Apr
24
Filed Under Marketing | Comments Off
The Maverick Marketeer asked:
To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is.
According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as “a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action”. This marketing discipline can include and medium that allows you to communicate directly with customers. Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet.
The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or “response rate” while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Increasing customer response to your advertising will accomplish two very important things. One, increase the number of sales leads generated by advertising, and two, further establish business name recognition.
The ability to properly communicate with your business’s target audience is an extremely important factor in your overall business success. As you learn about direct marketing; keep in mind that persistence really does pay.
One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer’s wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.
Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:
* Who..? Who are you targeting with your particular business message? Who are the people who would be most interested in hearing what you have to say?
* Why..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?
* What…? What specific benefits are you offering through your message?
* When…? Are you looking for a more immediate response from your reader…or are you providing food for thought and building your relationship?
* Last but not least…How? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?
Your study of direct marketing will be an on going process. It’s important to understand what works for you and your business, what doesn’t, and why that is. The key to success will be in continuing to try different strategies and techniques in order to perfect a particular combination of things that work well for you.
Doug
To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is.
According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as “a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action”. This marketing discipline can include and medium that allows you to communicate directly with customers. Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet.
The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or “response rate” while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Increasing customer response to your advertising will accomplish two very important things. One, increase the number of sales leads generated by advertising, and two, further establish business name recognition.
The ability to properly communicate with your business’s target audience is an extremely important factor in your overall business success. As you learn about direct marketing; keep in mind that persistence really does pay.
One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer’s wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.
Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:
* Who..? Who are you targeting with your particular business message? Who are the people who would be most interested in hearing what you have to say?
* Why..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?
* What…? What specific benefits are you offering through your message?
* When…? Are you looking for a more immediate response from your reader…or are you providing food for thought and building your relationship?
* Last but not least…How? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?
Your study of direct marketing will be an on going process. It’s important to understand what works for you and your business, what doesn’t, and why that is. The key to success will be in continuing to try different strategies and techniques in order to perfect a particular combination of things that work well for you.
Doug
Apr
21
How do I find marketing people in USA, who will work on commissions-only basis to market for IT consulting?
Filed Under Marketing | 3 Comments
Peter asked:
We are a 2 person start-up company. We have purchased a company with 10 years history, very good credit rating, and at zero employees, in NorthEast USA. Since we are tight on budget and are working as full time consultants ourselves, we are unable to market and expand the company. We were wondering if there are any websites/resources (besides posting an Ad on a jobs website) which we can explore to communicate to potential IT services marketing personnel in the NorthEast USA, to see if we can work on a commission-only basis initially. Once we start serving 2-3 clients and place a few consultants, we can afford to switch to a salary + commission option. This can be a great option for a marketing person who has contacts in the market but would like to work from home or work flex-time.
Thank You!
Rachel
We are a 2 person start-up company. We have purchased a company with 10 years history, very good credit rating, and at zero employees, in NorthEast USA. Since we are tight on budget and are working as full time consultants ourselves, we are unable to market and expand the company. We were wondering if there are any websites/resources (besides posting an Ad on a jobs website) which we can explore to communicate to potential IT services marketing personnel in the NorthEast USA, to see if we can work on a commission-only basis initially. Once we start serving 2-3 clients and place a few consultants, we can afford to switch to a salary + commission option. This can be a great option for a marketing person who has contacts in the market but would like to work from home or work flex-time.
Thank You!
Rachel
Apr
21
Filed Under Marketing | Comments Off
SCD Marketing asked:
One of the most vital aspects of this recent marketing concept which every business owner should be aware of is that it’s completely free. With the right idea, intuition and planning; viral marketing on social networking websites can return thousands of client prospects to any business website.
Social networking website, as the name suggests, are networks of people and friends who use the Internet to communicate, socialise and share, all through one website. Common websites of this nature are Myspace, Facebook, Bebo and many others.
These websites can be utilized through viral marketing methods; that is the concept of providing marketing material which propagates itself to many other people by giving an incentive for this to occur. For today’s Internet audience this incentive is usually interesting, entertaining and more commonly, not related to the business involved.
This may sound confusing but it’s the system of these networking websites which allows this technique to become effective. For example if a business finds a video which could become popular. If this video is interesting, entertaining or both, it will entice viewers to pass it onto their friends to share it. By adding your website link or marketing message into that video as a footer, or maybe adding your URL to the video description, your business details are being passed wherever the video is sent. This is what makes viral marketing on social networking websites so powerful for businesses of any size.
One important factor must always be taken into account for successful viral marketing and that’s to not flood the media with your material. Journalists, the media and members of the public will value your contributions much more if every one of them has a sense of strong content and a good angle. Distributing viral releases or PR as much as you can will result in people devaluing your presence if the content isn’t worthwhile.
Some websites such as Myspace also offer profiles which can be used to the same effect. Making a profile for your business allows you to add people all over the world as friends, who can see your profile and therefore any marketing message you choose to present. However an interesting, unique angle is often required to make the most effective use of this method. For example using an interesting, make-believe character as the profile owner or offering another, more attention-grabbing incentive for visiting your website.
Should you get professional assistance with social networking campaigns? That’s the question many businesses will ask. Managing director of SCD Marketing Scott Chapman explains:
“One of the great benefits of viral marketing on social networks and anywhere else is that it’s 100% free and can provide fantastic results. Good marketing agencies do have the Public Relations and marketing knowledge to get the right angle for your material, which will result in the most publicity. Whether a person chooses management for their viral campaigns depends on the situation they are in but if the budget is there then I’d certainly recommend looking into it.”
Emily
One of the most vital aspects of this recent marketing concept which every business owner should be aware of is that it’s completely free. With the right idea, intuition and planning; viral marketing on social networking websites can return thousands of client prospects to any business website.
Social networking website, as the name suggests, are networks of people and friends who use the Internet to communicate, socialise and share, all through one website. Common websites of this nature are Myspace, Facebook, Bebo and many others.
These websites can be utilized through viral marketing methods; that is the concept of providing marketing material which propagates itself to many other people by giving an incentive for this to occur. For today’s Internet audience this incentive is usually interesting, entertaining and more commonly, not related to the business involved.
This may sound confusing but it’s the system of these networking websites which allows this technique to become effective. For example if a business finds a video which could become popular. If this video is interesting, entertaining or both, it will entice viewers to pass it onto their friends to share it. By adding your website link or marketing message into that video as a footer, or maybe adding your URL to the video description, your business details are being passed wherever the video is sent. This is what makes viral marketing on social networking websites so powerful for businesses of any size.
One important factor must always be taken into account for successful viral marketing and that’s to not flood the media with your material. Journalists, the media and members of the public will value your contributions much more if every one of them has a sense of strong content and a good angle. Distributing viral releases or PR as much as you can will result in people devaluing your presence if the content isn’t worthwhile.
Some websites such as Myspace also offer profiles which can be used to the same effect. Making a profile for your business allows you to add people all over the world as friends, who can see your profile and therefore any marketing message you choose to present. However an interesting, unique angle is often required to make the most effective use of this method. For example using an interesting, make-believe character as the profile owner or offering another, more attention-grabbing incentive for visiting your website.
Should you get professional assistance with social networking campaigns? That’s the question many businesses will ask. Managing director of SCD Marketing Scott Chapman explains:
“One of the great benefits of viral marketing on social networks and anywhere else is that it’s 100% free and can provide fantastic results. Good marketing agencies do have the Public Relations and marketing knowledge to get the right angle for your material, which will result in the most publicity. Whether a person chooses management for their viral campaigns depends on the situation they are in but if the budget is there then I’d certainly recommend looking into it.”
Emily
Apr
14
Filed Under Marketing | Comments Off
Stock Market Basics asked:
By.- http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com
In the stock market its always possible to watch certain stocks rise beyond 50% within a days. And even when you can learn about stock traders that make $3000 on a single trade, it is also not unusual to watch beginner investors lose a great deal of money because of a series of unwise decisions. The problem is that if you don’t know how to pick among stocks & how to properly approach them you could end up wasting a good amount of cash. You can’t just trade stocks like if you where gambling in Vegas or Atlantic City.
The first step to becoming a profitable trader is to learn from REALISTIC trading strategies that can show You how to pick and trade stocks. Bogus trading software programs and complicated day trading systems that rely on a “boat load” of technical analysis indicators can confuse you and froze you up right when a good opportunity shows up.
Also, don’t think that just because a trading system or stock market program promises that you can come up with 8 winning trades for every 10 that you place you will end up making money. To become a profitable day trader your winning trades have to overcome your loser ones in terms of dollars and cents.
In the end, stock trading is all about buying and selling according to your specific knowledge FILTER. Once you master and follow your proven filter parameters like a clock, you can expect to start making serious amounts of cash on a consistent basis.
Rachel
By.- http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com
In the stock market its always possible to watch certain stocks rise beyond 50% within a days. And even when you can learn about stock traders that make $3000 on a single trade, it is also not unusual to watch beginner investors lose a great deal of money because of a series of unwise decisions. The problem is that if you don’t know how to pick among stocks & how to properly approach them you could end up wasting a good amount of cash. You can’t just trade stocks like if you where gambling in Vegas or Atlantic City.
The first step to becoming a profitable trader is to learn from REALISTIC trading strategies that can show You how to pick and trade stocks. Bogus trading software programs and complicated day trading systems that rely on a “boat load” of technical analysis indicators can confuse you and froze you up right when a good opportunity shows up.
Also, don’t think that just because a trading system or stock market program promises that you can come up with 8 winning trades for every 10 that you place you will end up making money. To become a profitable day trader your winning trades have to overcome your loser ones in terms of dollars and cents.
In the end, stock trading is all about buying and selling according to your specific knowledge FILTER. Once you master and follow your proven filter parameters like a clock, you can expect to start making serious amounts of cash on a consistent basis.
Rachel
Apr
8
What percentage of my marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing?
Filed Under Marketing | 2 Comments
louisvuittonchild asked:
I have a writing and editing services company, and we currently have $4500 of our operating budget. We are planning to do direct mail marketing, advertisements in trade journals, and online marketing (pay-per-click, e-newsletters, etc). How much of my marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing?
Emily
I have a writing and editing services company, and we currently have $4500 of our operating budget. We are planning to do direct mail marketing, advertisements in trade journals, and online marketing (pay-per-click, e-newsletters, etc). How much of my marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing?
Emily