Brand New. 10 Secret And Effective Marketing Strategies

Marketing is one of the most important business factors. From my experience, I have just listed 10 effective marketing strategies that have helped my marketing development, and hope will help your business,too. Here are 10 secret and effective marketing strategies.

1. Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic. Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business advertisement at the top of the director's home page. This technique will get lots of people to linkto your web site and give you free advertising.

2. Do you have a product or service that doesn't sell good? Offer it as a free bonus for someone else's product or service. Get free advertising by placing your web site or business ad on the product or in the product package.

3. Trade autoresponder ads with other businesses. If both of you send out information with auto-responders just exchange a small classified ad to put at the bottom or top of each other's autoresponder message.

4. Start a free tip line. Offer a free daily, weekly, or monthly tip recorded on your voice mail. The tips should be related to your business. Include your ad for your web site or business at the beginning or end of your message.

5. Exchange content with other web sites and ezines. You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

6. Offer to insert ads into your product package for other businesses. Just ask, in return that they do the same for your business. You should only trade insert ads with businesses that have the same target audience.

7. Offer a free daily class in your web site's chat room. The class should be related to the subject of your business or web site. This will get people to visit your web site everyday.

8. Do you have a product that doesn't sell good? Offer it as a free bonus for another businesses product or service. You'll get free advertising by placing your web site or business ad on the free bonus.

9. Place different emotional response ads for the same product or service all over your web site. One ad may hit their hot button to buy more than another ad.

10. Publish your e-zine in e-book format. You could offer a larger number of articles per issue. It also allows you to include graphics with your ezine.Your advertising revenue would increase because you could charge businesses for large color ads.

How would you like those 10 secret marketing tips? I could have listed more than 10 marketing strategies but those 10 tips are my interesting strategies. I hope above 10 marketing strategies will increase your sales and marketing growth.

Brand Management - Beyond Marketing

In the past, the management of an organization's brand has usually been the sole domain of the organization's marketing team. However, with the evolution of the Internet and people's need for instant information, there is a greater call for public relations professionals to become more directly involved with an organization's brand management.

The Dictionary of Business and Management defines brand as: a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of competitors.

But according to Colin Bates, a brand management specialist from www.buildingbrands.com, brand means much more than that. "More accurately," he says, "brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer."

Essentially, brand is more than simply a corporate logo; it is anything people can associate an organization with, whether it is a paid advertisement or an article found in a newspaper. This is where brand management becomes important and PR professionals must be vigilant.

It is not enough for public relations professionals to simply communicate news to the media; they must somehow communicate the persona of their organization.

For example, Google, the company that runs the best-known and most-used search engine on the Web, has a very distinctive brand. Most Internet users could visually identify its logo. However, Google's branding efforts do not stop there.

The company has worked hard to combat Internet users' doubts about the quality of Web search results. Most of the main stream search engines sell advertising in order to make money and many people have accused these companies of skewing search results for money - giving certain web sites a higher ranking in exchange for purchasing paid advertising.

However, Google is well-known for the clear division it places between its search results and its advertising business. The visual separation on Google's Web site is an example: search results are prevalent on the left and occupy at the very least 90 per cent of the page, while advertising occupies very little space and is not intrusive to the user. Most importantly, the search results are generated from the intelligence of Google's product and are not influenced by purchasing advertising.

Google makes this very clear each and every time it speaks to the media. When a spokesperson does an interview or the company issues a press release regarding its search engine, it is quick to point out the division. In fact, it says it is part of its corporate philosophy - hence, it has become part of its brand. Google is known for its technical innovation and the quality of its search results, and not as a company that is just interested in money.

Furthermore, to ensure the organization's branding is being effectively communicated to the media, it also must be properly managed.

If the brand or persona of the organization is not being properly communicated, problems can be identified through analysis of the media coverage and the necessary adjustments can be made by the PR team to get the proper message out.

By tracking key messages, taglines, or buzzwords in the media coverage, the public relations team can measure how well its organization is communicating. It could be there are stop words the PR team wants to avoid using to prevent confusion and miscommunication. These too can be measured.

Media coverage can also be measured against other performance indicators such as sales and stock prices. This could be a good indicator to measure how well a brand is being perceived in the media and with an organization's key publics.

To most companies, brand is just as important as the products they create and services they provide, and it must be properly managed. Public relations professionals have a key role to play in shaping and maintaining an organization's brand - this responsibility cannot be left solely to the organization's marketing team. Not only is the PR team responsible for communicating the brand, but it also must be vigilant through media analysis.

Boost Your Emotional Marketing Potential

Why do people buy your product? If you stack up enough benefits to outweigh the costs of purchasing it, do you automatically close the deal? It doesn't always happen, does it? Consumers are not calculating machines. They are soft, warm, breathing humans with emotions that assign meaning and personal significance to your products.

How do potential customers evaluate your products (or services)? How do they trade off various factors before deciding? How are their emotions involved in the process? Consumers--whether they realize it or not--use up to six categories of emotional criteria when they decide to purchase your product.

Technical criteria

Technical criteria relate to what your product does. Every product performs a function. It may also perform additional functions or have features that make it easier to operate or use. If your type of product has been around for a while, everyone assumes it will perform its basic function. Marketing battles are fought on the ground of extra features and ease of use.

Does your product perform its core function better, faster, or more smoothly than your competitors' products? Have you enriched your product with additional features? Is your product easier to buy and simpler to operate?

Economic/sacrifice criteria

Economic/sacrifice criteria relate to price. Consumers live in an approach/avoidance world. Your product's benefits are in a tug of war with its price and the effort it takes to purchase it. For most consumers, the psychological cost of paying for your product reduces their enjoyment of it. Several emotionally significant factors influence the maximum price you can charge for your product.

How closely does your product relate to the buyer's needs? How unique is your product? Do you charge a "fair" price? Is paying the asking price socially acceptable for your customers?

Legalistic criteria

Consumers are also guided by what others demand or want. Some potential buyers must obey legal requirements and this loss of control may be frustrating. Consumers also feel obliged to consider the needs and desires of others, like their spouse or children.

Does your product help your customer comply with any legal requirements? Can your product be made more appealing to your customer's children or spouse?

Integrative criteria

How does your product or service fit with your potential customer's social group or personal identity? Consumers belong to social groups. They face potential embarrassment if they don't conform. So they constantly try to strike a balance between group membership versus visibility and self-esteem. Any product or service that increases their self-esteem is emotionally satisfying.

Does your product help your customer express their identity? Can your product be described as "upscale" or "exclusive"?

Adaptive criteria

Consumers want to minimize any risk that they will regret their purchase later. The easiest solution is to avoid responsibility completely and trust the advice of others, preferably an expert. Consumers also lower their risk of future regret by imitating the buying habits of others that they assume are "in the know," by looking for guarantees, or by basing their decision on your reputation.

Are you able to offer endorsements from recognized experts? Do you have testimonials from satisfied customers? Do you offer a strong guarantee? Is it possible to offer a free trial or sample?

Intrinsic criteria

Intrinsic criteria relate to your product's basic nature--how much the consumer "likes" your product. Appeal to your customer's senses. How does your product look, feel, taste, smell or sound?

Curiosity is another intrinsic criterion. Consumers are always looking for something new and different. Familiar products are reassuring, but they are also boring. The trick is to not go too far. Every consumer has an optimal level of novelty and complexity that maximizes their curiosity and their desire to satisfy it. If you push beyond the optimal point, they will return to the familiar.

Is your product "refreshing" or "alluring"? How about "enchanting" or "elegant"?

If you focus only on rational behavior, then you choose to ignore enormously powerful emotional forces that ultimately make your customer's final decision. The rational argument should already be won by your product's high quality design. Creative innovation, savvy pricing, and persuasive presentation will win your customer's emotions.

Book Marketing 101

The most common mistake people make when self publishing their books is to ignore marketing until it is too late. As an author, you want your book to be the best in its category. To make it stand out from the rest, you need to market your book carefully and there are a lot of decisions to make right at the start.

Who are you planning to sell your book to? This is the most critical question you need to answer. Before taking any steps to promote your book you should be aware of who your target audience is. ‘Everybody’ is not the correct answer to this question, although it is a common answer. The more focused you are on your target audience the easier it will be for you reach them. After identifying you target audience, you should try to gather as much data about them as you can. The next step should be to outline your goals and objectives, determine your budget and implement your strategies. From there, you can then determine what form your book should take. For example, the size and weight, number of pages, type of cover, etc.

The best selling books are not necessarily the best books so it depends on how it was promoted. It used to be a common wisdom that the only way to become a best selling author was to go through a major publishing house. However, for many years, many bestsellers have actually been self published and self promoted. When deciding whether to self publish your book or not, you should examine the advantages that successful self-publishers seem to have over their not so fortunate counterparts.

Has your book already been published? You want to make sure you are going to market with something new. So make sure to do some research before putting all your effort into selling something that has already been sold. Your title will be critical in capturing your target audience so choose it carefully. Similarly, your cover should catch your target audience's eye. Think of what appeals to that particular demographic.

As writers have a reputation for being sensitive creatures, it should first of all be noted that those who plan to handle the marketing and publicity aspects of their book themselves should shed this image and possess thick hides. While sensitivity is great while writing your book, you have to alter your approach and become practical when it comes to marketing it. You should not take any negatives situations that arise personally and should feel as if all the setbacks are taking you closer to your end goal.

In this age of internet a book that is promoted through the web gains an added advantage over those which are not. Thus, to promote your book online, you should first of all have an exclusive website for it. Here you should display your book’s cover, excerpts, reviews and testimonials on the home page and provide links to distributors that carry your book. Another way to get your book noticed is by including it in a books in print database. Several online bookstores use this database. If you are not building a website for your book then you can use an email promotion campaign for promoting it. First of all, you should send a newsletter to your different email contacts. Inform them about your book and then follow up with a sales letter.

Another way to promote your book online is by creating your own blog. Having a blog has now become one of the most profitable things on the web. On your blog you can add the link to your site and depending on the popularity of your blog it can receive more than one hundred thousand hits a day.

Price is a major consideration in marketing your book. Be aware of your target audience's typical disposable income level. This can make or break successful promotion of your book.

These are some basic tips on how to start thinking about marketing your book. This is an ongoing process and will require constant re-evaluation. Become aware of what works for other authors and incorporate ideas when they make sense. Above all, have fun marketing your book!

Boating Industry Launches Marketing Campaign

For the first time in U.S. boating history, marine products manufacturers will spend millions of dollars promoting the benefits of recreational boating and boat ownership.

The National Marine Manufacturers Association's "Grow Boating" campaign and $12 million marketing blitz includes national advertising buys, direct mail and other initiatives that the industry hopes will connect with potential boaters whose free time is growing more fractionalized.

"Our goal is to make the two best days in a boater's life every Saturday and Sunday," said Thom Dammrich, president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, during a presentation to industry leaders at the recent Miami International Boat Show.

Yamaha, one of the largest marine product brands in the world, agreed to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of the campaign. Yamaha is optimistic that the money spent will further the strategies the company launched internally to make boating more attractive for families.

"We have been engaged in promoting boating as a great family activity for a number of years now and we are gratified to see the entire boating industry joining us in this endeavor," said Mark Speaks, president of Yamaha WaterCraft. "There is plenty of evidence indicating that families that boat together are healthier, happier and more successful. Any parent that has been boating with their family understands what a great way this is to renew the ties that bind the family together."

Yamaha WaterCraft Group is one of the few companies in the boating industry enjoying double-digit growth and is a major voice behind the industry's Grow Boating campaign. To meet the needs of new entrants to the boating lifestyle, Yamaha offers new, fully featured family watercraft starting around $7,000.

According to federal studies looking at U.S. recreational trends, 65 million Americans reported that they go boating annually, and 28 million Americans reported that they ride personal watercraft.

Blog Marketing for the Expert Witness

What is a blog, you ask? Short for УWeb Log,Ф itТs an increasingly popular way to self-publish online. You can actually syndicate your articles, making this a great way for experts to showcase their specialized knowledge.

Think of a blog as a form of an online journal, with frequent postings and observations on items of interest. Most blogs focus on a narrow subject area, which is ideal for experts. Hyperlinks to articles, websites and other blogs make this a very interactive medium that encourages audience participation.

The Pew Internet Study estimates that about 11% of Internet users Ц translating to 50 million people - are regular blog readers. Technorati, which claims to be the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs, tracks almost 42 million blogs.

Lawyers are active bloggers. According to an online survey conducted by Blogads.com late last year, 6.1% of bloggers work in the legal profession. The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association discovered that the majority of section members surveyed read at least one blog regularly and almost 20% publish their own blog.

The best way to understand a blog is to look at a few. The Google Blog has a very simple appearance. By contrast, some blogs in the legal market can be very sophisticated, like E-Discovery Law offered by Preston Gates & Ellis LLP or the ERISA Blog maintained by The Law Office of B. Janell Grenier. Law Professor Blogs offers a rich network of links to law blogs maintained by legal academics.

Three reasons to start a blog

1. Blog software is frequently free or nominally priced

2. Blogs increase your search engine rankings

3. Postings get widespread distribution through syndication

If you like to write and have information to share about your area of expertise, a blog can be a great marketing tool.

Three cautions before you start blogging

Look before you leap into a blog. Launching a professional looking blog requires careful advance planning. Here are some pointers to keep in mind:

1. Create a strategic framework for the type of information you intend to publish

2. Post new content frequently to keep your blog fresh

3. Take advantage of syndication features to maximize the reach of your blog

Basically, make sure you have the time to maintain your blog with high quality and timely information. Just because you get named as an expert on a big case is no excuse to neglect or abandon your blog.

Blog publishing services

Now, letТs say you are interested and want to find out more about launching a blog. One place to start is with your website hosting service. Chances are you can link a blog to your website for a small additional monthly fee. I host with GoDaddy for example, and they offer blog software for as little as $2.99 per month.

Leading blog services include Blogger (owned by Google), TypePad and Moveable Type (both owned by Six Apart Ltd.), and WordPress. LexBlog targets the legal market with a full-service offering that includes strategic design, implementation and training.

Blog features encourage interaction

The beauty of the blog is the way it allows you to organize, archive and syndicate your articles. Here are a few features you should consider:

.Archives A calendar on the front page of your blog can link readers to articles posted on a certain date. You can also organize articles by author or alphabetically.

.Blogrolls Present your readers with a sidebar list of other blogs on related topics that you recommend.

.Email a friend Add a button to your blog for easy emailing.
News Feeds. RSS (УReally Simple SyndicationФ) is a blog technique that allows you to easily distribute your postings to other blogs. Interested parties can also come to your blog and quickly set up an automatic feed of your news for publication on their site. Read more about feeds at Wikipedia.

.Reader Feedback Allow your readers to comment on your blog postings to maximize audience interest. Some of the techniques used for this purpose include trackbacks, pingbacks or comment moderation.

.Permalinks Give your postings a static URL so that readers can easily share links or revisit a favorite posting.

The Internet is in a constant state of evolution, with blogs being the latest example. Have fun and happy blogging! Write us if you have any questions or comments.

Best Super Smart Affiliate Marketing Blueprint

The young and very successful affiliate marketer Avery Berman has one of the Best Super Smart Affiliate Marketing Blueprints. But is the money you pay for it worth it?


Well, I must admit I am a skeptic when it comes to people trying to sell me stuff on the internet, but viewing Avery's video and chatting to him on instant messaging I was convinced enough to buy it and I would definitely say the money is worth it. Following is a brief overview of this fantastic guide.


If you have gone through Avery Berman's site you will realize he is a kid who started out at the very tender age of 13 and he did lose quite a bit of his dad's money when he first started out with internet marketing - over 1000's of dollars. However he was convinced that he could make it work and kept on trying. Today at the age of 18 he is making thousands of dollars a month, yes in a month. Niche marketing is the key method to his success with making money on the internet.


The first step to Niche Marketing is to find out who wants to buy your product and make sure that they will actually pay money for that product. The blueprint contains such sites where you can start finding your niche market.


The second step is sell the product that the customer actually wants to buy. You can become an affiliate marketer or you market resell products. Products such as software or even an e-book download, the product need not necessarily be a physical one.


The third step would be to promote your niche product. Bringing out your product in the fastest most efficient manner is the key to success. This can be done by building a Squidoo lens or there are many social bookmarking sites. This is just a brief outline but Avery Berman's Blueprint gives it to you in detail.


Finally, I would urge you, do not waste time even though you may have lost money trying your hand at internet marketing and thinking all is lost just get the blueprint and start making money fast. You will not regret it.

Basic Marketing Dope

Sometimes the simplest data is the best. Marketing is not complex if you know the basics Ц thatТs true with anything by the way. Here are some tools that are brilliantly simple and with them you really wonТt have to sweat the small stuff.

Hot Dope #1) The more that your potential customers see your name in front of them, the more likely they are to call your number (and not someone elseТs) when they need the services you offer.

Many marketing efforts go unrewarded, not because they were off target but simply because they werenТt given enough of an opportunity to work. Showing your TV commercial one time, running an ad in the newspaper once, or doing one mailing of postcards may not be enough to grab and keep the audienceТs attention.

Get your name out there, do it on a regular basis and people will remember you when they need someone in your line of business. Actually, this particular УHot DopeФ cannot be stressed enough Ц and failure to adhere to it is the #1 reason new businesses fail.

You should also know that taking the time to really see which pieces will generate the response you want will pay off. DonТt just totally give up when a response is low Ц persistence is vital.

Hot dope # 2) Measure your Return On Investment (ROI) in terms of actual MONEY not response rate. An advertising vehicle is working when the MONEY that it brings in has more value than the MONEY and time that is spent on the marketing.

DonТt fall into the trap of becoming discouraged by a small number of callers responding to a large number of pieces. If you spend several hundred dollars to be in the view of a few thousand possible leads, it may only take a few customers responding for you to make enough of a profit for this type of marketing to be valuable. The usefulness of any vehicle can only be determined after the amount of income generated by the promotion has been calculated. If you spend 1/5 of what you generate or generate 5 times what you spend, your campaign was successful.

Hot dope #3) It is much easier to "sell" a prospect once you get them to call or come in to your store. In 2-Step Marketing, step 1 is to get them interested; step 2 is having them speak to a representative to get all the details Ц and get УclosedФ by that representative.

Your design must be eye catching and informative, but donТt try to close the sale by explaining all of the details in one piece of advertising. The details of a business transaction often take many more words to explain than the main concept of what is being sold. For example, if your company offers great prices depending on the quantity purchased, there is no need to list the prices for every quantity that you sell. Simply give examples of two or three different quantities and state somewhere in the advertisement that other discounts are available for other quantities. This will prompt them to call to get the rest of the details once you have gotten their interest.

Marketing can be as simple as 1-2-3 when you know the basics. By no means have I given you all the basics here, but by learning and implementing these 3 marketing fundamentals, you are already on your way to marketing success!

Backend Profit Secrets And Viral Marketing

Once you truly understand the power of backend profits, youТll explode your marketing results and create an unstoppable viral machine.

The techniques I will reveal to you have often been taught in many marketing courses and articlesЕbut they are still underutilized because of two words - Уtunnel vision.Ф

Backend profits means the additional income that you earn from a customer. The first purchase from a customer is the front end profits while the second purchase and so forth will be your backend.

The really good marketers understand that the most money will be made on the backend.

Here are a couple reasons why:

You can charge higher prices for backend products because youТve already built a relationship with your customer.

They already know the quality of your product and of your customer service. You no longer have to convince them that youТre credible and that your information is good.

You only have to convince them that your backend product is higher quality than your front end product and that they NEED the backend product.

Trust is one of the single most important components of selling. You can earn that trust by providing a good front end product.

Most marketers do not truly understand the power of the backend and thatТs a fact.

I know because I see very few affiliate programs which pay higher than 50% commission.

Think about this for a minute.

LetТs say you sell your product for $50 and you give 50% commission. You have 5 affiliates who each make 10 sales each.

You pocket $1,250 after paying commissions. You now have 50 customers. Five of them end up purchasing your $100 backend product for a profit of $500. Total profits is $1,750 for you.

Now letТs consider giving away 75% commission to your affiliates.

By giving away higher commissions, you get 10 affiliates instead of the 5. Ten affiliates making 10 sales each at $50 will make you $1,250 - which is the same front end profits as before.

Now you have 100 customers and make 10 backend sales for $1,000 profit.

So how did you end up making more when you increased your affiliate commissions by 25 percent? You made it on the backend.

HereТs what is happening behind the curtain as you increase your commissions.

You gain more affiliates and subscribers as those affiliates send you more traffic to your site.

Those affiliates are happier with their higher paycheck because you gave them higher commissions. Therefore, they will continue to send traffic to your site.

This cycle increases your traffic over time as you gain more customers, more affiliates and more subscribers.

ItТs the ultimate viral marketing machine!

More subscribers equal more profits. More customers equals more profits. More affiliates equals more profits.

So is all that worth a hit on your front end profits?

Yes!

The problem most people have is they canТt stand to see their affiliates making more than them. Tunnel vision keeps them from seeing all the extra subscribers, customers and affiliates which could be theirs.

Please remember one thing about running your affiliate program.

A 75% reduction in profits is better than a 100% reduction, which is the case if the affiliate had not made ANY sale.

In summary, you should create an affiliate program for your front end product which gives away a majority of the profits.

You should also spend your time creating multiple backend products.

If the type of product you're selling requires manual work and it's not worth it for you to give higher commissions then an option for you is to create a different front-end product which will serve as a portal into your product line.

Your main goal in creating an 'intro' product is to use it to gain more traffic to your site. When you get the traffic, you should capture as many prospects as you can into your marketing funnel.

When you have more leads in your marketing funnel, you can control where they go by directing them within your follow-up emails.

A Reality Check On Your Marketing Strategy

The 'Marketing Strategy' is the way we have come up with for achieving our marketing goals and it should include two mandatory elements:

- Which target consumers whom we can reach, hold a viable potential to buy whatever we intend to sell?

- What is the offer (the entire marketing mix) we will be presenting to these consumers in order to appeal to them and thus realize the said potential, given their alternatives?

You must not think of these as two separate questions but rather as two parts of the same idea. Let me clarify. What are "target consumers with a potential to buy"? These are consumers (a sizeable enough group with buying power) likely to desire what you are offering. Why would they want it? That is the potential that you are supposed to identify. There may be several reasons. For example, maybe they are not consumers of your kind of product yet, however, they might be if something happens, or if they are exposed to a certain message. It could be that they have special needs or preferences, which up until today were not catered to by any of your competitors' offers (and don't forget that psychological, social, aesthetic needs are real needs). Maybe they are bored with what they routinely buy. When you identify such a situation, you know that the potential is there.

Identifying potential is only the initial stage of your mission, of course. Your strategy would also have to include something that you are going to offer these consumers that might improve their situation in a certain way, solve a problem, give them more than what they already get for the same price, or open new opportunities for them. In short, something that will motivate them to buy from you and thus materialize the potential.

The 'Marketing Scenario' is a synopsis of the logic of your marketing strategy. In the same breath, it also enables you to make sure that that logic really works. The 'Marketing Scenario' translates the 'Marketing Strategy' to simple everyday language. How will it happen in reality? How will the materialization of marketing goals occur? I don't know whether or not you have already sunk in this fact, but marketing goals are achieved through customer acts. So, let's assume that we install a webcam with enhanced psychological insight capabilities inside the market and that it captures the materialization of our marketing plan, one purchase after another.

What is the 'Marketing Scenario'?

The 'Marketing Scenario' is an amazingly simple tool to use: Only four questions. Are you jotting this down?

1. Who are the people who we believe have the potential of buying what we intend to sell? Yes, these are the same people we so often refer to as the 'Target Consumers'. First, we must define our targets. What do these people have in common that makes them probable prospects (in the sense that they are likely to be particularly interested in our offer)? We could use demographic, socioeconomic, psychographic, as well as lifestyle descriptions. Note that at times, we target not a specific group but a wide almost indefinable group of people in a specific mood, a specific situation, or a specific need or state.
Make room for another possibility. You can target not a defined group of consumers but rather a state of need/desire or a consumption context shared by many diverse consumers at one time or another.

2. What precisely should they be doing (that they are not doing already and will probably not do if we will not intervene), that would direct them to eventually choose our brand specifically? It is, by the way, the first and only objective of branding. What do they have to do so that your marketing plan will materialize (even before the actual purchase)? Do they have to go somewhere? To call? To agree to meet your salesperson? To stop and pick out your product from the shelf? Which activity, which does not occur today, would lead them in the correct path on the way to buying?

3. What is the sound reason that should motivate them to change their behavioral inertia? How will they benefit from that change? Why would you, in their place, buy what you are offering? You can think of it as your differentiating factor (what makes you differentially better?), or as your competitive advantage (what makes you comparatively better?), according to your preference. What could make their situation better compared to their current standing and to the other options available to them in the market?

4. How exactly will they extract the benefit (that which answers question 3) according to your marketing plan? That is not a repeat question. Notice that the third question dealt with the 'why' of the target consumer's planned motivation, and now, we are trying to understand the 'how' of your marketing plan. How are you planning to provide the benefit defined in the answer to question 3? If, for instance, you said before that you are making something more accessible, easy or comfortable for them, now explain how it will become more accessible, easy or comfortable, due to you product.

Let us look at an example: The introduction of Palm Pilot to the market. O.K.? Just the main points:

1. "Residents" of the business community, gadgets fans, who manage a dynamic, constantly changing schedule, and have not yet embraced the electronic organizers, or were disappointed by them because of their being laborious to update and generally unreliable.
2. ... will step into the nearest office equipment store and ask about the Palm Pilot.
3. ... because at last there is an organizer which is not only sophisticated, small and wonderfully shaped, but is also easily kept up to date and preserves the stored data when damaged or when upgrading to a new model
4. ... because the Palm Pilot can 'converse' with the PC, making the updating process a simple task to perform, as well as enabling creation of backups which could be easily transferred on to the next generations of organizers.

That is what the 'Marketing Scenario' is all about. All you have to do is answer the questions. Be precise. Be thorough. Be honest. Do it in writing. Even if you're absolutely sure that the answers are positively clear to you and there's nothing to be gained. Only when your 'Marketing Scenario' is totally translated to a written text, should you go on and proceed with the brand development process. Otherwise, you will get trapped along the way, and don't say I didn't warn you.

A Look at the Marketing Potential of Booklet Printing

Need to advertise your products? Want to communicate your latest services? Businesses often look for ways to advertise their product in the most inexpensive means. Booklet printing is one of the answers to the high cost of brochure printing. Full color booklets are great for pamphlets, product booklets, annual reports, sales catalogs and consumer catalogs among others.

There is no doubt that color adds life to any printed material. It enhances its appearance, thus, making it an effective means of communication. A well chosen color for your booklet can mean the difference between a stirring material and a lousy piece of paper. Remember that your goal is to attract as many customers as possible and the right choice of color can help you do the job. Every time a customer takes hold of your booklet, it brings profit to your business and at the same time promotes your product to a larger audience.

Experts have said that full color increases name recognition and readership compared to black and white prints. The four colors namely cyan, magenta, yellow and black used in color printing creates many color shades that produce attractive print outs. When you use full color printing you may be able to achieve color consistency. The computer controlled inking and chemical mixing technique maintains consistent quality making full color printing the choice of most businesses. Keep in mind though that the more inks you use, the more expensive it is. So before you get a print job done, it is always a good idea to talk to your printer first. They can help you decide how many colors and which one to use in your print job to accomplish your goals.

Color printing can be very inexpensive especially if you use a standard weigh and color paper. Most printers today also have machines that can produce print jobs at faster turnaround time and lower prices. Remember also that the more you print, the lower the cost. So consider bulk buying if you need a lot of copies of your booklets to reduce the printing cost.

Nonetheless, the possibilities that your booklet can give your business are endless. Thus, designing it effectively can help boost your business and increase cash inflows. Whatever your choice of colors and design, with careful planning you will be able to make the most out of your budget.

A Great Logo Is A Marketing Must-Have. But Is It Affordable For Small Business?

And is having a logo really that important? My answer to both of these questions is an emphatic YES!

A logo is a graphic or visual representation of your brand. Your brand is your business, product or service and what it stands for. It's whatever you are out in the marketplace selling.

Why do small businesses need a logo?

Why can't they just market using their company name? Logos are expensive, right? Can a small business owner really afford to get a logo? Or at least a good logo? Lots of questions. Some I'm sure you've pondered yourself at one time or another.

I believe ALL businesses should have a logo

You need a graphic element that captures the essence of your business and communicates an idea to your prospects and customers. A mark that can lead the look and feel of all of your marketing materials.

You only have a split second to grab someone's attention

You need to make the most of that time. A good logo mark can communicate a message or intrigue a prospect to want to find out more.

Before you decide you can't afford a good logo

Let me assure you that is absolutely NOT the case. Look, I've been in the ad agency business for 20 years. During that time I've worked with some of the most talented graphic artists and designers in the business. But even I did not turn to them when I needed a logo for my small business. Why? I couldn't. They were simply too expensive for my small business budget. So what did I do? I found a great alternative that's inexpensive, fast and good.

LogoWorks

For $300 to $500 you'll get a variety of logo designs to choose from and you'll have them within just a few days. Plus you'll get several rounds of revisions to make sure you are completely happy with your final mark.

What I like most about Logoworks

They require you to complete a creative direction worksheet that ensures their designs are strategically on target with your brand. This is KEY if you want your logo to be a good representation of your business. If anyone offers to design a logo for you without some form of creative brief or direction worksheet, don't do it!

Avoiding Marketing Money Pits

Is your business bombarded by sales and other marketing professionals telling you that the products or services they are offering are in the best interest of effective and cost reducing methods to market your organization? Finding your way through the maze of offers, opportunities and avoiding potential money pits highlights the importance for all businesses regardless of size to have a strategic marketing plan that is implemented and followed.

It is a tough market place for any small business and information is the key to making wise marketing decisions and for the survival of any business or organization. The relevance of a strategic marketing plan can not be under stated. It is unfortunate but all to common that people under the disguise of professionals in marketing and sales will boast their products and services as the most effective and cost reducing methods to market your business. Additionally, by writing articles or giving lectures for example, they attempt to give their claims a form of legitimacy. Beware of people making extraordinary claims, a true professional wants to sell you their product or service but also retains the integrity to learn your business and knows when the product or service is not a good fit. The benefit for this type of sales or marketing professional is your loyalty and trust in future business transactions.

A strategic marketing plan helps a business to avoid potential money pits that waste valuable marketing dollars in expenditures that may appear to cost less but have minimal or no measurable results. Simply because something may cost less and other businesses are participating does not make it a solid marketing decision for your organization and certainly does not guarantee successful results. Regardless of the ticket price if it does not produce measurable results and drive business to your establishment it is a money pit.

There are many good examples on the internet of people under the disguise of professionals boasting their products or services as sound marketing advice. One of these claims is that a business could inexpensively build brand recognition through the purchase of low cost promotional items with the organizations name or logo embossed on them; items such as pens, tablets, calendars, magnets, and much more. The problem is that this technique offers minimal to no measurable success in brand building, but more importantly does nothing to draw new customers into the business.

In terms of simple math, if an advertising business were to spend the same money that would be spent on embossed promotional items in traditional media channels such as print, radio, or television for example with an expected 2% rate of return and a minimal exposure of 12,000 individuals gives the advertising business the opportunity for 240 customers for that expenditure. If only 30% of the 2% actually make a purchase that provides the business with 72 new transactions. A business can multiply its average transaction price by 72 to see the real potential income from this one marketing expenditure. Another benefit is brand awareness that would be gained through the advertisement and the opportunity to build customers for life. Furthermore, to entice repeat business and brand loyalty the organization can offer its customers coupons. This method promotes customer appreciation and can be a low cost marketing method.

Moreover, with any marketing expenditure a business should always perform a cost benefit analysis in correlation with its strategic marketing plan. Simply, if it does not offer measurable results, drive new business, and build brand awareness it is a money pit.

Automotive Marketing... The 3 Mistakes Everyone Makes Marketing To Car Dealers

When trying to sell a car dealer your products or services most sales are lost because of these 3 reasons.

The main reason that your sales are not where they should be is because most dealers never receive your message. Unless you are a huge company with an advertising budget in the millions most dealership owners and general managers will never see your message. Car Dealers are constantly bombarded with everything from window decals to water filtration systems and averages state that your prospect will have to see your message at least 7 times before they will have a favorable opinion about your products and services. How many times are your dealers seeing your message?

Another important point that happens in most campaigns is the message is too long. You must have copy that gets right to the point. If your message is 7 pages long and requires the prospect to spend 15 minutes reading it chances are they wont. Take a look at the length and see what points you really need to make. Most marketing and sales agents make the mistake of tyring to sell the prospect with their copy and adding in every little feature and benefit about their product. Instead offer a teaser approach and get them to contact you for additional information. This will allow you to focus on hot prospects while testing your marketing message.

The final reason that most campaign fail is not using enough marketing mediums to contact your prospect. We all know that an appointment with the decision maker offers the best opportunity to sell your product or service, but in the automotive marketing world we all know that is next to impossible. With the phone being the next best followed by direct mail and internet marketing. You must make an effort to use every form to reach your dealers. How many are you currently using?

Attorney Marketing Ц Boosting Revenues With No Added Costs

Attorney marketing can encompass a number of areas. You might have a media campaign; direct mail, educational marketing, PR, Internet or you might focus your legal marketing on building a referral network. Whatever your attorney marketing approaches, you can focus, assure and enhance your positive results with an effective weekly planning meeting and appropriate delegation.

If you start out attorney marketing without any sort of direction or plan, it is also likely you will be wasting money, right? In target shooting it is Уready, aim, and then fire Ц so too with attorney marketing. Well, the trick is to continue this thinking throughout the marketing life of your firm. The need for focused lawyer marketing does not run out like a warranty. The marketplace, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your circumstances change over time and so should your legal marketing stance.

How To Do An Effective Weekly Planning Meeting:

Each week, it is imperative that you sit down with yourself and some paper and get focused on your lawyer marketing. This is your time to think about the practice and where it is going, to consider your mission and goals and what you can do to make them real, and to take a good look at the status of your attorney marketing.

The meeting itself should be scheduled on your calendar as at least a thirty-minute block of time. You should have no interruptions and be able to hold the meeting each Friday towards the end of the day or perhaps early Monday morning. Out of this meeting, you will come up with a fully prioritized to do list as well as a clearer picture of where the practice stands and what you need to do to meet the long term goals of the firm, in your personal life, and in attorney marketing.

How to Make/Prioritize Your Empowering List:

For the first part of your meeting pull out your firm mission and 1, 5, 10-year goals (if you have them Ц if not do make them) and review them. Next put something on your Уweekly to do listФ that will further at least one of your firm one year goals (you can put more of course). Next, put down the items of all types that must (or it would be best if completed) get done during the upcoming week. Now, for each task, you need to rank it using the letters A, B, and C. To do this ranking A = important and must be done by a lawyer; B = less important and does not require a lawyer (although you personally might have to do it); C = not very important and does not require a lawyer (although you personally might have to do it).

Next, among the AТs, rank each item with either a 1, 2, or 3. The items marked with a 1 must be done within two days. The items marked with a 2 must be done in three to five days, and the items marked with a 3 can wait until next week if necessary. Do the same with the Bs and Cs.

For example, if you have some attorney marketing task that needs to be done by Monday, then you would mark it an A1. If you have a client that needs specific information from their file by Friday, you would probably mark it a B2 and delegate that to a paralegal. If you have a doctor's appointment on Friday it would also be a C2 since it does not require a lawyer but you need to do it although you could reschedule it if necessary.

Delegating Tasks:

Delegate any tasks that are B or C level of importance if you possibly can. If you canТt delegate it ask yourself why? No staff? Not enough staff? Not trained the staff? Staff not effective? Fix these issues so you can delegate. Create a form to use that you can give to each team member. Include the following information for each task:

╖ TodayТs date
╖ Due date for task
╖ What is to be done
╖ Who is responsible for this task
╖ Why the task is important
╖ How often to report to you on progress or status
╖ Further instructions

The goal here is to stop doing as many B and C tasks as you possibly can. You make your money doing things lawyers do (associate, partner and managing partner lawyer things) not other things. This will free up your time to do more A tasks, and you can attend to important matters like growing your practice through attorney marketing. If you have associates now you can do less technical work and do more legal marketing that is the lifeblood of any practice.

You should always keep your marketing goals in mind as you prioritize your list and delegate tasks. The success of your attorney marketing will grow as the skill and effectiveness of your managerial and entrepreneurial time and skills grow.

Attorney Marketing Ц Boosting Revenues With No Added Cost

Attorney marketing can encompass a number of areas. You might have a media campaign; direct mail, educational marketing, PR, Internet or you might focus your legal marketing on building a referral network. Whatever your attorney marketing approaches, you can focus, assure and enhance your positive results with an effective weekly planning meeting and appropriate delegation.

If you start out attorney marketing without any sort of direction or plan, it is also likely you will be wasting money, right? In target shooting it is Уready, aim, and then fire" Ц so too with attorney marketing. Well, the trick is to continue this thinking throughout the marketing life of your firm. The need for focused lawyer marketing does not run out like a warranty. The marketplace, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your circumstances change over time and so should your legal marketing stance.

How To Do An Effective Weekly Planning Meeting

Each week, it is imperative that you sit down with yourself and some paper and get focused on your lawyer marketing. This is your time to think about the practice and where it is going, to consider your mission and goals and what you can do to make them real, and to take a good look at the status of your attorney marketing.

The meeting itself should be scheduled on your calendar as at least a thirty-minute block of time. You should have no interruptions and be able to hold the meeting each Friday towards the end of the day or perhaps early Monday morning. Out of this meeting, you will come up with a fully prioritized to do list as well as a clearer picture of where the practice stands and what you need to do to meet the long term goals of the firm, in your personal life, and in attorney marketing.

How to Make/Prioritize Your Empowering List

For the first part of your meeting pull out your firm mission and 1, 5, 10-year goals (if you have them Ц if not do make them) and review them. Next put something on your Уweekly to do listФ that will further at least one of your firm one year goals (you can put more of course). Next, put down the items of all types that must (or it would be best if completed) get done during the upcoming week. Now, for each task, you need to rank it using the letters A, B, and C. To do this ranking A = important and must be done by a lawyer; B = less important and does not require a lawyer (although you personally might have to do it); C = not very important and does not require a lawyer (although you personally might have to do it).

Next, among the AТs, rank each item with either a 1, 2, or 3. The items marked with a 1 must be done within two days. The items marked with a 2 must be done in three to five days, and the items marked with a 3 can wait until next week if necessary. Do the same with the Bs and Cs.

For example, if you have some attorney marketing task that needs to be done by Monday, then you would mark it an A1. If you have a client that needs specific information from their file by Friday, you would probably mark it a B2 and delegate that to a paralegal. If you have a doctor's appointment on Friday it would also be a C3 since it does not require a lawyer but you need to do it although you could reschedule it if necessary.

Delegating Tasks

Delegate any tasks that are B or C level of importance if you possibly can. If you canТt delegate it ask yourself why? No staff? Not enough staff? Not trained the staff? Staff not effective? Fix these issues so you can delegate. Create a form to use that you can give to each team member. Include the following information for each task:

    TodayТs date
    Due date for task
        What is to be done
    Who is responsible for this task
    Why the task is important
    How often to report to you on progress or status
    Further instructions

The goal here is to stop doing as many B and C tasks as you possibly can. You make your money doing things lawyers do (associate, partner and managing partner lawyer things) not other things. This will free up your time to do more A tasks, and you can attend to important matters like growing your practice through attorney marketing. If you have associates now you can do less technical work and do more legal marketing that is the lifeblood of any practice.

You should always keep your marketing goals in mind as you prioritize your list and delegate tasks. The success of your attorney marketing will grow as the skill and effectiveness of your managerial and entrepreneurial time and skills grow.

Art Marketing Tips - Launch a successful business selling your art or crafts

Define your goals and get organized - What are your goals as an artist? Do you hope and dream to one day have your artwork displayed in a museum or do you just want to sell enough of your art to make a good living? Defining your goals is an important first step toward your success as an artist. Realize your long-term goal and then set reasonable and attainable short-term goals.

Build your confidence - You need to believe in yourself and your artwork. If not, your marketing efforts will be less effective as the fear of rejection will hold you back. You have to learn to take risks. No one is going to come knocking at your studio door. Get out there and meet new people, network with other artists, open a booth at an art show, etc.

Get in a business mentality – If you want to be successful with your art business, then you will have to learn how to juggle more than one task. This means learning how to become successful as a businessperson. The artists that are most successful have learned how to enjoy both creating and marketing their art.

Art fairs – Art fairs open up great doors of opportunity for artists. They enable artists to market directly to the public without the need of an agent. The public loves art fairs. They usually come to these art fairs with the intention to purchase something, which creates more opportunity for an artist to make a sale and get recognized. You can find a wealth of information about art fairs online. One such place is sunshineartist . Sunshine Artist is a great magazine that provides detailed information about art fairs and festivals. Check it out!

Follow up – You must get into the habit of following up with anyone who has shown interest or has appreciated your art. That person who saw your painting in the doctors office, or the person who took your business card at your last art show are leads who can possibly turn into paying customers. They may also be able to help you in other ways you never thought possible. It’s important therefore to keep in touch with everyone. Create a mailing list and ask your contacts if they would like to be added. You can send out mailers whenever you create a new piece, or to notify your contacts of upcoming exhibits or art fairs you will be attending.

Customer service – You must go above and beyond your customer’s expectations if you want to set yourself apart from the competition. Make sure you treat your customers and leads with the utmost professionalism. Answer all inquiries promptly. Send out thank you notes and instructions for preserving and caring for the art with all of your orders. Customer service is important to all businesses, and your art business should be no exception.

Artist agents - You are your own best agent. No one knows your art better then you, and no one can express yourself and your art better than you can. An agent generally deals with more than one artist at a time so their focus is not on you and your art alone. Agents usually charge a lot of money as well. By the time it’s all said and done, the artist doesn’t make very much on the sale. It’s better to learn the ropes yourself and learn how to reach your buyers directly.

Get your own unique website - The Internet has become a huge platform for selling goods and services. More and more people are going online then ever before and artists are taking advantage of this amazing opportunity. If you want to expand your business and reach more people on a worldwide scale, you should definitely consider getting your own website. You can market and sell your artwork directly online with your own website. Your website is also a great way to organize and showcase your art to interested galleries and the people you meet in public.

Article Marketing & Free Publicity For Your Website

An increasing number of website and business owners are turning toward a new approach to advertising and, best of all, it’s free. Article marketing, as it is technically known among webmasters, is achieved by translating expertise into a written article and effectively promoting it across the web. This can be achieved by the use of blogs, content directories and direct agreements with webmasters to publish your article in exchange for a link back to your website.

Article marketing is somewhat new in its technique, but is very effective if done properly. Free publicity is achieved as the article circulates more and more across the web. If you post your article to content directories, other webmasters may pick up your article and post it to their website with the only requirement being proper credit for the work. At the end of the article, the author’s name is shown, along with their business name and a direct link to their website. As the work circulates onto new sites, more customers will have the opportunity to read the article. If it is interesting and successfully grabs their attention, they will be likely to visit your site in search of more information.

The key to successful article marketing and free publicity for your website is to possess a certain amount of knowledge about your subject. Your expertise will show through in the work that you do and will entice others to want to read more. By sharing what you know with others, customers will respect you and appreciate your willingness to help. For instance, if you operate a home improvement website, perhaps you would write an article detailing some home improvement tips. Try to avoid the commonly known hints and direct your article toward lesser known tips. If you share the rare information that you know, and it works, customers will be so happy with the new tips that they have learned and your business will be given instant credentials in their mind.

The best part of article marketing is the fact that it is free and it generates free publicity for your website. Once you get a new website up and running, you will still have to find a way to spread the word about your new venture. By enlisting the article marketing technique, you will be saving a lot of money on advertising costs. Print publications and other conventional advertising methods can end up costing a bundle of cash and, since many new businesses struggle just to stay afloat in the beginning, it’s a good idea to save as much as you can.

A final thought about article marketing and free publicity for your website is to make sure that your articles are informative, thought provoking and rich in keywords relating to the topic of your website or service. The articles should reflect your website or service in some way and should always be relevant to the product that you are selling.

Article Marketing: Marketing Made Easy

Is website traffic convertible to cash? The answer is yes. But that is not the right question every webmaster might want to dwell into, the right question is УHow can my site get targeted traffic without me spending too much?Ф

The answer to most webmasters, ezine operators question is very simple. There is a simple yet effective way of marketing your products and best thing is that itТs cheap if not free!

Are you asking me what? My answer is also a question; do you know how to write an article?

Yes! Articles, these are simple yet very effective way of marketing your products, allowing you to be confident enough that your site will get a low cost targeted traffic

Write the most interesting articles about what you are selling. Do not advertise it in your article but make an informative article about it. Add your advertisements within your by lines.

Why is it low cost yet effective? It's because you're not only doing some informative marketing about your products but you're also making a good method of SEO on your site.

Giving keyword density methods of SEO on your article and blasting it to hundreds of sites is really cost effective. But it's not only that! You might as well see that it's one way of increasing link popularity! Most article submission sites allow links within your article. One example is  isnare.com" title=" isnare.com" target="_blank isnare.com a free articles directory site.

Your blasting doesn't stop there at all...

After submitting your articles to these article repository sites your articles will have a chance to be reprinted by many webmasters who gets their content out from these article repository sites, doubling all chances of getting targeted traffic for your site.

You're not only advertising smartly but you're also saving money!

Article Marketing And Search Engine Optimization

It has become increasingly difficult to get to the top of the major search engines in recent years as the likes of Google and Yahoo! have changed their criteria for how they rank websites. Many old techniques such as metatags and reciprocal links have lost their effectiveness. However, despite these changes, article submission remains one of the most effective ways to gain incoming links that will boost your website's popularity among the major search engines.

While there are many other aspects to search engine optimization (SEO), article submission can be a cheap and effective way to help you get that coveted spot on the first page of the search engine results for keywords relating to your business.

First let's look at how article marketing works in relation to improving SEO. Basically, every time a link to your website is published on another website your popularity with the search engines increases. These are known as backlinks. In every marketing article you submit to an article directory you can include a resource box with information about you or your product, and a backlink to your website.

So, even just by submitting to article directories you are already increasing the number of backlinks to your website. However, the real value from submitting these articles is that they can be picked up and published anywhere on the web. Every time an article is published you get another backlink to your website. If your articles are published enough times you could see your search engine page ranking rocket. Bear in mind though, that the effectiveness of your campaign will depend on where the articles appear. A backlink from a website that itself has a high search engine page ranking will carry more weight than a backlink from a site with a poor ranking.

Keywords vs quality

Carefully choosing keywords is an essential part of article marketing for a number of reasons. First, you want your articles to be easily found in article directories. If they remain buried under similar articles they will never be published on other websites and your efforts will have been wasted.

Also, you want your articles to get good results on the search engines themselves. If your articles find their way onto the front pages of the search engines you will increase exposure to your website or product, and increase your reputation as an article writer.

However, there is more to successful article marketing than keywords. There has been an ongoing difference of opinion among SEO experts as to whether the quality of articles can be sacrificed for the sake of high keyword density within the text. While it is important to put keywords in the text to help with SEO, quality content is king when it comes to article marketing.

The main aim of article marketing is to get your articles published on as many websites as possible. Quality content is at a premium on the internet so if you can provide good articles that people want to read you will be successful. If you stuff your articles with keywords websites will not publish them and readers will rarely read beyond the first paragraph. So, keep keywords to about two per every 100 words of text and do not let them disrupt the flow and the meaning of the article.

Know your neighbor

The most successful article marketers are the ones who gain a reputation as experts in their chosen field, so try to find your niche and work to your strengths. If you write authoratively and enthusiastically about a subject that you know about you are much more likely to attract readers.

If, for example, you have a website that sells Mac software you could write about new releases and trends in this field. However, you could also boost your profile by becoming involved in the general online Mac community by posting on forums or even creating your own blog. These can provide extra opportunities for creating backlinks and driving traffic to your website, and as you become better known in your field you will find your articles will be more used more often and more widely.

New Web 2.0 social bookmarking websites are also giving article marketers new opportunities for improving SEO and increasing traffic to their website. If you come up with an article you think could be very popular on the web you could publish it on your website and submit it to websites like Digg and Reddit. If it gains popularity on these sites it could go viral and bring thousands of hits to your site.

Article marketing offers excellent opportunities to promote your product while improving the SEO of your website. Even if you do not have the time or the will to write articles yourself, you should look into having a freelance writer doing the job for you.

Article Marketing - Not Sexy, But Successful

Article marketing has become one of the most common Internet marketing techniques in the past few years. It has grown exponentially due to the knowledge of its impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and its effectiveness for business and personality branding. But still, its impact is often underestimated or completely overlooked by would-be entrepreneurs.

Article marketing is a very effective method for building your home business and earning money on the Internet. It has become a necessary tool for doing business on the web, and is one of many tools you should have in your small business promotion toolbox.

Article marketing is the practice of submitting keyword-focused articles to article directories and sites that then syndicate your content. It helps to promote your business and establish you as an expert in your chosen niche. It also increases the link popularity of your website (by providing valuable one-way links from many sites back to your site), enhances search engine positioning for your chosen keywords and phrases, and it helps you reach more potential customers for your products or services.

The benefits of article marketing include its immense effectiveness as a means of promotion and its small or no cost for implementation. Article marketing is a simple means of allowing your small business to compete with much larger companies. It increases traffic to your website, provides targeted traffic to your website, and generates leads from which visitors may be converted into customers. A single article can be the source of dozens of leads, subscriptions, sales or referrals, which is the reason that article marketing is such an effective promotional tool.

As an important aspect of your overall business marketing plan, article marketing is a smart, inexpensive and simple way to greatly broaden the reach of your online business enterprise, and a powerful tool for your small business arsenal.

Article Marketing

Great new opportunity for website traffic increase.

If you are reading this article probably you already know about the web directories and their great importance in website promoting. Now, I was thinking to take a look together on the great new opportunity for traffic increase. The Уarticles directoryФ is a system related to Уweb directoriesФ, also very easy to implement, but much, much powerful when it comes the part of promoting. Unlike the web directories where you add your website in the proper category and the post some information about it, in the article directory you have the opportunity to add an entire story about it.
So, whatТs the trick??
There is no trick, is just a natural, clean and easy way to make your website visible on the internet and search engines. Think about the number of the tags and the rich content of this type of directory. There are thousands of tags and keywords in any category of interests. So, simple searches in a Уsearch engineФ will very probably return in the first results an Уarticle directoryФ because of the rich content and the number of tags found here. So, the Уarticle directoryФ will be preferred by the search engine robots and his rank will be higher than any other directory or simple website. If your website will be added here, be sure that his rank will rise a lot resulting in higher traffic Еall because you are mentioned in a very important website. And this is ABSOLUTELY FREE. So, think again on this great opportunity to promote your website before spending a lot of money on banners or any other type of publicity.

An Overview of Network Marketing

The term network marketing has two different meanings. In generally it is a synonym for multi-level marketing and often by mistake considered the same as a pyramid scheme.

The idea of "network marketing" is often used to describe a marketing concept that emphasizes on the inter-connectivity of market players and transactions and can be observed as the application of systems thinking to marketing. According to network marketing premise other marketing schemes see the discipline as constant dyadic relationships such as one buyer and one seller. Network marketing tries to rise above this constraint by looking at transactions and relationships from the perspective of all those concerned.

These outlook initiated in industrial marketing, also called B2B marketing, where multiple contact points are distinctive. It is not rare to have a number of decision makers in a company's "purchasing centre". Likewise, the marketer can be planned into a "selling team". With multiple players on each side of the transaction, a complicated network is created. This paradigm is further intricate by resultant players like information gatekeepers, influencers, business promoters, advertisers, and middleman. This network can expand over time as more people get engaged.

The network-marketing phenomenon considers marketing as a structure of social networks where the associations between each of the links must be tacit, simultaneously counting potential feedback loops; the system must be realized as a whole.

Instead of using the regular distribution course that moves from manufacturer to warehouser to wholesaler to retailer to end customer, Network Marketing companies use a network of self-governing marketers to pass the products directly from the manufacturer to the end customer.

The self-governing marketers bring in a percentage of the profit in each sale they make. While it's possible and highly recommended to make an income by selling to end customers directly, the real clout of Network Marketing is that you are allowed to build a layer of other independent marketers below you, and make a percentage of their combined sales.

There is limited amount of time for a person can spend working. By having a sub layers working with a marketer, he can multiply that time. Imagine having sub layers of 100 people each putting their effort and only an hour a day in five days a week. In one month 20,000 hours of work would be done. It would take one person 10 years to produce the same amount of work.

Affiliate Marketing Tip Ц Write A Free Ebook

Writing a free ebook is a great way to sell more affiliate products. The ebook can work for you in two different ways and I encourage you to use both methods in each free ebook you write.

The first way is to promote affiliate links directly in your ebook where appropriate. You can casually mention a product in the body of a particular chapter, review a product as part of your ebook, or add an УAdditional ResourcesФ section to the end of the book.

The second way is to link to your content site from your ebook. You can offer additional information on the site or link to a review page. By sending your readers to your website you get the chance to expose them to additional affiliate products and have the opportunity to get them on your newsletter list.

LetТs take a look at how you can get started on your first ebook. Find a topic that you are fairly knowledgeable about and come up with an overall theme for the book. What are people looking for on the particular topic? For example, parents of infants will be interested in tips and strategies to get their baby to sleep through the night. A mom looking for a work at home job may be interested in how to spot a work at home scam and where to look for legitimate jobs.

Come up with an outline, or group some related articles you have written on a particular topic. Now all you have to do is flesh it out a little bit and of course incorporate your affiliate links. An ebook typically consists of at least 25 pages. That may sound like a lot, but you should keep your font size fairly large to make it easier to read on a computer screen.

LetТs talk about format for a moment. You can purchase software to create an ebook, or you can make it a PDF document. PDF documents will work on just about any computer and people are comfortable downloading them. I usually write my ebooks in Microsoft Word, format it in there, add any pictures or graphics and then turn it into a PFD. You can either do this with Microsoft Acrobat, or use one of the free PDF creation services on the web.

Your next step will be to get the ebook circulating. After all you are not going to make any affiliate sales if no one reads your book. You can offer it as a free download on your site or give it away as a bonus for subscribing to your newsletter. I also like to add a note in the footer of each page that the reader is welcome to pass the book along to others who might be interested in the topic.

Offer the ebook as a free giveaway to other website owners and post it on the free ebook directories. Then sit back and watch the book do the work for you. After a few weeks you should see the affiliate sales come in. Time to move on to another book.

Affiliate Marketing means take action now

Internet marketing is really possible for anyone to do. The cost of having your own website is about $10 a month, after you buy a domain name for about $15. So, the first month is about $25, then $10 each month thereafter. The only output that is required of you is your time. And that is where most first time affiliate marketers make their biggest mistakes. They do not really appreciate that old, time is money, adage. Most new marketers are hell bent on being able to say that they spend only $10/month and they want to insert $10,000/month as profit. That would be great, of course, and it can happen, but it's going to take a lot longer to do if you don't invest a little bit to get started in the right direction.

    There are $100 guides and tutorials that can get you started in the right direction much faster than if you floundered around forums for months trying a little bit of this and that. This is not an article that attempts to sell you anyone of these things. This article is selling the concept of time is money. Would you rather spend $100 on a set of video tutorials that taught you how to how to make $100/day in a month, or spend $0, and search and search forums for a year before you were able to make $100/day? The answer is pretty clear to me, I would spend the $100 immediately so I could become profitable in a much smaller time frame. However, many people say that they know they can find the information for free on the Internet, and there is no need to spend money on information that can be found for free. And they are told that this mindset is correct by forum owners. Forum owners who stand to profit more when beginners stay searching their threads hopelessly for hours on end.

    The information is probably in these forums somewhere, but it will take you months to piece together everything to become profitable. And the harsh reality is that the most successful marketers don't sit in forums giving away all their best secrets. The only way you get one on one advice and coaching is by paying for it. This is not necessarily a bad thing at all. It saves you tons of time with minimal financial outlay. Time is money, so the sooner you learn the right information, the sooner you will start to profit. Of course, you are going to want to ask around or do your homework about programs that are worth the money. But do this research and just buy something good. Forums will waste your time all day long. No one is going to answer all of the 5,000 questions that must be answered to get started for free. You need to pay for that, but the cost is in the hundreds of dollars, not 10s of thousands or 100s of thousands like a college education. Take action. Just don't sit in forums, it's death.

Affiliate Marketing Getting Traffic For Free

Thousands of people do this because they can start making money almost immediately without the expense and time needed to produce a product themselves. Having a website is not necessary and there is no interaction with your potential customers beyond getting them to the sales page.

Getting involved in affiliate marketing is a great opportunity to make a lot of money on the Internet, but one should not go into it blindly. As an affiliate you must invest some time in research, this is absolutely necessary. Know what products you want to promote, how much you will make on each sale and the return rate of the product. If possible itЃfs a good idea to buy or request a sample so you know the product inside and out.

As a first time affiliate itЃfs a good idea to start with reasonably priced products making at least 50% commission. The most critical part of affiliate marketing is of course marketing. The issue of traffic is one of the most central and fundamental issues in making any money online. You can separate your marketing campaign into two distinct groups, paid and non-paid. Free marketing can be quite effective if you know how itЃfs done. Here is a list of the most popular methods for getting traffic for free.

Article marketing ? A great way to increase your ranking with search engines and direct targeted traffic to your sites. You should write about what you know. If you do not have more information on your topic than does the average reader you should probably choose another topic. Write your article in a conversational tone so that itЃfs easy to read. DonЃft make your article too long, remember itЃfs an article youЃfre writing not a book. A length of 450-750 words should be ideal. Your article should be informative and about your website topic. If its just useless information your readers will expect the same from your website.

Blogging ? Writing a blog is also a good way to drive traffic to your site and increase your search engine rankings. Blogs were originally used as online diaries but have recently taken on a business dimension. Your blog should be focused on your particular niche. You should have several blogs with different providers and include your links in your blogs and profile. This is a good technique for increasing traffic and search engine rankings.

Forums ? Participating in forum discussions is another great way to meet people and get your URL out there on every post you make. You should join forums related to the niche you are targeting or the product you are selling. When you sign up for a forum you have the option of adding a ЃgsignatureЃh. This signature will show up at the bottom of every post you make in the forum and should be used to promote your website links and products. Whenever you make posts you will then be creating links back to your site, while attracting the attention of the forum readers.

Social Bookmarking ? This is a valuable and reliable way to get traffic and backlinks to your site. There are many social bookmarking sites such as Furl and del.icio.us. These sites allow you to share your bookmarks along with a description with the public hence the term social bookmarking. The main purpose is to put your links in front of people who would hopefully also bookmark your site giving you more backlinks.

MySpace ? MySpace is one of the largest online communities with over 100 million members. It is a great place for networking with other people who hold the same interests and marketing. Another great benefit of MySpace is that it has dozens of different forums and groups related to specific niches. Be sparing with your use of music bites, videos and other media clips, you should create an attractive profile that is easy to load. Forget the animation and other bells and whistles, make it easy to navigate your profile and organize your information logically. Color schemes are important, use colors that enhance the look of your text and images not draw attention away from them. You should also use a recent photo as you are now. For help on designing a MySpace profile consult the tutorials on the site.

Affiliate Marketing - The Basics

Imagine that you could earn commissions on a popular brand-name product just by placing a link on your website or in your email. That, my friends, is "Affiliate Marketing"!

OK... So it's not quite that simple, but it doesn't have to be much more complicated either.

Let's start with a few definitions. An advertiser, or merchant, is the company who is selling a product. An affiliate, sometimes referred to as a publisher or partner, is another person or company who assists in the promotion of the product and earns a commission for doing so. (That could be you!) In between is the account management service that partners the advertisers with the affiliates and keeps track of the sales and commissions.

If you want to become an affiliate, you first need to choose either a product you want to sell, or an account management service. You will end up with both, but the choice of one will determine the choice for the other. If you choose the product first, the advertiser will direct you to the account management service that they already work with. If you choose the account management service first, they will provide you with a list of merchants that they do business with.

To see if your favorite product or company offers an affiliate program, go to their website and check the menu bar or the bottom of the screen. Look around for the word "affiliate". Click on that link, read about their program and requirements, and fill out their application. Some companies require specific types of websites to place their links on. They will email you all you need to know to get started.

If you don't know what specific product you would like to promote, or if you want to promote several, I recommend browsing the participating merchants on the account management service's website.

Try to stick to products or ideas that you are familiar with and passionate about. It will be much easier to market to your visitors if you can add value to the link you want them to click on. Personal recommendations or stories will get way better results than just a banner or solo text link. Give them a reason to "click here".

Welcome to the world of Affiliate Marketing! Good luck with your new venture!

Adventures in Xtreme Marketing and Networking

There are some things in life that are sure to happen. Yesterday was March 21, the Spring Equinox. On this day of the year there is a strange phenomenon that occurs. It is the same every year, on this day you can stand an egg on it's end for several hours. Every year for many years, I have been able to count on this as I have amazed people by doing it. It never fails, and it doesn't really work any other time of the year. In fact, later in the day, the egg will fall over after standing for several hours.

It also never fails that a networking or marketing opportunity can present itself when least expected.

On one Saturday, as I drove through downtown Atlanta on my way home from a morning networking function, I passed a downtown hotel that had a line of people around it a city block long. There must have been over five hundred people in line, all dressed in business attire. So I immediately looked for a parking space and rolled out onto the sidewalk to find out what was happening.

It so happened that a very popular television reality show that was on every week called The A--------- was holding auditions in Atlanta. I did not spell out the name because I am not sure about trademark issues.

When I found this out, I went deep into my pocket and pulled out my AtlantaEvent.com pocket billboards (small flyers with info on them). I walked around the corner to the front of the line and began handing out cards to everyone in line. Rather than taking time to network with everyone, I said to them, "This is the number one business site in Atlanta, be sure to check it out."

Halfway down the block, I was accosted by a very large gentleman who advised me that I was not allowed to hand out flyers to the people in line. He was there working with the show (he had a special badge). Now if you consider the types of things that the participants of this show are expected to do, I should in reality be on the next show! But here he was telling me I could not do it.

So being the extreme networker that I am, I went to the back of the line and began to work my way to the front. Each time the hotel security came by I would stop and act like I was waiting in line. As soon as they walked away, I resumed my process.

Now wait a minute. Was what I was doing illegal? NO. I was doing exactly what the people in line were doing, I was handing out my card to people standing in line? Does the hotel own the sidewalk around it? NO. The sidewalks are owned by the city. Was what I was doing risky? Yes, although there was no illegal activity, I could have been physically removed from the area and detained against my will until they decided to let me leave.

Was it worth the risk? YES. The people in that line were my target market. More than 500 people who want to be successful in business and I have just the tool to help them, AtlantaEvent.com.

So what is the point of this article?

The point is that sometimes it is worth taking a risk to achieve our goals. To be safe in all that I do would have deprived me of an opportunity to reach hundreds of prospects and people who can benefit from using the web site.

Are you taking risks in your business to achieve your goals? Do you find yourself doing the safe things? I want to leave you with a quote that I have read and heard frequently recently. I wish I knew who said it so I can reference them, but here it is anyway.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.

Take some risks and watch your business take off!

Add Internet Marketing To Your Marketing Mix

The importance of internet marketing is continuing to expand. Surveys of all kinds show a major shift in traditional marketing budgets to dollars being spent online to market all types of products and services.

Internet Marketing Defined.
Internet marketing is the use of the Internet to advertise and sell products and services. Within the definition of Internet Marketing you will find mention of pay per click advertising, banner ads, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing (including search engine optimization), blog marketing, and article marketing. Each of these subject areas is important to consider prior to planning your internet marketing strategy.

Internet Marketing Provides Many Benefits.
There are many advantages to having a fully executable internet marketing strategy. These benefits include measurability, flexibility, and affordability. Many online marketing tactics provide marketing professionals with the ability to customer acquisition costs. Moreover, marketing professionals are better able to track what marketing campaigns are working and quickly allocate their spending towards higher producing media placements.

Internet Marketing Tactics.
As the Internet has expanded, so have the opportunities for marketing online. Here we will take a brief look at each type of Internet marketing and explain the benefits of each.

1.    Pay-per-click Advertising. Sites like Google offer pay-per-click advertising for anyone interested in getting their message in front of the right segment or prospective buyer. This method is highly targeted and offers one of the best and most popular forms of internet marketing. Marketers using pay-per-click advertising only pay a fee, based on the competitiveness of a keyword or ad title, when a link is clicked on.

2.    Banner Ads. Once the king of Internet marketing, online banner ads have evolved to include animated and flash banners, but the premise remains largely the same. Marketers purchase a specified number of impressions to run on a single site or network of sites and are generally not guaranteed a specific number of clicks.

3.    Email Marketing. Effective among current clients and prospects who have requested information form your company, email marketing is a well established means to communicate and marketing your products. However, be aware of CAN-SPAM requirements and contact preferences of those you plan to reach.

4.    Search Engine Marketing. If you want web browsers to visit your site, than focusing on search engine optimization and search engine marketing is a must. No Internet marketing plan is complete without ensuring that your site is submitted and included on major directories like Google, Yahoo!, and DMOZ. The dollars spent on Search Engine Marketing of any type will pay huge dividends.

5.    Blog Marketing. Getting mention of your site or information related to your products can quickly scale if you are able to effectively tap into the countless blogs that are being created everyday. It is essential that you focus your efforts on blogs covering topics relevant to your product or service offering.

6.    Article Marketing. One of the most important aspects of Internet Marketing, is to improve the link popularity to your site and improve the awareness of your product or service offering. To do so, many companies are focusing on publishing valuable content and making available for other to post to their website’s.

Regardless of the Internet marketing tactics you choose, be sure to consider an integrated marketing strategy. Be sure that your internet marketing has a specific goal and is supported with a definitive plan and budget. Lastly, be sure to pick up a book, conduct some research, or work with professionals to enhance your Internet marketing know-how.

9 Marketing Credos for a Thriving Business

1. Differentiate or Die! You Must Stand Out From the Pack. DonТt become another Уme tooФ option for your prospects to choose from. When you allow this to happen, you position yourself to compete only on price Ц a tough arena to play in.

2. You Are in Two Businesses... The Business of DELIVERING Your Products and Services AND The Business of MARKETING Them. You're better off being a GREAT marketer and have adequate ability at what your business delivers than have great ability at what your business delivers and be an average marketer.

3. Know Thy Target Audience! Who exactly is your ideal customer? What do they look like? Where do they hang out? What is their decision making process? Keep drilling down until you are crystal clear and can visualize them in your head. Then focus your marketing efforts directly at them.

4. The Internet is Simply Another Medium to Reach Your Target Audience Ц DonТt Be Intimidated by it! You do not need to be a computer expert to market your business online. Nor do you need to go it alone. Help is all around us, we just have to ask for it.

5. Consistency Is Key! This is where the old clichщ УOut of sight out of mindФ really holds true. You must have consistency in the look, feel and frequency of delivery of your marketing efforts. This builds a level of comfort between you and your prospects and helps you maintain Уtop of mindФ presence with them.

6. Apply the Rule of Five to Your Marketing Efforts Every Day. Commit to doing at least 5 things per day to market your business and see your business soar!

7. Have a Plan! Know the 5 WТs Ц Who, What, When Where, and Why of every marketing initiative you take. Add to that a financial forecast for your marketing efforts and you are golden!

8. Diversify Your Efforts! DonТt put all your marketing eggs in one basket. Have multiple marketing tactics going at all times so that you always have a bread-winning marketing tactic.

9. Tap Into Viral Marketing! Get others promoting and selling for you.