In addition to being the "Season of Sweets," the period of time between Halloween and New Year's Day presents a wonderful opportunity for your company to thank your customers. It also is a time that you can drive new business to you. Here is a list of easy and effective marketing ideas to help you promote your business for the holidays.
1. Send a Card: Send a holiday card to all of your customers - depending on your target audience, it can be for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or simply "Seasons Greetings." You can also send a Happy New Year card. But don't stop there. Don't forget about your vast referral base. Be sure to send business holiday cards to your friends, family, associates, and vendors.
2. Send your database a gift: Hopefully, you have a list of both clients and prospects. Whether these individuals have purchased from you or not, treat them well. Take the holiday season as an opportunity to send them a gift. It can be as simple as a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Small gestures are what impress people - they work to keep customers loyal and to convert prospects to customers.
3. Offer a "Something of the Month" club: People are always looking for unique gifts to give. Why not help them out and create ongoing cash flow for your company? You can do this type of gift series with almost anything. Seriously. Did you know there is a Bacon of the Month club? You could sell CDs that you record each month, dinners, jelly, or even a teleseminar series. With a little creative brainstorming, I'm certain that any business could develop this type of program.
4. Bundle items as a holiday theme: Sell holiday specials to entice people to buy bundles of products or services. Instead of selling single items, offer a theme. For example, a financial planning company could put together a New Year's Planning Kit that includes a book, tax software, and a one-hour consultation.
5. Give a coupon or discount: As both a gift to your customers and a way to boost your seasonal revenue, why not offer a discount or send out a coupon that promotes one or more of your services or products. This could be for a report, a CD, a session, or a special program. Again - be creative! People love discounts.
6. Offer a holiday special: You can encourage larger purchases by offering a holiday special like Buy Two and Get a Third Item for Free. Here is a different variation on this same strategy: Tell your customers when they purchase a certain amount, the will get something for free. For instance, Buy $100 worth of products and get a free CD.
These are just a few ways that you can both thank your customers and offer them something special for the holidays. These marketing strategies also help build customer loyalty, convert prospects into customers, and help to bring cash flow into your company. Best of success to your business!
Wendy Maynard publishes MAVEN MARKETING, a weekly marketing ezine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If you're ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and have more fun, subscribe at
http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine_3.html
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Festive and Effective Holiday Marketing Ideas
Direct Email Marketing - A Basic Guide
Email marketing is one of the more popular forms of marketing on the internet because it allows people to send a single message to a large number of people. It is a perfect way to pass on information about your business and any updates you have.
Email is one of the main reasons why people use the internet. It is something that is checked once a day, once an hour or even more frequently. It has become so useful that it has surpassed anything anyone could have planned for it.
Businesses have been using email lists since their conception to forward marketing messages onto people. Early marketers simply bought lists and sent unsolicited mail which lead to the creation and the crack down on Spam. Direct email marketing is something that can help to prevent the dangers of having your message labeled as spam.
When direct email marketing or using any type of email marketing strategy in your promotion plans there are a few things to consider and do in order to protect yourself and still receive all the benefits that comes from using email marketing. The first thing to do is build the relationship with the customer. This means you should set up a guestbook or an opt-in selection that allows people to choose if they want to receive information from you. Get their name, email address make sure, when you send the email that their name is placed on the top of the page.
Refrain from sending unsolicited emails and always include a message giving instructions on how to remove themselves from the mailing list in every email. Often times you will see a message saying that you have opted to receive messages and if not please click here to unsubscribe. This gives people the freedom of refusing mail from you even if they requested it. It usually is not marked as spam. However, it can be in some cases so be careful. Send messages only when necessary. For example, a monthly update letter and then only emails when you have sales. This will help to prevent people from thinking you are sending spam message.
Direct email marketing is great and one of the safest forms of email marketing however; do not let it be the only method you use. Email marketing should be only one piece of a whole strategy that is used to promote your service or product. Email marketing is something that must be handled carefully if you are going to use it effectively in your marketing strategy. There are a number of things to consider and certain ways to present and write things so that people do not treat your messages as unsolicited mail.
Remember to make sure that with direct email marketing you have permission to send emails to your customers and that you build the relationship with them by making the emails personal. When you are small and only have a few people this can easily be done yourself. However, after a certain point it is a good idea to pick up a program that will help you process your email marketing messages.
Roy Chan is a business consultant and provides business online advices at:
http://www.wealthyhub.com
For a limited time, you may obtain an email software valued $37, at no cost in:
http://www.email-autoresponder-review.com
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6 Reasons Why You Need to Have a Blog with Your Website.
Blogs are powerful marketing tools that can help you reach more customers, establish credibility, increase sales, and share company news without having a huge advertising budget.
Blogs have a number of advantages that make them highly effective in promoting your business:
1. You don't have to be a tech geek to start a blog.
Anyone can do it, and sites like Blogger can help you create and publish your blog in less than 5 minutes.
2. Blogs can boost your search engine ranking.
The content of your blog is ripe for the search engines and encourages other bloggers who write on similar topics to link to you. Regularly updated, keyword-rich content (not spam) and linking will help boost your site's visibility and in turn attract more customers.
3. Blogs offer multiple ways to deliver your message.
If you're not the best writer, you can start an audio or video blog and can therefore still reach your customers in a personal way.
4. Blog posts encourage immediate responses from your customers.
Questions, comments and feedback from your customers can help you better address their needs, adjust your campaigns, and react to the market's changing demands.
5. Blogs help you expand your reach online.
By pinging search engines and using RSS feeds you can syndicate your content online, boost your reach and influence, and allow customers to control their communications with your company.
6. Blogs increase transparency and help you establish credibility.
Blogs are much more personal than a corporate website and because they are regularly updated, customers can remain informed about your business and feel more connected to you. Your blog can be your selling point and can sway prospective customers to choose you and your services over the competition.
Blogs are about communicating and building relationships with your readers. Use your blog for branding your business, building your reputation and communicating with your audience ' not just for making a sale.
There are a variety of ways you can use your blog to communicate with your readers and promote your business, while unobtrusively going after the sale.
You can use your blog to:
· Write product reviews and link to product pages (consider signing up to be an affiliate)
· Write insightful articles or tips relevant to your audience
· Recommend products and services (yours or someone else's)
· Post and archive company newsletters
· Share company news and product updates
· Offer special incentives and promotions
· Ask customers to complete surveys and provide feedback
Generating new content for your blog does not have to be a daunting task. You don't have to worry about writing it all yourself. Instead, you can directly post your company newsletters as well as relevant third-party articles, reviews, and links found using sites like StumbleUpon and Google News.
Remember to include links where appropriate to your own website and product pages. Having a blog also allows you to make regular updates quickly and without needing a webmaster.
A blog is a highly effective tool in promoting your business, so start now.
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com/
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Do You Hesitate to Send Email to Your Subscribers and Customers?
If you're one of the people who worries that your customers will think you're spamming if you send them email, no matter HOW useful the information is, I urge you to reconsider.
The truth is, when you do your email marketing right, not only is it an excellent source of income for you, but your subscribers and customers will actually appreciate hearing from you!
Here are three tried and tested ideas for successful email promotions:
Damaged or returned stock promotions - Offer damaged or returned stock for 50% off! Everyone gets returns, it's a part of doing business. And of course damaged stock is unavoidable.Why not take advantage of email to clear out your stock that's otherwise going to take up space, while at the same time offering your customers deals that they're sure to appreciate?
Limited time offer - By offering a great discount on your products for a limited amount of time, people who receive the email feel like it's urgent they respond, so there's less chance they'll close the email to "think about it" and never come back.
Limited quantity offer - Similar to the limited time offer, the people who receive this email will also feel a sense of urgency.
If you go with "limited time or quantity offer stick with the offer. If you write in your email that a product is availeble for a .... time, stick to it.
Sometimes you see that a product is availible till midnight, 14 days later it's still availible till midnight.
And those are just a few to get you started. Use your imagination, and I'm sure you'll come up with all kinds of things to send your list that they'll really ENJOY having. And if you find an email promotion that really works for you.
Do you panic at the thought of writing your own promotional email?
Here's something you should know: writing an email is 95% rules, and only 5% creativity. So as long as you stick to the rules, you'll write an email that's suitable for sending to your customers every time!
Hypnotize the reader with compelling benefits - The most effective email promotions grab readers' attention with compelling benefits that speak directly to the readers' deepest desires and greatest fears.Benefits build the value you need to drive people to act when presented with your call to action.
Write your email like you were talking to a friend - Be informal, use contractions, and don't be afraid to start a sentence with "and" or "but."To transfer ownership, you want to make sure your reader can actually picture themselves using your product
Use automation to create personalized offers - Nothing is more appealing to people than the 'sound' of their own names, and nothing grabs someone's attention faster than something that affects them directly!
We don't recommend you try to get yours subscriber to purchase directly from your email. Instead, you should ask them to "click here now to learn more," or something similar.
How it LOOKS makes a big impact on readers, too.
Here is how to format your email:
Width - Be sure to format your email message in a table that is not over 60/65 caracters wide. If you exceed that, your message may be cut off on the right side of the screen -- or at the very least, not print properly
Images - Try to avoid using graphics whenever possible. People with slow connections will have trouble downloading them, and people reading your message offline won't see them at all.
Bolding - Use bolding just to emphasize the biggest and best benefits in the offer. You should be able to scan the message and instantly understand the biggest benefits
Bullets - Using bulleted points is one of the best ways to break up your copy and make some of your key points really stand out. As will all formatting techniques, make sure to don't swamp your email with bullet points.
Finally, once you've written the letter, give it a final "scan test." Set it aside for an hour, then return to it with fresh eyes BUT don't read it word for word. Scan over the letter and see which sections jump out at you. Make sure that those sections contain the key benefits.
Stick to these few simple rules, and you'll have no trouble turning out emails that get a response, because your customers actually WANT to receive them!
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com/
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What you MUST know about Text vs. HTML Emails!
HTML messages allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition.
They are growing in popularity and over 95% of customer email programs today will support HTML email. Unfortunately most spam is also formatted using HTML and thus differentiating between requested email and HTML spam messages can be difficult.
HTML emails are therefore more likely to trigger spam filters. According to email deliverability expert Dori Friend, you should NEVER use HTML email. Dori's advice is supported by some studies.
A 2004 study by AWeber.com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3% of the time.
But on the other hand we have seen tests were they changed from html to plain text and the open rates dropted with over 15%.
The whole Text vs. HTML email problem is still widely debated in ecommerce circles and the best advice we can give you is to test it out on your own.
Test and determine what works best for your customer base. Your test results will always be your most reliable source of information.
Here are some things to consider when making your decision:
· Over 95% of customer email clients are capable of receiving HTML emails. The compatibility rate will continue to increase. Few outdated email clients cannot display HTML, but you can pretty much bet that the majority of your customers will have newer versions of email clients.
· A surprisingly large portion of the population still uses dial-up to connect to the internet. This creates a longer load time for HTML emails.
· Spam filters are becoming increasingly sophisticated and often block HTML emails since most spam comes in that format. Work related and personal emails are generally in text and do not have delivery problems.
· HTML file sizes are typically larger than text emails and might therefore automatically get transferred to a user's Bulk/Junk or Trash folders. Aim to create HTML emails less than 24k in size.
Text has limited formatting features when compared to HTML, but it does not necessarily mean it is less effective. Whether you use Text or HTML, be sure to follow these formatting rules.
Tips for Formatting Text Emails:
· Use a text editor such as Notepad or WordPad when formatting your emails. Do NOT use Microsoft Word as it embeds a lot of formatting bugs that make it difficult to work with and results in errors on the recipients' ends.
· In text emails don't make the text bold, italicized, colored, or centered. Instead you can use CAPITAL letters for the words or phrases that need emphasis.
But don't go overboard; too much capitalization is difficult to read, gives the impression of yelling, and resembles spam. In fact many spam filters will deduct points for every CAPITALIZATION.
· The width most email clients can properly display is 65 characters (including spaces). Use a hard return (i.e. press the "Enter" key) every 60 characters or so. Remember that spaces count too. Exceeding 65 characters runs the risk of your recipients seeing awkward line breaks or cut off sentences.
· Create your text email first in Courier font and then in Arial. These are the most commonly used display fonts by email clients. Adjust line breaks and "white space" (i.e. the space between paragraphs). Your message will not look the same in both fonts, so do not stress over it. Concentrate on perfecting the format in Courier.
Tips for Formatting HTML Emails:
· Use an HTML editor like Dreamweaver and take advantage of all the easy to use formatting options. Here you can play around with the text alignment, font size, colors and more, and you don't even need to know HTML!
· Just as with text emails, HTML emails should not exceed a specified width. Wrap your message in a table no wider than 420 pixels. Your message may get cut off or not print properly if your table width is too large.
· Try to avoid using images. People with slow connections will have a hard time downloading them and those viewing your message offline will not see them at all, which could appear unprofessional on your part.
· Some email clients like Gmail initially don't show images, so make sure your messages are readable with or without images. We understand that images can be an essential component of your message, and if that's the case, then be sure to compress your image files properly.
· Use your formatting options tastefully. HTML allows you to make text bold, italicized, and underlined. You can use color and embed hyperlinks rather than use long URLs. You have a lot more ways to make your message visually appealing, however you want to be careful not to go too far.
We've offered you some tips and suggestions for creating both Text and HTML emails. Run regular tests to see which format produces better results; it's possible that your readers may change their mind from one email to the next and that's OK.
If you know how to effectively format each type you can cater to any audience.
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com
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9 Ways to Make Your Site More Search Engine Friendly
Search engines want to lead users to the most relevant information that is available online for any given keyword.
So focus on the user and ask yourself the question, "Is my page the most relevant page for this keyword online?" If the answer is yes, and you offer the best content for this keyword then you are well on your way.
The only way to get top placement in search engines is to provide very compelling information. However, search engines don't read information like humans do.
They follow specific rules. Follow these 9 rules to rapidly boost your ranking in search engines.
1) Optimize your URLs.
If you have not yet picked a domain name for your website, don't try to go for "mykeyword.com." Instead, try to pick a name that you want to build your company and/or a brand around.
Yes, having the keyword in your name might help a little but don't sacrifice your company branding just because of your domain.
2) Optimize your page title.
Create a short relevant title (60 characters max). Have the keywords appear first and don't add any stuff such as "home page" in the title tag.
3) Optimize your description metatag.
Add the SEO keywords to the meta tag description. The description should be 200 characters max.
4) Optimize your keyword metatag.
Add the SEO keywords to the meta tag keywords. Include 5 keyword phrases max.
5) Optimize your H1 & H2 headers.
The headline at the top of your page should use the H1 HTML header. The sub-headline should follow the H2 header. Include your SEO keywords in the headline and sub-headline. Example: h1. Enter headline with keyword phrase Example: h2. Enter sub-headline with keyword phrase
6) Optimize your keyword density.
Creating a keyword rich content page is a MUST. Be creative, write good content and make frequent use of the keywords you are optimizing for.
However, make sure that your keyword density never exceeds 5% for pages with long copy and 10% for pages with little copy. If they do, you might get penalized by the search engines.
To find out what the keyword density is on your page use this free Keyword Tool at http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/
7) Spice up your SEO keywords.
Be sure to have your keywords appear at least once in bold, italics, and underlined in the copy. Again, do this once, but don't over do it!
8) Move your keywords up.
Text towards the top of the page, such as in the first paragraph, counts for more than text further down the page. So, make sure that your keyword phrase is included towards the top of your page.
9) Use text links for site navigation.
Do not use image buttons for links. Using text links is far better. Search engines can't read the text in images.
Search engines want to feed searchers the best information and so do you. Make sure you have the most content, feature it in a search engine friendly site.
We hope that the above tips have demonstrated that SEO does not have to be intimidating or very hard. Sure, there is a lot more that you can learn. For now just take it one step at a time.
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com
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How To Use An Email Marketing Course For Profit
Copyright © 2008 WebCart
Email marketing has been one of the greatest things to every happen to smart business owners. The number one reason people use the internet for is to send email. The second reason people go online is to find information. With a well thought out email marketing course you can do both. Let's take a look at how you can use an email marketing course for a more profitable business.
1. You will need an autoresponder.
An autoresponder allows you to automate your follow-up by capturing name and email addresses and automatically sending them pre-written messages. You can Google search and find all kinds of autoresponders. Make sure you are getting one from a reputable company as this is the primary tool you will use.
2. Your email marketing course should be stay on topic.
Write about a problem your audience has and then over a series of messages solve their problem.
3. Keep your emails informational.
One sales letter after another does not solve their problem, but asking and answering questions that they have will. Remember they are researching information and you are giving it to them.
4. Work your products and services into the content of your messages naturally.
This may even mean you do not mention a product or your website address until your signature at the bottom of the email. By doing it this way you are giving your potential customers a way to find you in a non threatening way.
5. Write professional content.
If you can not do this yourself hire it out. There are people who make a full time living selling products by email. You can be one of them, but if your email marketing course is poorly written no one will pay attention to it and they will never buy anything from you.
6. Consider selling digital products.
No matter what your product is you can add to it by selling digital products that can be downloaded instantly. eBooks are great for this because you find thousands of them that relate to the topic of your course. Another thing you can do is give away a brandable copy of an eBook for free. Brandable means that it has your i.d. number in it for a product you sell. When people read the eBook you have a chance to make a sale. Make it a viral marketing tool by allowing people to give the eBook away for free as well.
In Summary
You can use an email marketing course to make more money if you do it right. One thing you might do is subscribe to a few courses by email yourself. Create a swipe file and put any good ideas you see in it for future courses of you own.
Michael Moshkovich is a web developer and internet marketer who has written over 50 articles on SEO, shopping cart software and PPC marketing.To find out more information about WebCart's seo friendly shopping cart software visit our website. For additional shopping cart tips visit the webcart eCommerce Blog
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Do-It-Yourself SEO | A Beginner's Guide
There are always do-it-yourselfers in any business, so it should be no surprise that many successful web promoters are doing their own SEO. Many web guru's started by fumbling around the internet until they found the right formula for success. The web itself has evolved as a result of individual experimentation and the sharing their knowledge.
The target for SEO continues to evolve, techniques that once worked, now are less effective. New types of promotion like social bookmarking are growing in importance. It is not necessary to be an expert in SEO to promote your own website, but you do need the basics of good SEO practices. So, if you are looking to start "doing it yourself" keep these points in mind as you develop your plan.
1.Unique Search Engine-Friendly Content
One of the most important aspects is your unique web content that is laid out in a search engine friendly way. Flash and text embedded within images are not read by search engines. Make sure your images have alt image tags and that you use your most important keywords in plain text on the site. Highlight these important keywords in titles, heading and hyperlinks. Use your keywords as anchor text in links rather than using images. Never try to stuff keywords on your site by making them too small to read, or making it the same color as the background. Instead use your SEO keywords frequently in the page copy, but keep it to 3-5% on the page.
Once you have your copy, check to see if it is being crawled by the search engines. On Google enter "site:://www.yourwebaddress" to verify if your page has been indexed. If your site is brand new it will take some time for it to show up in the index. There are many factors that play into being indexed including age of the site, duplicate content (copy and pasting content, or cookie cutter affiliate websites), Java script rather than HTML links, bad site layout (too many sub-directories),long dynamic URL's with special characters (question marks or any other database characters, #, &, *, !, %) known as "spider traps," or orphaned pages.
2. Do Your Keywords Homework Thoroughly
Keyword research is the most important step in the process. If you get this wrong you could be wasting all of your time and effort promoting your site. Start your research with the broadest terms to describe your product or service. Utilize the keyword research services that are available to narrow the terms and find variations of those terms. I like to use Google AdWords, Keyword Discovery, and Wordtracker.
Your goal is to find phrases that are highly searched and optimize your site like the top sites in those keywords. If the keyword is not used much, then you will not draw much traffic by using them. Remember to use the most focused keywords to optimize; because, general terms will be much harder to gain in rank, and the traffic you get will be less relevant.
3. Get In-bound Links to Your Site
There are many ways to get links to your site, some traditional and others not so traditional. This may be intimidating at first, but it is very important for your SEO and PageRank. Google counts a link as a "vote" for your website when calculating PageRank. The more links you have, the more votes you have, and the higher your PageRank. Much like any popularity contest, not all votes are equal, links from higher ranking pages count for more than lower ranked sites.
If you have taken the time to create unique original content, you are already miles ahead of much of the competition. If you are fortunate and create something very unique, you may get many links, however, most webmasters won't just link to your site for no reason.
You can try trading links, but the effectiveness of link exchanges is decreasing, and if you are in a highly competitive market they won't help much. Recently, paid links have been looked down upon by Google, so save your money. Volumes could be written on linking strategies, but for the beginner, stick to these techniques:
- Issue a press release and include a link to your site.
- Comment on blogs, public forums and articles with content related to your site.
- Put links on your other sites leading to your new site, or have a friend link to your site.
- Submit articles relating to your niche and include a link in the resource section to your site.
- Use the many social bookmarking and social media outlets to link to your site.
4. Ride The Social Media Wave
Online communities developed for networking and socializing is at an all time high. Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Technorati and others allow members to store their favorite sites and share them with others online. These sites can also be used to create "buzz" about your own site.
If you are trying to generate sales from your efforts, then you should avoid promotional hype on these sites. The social sites are so powerful because they are based on the public's interest. If you don't have anything unique or interesting to share, these sites will not work for you.
Don't be shy on the social sites about the site you are promoting. Network around with other users, share relevant content, be creative with your bookmark title and tell people you know in the real world about the content you have on the social sites. Quality content that you simply share with others will lead to your success on these sites.
Use these points as a general guide to plan your SEO. If you are established or are just starting out in your SEO efforts the advice will help, but remember that persistence and patience are your biggest assets when it comes to website promotion.
Rob Emmerson is a leading expert in SEO and has written extensivly on the subject in articles and eBooks. He offers a daily SEO Blog where he shares tips and tricks to improve your SEO.
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Top 11 Information Marketing Business Mistakes to Avoid
`If you've tried your hand at building an Internet-based business but haven't yet reached the success you want, find out these 11 deadly mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1 - Not Treating What You Do as a Business
The difference between a hobby and a business is that a hobby doesn't make you money - it costs you money.
If you're serious about starting a building a profitable online business approach seriously and focus on generating revenue.
Treat your online business as if you would any regular business.
Mistake #2 - Being Distracted by Too Many Good Ideas
You can light up a room with a light bulb, but you can cut through steel with a laser beam. The same is true with your effort and ideas.
Too many Internet-Entrepreneur-Wanna-Bes lack the will power to stay focused. Chasing too many ideas at the same time often leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and with little results to show for their hard work.
The key to success is to select one business idea and to develop it completely before moving on to another project.
Mistake #3 - Not Selecting a Specific Niche
Perhaps the biggest mistake of all is trying to be everything to everyone. You can't - so stop!
It's very counter-intuitive to focus on a smaller slice of the market and most people are afraid to do it. But when you do, your business will grow faster, and you'll more financially successful in less time.
Mistake #4 - Falling in Love With the Wrong Product Idea
Even the most experienced entrepreneurs fall into this trap from time to time and develop products without doing any research. Before you devote any serious amount of time and effort to developing your new ideas make sure there is a demand for the type of product, information, or service you want to launch.
If you need help with selecting an ideal niche market for your business and finding out which products you should develop first, take a look at this fast track training program.
Mistake #5 - Falling for the "Get Rich Quick" Scheme!
Remember the old adage "if something is too good to be true..."? It's alive and well on the Internet.
Countless people buy into the idea of making millions online overnight. Sadly, they buy into programs hyped up with empty promises only to find themselves "out of cash and out of luck" a short while later.
Be aware of spammers, illegal money-winning scams, and buying "ready to go businesses" that are "hot but will sell for cheap"!
Before you fork over your money investigate if those hot businesses have ever made a dime for their current owner.
Doing your homework will save you valuable time, money and many sleepless nights!
Mistake #6 - Going Into It, Instead of Growing Into It
While the Internet makes it easier to reach your potential clients, you're still building a business - and that takes time. Don't tell your boss you're quitting today because you started this hot new online business last night and you'll be "rolling in dough in no time flat!"
First make sure your business idea works and is profitable.
That's one of the advantages of Internet Business - you can start small and step-it-up as your business starts getting sales and generating profits.
Just be sure you can consistently replace your current income before jumping ship and telling your boss to "beat it"!
Mistake #7 - Being a Copy-Cat!
Quickly - what is the most popular business on the Internet? You guessed it - it's how to make money on the online!
It seems that everyone who has bought a course on making money online is credible enough to teach this subject a week or two later!
Don't fall for the allure of easy money - because it's only a perception. In reality your chances of having a successful online business are much greater when you are different from the pack.
Mistake #8 - Wasting Time and Money on Developing Pretty but Useless Websites
A bad idea is a bad idea - no matter how pretty you dress it up. Many people waste precious startup dollars on expensive but needless graphic design work, pretty logos, and complex web design.
In reality, many businesses can be simple and inexpensive to get off the ground. In fact, a simple site with little or no graphics will often make more money than one with all the latest bells and whistles flashing all over the page.
Think what is the core concept of your business. Outline it on a single sheet of paper, then implement it fast in it's simplest form. You can always give it a makeover and make it prettier if it's successful and profitable.
Mistake #9 - Not Building Relationship with Clients
"Even though you don't know me from Adam, I want you to take out your wallet and give me $20 - in exchange I'll make you the King of the Universe!" What!? You don't want to give me your $20? What a surprise!
Most people think about starting a business online in terms of getting a quick sale - with no prior relationship with their potential clients at all.
In reality, you'll be more successful when you make your first goal to collect contact information from potential clients and follow up with them on regular basis.
It's much easier to "sell something for FREE" than trying to convince people to give you money at first.
Make it your goal to prove your credibility online and make your business all about relationships with prospects and clients you'll build a thriving online empire.
Mistake #10 - Calling It "QUITS" Too Soon!
If your new online venture isn't making money at first don't walk away from it too soon. Many entrepreneurs have multiple "failures" in their background - which in reality are lessons in what didn't work.
Evaluate your ideas and get help with gaining a new perspective on what you're doing. With some new ideas you might find a new way to position your business differently and make it profitable.
Or maybe you simply need to give it more time to gain the traction and momentum you want.
Mistake #11 - Being too cheap!
While it's a good habit to be thrifty with your dollars, don't confuse saving money with being cheap. Remember the price you're paying for things isn't always expressed in money. It's also the time, effort, and lost opportunities you can't take advantage off because you lack the know-how or are busy doing low-level tasks.
Smart online entrepreneurs continually invest in their education. They buy marketing training programs, time-saving software tools, and systems that allow them to grow businesses faster with less effort.
The best news is getting good basic training in how to start your own information marketing business doesn't have to be expensive.
The author, Adam Urbanski, Founder and President of Marketing Mentors, teaches professionals and business owners proven strategies to leverage their know-how into low-cost, high-profit information products and programs. For a four-hour fast track training go to his website at http://www.infoprofitfasttrack.com/
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Surefire Ways to Fail at Marketing
During my marketing work with small and large businesses, and with my own business, I've seen the many ways that we can trip ourselves up and sabotage our efforts.
Below are 4 surefire ways to fail:
1. Do not have any written goals
If you don't know where you want to go, then how do you know when you've got there?
If you haven't figured out what your marketing and sales goals are, and the overall goals of your business, then it's pretty hard to market with any success. You can't plan properly, allocate resources or track the success (or lack of) of any activities.
It's not enough to express these goals verbally - you need to sit down and write out your objectives for each of your marketing strategies. It's a well documented fact that people who put their goals down on paper achieve a higher rate of attaining these objectives.
Without an idea of where you're going, then you're bound to get absolutely nowhere.
2. Have inconsistent marketing
By being inconsistent, many business owners ensure that they don't do anything long enough to make any sort of impact on business and sales.
People need to have time to get to know, like and trust you and this requires consistent, long-term marketing strategies. You can't expect to send one piece of direct mail or put out your newsletter sporadically and build a marketing relationship with prospects and customers.
The best way to build consistency into your marketing is to focus on a couple marketing strategies only and get them set up and operating smoothly and on auto-pilot as much as possible. Then, once you see results with that, you can introduce a couple more tactics and so on.
If you do not show consistency in your marketing, then your prospects and clients won't show any consistency back in terms of first-time and return sales.
3. Try to appeal to everyone and their dog
I'm sure you've heard the saying, "Try to please everyone and end up pleasing no-one." If you try to market, advertise, talk to, and reach everyone you'll end up squandering your money, resources, time and energy. You need to have a target market and better yet, a niche market, where you can focus the bulk of your strategies and know that group of people thoroughly inside and out.
When your marketing activities and materials are too generic and do not appeal to a specific group of people, you increase the chances of having them appeal to no-one - as the marketing doesn't "speak" directly to their needs and wants.
4. Do not have a marketing plan
If you don't have a plan, then you'll miss out on marketing opportunities, won't be able to organize yourself or anyone else, won't know what's working and what's not, and you'll have lower sales.
Many people are turned off by the thought of a marketing plan and to tell you the truth, I don't really like long, involved plans either. However, what I do have is a marketing action calendar where I plot out when I'm sending out my newsletter, email campaigns, direct mail; when I'm going to have a special promotion or workshop; when I'm going to be away on holidays or at my coaching retreat; and so on.
By having an idea of when and what you are marketing, you can make the most of your budget, resources, time, and great opportunities that come your way.
If you don't have a roadmap of what you're doing, you'll end up doing not much.
If you follow these 4 surefire ways to fail at your marketing, you'll do just that. However, if you want to see your business grow and succeed take the time this week to write your objectives, make a marketing action calendar, determine the unique audience you want to talk to, and go after them with consistent marketing!
Jody Gabourie, The Small Business Marketing Coach, delivers simple, innovative and powerful marketing strategies to help business owners find and keep their most profitable clients. To learn more about how she can help you take your business to the next level, and to sign up for her FREE special report, ezine and articles, visit her site at http://www.jodygabouriemarketingcoach.com/
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5 Strategies for Creating Effective Follow Up
For a solo professional having an up-to-date contact management database is one of the KEY administrative systems you have to have for your business. And, even more important, is having a system in place to create effective follow-up. Your business is built on following up leads and building relationships.
If you don't have a contact management system in place, you will not be able to follow-up effectively with prospects, you could lose clients, and you will not be able to build your business.
Your contact management system needn't be a 'bells and whistles' expensive database but it does need to be easy to use, easy to maintain, and easy for you to find your contact data. Once your contact management system is in place you need to ensure that you keep it up-to-date and are using it to follow up with prospects.
Spreadsheets are a great tool for keeping track of your contacts, but even they have their limitations, particularly if your database is starting to get very large - anything over 100 contacts really needs to be on a computerised, contact management database.
One of my favorite contact management system is ACT! It really meets all of the criteria above in that it's:
- Easy to use
- Easy to maintain
- Easy to find contacts
And here's a tip I have for you - you don't necessarily need the latest version, especially if you're going to use it just for yourself. I bought my first version of ACT! (ACT! 6.0 2004) off Ebay for $20. If you're going to buy software off Ebay check that it's being sold as 'brand new and unregistered'. This was a very small investment for me to make to see if I liked the system and once I knew it was ideal I had no hesitation in upgrading to the latest version.
Keeping your contact management database up-to-date can seem a bit daunting, particularly if you have a lot of contacts. Here are my top 5 strategies for creating effective follow-up and keeping your contact management system up-to-date.
1. Update as you go along! Whenever you speak with or email a contact take a few minutes afterwards to update your database with this information BEFORE moving on to the next task. For example, did your conversation end with you promising to contact them again in a months' time? If so, note this down and create a follow-up task there and then so you don't forget.
2. Touch base regularly. Each month go through your database and see who you haven't had any contact with over the last few months. Send them a 'just getting in touch with you' email, or call them.
3. Don't forget good old-fashioned snail mail! Even snail-mail has gone all hi-tech. A great follow-up tool, and one that I currently use, is Send Out Cards - it's really quick and simple to use. You can choose to send either a card or postcard, and it makes for a great 'stay-in-touch' service. And just as simple to use as email, only more personal! You can even upload your own handwriting font to personalise your cards even more.
4. Send a newsletter. Okay, it's not exactly personal one-on-one follow up, but it is keeping you in touch with your database. Very often your newsletter will generate a response from your reader, which means you will be able to turn this into a one-on-one communication with your contact!
5. Keep the process going! Make it a habit to update your database regularly. If you don't get the opportunity to update your database as you're going along (Tip #1) spend 20 minutes at the end of each day reflecting on what you've done during the day, who you've contacted, what the outcome was, and enter all of this information into your contact management system.
Follow these 5 tips and you will soon see your business start to grow through effective follow-up!
Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, teaches professional speakers, coaches, and authors how to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com
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The Effect of Words in Advertising
Copyright © 2008 Adam Nowak
Have you ever seen an ad without any words? Be it a radio, TV, cinema, press, Internet or outdoor advertisement, text is always an element of the utmost importance.
Marked and Unmarked Words
Usually we consider marked elements as those that occur more rarely. Thus, between the words "meal" and "feast," the latter will be considered marked. Another criterion is the awareness of choice of a word in a statement. Even if we choose a simpler word, it might be because it seems more strongly marked to us. Words which we are compelled to use are the least marked.
Name = Problem
Our final goal is to persuade a person to buy the product, but an intermediate goal might be the association of a problem awaiting a solution with our product, e.g. the following slogan: "Diagnosis: exhaustion. The answer: XY." The aim of this message is for its receiver to automatically think of the XY product when they feel exhausted.
Associations
Psycholinguistic research has shown that the receiver naturally associates a word with its opposite, e.g. "man - woman," a hyponym, i.e. a word semantically subordinate, e.g. "fruit - apple" or a synonym.
Connotations and Denotations
Each word has its denotation, that is to say, it names something. The word "sun" signifies the star closest to us. However, this word also has its connotations, in other words, emotional associations. These are very useful in constructing a persuasive message, because they evoke emotions.
Sound
Proper connotations might be evoked not only by the semantic aspect of the word (its meaning), but also by its sole sound. Crisps seem more crisp if we call them "crrisp," fabric seem softer if we call them "sofft" and food tastes better if we say it is "yummmy." Onomatopoeias (words imitating sounds) are worth mentioning here. This means of expression is often used, especially by poets. Try to say "a snake hisses," "the thunder of a shot" or a "rustling sough of a stream."
Meaning
Generally, though, the semantic aspect has a greater influence on connotations than the sound aspect. We perceive words such as "thin" and "slim" or the often encountered in advertisements "usual" and "natural" differently. The word "usual" is associated with dullness and boredom, while "natural" does not evoke such connotations, even though its meaning is similar.
A Proper Word to Each Thing
In the process of creating an advertising message we make such choices in the case of every single word. They are not random or intuitive, at least they should not be such. The choices are influenced by detailed surveys and psycholinguistic research.
While trying to choose a proper word, we must answer some questions:
Detailed or general?
A journalist will rather speak about a tall blonde than a woman, but such details might narrow down the target group. Consider this sentence: "Woman, do you keep a diary?" This may be answered by any woman. The case will be different if we change the question: "Girl, do you keep a diary?"
Expressive, precise and clear or vague, fuzzy and ambiguous
An expressive, precise and clear text can ensure that it will be perceived in the way we want it to. Nevertheless, it might prove dangerous at times. If we say "Colgate toothpaste prevents cavity," then we are in trouble if somebody who uses this product hears that they have cavity after all. The case will be different if we say "Colgate toothpaste helps in preventing cavity." Ambiguity might also be helpful when we want to express content that cannot be formulated in a straightforward manner, for example for social (breaking taboos such as death is not advisable) or legal reasons (prohibition of advertising of some products, e.g. beer). Ambiguity is also helpful when we use erotic associations, which are very effective in advertising, especially when males are the target group, however recently, women are more often targeted by such advertisements as well).
Buzzwords
New - customers like changes, they want to be modern, thus calling something "new" is usually very effective. The exception from this rule are advertising texts supposed to retain the loyalty to the brand.
Cheap - the price of the product is often the most important criterion of choice on an impoverished market. However, it should be kept in mind that "cheap" is often associated with low quality, so the word should not be used mindlessly, especially regarding durable or luxury goods.
Bargain, opportunity - everyone is glad to make an advantageous purchase, thus indicating that our offer is a unique opportunity may prove very effective. Haven't you ever bought anything totally useless just because "it was a bargain"?
Perfect, attractive, advantageous - who does not like such products? Moreover, these words are better than for example "the best", because assurances that we are "no. 1" will be treated with reserve. Besides, such claims bear the risk of a blistering response (either a marketing or a court one) from competition.
Responsibility, duty - each of us has been taught to be responsible since childhood, for instance we feel responsible for our families.
"You deserve it" - everyone wants to be appreciated and rewarded, so this expression as well as other words connected with reward are popular among copywriters.
Guarantee, proof - these words often replace proof or guarantee themselves. Thanks to them we feel safer and more peaceful.
Secure, sure - these words remind us of danger, but in a covert way. They do not evoke strong feelings of fear - that is why they are useful in selling products that are to keep one safe. Usually we do not like to think about it and an advertisement that aggressively reminds us of dangers will be rejected by most.
They are simply words that calm us down, indicate that something is simple and obvious. After all, each and every one of us is a bit lazy sometimes...
Really - another buzzword which we have used since childhood when we want to emphasize our credibility ("I really didn't smash that window").
Clean, fresh, natural - ecology is "in" recently, so such words are often helpful.
Style, discreet, subtle, sophisticated - everyone is a bit snobbish inside, hence words associated with class and prestige are important, since they indicate the high quality of the product.
Delicious, fragrant, colourful, smooth - a message is far easier to perceive if it is sensual and recalls taste, sight, smell or touch.
There are great amounts of such examples, especially that buzzwords are often a result of a trend - that is why so many things are "cool" recently.
This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. mLingua provides professional language translations in all major Western and Asian languages, software localization and web site translation services. Please visit http://mlingua.pl
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Effectively Creating a Strategic Marketing Plan
Copyright © 2008 Christian Fea
Strategic marketing is an excellent means of propelling your business to the next level of revenues. Indeed, the adage, "no man is an island" is particularly applicable in strategic marketing; the more islands you align yourself with, the greater your network, and the more powerful your revenue earning potential.
Yes indeed, we all know that strategic marketing is powerful. But how can you create an effective strategic marketing plan? Strategic marketing is a term that is thrown around casually and frequently, but how many people actually know how to execute a successful strategic marketing plan? In this article, I shall happily walk you through the steps of incorporating strategic marketing into your business arsenal.
Step 1: Understand your target customer base
The fundamental goal of strategic marketing is to utilize each other's strengths to reach a larger audience base ' perhaps one that would not be available to the individual companies without the strategic marketing endeavour. Evaluate your current base of customers, and envision your ideal future mix of clients. Based upon this analysis, you should then consider which companies already possess the client base that you desire. Or, what company would be able to work with you in order to help you both obtain a client base that was individually out of reach.
Step 2: Evaluate what your customers need
When you think of your business from the customer's perspective, it is often quite different than yours. Instead of evaluating what products would be easy for you to sell to them ' consider what products your customers need. This will help you find a strategic marketing partnership that can fulfil what customers' needs. In addition, look at the bigger scope. If you are trying to reach a larger audience base, what type of packaged advertising would be most compelling to their needs? For example, if you are an accounting firm, then would your clients possibly also need legal service? A successful strategic marketing plan is based upon clients' needs.
Step 3: Analyze the marketing tools to use
Marketing avenues abound, meaning that you can carefully pick and choose which marketing tools you use. Will you use offline, online, and/or word-of-mouth advertising? Decide if you want to create email marketing, PPC, or blog campaigns. Will you collaborate together on publishing articles, or perhaps split a booth at your industry trade show? Would you sponsor an industry event together, or perhaps publish a white paper jointly? The options for traditional and creative marketing are endless. It is important to create a strategic marketing campaign that will highlight the strengths of both companies ' and most effectively reach the target audience.
Step 4: Implementation!
Once you have laid the groundwork for the strategic marketing plan, it is time to implement the excitement! Working together with a partner can open up significant more doors, in both revenues and market share exposure. Make sure that your plan is well thought out, and that you both are on the same page, and you will be ready to push the "go" button on an endeavour that can take your business earnings to the next level.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A strategic Collaboration Marketing consulting firm. He empowers business owners to discover and implement Integration, Alliance, and Joint Ventures marketing tactics to solve specific business challenges. He demonstrates how to create your own Collaboration Marketing Strategy to increase your sales, conversation rates, and repeat business.
Contact: christian@christianfea.com
http://www.christianfea.com
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Develop a Marketing System to Collect Testimonials
Offer proof to your prospects. It's not enough to say that you solve problems - you have to show that your customers are getting results from your business. Testimonials are one of the most powerful and cost effective selling tools you can implement in your arsenal of marketing. Why? Because you are offering evidence to your prospects from their peers attesting that your services/products actually work. Wendy Maynard publishes MAVEN MARKETING, a weekly marketing ezine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If you're ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and have more fun, subscribe at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine_3.html
Providing testimonials from current and prior customers that demonstrate their actual problem and the specific results from your company enhances your credibility. Testimonials offer proof that you are the real deal. People receive a lot of information and they are often skeptical. But, they will be much more inclined to buy from you if you show examples of their peers who have achieved positive results. These third-party endorsements work to sell for you - even when you are not around.
If you are offering a new product or just starting your business, you can contact business associates and friends to offer them a free session or product sample to try. If you have been in business for a while but haven't collected testimonials, make a list of all of your customers who you know have had a GREAT experience with your services or products. Even if you already have a number of testimonials, don't stop collecting new ones. You can replace mediocre praise with the incredible ones. You can also keep your testimonials up to date and current.
Here are some ideas and opportunities to obtain new testimonials:
1. Write down the praise: Whenever one of your customers gives you a compliment in person or via e-mail, thank him or her and then ask if you can use their comment as a testimonial. Make sure he or she understands that you will be using it in your marketing materials. If someone sends you a testimonial that requires editing, go ahead and edit it, but be sure to send it back to ask if the changes are okay - explain the editing was for brevity, clarity, grammar, etc.
2. Create a website link: Another easy method to help you collect testimonials is to include a link on your website that lets people click on it to give their feedback. "Click here to let me know what you think." Put this link next to testimonials you've already placed on your site to provide other examples.
3. Offer an incentive: Periodically you can have a "testimonial drive." Send out an e-mail and offer an incentive for your customers to provide a testimonial. Depending on what type of business you run, it could be a coupon, discount, free services, and so on.
4. Make it part of your sales cycle: As you wrap up an interaction with a customer, ask them for a testimonial. BEFORE you complete your work with a customer, ask him or her to provide a testimonial with tangible and specific results from working with you or from your products. If you wait until your work is complete, you may have a more difficult time getting a testimonial since your customer can move into an "out of sight, out of mind" place. For example, if you are a financial planner, you could ask them toward the end of your sessions together. If you run a Garden Center, have cards by the register and a drop box.
5. Ask your "star performers" for testimonials: Almost every business collects raving fans. These are the individuals who buy every book you sell, the customer who you see in your store three times each week, or that individual who gets an incredible result from using your offerings. Make a point of asking these individuals to give a testimonial. If they have just had a BIG result, be sure to ask them right afterwards.
6. Follow-up after a purchase: Use an autoresponder like www.mavenmerchant.com to automatically follow up with a customer who has purchased something from you to ask them how they are doing. Ask them to provide a testimonial.
Here are some specific ways you can use testimonials to enhance your marketing materials:
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Paying For Your Traffic Can Be A Smart Move
There are so many success stories you will hear about businesses making it good in the internet. The troubling thing is, there are maybe a tenfold or even a hundredfold of stories contradictory to theirs. Many have unsuccessfully launched a business enterprise that is internet based but only a handful shall succeed.
Is this through luck? That is even more remote. It takes good business sense and a lot of help and team effort. Most importantly, it is the eagerness to succeed and the determination to learn and the willingness to invest in a lot of hard work and some money.
The Very Basic
Without traffic, all your effort would just go to waste. Every business needs customers, without them you wouldn't have anyone to sell your products to. In the internet world traffic is the walk in customer. The more traffic you have the more people would be able to sell your products to.
But like any business that's in every corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products. It is a simple and known fact.
But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.
Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying others. Yes that's right; you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that your site exists; the more people would of course go to your site, that's common sense.
While there are many ways that can get you advertising for free, this do not generate the same high volume as those methods that are getting paid. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes by Google and Yahoo.
The Value of Searches
The search and will be the easiest and fastest medium in finding what a person needs in the internet. Search engines have been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity, they get many visitors and clicks that they are the most common sites that people go to. It is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.
Search engines provide information to the millions of users that they have each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your sites link pop up in the high ranks of the search results page, you get a great chance that they will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top ranks.
When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. This may sound like not such a good idea, but the payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site. You will never go with an empty sales day.
Paying for your Traffic
Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some search engines, you will be charged with the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment.
All the money you spend in paying for your traffic will not be for naught. You will get an impressive boost in traffic which will also result to a great boost in your sales figures. Paying for your traffic would be a really good idea and you will get all the benefits it has to offer.
You may use this article and publish it if you include this text too from Theo Flohil. More information about traffic you can get at http://affiliatecashsecrets.com/index/68485/10
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Yikes! I Just Landed a Television Interview. Now What?
Television interviews are, by far, the trickiest of all press encounters but they can also be the most rewarding in terms of your public relations efforts. Welcome the opportunity to appear on TV, and be prepared. By remembering a few rules and practicing, anyone can look and sound big on the little screen.
Generally there are three types of television interviews:
Recorded: Your interview will be aired in its entirety or will be cut up into smaller sound bites for part of a larger story. Recording ' and editing later -- enables the reporter to ask the same question over again if he stumbles over his words. You can do the same with your answer. The best thing to remember here is that if you start an answer and flub it after a couple of words, simply stop and start over. If they are just going to use a sound bite, the reporter is not likely to air your mistake.
Live in studio: You are being interviewed in a setting in which you are with other people in the room and can interact with them as if it were just a normal conversation. This is probably the most comfortable of the three formats.
Live on location: You are alone in a studio facing nothing but a camera because you are in a remote location, away from the main studio where the interviewer is located. You can hear, but not see the interviewer. Look straight into the camera the entire time (but don't glare), just as though it were an interviewer. If you look away, you'll seem distracted and aloof. Keep looking at the camera until the technician in the studio says you are off the air.
With some exceptions, there is little room for asking in-depth questions that require in-depth answers. So how do you get your story right? Make sure the reporter is well briefed on the subject. TV reporters often have to cover a wide range of topics. The better informed they are, the better questions they will ask and the better the interview will go. You don't want a reporter asking, "So, what does your business do?" Better to get a question like, "After 20 years in the business, what trends do you see for the next year or so?" Schedule a background phone call before the interview, if possible, to cover all of the basic information with the reporter.
Here are some rules to remember when doing a television interview:
· Before you do a broadcast interview, make sure you have all of the details. Who is doing the interview? Will it be a panel interview on a particular topic or will your executive have the camera and/or mic to himself? Know the show format and the names of other guests who will be on before you.
· Memorize your message points. Don't look at your notes. Repeat messages two or three times naturally during the conversation so the interviewer can choose the best versions of sound bites.
· Sit slightly forward in an upright, non-swivel chair with arms.
· Men: Wear dark suits with off-white or blue shirts. Avoid "busy" ties. Sit on the bottom of your suit jacket so the shoulders do not ride up. · Men: Don't refuse makeup. A little powder on the forehead will keep you from looking like a lighthouse. Bring an electric shaver to erase your five o'clock shadow. Wear socks that go up to your calf so your ankles don't show.
· Women: Avoid large, shiny, dangling, or otherwise distracting jewelry. Avoid "busy" clothing patterns. Colors are fine.
· Be visual. Do the interview at your place of business, if appropriate. Even better, if you have a factory floor, a control room, or some other kind of high visual, use that as the backdrop. · Bring a prop—your product or some other object to illustrate your point.
· Talk directly to the interviewer. The camera and microphone will find you. Maintain eye contact.
· Gesture with your hands where appropriate.
· Be personable and open. Smile when appropriate.
Television interviews generally are as much about style as substance, so HOW you look is important. More than 90% of communication is nonverbal, so the way you carry yourself, the way you dress, your gestures, and your facial expressions are critically important. Unless you are a bank loan officer or a DMV clerk, the human face is capable of about 10,000 distinct expressions. There's an old adage that television adds 10 pounds to anyone's appearance. I think it really depends on how many jelly doughnuts you eat in the green room before the broadcast. Maybe the camera does give you a slightly wider appearance, but how you look depends more on your posture, your face, your gestures, and the way in which you dress.
Hit your messages, remember your appearance, be engaged in the interview and you'll be great!
Robert Deigh is the author of the new PR book,"How Come No One Knows About Us?"(WBusinessBooks). For a free full chapter, "16 Ways to Come Up With Story Ideas That Will Attract Press," contact rdeigh1@aol.com http://www.rdccommunication.com/
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Using Overture/Yahoo To Get Website Visitors Effectively
Overture saw that the internet was fast becoming the easiest and most convenient way to shop, and advertising was going to hit at an all time high because of the many businesses in the arena.
To get a person to go to a site than others, it needs to be very visible. Providing ads that could direct potential consumers and costumers to their site would allow them to have an increase in traffic as well as sales. Yahoo provides a service that can put a site or company's ad in their sites that can be shown when certain keywords are inputted.
Yahoo offers a chance for any company to increase their traffic by using their services. With more people being aware of your site, there would be more traffic and visitors to your site given the chance to view your pages as well as your products. With even a small percentage of successful sales, with a high traffic volume this could still be a substantial figure for your company.
Getting a consistent substantial flow of website visitors is every company's goal. Many methods are devised and utilized to ensure that there would be more people to boost the sales and to be aware of the existence of such a product or service. Website visitors are potentially the life blood of your internet based business.
Yahoo/Overture utilizes the same principle as Google's Adwords. In fact, they are very similar to each other that they use keyword and keyword phrase searches and to determine which ads to show per search. When a person types in a keyword or keyword phrase to search for anything, the search engines gives out the results in a page. Then at the right side of the page, you will see selected ads that have paid for their ads to be viewed with certain keywords and keyword phrases searched.
For example, Lets say you run a car parts retail/wholesale site. You choose keywords that can prompt or trigger your ads to be shown in the page when a keyword is searched. When a search engine user types in Honda Accord, your ad may come up if you have designated that as one of your keywords. You don't need to fully optimize your site with Search Engine Optimization methods and techniques.
While some labor so hard to make their site one of the high ranking sites per keyword search, you get the chance to be on the top of the list or at least in the first page of a search result increasing your chance to be clicked on. With that, you drive traffic and website visitors to your site a lot faster.
You will have to pony up some cash when using this service though. There are different ways Yahoo/Overture will charge you. It may be in the number of Keywords or Keyword phrases your ad uses or in the many times your ad is clicked on. Others offer many other services like having your ad show up not only in the search engine pages but also with some third party sites.
Third party sites support ads that have the same theme or niche as them. With more areas your ad is shown, you increase the chances of people knowing about your site or product. With more website visitors you increase the sales of your site which makes your investment with your ads a wise one.
With so many competitions in the internet based businesses, it is necessary to take a huge leap forward from the pack by advertising. Yahoo/Overture will be a great place to start. Many have utilized their services and have reaped the rewards of this decision. It's a marketing strategy that will increase your website visitors as well as increase your sales resulting to profit.
It takes money to make money, while there are some methods that are basically low cost or free, using a marketing service such as what Yahoo/Overture offers will provide results faster and on a larger scale. Many businesses have learned this the hard way, don't be counted with them.
You may use this article and publish it if you include this text too from Theo Flohil. More information about traffic you can get at http://affiliatecashsecrets.com/index/68485/10
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Meeting Customers on Their Own Terms...Their Search Terms (Part 2)
The Relentless Art and Sweet Science of Keyword Selection
Optimizing a website means deciding what keyword phrases (KPs) you want to compete on and then weaving those keyword phrases into the copy and metatags of your website's critical pages. A search engine, like Google, will compare the keyword phrase of the searcher with the content of gazillions of web pages, find the pages that have the most matches, further evaluate each matched page by looking at inbound links, determine which page is the best match and then rank accordingly in the search results. Success in this process depends upon you researching and selecting the best keywords possible to compete on!
Two points need to be emphasized here: 1) you decide what is important—these decisions are strategic and critical, and 2) you realize that they are not set in stone—there is much trial and error involved. As your business evolves, as the buying behavior of your customers evolves, and as the phenomenon of search evolves, your KPs must evolve too.
The wonderful world of search has become incredibly competitive, and that has vast implications for your KP selection. Virtually any competitive keyword phrase will return literally millions of competing pages. As we will see, if you are not in the first 20, you are out of the running. It's pretty scary.
We spend a lot of time researching KPs to find the best opportunities, which basically means we develop a much longer list and then reality check that list by seeing how competitive each phrase is. Then we recommend the KPs that look like they offer the client the best chance to successfully compete.
In practical terms, this means we recommend transactional phrases (which demonstrate a better intent to purchase) that may be much further down the initial list, because the phrases at the top of the list (the ones that have the biggest monthly search numbers) usually are too vague and have too many competing pages to offer much traction. In short, we dig a lot deeper now. As more SEO experts compete for keyword phrases and terms, the research process will necessarily get even more complex.
At the same time, we encourage our clients to never be satisfied with their KP list. Work it, revise it, reconsider it—at every available opportunity. Since we can only effectively optimize on a finite list of KPs, we need to continually refocus by refining the target terms' optimization to increase visibility. Understand that none of this is possible if you are not focused on the performance of each KP. But once the search performance of each KP is available to you, you have actionable data—thus, the Total Available Search Market™ report.
Optimization or PPC? You May Only Be Buying Timeshares on Google
Google recently has made optimization a requirement for landing pages. Landing pages are where all those little PPC ads point. Relevant content to the prospect's search term needs to reside on the landing page, or suddenly the advertiser needs to pony up a much higher bid to stay there. It underscores what we've been saying all along: relevant content really matters.
Pay-per-click engines have very sophisticated ways of pulling money out of your company's pocket. The first assumption is that highest bids will get you to the top of the page...the most valuable real estate on the Web. What many people don't notice is that you don't own that top space. For popular search terms, there are many bidders willing to pay top dollar, but there's only a limited amount of top space. So Google has created "timeshares" for these penthouse positions. It cycles through dozens of ads, with clusters of "top bidders." (To check if this affects your ads, just hit "refresh" and see if your ad is still there.) We have seen up to five clusters in contention, meaning that our ads are only reaching 20% of the Total Available Search Market for this particular engine.
That's another reason to invest the time and effort in getting high rankings in the search engine results pages by way of natural, "organic" site optimization. By creating a site optimization strategy using 25 important keyword phrases, we positioned one client's site immediately in the Top 20 for all these terms, with 15 ranking in the Top 10 and three No.1 rankings. Net result was a 300% increase in visibility—and traffic. Increasing visibility, and optimizing for more transactional, more product-specific search terms, increases sales substantially...about 2x what you might expect. If your customer uses the Web to look for a solution, but she can't find you, it really doesn't matter how good your product is—you aren't going to make a sale.
TASM and Search Competitiveness
RefreshWeb is a business that helps its clients win: Win in search rankings. Win by attracting good leads. Win by filling the pipeline. Win by using search terms to identify the buyers. What is the definition of winning, when it comes to organic search?
Unlike a horse race, search is a race that never stops. It is a race where the judges can and do regularly change the rules in mid-stride. The horses in the race are not the websites of our clients and their primary competitors. Instead, the horses are the keyword phrases on which they make a strategic decision to compete. In short, search is like dozens of horse races being run concurrently, without a defined finish line. What is a winner in that context?
This is the heart of the issue in evaluating the search competitiveness of a company's website. It is very much keyword-by-keyword combat and must be evaluated as such—because the real game is in the adjustments you make upon evaluating real-time data. The popularity of search phrases ebbs and flows, with the sum total of searches on relevant terms composing the current Total Available Search Market™...a metric with meaning. The data stream is constant and the adjustments are constant, as are those of all competitors.
SEO and SEM are becoming more important and critical to meeting customers—on their terms. What's driving this? Two things: First and foremost, clients want it. Clients realize that the Web is the first stop for information and referrals about purchases, particularly for new products and particularly in the B2B space. And second, search engine referrals are gold, whether they are from organic search or pay-per-click—they indicate prospects who are already motivated, who are looking for a solution and are now actively considering a purchase. Search marketing puts your product or service right in front of these new prospective customers at exactly the right moment.
Specializing in marketing technology-based companies since 1987, and active in Internet marketing since 1992, John Rasco's skills as a marketer, team leader and strategist are key to successful client engagements. Founder of Brand X Austin and RefreshWeb, a national B2B web marketing agency, John has an entrepreneurial gene, a creative bent and a passion for challenging projects.
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Meeting Customers on Their Own Terms...Their Search Terms (Part 1)
"Top-down" marketing was dying a slow, unattractive death, even before the Web took over the world. The advertising dollars, creativity, number of repetitions needed for retention, and everything else needed to launch, maintain, and build a brand were increasing every year, along with the odds against success.
Enter the Web, where everybody could find everything and talk about it to everybody else for no marginal cost. The idea of "bottom-up," word of mouth marketing, generally not much more than a gleam in some marketing professors' eyes, became a reality. In business-to-business, it has become more than that—it has become THE decision-making environment. For a major purchase, 98% of the people involved in making that decision will have accessed Google before the decision is made (Enquiro B2B Survey, 2007).
For most B2B purchases, particularly first-time purchases and technology products, the Web is the only source for information. Studies show that, in the B2B market, over 75 percent of purchasers searching for a new solution begin their search on the Web. Since 92 percent of all U.S. search traffic occurs on Google, Yahoo and MSN, we really need to gain an understanding of performance on these three search engines. (comScore data, 6/2007) The issue is how to measure search, to provide our clients with an objective measure of their performance on the major search engines.
Rankings, Visibility and Readership:
How Many People Are You Reaching? When someone uses a search engine to find a solution, typically he opens up a search engine, usually Google (over 77 % of B2B searches), inputs a search phrase of two to five words, and gets a whole bunch of search results back—often millions of listings assembled ten at a time on separate pages. The searcher then clicks on listings—or, as is increasingly the case (especially with young men), refines the search and then clicks, refines and clicks—until he finds his topic. To the searcher, the efficiency of a search engine is probably measured by how few listings he needs to explore to find what he is looking for.
There has been considerable research on the "readership" of each page of search results. In the B2B arena, we believe 100% of searchers see the first three listings, up to 90% review listings 4 through 10, and about 50% go on to the second page. After that, readership declines rapidly—a small fraction of searchers reach the third page.
So how do we measure this process? It is important to know that the number of incidences of search phrases is carefully measured. We developed the Total Available Search Market™ metric, or TASM™, to evaluate our clients' potential search phrases to find the best candidates. We make a list of our client's search phrases, measure the number of times that phrase was used in the course of a month, measure the client's position on a search engine result page for that phrase, and do the math to measure out how many people will see the client's listing when they input a particular search phrase. The math is easy—what is not immediately intuitive is the reality that creating a useful metric means not trying to do too much. What makes for good marketing intelligence is "actionability"—a metric that is too reductive decreases the ability of our clients to act on the data we are giving them. We need to keep our eyes trained on the performance of the important keyword phrases in order to have a sense that we are attracting the "most, best targeted" traffic to the website. That kind of focus—keyword by keyword—is critical to developing an effective natural search strategy. It is even more important when adjusting and tweaking the website.
(This is Part 1 of a two-part article. Next: The Relentless Art and Sweet Science of Keyword Selection)
Specializing in marketing technology-based companies since 1987, and active in Internet marketing since 1992, John Rasco's skills as a marketer, team leader and strategist are key to successful client engagements. Founder of Brand X Austin and RefreshWeb, a national B2B internet marketing agency, John has an entrepreneurial gene, a creative bent and a passion for challenging projects.
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The 4 Key Areas of Trust (Method 1)
The last time we've identified 4 key areas where you can build trust on your site. We'll show you how to implement trust-building techniques in these 4 areas.
The areas to focus on are:
1. Transparency:
2. The Human Touch:
3. Customer Care
4. Privacy and Security:
So let's get started on these 4 methods through which you can build trust.
Method 1: Be Transparent
Unless you own physical stores or happen to be a trusted brand name reseller, one of your very first hurdles in building trust is showing your online visitors that you're "real." All you need to do is be transparent.
On your site, clearly state your address, phone number and better yet, reveal your picture, credentials and signature. Follow these guidelines to make your website more transparent:
Show Photos of Yourself or Your Staff
All else being equal, if you give people the option of dealing with a real-live person or a faceless corporation, they will choose real people every time.
If you're a small business, you are effectively your own brand. Use this advantage by prominently displaying your photo and signature on your website. If your site relies on your expert advice or name you might want to put the picture on the first page. Otherwise the picture could be on the About Us or Contact page.
A digital image of your signature (make one up if you're afraid of someone copying your original signature) can also be used to create trust. This signature can be placed below your Guarantee or Sales Letter.
Create a Logo
No matter how small your business, by all means - place a logo on your site. A decent logo can be purchased online for under $100.
A logo immediately establishes trust and credibility as long as it looks well designed. Don't worry about establishing your "timeless" corporate logo over days of brainstorming and soul searching. You can do that over time.
If you have a site up right now - consider getting a temporary logo from a logo mill and placing it prominently on the top left hand corner of your site.
Eye-tracking studies show the upper-left corner to be the most viewed section of your site and this is an ideal place to put your logo, company name and anything else you wish to sink into the customer's mind such as your brand statement.
A logo is so important for building trust that you should fork out that $39 and get a generic logo while you build your company's identity and image and decide on your permanent logo.
Contact Information
Display your contact info prominently on your Contact Us or Customer Support page. The contact info should include your physical address, phone number and email address.
We've heard of a website that saw its orders jump by 30% after it added a phone number to every page on the site.
If your site targets customers within the US but you happen to be outside the US, consider using Skype to buy a US phone number which forwards on to your local phone number. For only a few dollars a year you can have a US number being forwarded to your landline or mobile phone anywhere in the world.
Where should you place your contact information? Your complete address should be on your Contact Us Page. Also include a phone number and email. We also recommend including a phone number on the upper right hand side of EVERY page on your site.
If you do not have the capacity to handle too many calls, an email address will do. Keep in mind that phone numbers create a higher level of trust.
Your Bio or Company Profile
What should the bio or company profile contain?
1. Any piece of information that makes the visitor LIKE you. One of the first principles of sales is that people buy from people they LIKE. What's likeable about you? It could be a unique hobby, the fact that you have grandkids, or that you love your pets. Share yourself online and don't be shy.
2. Information that makes the visitor RELATE to you. People buy from people who are SIMILAR to them. Your gardening site likely attracts a lot of gardeners, so create a bond with them by sharing information on yourself so they can see just how similar you are.
3. Information that shows your EXPERTISE. If you're an expert on the topic your site is devoted to - share this. People respect experts. If you do not wish to create a single face for your company, write about your business story instead. Talk about how the business was started, your vision, goals, the early hardship you encountered, the joy of running the business and the way it was growing. These all make for excellent stories. And these honest, personal stories build trust.
Language
The internet is a conversational medium so talk like a real person and avoid annoying corporate-speak. In fact, one of the surest ways we've found to identify incompetent businesses and experts is by observing the language they use on the web.
When a website opens with "our goal is to optimize the client-business relationship by strategically aligning core elements of your web infrastructure to create a highly convergent....." we know this company knows little about the web business. On the Web - speak like a Human Being!
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com
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