.

The public knows that we do not have a crystal ball that enables us to find the best performing mutual funds going forward. But the public does become suspicious when all the funds we choose have higher than average expense and sales charges.

There is an ever so slowly growing trend toward full disclosure vs. casual disclosure by advisors in the financial industry. Another movement gaining speed is that of formal fiduciary relationships with clients. Both these movements assure a long and profitable partnership between advisors and their investor clients.

I hope you join me as part of this trend of full disclosure and fiduciary responsibility, for everybody's sake.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

Are You Marketing Your Financial Business Like a Bottle of Pomegranate Juice?
Author: Jim Dew

How are you marketing your financial business, when financial advisers are commodities?

We all sell the same products.
We all sell them for the same price.
We all offer our clients good service.
We all have a good handle on how to help our clients best.

So how do we get a prospect to choose us over someone else?

How to Get Prospects to Choose You

Well, we can all take a great lesson from how billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick marketed over hundred acres of unwanted pomegranates. All the way up to 2002, pomegranates were rarely eaten in the US. Less than one in 20 had ever bought a pomegranate, and most of those people use them for decorations instead of eating them.

So the Resnick's had a problem...

They had lots of a fruit that very few people wanted.

So what did they do?

They created a fantastic USP.

Five years ago, they began selling their pomegranates as juice in unique double bulb bottles, at four dollars a bottle. It was a smash hit! They took a fruit from utter obscurity to charging four dollars a bottle and have people buying it by the case.

How?

They simply did their homework. They framed the pomegranate juice as the healthiest drink available to the US public. I don't know if you've tasted it, but the stuff is awful.

The Resnick's flooded the market with information about how healthy pomegranate juice was. It cures heart disease, ED and more. You name it. Pomegranate cured it. It became the new, must have "super food".

So what can you learn from this example?

Go out and give advice that is the completely opposite of what everyone else is providing in your industry? Yes, if you can.

Unfortunately, that is probably not an option.

The advice the financial industry gives, is generally very good advice. But let's think about this for a second. All fruits are good for you. You can find the "super food" characteristics in any type of fruit. All the Resnicks did with pomegranate, was showcase pomegranate's particular attributes, versus trying to be the "me too" of fruits.

So, here's what you should be doing now.

How to Find Your Unique Selling Proposition

You need to find the thing that makes you better than your competitors.

Maybe you are an expert on "green" funds.
Maybe you're an expert on the stocks of companies run by women.
Maybe you understand the need for financial planning for families with special needs.
Maybe you are an expert on the retirement plans of a large corporation in your city.
Maybe you're an expert on Medicare part D

There's a high likelihood, you are already an expert on a particular topic. You may not require a whole heck of a lot more research than you've already done. Sit down and figure out what it is that you know more about, than your competition.

It doesn't matter what it is, just become an expert.

3 Ways to Become an Expert and Gain Instant Celebrity Status

1. Write articles and submit them to targeted print and online publication. For submitting articles to the top websites, ezines and article directories, I recommend using PR Leads Article Marketing Experts. They also have a great A to Z product that will teach you how to write articles at www.BroadcastYourArticles.com

2. Issue press releases to your local paper, radio and TV stations. You can also submit press releases online using services like PublicRelationsSoftware.com.

3. Make sure groups that may be interested in your expertise know that you and your expertise exists.

By being the expert on any issue, you tell your prospects that you are different from your competition. You give both your clients and prospects something to hold onto, a handhold that describes who you are as a financial planner.

Your Next Steps

Take a hard look at your practice and ask yourself the question, "Why would someone work with me, versus my competitor?"

If you don't have a very specific answer to this question, you are doomed to mediocrity. You are always going to be looking for your next client. You're always going to be spending money on marketing. You're always going to be losing some of your clients to competitors.

The only way off, the gerbil wheel is to become an expert. When you are an expert people seek you out, rather than you endlessly seeking them out.

Don't you think, it's time to make yourself into an expert so you can lock-in your difference and bury your competition?
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

for your marketing 2

2008-03-11T15:14:00.002+07:00

Can Creating Experiences Improve Internet Marketing Results?
Author: Jimsun Lui

Experiential Marketing uses brand relevant experiences to appeal to both the rational and emotional buying triggers of the intended audience. Sometimes, it is also termed as customer experience marketing because the idea is to communicate the essence of the Brand through a personalised experience.

Experiential marketing deals with customer experiences and is quite different from traditional forms of marketing, which focus on functional features and benefits of products. Consumers’ decisions are much more influenced by emotionally generated feelings than by their rationally derived thought.

According to Luminous (http://www.luminous-asia.com), an experiential marketing firm, the idea of experiential marketing reflects a right brain bias because it is about fulfilling consumers’ aspirations to experience comfortable and pleasure feelings and helps consumers’ to feel the benefits through interactive experiences, and creates an emotional desire to purchase.

According to a study by HPI Research Group, 68% of surveyed marketing executives spent more on experiential marketing in 2005 than in 2004 and half of those executives expect to increase spending in 2006.

Microsoft’s multi-venue Tablet PC promotional event is a good example of “experiences”. Tthe event resulted in 125,000 product demonstrations in high-traffic airport terminals in major hub airports across the country. In the airports, corporate executives and managers can experience the mobility and benefits of the product. It also shows the commitment of Microsoft in providing execllent mobile product. The event helps to create personally relevant, memorable, interactive and emotional experience. Likely, those particitioners will consider Microsoft’s products if they need a PC with high mobility.

Can we create experiences in a website and brings Internet marketing to next level?

Internet marketers spend lots of money in internet marketing activities such as search engine marketing and email marketing, however, business conversion is not as good as their expectation. When you look at many websites, they are usually present a lot of text to show you the product features, its’ functional benefits, their strong company background, and etc. From marketing point of view, these websites reflects a left brain bias because they seek to persuade consumers by invoking rational factors that their products are better than their competitors. When people are very calm, and are trying to be very rational, they may spend more time in searching for information, and perform product comparison. Likely, they may simply leave your website without taking any action and go to do more research. Eventually, they may finalize their decision and buy the same products from the website they last visited.

To rectify the situation, companies may consider creating experiences in your website so that consumers emotionally want to buy your product and buy from you.

What kind of experineces you should create for improving business conversion? Companies may consider to create experiences allowing consumers to feel how the product can simplfy their life through carefully planned scenarios, or to imagine the joy and satisfaction they can get after owing the product. In addition, you must also demonstrate your commitment to consumers and the meaning of your brand so that consumers are eager to buy from you.

With advance of technology such as net meeting, flash, 3D technology, and etc, it is not difficult to create online experiences. However, experiences must be carefully planned so that it can stimulate the emotional desire in your targeted customers.

The planning and execution includes careful research on the targeted customers, determine what kind of experiences is appropriate, the method to capture sales leads and perform follow-up. All activities must be used to reinforce consumers’ emotional desire and meaning of your brand. Apple Inc. is very successful in creating experiences to their consumers and these experiences help building a strong brand name for Apple. Many consumers want to buy iphones and iPods because they are products of Apple. Yes, you can say it is all about emotions and branding!
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

Discover the Three Quick and Simple Ways To Build A Profitable Opt In List
Author: Ranju Kumar

After reading numerous articles and getting advices from experts and reading many success stories of people, you might have got a small fortune with opt-in-lists to decide one of your own. Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about list building but still were not be able to make a profit.

In reality, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage truly buys from you, you are still losing profit. You will come to know this after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures.

So what could have gone wrong?

How others have succeeded where you have failed?

The major common mistake is that you might have jumped straight right in. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money. This is just not the case. Just because you wrote people from the list does not mean they are going to buy instantly.

Here, I will offer more guidance and ideas, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed. You can revitalize your failed venture. Here are three quick and simple ways to build a profitable opt-in list.

1) Make your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and an authentic seller. Put many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and which you have started and used for your site. Make an effort to put forums first to acquire knowledge about your customers about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs.

Enroll in forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advices and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a strong foundation with other forum users. You can invite them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Place a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you are business is all about.

2) Discover a product or service that people always wants. Even though it is not your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it on forward. Spend your time, effort and money that you could sell as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely famous or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also offer your subscribers with promotional material that they could essentially use and spread around.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is essentially beneficial particularly if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These people have experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles accessible for you in the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to inform you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations take place for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in list does not just occur overnight. There are many principles and effort to do. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also uphold the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and so that they will be willing to buy from you always.
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

Marketing Reinvented - Electrifying Is The New Satisfying!
Author: Dan Herman

This is how we, marketers, usually think: "Find out what they want, give it to them nicely wrapped and with a big shiny smile, and let the surveys show that they are satisfied." Good old Satisfying Marketing, right? Well, not any more.

Consistent data from all over the globe indicates that even the most satisfied customers tend to keep an open mind towards other offers. We live in the "post customer loyalty era" and guess what? Customers simply do not want to be loyal any more. Forsaking all other options - is no longer an option. So yes, it isimportant to keep them satisfied (otherwise they will be gone in a split second) but do not expect them to be loyal.

So, what do you do? Get an alternative thinking cap. Electrifying Marketing is the new marketing philosophy I want to offer you. Its roots stem from the realization that marketing today is no longer about satisfying unsatisfied needs. More often than not, it is about re-satisfying already satisfied needs - with better, more exciting solutions. The major idea is that you are not here to "please" anyone, but rather to tap on your target consumers' needs in a new and surprising way which is geared to eventually become their future desires, while gaining a competitive advantage as a result.

The next question you will probably ask is: how? Following you will find an outline of the ten central principles of Electrifying Marketing, that constitute different ways to implement this new marketing approach.

1. Do Not Mess with Quality
First and foremost, you need a high quality product and service. Nothing in the world will change this necessity. No marketing or branding "hocus pocus" will cover for a poor product.

2. The Name of the Game is - Escapism
Create a differentiated benefit that takes your consumers beyond the borders and boundaries of their normal lives into a bigger-than-life existence, a world of fantasy, magic, and delirium. It isn't a coincidence that two of the most successful literary works of the past few years were the Harry Potter books and the Da Vinci Code.

3. Deliver a Shiver
Deliver a strong sensual or emotional experience for your consumers, which will tap powerfully into one or more of their senses, or will evoke a strong emotional response, such as fear, thrill, excitement, ecstasy, surprise, or any other powerful emotion.

A wonderful example is the "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" S&M and bondage party that hurled a tsunami of press for Casio's then-new G-Shock watch, promising it a must-have status in the influential fashion community of Manhattan. The New York Post awarded Casio the Marketer Chutzpah of the Year Award for its audacity, and evidently this shiver has managed to deliver 75 million media impressions for the brand, all released during the first six months of its existence.

4. Brake, Shake and Shatter
Display a rule-shattering, convention-breaking, routine-shaking, marketing-competitive behavior. There are several ways of doing this. You can be any of the following:

o Expectation rockers - surprising

o Provocative

o Rebellious, subversive

o Mad, wacky

o Unreasonable, crazy

For example, the AxeFantasy promotional campaign in the UAE used specially tailored jeans miniskirts to dress up mouse pads completely, in such a way that in order to use the mouse, the user had to put his hand up the skirt from its underside, simulating their wildest and sexiest dreams. Then they placed this "creation" in Internet cafes. Not only did the effort drive an unprecedented number of unique visitors to AxeFantasy's website, generating hundreds of thousands of page views during the first month of this campaign, but also, it seems that most of the mouse pads were stolen from the cafes.

5. Keep a Secret
Use a secretive or mysterious element such as a secret formula, mystery people, something that nobody knows how it's done... or reveal a secret.

Coca-Cola's secret recipe is the classic.
More recently, "The Secret" constitutes a great example. This book/movie/phenomenon was so successful because it claims to have revealed an ancient forgotten secret to achieving limitless wealth and success, now outed to the whole public.

6. Play Hard to Get
Put deliberate and challenging limitations on availability or accessibility of your product:

o A limited number: the "now-or-never" factor (Zara)

o A limited time, for example a special summer edition, or event-tied (Olympics products).

o The "don't-call-us-we'll-call-you" approach. Some brands never give out their contact information. If you want to talk to them you must first surrender your own! (The Centurion unlimited credit card by Amex)

7. Engage them in some activity
Trigger brand oriented involvement. Get your consumers actively involved in some kind of activity, so that before they realize it they'll be engaged in some game or type of interactive cooperation, dangling willingly on one of your "consumer fishing hooks".

Take for example Rethink Breast Cancer, the Canadian charity which came up with a new "Booby Wall" campaign, to raise breast cancer awareness. Women can enter the Booby Booth website, perform a self-exam and take a faceless photo of their breasts to post in the site, along with comments or dedications to accompany their contribution to the Booby Wall.

8. Play and Have Fun
Playfully incorporate elements of fun and entertainment. When you do so, do not take yourself too seriously, do not be heavy, and remember that, hey, this is only marketing after all.

I love the Burger King candid camera campaign, which caught authentic surprised and shocked reactions from people, when informed upon ordering that the Whooper was no longer being served. Finally, the King himself comes to the rescue with the desired whooper and everyone shares a laugh.

9. Be Delightfully Devious
Play around with your consumers - mislead them in some positive way (funny and inoffensive), manipulate them, play a joke on them, do something which appears to be one thing at first, but turns out to be something else.

For example, a billboard in LA and New York has gained a lot of attention and buzz recently. The billboard reads: "Hi Steven, Do I have your attention now? I know all about her, you dirty, sneaky, immoral, unfaithful, poorly-endowed slimeball. Everything's caught on tape. Your (soon-to-be-ex). P.S. I paid for this billboard from OUR joint bank account."
This billboard is actually part of a mystery ad campaign for a new cable TV show, and it's delightfully playing with our naivete - and fully catching our attention.

10. Give them Something to Talk About
Use a "viral" element: a Cool, a Twist or a Wow!, giving your consumers conversation openers, scripts and lingos - starring your brand.

For example I would like to refer you to the new gun shaped fried-egg molds from Urban Trend. Although in this particular case there might be a hidden cholesterol joke, it seems that gun shaped objects are the new "now", and a great conversation booster.

Your third question, I'm guessing, will be: When? My answer is: definitely now. Satisfying marketing is no longer a charged enough course of action to bring you the results you need in order to gain market leadership. From now on don't satisfy your customers - electrify them - results will follow!
(Copyfrom:www.articlesbase.com)

for your marketing 1

2008-03-10T15:28:00.001+07:00

Craigslist and Affiliate Marketing

For people looking for an online community with a lot to offer, Craigslist is a natural choice. With billions of page views every month it's not a surprise that Craigslist has the ability to offer many financial opportunities for the alert internet marketer willing to learn how to cash in on Craigslist's popularity. Internet marketers in the know use affiliate marketing to increase their online profitability. Craigslist is beneficial to ecommerce business owners looking for affiliate marketers to promote their offers. It is also beneficial for people who do affiliate marketing searching for new businesses to promote for. This article is an overview of locating affiliates to promote for you or to locate affiliate offers to promote.

Affiliate Marketing Basics

Basically, affiliate marketing is a marketing technique where business owners pay someone (an affiliate) on a performance basis. In conventional marketing business owners pay upfront for advertising. No matter what outcome is produced by the ads. Affiliate marketing is different in that business owners pay only when specific actions occur. Businesses typically pay online affiliates for performing one of three certain actions. This could be paying per click (PPC), per sale(PPS), or per lead(PPL). All three of these are also referred to as 'pay per action' or PPA.

In PPC affiliate marketing campaigns an affiliate uses a coded link in their email or website. Each time someone clicks the coded link it goes to business' website. The business can tell which affiliate generated the click using the code embedded in the link. The affiliate then receives the agreed upon payment. For PPC this usually varies from fractions of cents to several cents.

With PPS campaigns an affiliate doesn't get compensated just for sending visitors to the sponsoring website. The visitor also has to purchase something for the affiliate to get credit. Again, payment varies. Typically ranging from several cents to several dollars per sale or sales. This can be a flat rate or percentage of sales the affiliate generates.

In PPL programs an affiliate gets paid if visitors click through the affiliates coded link and then follows through on giving the additional information the sponsoring business wants. This could be as simple as visitors sharing their email address for an online newsletter, or as complex as filling out a loan application. Again, payment varies, but is usually a flat rate.

Finding Potential Affiliates

A business owner that is interested in locating affiliates for promoting their offer can use Craigslist to help them find such affiliates. Though it seems logical to list affiliate opportunities under the jobs category at Craigslist, it's important to know that this goes against the sites rules for job postings. This simply means that if you are looking to find affiliates you'll have to do so by using different areas on Craigslist.

Any discussion forums that are related to your offer are a way to locate potential affiliates. If you use this method, though, be careful to avoid spamming the forums with sign up links for your program. Spamming techniques like this make you look unprofessional to any potential affiliates and if the Craigslist moderators see fit, they will ban you from the forums. Making a logical and relevant contribution to discussions and getting to know other forum participants is an ideal way to connect with potential affiliates. Then you can add a link for more information about your affiliate offer when you make posts.

Affiliate Opportunities

People who earn an income by being an affiliate promoter for business owners can locate new affiliate programs on Craigslist. Even though there are rules against it, sometimes such listings do end up in the jobs section. These ads will probably removed quickly, but it's possible to take advantage of them if you act before they are taken down. Of course, some forum postings may contain links to affiliate programs as well. Another way is to post requests in the services or resumes section.
(Copyfrom:www.freearticles.com)

Strategic Internet Marketing – The Polestar That Will Guide You To Success

Strategic Internet marketing has been the engine that has powered online business in the last decade or so. The last decade has seen the World Wide Web come up as a converging medium that evolved with the increasing bandwidth and other evolving technologies like streaming video and powerful new codec.

It is expected that within the next five years or so Internet advertising would get free of technological bottlenecks and there is no knowing what wonderful technologies would come up to make life simpler. As you know, we are already having somewhat limited web-mercials instead of television commercials. These full-fledged audio-visual ads do not vanish, like their counterparts in television, when the time is over.

Like graphic advertisements on newspapers they are anchored to their places in the web-pages. It is like eating your cake and having it too. Strategic web-based marketing means using a strong game plan while going about it.

It is better to hire the expertise of people who really know it well. It is not personal essay writing, you see. Amateurish attempts at search engine optimization could prove to be harmful for your web site. Search engines can brand you as a spammer and ultimately blacklist and ban you from their result pages.

So you need expert help to keep afloat on the Internet tide and clumsy amateurs stand the risk of drowning themselves in the flood. Internet marketing is not the stuff of the newbie- trust only the people who have done it earlier. Otherwise loopholes can remain overlooked and millions of dollars can go down the drain.

Talking about strategic Internet advertising, it is good to remember that while paid advertisement can make a good beginning, it is not a great idea to stick to it. Internet is driven by the power of information and you respect that fact to be successful in online business. Creating a good web site with better information is always the best idea.

People who come to the net usually are of the educated urban type; and it is bad news that everyday the breed is getting more and more information hungry than ever. They not only wish to possess consumer goods and gizmos but also are eager to lecture people on what configuration to look for in a digital camera or a zip drive.

So the best advertising strategy is to set up a community portal that serves as a great horde of information, ones like Wikipedia dot org where people feel at home and can gather precious information while sharing their thoughts with other members of the community. A great camaraderie results from such interactions, and this portal becomes a great forum to do business in a subdued way.

Strategic Internet business can achieve similar effects with newsletters. You can send beautiful newsletters to the mailbox of the reader with his consent. A monthly or fortnightly newsletter is more welcome than the annoying daily mail. Remember that there are people who open their mailbox once in a week.

And when they open their mailboxes after a week, chances are that they will get annoyed to see their mailboxes flooded with your newsletter. Believe me- it will do no good to your business cause.

To conclude with, in this digital era, the single most critical factor that can make or break a business is a well though out strategic Internet marketing game-plan.
(Copyfrom:www.freearticles.com)

Everything You Wanted To Know About Internet Marketing Consultants!

Looking for an Internet marketing consultant who can make things work for you? Take your time and do some homework as well as market survey. That should help you to find out the true person you are looking for.

Before you begin the talent hunt, make it a point to understand the basics of online advertising if you do not have time to go deeper into it. That way, you can understand whether the consultant is taking you for a ride or not.

Internet is the playground for the most innovative minds, and there are conventional as well as unconventional avenues of making fast buck. There are schemes that may sound impractical and incomprehensible. Yet they may give you unimaginable return for the paltry sum you were hesitant to invest in the beginning.

Similarly, the strategy that looked like a flower bed could turn out to be a concealed trap, sucking your buck like a black hole and giving off not even a burp. Internet marketing is usually based on the traditional mode of media advertising as well as newly emerged concepts like search engine optimization and pay per click.

The Internet marketing consultant should have foresight to be able to calculate all risks and go for a strategy that is a mixture of various modes of online marketing. That way, you never depend on a single traditional or ground breaking policy or the success of your business. If one of the strategies fails, there always are other life lines around.

Among the traditional modes of advertising there are print, graphics, audio visual media and animation. The web is place where all these media come together without any of the temporal, geographical and financial deterrents that severely limit their scope in the traditional media. Consider a video ad situated at a corner of a web page.

It is just like a television screen inside a newspaper, and you have the liberty to replay the ad as many times as you like. Have you ever thought how powerful multimedia really is? Innovative online marketing strategies include starting a web community and sending newsletters to subscribers.

Newsletters are virtual information booklets about products that have a fan following in the market. These differ from spam in that they take the customer’s consent before bombarding his mailbox with html messages. If your consultant advices you to adopt such a strategy, make sure that the visitors have a number of choices regarding the newsletter.

Ask them whether they wish to get the newsletter daily, weekly or monthly. People do not have similar web habits. There are a lot of people who check their mail in an irregular way. If they come back to open their mailbox after a week, they will probably be unsettled by the sheer volume of mail sent by you, and he will either delete all your mails or mark you as spammer, and would probably wish to unsubscribe instead of becoming a valuable community member.

After the above discussion, you may feel that a web marketing consultant’s job is extremely tough. He has to be subtle enough to understand the search engine optimization and community marketing, and exploit technological advances and innovative thinking to reap benefits for your business. So, ensure that you identify the right person for the position of an Internet marketing consultant.
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