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Marketing Articles |
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| In Sickness And In Health |
| I recently drove by a business that had a sign out front that read
"Closed due to illness".
This meant that the cash flow would stop until the owner was able to return to work.
Even worse, the business would not be able to generate revenue for the owner when it was most needed.
Take the following steps today to ensure that your business will still be working when you are not able to.
1. AUTOMATE YOUR BUSINESS:
Automate as much as you can in your business so that you can not only make money w More.. |
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| Marketing on a Budget |
| A successful marketing plan doesn't have to include an athletic superstar, prime-time placement, state-of-the-art computer graphics or a massive budget. Being resourceful and smart can be just as effective.
Business promotion doesn't have to cost a fortune. Often, it's the personal touch that seals the deal. Here are ideas gathered from marketing experts to help you make the most of a slim marketing budget:
Use Press Release Power
You might not realize it, but reporters sometimes need you as More.. |
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| 10 Powerful Marketing Tips |
| 1. Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.
2. No single marketing effort works all the time for every business, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach. Your customers tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bored. More.. |
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| Write Articles WITHOUT Writing! |
| Face it, writing any article can be a tediousand timeconsuming task forabeginner or even an expert writer. Here are four ways to make writing articles a lot easier: 1) Use My Articles - You could add your own name,
resource box and web site link to 199 of my prewritten
articles. You can even rewrite them if you want. Just
allow other people to republish them. For details visit:
http://www.ldpublishing.com/viralarticletoolkit.html 2) Interview An Expert - You could interview an expert
in exchange More.. |
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| Turning The Casual Scanner Into A Buyer |
| The world is full of scanners. Most people simply scan the page to see if anything piques their interest, rather than reading the ads, sales letters, or web copy. That's why you should ensure that your copy is scanner friendly. That means placing headlines, subheads, and other devices throughout your copy that's compelling enough to sell your customers on your business.
How can you turn the casual scanner into an active reader? More importantly, how can we turn a scanner into a buyer? First, en More.. |
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| Direct Mail |
| Do you have a website? A Web Newsletter? A mailing list of e-mail addresses for customers? Do you track and test everything? You can use the web to get sales in lots of exciting ways which are dependant on technology that's available at the time.
Whether you budget is £600 or £6000, I can show you how it's done effectively time after time after time!
So here's what I do when I start working with clients and I would like to offer it to you as a gift now. Have a look at this list of ten gr More.. |
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| Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls |
| Ten Marketing Pitfalls By Stuart Reid
If you want to make it BIG in Internet Marketing you need avoid some common mistakes. Here's a list of the top ten Pitfalls that catch out beginner Marketers (and many established ones too!).
The problem is you don't realise you have fallen into one of these holes until someone points it out. Marketers tend to be stubborn and suffer from tunnel vision - hopefully these may help you kick a few bad habits...
1. Procrastination
Putting things off is a kille More.. |
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| Large One? |
| Here's a proven, and truly easy way to start increasing your sales, immediately.
All you need to do is add these 2 words to your selling system, and you're good to go.
In fact, this trick's so good, I wish I could take credit for coming up with it, but the truth is, it comes from a little-known marketing legend.
Here's the deal:
In 1947, Elmer Wheeler was one of the best-known salesmen of his time. His "Wheeler Institute of Words" developed a "best practices" of selling, by testing a variety More.. |
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| Make More Sells With Colors |
| How Colors Effect Our Emotions?
One of the most interesting things to me is how colors effect the way we think and feel. They effect us whether we are aware of it or not. Some colors effect us more then others but they all have their own individual properties that effect the way people feel.
All colors don't effect all people in the same ways, however, there have been extensive studies done that show how colors effect the majority of people in the same ways. As with all rules, there are except More.. |
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| The Fine Art of Relationship Marketing |
| The buzzword these days is "relationship" marketing. Just what is it? And why is it important? Relationship marketing is so much more than "networking. It's gathering support of your friends, peers, and business contacts. It's developing strong, lasting, unique relationships with your most valuable asset, your customer. It's what keeps people "coming back for more." It's an excellent way to shorten the traditional routes of building trust, create opportunities, increase valuable contacts, to ach More.. |
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| Focus...a Marketing Strategy |
| The secret to increasing sales doesn't lie in choosing just the right marketing tactic for each of your businesses. The real problem that's experienced by many entrepreneurs--a damaging lack of focus.
Plenty of entrepreneurs make this dangerous mistake. They try to market more than one business at once, or they tackle too many targets for a single business. Suddenly, they discover that their time and budgets are fragmented beyond their ability to produce positive results. The solution is to ge More.. |
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| Fern Reisss PublishingGame.com: Achieve Media Attention for Your Business |
| Do you want to be quoted by the national press on a daily basis? (How much would that be worth to your business?)
In the past six months, I've been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Entrepreneur, The Associated Press, PBS, Voice of America, Family Circle, Glamour, Redbook, Self, Health, Prevention, Parents, Parenting, Women's World, First for Women, Newsday, Newsweek, Salon, In Touch Weekly--and even The National Enquir More.. |
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| Attracting Clients With Ease |
| Whether you are already running your own business, or still thinking about starting your own business, I suspect that deep down you know you have gifts and talents that can really make a difference to others. In an ideal world, you'd spend the majority of time doing the work you love to do, with a steady stream of clients knocking at your door as and when you want them. The reality, however, can be somewhat different, and the whole process of finding new business can be a time consuming challeng More.. |
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| Measuring the Return on Your Direct Mail Investment |
| In direct mail lore, there's a rule stating that you can measure the success of your efforts by a minimum response rate of 1-2%.
In other words, if you send out 10,000 pieces, you'll have a successful mailing if at least 100 recipients respond to your offer. (One percent of 10,000 is 100.)
That's one view of direct mailing success.
Permit me to offer a different perspective: one from the small business world. Specifically, I'm referring to those small business people who work by and for thems More.. |
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| Postcards: Awareness Tool or Selling Tool? |
| Are postcards better for building awareness or for selling?
In my opinion, the answer to the above question is, "They can do both jobs. It depends on what type of business you're in."
My own perspective is that of the Web and graphic designer who must distinguish herself from the hordes of other designers out there. I do this by keeping my name in front of my clients and prospects with postcards.
Over the years, this approach has brought me quite a bit of repeat business from my longtime clie More.. |
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| A Quick Guide To Finding Reciprocal Links |
| Trading reciprocal links is one of the best ways to build traffic at your website. A reciprocal link is where two websites agree to host a link to each other on their websites. These usually are placed on a special, 'links page', but sometimes in articles or other areas.
Often, people have a hard time finding sites to exchange links with. The following isa guide to the practice.
1. Determine the profile of your target market. Who they are. What sort of thingsthey like and do.
2. From this inf More.. |
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| The Silver Bullet For Success: Revealed |
| Looking for the magic formula or the whiz-bang approach that will unlock yourbusiness success? Are you willing to pay hundreds for it? How about thousands?
Guess what, you are not alone. Just as people, for ages, have searched for the fountain of youth, entrepreneurs andsmall business owners around the world are looking for the silver bullet for success: that one sure-fire way to achieve the success that they want without doing a thing.This demand for this magic "success" pill has grown even mo More.. |
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| Your Marketing Message |
| Your message is first among your weapons in the battle of perceptions.
Your message allows you to accomplish many things. Your message can educate themasses, convert the non-believers or separate the wheat from the chaff. But not allthree.
Your first clue to your message comes from where in the Awareness Scale? yourtarget sits. (See my article titled "Target Your Market" for further discussion on theAwareness Scale?)
The Educational Target
The Educational Target needs the benefits of your ty More.. |
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| Target Your Market |
| Your market is not everybody, as so many small businesses assume. It is thepeople/organizations who need, want, have the money--and the willingness--topay for what you are offering. Identifying them can be complicated and expensive,or it can be relatively painless and cheap.
How much do you need to know about them? Enough to have all the clues on how toreach them, and what to say, when you do. Finding your target is vital, so whatevermethod you choose, do it properly and test your assumptions.
More.. |
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| Nice Guys Finish First |
| Volunteering your services can be an excellent way to form new businessrelationships and raise your business's profile while lending a hand to a good cause.However, unless you take care, it can also become all-consuming, with little return(besides creating good karma).
There is nothing wrong with good karma, or better yet, feeling good about lending ahand in the community. The whole point of volunteering should not solely be toexpand your marketing. If it is, you won't get very far (read reinca More.. |
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| Getting Paid to Promote Yourself |
| We all know we can pay a magazine or a newspaper to run ads for us. Businesses doit all the time. In many cases, you're obliged to advertise to survive. But wouldn'tyou rather promote yourself and your company in a number of publications, and getpaid for it?
You can. Simply by writing magazine articles. When you write articles as a businessperson, you gain on three levels: 1. You demonstrate your knowledge. 2. You helpother people. 3. If you write often, you develop a following.
Contrary to co More.. |
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| Good News Travels Fast |
| This newsletter is full of opportunities staring you in the face. If you don't believeme, write and tell me so--and by doing that you'd be proving me right.
That would make you a proactive marketer: spotting a marketing opportunity in aneveryday activity.
For instance: Something most of us do every day is read the paper, and though theymay not seem like business issues at first glance, editorials or news items offer oneof those marketing opportunities. How does that merger, government legislat More.. |
| Read more About Good News Travels Fast |
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| At the Speed of Light |
| How many times has someone you've called said, "Why don't you send me someinformation on your company"?
Ask yourself, before you send anything: How will this be dealt with once it arrives atthat person's desk. Aren't they already suffering from information overload? On theone hand, people say they they need more information in order to make thedecision just to meet with you, let alone to agree to buy or hire. On the other, theyhave more information about everything than they know what to do wit More.. |
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| The Real Marketing Genius |
| I spend a lot of my time reading books and listening to tapes about business and marketing. I guess that's understandable.
Many of the authors of these materials are known as experts, gurus or marketing geniuses. However, a few weeks ago I was listening to a discussion about marketing and one of the participants made a point that struck me like a ton of bricks.
He said: "The only true marketing genius is the customer".
What a succinct and powerful statement!
The truth of the matter is that n More.. |
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| The Newest Marketing Course |
| Certainly the newest earth quakingevent in Internet
Marketing insider circles is the release of John Reese's
New, Traffic Secrets marketing course.
I say certainly because I suppose to know what for you as
Small marketer is more important. The newest study made
by DoubleClick.com about how much more considered and
sophisticated people became in their online shopping behavior.
Or the fact that John Reese just released his brand new marketing
course which includes every single technique he has ev More.. |
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| Looking for Sky In All The Wrong Places |
| Ever sit with a single puzzle piece of clouds and wonder how you will ever put theentire sky together? Life as an entrepreneur is often just like that-- lots of the littlepieces, creating products, taking care of clients, wrestling with computers, finances,taxes, etc.-- and a whole lot of sky. The big open space where you create asuccessful and enjoyable business. There were many pieces of 'puzzle sky', I wasdrowning in an ocean of sky blue. After over a decade of struggling with my owncompany t More.. |
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| Most Wanted Response... How To Make It Work |
| "When I walked into the grocery store last Saturday, I wasjust 'browsing.' But... their MWR was obvious. Because,... Icould smell the 'hot fresh baked bread' in the bakerydepartment. They must have arranged to circulate thataroma all over the store. Yep... I knew at that moment, theirMWR.
What is MWR?... MWR means Most Wanted Response.
Copy Writers say MWR's the starting point for theirheadlines, articles and sales letters.
That 'fresh hot bread aroma' was like a great headline... Itgot my At More.. |
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| Determining Visitor Types |
| he trade show floor is full of different types of people with different agendas. Some people have specific goals for attending the show; others do not. As an exhibitor your observation and questioning skills will be your key to determining who may be a viable sales prospect. Familiarize yourself with the various visitor types likely to frequent the tradeshow floor.
1.Definites. If you have done a thorough job of preshow marketing, definite prospects and customers will visit your booth. 2.Demonst More.. |
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| Defining Moment |
| Do you know your audiences? I mean really know them. I've just been working on a project for a client to help him position his financial planning business and to determine who his key audiences are.
Common traits and common media habits are a couple of the characteristics we uncovered. In this particular case, the audience was high net worth individuals who tend to be conservative, and who are not mainstream media lovers or consumers. When they do consume media, it tends to be conservative talk More.. |
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| Mission Statement Impossible |
| Dant dant da da dant dant da da. Dant dant da da dant dant da da. (That's thetheme from "Mission Impossible"...)FADE IN.
Your mission, should you chose to accept it is to create a fail-proof proclamation, aroad map, that not only serves ALL your business needs but also provides you anendless source of fuel so you can thrive in your business. Beware of the well- intentioned imposter called "the mission statement." Should you choose to acceptthis mission... this article will self-destruct in... y More.. |
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| Are You Marketing Backwards? |
| Marketing is like rowing a boat. When you know how the pointed bow moves smoothly forward through the water encountering the least amount of resistance. Rowing backwards, the square stern of the boat pushes against the water, requiring more effort and increases the risk of having a wave come over the transom (back) and swampingit. Yet most people market backwards, trying to grow their business while pushing against the greatest level of resistance.
Wouldn't you like to market your business so t More.. |
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| Testing Your Way To Prosperity |
| I have always enjoyed talking to a Realtor friend of mine about his Father-in-laws business. His business is Gold Mining and he has been involved in it full time for nearly his whole life. My friend has a good relationship with his Father-in-law and often spends time helping him in this business and has learned a lot about prospecting and mining and the other facets of this extremely risky industry.
One of the interesting things that I learned from my friend is that gold mining is a lot more co More.. |
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| A Questionnaire for Businesses |
| As best you can, answer the following twenty-five questions. There's no scoring. Butyou'll know whether you should be satisfied with your answers, or not. If you aren't,perhaps you have some work to do.
1. What are the benefits you offer?
2. What do you think motivates your clients to buy? Are they driven by Fear of Loss,Desire for Gain, Self Preservation, Safety, Health, Security, Recognition, Power, NetProfits, Increased Sales, Lower Costs, Knowledge, Self Actualisation, Social Status,Riches More.. |
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| Cave Paintings, Baseball and Connecting |
| There's no such thing as a captive audience--any of us can tune out at will. It maysurprise you, then, to know that keeping people's attention in this high-tech agetakes the same know-how we had in neolithic days.
The evidence of cave paintings points to our ancestors' grasp of the power of imageand symbol. Their striking use of imagery was likely matched by equally powerfulstorytelling.
To explain the nature of their business, many consultants create informationpackages. However, communicatin More.. |
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| Self-Promotion on a Zero Budget |
| Recently, I've received a few e-mails from people asking me for advice on how to get started in the writing biz. When I stop to think about it, maybe I've been lucky to accomplish this much writing in a short time. I have accidentally discovered a way to self-promote my work. It starts with an interest in Web design and a friend who needs a Web site for her professional organization. I volunteer to do it to get Web design experience.
Do you hear an "Ah-ha!" coming? Before I take you there, let' More.. |
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| To Web or Not to Web? |
| Do I need a web site? That is the question often asked by business owners.
The answer will usually depend upon the type of product or service offered and what the business is trying to achieve. Some products/services are more suited to the web than others. Plus, a well designed web site can be a superb tool for communicating with customers, prospective customers, suppliers and the wider community.
For most service businesses, I'd say "Yes, you do need a web site."
There are many ways to be 'o More.. |
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| Three Simple Keys Will Make Your Customers Stick |
| Do you spend a lot of time and energy courting prospective new customers, hoping to pump up your bottom line? If so, you're probably missing an untapped source of sales that exists right inside your company -- there's truth in the statement that your customer list is your most valuable asset.
There's a gold mine of opportunities to make easier sales and create a loyal following of customers that will return time and again by using your existing customer base to grow your sales. But when I ask s More.. |
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| Eight No Cost Ways to Market Your Business |
| Are you trying to promote your business with a tiny marketing budget? Opportunities are plentiful for low or no cost marketing. Here are a few that won't cost you a cent.
# Publish articles about your specialty. "How-to" articles are always welcome. Ensure you include your contact information.
# Write letters to the editor of publications your target market reads.
# Get involved in an organization or community project.
# Build strategic alliances with non-competing businesses and cross-promot More.. |
| Read more About Eight No Cost Ways to Market Your Business |
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| How to Critique Your Own Yellow Page Ad |
| Forget what you know about your business Your goal is to see your Yellow Page display advertisement the way a directory user sees it. You can't act like you know anything about your enterprise that isn't there, on the page. Look at your ad without pride or being identified with your operation. If you pretend it's someone else's, you can spot the flaws you'd otherwise overlook. Mentally put the competition's name on your ad. Does what you say apply equally well to them? If it does, you haven't ef More.. |
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