Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

CREATING YOUR OWN BRAND ON THE INTERNET

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

I remember when I first embarked on the massive adventure called the internet, the one thing I constantly heard about was branding. What is branding? Why is it important? How do you brand online? Let’s consider these questions. What name brands come to mind when you think of the word branding? For me, I love Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Marc Jacabs just to name a few. If I were shopping for a new purse and I was presented with two, one from Marc Jacabs and another from an unknown company. I would initially be drawn to the Marc Jacabs purse because of a few reasons: I know the quality of Marc Jacabs, I am familiar with their customer service of so if something were to happen to it I can trust I would be taken care of, and of course I know that whatever the price I will pay for the purse it’s worth every penny. With an unknown company brand these basic necessities become a guessing game.

Although this is just an example, it is easy to see that creating a brand name is very important. When talking about the internet there are millions of people online that are trying to sell their products, trainings, and systems. What will make you stand out from all the others? Why should someone listen to you? Before you can approach someone with your business idea, they must already like, know and trust you. If this doesn’t happen you risk getting lost in all of the noise.

So how do you create a brand that people will know & recognize? How do you get people to like, know, and trust you with their wallets open? You offer people value. You show them that you are worth listening to, and you show them what you have to offer is important. You show them that you want to help. People like to know that someone is on their side and that you genuinely want to see them succeed. When you are able to do this you have created a brand for yourself, and have attracted people to you that are looking for what you have to offer, which is by the way, attraction marketing. If you remember from my Limited Budget post that Attraction Marketing is the art of attracting people who are already in need of what you have to offer. People want to join your business, buy your products, and look at you to help them find the things they need. I know for myself, when I am looking for a particular product, I do not buy from someone I do not like if I can help it. People love to buy, but people hat to be sold.

Okay, so now you may be asking how do you start making a brand of yourself online? Where do you start? This can be done in a multitude of ways. The key is to offer value. You can begin by making videos of yourself and educating people on marketing strategies. You could write how-to articles on a particular marketing system, and/or you could join forums and other social networking sites connecting with people there and offer value. I advise you to begin by choosing one strategy and mastering it first before going on to another one. Think about which one agrees the most with your personality and then, market like crazy all over the internet by offering value and education wherever you go.

Just remember, it’s not all about you. Yes, I’ll say it again. It’s not all about you. Even when you are branding yourself , it’s important to do it with integrity and to show that you genuinely care about others. If you do not, it will come across. So, have fun and create a brand of yourself.
Victoria Matea lives with her husband in Canton, Ohio. They are internet marketers and specialize in helping people market their businesses on the internet.Learn more about how to brand yourself online by using the best marketing system on the internet by going to her website.http://www.workwithdanielandvictoriamatea.infoGet. Every month RetailersForum.com offers readers the opportunity to learn to start or grow their businesses with informative articles like Victoria’s.

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USING FACEBOOK TO HELP YOUR BUSINESS DO MARKET RESEARCH

Friday, February 25th, 2011

There’s been heavy buzz about Facebook for business ads – and with good reason. Created properly, they can be an effective tool in rocketing your popularity like a meteor, or branding your business.

But almost no one talks about using Facebook ads in reverse – as a source of valid ideas for market research.

Think about it. If a subject is on Facebook, and it’s got an ad, it’s likely viable. Are there groups? Fans? Often you can find out exactly how many Facebook fans a strong group or website in your niche actually has.

You can also see if people are actually interested in a particular product; how passionate they are about the subject; and what age group, gender, education background and more its members display in their profile.

That’s instant targeting! No more fumbling around in Alexa, trying to figure out what the actual human demographic is likely to be. Right there on Facebook you can see:

What the fans are talking about

If the niche is actively “hot”

If it is growing

You can also get an idea of its size from the number of fans. Fans in the millions? It may be too broad for your purposes. Only 6 fans? Watch that niche to see if it grows – perhaps even join the Facebook Group, if it’s something you’re particularly passionate about. But don’t invest any ad money yet.

Once you’ve found a likely niche on Facebook, set up a profile page for yourself using highly specific keywords. Pay attention to the ads served up to you and you’re spying on your competition. Click on their ads, visit their sites, view their source pages and see what keywords they use in their META tags (if any).

Using Facebook ads for market research is one of the best ways to see if a niche is really on fire!

This informative article brought to you by the leading magazine to find wholesale merchandise, Retailersforum.com

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SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE, INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS!

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

Sharing inside information can boost your sales. It can make your business much more profitable too, since valuable information can be supplied at very little cost.

Quality, timely, relevant, and important information helps prospects and customers make intelligent decisions. The right information makes it a whole lot easier to choose with confidence. Providing additional ideas, advice, insights and resources is a great way to distinguish your product – and your company – from competitors.

What inside information of value can you provide to help your customers and prospects?

Helpful tips, inside secrets, and other creative ideas help to establish your expertise in the marketplace. When you give away this kind of inside information, you create tremendous value that’s appreciated by customers. These people feel compelled to show their gratitude by continuing to buy from you, time and time again.

Offering valuable inside information is easier than you may think. Simply look at each product you supply and figure out what collateral information prospects would like to know.
In other words, if you were a salesperson standing in front of your prospect, what additional information of interest could you offer her?

To sell a solid cherry dining room suite from a showroom floor, you’d want to explain the exquisite finish and how to preserve that “new” look. You would point out the quality joinery used to secure the frame to the table legs. You might even open a china cabinet drawer to demonstrate the built-in quality, smooth running hardware and fine craftsmanship that went into it. It’s all inside information.

These are precious details that help educate potential buyers. It’s information that might otherwise go unnoticed… yet it could be the kind of detail that just might clinch the sale. Pointing out all this inside information helps buyers feel good about the true value of their purchase. It’s something they could have easily missed, had it not been brought to their attention.

This kind of detailed inside information is of interest to potential customers and it’s something that could easily be incorporated into a free brochure, booklet, report or videotape. It also adds perceived value to the product itself by establishing an exclusive “story” behind it. Don’t just give them sales talk of hard-sell sales copy. Give them the facts – good, solid, inside information about what it is makes your product a better buy.

Here are some additional examples of using inside information to inform and educate prospects – and increase sales as a result:

A hardware store could offer a free booklet called “How To Refinish Old Furniture Like A Restoration Pro” to all buyers of furniture repair and refinishing items. This added value item — offered exclusively — should help boost sales of refinishing supplies. It’s inside information that could only be provided by someone who has done it before.

A travel agent could offer personalized commentary on popular destinations in article format. “The 10 Must-See Spots In Las Vegas”… “The Top 7 Hottest Clubs In Nassau That Only The Locals Know About”… or, “11 Spectacular Sites Of Costa Rica You’ve Just Got To See At Least Once In Your Lifetime” might be great topics for niche market vacationers. If you fit the market profile and were planning a trip, wouldn’t you at least be curious about this promising inside information?

If you plan to give your information away freely, prepare it as you would a salable product. Don’t scrimp on quality in terms of both content and appearance. When an information product “looks” like something of value – it is. When you offer your report or booklet free with purchase, it’s much more likely to act as an incentive to the sale.

Author Bio
More resources at www.makeyoursalessoar.com
Robert Boduch is the author of more than 2 dozen books, reports and guides on the art and science of selling.

Join us regularly at www.RetailersForum.com to see the latest information on the wholesale and retailing industries. We are proud to serve as the number one trade magazine for wholesale merchandise.

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6 WAYS TO MAKE PAY PER CLICK WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

83% of affiliate marketers use pay per click (PPC) because it works very well for them. If you look at the money spent on pay per click in a year, it comes up to around 3 billion dollars. So you already know this is a very lucrative business.

In this article I will talk about the numerous way pay per click will earn you money and how you can make a ton of money by following it.

1. Learn The PPC Game

Many people have just jumped on PPC and lost a whole bunch of money because of this. What they have failed to do is learn the PPC game. Research your product relentlessly until you know the ins and out. When you know everything it become very easy to earn the money that you have put into PPC back in no time.

2. Billing

This is very useful for saving money on advertising. Billing can waste you a lot of money if you don’t know what you are doing.

3. Bidding

Your bidding does not have to be ridiculously high to drive traffic to your site. Many people waste a lot of money trying to bid way too high. With PPC this can be avoided, the best thing to do is make a big campaign with great keywords what are cheap

4. Visitors To Sales Ratio

If you find out on average how many people visit your site and how many visitors it take to make a sale. You will understand if you are overspending or underspending.

5. Recurring Money

Sites like click bank have products that offer residual income. This is great because you will be earning an enormous amount of money every month/week.

6. Be simple

Always keep it simple. If you try anything flashy, 9 times out of 10 you will fail.
If you’re not sure about what to do and you’re looking for real professional help. You should check out http://www.MoneyCashCapital.com what has a FREE money making tutorial videos. Brought to you by the number one magazine for wholesale merchandise, Retailers Forum.

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MARKETING AND PLANNING FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Working out of the home often means juggling multiple tasks and wearing many hats. But look out. When there is so much to do that there is little time left over for sales and marketing activity, sales can dry up and often do. Here are some ways to avoid that.

1. Monthly Focus – Each month, grab your calendar and see which holidays are coming up. Then focus some type of activity around them. At least minimally, setup a direct mail campaign through the U.S. Post Office site (usps.com) in these quick steps:

Choose one of their postcards.

With their online tools, edit the back with a quick note, sale of some type & referral request.

Load an Excel document of addresses, pay and send.

2. Ad Campaign – Plan ahead with advertising representatives by gathering their media kits and asking about special deals or rates they may have for you. Then follow up and plan a 12- to 16-month campaign, even if it’s just a small classified that runs regularly. That way you’ll always be covered whether you’re too busy to care or not. You can always supplement with cross-promotional pieces. But at least, set up a foundation to get you through the year.

For inexpensive ads to run throughout the year, check out neighborhood newspapers and free or cheap magazines and papers that are placed inside public libraries, large grocery stores and country-type restaurants. PennySavers and Thrifty Ads are other sources.

3. Regular Income Stream – Don’t just have all large projects. Set up a few (or several, depending upon your budget needs) smaller, regular income-producing projects to generate weekly / monthly income. And maintain a steady flow as much as possible. In other words, if five regular, smaller jobs pay the day-to-day bills, once one of them quits or runs out of work for you, replace it as soon as possible so that you maintain your steady ‘five’ as much as possible.

Some people setup affiliate programs in this manner; selling something for someone else and earning a percentage or profit for selling. They target so much income from one source of revenue stream to cover a certain portion of expenses. And if this runs out of steam, they beef up promotions or switch to another affiliate program. Learn more about affiliate options from a place like Commission Junction (cj.com). Or in your favorite search engine, type in ‘affiliate programs’ and see which ones are popular.

So when you juggle, remember to mix in SOME type of regular sales and income generating opportunities. You don’t drop the ball!

This article brought  to you by the number one source for wholesale merchandise, Retailers Forum Magazine. The author invites you to visit: http://internetcashcoaches.blogspot.com/

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TARGETING AND ATTRACTING NEW CUSTOMERS TO YOUR RETAIL OR WHOLESALE BUSINESS

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

One thing is sure when you are in business; you do not stop hunting for new clients and prospects. Even when business is doing great, you still have to look for and attract new customers so you can ensure that your business keeps on growing. If not, then you might end up losing your customer base, which can lead to your losing your business altogether.

That is why it is very important that you market regularly. Marketing should not stop when you have a solid client base; it should not stop when business is doing very well; and it should never stop even when the economy is down and everybody’s curbing their spending activities. You got to attract customers at all times.

But we know for a fact that targeting and attracting customers is a very difficult job. Not only are you introducing your business to your target audience, but more importantly, you are trying to convince them to do business with you. This then means that you have to show them you are different and that you are exactly what they are looking for.

To help you with your marketing efforts, here are effective strategies so you can target and attract customers to your business:

1. Find out what they are looking for.

Bear in mind that it is all about them; your customers. It is all about what they need and want. If you want to attract as many customers and clients to your business, you have to learn to give them what they are looking for. Look at market trends; study what products and services sell the most. And also find out what problems have yet to be solved by other companies. By doing so, you will be able to position yourself to show your target clients in your ads such as your catalog printing or print catalogs that you can provide them something that has not been provided by any business in the market.

2. Your client’s money is important to them.

You have to learn that money does not grow on trees. They are earned with hard work and sweat. That is why your target clients would not part with it that easily. Unless you are able to convince them that what you provide are excellent quality products and services, only then will they trust you with their hard-earned cash.

3. Consider the demographics.

Market to the right people with the right message. Determine who would be most interested in your offer, as well as who would have the most capacity to buy your product or service. You do not go wasting your time and effort trying to advertise to just about everybody. If you target carefully, you can attract the right people who would surely be able to act on your offer right away.

4. Be different.

Make your marketing campaign – be it catalog printing or print catalogs, or even hang tags – a stand out. Give your target clients a reason to become curious about your marketing campaign; enough that they would want to go over what you are trying to convey to them. Your design and style will help you become distinct to attract the attention of your target audience.

Targeting and attracting customers is not impossible although it is hard work indeed. By considering who is most likely to engage in business with you, you can very well provide yourself with a solid and strong customer base that can provide you with a robust business.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit:
http://www.printplace.com/printing/catalog-printing.aspx This article presented to you by the number one magazine for wholesale merchandise in the industry, Retailers Forum.

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EASY AND FREE WAYS TO MARKET YOUR WHOLESALE MERCHANDISE BUSINESS ONLINE

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

In common terms Website Traffic is the number of visitors coming to a website from all sources over a given period of time. This is one of the basic parameters for judging the success of a website.

If we do a simple mathematics – more visitors would mean more conversions, however this may or may not hold true if sufficient attention is not given to basics, which we simply tend to ignore.

Parts that need to be kept in mind

• Focused Content: Your content has to be focused. The content should be tailored for different set of visitors – to the point that you even think about how your company profile will be presented to respective segments. The quality of writing has to be top-notch business grade.

• Title & Description tags: When a visitor searches for keywords on a Search Engine, results are essentially a fight of the title and description. This is where you leave the first impression. The user will be more inclined towards a compelling title as he would perceive your website to better than others.

• Offer Original & Quality information on your website: This is the best way to attract traffic to your website. Offer original & unique information which visitors cannot find anywhere else. This will also help in branding your business image as Industry experts & will also get you good quality one-way links.

• Give Freebies: Who doesn’t like freebies? Offer your visitors free e-books, free Cd’s, free whitepapers, free consultation, free webinars etc. People love these and will keep coming back for more. This will not only increase new and repeat traffic but also help in link building.

• Social Media: Use Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to share information with your targeted audience. Share your writings & researches, participate in discussions, and help others by solving their problems. This will propel people to visit your website more often and look for desired information.

• Advertisements: There are many free/ paid ways to advertise your business online. Classified Ads is free and is one of the ways to place business related ads which help in driving traffic. You can also benefit from Paid methods like Google Adwords programs which are more targeted and help in bringing visitors based on demographics, location and preferences. However you need to decide on a budget for these and then plan accordingly.

• Update website regularly: Keep updating your site by adding new, relevant and helpful content to your site. Search engines also give preference to sites with new and relevant content.

• Blog: Using unique and effective writing strategies is one of the best ways to boost website traffic. Create a blog that supports your website and make sure that your blog navigation flow your visitors to your website with ease. Also include your product/services links within your blog posts so that the visitors who read your blog can easily navigate to your website.

We at AftertheNet (http://www.afterthenet.com) keep supplementing our clients with the most basic to the most advanced techniques for any goal they decide to reach with their website. Our step wise approach gives them the complete visibility of their website, which often they are deprived of in absence of a trustworthy resource.

About The Author

Neil is a member of the Knowledge Centre Team at AfterTheNet (http://www.afterthenet.com). This article brought to you by the number one magazine for wholesale merchandise, Retailers Forum magazine.

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MARKETING YOUR WHOLESALE OR RETAIL BUSINESS IN A DOWNTURN ECONOMY

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

The advantages far outweigh the drawbacks during a downturn when viewed from an online marketing perspective.

Every dollar spent on marketing whether online or offline give you much more during a recession if you apply your resources in the right way, like your ability to get the maximum from you publisher with your negotiating skills. If you take it positively, this is a god-sent opportunity for a marketer to get more return on your investment on marketing and advertising of your products.

Actually, businesses benefit more during a downturn provided you continue investing in marketing and advertising. This can be confirmed from various studies conducted by highly-acclaimed researchers. If you compare the statistics, you will notice that those businesses that promoted aggressively their products always gained 4% to 5% in market share when compared with their competitors who did not hike their spending on marketing/advertising during a downturn.

The key factors that you should take into account when marketing and advertising during a downturn are:

Customers: You know very well that in any business, customer is the king. It is highly recommended to provide all benefits to your customers like discounts and gifts and extra facilities like free downloads and free tools to help the customers to get more value from their online experience. This will ensure your customers will come back again and again to your business and thereby generate more sales.

Flexibility: For you to be flexible, you should be alert and oriented of your customers search behavior pattern. In other words, monitor your customers for what actually they are searching for, and then change your marketing/advertising strategies accordingly. Any rigid approach on your marketing strategy will backfire on you.

Cost-Affective Targeting: Please note that not everybody will succeed in cost-affective targeting. For any business to succeed, you should have certain key elements like well-known brand name, multiple products, targeted advertising, after-sales service, and support. These key elements are vital for any business to succeed. Any missing elements will have an adverse effect on your cost-affective targeting.

If you have studied recession or downturn long enough, you will find that this phenomenon does not last longer than 11 months or a year. Take recession positively, study it well, and apply your marketing and advertising strategies accordingly without compromising or downgrading your marketing and advertising costs. The key elements like well-known brand name, multiple products, targeted advertising, after-sales service, and support are to be incorporated into your business if you want to succeed.

This article brought to you by www.retailersforum.com

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