Interactivity and individualization in Online Marketing are two essential components that are necessary when it comes to online marketing. These elements work alone, as well as together in the development of online marketing programs.

Interactivity in online marketing programs

The integration of diverse services to implement web based marketing programs is advantageous to the programs involved. The sharing of ideas help motivate and stimulate the unique characteristics that are most needed for online marketing consultants. It is much easier for marketing specialists to communicate with each other, due to the level of high technology that is imposed in today’s business world. There are various manners that marketing consultants can communicate with each other and take their ideas and innovations to the next level. These methods are as follows:

• Surveys

Online surveys are methods in which communication brings feedback and assists in the ways that marketing programs can be successful, especially in regard to the target population that is most profitable for these websites. They are quite inexpensive to develop and their results can be priceless to any marketing company.

• 24/7 chat customer service

A customer service 24/7 chat line is a valuable tool when it comes to keeping customers satisfied. It is also a good method to use as a check point in relation to online advertising. After speaking with a customer, an online tech specialist can easily see if the marketing campaign is understood and if it is accomplishing positive results for the company.

• E-mails

E-mails have always been a great way to communicate with people, especially relating to online marketing. They are wonderful methods to introduce a company and/ or products to many people instantly. They must be concise, clear, and short with pertinent information that will increase the interest of their readers to pursue the company or products listed.

• Web analysis

Web analysis aids those consultants who are hired to assist marketing companies in their understanding of what methods are best for a specific marketing program.

• Online audits (Outsourced)

Online audits are very often outsourced in order to provide objective and non-biased reports and/ or data.

Individualization pertaining to online marketing agendas

Individualization, better known as customizing, is preferred by many companies today. The major drawback to an individualized marketing strategy is the cost, which is usually much higher than other types of online marketing programs. Customizing a webpage, rather than using a generalized template, may also take more time. Sometimes an individual, such as a small online business entrepreneur, would rather use templates and save money so that he/she can design a site and have an active part in the website, rather than pay a web designer and have no significant role in the site.

All in all, Interactivity and Individualization in Online Marketing, are two elements that can and/ or will control the fate and success rate of any website. Without good communication through interactions, a website will not have positive end results. An individualized site is also very important when implementing an online marketing program. If a site has implemented both communication and customized marketing programs, then this site is sure to acquire increased traffic and profits.

Source by Rob Huber…

“Bad publicity is still publicity.” Such statement is one of the most common yet dangerous cliches ever. Isn’t it better to be remembered because of good deeds rather than controversial scandals? The greatest heroes and leaders of histories are immortalized because of their significant contributions. On the other hands, those that have been a scourge to humanity are eternally condemned.

This principle also applies to companies or business organizations. More than anything else, corporate image or reputation is one thing that should be taken good care of. A tainted reputation can cripple even the most well-known establishments. Redeeming one’s image is far by more costly than losing a good deal. Once your reputation is ruined, your business is in high risks of crumbling into pieces. There are several reasons that justify the importance of corporate image or reputation.

A good corporate image or reputation is an efficient marketing and promotional tool – Consumers will always remember an outstanding service. Likewise, they never forgive and forget mediocre works as well. Clients spend their hard-earned money on products and services that they avail. If your company is known for good performances, you have a higher tendency of attracting more customers. The best part of it is that you don’t have to spend a considerable amount of time convincing them. Your previous clients will be your unofficial spokespersons. You don’t have to spend too much on employing the services of advertising agencies. In addition to that, it is a given fact that consumers prefer to patronize service providers which have already established their names in their respective industries.

Credibility and integrity comes with a good name – Don’t forget that your reputation is your identity . It articulates the culture of your organization. It is hard to be credible when nobody believes in you. Relatively, it is also difficult to prove integrity when your clients talk negatively about your company’s services. Instead of recommending and promoting your business, you soon find your customers spreading warnings and bad reviews.

Corporate image or reputation establishes trust, confidence, loyalty and superb client relationships – The most respectable names in the industry did not reach the zenith of success if they did not protect their reputation. It should be noted that achieving untainted corporate image is not just about avoiding scandals and controversies. It is more of meeting the expectations of their clients. In order to build a good image, excellence and perfection must be continuously observed. As for the client’s part, a good image provides a strong sense of security. They are assured that they would get good results once they use the services or products launched and offered by a reputable company.

Company image is instrumental in increasing your business opportunities – Corporate reputation is like a magnet. It does not only attract customers. It also catches the attention of interested investors and business partners. Who would dare to invest in a company known for management conflicts and workforce issues? Establishing a good image generates tons of possibilities for business growth and expansion.

A good image can stand the test of time – In this highly competitive market, consumers will always look for alternatives. However, a well-established reputation lessens the worries of switching to other service providers. Clients would continue to patronize your products even if it is more expensive. It is because they are aware that the company can efficiently deliver their needs and demands.

It has been always said that “first impressions last.” Make a memorable impression. Value your company’s reputation and its name will continue to resonate for the rest of time.

Source by Greg Bilieu…

Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease and it affects millions of people all over the world but only a quarter of these people experience symptoms. Studies have shown that this disease is most common in women than men, because the genital area of women is warmer and moist than of the men. Yet with this disease affecting millions of people all over the world, there is rarely genital herpes news that is being discussed and more often, the people who are infected with this virus is left feeling alienated and doomed.

The virus is caused by the herpes simplex virus or the HSV-2 virus and is highly contagious. The disease can be transmitted via the exposed raw skin of the person to his or her sexual partner. Once you have sexual intercourse with an infected partner, the infection will start to manifest its symptoms three to twenty days after sexual contact. When it comes to genital herpes news, up to now there are no known cure for genital herpes. Up to this day, this is considered incurable but a manageable disease.

The drugs that are available in the market today are only to suppress the activity of the virus. However, there is genital herpes news that says that there are other remedies that can help people beside the medicine that is out in the market today. People that are infected with this disease are constantly in search of ways to end their misery. With natural remedies it can reverse the effects and lessen the recurrences of genital herpes once the symptoms has started. The news industry is buzzing with this newly found wonder supplements that will aid healing of symptoms and prevent outbreaks of genital herpes.

This natural food supplement are said to fight of herpes virus of the person infected with the virus. These wonder herbs are astragalus, galangal, lapacho, myrrh; ligustrum, pansy, and cat’s claw have an antiviral capability. Thyme, licorice, and cayenne are included because of their herpes fighting components. On the other hand, there are also natural immune system boosters that can help the people effectively fight the recurrence of the disease. These are made of natural herbs and other medicinal plants that will help increase the body’s immune system to fight of the recurrence of the virus. These are reishi mushroom, Lysine is an amino acid that is known to fight and control the herpes virus, and Echinacea, vitamin c, and zinc are vitamins and minerals, which are known to boost the immune system.

It is a known fact that genital herpes do not have a cure, and because of this scientist are continuously updating the people on what is happening in the world of medicine and its current discovery. Genital herpes news, gives hope to those people that are afflicted with this disease. It continuously brings hope and good news to people. Just remember that this natural food supplements are only supplements it can never replace the medicines that is prescribed by your physician.

Source by Kelly Purden…

Creating a brand is one of the most important things that you’ll do in the establishment of your small business. But defining what “brand” means can be a tricky task. There are so many different approaches to branding a business and so many elements of a brand. The most accurate definition I know is:

A brand is the collection of perceptions that your customer has about your business.

Here’s another definition from Wikipedia that goes a little more in-depth into all of the facets of a brand:

In marketing, a brand is the symbolic embodiment of all the information connected with a product or service. A brand typically includes a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images or symbols. It also encompasses the set of expectations associated with a product or service which typically arise in the minds of people. Such people include employees of the brand owner, people involved with distribution, sale or supply of the product or service, and ultimate consumers.

This definition usually makes a small business owner feel rather powerless over their brands. Since, in its’ simplest definition, a brand is created in your customers’ mind – from their perspective and experiences, it may seem that there isn’t a lot that you can do to shape or control the outcome. For example, if a customer has a bad experience, or happens to be in a bad mood when they work with you, there’s a good chance that their impression of your company will be less than favorable. However, there are a lot of actions that you can take to influence and to help shape your customers’ thoughts about your business, and to work towards making those more positive.

Let’s start by looking at how large enterprises approach “branding.” Enterprises typically devote a rather substantial budget to “brand-building.” Generally, the process of brand-building begins with hiring big thinking branding consultants to define a business’s brand. Then, focus groups are conducted with current and potential customers to make sure that the branding is on the right track. After the branding has been refined, corporate messaging will be developed to reinforce the brand, and a brand identity will be designed to visually communicate about the brand. Many enterprises will also put together an advertising and/or public relations campaign to spread the word about their brand and to gain some brand recognition. There are many more activities that large businesses can do to build brand awareness and to create equity in their brands.

But this approach makes branding a particularly difficult task for a small business. Small businesses typically do not have the budget for research, high-priced consultants, and nationwide ad campaigns. And rarely do they have the time or internal resources to devote to the creation and management of a brand. On top of all of this, many of those tasks just aren’t appropriate to help small businesses create the results that they need with their brands.

I typically condense small business branding to a much more compact-and economical-package:

o Brand Definition: This is the process of defining your business: Who you are, what you do, who you can best help, and what makes you different from your competition. You must have all of these factors well-defined to create an effective brand. If your thoughts in all of these areas aren’t clear, concise, and well-put, then you can’t hope to effectively direct your customers’ thoughts about your business. Worse yet, you might wind up looking like you have “multiple personality syndrome,” which can thoroughly confuse your customers.

o Brand Identity: also known as the graphic “face” of your business. Small businesses certainly benefit from creating a logo and a consistent set of marketing materials. Forty percent of people better remember what they see as opposed to what they hear or read. So having an iconic logo and a strong visual vocabulary used throughout your materials greatly increases your business’s memorability – and makes it more likely that your customers will think about you. The colors, fonts, and symbols that you use throughout your Brand Identity can also communicate your Brand Definition to your customers in a visual way that’s more powerful than using words alone.

o Brand Messaging: This is the way that you talk about your business. What is the main message that you want to tell people about your business? What do you want them to remember about you, and how would you like them to pass the word along to others they meet? You can influence many of the thoughts that your customers have about you, and how they talk about you, by having consistent messaging in your marketing materials.

o Brand Service: This is how you perform your tasks, relate to your customers, and deliver your products or services. Customer service is a …

Packaging is a very important part for every cosmetic business. If your product is good, without quality packaging it may not do well in the market. This is the reason why you find top brands, come up with inspirational ideas for presenting their products. They understand the prestige behind having good packaging for their products and also the benefits that results from it. It is very difficult to see these leading companies complain about the performances of their brands because they have already laid a solid foundation for their product’s success, and are doing all they can to build on it. Once you take your packaging serious at the beginning, it would be very easy to achieve success when you introduce new brands. These top brands manage to stay in good position in the market because they do some additional work and went extra mile for their lipstick boxes.

The first thing you should be looking at here, is how those leading companies manage to stay on top their competitors. Things like what they do differently; with it you can change your mind-set about your lipstick boxes. They make it convenient for their customers to see the entire product in the boxes. How they come about this, is that they add windows to their boxes. These windows also allows customer to make choices on the color of the product they are buying without removing the items from their packaging.

Again, these companies make sure that all important details about their products, are added on their lipstick boxes. Apart from that, they ensure that the right combination of all the ingredients are used so that consumers can have good experience from using their products. These information together with some instructions are added to these boxes; they assist the consumer to know how to use the products for best results.

Flashy lipstick boxes do not only add glamour to your range of products but also protect the lipstick’s colors from getting scratched. The type of material used in manufacturing these boxes are printable. They can be amended to any favored shapes or sizes that you require. The brand’s name, shade, number as well as content of the lipstick are normally printed on the colorful lipstick boxes. There are hundreds of makeup brands that visit the market with new products, almost every day. They take everything that they do seriously, from packaging to manufacturing of the product itself. That is the reason why they are on top of what they do. You too can do the same for your range of products.

Source by Amir Bashir…

Sales Manager; Reporting to the vice president of Marketing.

Job Objective

The primary objective is to get maximum volume of sales through effective development and execution of sales programs and sales policies for the products sold by the division.

Responsibilities and Duties.

The sales manager is concerned with following job objectives:-

Sales Program.

The sales manager designs detailed sales program to improve the competitive positions reduce selling and other distribution expenses and achieve established sales goals.

The sales manager reviews and approves sales policies, sales static’s and pricing policies for all the products to ensure profitability.

Organization

The sales manager prepares an effective plan for the organization in which all the activities are carried out for the members of the sales organization which makes it easy for the sales members to peruse and get the results on time.

The sales manager provides leadership both to immediate subordinates and all levels of sales organization in establishing a sound basis for each individual’s self development and in making certain that rewards are in line with the responsibilities and performance.

Sales force management.

The sales manager discovers promising sources for the recruitment of new sales personnel and sets standards for the selection of the most promising new personnel from among recruits.

The sale manager provides training to new personnel so as to achieve high level performance in the shortest period of time and prepares them for possible future promotions.

The sales manager ensures the sales force are properly motivated, so as to achieve optimum sales performance.

The sale manager establishes a system of supervision that controls waste and inefficiency and points sales efforts into the most profitable channels.

Relations

The sales manager develops effective working relations with other departmental heads and the general manager so that sales developments can be translated into courses of action.

The sales manager develops relations with the key accounts that provide maximum long term participation in their available business.

The sales manager develops and maintains effective working relation ships with sales ,trainings and other key personnel in the employ of customers in order to ensure that the cooperation is beneficial to both the parties.

Communication

The sale manager keeps the higher heads of their organization informed about the sales results and future plans of action and operation.

The sale persons keeps a track of overall departmental sales activities,objectives,results, and problems and keeps sales manager informed about the same.

Control

The sales manager keeps lesion with production manager so that the rate of production is geared as closely as possible to actual sales needs.

The sales manager reviews and approves sales and expense budgets and evaluates periodically the performance of all sales activities in relation to budget and sales goals and corrects the same as and when required.

The sales manager ‘s performance is considered satisfactory when the

– Profit contribution of the sales department is in line with the plan.

– The details of the sales plan are in writing and acceptable to marketing management.

– The turnover is satisfactory.

Mohd. Younus Rathore

Source by Younus Rathore…

With large nationwide chains that dominate the market, small hardware stores sometimes have a difficult time being competitive. The key is to find a unique selling proposition for your business and to capitalize on it so customers see the value in choosing you over one of the bigger stores. Here are some great ways to make your business stand out.

1. Giveaways-When your store first opens (or even if you’re just looking for an extra push), offer small giveaways to your customers with their purchase. These will be tools or products they can use that are branded with your store’s information-hammers, tape measures, levels, etc. When a customer is using this product and runs out of something or determines the need to visit a hardware store, they’ll see your information and immediately head your way!
2. In-Store Classes-Hardware stores often form a bit of a culture and social atmosphere, so find ways to play this up. One great choice is to sponsor training classes and educational seminars in your store. Work with your vendors to provide information that your customers will find valuable. Even your employees can instruct these classes-anything from minor home renovation products to full-scale remodeling. List the classes you’re offering that month above your cash registers with a large, visible vinyl banner which clearly-informs customers of their opportunities to expand their skills.
3. Charity Donations-Offer your products to charity groups and organizations in-town which build or repair homes for the less-fortunate. This is great PR for your business, it makes you look more-credible, and in return you’re often able to advertise at the home-site using a banner or yard sign. When customers see that you’re giving back to your community, they are more-inclined to shop with you.
4. Ladies Night-Most hardware stores predominantly-market towards men. While the majority of your customers are probably male, don’t neglect the ladies. Host a “Ladies Night” at your store that offers your educational classes and even a special discount on purchases made by women. Use removable window clings to give your store a slight feminine touch. There’s a huge potential market here that is somewhat-untapped, and with the right approach, female customers can dramatically affect your business.
5. Personal Shoppers-Some customers complain that hardware or home improvement stores are overwhelming. Counter this objection by providing customers with a personal shopping service. Your employees already help customers find products daily anyway, but creating a formal program provides a revenue opportunity. Customers can have one of your employees guide them around the store and help them find exactly what they need for their project, or for even-more convenience, your employee can preselect the products they need so that when the customer arrives, all they have to do is check out.

Source by Michael K Allen…

Marketing a book has parallels to the marketing of any other product or service. With that reality in mind, I have organized a 14 P framework that can be used for conceptualizing and planning any marketing effort.

Book publishing can be defined as causing a book to be in a printed form and available to the public for purchase. Over the past decade, the first part – getting a book into printed form – has been dramatically simplified because of Print-on-Demand (POD) manufacturing. POD allows authors to avoid paying for a large print run and managing an inventory, yet to still have exactly as many printed books as needed. Pages of a POD book can be in full color or black on white; the binding can be paperback or casebound (hardback) with either a dust jacket or a laminated cover.

The second part of the definition – making books available to the public for purchase – has been a marketing responsibility shared by the publisher and the author. Making available can be thought of as having two components: making potential buyers aware of your book, and ensuring copies are readily accessible for those buyers to purchase.

Depending on your publishing house or service, you will have access to different tools for building the awareness and accessibility. It is best to understand the bookselling environment so you can be most effective with your marketing initiatives – at whatever scale and by whatever means you decide to promote your book.

MARKETING IS NOT THE SAME AS HIGH-PRESSURE SELLING

Some people are terrified and paralyzed by the irrational notion that marketing is synonymous with personally badgering people, somehow coercing them into buying something they do not particularly want or need. Relax! You really do not need to transform yourself into an obsessive, self-promoting ego-maniac to be successful.

Such common misconceptions can prevent an author from seeing that marketing is actually a creative exercise, an intriguing puzzle-solving process with limitless possibilities. Authors are very creative people and, therefore, well-equipped to find marvelous solutions. All they need is a practical framework for decision-making, plus some basic knowledge of the book trade and the available options.

For the marketing of your book to be sustainable, one needs to find a balance – weighing one’s home life and other priorities on one hand, with your time and financial commitment to book selling on the other. Balance is easiest to sustain if you can select marketing tactics that suit your fancy, so you can enjoy promoting your book, rather than feeling drained or uncomfortable. I have confidence you can find the time and the commitment to carry out a few high-payoff promotional activities. After all, you had the personal discipline to write an entire book, right?

Before you and I go any further, let us agree on what marketing means and entails.

Surprisingly, even though one can get an advanced university degree in marketing, there is no consensus in academia nor in the business world about a definition of this word. I know this because I have taught marketing at the college level. Imagine the confusion when I moved on to manage a communications consultancy, and clients would say marketing when they meant in-person selling, or advertising, or setting up distribution networks, or promoting franchises or running contests or just about anything. This was frustrating, at times embarrassing, and always counter-productive – until I devised the definition shown below.

This definition is the conceptual framework for the marketing mix you can develop. This framework has been used with remarkable success to build tens of millions of dollars of wealth for authors and other business clients.

When you are developing a marketing strategy in any line of business, you will be thinking about how to allocate resources and align your efforts in a number of areas simultaneously, trying to juggle priorities. The classical ‘marketing mix’ I once taught to business students asserts there are only four aspects (the 4 Ps) to be considered: product, price, place and promotions. This definition of the marketing mix was created by Jerome McCarthy in his 1960 book called Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. In the real world, the 4 P framework is clearly inadequate. I propose that you use a following more robust definition with 14 Ps when you are plotting how to sell your new book.

Marketing is the process of creating, implementing, monitoring and evolving a strategy for the complete marketing mix, which is:

• having a needed product (or service)
• available at a convenient place (and time)
• for a mutually satisfactory price (value),
• while ensuring that the correct segments of the public
• are aware (the promotional mix)
• and motivated (positioning),
• all in a manner which takes advantage of strategic partnerships
• and contributes to the overall purpose (passion).

…

Before advertising for a real estate investing business, the business owner should understand the components of advertising. Placing an ad in a newspaper, posting door-to-door flyers or using a voice broadcast message are all useful advertising methods; however, the advertising will not be successful unless the real estate entrepreneur designates a fitting message with the right medium in the targeted market.

The three main components of advertising, also known as the three big M’s, are: the message, the media and the market. To briefly summarize what each component is: the message consists of the words used in the advertising; the media is the type of advertising; and the market is the targeted group the advertising is meant to reach. Now, the brainstorming can begin. When engaging in the brainstorming session to determine your message, medium and market, you can either do this by yourself or include other associates. The more minds the better the flow of ideas becomes.

To start, asses the market you are attempting to reach. In order to reach a high level of success with your advertising, narrow down your market. You want to make sure that you are targeting potential motivated sellers. Do not necessarily think that a larger, broader audience is better than a narrow, targeted audience. On the contrary, it is much easier to shape a message and pick a medium when you have targeted your market.

Once you have narrowed down your market, it is time to craft your message. This can be anything from an “elevator speech” to an eye-catching phrase. Remember that people are bombarded with advertising practically 100 percent of the time. This puts an added pressure on making sure that your message will appeal to motivated sellers. Center your message on what your business can do for the motivated seller – how will working with you benefit them.

Finally, choose the medium for your advertising. This can include post card mailings, newspaper ads, television spots, etc. A good place to start is to analyze what other investors are doing – where are they advertising? Analyze how their choices have been successful for them or detrimental to their work. The results of your analysis can be a start for your decision making.

Once you have finalized your decisions on your market, message and medium, be sure to have a system in place to track the success of your advertising. Always come back to the drawing table after assessing the effectiveness of your advertising. If the advertising is not working to its fullest potential, ask yourself the following questions: Does my message need to be tweaked? Is this the right medium for my market? Is my market too narrow or too broad?

Source by James Orr…

Are you a disabled person or housebound, looking for a job at home which makes good money?

Just because you are disabled or housebound doesn’t mean that you are unable to have a home job and make a lot of money..and I mean a lot of money. The internet is awash with many excellent ways for disabled people or housebound to have a job at home and earn good money as long as you have access to the world wide web and are able to use a computer to a basic level.

One great home job for disabled people to earn potentially unlimited income is called affiliate marketing. This is where you advertise a product for someone, maybe a downloadable product such as a computer program or instructional video or maybe an Ebook.

There are many affiliate sites around but one of the biggest and best is called ClickBank and it has many affiliates working from home.

The way it works is that you promote a product using a unique affiliate link and when someone uses your link and buys a product your ClickBank account is credited with a percentage of the sale. This can be as much as 75% of the sale some very good money can be earned. You’re not just limited to downloadable products however.

Did you know that you can even sell products through Amazon? Yes Amazon will pay you a small percentage every time someone buys something through your ‘affiliate link’ with them. Of course it’s not just that easy, however it’s not actually that hard either.

If you can dedicate the time and effort, and treat it like any serious job, then you most certainly will have success with it and there are many disabled people or housebound individuals who have this exact home job making money, and I mean making thousands of dollars each month..

It’s not a get rich overnight solution but it is possible to learn simple techniques that will help you create a viable and lucrative online business, and if you enjoy researching and writing then it’s also very enjoyable.

Not only that you do not need to invest a penny into some of the money making methods. This is the perfect way for disabled people to have a job at home earning money and is ideal for the disabled entrepreneur.

Source by Martin Rushforth…

Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad has made being your boss a very popular concept. Everybody wants to be their own boss. You make money for yourself, you do not have to report to anyone and you can choose when not to work. What’s there not to like? However, most of us are stuck in our jobs as we have to pay the bills.

Affiliate Marketing is a great way to start being your own boss, while you still keep your day job. The risk is low. You only require a few hundred dollars to get started. It does not require much time. You can start by committing only one to two hours a day to your Affiliate Marketing business.

As a beginner, it is important to choose the right Affiliate Marketing program. A good program can save you lots of time, and make you more money. Here is the top tip, when choosing an Affiliate Marketing program:

Pay for a COMPREHENSIVE step by step program

Most marketers will tell you affiliate products are free. You should not be paying for them.

Yes, it is true that affiliate products are free. Any affiliate program that asks you to pay for the products you are selling is a scam. So why am I asking you to pay for a program?

When you first get started, you might get lucky and stumble upon good affiliate products. The best places to look for them are merchant sites like ClickBank. Now that you have got your top-selling affiliate product to promote, what do you do next?

Most new Affiliate Marketers have NO CLUE where to start. How to set up your own websites, squeeze page, autoresponders and other technical requirements? How to drive traffic to your website? These are things that you can learn eventually if you spend hours and hours scouring the Internet. That is assuming you know what to look for of course.

But why waste your time and effort? Invest a few hundred dollars on a step by step system, and save some time and effort. Use the time you have saved, to apply what you have learnt and recoup your investment.

The key is to ensure that the system you choose is comprehensive. It has to cover two basic aspects. Firstly, it has to teach you how to set up the technical aspects of your Affiliate Marketing business. You need to know how to set up your website. You need to know how to change your website. You need to know how to set up your Autoresponder. These are 3 basic technical requirements that the program should teach.

Secondly, the program should teach you how to do marketing and drive traffic to your website. Look for gurus who have proven results. Don’t just take their word for it. Look for signs of their success. How do they dress? What car(s) do they drive? Speak to their past students and hear what they have to say. If everything points to real success, you’ve got a winner!

Once you have signed up for a good program, follow it strictly. Most Affiliate Marketers fail not because they don’t know what to do, but because they don’t work hard enough and give up to quickly. Stick to your program and work at it religiously.

If the program fits the criteria listed above, you will soon be firing your boss!

Source by Ant Chang…

Digital Marketing is much like modern architecture in many ways. It is the way of the world and these guidelines are just a start to get your business off on the right foot. Mastering digital marketing isn’t a cakewalk. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, it is the required result of digital channels to promote or market products and services to consumers and businesses. It believed to be wavering these days as many companies that once used the old style of marketing are now going digital. It is essential in today’s world that a company which exists physically, must exist digitally as well. It is believed that existing digitally enhances advertising process. There exist a different and more approachable digital marketing tools like web designing, pay-per-click marketing, SMS, and email marketing. The following article will educate you in not one but many ways.

Direct marketing and advertising is an advertising in which companies offer physical marketing and advertising materials to consumers to communicate details about a service or product. Inbound marketing can likewise be an essential tool in the continuing retention of present customers, by creating communication with those customers and enabling business to engage with other customers by giving informative, educational result together with product promotions. While outbound marketing could reach a larger audience, additionally, it runs the danger of barring uninterested consumers also. If you prefer to do better marketing without harming your finances, direct marketing will probably be somewhat decent for you. Second, content promotion is a pull, instead of a push, strategy. To the contrary, it is a refreshingly new concept in marketing which provides a unique comprehension of consumer behaviour.

Content can typically be about a service or a product, it might be item, price, service charges or the selling of digital products like books, movies or software. It is something that helps in relaying old customers and thereby helps in pulling traffic from popular search engines. The very first and most crucial issue is quality content, try using attractive words that could connect nicely with readers. Step one on any advertising (or indeed, marketing) campaign needs to be to recognize the aims and goals of the campaign and the way they fit into the aims and goals of the business all around. Digital advertising and marketing campaigns will need to rely on these limits to be prosperous. Together with creating great advertising text (copy), you may want to study the way you can earn a corporation’s marketing campaigns visually appealing, through the usage of banners, images, videos and more.

Although these facts may be true, but sometimes it gets difficult to do all these techniques in the company. Therefore, known and recognized companies and firms may hire a digital marketing agency to do on behalf of them. Most renowned digital marketing agency may not only offer quality and dependable benefits, also they have a digital marketing and advertising strategist which may help plan the most helpful campaigns. To be successful in today’s day, companies need to continuously create new content that doesn’t only get them found but also lets them capture leads. Soon it won’t be enough for businesses to understand what you might want. All businesses wish to strengthen their relationship with clients and prospects. Now everyone is aware of what the business is shooting for. It is essential that businesses optimize their online properties effectively to be able to get to the top of the entire important search engine result page.

Even though many mistake digital for internet, to their surprise online marketing is only a part of the huge digital marketing framework. In a broader sense, the net is the centre of digital marketing. It has made easier for marketing managers to measure the results of a campaign. Since you can see the internet is by far not the only spot for marketers to assemble success, even in past couple of years. The web and the world have brought in an entire new perception of the advertising market. Thus, if you need to effectively advertise your business on the internet then seek the services of a renowned digital advertising company at the earliest.

Source by Anil G L…

Article marketing is the favorite search engine optimization (SEO) method used by most online marketers. It is highly effective, easy-to-use, and doesn’t require any monetary investment, that is why this strategy is recommended among new players in the online marketing industry.

However, the more people using this method, the more intense the competition becomes. That is why online marketers are exploring tips and tactics to make their article marketing campaign stand out among the rest.

Since the thing that fuels the campaign is the article, one must effectively modify their materials to make it more appealing to the online users in order to gain more traffic as well as to optimize the website on top search engine services. Thus, here are the basic guidelines in creating your content article to make it attractive to readers:

1. Title is the first thing that appears on the content; it gives the initial impression of what the readers’ might come across. So, your article must initially tell what the topic is about. Make it witty to automatically stir the curiosity of the online readers. And also, keep the length of your title to the 75-character limit.
2. Lead is what appears right after the title, and both the title and the lead are what appear on search result pages. So, you must also make it short yet informative by providing a glimpse on what the article is all about.
3. Maintain the creativity throughout the article body in order to keep the interest of your readers. Now is the time to pour all your creative juices and put your mind into work in coming up with witty phrases to produce interesting articles.
4. Yet, it is important to maintain over-all quality of your article to make it look professional. Make sure that your write-up is well articulated and the valuable details are properly presented with correct grammar and sentence construction.
5. Also maintain the consistency of your tone and avoid going to different topics without proper diversion as it will only confuse your readers. As much as possible, discuss about a particular topic on one article and talk about the others on your further write-ups, this will also help you in generating greater quantity of articles.
6. To make it more appealing, provide useful details so people will find your material worth the read. Be playful and at the same time informative to make it stand among the rest of the competitors.
7. And lastly, be succinct; provide the information needed yet be short and concise with your discussion. Be straightforward; avoid beating around the bush as it will only lose the focus of your readers that they may cut off the reading.

Source by Jason Nyback…

Flea markets are a great place to sell inexpensive costume jewelry. If you own vintage costume jewelry, you are probably better off selling them through other channels. Most shoppers in flea markets are not aiming to spend a lot of money on individual items. More often than not shoppers have a general idea of how much they intend to spend in a flea market and that doesn’t include spending on high end vintage costume jewelry. You can probably maximize your margins selling them in other locations.

However, flea markets are still great locations to sell your jewelry pieces. If you set up a jewelry booth, you are likely to sell more volume on good quality and fairly priced items.

Below are a few tips setting up a costume jewelry booth in a flea market:

Sourcing

Almost all types of costume jewelry can be sold in a flea market. You may come across items that you can sell from discount stores, clearance sales, thrift stores and even garage sales. While these don’t provide a steady or reliable source of products to sell, you can also purchase directly from wholesalers and importers of costume jewelry. A few advantages of purchasing your pieces from an importer or wholesaler is their reliability in providing you with jewelry that have generally passed through quality control and can provide pieces in bulk.

Pricing and Tagging

Make sure that you don’t over-price your pieces. You can do this by checking the price of the same or similar pieces in the same flea market or surrounding areas. Meanwhile don’t under-price your items as well. Make sure you cover your fixed costs such as booth rental, electricity, hired help and even your time. This should give you an idea of your volume break-even point and the mark-up that you place on each piece.

Make sure all your jewelry pieces are in good condition and clean. You can attach the piece to a card and stick on your price. Another way to tag your piece is by attaching a sting through the loop of the jewelry. Either way, make sure that the pieces are secure in a presentable manner.

Setting Up

Trays are great for displaying your jewelry pieces. The downside to using just trays is the amount of space that it takes up on your table. Whenever possible, use stand or hook larger pieces like bib necklaces on walls. Jewelry stands are available on-line or through display companies.

You also don’t want to scare away customers by over decorating. It is always a good idea to have your booth decorated neatly. Having some color helps as it differentiates your booth among the other others.

Another tip is to have, when possible, a sign board. The sign should state exactly what you are selling, in this case costume jewelry. The sign always attracts attention in a sea of many other booths without signs.

Source by Megan Matthews…

A world class brand has 8 functions. It is critical to understand these functions to create a world-class brand. In a New Media Age, a marketer must have a solid understanding of branding. Social Media is a god send for a marketer. In order for this great tool to work, a marketer must be able to drive customers to their brand, at the exclusion of all other brands.

The great part of social media is its incredible scale. This is also its greatest drawback. In social media there is just so much content. People have to come to your product for social media to work—and this is why branding is critical.

The eight functions of a brand are IDENTIFICATION, PRACTICALITY, GUARANTEE, OPTIMISATION, BADGE, CONTINUITY, HEDONISM, AND ETHICS. Let me briefly summarize each of these functions.

A brand clearly identifies a product and clearly explains why that product is different than the other products in that market space. Simply, a brand is the thing that sets a product a part from all other products. It helps a consumer make sense of an offer. Simply, the brand will identify a product for a consumer. A brand will act as a lighthouse for a consumer, shining a beacon in their eyes, in order that they will know what products to select in a flooded marketplace.

Products and brands all have a “story”. With so many products in the marketplace, a consumer needs a mechanism to explain, in simple terms, what a particular product is, and why that consumer should select that product. A brand saves time and energy for a consumer. People know that this is the product they want at this time. On a hot day, after a hard day’s work, a consumer wants a place to regroup. Where do you go. You go to a building that is clearly marked (branded). You go to this building because you know that you can sit down a relax in this building. Over a long series of touchpoints, the product has assured you that sit in this building a enjoy this product.

A brand guarantees the product. The brand communicates to the consumer that if the product doesn’t work out as expected, the money or the product will be replaced.

A brand creates an image for a consumer. It creates a badge. The use of this brand communicates to other people that you are “successful”. A certain car is used by successful businessmen. Other cars might more sense, economically, to buy, but this car conveys “success”. If you drive this car, the brand gives you a badge.

Brands create a sense of satisfaction and trust. They create continuity. A bank’s symbol conveys that it has been in business for 200 years. If you bank there, the brand tells a consumer that their money is safe, and in good hands. When you buy a house, and there is a hurricane, a certain insurance company puts you in good hands. Brands a create friendship with customers in the social media age. This creates a relationship. It is relationships based on friendship that motivate a customer to buy.

Brands are hedonistic. The relationship between a customer and a product creates a friendship that leads to enchantment and attractiveness of the product. The hedonism of a brand creates loyalty. To create this enchantment, logos, theme songs, and phrases are created that communicate the experiential rewards.

The satisfaction that the product brings is linked to responsible and ethical behavior. This responsibility solidifies the relationship between the product and consumer and creates the long term relationship that leads to brand.

Some brands have succeeded in proving with their slogans that they know and understand what their fundamental task is: to transform the product category. A brand not only acts on the market. It organizes the market, drives a vision, creates a calling, and develops a clear idea of what the category is all about. Too many brands wish only to identify with the product category. In social media, products and consumers create a two way friendship.

Source by Dean Hambleton…

The Accession State Worker Registration Scheme (Worker Registration Scheme or ‘WRS’) was a temporary measure introduced in May 2004 which has since ceased, as of April 2011. The WRS required workers from the A8 countries, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, to register within a month of joining a new employer.

The Scheme Has Ceased, So Why Has It Continued to Have An Effect?

The scheme ceased in April 2011, however it has been extremely relevant for workers from the A8 countries in their applications for permanent residency (PR). One of the requirements for PR is that the applicant be a ‘worker’ in the UK for a continuous period of five years. For workers from the A8 countries, whether or not they had registered correctly with the WRS has had a big impact on whether or not they meet this five year requirement.

The WRS – The Difficulties

As EU national, you automatically acquire the right of PR in another EU country if you have lived legally in that country for at least 5 years continuously. The extra restrictions placed upon A8 nationals, in the form of the WRS, made it more difficult to fulfil this five year requirement. In applying for a permanent residence card, an applicant is required to provide evidence of their activity as a qualified person and where this applicant is an accession worker, this may include evidence of WRS registration.

The WRS faced criticism as being both unfair to workers and ineffective in its proposed aim of monitoring the effect of new migrant workers on the British economy. Many migrant workers have since found that they were not correctly registered on the WRS, whether through a general lack of awareness or other issues such as a change of employer. This has resulted in difficulties in meeting the criteria for PR.

Changes in the UK law

Under EU law Permanent Residence is automatically acquired by an EU National, provided the relevant criteria are met. However, a change in the UK law in 2015, means that a permanent resident who wishes to apply for British Citizenship must first apply for a Permanent Residence Certificate or Card. This has made it harder for persons with an EU law-based right of permanent residence to naturalise as British citizens.

The Good News!

The good news for nationals from A8 countries is that, we are almost five years on from the end of the WRS. This means that individuals who were not eligible for permanent residency status because of unregistered work during the WRS period, will be in a position to apply for permanent residence from April 2016, provided they can evidence the required residency and exercise of Treaty rights.

Source by Vera Kukhareva…

Advertisements are all around us. Whether we’re watching television, driving down the freeway, flipping through a magazine, or listening to the radio, we are bombarded on every side by messages trying to get us to buy a product or service. And although there have been countless debates over whether or not advertising is effective and whether it really does influence people to purchase products, the fact is many companies will spend billions of dollars on a single advertisement in the hopes that it will increase their profits.

Good advertisements have the power to make people stop and take notice. You have to have been living under a rock not to notice the success of Geico’s caveman series or the iPod’s silhouette series of commercials and advertisements. And as a result of those advertisements, sales went up significantly for those two companies.

Advertising creates awareness of the product and can convey messages, attitudes, and emotions to entice and intrigue audiences. At least those are the desired effects of an advertisement. Needless to say, some advertisements fail miserably in their purpose.

So, what makes the difference between a successful advertisement and an unsuccessful one? It’s all in the design. Typically, larger organizations produce more effective advertisements, while newer and smaller companies are the ones that produce the duds. This is largely because bigger organizations have the money to hire professionals while smaller companies do not.

The advantage of hiring an in-house advertising developer or hiring an advertising agency is that you get the skills of people who have been trained in creating effective advertisements. Many have spent years and years going to school, studying past effective advertisements, looking at elements of design, and learning how to create their own effective advertising campaigns.

Learning how to create effective advertisements does not happen overnight, but there are a few simple rules that many workers for professional advertising agencies follow to create effective advertisements that will appeal to audiences and hopefully increase the company’s revenue. The following paragraphs list a few advertising principles that companies and advertisers follow when creating their own advertising campaigns.

Perhaps the most important quality of an advertisement is its uniqueness. In a world where people often see hundreds of advertisements a day, an advertisement must be unique and different in order to capture audiences’ attention. Going back to the iPod example, the single block of color with an image of a black silhouette was extremely effective at the time because it was unlike anything else around it. The simplicity of the advertisement stood out against posters and billboards that had busier images and much more text. Also, the use of bright, bold colors made people stop and look at the image. Even though the advertisement had little text on it, people got the message that this product was new, fun, and bold.

Of course, there are a variety of ways to make your advertisement stand out. Look around your area and write down descriptions of advertisements you see. What are the trends? Are they text heavy? Do they use similar colors? What kinds of images are on the advertisements? Once you start noticing trends, try to think of ways your advertisement can go against those trends and be something different–something that will make people stop and look.

One word of caution: Once you’ve made people stop and look at your advertisement, they need to be able to understand what you’re selling. You may have the most eye-catching image on your advertisement, but if it is completely unrelated to your product or service, then viewers won’t understand what you want them to buy. So, be sure that when you are selecting your images and text for your advertisement, people will understand what you’re trying to sell.

A well-designed advertisement will also communicate well to audiences. In order to figure out how to make your advertisement effective, you need to identify your audience. Who are you trying to target? Teenagers? The Elderly? Business people? Parents? There are a variety of different audiences, and the more specifically you can identify the audience for your product, the better chance you have of designing an ad that will effectively influence your audience.

For instance, if your audience consists of young teenage girls, you might choose to use bright and bold colors, but for business people you may want to create an advertisement that uses more professional blues and blacks (but don’t be afraid to be a little bolder if you’re trying to stand out).

The key is to think of the general traits of your specific audience and try to reflect those traits in your advertisement. What do they value? What do they fear? What motivates them? Once you’ve answered those questions, it should be easier to come up with a few solid ideas for …

What is Event management?

Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of large scale events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, formal parties, concerts, or conventions. It involves studying the brand, identifying the target audience, devising the event concept, and coordinating the technical aspects before actually launching the event.

The process of planning and coordinating the event is usually referred to as event planning and which can include budgeting, scheduling, site selection, acquiring necessary permits, coordinating transportation and parking, arranging for speakers or entertainers, arranging decor, event security, catering, coordinating with third party vendors, and emergency plans.

Marketing tool

Event management might be a tool for strategic marketing and communication, used by companies of every size. Companies can benefit from promotional events as a way to communicate with current and potential customers. For instance, these advertising-focused events can occur as press conferences, promotional events, or product launches.

Event managers may also use traditional news media in order to target their audience, hoping to generate media coverage which will reach thousands or millions of people. They can also invite their audience to their events and reach them at the actual event.

Roles

The event manager is the person who plans and executes the event, taking responsibility for the creative, technical, and logistical elements. This includes overall event design, brand building, marketing and communication strategy, audio-visual production, script writing, logistics, budgeting, negotiation, and client service,

App

Software companies provide event planners with software tools to handle many common activities such as delegate registration, hotel booking, travel booking, or allocation of exhibition floorspace.

A recent trend in event technology is the use of mobile apps for events. Event mobile apps have a range of uses. They can be used to hold relatively static information such as the agenda, speaker biographies, and general FAQs. They can also encourage audience participation and engagement through interactive tools such as live voting/polling, submitting questions to speakers during Q&A, or building live interactive “word clouds”. Mobile event apps can also be used by event organisers as a means of communication.

Education

There are an increasing number of universities which offer courses in event management, including diplomas and graduate degrees. In addition to these academic courses, there are many associations and societies that provide courses on the various aspects of the industry. Study includes organizational skills, technical knowledge, public relations, marketing, advertising, catering, logistics, decor, glamor identity, human relations, study of law and licenses, risk management, budgeting, and the study of allied industries like television, other media, and several other areas.

Source by Naresh Naidu…

“It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it”.

— Roger Ebert

Unlike any other art, Films have a much greater impact on human’s mental consciousness. It holds the capability to impose an emotional instability in human minds. This is why it is said that movie making is more about observing and imagining. Now in this century, Filmmaking is not just about the script, screenplay and all. It comprises of lot many other factors. In Fact, a successful film promotion is merely about the Film marketing strategies related to that.

So, what is film marketing?

Many of us believe that the success of a film is all about how well it run in theaters.Well, I would say, Film marketing is all about driving the desired audience unto the theaters. Sometimes called film junket or press junket, Film marketing consists of various elements such as press releases, advertising, interviews, media involvements and most prominently Social Medias nowadays.

It’s no longer about Television, Print, and Outdoor

This is more like an enlightenment for every filmmaker these days. Back then, an efficient Film marketing strategy was all about the television, prints and all. But now it has changed, because, in order to reach the audience you need to find them at first. Today, it’s all about the internet.You need to find more people, you better go online, as simple as that.

Film Marketing strategies went digital

Well, it’s not a big surprise factor that film industries have adopted Digital Marketing techniques as a part of well structured Film Marketing Strategies. In fact, movie studios are moving beyond the typical techniques such as teasers, trailers and lot more by conducting Google hangouts with the crew, live streaming music launches, contests and so on.And the most interesting fact is that the spend on Film marketing Digital strategies has risen enormously these years.

I believe there are three major stages in a successful film marketing strategy, introducing, interacting and involving. Digital Media has involvement in all these three stages, great involvement indeed.

Search engine optimization for an effective film marketing strategies

Search engine optimization as an overall term for all the works and efforts we are investing on to the promotion of any services/products are not negligible. Unlike any other Digital marketing campaigns, Film marketing deserves more conviction as well as perception, even in its promotional campaigns.There are so many factors involved in this ranging from keywords to social media.

How Social media influence the way movies are marketed?

As a part of Digital marketing strategy, Social media has become one of the ‘behind the change’ reason, as films can gain a huge amount of buzz through it. It means, there is no longer need to rely on official reviews and adverts to know about the latest releases. Here is a quick review of few film marketing strategies in relation to social media.

Leaked images- Even though this seems to be an outdated technique, it still works. This kind of techniques is used probably for the promotion of superhero movies. The theory behind this tactic is that the movie producers will generate some excitement, years before the release of their films through leaked images. As the images would not reveal much more about the movie and characters, yet will definitely create a huge amount of online publicity and chatter.

Visual micro content- This is more like an emotional way of marketing, I would say. A movie called ‘If I stay’ recently implement this film marketing idea very successfully. The initial step towards this kind of campaign is always targeting the right social media platforms. And then generating visual micro content suitable for the platform. Sharing the banners, posting the behind the scenes pictures are also effective.

Content marketing campaign- Content is always effective and it’s definite that it will bring some results to you. Once again it is more related to social media channels. Even if a film marketing strategy is all about the kind of film to which we are dealing with, content is always helpful. One can also try local news stations, discussion boards and more along with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and so.

Video marketing- Very familiar, much effective, this is how one could interpret the role of video marketing Film marketing strategies. No matter what, we are ready to take chances on some products that we have not seen or tested properly, this is why the trailers are significant. It gives an initial impression and it’s a proven success. And I recommend seeing your trailer video initially through your official website, which obviously allows the audience to make more interaction through your social media mediums.

Social competitions and quizzes- It will become a huge disaster if you believe that the introduction part is enough.The fact is that you will …

Whether you’re starting a new online or offline business, market intelligence cannot be neglected. But, what exactly is market intelligence? It’s nothing special, nevertheless it’s really crucial.

Market intelligence basically possesses the knowledge of what is currently going on in your niche market and the overall market in general. If you’re planning on entering this market with your new business products, you should know exactly how it functions and what could happen in the near future. Knowledge of what your competitors are doing as well as the upcoming marketing trends also falls into this category.

Market Intelligence – Customers

Irrespective of what products or services you’re selling, it is really important that you understand the needs and demands of your customers. You should have an answer to the questions – ‘What is the customer looking for?’ as well as ‘What kind of modifications would my customers want to see in future products?’

The first step to success is finding answers to the above questions and implementing them into your marketing strategies. Therefore, you should invest in financial services by marketing analysts so as to know exactly what’s going on in your customer’s minds or in other words – Marketing intelligence.

Understanding the market

In this fast moving world, noting remains constant. Each and every day there are thousands of changes and improvements. This is the reason you should also know what’s going on in the market place. Are there any possibilities that the products you’re manufacturing will not make any sales at all, or will they go viral?

Irrespective of the marketing trends, you could make a profit; but, this could be done only if you know what’s coming at you. Therefore, your marketing analysts need to be trained and possess extraordinary skill.

Timing is another important aspect to look out for

Market intelligence also includes time. When are you going to release a new product into the market? Obviously, you would want to sell lots and make a huge profit – but, when is the best time to do so? Analysts study market trends over years and finally come up with the right solutions.

Let’s say you’re manufacturing Pre Lit Christmas Trees – Anyone in their right sense would transport them into stores beginning September rather than January, because that’s when people are looking to buy them.

However, if you’re into mobile manufacturing there are people waiting to buy all through the year. Hence predicting when exactly to launch the product could be a challenging task. That’s the reason you should hire financial advisors and marketing analysts.

Source by Abhishek Kumar Khandelwal…

Experiential marketing is evolving and maturing. Some experiential marketing campaigns are more successful than others. That’s why it is important that best practices are clarified. And industry generated benchmarks for success are vital.

I have created experiences to help our clients meet their customers’ needs for involvement – and at the same time accomplish marketing objectives for improved brand awareness, attitude, and usage. These programs have successfully engaged participants to achieve faster and more memorable results.

You can design experiences that include convention programs, sales meetings, and corporate events to move your brand forward…fast.

Research has revealed these top eight objectives of experiential marketing campaigns:

1. Build Relationships

2. Produce Interaction

3. Verify Target Audiences

4. Increase Awareness

5. Increase Relevance

6. Increase Loyalty

7. Increase Trial

8. Create Memories

All eight of these goals can become the basis for creating an event measurement dashboard. This will provide a specific and robust ROI system. These metrics are then used to plan future events to develop professional competencies for event marketers.

Here’s a look at the metrics that used to be considered good enough, contrasted with the new standards in an event measurement dashboard:

Typical old ways of measuring event success – Company execs were happy – Attendees said it was well-received – It came in under budget

Examples of new standards in event measurement

– “return on objectives”

– # meetings with target customers

– # booth visits from A-level prospects

– # leads reporting intent to trial

The sources of event metrics can be varied, and include convention leads analysis, badge scans, in-booth surveys, post-show surveys, sales conversion analysis, field lead tracking, press coverage, customer meetings, and sales meetings.

At Stinson, we like to start with the end in mind. That means working with you to determine the metrics of an event at the beginning of the creative process.

In my experience, if you are successful in reaching these objectives, you can expect improved outcomes in terms of sales. This is true because the powerful impact of engagement is increasing interest and loyalty – by building trust and increasing product desire.

Source by Mark D Stinson…

What if I told you there was a simple marketing strategy you could use to…

• Stop prospects from price shopping
• Convert more prospects to customers
• Pre-empt your competition

You’d want to know about it right?

It gets even better. Because you don’t have to be a great writer… or even a great marketer… to put this strategy to work in your business.

Just so you know how powerful this particular strategy is, let me tell you a story…

Before I became a freelance copywriter, I was the sole copywriter and online marketer for a well-known home schooling company.

I’d been mulling over how to use this strategy in the business. One morning, it clicked.

I spent 4 hours writing 8 brief emails. I plugged them into our email system, posted the opt-in form on the web site, and waited to see what would happen.

The results?

Nearly 20,000 subscribers the first year and $115,168.09 in revenue.

The email series continued to produce revenue the second year, the third year, and on and on. All from less than a day’s work. Pretty amazing, huh?

The strategy I used is called:

“Setting the Buying Criteria”

A clearer way to say it is: setting the criteria by which your prospects make a buying decision.

In a nutshell, here is how it works. In your marketing material (emails, brochures, web sites, sales letters, etc.), you want to define what makes a good buying decision. And in your defining, you want to make sure that your company, product, or service is the only one that fits the definition.

This is setting the buying criteria.

When you set the criteria, you always want to do it in such a way that it excludes your competitors. They should not be able to qualify based on the criteria you’ve set.

This is why the criteria you use should always be exclusive to a greater or lesser degree.

Let me give you a quick example…

Assume for a moment you’re a car manufacturer who specializes in sports cars. One of your criteria might read like this:

“Whatever sports car you choose, make sure it has at least 250 horsepower. Any less and you’ll be sacrificing speed, acceleration, and performance, all of which are critical to the pleasure you’ll get from your new sports car.”

You’ll notice I set the criterion (250 horsepower) high enough that it eliminated some cars, but not so high that it eliminated all cars. No matter. The important thing is, I’ve narrowed the field.

As we move on, we layer additional buying criteria:

“Once you’ve found a sports car that has at least 250 horsepower, you’ll also want to make sure it has a 6-speed manual transmission. At least half the pleasure of a sports car is being in total control. An automatic transmission just won’t cut it.

“Rear-wheel drive is a must for a true sports car. It gives you the best cornering power possible, without feeling like you’re going to run off the road (as you might feel with a front-wheel drive vehicle).

“Also look for fully independent suspension, so you get the best road feel. Each wheel will move on its own, independent from the other wheels, giving you maximum traction and performance.

“Lastly, be picky about the kind of engine your sports car is equipped with. The best sports car engine is a boxer engine. It’s perfectly balanced and produces no vibration. You can set a quarter directly on the engine while it is running and it will not fall off. Plus, boxer engines sit low to the ground and provide a lower center of gravity. Boxer engines can be found in flat-4, flat-6, and flat-12 configurations.”

By shrewdly selecting these and possibly one or two additional criteria, I can make my sports car the only logical choice in a crowded market.

It’s the same with your product. If you shrewdly define the criteria for buying, you’ll create a scenario where your product is the only one that can possibly qualify. All competitive products will fall short.

Why Setting the Buying Criteria Works

Setting the buying criteria works for 3 powerful reasons:

1. You’re seen as someone who can be trusted.

By telling your prospects what they should look for when they make a purchase–or conversely, telling them what to watch out for–you become a trusted advisor.

Your prospects believe you have their best interests at heart (and you do), so they are more likely to buy your product instead of the competition’s.

2. You’re letting your prospects come to their own conclusions.

When you set the buying criteria, you’re not saying, “Buy my product because it’s got X, Y, and Z.”

Instead, you’re indirectly guiding your prospects to the conclusion you want them to reach. You’re saying, “When you …

Life is been governed by laws, principles, or theories. It follows that every business you do in life must be done in accordance with such relevant, established, and natural laws if you sincerely want to succeed.

In internet marketing, just like any other business, theories abound. The first theory in this context is called the theory of speed. This theory states that you must consider how fast your product or service is produced or delivered in comparison to your competitors’. This theory is very significant in the management of software development. Software programs are often expected to run fast.

As a matter of fact, if the delivery of your goods and services is faster than your competitors’ own in the same niche people will prefer your products and services to your competitors’. So you must, as a matter of necessity, consider the theory of speed when you are involving yourself in any area of internet marketing.

The second theory is known as the theory of cost. Dear Mr. Internet Marketer, the cost-effectiveness of a product or service you render is a very important determining factor in the school of internet marketing. Believe me, people like cheap products no matter how they pretend. So you must try as much as possible to make your goods and services to be “cheaper” than your rivals’ own. I advise you to check out the price of your competitors’ products and services in order to maintain a reasonable price. Strive as much as possible to ensure that you have a better price.

Thirdly, there is the theory of quality. Are you thinking of delivering inferior products to your customer? Then you should as well be thinking of becoming a failure in your chosen niche. If you ask me, your failure rate is 99.9 per cent; it then means that you are most likely to fail for just selling inferior products or rendering inferior services. Your products and services should be of very high quality if you really expect to make very high amount of money – you can only reap what you sow. Only thieves or criminals are known for taking what they do not deserve. Let me warn you before you lose out, even the poorest of all men like high quality goods and services – poverty notwithstanding.

Source by Edeh Chijioke…

Event Photography is fast emerging as an extremely useful tool to help record and promote your business events. In an overcrowded and highly competitive market environment, innovative strategies are required to spur sales, ignite publicity, and grab maximum attention.

Businesses are increasingly realizing the importance of holding special commercial events such as celebration parties for their sales distributors and in-house sales teams, award ceremonies for those who achieve sales targets, new product launch parties, special exhibitions, shows and conferences, motivational or educational seminars for the employees, and other promotional and marketing events.

Holding such an event is a huge exercise in public relations and if it is conducted well, it can garner great word-of-mouth publicity for the business as well as get noticed by the local media. This is where an event photographer can play a key role. An event photographer is a professional in his field, who knows exactly how to capture the most prominent moments and the most important PR pictures of the day.

An amateur photographer or someone who is not experienced in handling business event photography cannot deliver the same results that a seasoned professional can. Many event photographers are now using state of the art photography equipment for video recording of an events as well as taking still pictures of the occasion.

These pictures and videos can become a valuable part of the company’s archives. It can help in future reference regarding how to improve upon any areas of weakness in past events. Furthermore, framed souvenir pictures can be presented to the associates and dealers who were featured in those photographs. This in itself can be a very thoughtful and creative gesture on part of the management to create a familial bonding with all its important business associates and employees.

An even more important use of employing professional event photography for your business events is that the pictures and videos can be used as a part of the Press Release package, and circulated to local area media organizations. If the presentation is impressive, the chances of getting a positive response from the media will improve dramatically. This goal cannot be achieved with a shoddy or amateur presentation of the event.

For these reasons, good event photographers are in high demand nowadays, and smart businesses are putting their services to effective use for recording and promoting their various business events.

Source by Shaun J Edwards…

What horrors await home sellers in the dungeons of the housing slump?

News headlines bombard us daily about the plight of the real estate market and it’s wide reaching effects on the economy. You’ve read the stories of record numbers of foreclosures, the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, and declining home prices and sales. There is even talk of a recession.

What we all need to remember, however, is that most news reports that you read are based on national housing information. As you may know, real estate is local and not every area of the country experiences what is presented by governments, associations, and media. Although it is true that the housing market is in trouble just about everywhere in the country, the severity of conditions vary by area.

Out here in the trenches of Richmond va real estate and surrounding counties, which can be considered typical of many areas, we have seen home prices fall and properties are lingering on the market for months and months. Yes, things are not good for home sellers here, but we are not facing armageddon, either. Houses are still selling and home buyers are still buying homes. It is just taking longer to sell homes and the profits made on home sales have come down, but that is because the prices of houses where highly inflated just two years ago.

We’re starting on the path of a corrected market. This is the case in many metropolitan areas such as Richmond. But, before we will get back to a normal real estate market, the momentum of the housing pendulum will cause the market to swing towards the other extreme from what we saw two years ago and put a deeper gash in the housing market before it swings back to equilibrium. The question remains – how deep will the pendulum’s arc slice into the heart of real estate and how fast will it swing?

Things could get worse for both home sellers and home buyers before they get better from what I am seeing out here in the neighborhoods and tracking the market. Sellers are facing even longer selling times because of additional foreclosures hitting the market and job relocations. Home buyers are having a harder time qualifying for mortgages because of the sub-prime loan problems. It’s a mess, no doubt, and we cannot really be sure how painful it all can get for those having to sell or buy a home.

You can probably make as good a prognosis of your local conditions as any of the real estate pundits, maybe even better, from just knowing a few stark realities. In order to survive the cuts from the pendulum, sellers need to be realistic with their profit expectations. Your opinion on what your house is worth is inconsequential. You will have to accept what buyers offer or not sell. Home buyers are the market, not sellers. And right now, buyers have the upper hand. They have more choices than ever.

And this brings us to the root of today’s housing market woes. For sellers, the pressure from more homes coming on the market, exacerbated by the sub-prime complexities, will force them to lower prices if they have no choice but to sell. Home sellers will also have to wait even longer for their home to sell. I have seen sellers who just break even on the sale of their homes and some make very little profit, depending on how long they have owned their home. There are way fewer home buyers these days. There is more about this at [http://www.virginiarealestatenetwork.com], a website with free information and resources that is helpful to both buyers and sellers.

For home buyers it may seem that this is their heyday and super bargains are in the offing. To some perhaps, but to many, the mortgage pendulum is severing their ability to qualify for a mortgage that would have been readily available to them prior to current day, preventing them from buying a house or qualifying for refinancing.

Although the Fed has made a big cut in interest rates and President Bush has approved the bailout of certain foreclosure situations, there is still one part of the equation that is keeping the housing market from stabilizing – tighter mortgage criteria by spooked lenders is preventing many ready and willing buyers from qualifying for home financing.

As often happens when a crisis appears, those in control tend to overreact and enact regulations that send the pendulum swinging to the end of it’s opposite arc before settling somewhere in the middle as natural forces slow it down. Because several large sub-prime mortgage lenders filed for bankruptcy and the number of foreclosures is climbing, most, if not all, mortgage lenders have tightened up on their lending practices to the point where many …

Before I define professional selling. Let’s look at some of the related professions. Below are some definitions of professions/occupations that relate to professional selling from Wikipedia:

• Marketing is defined as an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations
• Advertising is defined as a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service.
• Public relations is defined as the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its audiences.
• Sales Promotions is defined as the pre-determined actions designed to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability for a limited time (i.e., contests, point of purchase displays, rebates, free travel, and sales incentives.)

What about the sales profession?

Notice in the above definitions, the profession is *not* defined as the individual. For example, marketing isn’t defined as “people who market.” Yet, the sales profession is often explained as “individuals who sell.” Therefore, selling shouldn’t be defined in this manner. Notice also, that the above professions are *not* defined by the activities of those individuals. In other words, the profession of advertising isn’t defined as “placing ads on television.” Therefore, selling shouldn’t be defined in this manner.

Academically, selling is thought of as a part of marketing, however, the two disciplines are completely different. Sales departments often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing individuals who specialize in sale specific roles. While the sales process refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, the definition of the sales “profession” doesn’t exist (until now with this article).

So the questions become:

• Who is “in” the profession and who is not?
• How does selling relate to marketing, advertising, promotions, and public relations?
• What shared competencies do individuals within the sales profession need?
• How do these competencies align to roles in terms of focus and differentiation?

A definition should provide a meaning. To determine the meaning of the sale profession, it is useful to determine what the sales profession *must* contain.

The following three tenets are required for professional selling:

• The focus of the sales profession centers on the human agents involved in the exchange between buyer and seller
• Effective selling requires a systems approach, at minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities
• A specific set of sales skills and knowledge are required to facilitate the exchange of value between buyers and sellers

Within these three tenets the following definition of profession selling is offered by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD):

Professional Selling is:

 “The holistic business system required to effectively develop, manage, enable, and execute a mutually beneficial, interpersonal exchange of goods and/or services for equitable value.”

Note: this definition was published by ASTD in 2009.

What does this definition accomplish?

First, it creates a definition of world class selling. An organization wishing to benchmark its selling effectiveness can leverage the above definition to clearly understand strengths and weaknesses. Without such a definition, most adjustments to the selling team are arbitrary and subjective. By understanding the system’s view required for selling effectiveness, organizations can look at indidual sales team members as well as sales team processes and tools and how they align to the buyer.

Second, it allows for more consistent results in performance through the clear establishment of roles regarding who is “in” and who is “out” of professional selling. For example, if it doesn’t involve a human agent, it is not within the sales profession — it’s a marketing function with a transaction (i.e., a “sale”). For this definition, sales operations, sales recruiters, and sales trainers are “in” the profession because they possess unique skills outside of their regular job titles. They posses knowledge and skill that is unique to enabling the definition.

Third, the definition lays the foundation for sales talent management/people strategies. With such a definition, sales development employees can create learning solutions that fit the unique aspects of a sales culture. At the same time, front-end recruitment strategies and more clearly tie to retention strategies.

Fourth, it helps organization on exemplary performance. By setting a bar with such a definition, organizations don’t have to settle for mediocre sales effectiveness. They can use the definition to help bridge the gap between sales capacity and sales team competency.

Source by Brian Lambert…

To understand the advantages of wholesale marketing you should first have a clear idea about the concept of wholesale marketing. In wholesale marketing the producer or the manufacturer of the item will directly sell their product to the company. These companies then have an option of directly offloading the product in the retail market or sell the same as their own brand. There are a number of advantages to wholesale marketing. We shall have a brief insight into 6 such advantages of wholesale marketing.

1. Money savings can result in money generation:

AS a wholesaler, you will have to buy the products in bulk. This will entitle you to large discounts. You will be dealing directly with the producer or manufacturer without the involvement of a middleman. As you can purchase at the manufacturer’s price, you will be able to save on the fees you may have to pay to the middleman. The only hitch is that you may have to purchase in bulk. However, you can use the large network below you to dispose the products faster. Thus, money saved is money gained.

2. Creation and propagation of your own brand:

One advantage of being a wholesale marketing professional is that you can procure your product in bulk, create your own brand and promote it to the best of your ability. If necessary, you can add some value to the goods. Many large sale chains do not produce and manufacture any product at all. They only affix their name on the product and market them on the manufacturer’s behalf. In this way you can promote your brand and make it a strong one.

3. Familiarization with the industry:

In this case, you deal directly with the producer. Thus, you will be aware of the market forces at play. You will come to know the path of each product. You can plan accordingly and can even end up as a manufacturer yourself.

4. Building a supply network:

As a wholesale dealer, you will naturally be in contact with various manufacturers. In this way you can build up a series of affiliates. You also get the opportunity to mingle with the affiliates having an established wholesale business. You have the perfect ground to bargain for more discounts. In this way you can augment your sales as well as your profits.

5. Diversification:

Wholesale marketing is an important step where you can learn to diversify into various trading activities. You are the link between the producer and the retail market. You know the pulse of both the producer as well as the retail market. This will hold you in good stead when you wish to diversify.

6. Provide access to products:

Usually people buy products in small quantities. They may not be able to purchase it directly from the producers or manufacturers. You can serve as a perfect link in your wholesale marketing strategy. You will be able to purchase in bulk and sell individual items making a neat profit in the bargain. At the same time you are beneficial to the manufacturers too as they do not have to explain the advantages to each buyer.

Source by Kimberly T. Michelle…

Marketing to specific groups of consumers, or target marketing, is one of the most important concepts in marketing.

Marketers, through the ages, have identified who their customers are, and directed their efforts at influencing their buying decisions. That is their job.

In the last 30 years though, marketers have begun to identify potential buyers based on a number of factors, that make many people uncomfortable. Marketers now direct promotions at those of certain age groups, gender, race, marital status, gender preferences, and just about any other category you can place people in.

This makes many consumers and consumer advocates question the ethicality of these promotions:

Is it fair to direct ads at children when they do not have the understanding and/or capability to judge what is being presented to them?

Is it fair to target ads at elderly, living on fixed incomes, with products that they may not be able to afford?

Should companies be allowed to develop products that are specifically targeted at ethnic groups?

My answer to each of these questions, except the first one, would definitely be, Yes.

Why should a company be restricted from marketing a product to an independent, rationally thinking, adult?

Don’t I, as an adult, have the ability to determine for myself, with some exceptions, what I want to buy?

Now, if there are issues of mental incapacity we have a whole separate issue to address.

But, assuming that the consumer is able to make their own decisions; shouldn’t I as a marketer be able to present information that will help the consumer decide that my product is what they want?

Is targeting of minorities exploitative? Yes, it certainly is. But, so is almost every other kind of marketing. You are trying to exploit a need, a want and definitely a gap in a market that maybe has not been addressed.

Prior to the 1960’s most marketing ignored ethnic minority groups and concentrated on the vast buying power of larger demographic groups. An opportunity existed for companies to address a market, with significant buying power, that had not been addressed before. Is that inherently wrong? That is the way marketing works: Find a gap, develop a plan to address the gap, and then market to that gap. That is sound business practice. If companies do not take advantage of their opportunities they will fail.

Now, none of what I have said above gives companies a free license to do whatever they want, especially when it comes to my one, very absolute exception: Marketing to children and those who cannot be held accountable for their actions. Even as an adult, if I am not capable of making a choice as to the soundness of a buying decision, then I should not be subjected to marketing that may have unreasonable influence over me; And children are certainly not capable of making that decision. However, as an adult parent, I must assume some of the responsibility for buying products that are marketed to children. I must educate my children about what is right and what is wrong; what is a want versus what is a need; what is affordable versus what is not.

Companies who choose to direct their marketing efforts at specific market segments have a responsibility to consider the ethical implications of what they are doing. Socially responsible marketing calls for target marketing that serves not only the company’s interests, but also the interests of those targeted and the public in general.

Source by James Stephenson…

Most everyone knows something about Search Engine Optimization but what is Search Experience Optimization?

First, let me state that in order to obtain high search engine rankings you will still need to provide search engines with the technical search engine optimization elements like Titles, Meta Tags, ALT tags, etc. But now, marketers must also include the user experience elements so search engines will judge a website as worthy of high rankings.

New search engine algorithms (search formulas) are now using behavior metrics, user interface, site speed, site structure, mobile optimization, SSL, meaningful and useful content, rather than just digging for keywords on a webpage to determine how to rank pages. It’s time to apply search experience optimization and search engine optimization together to achieve high rankings.

Rankings and Link Building are still the primary focus of most marketers today. They are important factors but no longer the most important. What is most important is a holistic method to optimize a business website.

The best course of action is combining traditional SEO practices with new techniques to place users experience first.

Don’t know how your website and pages stand in regards to the latest search algorithms? I always suggest that a full and detailed audit be conducted on a website. An audit will definitely show the gaps in your current optimization strategy.

Businesses must understand that no longer do engines look at your website in the cold eyes of a computer. Today, the latest machine-learning artificial intelligence systems look at a website more like a person would than a computer.

Is content still KING? I think so. Without content what is the worth of a web page anyway. But there is a catch. You might think you are getting good results from your current content, but are you writing for your business/ management, or are you writing for the reader of your content, a potential new customer?

You can create content using technical, sales, marketing or any other voice, but stop and think again who is consuming your content. The new Search Experience Optimization is simple, you write to engage the reader. You give them the answers to their questions; you give them what they are looking for not what search engines are looking for.

I compare old SEO and new SEO to an old car and new car. To maintain an older car was rather simple. In fact most teenagers could tune up a real old car. However, today you need a specialist with all of the knowledge and tools to maintain a new car properly. If you want to rank high on search engines you should seek out an SEO specialist that knows the ins and outs of Search Experience Optimization.

Source by James C Conant…

Space… The final frontier…

It is also a land loaded with floating metal objects that rotate the planet and beam signals back to our gadgets. One of these floating metal objects is a satellite designed to push radio programming to our receivers. In the United States the only brand on the market is Sirius XM satellite radio.

Satellite radio is filled with hundreds of stations with programming that varies from hit to obscure music; talk programming from conservative views to home design tips to Howard Stern. Essentially it is a medium that offers something for everyone. This is one of the reasons it is becoming a very popular option for satellite radio advertising.

A common misconception about the medium is that it is “commercial free”. While the music stations do remain free of any satellite radio advertising, the talk stations do not. They have several commercial breaks per hour just as any talk show on AM or FM radio would. The shows that offer advertising options are quite diverse and offer advertisers a way to micro-target an audience with a specific interest.

What does satellite radio advertising cost? The answer to that question will vary depending on the station you want to advertise on. Some of the more nich’ formats with a lower audience can fall as low as fifty dollars per commercial, while the top stations such as Howard Stern may cost hundreds of dollars per airing because the reach of a station like this is much greater.

Satellite radio offers smaller and medium-sized companies that do not have a large budget the opportunity to reach a national audience.

This is something new, because the price point to reach a national audience on national TV or a syndicated radio show can be far to cost prohibitive for most small and medium sized businesses. With a starting budget of around 5k, almost any business can have their message broadcast to the nation through satellite radio advertising. The message can also be targeted to a very specific group of people based on the programming that the radio commercial airs on. Programming targets range from pet lovers to cigar enthusiasts to new moms and everything in between.

What was once the work of science fiction, is now a medium that puts another tool in the arsenal of small business when they want to get an effective message out to the masses on a restricted budget.

Source by Jerome Winchester…