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Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

You are certainly not alone in this, the whole world is suffering from the recession still at the moment. However are you doing what many companies are doing and just blaming things like a poor advertising agency?

If you are not concentrating enough of your cash flow into advertising then the chances are you are not doing too well as a company. The big companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola can afford to have huge advertising campaigns that include television ads, magazine articles and even mobile phone ads. What can you do to really boost the way in which your company is seen? Well for starters it might be worth looking into hitting your business’s local town. Sometimes this is a lot cheaper and can be a good way to start out advertising for your company. Hopefully this will start to bring you in enough money to go a bit bigger, perhaps regional and then the entire country. There are a number of cheaper options to take when it comes to advertisement. For most companies it started with a simple ad in a local newspaper, it can happen for you too.

Take a good look at the way you run things, have you even got a website, if you have is it any good? The web is becoming more important every single year with companies even being based on the web like play.{com and ebay}. It works if you use the appropriate web designers and SEO team. If you are looking to have your site looked at then look for web desginers in your areas – for example I would tend to Google Brighton web design

Of course getting the right printing design can take you along way because the combination of a seamless online and offline presence for your brand can really work wonders. Get together a meeting with not just the owners but the majority of the company, come up with some quirky ideas, if you think that one is unique then use it as it could be the one that brings in a lot of income for your business.

Are you just simply buried by the mind-numbing quantity of internet-marketing information there is online?  You’re not alone.In reality, that’s the most cited problem voiced by budding entrepreneurs trying to create a viable income online.

Let’s evaluate some of the best ways to stay on-track and eliminate all the noise.

First, it’s absolutely critical to realize that “internet marketing” is a truly vast term.So huge that, essentially, it really becomes meaningless.

You really need to break it down.  You need to specialize.To start with, let’s delve-into a sub-niche of the great internet marketing pie: Affiliate Marketing.  Granted this sub-niche is still MASSIVE, but we’re beginning to get more manageable.  

What’s the next stage?

Well, if you’re a budding information marketer just getting started consider getting specialized help from an established Affiliate Marketing Master.

But, even before this crucial step of soliciting expert advice ask yourself these basic probing questions, and make sure that you can answer them all clearly and succinctly.

What is Your Prospect Really Looking For?

If you don’t know the answer to this before you begin you are basically just wasting your time.

  You have to empathize with your customers and be able to provide real value. Otherwise you will ultimately not succeed.

Assuming that you have the prospects inherent best interests at heart, what then?

In order to be able to become viable and, therefore, be able to stay in business and continue to deliver worthwhile value to your customers you must get a wee bit self-centered for just a moment as well.

So, ask yourself the question:
Why Are You Marketing This Particular Affiliate Product?

This is the root of your profitability, because your entire marketing strategy depends on it.

Let’s illustrate, if your chosen affiliate product is simply a lead-in to attain clients for, say, consulting, speaking or different follow up business ventures, you don’t need stress too much about the initial price.

But, if selling the affiliate offering is your central profit center, you need to sweat the pricing level details a-lot more intensely in order to maximize your profit.

That points to the next logical progression.

What Else Can You Sell to Give Your Customers Additional Value?
This is truly crucial because in the large majority of cases, affiliates do not make a bunch of money on their primary sale.

On-occasion, up-sells and continuity programs are what really makes your affiliate-marketing venture to excel.
Therefore, developing a portfolio related to your initial offering is a critical step in making your affiliate business feasible for the long-haul.

Remember, ultimately, your affiliate success depends on completely understanding the answers to the above questions.

If you can get a handle on these difficult issues right at the very beginning you are well on your path to maximizing your long-haul profitability.But, if you overlook them you will surely leave a lot of revenue on the table and, maybe, even more importantly you’ll be accidentally short changing your customers as well.

At the end of the day, putting together the entire team and affiliate-marketing ingredients – initially – are essential ingredients in obtaining affiliate profitability!

“Are You Insane?” That was the headline of perhaps the greatest letter I ever penned, my famous “Insane” letter. This 1 page letter alone is responsible for over 5 million dollars in income but here is the REAL beauty of it. I have used the same letter for almost 15 years with the same staggering results in a number of different businesses from my own resort management firm to selling franchises in the karate industry, to software in the golf business. I even used it to sell my own online marketing book that was recently published.

The reason this letter has been so successful is very simple, the concept and the copy resonates with the readers. Albert Einstein’s Theory of Insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, meaning the same letters you have been sending for years expecting higher response rates is, in fact, INSANE!

This type of connection and understanding of human nature, motivation and purchasing psychology is what separates a five hundred dollar sales letter writer from a five thousand dollar or even a fifteen thousand dollar sales letter writer, with a corresponding boost in response.

There is NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING, more powerful than a well-written letter! By well-written I do not mean grammar, spelling, punctuation and all the things I seemed to have missed by quitting high school education at the age fifteen. What I mean is a letter that connects with a PROSPECT at the soul. A letter that speaks the language of your companies’s prospects, not the corporate speak language that some Madison Avenue type THINKS that your prospect must speak. And very probably, NOT THE LANGUAGE THAT YOU SPEAK!

It’s that connection that makes your copy work and it’s the lack of that connection that makes it fail, whether in a letter, brochure, postcard or Web site.

Here are ten tips for connecting with your audience; check your copy to see how it rates:

1. Always write your letters like you’re writing them to a friend.

2. Never use complex language, keep it simple!

3. Try to avoid excess use of superlative words.

4. Every single headline and subhead ABSOLUTELY MUST have maximum impact and interest to the reader’s SELF INTEREST or curiosity!

5. Don’t say what everyone else is saying; be different, ASTONISHINGLY DIFFERENT, if at all possible.

6. Attempt to paint a picture with your words and make the reader of the letter want to jump into that picture with you!

7. Connect the readers of your sales letter with a story; do not just give them the cold, hard, FACTS.

For example, if you were advertising for Loch Lommond Golf Club in Scotland, you could say that the golf course was designed by renowned player Tom Weiskof. A great piece of knowledge, but of little impact. However, if you say, Loch Lommond was one of the last golf courses Tom Weiskof ever got to redesign; you lead right into the story of your letter… While drifting around one morning in the gentle Scottish mist, while designing the course, Weiskof stepped up to his neck in quicksand and remained there for several hours before being discovered. Is there any question why the seventeenth hole is so special for him?

8. Always use visual, aural and feeling references to reach people of different information processing persuasions. (How many copywriters do you think even know of this important fact, let alone actually use it? Precisely, not many but it is smart little tricks like this that can make or break a sales letter.)

9. Always make sure your piece readable on 3 different levels to accommodate the bobber , the skimmer, and the studious. That is to say, for the skimmer: the headlines, captions and underlines alone MUST ALWAYS tell your story. The studious will read the entire letter, while the bobber will zone in on subheads of specific interest and ignore the rest of the letter.

10. Make the readers take action. Amazingly one of the most common mistakes in any marketing literature of all kinds is simply failing to provide clear action steps on what you want the prospect to do next! For instance, if you want great sales copy that motivates people to ACTION, call me now at 1800-827-1663!

Well, there it is sports fans; how to connect with your business’s prospects.

Oh, and I know that someone at your company will still sabotage your next brochure or letter with well-meaning corporate speak. But, at least, when you read the sales letter, you’ll have the pleasure of knowing in advance, why your results will be so predictably poor!

Consumer behaviour is changing and it is looking to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Throughout the boom of the last few years, we have seen very small business adequately competing with the bigger brands. Many of these websites have gone local to global in a very short space of time, thanks to their prices. People were willing to buy products and services from a company or website they’d never heard of, if the price was lower. But business are loosing the battle against the recession every day, many of them most likely leaving customer orders unfulfilled, thus consumer confidence is at an all time low. What does this mean? well it means that all of those bargain hunters are returning to the big brands that they recognise, even if that means spending more money, because they don’t want to take the risk.

With the recession causing people to loose their jobs, some have looked to the internet as a portal for their salvation, but starting their own business. But even in the recession, web business is booming, Barclays showed that even in the credit crunch 98,000 new business popped up over only a three month period. It can be a thankless route to success. Around the same number of businesses failed during that period too!

I believe that most new online business fails due to bad branding. You brand and logo are the first things that your future customers see. This is how you are judged by those who keep your business afloat, the people logging in everyday to buy your goods, that see you as a logo and that logo is critical to the process. But it’s so often the case that startup owners put off paying professional logo design in the initial stages. All to often its “Lets see how many customers we can get before we think about branding”.So what they do is, try to knock one together in paint or get a mate down the pub to create one. Many new companies unfortunately opt for cheap Vista Print Logos or free clip art to design their brand.

This isn’t acceptable for a Brand. All web business now more than ever, need to look much bigger and much more capable via good marketing, to retain customers and encourage new ones.  In these anxious times the image of stability and reliability is more crucial than ever. Very small businesses need to look like a much bigger business, its possible. As I’ve touched on above, people nowadays are more and more attracted to bigger brands and bigger companies. And finally, a good image will make it more likely for customers you do have to refer you to their friends and family.

The bottom line is this. Bankruptcy will hit around half small business very early on in their life, usually within two to three years. Badly planned marketing strategies are thought to be the main cause of most websites decline. A custom logo design helps you create the right image for this marketing to succeed. So do yourself a favour – start looking at some sample logos in your industry and see what the successful ones have in common.  Then get yourself a proper graphic designer to plan and create a great corporate identity that will help you not only stay afloat but truly stand out and succeed.

The human body supports all of our physical functions, and is over 70% water. It regulates temperature, and also dissolves and rids your body of many impurities and toxins.Pure spring water cleans and hydrates your body better than anything else. Important? It’s the most important fluid you can drink.

Water flowing to the surface from an underground spring is considered natural spring water. Characteristically, natural spring water loses none of its minerals. Bottled spring water is better suited for human hydration, a crucial factor for your good health. Such water is free of the flavors, sugar, salt, impurities and toxins found in most water.

This has led to the biggest new fad– indeed, a whole new industry– all kinds of bottled waters. The first 2 pages of a Google search on bottled water, lists many websites for water from any pure spring in the USA, each claiming to be the purest and best tasting. This then points to the newest, most popular way to get your logo , brand, and slogan into the marketplace. It’s bottled natural spring water that sports your company’s logo or trade mark on custom made labels. This type of marketing is promoted as private labeling.

These days, bottled water with customized labeling is available as an advertising or marketing device on many websites on the Internet. This is a clever, affordable way to market your company name, logo, or message to your customers. The marketing industry always looks for something new and creative; custom labeled bottled waters or sparkling waters are a pouplar innovation, especially with the new health fad of always carrying drinking water with you. Sparkling waters can also be flavored with aromas.

Public relations teams are thinking of all kinds of ways to take advantage of this trend. A creative PR consultant will find it difficult to run out of ideas. Politics, business, charities, churches, sports, and even family events are just a few of the possible fields for this new PR tool.

An extremely pouplar form of branding that I found was private label bottled water for wedding guests. You can have custom labels made for weddings, cocktail parties, engagement parties and outdoor events, all with private labels with the name of the bride and groom, the wedding date, and so on.The bottle label can be matched to the other items commonly ordered for weddings, such as napkins. It is even possible to make private labels instantly for free at freelabelmaker.

I guess you could even use this fun gimmick to announce the birth of your first child– private label bottled water named after the baby. I am sure if I sit here long enough, I can think of thousands of additional ways to promote private labeled bottled water, but I am sure you already get the idea .

In a far too harried world, we’re often searching how to have timely information; just in front of us for when we need it. Need was in search of a solution….

The information providers required their message in client’s faces and clients hoped for easy access to a fast fix for their problems – information offering up those solutions.

The perfect integration of problem and solution was in none other than the fridge magnet. Discovered in the 1970’s the fridge magnet has grown ever more to occupy the space on the home’s fridge. Plumbers, electricians, real estate salesman, vets, doctors, local politicians and many more besides now rely on the efficacy of the fridge magnets ability to deliver it’s message.

The power of a insignificant fridge magnet rests in the reality that an average fridge is opened – read viewed – around 17 times each day. That’s a lot of exposure. 

A fridge magnet marketing card uses the same raison d’etre, but with a larger imprint area. This invention uses a small magnet at the head of a full color printed card. The substaintial benefits of the magnetic marketing card are its lower cost, size on size to a fridge magnet and its lighter weight and hence lower distribution cost. 

For many small businesses needing to have a larger than average message on the family fridge, they are a fantastic choice.

A further extension of the fridge magnet has been the development of a thicker material suitable for car magnets with the same ease of movement and positioning wherever you want on a car.  So these car magnets offer never seen before flexibility, to business owners, to utilize their vehicles as moving billboard. 

A recent marketing innovation is to get passers-by a parked company car, take a fridge magnet off the car; combining the promotion of the company’s message and products with their means of contacting the company. This is a novel use of fridge and car magnet to the benefit of company and consumer.  

25 years ago, starting a retail store was a much simpler undertaking. People were regularly buying staple items they needed. stores were easy to run and business was booming. Store owners often felt like they were shining examples of individuals living the American dream. A time when neighborhood kids understood that if they ever needed a job, they could look to one of the different neighborhood stores; candy store, drug store or their local women’s shoes store business. Some of these stores have been owned by the same family for generations. However, in the current economy most of these mom and pop enterprises are closing their doors. They are struggling in keeping their businesses afloat.

Related:  comfortable women’s shoes

Historically, most of these retail neighborhood stores succeeded in the face of competition from large department store chains. They were able to compete because they provided great customer service. They were able to maintain a steady flow of loyal customers. For example; your neighborhood shoe store would allow a customer to return a pair of shoes without a receipt, because they knew the customer and had faith that they would be back in the future. Firmly established customer service bonds are better than mere bargain sales and discounts. Customer service is one of the main tactics small retail outlets were able to use to gain the advantage over large department stores.

Since the development of the internet, small retail stores find themselves striving to keep up not only with their local department store chains, but they now have to compete with online stores. The impact of these cyber-stores was slow at first, however, as more shoppers have begun to make online purchases. There’s no more going to your neighborhood shoe store; instead buyers are trying on shoes online. As online retail stores started to see an increase in business, local vendors experienced a sharp decline. While this is convenient for customers, it has begun to take a toll on once-prosperous local shops.

In today’s economy, retail merchants face an even bigger challenge in order to stay in business. With the banks in their current state, they’ve in turn pressured local businesses, decreasing the lines of credit that merchants depend upon. This has cause local merchants to turn to drastic measures. For instance; your local comfortable shoes store owner may have to turn to using part of their retirement fund to purchase inventory or fund the marketing campaign. The merchant don’t have a large funding base to draw on. However, with banks lowering credit limits, they has even fewer financial options. And with the decline in business compels him to consider the strong possibility of a completely restructured life.

Search through The Los Angeles Times and by searching Bing for more resources related to these topics.       

The current climate is causing a real shift in how consumers use the internet. Throughout the boom of the last few years, we have seen very small business adequately competing with the bigger brands. Many of these websites have gone local to global in a very short space of time, thanks to their prices. Before the recession web users searched out the best price for the products they wanted, now they look for the best brands that will still be there when they need them if something goes wrong. But business are loosing the battle against the recession every day, many of them most likely leaving customer orders unfulfilled, thus consumer confidence is at an all time low. What does this mean? well it means that all of those bargain hunters are returning to the big brands that they recognise, even if that means spending more money, because they don’t want to take the risk.

Although in times such as these when people are worried for their jobs or loosing them, some start to consider their dream business online and of being their own boss. Research from Barclays last year showed that there were 98,000 start-ups created in the UK within a three month period, despite the credit crunch. Yet it’s a tough road to go down. While nearly 100,000 new start-ups are taking off another 100,000 are crashing to the bankruptcy pile!

I believe that most new online business fails due to bad branding. You brand and logo are the first things that your future customers see. It’s crucial to what people use to judge whether you are trustworthy or not. But it’s so often the case that startup owners put off paying professional logo design in the initial stages. It seams to be a matter of “Lets wait and see what happens, then we will design something”.Then they design one themselves in photoshop and thinking that looks fine, load it up to the site. Many go for free clipart template business cards and stationery design from somewhere like vista print.

This isn’t acceptable for a Brand. All web business now more than ever, need to look much bigger and much more capable via good marketing, to retain customers and encourage new ones.  In these anxious times the image of stability and reliability is more crucial than ever. You also want to avoid looking like a very small business, even if you are one. So, these days online customers are looking back to the bigger brands or at least who they deem to be the big brands. And finally, a good image will make it more likely for customers you do have to refer you to their friends and family.

The fact of he matter is. About 50% of all new start-ups are forced into bankruptcy within only a few years. Experts agree that one of the main reasons for failure is poorly thought out  and shoddy marketing. A custom logo design helps you create the right image for this marketing to succeed. So do yourself a favour – start looking at some sample logos in your industry and see what the successful ones have in common.Find yourself a professional designer who can carve out a unique identity for your brand and ensure its success in such a stormy climate.

25 years ago, starting a retail store was much easier. People regularly purchased staple items they required. stores were not difficult to run and the economy was good. Store owners often saw themselves as prime examples of individuals living the American dream. A time when neighborhood kids knew if they ever needed a job, it could be found at one of the many neighborhood establishments: candy store, drug store or their local men’s shoes store business. Some of these stores had been owned by the same family for generations. However, in the current economy most of these mom and pop stores are closing their doors. They are struggling to just keep their businesses afloat.

See also:  comfortable footwear

Historically, most of these local businesses succeeded in the face of competition by large department store chains. They were able to compete because they provided individual customer service. They were able to maintain a steady flow of loyal customers. For example; your neighborhood shoe store would let customers return a pair of shoes without a receipt, a gesture based on personal acquaintance with the customer and the assurance of a continuing relationship with him. Sometimes developing strong good customer service bonds are better than mere bargain sales and discounts. The ability to offer this type of personal customer service is one of the main tactics small retail outlets were able to use to gain leverage over and compete with large department stores.

Since the development of the internet, small retail stores have had to compete not only with their local competitors, but also with a multitude of online stores. The impact of these cyber-stores may not have been clear at first, but gradually increasing numbers of shoppers have started to use the internet, they started making more purchases online; i.e., online shoe stores. Instead of going to your neighborhood shoe store; people started buying shoes online. As online retail stores started to see an increase in business, local vendors experienced a sharp decline. What is convenient for customers, it has begun to take a toll on local neighborhood stores.

In today’s economy, small merchants face an even bigger challenge to their survival. With the banks in their current state, they’ve tightened the reins by decreasing merchant’s line of credit. This credit crunch has caused local merchants to turn to drastic measures. For instance; your local comfortable shoes store owner may have to dip into his retirement fund to purchase inventory or fund the marketing budget. The merchant don’t have a large funding base to rely on. However, with banks lowering credit limits, the business owner have fewer funds to work with. And with the decline in business they are looking at the strong possibility of a completely restructured life.

One may have luck searching for more stories by using EzineArticles and on Alltheweb.       

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Increased competition and the recent economic downturn have combined to make effective marketing increasingly difficult. The advent of guerilla marketing tactics, as well as many other unconventional techniques can intimidate even the most adroit marketing professional. The “fighting fire with fire” adage is clichéd, but now truer than ever. If you’re looking to separate your product or service from the seemingly infinite number of competitors in the marketplace today, you have to use increasingly unorthodox approaches to marketing.

One of the most effective ways of selling yoru product or service is first getting it past the media gatekeepers. One way this can be accomplished is through extreme thinking. You may try looking in the Guiness Book of World records to find something in it related to your product or service. Next, you can attempt to break this record in some type of public forum. Such a bold move will certainly garner attention and, as long as you avoid making a spectacle of yourself, attract positive publicity from at least a few media hounds that gather to witness the event. Another strategy would be to sponsor a local sports team or event. The coverage the team or event draws will provide your company name with publicity.

Along the same vain, you may want to support a local charity or philanthropic group that in some way applies to what you are trying to sell. If you do not have the capital to make a straight donation to such a cause, try giving out a percentage of yoru monthly sales as part of a promotion. This will give customers added incentive to buy your product. If possible, you can then advertise your generosity by placing informationa about the charity on your product.

Another way to get your product known is to send out a bi-monthly or monthly form of literature to serve as advertisement for your business. Given the continuing trend toward visual communication with respect to marketing, try sending out a photo book in lieu of the traditional flyer or newsletter. Promoting your business through photo books could be a very effective way of displaying your products as well as separating yourself from the crowded marketplace. Online photo book sites such as MemoryEscape.com allow you to upload iamges, select unique templates and backgrounds, and choose a personalized cover – all in a matter of minutes. A retailer, for example, may include photos of their newest products, and even add some copy mentioning promotions or coupons. If your business provides a service rather than a product.g. hair salon, photography studio, etc), a photo book is a great way of informing your customers of updates while providing them with visual images that stand out from the rest. If you are finding it difficult to come up with ideas, MemoryEscape.com has an entire page devoted to ways you can use photo books to promote your business.

With the advent of social networking sites, it behooves the savvy business owner to encourage open dialogue between the company and its customers. Your website can serve as an ideal forum for such dialogue. By creating an area specifically designed for customer feedback, you can show your commitment to your customers and learn new ways in which you can improve your business. This should be a type of forum where customers can ask you questions as well as interact with each other.

While new forms of marketing continue to emerge and others are replaced, one technique will never become obsolete: Creating something free to give away to customers. Such items can range from pens to hats – basically any free merchandise will work as long as your company name and information are printed on it. It is vital, however, to make sure the item will be useful to your customer. Moreover, try to make the object something relevant to your company. If you own a hair salon, for example, you may want to give away combs, brushes, or samples of your products.