Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category
Email Marketing – Three Keys Before You Hit Send
Unfortunately, the first word that pops to mind when many people mention email marketing is ’spam.’ The junk mail of the modern era, spam is frequently held up as an abominable combination of inconvenience and social evil, with spam blockers and anti-spam petitions filling the news online and offline. Of course, this means legitimate email marketing campaigns can get lost as weary consumers indiscriminately flag all marketing material as spam just to keep their inboxes clutter free.
How then can a company that has a legitimate, creative idea for an email advertisement series avoid getting caught in the spam trap? There are three key steps good copywriters and marketers can take to set themselves apart and boost their message open rates.
A Cautionary Tale
Important campaigns usually succeed or fail well before they’re ever launched – in the planning stages. Consider a recent and already infamous Intel advertisement. The advertisement had athletic sprinters lined up to race, a reasonable attempt to link the company’s processors to speedy performance. It failed because these athletes all were African American gentlemen who appeared to be bowing to a tall, smug looking Caucasian businessman. This was a clear breakdown in the planning process. No one asked the fairly obvious question ‘What could be wrong with this image?’ Intel pulled the advertisement and publicly admitted the mistake, but the image remains as a vivid reminder that cutting corners in the planning phase can bruise your brand.
1. Lay the Groundwork
The lesson here is that simple research, like enlisting a test audience, can mean the difference between hit and miss. The same holds true for email advertising campaigns – research is vital. Just because you can send out 100,000 generic emails within a few minutes of setting up a campaign idea does not in any way mean you should. Strategic planning up front not only can save you time in the long run, it also can secure your results.
2. Know the Audience
Previous articles have referred to the phenomenon of audience-influenced brands. This is particularly true now that the Web has become so extensively accessible. People’s opinions can catch public attention almost instantly, and word of mouth can spread across the entire world in a heartbeat. Whether or not you want the audience to control your brand is irrelevant; it can and will happen of its own accord, and you should be prepared for it.
Have you taken the time to really get to know your audience? There are thousands of Internet communities dedicated to every conceivable topic, hobby, interest, or fad and your product very likely falls into one of these. Visit these user forums, find out what people are saying, what needs are not being met, and what the general opinion is. Also, don’t just mine for information, but participate in the discussion. Engage and learn how people think and what they want to know about things. This isn’t a chore; this is an opportunity that businesses have rarely had in the past, a goldmine of information for any marketer to tap.
3. Kick up the Content
In many cases, businesses fail to treat email as a legitimate medium, although they’re eager to take advantage of it. Disregarding outright spam, even some well-intentioned ‘campaigns’ amount to little more than a poorly organized message presented in a jumble of mismatched colors rather than a serious attempt at focused communication.
The content of the email has to be strong. The first line has to provide a good hook, the body has to get the core, essential details out quickly and effectively, and the end has to have a call to action (be it a purchase or a website visit). Take the time to craft a message that shows you respect the reader’s intelligence, and put as much thought into the structure of the email as you would any other example of your best writing.
Once these three key elements are in place, consider a test circulation of your campaign before officially kicking it off. There is very little substitute for getting another pair of eyes to look over your hard work. They can spot unfortunate mistakes, call attention to strong points, and help you refine the process before the message is irrevocably out on the Web.
By Enzo F. Cesario
Top 5 Steps to Website Marketing
Why market your site
This is an era of products galore. Each product and producer is trying to outdo the other. Marketing costs are turning out to be more than production costs as marketing has an ability to take products and services to a new high, or bite the dust. Without marketing, a product is as good as non-existing. At the same time, clients and consumers do not have enough time to go around looking for everything that is offered. Clients want it all on their fingertips. Keeping this in mind, internet or online marketing has quickly come to the rescue. It bridges the gap between your service or product and client or consumer.
Having your own website has become an important marketing tool. Almost all products and services have their own presence on the internet in the form of a website. However, there are numerous websites trying to affect the decisions of clients. So, website marketing has become an important and integral part of every business’s marketing strategy. Let’s understand the five most important steps to website marketing.
Understand client requirements
Understanding what your clients are looking for is the key to effective website marketing. Amidst a plethora of websites on the same subject, a client will most likely stick to the sites that are focused on her unique requirements and give her exactly what she’s looking for; e.g. if a client is looking for a website on alternative medicine; the website must focus solely on the various alternative medicines and not generalize on all types.
Get the right design and content
The rightly designed website will catch and hold more eyeballs. Your design should not only have right aesthetic appeal but also facilitate easy navigation. To many flashes, to bright colors running at the same time, plus disturbing pop-ups are sure fire turn offs. Clusters of information placed on the homepage may dumbfound the visitor. At the same time, too little info will dampen her. Your site should strike the right balance of information and placement.
Once you’re done with the designing part of your website, comes another important part, content. Your content should always be current, crisp and clear. It should convey exact information without being verbose. It should be logical, smooth, and flowing. The language should be set keeping the client in mind. The quality of your content should reflect a professional attitude.
Make it user friendly
Once on your website, the client should get important information like variety of products, possibly with their images, price ranges and product availability. Your website should facilitate ordering products online with great ease. It should also give requisite information like contact numbers of the home office or representatives, firm’s location, previous track record and after the sale service.
As customer choices and preferences are always distinct and all of them cannot be addressed on the site; provide for direct contact with your customer service department in order to answer their queries. In case of an email, a prompt reply must be assured.
Blow your trumpet
Once you are done with your website, it is high time to get on the rooftop and tell people that you’ve arrived! What’s the use of a wonderfully designed, beautiful looking site that few know about or catches hardly any eyeballs? Avail other mediums of advertising viz. seminars, articles, television, newspapers,ect… to widen your client base and reach every possible client. Get press releases distributed. A good advertising campaign is essential to attract initial traffic to your site.
Utilize the internet to its fullest. Begin blogging about your site and products/services. Forward links to as many other websites as possible. Get links on social networking websites. In simple terms, talk, talk and talk more about your site.
Action backup
The types of services and products that you offer on your website must be put into action by an efficient team. Your client must feel she is getting a good value for her money, and also her time spent. This will assist to establish a reputation for your business and create your brand image. Website marketing will only be effective if and when your promises are fulfilled in reality.
And yes! Do not rest on your laurels. Continue updating your website with any new developments and also, continue to support it with on going action.
By James Trent
12 Ways to Make Sure Your Internet Marketing Really Works
Everyone loves the Internet, but not everyone is ready to buy. There can be a level of scepticism you may have to overcome and one way to do that is let them see your face. Use online video and you have an advantage over your competitors when dealing with customers.
Successful marketing is all about establishing a relationship; and that is so much easier when they can see and hear you. You may be very comfortable online, but some people are still sceptical about doing business with you over the Internet and you need to persuade them to trust you before they will buy from you.
These are my top 12 direct marketing principles you can use to make sure your Internet marketing really works for you:
1. History.
People want to know you are not going to disappear overnight so if you’ve been in business for any length of time then this will add credibility to you and your offers.
2. Statistics.
Use genuine statistics to give you more credibility by listing number of customers served, money saved, profits made, and so on.
3. Testimonials
I can’t overestimate the importance of these so get them from your Customers and Clients saying how you and/or your products have helped them. Get experts in your market to validate and endorse your products and services and if appropriate get celebrities who you either ‘rent’ for your marketing, feature at your events or use by association.
4. Demonstrations.
With the use of online video and ‘how To’ DVDs it is very ease to show a demonstration of your product both on and offline. You can even demo an ebook by printing it out and talking through what it contains live on screen. Camtasia is free software that lets you make a screen capture video where you can demonstrate your website talking though the sales letter or giving a demo of how easy it is to download your ebook. If you are in a market that isn’t really familiar with online buying this works really well.
What better proof that your product or service works than by showing an example of before and after. Many markets and products lend themselves to this treatment and it is very effective.
In our own business we use video to show how to confirm emails when signing up to our email lists, when demonstrating how to use our Membership site and examples of results in a number of our ebook markets.
5. Credentials.
What credentials do you have in your market? They don’t have to be academic, but can awards, accomplishments, membership to organisations that are relevant to your market. Both I and Neil Travers my business partner are CIPD qualified which is a training qualification we attained while working at the Bank.
This is ‘proof’ of our ability to run workshops that are designed to aid the learning and intake and retaining of information by attendees and gives us increased credibility in their eyes.
6. Publicity.
Reprints of articles about you in the press, or your articles being published in the media that lend weight to your credibility as the expert or authority in your market are highly valuable to you. Show your market that you are in demand, and have status as an expert.
7. Celebrity Spokesperson.
To be used with caution. It can be effective but can also backfire when the market remembers the celebrity and the advert, but not what it was advertising.
8. Guarantee.
If you can’t guarantee the product you’re selling then find something else to sell that you can guarantee. To really make your potential customers feel safe to buy from you you need to offer an ironclad guarantee.
9. Accessibility.
On your website have your full contact detail if possible as this will give a big boost to your potential customer confidence in you and your company. Using just an email contact is the worst and an email, phone and address the best.
Never give a PO Box as your address as it immediately makes people suspicious.
10. The Personal Touch.
Being visible in the business to your customers is a confidence booster for them. Make it personal so you are a real individual, anecdotes about you and your business, pictures and videos all make your customer more comfortable as if they have already met you.
11. Make A Damaging Admission.
No matter how good your product is it will have a disadvantage somewhere. Admit it up front and honestly comment on this fact.
Answer Questions and objections up front and when a customer asks them via email or the phone. People can call our office throughout the week and email at any time with questions and that makes them feel safe to buy from us.
12. Excess.
Use a combination of as many of the examples above in your marketing! What may seem like overkill to you may not be enough to overcome some people’s scepticism!
By Neil Stafford in SE Tactics
Internet Marketing – Do You Know What You’re Promoting?
We have all had something to say at one time or another about online scams; people who make money by selling things to others which they don’t need, which don’t do what they are said to do, and which can even waste people’s time or distract them from what they should be focused on - besides being a waste of money in the long run. And the fact is, that is far from the worst of it.
Do you want to earn money by promoting unethical products? Probably not. But are you always fully aware of what you are promoting?
There are a few categories of products which you should probably be aware of when you are deciding what to promote. You might want to think twice before you throw together a website to promote these types of products, or put one of their ads on an existing site.
After all, it’s not all about money. We are also human beings.
There are three types of products which I would never want to promote:
1. Products which are unnecessary, wasting people’s time and/or money
The “Make Money Online” niche is home to some of the worst culprits – including individuals, sales pages, emails, and advertisements which promise you unlimited riches as long as you invest ($47/$97/$5,000 etc.) in whatever it is they are trying to sell.
Whether it is a coaching program on how to earn money online, an amazing new software program which allows you to rake in thousands of dollars with a few minutes of work, a monthly membership, or perhaps just access to an enormous quantity of downloadable information which you don’t need right this second.
Some of these types of products have real value, and only require a reasonable investment. When they are useful, they do pay off in the long run. There are certainly legitimate products and services which help people save money, earn more money, or learn how to do so. I have invested in quite a few myself, and have been happy with a majority of the items I have purchased.
Some products have little-to-no real use or value for the consumer, but use a convincing sales pitch, and cost too much.
In between the two extremes there are various shades of gray.
But this is not what inspired me to write this post. There are other products one can promote, outside of the “Make Money Online” niche, which are just as bad, and even worse.
2. Products which are used to steal money
There are bogus “free trial” offers which latch onto a customers credit card, steal unauthorized recurring payments, and never let go, no matter how hard the customer tries to cancel.
I have seen affiliate programs for such products. In some cases, these offers would have been relevant to one of my websites. Did I choose to promote them? No!
Examples of products which are likely to be promoted in this manner include Acai berry, colon cleanse, teeth-whitening, and stop-smoking products, which often offer a “free trial” requiring a credit card number “for shipping,” and give you “automatic renewals if you don’t cancel.” A bit of research and Googling will often reveal whether there are scams or dishonest tactics involved.
Not every free trial with paid shipping is a scam, but I am definitely careful before signing up for them when I do.
3. Products which harm people
Then there are is another type of products you can promote. You would only promote these products if a) you don’t really know what you are promoting or b) you don’t care about people and money is your only motivation.
These are products which don’t simply waste people’s time and money, but actually harm people.
It takes a bit of confront to look beyond the surface appearance of modern day life and realize that not everything is what it appears to be on the surface.
The sad fact is, that just because an item has been endorsed by an official agency, an “expert,” or a learned authority, (government or otherwise) does not necessarily make that product useful or even safe.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the worst in this respect. That does not mean that every pharmaceutical medicine is harmful.
But if you were to do some real, unbiased research in the field, you would be amazed at how many well-known and widely used pharmaceutical drugs:
- Have never undergone actual scientific testing as to their results
- Were approved for use by the same groups, individuals, and networks, who are profiting by their sales. (Yes, approval agencies do have ties to the pharmaceutical companies, and yes, the people who approve these drugs and medications for use do make money by approving them.)
- Have known side-effects (known even by the producers and salesmen of the drugs, but not promoted by them) which range from health problems, to death, to suicide, to murder.
- As an added benefit there are ties to the media, which is sometimes (but not always) used to attack any group which begins to expose what is occurring. Which leads people to disbelieve organizations that do so.
If you look into it, you will find that almost every school shooter, loving-family-member-turned family-murderer, or sudden unexplained suicide, involved someone who was taking one of these drugs. Common examples are Zoloft, Paxil (Seroxat), and Prozac, to name a few.
Furthermore the same doctors who were involved in the creation of these drugs can be found openly admitting that the diseases and disorders which the drugs were designed to cure do not exist. These diseases were not found by blood tests or any other form of testing. They are invented by “majority vote”.
But they make a lot of money. Billions per year. So hey, why kill a booming business?
In a previous profession I had first-hand experience with individuals who were the victims of these drugs, sometimes as young as the age of three, and had the heart-wrenching experience of seeing the damage that was done. In some cases I was able to help undo the damage, by getting these individuals onto detoxification programs or other remedies. But, sadly, the effects of legal, approved, and even common-place pharmaceutical drugs were often more harmful, and harder to correct, than the effects of any street drug. I still remember the three year-old-girl who had been put on a drug by a doctor. With a bit of research we found out that the drug was actually Speed. We were actually relived that it was Speed instead of something worse, (and yes I helped the little girl).
Sound difficult to believe? It is. So is war, needless killing of civilians, Chinese killer-cat food, genocide, kid-napping, human-trafficking, and a host of other insanities which occur on a daily basis, inside and outside of the US.
The fact is that it is a crazy world.
In American middle-class society it is very easy to forget that there is something beyond the glossed-over existence we see in front of us, where all appears so happy and regulated.
The purpose of this article is not to depress you about the state of the Earth. The purpose of this article is to communicate to affiliate marketers and online entrepreneurs about what they can do to stem the tides of damage. Or, at least what they can not do.
Because, sadly, I often see affiliate marketers blithely promoting the same products and drugs, which harm people, children, and lives on a regular basis!
When something is too incredible to be believed, we have a tendency to disbelieve it. When we don’t believe it, we don’t do much about it. History is full of incidents which we would never have believed could have happened, but happened.
Okay. My point – just because you do some keyword research and find a niche does not mean its all hunky-dory to promote that item. I have spoken of bogus Make-Money-Online products, free trials, and pharmaceutical drugs. But that’s definitely not the only thing.
Craigslist has been prosecuted for promoting prostitution and contributing to devastating effects on women and children.
A few days ago I saw a banner ad on an Internet Marketing side. It said “Pimping has never been this easy.” I hoped it was a joke and was curious, so I clicked on it. It then went on to say how you could earn $500 per day just placing these ads … in the sidebar I saw a string of prostitution ads. They weren’t joking at all.
The upshot – think before you promote. Most people care about others and want to help people. Only a few are truly money-motivated, and even those are basically good – way, down deep.
There is nothing wrong with making money online as long as you always remember to put ethics, honesty, honor, and integrity first.
By Anna Williams
7 Proven Internet Marketing Strategies To Increase Your Sales
I am constantly amazed by the number of people I meet on the web who have absolutely no marketing strategy whatsoever behind their site or online marketing.
I am even more amazed by the number of people who believe all they have to do is buy a domain, slap a few HTML pages together and place them on a web host somewhere. Then they expect everything else to just happen because their site or business is on the web!
It very rarely happens that way.
Creating an online business takes some planning and strategy if you want your site or business to succeed. You must have a plan of action, but most of all, you must have some fundamental marketing strategies behind your online site.
Now, I am speaking from experience here, because I also stumbled around on the web for 2 or 3 years like the people I described above. I foolishly thought just because I had a web site, I could do business on the web.
Well, not very much happened. I received very little traffic and very few sales. My site was going nowhere fast.
Fortunately, the theme I chose for my first site was Internet Marketing! I spent those first years studying all the online marketing material and information I could get my hands on. I gradually learned what to do and what not to do when it came to marketing online.
Mostly, I stumbled across some great Internet marketers like Marlon Sanders, Neil Shearing, Ken Evoy… true pioneers of online marketing. By studying those first class marketers and their marketing techniques I learned how it was all done.
Over time, I learned how to become very analytical with my sites and marketing. I started to create marketing strategies and put them into practice with my sites. This was all new to me because I have a background in education rather than marketing.
Now, I would like to share with you some of these marketing strategies and practices – just things I do and things I put into place which enable me to receive a modest but very comfortable online income.
So here are some things you can try:
1. Know Your Market Or Audience
First and foremost, you must know your market. Know who you will be targeting with your marketing? Know who will be buying your products or the affiliate products that you’re promoting on the web?
I keep my eyes open for hot trends or products which everyone is buying. You can use programs like Google Trends to see which products are becoming hot. For example, in electronics, which products are on everyone’s wish list? Is it laptops, PCs or netbooks? Are people buying smart phones, PDAs, Blu-ray Players or E-readers?
Just find out what products are hot? Find what products are being searched for in the search engines… do a check to see how many searches are made each month for your chosen product? Use WordTracker, or a free online site such as Seobook.com to see what products people are searching for on the web.
If there is a large demand/audience/market for your product or subject area, then you have a better chance of succeeding online. It is a simple marketing strategy that many first time marketers ignore – please don’t. So choose your products to match the demand that is out there for them.
2. Buying Mindset
One of the key elements to selling stuff online is finding people at the exact moment they are ready to buy. What some marketers refer to as a “Buying Mindset”. You find people who have their minds set on buying something when they reach your site.
This is much easier than you think!
A simple way I found to do this is to create sites which target keywords related to buying… such as gifts, coupons, bargains, deals and so on. For example, a site on wedding gifts will obviously attract customers who are interested in buying wedding gifts.
To give you a concrete example from my own site, I have a section on “Corporate Business Gifts” which offers special deals/coupons on corporate business gifts… someone searching for that phrase is more likely to purchase a gift. Just simple reasoning, but it works wonders for selling stuff online.
In the Info-Product market, many Gurus create a “Buying Mindset” by offering special bonuses and discounts if someone buys from their links. Another simple way to boost your sales.
3. Target Special Holidays
Along the same lines, I like targeting times when people feel obligated to buy. Using special holidays like Christmas, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day… in your marketing can be very effective.
There are occasions such as anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, graduations… when people feel they must buy something for a loved one or special friend. Targeting those occasions with your marketing can be extremely effective… people are looking for a birthday gift, a graduation gift or a wedding gift – you simply help them find what they’re looking for.
On one of my sites, I target the “Back To School” market which has proven very lucrative since I market high-ticket affiliate items such as laptops, PCs and netbooks.
4. Place All Your Emphasis On Supplying Information
The majority of people searching on the web are looking for information – first and foremost – even those who are ready to buy. They want information on the subject or product they’re searching for on the web. It should be your marketing strategy to give them this information.
All of my sites are based on supplying information to my visitors.
If you give solid information they will be pleased and take note of your site and a few will buy the products you recommend, but the information must come first.
Even popular selling sites like Amazon give loads of consumer information and feedback while selling their products on the web. Consumers want information on the products they’re buying. Supply this information and you will sell more products.
5. Target Long Tail Keyword Phrases In Your SEO
If you’re selling stuff on the web, it is extremely important that you have a SEO marketing strategy. You must use the search engines to bring in those quality visitors and potential customers to your site. You must rank high in the search engines for your chosen keywords.
I have found SEO is not easy but it is also not that hard to do. In order to rank high you must be persistent, have a six month or yearly plan… work at it over time, even years to build up your rankings. Most webmasters won’t have the patience or resources to stick to a long-term strategy for months, even years before they start ranking for popular, well-searched for keywords.
However, there’s another quicker and faster way to get quality traffic from the search engines. Instead of targeting highly competitive popular keywords, you target longer keyword phrases that have little competition. For example, someone searching for a particular brand and model is more likely to buy then someone searching for a general topic. Someone searching for “cars” compared to someone searching for “2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT” – the last phrase will have very few searches but it can produce more targeted buyers.
6. Build Lists of Interested Buyers
One of my most effective marketing strategies is building simple lists of people who want to receive further information on the subject or product they’re considering buying. The web is a very temporary process since most people spend less than a few seconds on most sites. So it is important that you try and get them to opt-in to your mailing list, join your Twitter account or FaceBook group… and so on.
You must build lists of people who are interested in finding out more about your subject or product. This way you will have repeat visitors to your site and you will get the opportunity to sell to them again and again. If you build a trusting relationship with these contacts, they will respect your opinions and suggestions.
List building can have a very positive effect on your sales numbers so it is one marketing strategy you should definitely try if you’re not already using lists.
7. Sell Things You Can ONLY Buy Online
This marketing strategy is so simple – it’s almost laughable. But I quickly found selling stuff that can only be bought online do much better than selling stuff that can be bought at your local Walmart. If buyers can only find it online, then you will have a much better chance of selling it to them.
Therefore, marketing unique products or specialty items, which are only available online can prove very lucrative. This is a very simple marketing strategy but also a very effective one. Just try it.
There are no doubt, countless other marketing strategies you can use. But using some or all of the ones listed above will help increase your online sales. Again, just try them and see for yourself.
By Titus Hoskins in Marketing
12 Ways to Make Sure Your Internet Marketing Really Works
Everyone loves the Internet, but not everyone is ready to buy. There can be a level of scepticism you may have to overcome and one way to do that is let them see your face. Use online video and you have an advantage over your competitors when dealing with customers.
Successful marketing is all about establishing a relationship; and that is so much easier when they can see and hear you. You may be very comfortable online, but some people are still sceptical about doing business with you over the Internet and you need to persuade them to trust you before they will buy from you.
These are my top 12 direct marketing principles you can use to make sure your Internet marketing really works for you:
1. History.
People want to know you are not going to disappear overnight so if you’ve been in business for any length of time then this will add credibility to you and your offers.
2. Statistics.
Use genuine statistics to give you more credibility by listing number of customers served, money saved, profits made, and so on.
3. Testimonials
I can’t overestimate the importance of these so get them from your Customers and Clients saying how you and/or your products have helped them. Get experts in your market to validate and endorse your products and services and if appropriate get celebrities who you either ‘rent’ for your marketing, feature at your events or use by association.
4. Demonstrations.
With the use of online video and ‘how To’ DVDs it is very ease to show a demonstration of your product both on and offline. You can even demo an ebook by printing it out and talking through what it contains live on screen. Camtasia is free software that lets you make a screen capture video where you can demonstrate your website talking though the sales letter or giving a demo of how easy it is to download your ebook. If you are in a market that isn’t really familiar with online buying this works really well.
What better proof that your product or service works than by showing an example of before and after. Many markets and products lend themselves to this treatment and it is very effective.
In our own business we use video to show how to confirm emails when signing up to our email lists, when demonstrating how to use our Membership site and examples of results in a number of our ebook markets.
5. Credentials.
What credentials do you have in your market? They don’t have to be academic, but can awards, accomplishments, membership to organisations that are relevant to your market. Both I and Neil Travers my business partner are CIPD qualified which is a training qualification we attained while working at the Bank.
This is ‘proof’ of our ability to run workshops that are designed to aid the learning and intake and retaining of information by attendees and gives us increased credibility in their eyes.
6. Publicity.
Reprints of articles about you in the press, or your articles being published in the media that lend weight to your credibility as the expert or authority in your market are highly valuable to you. Show your market that you are in demand, and have status as an expert.
7. Celebrity Spokesperson.
To be used with caution. It can be effective but can also backfire when the market remembers the celebrity and the advert, but not what it was advertising.
8. Guarantee.
If you can’t guarantee the product you’re selling then find something else to sell that you can guarantee. To really make your potential customers feel safe to buy from you you need to offer an ironclad guarantee.
9. Accessibility.
On your website have your full contact detail if possible as this will give a big boost to your potential customer confidence in you and your company. Using just an email contact is the worst and an email, phone and address the best.
Never give a PO Box as your address as it immediately makes people suspicious.
10. The Personal Touch.
Being visible in the business to your customers is a confidence booster for them. Make it personal so you are a real individual, anecdotes about you and your business, pictures and videos all make your customer more comfortable as if they have already met you.
11. Make A Damaging Admission.
No matter how good your product is it will have a disadvantage somewhere. Admit it up front and honestly comment on this fact.
Answer Questions and objections up front and when a customer asks them via email or the phone. People can call our office throughout the week and email at any time with questions and that makes them feel safe to buy from us.
12. Excess.
Use a combination of as many of the examples above in your marketing! What may seem like overkill to you may not be enough to overcome some people’s scepticism!
By Neil Stafford in SE Tactics
17 Key Tips To Become A Successful Internet Marketer
Whether you’re new to the world of running your own business or a seasoned veteran there are traits that all successful entrepreneurs have, or develop, to give them the edge and the best chance of success.
These are what I call the ‘must do’s’ for running a successful business, so keep this list close at hand and review it on a regular basis to keep you on track:
1. Develop the ability to see what others want/need/desire through your own research, findings and searching. As my business partner Neil Travers always says, “keep your head up and eyes open, opportunities are all around.”
2. You don’t have to invent a brand new product to be successful. Look for the gap in the market gap for a new product/service or the development and improvement of an existing product or service. Richard Branson wasn’t the first to have an airline, but he successfully built his businesst on the premise of improving on what was already being offered.
3. Focus on service, service and service as too many businesses and entrepreneurs overlook this simple business premise. They focus all their efforts on the ‘front end’ of the business with little or no regard for what happens next.
The technology now available with help desks and virtual assistants means there is no excuse not to give exceptional customer service, no matter what the size of your business is.
4. You have to start somewhere, and you have to get started now, not spend time thinking about it. That first step of registering a domain name meant I had begun that business, then I had to keep going, but you go nowhere if you havent’ made a start.
STOP putting off what can be done today and get started NOW!
5. Start small and grow to ANY size you want to. An Information Marketing business can get started for a few hundred pounds and grow into a multi million pound business by reinvesting your profits.
6. Keep using the Internet and other sources such as your local library for acquiring new information about your market, customers, competitors and ideas!
7. Generate and create entrepreneurial excitement about your business and keep that feeling as you continue to grow.
8. Always charge the most you can for your products to create bigger profits for you and your company. Having good profit margins will give you the advantage when developing marketing campaigns, new products and for meeting any problems head on.
9. Develop a strategy that helps your customers grow, enjoy, improve or profit from the information, products and services you sell them.
10. ALWAYS maintain honesty and integrity in your dealings and stay true to your values.
11. Every business owner is going to have to deal with anxiety, frustration and problems so cope with them by developing tenacity and perseverance.
12. Always be on the look out for mistakes and how to avoid them. Remember the saying… “to trip over a rock in a campsite is an accident, to fall over it twice is a warning and to fall over it a third time is stupidity.”
13. Remember, you must continue to win back your customers over and over again. You cannot take them for granted.
14. Constantly review your numbers, results and checkpoints within your business. Having control and an understanding of your business will help you as you grow.
15. Diversification within your business is the way to offer more to your costumers and prospects by bringing related products and services to them. It will also strengthen your position in the market.
16. Look to sell your business when it no longer interests or excites you.
17. Look for something that is worthwhile, fun and enjoyable to do with the money you earn. Otherwise why are you doing it?
There are other things I could add to this list, but it’s a great place to get started.
Are you missing any, or could you add some more?
By admin in Marketing
Learn How to Make Money Online With no False Promises
If you want to learn how to make money online the right way, with no hype and no false promises, then you will have to make the effort to ignore all these seemingly unbelievable offers that are being made to you. If you have recently lost your job, then you are vulnerable, and prey to every shark in the internet waters – and there are lots of them.
I know what it is like because I was like you. I lost my job, and tried to make it online but found it very hard. I spent a lot of money trying to learn how to make money online: one lump sum of $6,500 to be taught what I now know was elementary stuff. I was taken for a ride, and when I eventually found out that the Corey Rudl that I paid for this was one of the most well respected internet millionaires online, I was disillusioned.
These guys have no shame. They are still at it. I have just been offered an unbelievable opportunity, only about 40 slots left, to learn how to make $300 a day that can expand to many times that. The guy selling his ideas that made him so much money is doing it because he wants to ‘give something back’. Why do I find it difficult to believe that?
Why not just carry on earning his ‘many times’ 300 bucks a day? Why go to the bother of having a website designed and everything else involved in marketing his offer when he is already earning at least $30,000 a month if we are to believe him? Personally I am sick of it all, and after a few years in this business trying to make a living have concluded that they are all in it together; there is a clique of well-known names, and I know them all; they help each other to screw the rest of us.
You won’t learn how to make money online from these guys. The way that I did it was to teach myself, and then to figure out what these guys were actually doing. Many of them were software engineers, designing software to carry out keyword research, or to enable you to check your website statistics or something else in that vein. Others were ex-sales guys who knew how to lie, and yet others would come up with a good idea, run it to death till it was no longer working, and the sell it to us showing how much money they made from it – only it couldn’t work any more because:
- Google had banned it, or
- Clickbank had banned it, or
- Technology and rules had changed and it was no longer any good.
These are the only circumstances under which these guys are going to give you their internet secrets. That’s a fact. So what is the best way to learn how to make money online? Honest truth? There is no best way. I have found that there are several ways, and they can be made to work, but they won’t earn you 300 bucks a day.
Perhaps two or three together might, and if you used each of them you could make a good living online. It’s the old saying: make $20 a day from one website and all you need do is to do the same with another 50 websites and you have a grand a day. Sure – only the guys that say that aren’t doing it. So why not if it’s so easy?
You can learn how to make money online if you are prepared to accept that you won’t do it overnight. If you are prepared to learn the groundwork, and then build up from a solid foundation, it is possible to make a good living. That’s what I found, and part of the way that I do that is what I am doing right now: writing this article. Article writing, article marketing, call it what you want. It doesn’t matter. It lets me advertise free.
That might not seem a lot to you right now, but it will, believe me. Free advertising is worth every penny you pay for it, and that’s not all that there is to online success. It’s taking every opportunity that comes, knowing what to do with it and making the most of it. You don’t have to make a fortune from every opportunity, but you should remember what I said earlier: make $20 dollars from one website. . .
Suddenly it looked possible to me, and do you know what the major factor in all this was? Education! I don’t mean college education, though I have that. I mean learning how to get things working online. How the internet works. How the World Wide Web works, and how to use what I learned about marketing and advertising and designing websites to actually sell stuff online.
Not just my writing skills that I did as an article ghostwriter, but how to use the online tools that are available free to everybody, and the genuine information available, not that trash given to us by millionaires that feel like screwing us for another million. How to use all that to make money online.
It can be done. You can learn how to make money online. I had my fill of false promises and being sold redundant software and redundant ideas. I did it and so can you. You might just survive with your online home business, but you must learn the basics – that’s where the strength of your home business will come.
By Peter Nisbet in Advertising
Launching Your Online Marketing Strategies
If you have a business, there are lots of different ways to promote it and make sure you get customers. Having a website is of utmost importance, and by using some of the many online marketing methods available, like blog marketing and article marketing, you can be sure to get a lot of visitors coming to your website. Having the right mix of marketing tactics can eventually lead to increased sales and to the success of your business venture. Here are some of the best online marketing strategies you can use:
Blog Marketing: With blog marketing you can start a blog about anything related to your company. You can market your business by giving people advice and tips. People always want to get more information or learn something new, which is why blog marketing works so well. Once you get people returning to read your blogs on a regular basis, you will have built quite a fan base for yourself. Leaving comments on other people’s blogs with a link back to your blog will also get you some links.
Blog Marketing also allows visitors to get to know a real person in a company. This kind of “intelligent brand marketing” gives your company an element of a human-ness on your marketing campaign. People like to interact with people, and having a blog gives you that advantage. Also, having a blog allows you to give your personal opinion on any given subject matter and also allows the author to appear as the expert.
Micro Blogging: Twitter is the biggest. Micro blogs allow you to get short bursts of information out to a loyal following. This is great for promotions and other time related marketing tactics.
Social Networks: Using social networks is another way to attract customers to your website. Your friends have friends that will also be able to see your public page where they might find something interesting. Likewise, friends can invite each other to join groups. You can create a group about your business so that people can see what you do and join to be kept updated.
Directory Submissions: Using business directories and community business web pages are another great way of doing advertising. You might find a few directories that can add your website address to their list of online businesses. In this way, people looking for something specific that you happen to be offering will find you easily.
Banner Advertising: One of the most effective forms of online marketing is banner advertising. These advertisements will be placed on other people’s websites. You have to do some research to find the sites where your ad will get the best results. These advertisements can be quite costly, especially if you want to have the best possible presence on the home page of a major website.
Email Campaigns: An email campaign is a perfect way to target specific people for a business or product. You should get help setting up an email marketing campaign because you want to make sure that people read them. You also want to make sure that they do not come through as spam. This is why using a professional sales page or email campaign manager would be a good idea.
Link Exchanges: Another good way to get marketing for your business is to use various link exchanges. This will also help the page ranking for your website on the various search engines. The more websites you are listed on, the more chances there are of customers finding you.
Press Releases: You can submit a formal press release to a press release site that mentions your new blog or website or any new products or services you may have. These press release websites will distribute your release to many other PR sites. Hopefully, you will get links from these press releases. Some PR sites are free and others aren’t. Look online and see what’s best for your business.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising: Pay per click advertisements usually appear in a colored box on a search results page. With this form of marketing, you buy search engine traffic based on relevant keywords that you buy in an auction. You are paying for every click, so it’s important to target your keywords. Over time, PPC can be costly and if not monitored closely, can be more costly than traditional Search Engine Optimization techniques.
Article Marketing: With article marketing, you write interesting articles about various aspects of your business and submit them to article distributions sites. These articles contain an author resource box at the end that usually has a link to your website. When different sites pick up your articles, they must keep the resource box intact so if someone finds the article interesting, they can click through to your website. The more interesting and valuable your articles are to your readers, the more traffic you could get.
Using these various marketing methods to promote your business is a sure way to get inbound links. You can make quite a lot of contacts through many of them and eventually get more customers coming to your business. You can try one method at a time, adding another when you feel comfortable or try them all at once. Any way you do it, using these methods will get potential customers to your website and hopefully, ordering your product or services.
By Enzo F. Cesario in Featured
The Brand Story Web Marketing Process
If websites have one overarching goal it is to create confidence in whatever the website is promoting and who’s promoting it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a product, a service, a sales campaign, or an idea, if the presentation is not minimally credible or optimally motivational, then it fails as a means of marketing communication.
Communicate to the Subconscious Mind
Branding is often thought of as a marketing strategy reserved for major consumer product companies, but the fact is all businesses are brands that are either cultivated so they blossom, or let go-to-seed like a garden full of weeds.
Marketing neophytes often think of branding only in terms of some physical manifestation, like a logo, but a brand is the full complement of residual impressions resulting from all the experiences associated with a product, service or company. And today, the online experience is a vital venue for creating those experiences.
By using video, the marketer has the opportunity to tap into the audiences’ subconscious mind, the buried remnants of both remembered and forgotten experiences; the kind of experiences that form attitudes, prejudices, and preferences that inform our decisions, most importantly our buying decisions.
Where Businesses Go Wrong
Where businesses go wrong is settling for only the obvious, the logical, and the rational. Brands are formed in the subconscious, so if your marketing communication doesn’t reach the subconscious mind then it is not establishing or enhancing the brand in any meaningful effective long-term way.
What video does, when done right, is communicate on both the obvious and subconscious levels, making it the ideal Web-communication vehicle for creating a powerful brand experience, but only if you understand how to use the presentation and performance elements available.
Considering how powerful a tool Web-video can be, it amazes me how so many normally intelligent business people can opt for second-rate presentations. The do-it-yourself and user-generated efforts compete for the booby prize with the mindless corporate drivel – they all miss the point: a persuasive motivating presentation must communicate on multiple levels.
How To Deliver A Brand Story
We like to refer to developing, delivering, enhancing, and managing a Web-based brand, as The Brand Story Process. By thinking of your brand in terms of a story rather than just some graphical image, or nebulous mission statement, you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with ineffective branding.
A story, any story, has certain fundamental elements:
- A storyline, plot or arc that moves the audience from skeptical Web-surfers to loyal customers;
- A hero, who vicariously represents the audience and their dilemma in satisfying their subconscious needs or desires;
- A villain, who represents the problems, obstacles, or challenges that confront the audience in satisfying those subconscious needs;
- An agent of change that represents your company’s ability to resolve the dilemma by providing a solution to satisfying those needs;
- And a format that structures the presentation in a series of procedural or serial video episodes, that establishes and enhances the brand image, all while delivering literal and subliminal benefits.
Storyline – The Arc of Transformation
At the heart of your brand story is your marketing message and that message must invoke change: a transformation from dissatisfaction to satisfaction, and not just a presentation of features and benefits.
Your brand storyline puts what you offer into context, and illustrates the achievable results through onscreen surrogates acting out the audience’s hidden agendas. A competitor can always cut your price or add new features, but neither tactic can overcome brand loyalty based on satisfying subconscious emotional needs.
Hero As Brand Messenger
It’s not just the message; it’s the messenger. There is no substitute for the human being. No avatar, cartoon character, or computer-generated equivalent will provide the subtlety and nuance required to communicate on the verbal, visible, and subconscious levels.
The one caveat is that real people can be ‘too real’ for their own good. We rarely recommend using company executives in front of the camera because the camera picks up all kinds of signals that the unpracticed performer is not aware of, resulting in an impression often contrary to the intended message. An uptight senior executive, no matter how well meaning, delivering a reassuring message to the public over some product liability problem can actually hurt the company’s rehabilitation efforts if that onscreen presenter is deemed untrustworthy or deceptive.
He’ll Always Be Tricky Dick
There are many examples of this sort of marketing faux pas, with Richard Nixon’s 1960 television debate with John Kennedy being one of the most famous. On the radio many people thought Nixon, the veteran campaigner, won the debate, but under the penetrating scrutiny of the television camera, Nixon’s true self came through. It was not just the five o’clock shadow; it was his buried true-self delivering a negative impression to the audience’s subconscious mind. The negative Nixon brand was established forever, one that never fully recovered.
A Brand Should Never Get Old, Ill, or Fat
Even positive reaction to a real personality can turn out to be negative. Take the example of Steve Jobs. His keynote addresses are treated like rock star performances, but when not available to perform for whatever reason, rumors start, and even major corporations like Apple feel the effect.
What you really want to create is a brand character, a spokesperson that can be managed, cultivated, and grown into a long-term brand representative, one who can deliver your marketing message and brand story in consistent, effective, and controlled campaigns.
Every Brand Story Needs A Villain
When we speak of the brand villain we are not necessarily referring to another character although that can certainly be one way of illustrating the issue at hand. As an alternative, situations or scenarios can be used to represent the problem or dilemma.
Psychological issues are most often not so cut-and-dried as to be presented by the black-hat villain and white-hat hero. Engaging heroes are often tainted or damaged in a way the audience can relate to, and effective villains are not so much evil as they are representative of an alternative agenda.
Take for example the recent commercial campaign for ‘Oatmeal Crisps’ that is currently running in the Canadian market. The series of spots features a father who is trying to protect his favorite cereal from being consumed by his teenage son in one commercial, and by his elderly father in another. This extremely clever campaign digs deep into the emotional resentments and psychological issues involved in the family dynamic, but it does it in a humorous, lighthearted manner, where the audience can relate to the situation, and accept the underlying message. Here’s a case of protagonist and antagonist, a more sophisticated approach to the hero-villain relationship.
You Are The Agent of Change
By adopting the Brand Story approach to marketing, you need to accept the notion that your brand is an agent of change. All stories are about change: transformation from one state (dissatisfaction) to another (satisfaction). You construct your brand story based on the idea that your brand will transform the audience somehow.
Take the ‘Multi Grain Cheerios’ commercial featuring a husband and wife discussing the ingredients listed on the cereal box: while the overt message is buy this product because it tastes good, the underlying message is that it helps control your weight thus making you more attractive to your spouse, not a subject that any sensitive spouse would suggest. The cereal is presented as the agent of change: overweight and unattractive, to slim and beautiful, while at the same time removing the stigma of dieting by providing the taste excuse to justify the purchase.
This commercial like the previously mentioned ‘Oatmeal Crisps’ commercial creates a conflict that delivers multiple messages through the familiar husband-wife scenario; one that is familiar to anyone who has ever dared suggest their significant other should lose some weight.
Are You “Law and Order” or “Prison Break”?
Format: Procedural or Serial
The two most commonly used presentation formats are Procedural, think “Law and Order”, or Serial, think “Prison Break”. Procedurals follow a strict formula that continuously replays the basic story arc with the context of each episode emphasizing the consistent attitudes, perspective, and point-of-view of the franchise or brand. On the other hand, Serials move the plot along from episode to episode keeping the audience in suspense as to what is going to happen next and whether the brand hero will win the day.
One of the best Serial advertising campaigns every implemented was the Nescafe Gold Blend coffee campaign that ran from 1987-1992. You can watch the whole campaign from beginning to end on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igi9u6X4y-s).
One of my favorite Procedural style campaigns is the recent Kleenex (Let It Out) campaign that was brilliantly executed. It played upon the audience’s emotions, memories, and experiences, while associating those deep-seated feelings with their brand of facial tissue that is normally regarded and sold as a strictly commoditized product.
Doing Something, Isn’t Necessarily Doing It Well
Far from being restrictive, these formats provide familiar structure within which the company can establish and enhance their brand, but failure to grasp the underlying emotional element inherent in your offering will lead to failure. A current Canadian advertiser tried to copy the Kleenex format without understanding what made the Kleenex campaign effective; they copied the physical presentation but without any emotional subtext, relying totally on a cost-to-performance benefit, and the result is a second rate effort rather than an effectively clever slipstreamed homage.
It’s About People, By People, For People
Unlike television advertising that is restricted to only those that can afford it, the Web is available to all. The problem is easy and affordable access to the tools and venues to deliver your brand story does not mean that you are telling it effectively. Marketing communication is not about research, technology, or statistics; it’s about people and the underlying emotional needs your brand satisfies – therein lies the basis upon which you build your brand story.
By Jerry Bader in Featured
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