Year: 2021

Marketing Automation Software Builds and Improves Business

There are many advantages to companies by the use of Marketing Automation Software. It will help to reduce the activities which are complex and also reduce the complexity of low costs. It has two tasks whose provide help to this software to doing this. The two tasks are:

Segmentation of customer database: This is the first task which helps to sub-sectioning of your customer database into unique fields which all are based on consumer; we will do this type of job by use of this task that is Customer segmentation. There are many multiple segments if the marketers will focus on that this thing will increase the efficiency of marketers. Using Marketing Automation Software, if there is properly segmentation of database held it will help to improve purchasing rates and then the each segment has test message which is different from each other within your database that increases existing base revenue.

Campaign Management: This is the second task. By using this task we can execute automation. By this campaign management, Marketers can design campaigns of content by all the help of system that contents are delivered to your scenario. The automation of campaign is same as people do an investment account. There is better way to add small amounts of money continuously. There are marketing messages and content all are focused on a single theme which would be e-mail marketing campaign. There are many software tools whose focus on email marketing, also there are very advanced applications whose focus on blogging, social media. Marketers can create their contents once by the use these new tools, the sharing of the contents on many digitals channels by the help of tools.

Software builds business: When the use of software tools is proper and by intelligence, marketing automation software will build business, provides profit in business. There is distribution of contents to attract new customers by the use of this software tool, and tool increases the value of your existing customers. These software tools are of low cost and very user friendly.…

Avoid These 5 Twitter Mistakes

I admit it. I’m a Twitter gal and I absolutely love what Twitter can do for small business owners. It produces massive visibility, it’s a top-notch lead generation tool and a powerful networking platform.

Unfortunately, Twitter continues to mystify many small business owners who aren’t quite sure what all the fuss is about.

The good news is that Twitter doesn’t have many rules. It’s by in large all about using common sense, being polite and exercising good judgment. But, that being said, here are five ways to ensure that your Twitter experience is a tragic disaster:

1. Toot your own horn too much.

Obviously, you are passionate about your small business and want to let the world know about its strengths and virtues. However, Twitter is not an advertising platform. It’s a social community. When you constantly shout sales pitch to your followers, they’re going to instantly unfollow you. Instead, try to immerse yourself in the Twitter community and join the conversation.

2. Use the default Twitter profile.

If you’re using Twitter as a marketing tool for your small business, then you need to avoid the default Twitter profile. That cute, little default cloud background is certainly not doing your small business any favors. Take a few minutes and put together a customized Twitter profile and brand your small business by utilizing all of that valuable advertising space. (No excuses, you can even do this for free at )

3. Tweet once a week.

Your followers have hundreds, if not thousands of Tweets flowing through their Twitter stream on a daily basis. If you think that your weekly Tweet is going to get noticed, you need to reset your thinking. Twitter works best when your followers see your Tweets flow through their stream again and again. Repeated exposure is the only way to get noticed on Twitter.

4. Don’t interact with your followers.

There are all sorts of nifty Twitter automation tools that can help manage your time on Twitter. And I’m a big believer in sending out a few automated Tweets. But, if you want Twitter to work, you actually need to personally log into your account and send out Tweets. Answer questions, retweet your followers, make conversation. Your followers want to see a real person in front of your small business. They’re not looking for a bunch of automated, impersonal Tweets.

5. Give up too soon.

This is one of the most common problems of Twitter. In fact, Twitter has one of the highest “drop-out” rates of any social networking platform. And, it’s a shame. Small business owners everywhere, start on Twitter only to drop out a week later. Twitter isn’t an instant fix for your business. It’s a relationship tool and relationships take time to develop. So, give Twitter the time that it deserves and it will reward you.

Whether you’re a Twitter newbie or a seasoned Twitter professional put these five tips into play and make your Twitter experience one that …

Tips For Designers to Survive the Current Market

If you follow the news, you’ll hear that the market is up, the market is down, some design businesses are struggling, some are doing okay. Experts can’t seem to agree, but a lot of designers are worried.

Here is the truth: The current market is more challenging for designers because fear has caused people to spend less or take a longer time making decisions about more expensive purchases. Some see that as bad news. I see it as an exciting challenge to think more creatively, learn new skills, and come out way ahead as the economy gets stronger. Many will throw in the towel. The ones who come through will enjoy incredible – and much easier – success (with a lot less competition).

So what are the things you can do to survive and thrive in the current market?

* Create more online exposure

Despite a slower economy, online retail shopping continues to show growth. But even if you don’t sell products online, you need to have a strong online presence. While local homeowners are searching on the web for products to purchase for their homes (and many more of them are doing this), you want them to come across your information. Post to your blog at least twice a week. Create a profile on sites like , , and . Just a few minutes a day on these sites will drive more traffic to your business.

* Sell updates rather than investments

When people are being more careful with their spending, they are more concerned with VALUE. This doesn’t mean that homeowners are not spending on their homes. In fact, recent research is showing that many homeowners want to “reward” themselves with small purchases to spruce up the look of their homes. They may still be hesitant to invest in an entire room remodel, but they are very eager to update a room with accessories, new tassels, paint, or colorful throw pillows.

Focus on those “update” items, and you’ll find that many more people are willing and excited to do business with you.

* Create multiple streams of income

As designers, most of us have ONE source of income: working with clients. Yes, we do many things for them and sell various products, but THEY are our only way to make money. When clients are spending less on home design, our business suffers.

But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Designers who have added other streams of design income are not feeling the crisis. Let’s face it. If you have income coming in from various sources, you are less likely to suffer when one or two of them is slow. Look into writing, teaching, membership programs, or doing teleseminars.

You are so creative when it comes to designing. Now use that creativity with your business. You can enjoy wild success!…

Marketing Automation

There are instances when people may view marketing automation as a disadvantage rather than an advantage in society. This is because people may be scared of the consequences such as marketing automation being the cause of the loss of their jobs. However, notwithstanding the unemployment problems of many, this automated system is still best implemented. This is because the internet-based business environment calls for more complex techniques in order to go with the flow of its increasingly competitive landscape.

Marketing automation provides a solution to the intricate needs of an increasingly competitive online-based business environment. It makes work both more efficient and effective. For instance, through automation one can have a program that would relay the right outbound message to respond to a lead’s online and inbound responses.

Automation does not actually mean that all the marketing activities would simply be handled by the programs of the computer. In fact an automated system should go hand in hand with the creative insights of the marketing personnel. To increase one’s rank in the search lists, the ideas to promote the site coming from the marketer are still needed to ensure online success.

Online buyers over the years have become more discerning in their buying habits. They go through many websites and utilize social media as well to look for the right products for them. What a marketer could do is to insert marketing automation into the process. For instance if the prospective buyer calls up to inquire about the product, automated answers on frequently asked questions can be prepared. The process may not seem too personalized, but still it has a touch of being professional in the approach as the answers are screened and put together for a professional sounding output.

Marketing automation is actually more than just having an answering machine. This is because automation allows the consideration of the prospect’s response so that the software can in fact offer reconsideration when a buyer declines. Part of automation could also be the ability to show rich content such as visuals for special offers which could help persuade prospects to buy the product. Thus, one should not see the machine for marketing automation as a status symbol that one has “arrived” in the internet business world or as a hindrance to creating more jobs. Instead, it should be seen as a truly helpful tool towards a more efficient and effective business. It is thus best to start mapping out the process of marketing automation for your business. It could do wonders for your productivity as you align yourself with the benefits of technology.…

Why Do Most People Fail at Online Business?

The sad reality is that most businesses linger on at a hobby level for a few months or years before petering out. Relatively few make it to a level of success that provides a full time income.

I’ve watched, consulted for and worked with many people in the online business world, starting back in 1991 when I sold my first piece of software via the old bulletin board system, an early precursor to the internet. Today I’m a full time online entrepreneur.

Here are some of the most common themes I see in failing online businesses:

1. Too much focus on the product or service – New business people spend a lot of time thinking about and developing their product or service, while they spend relatively little time thinking about what their market niche, business model is or how to market their product. Yet niches, business models and promotions are more important to success than the product.

2. Lack of persistence – A large number of people get started, create a web site and then quickly lose interest when their new site does not instantly generate thousands of dollars each month. The hard truth is that it takes time to build an audience, and patience to build a solid foundation for your business. Its not one large thing that suddenly propels a site to success, but often dozens or hundreds of small actions you take over months or years that add up to create a significant profit.

3. No concept of online marketing – In the crowded internet of today, it is hard to get someone’s attention among several billion web pages, much less keep someone’s attention for more than about 15 seconds. Online marketing, copy writing and building an audience is not the same as it is traditional media. I’ve watched clients agonize over fonts and images, but spend zero time on search engine optimization, copy writing, audience building, email list management and other critical online skills.

4. Inability to manage growth – When success does come to an internet business it often comes in large waves. However, the first Tsunami of traffic and orders will frequently wipe out the business and its owner in the process. The success they worked so hard to create becomes a noose around their neck as they are unprepared to hire people or buy equipment and insist on continuing to do everything themselves. A good friend of mine has been stuck in a cycle like this for over a year. Rather than restructuring his business to outsource as much work as possible, he continues to dig a deeper hole for himself.

So if you want to build a solid foundation for your new online business, carefully consider your market niche, your business model, how long you’re willing to stay the course, your online marketing plan and how you will manage growth when it does come. With the right systems in place, many of these issues …

5 Tips to Develop an Effective Marketing Plan

Developing a marketing plan for your business requires time and effort. It is not something that can be done without concentration and proper preparation. Few business owners truly understand what they need to do in order to develop a marketing plan that will work. This is to be expected as few business owners have been educated in marketing. Add this to the fact that the world of marketing seems to change on a daily basis and the task seems rather overwhelming.

Yet, there are a few simple steps that can help business owners develop effective plans that will work consistently over time. Taking the time to complete these steps can be the deciding factor between success and failure.

First, business owners need to set aside time dedicated solely to the task of marketing their business. Much like a budget, this plan will need to be attended to and monitored. Having set hours to work on marketing allows business owners the opportunity to work regularly on their marketing. Set aside five to ten hours a week for marketing and put it on the calendar. It is best to work in chunks of time such as two or three hours rather than scheduling an hour a day.

Second, business owners need to define their goals. Without goals there is no way to determine if marketing efforts are successful or not.

Third, decide on a budget. How much money is available to dedicate to marketing efforts will be a large factor in determining what can and cannot be done. Don’t worry if there are little to no funds available to support marketing efforts. The internet has created an environment where it is possible to advertise business products and services for free.

Fourth, business owners will research marketing activities that are specific to your industry and fit within the allocated budget. Developing an idea sheet along with approximate costs for each activity during the research process is a great way to keep track of your discoveries.

Fifth, develop a weekly marketing plan. The marketing plan should include marketing activities to be done as well as time to track the results of all marketing efforts. Tracking the results of your marketing efforts is critical to understanding which activities are successfully promoting your business and which ones are not working.…

Big Data Marketing Offers Critical Insight-But a Distributed Marketing Technology Is Key to Success

Marketing technology firms continue to offer credible evidence that the analytical insight gained through Big Data will be a huge factor for organizations in the near future.

Why? Consider this statistic: the amount of data an enterprise collects is expected to grow 650% over the next five years. It’s statistics like this that make it impossible to ignore what “Big Data Marketing” can bring to the bottom line for a business. It’s the key to long-term sales growth.

The growing technological and analytical capability of managing and using this unprecedented amount of enterprise data will continue to explode to all new levels in the coming years. Big Data, as the term is coined, will shift businesses from managing and observing “data transactions” to also managing and observing “data interactions.”

What does this mean? It means that businesses will be able to assess the needed data points that are crucial in understanding when a consumer will buy, and why. This extraordinary shift in technology continues to evolve at fast rates due to rapid advancements in processing power, data storage, and tracking analytics, integrated with newer, robust distribution and communication channels.

In order for companies to truly embrace Big Data and wrap their arms around what this concept can do for their sales teams, a multi-channel distributed marketing platform is needed so that all branding collateral, content, and marketing efforts can be centralized for the organization. More importantly, because of the substantial progression of communication and distribution channels, a distributed marketing technology helps optimize content distribution across varying forms of media including email, mobile, microsites, and social media. Organizations that do not implement this type of technology will struggle to collect the data points that are necessary to achieve profitable success and will be at competitive disadvantage in the near future.

These facts are hard to dispute. The industry is already witnessing a 40% annual increase in marketing technology spends, and leading analysts are also projecting that by the end of 2017 the CMO will spend more on technology than the CIO.

Big Data is still considered a buzz word. It still is not full defined, nor accepted by all marketers or industry professionals. However, the evidence continues to be reported that Big Data isn’t going anywhere. I recently read an article about some additional studies that were released this summer by Lattice Engines on this very topic. Their survey stated that 89% of executives believe sales reps miss opportunities because they cannot keep up with the information about customers and prospects, and also noted that 90% expect there would be great benefits to sales if insight was automated and delivered through one system.

This leads me back to my belief that the formula for success for marketers in the future is going to be quite simple: Bigger, Richer Data Sets + Real Time Analytics + Personalized Multi-Channel Marketing = a Higher ROI.…

Tips For Driving Traffic to Your Website

When it comes to giving your business an online presence, you want to get as many potential customers to look at your website as possible. This means you have to consistently update your content, advertise and backlink as much as possible. You have to make your site seem essential to those who are interested in your business. Let them know that you are at the top of your game in the industry, and if they want to know the latest news and product information, they have to check with your service and with no one else. This all sounds like a great idea, but in practice, driving up your web traffic is actually a tricky business. In this article, you will learn some tips for driving traffic to your website.

First, links are the answer. Make sure that you are linked in as many relevant places as possible. When we talk about link quality, for example, it’s all about making sure that you are reaching the right audience. If you sell garden supplies, which kind of websites do you think you should link on? The answer, of course, is to link on online magazines that specialize in gardening issues. This way, readers of the gardening magazine will see the links for your site again and again and will know that you are a big name in the business.

Next, make sure that you are networking online. You can use Facebook, for example, to spread the name of your website by word of mouth. You can start a profile and a group of which fans can become a member. This is a great way to get people looking for your website so they can see what’s new, which products are for sale, and which kinds of sales you are offering. This is a great way to make your website seem essential to those in the know.

Finally, driving traffic to your website is all about making your website seem important. Perhaps it really is important. You need to let people know this. Spread your message, but make sure the right people are seeing your message. You need to reach out and get customers interested in your web page because of what you have to offer. Your business will grow and your website will take on a life of its own. The future of your business is on the Internet. Learn how to use this valuable tool.…

Benefits of Article Marketing Automation Tools

Today, more and more people are resorting to the internet in order to have financial stability and be remedied from the recent economic turmoil. While the internet is an effective avenue for entrepreneurs and business owners to get money quickly and easily, there is one problem: how can you make sure that your online business is doing well without being tied to your chair and your computer?

Perhaps one of the greatest online inventions these days is the amazing automation tools that online marketers and online business owners can use so that they are able to monitor their businesses while they sleep or when they are on a vacation. And because article marketing is one of the most effective, it is but right for online marketers and business owners to have at least one reliable article automation tool that will help them manage their content.

Article marketing is the process of writing content to promote a certain product or service and then publish the articles to online article directories and hope that your articles come first in the search engine results. Almost all online marketers today are using article marketing to promote their business because it is totally free, easy to learn, and guaranteed to deliver the results you desire.

However, there could be a slight problem with article marketing: writing and submitting articles on a regular basis can be tedious and time consuming especially when the volume of articles you need to write for your products or services continue to rise. Article marketing can be easy during the first few steps of building your business – when you have more time than money to spend – but as your business grows, the demands grow as well.

Should you come to that point where you do not have as much time as before to do the article marketing endeavors yourself, there are some things that you can do. If you have the budget for it, you can consider enlisting a help of a content provider company or get an article marketing automation tool to help you with the load.

When you hire a content provider company, all you have to do is provide them with the topics and the other details of the project and they will write the optimized articles for you. Automated article software programs on the other hand will take care of the distribution of the articles for you.

Going for article marketing automation tools such as these can be a real time saver for you and for your business, instead of spending time writing articles you can now ask someone to do the work for you while you focus on watching over your business. On top of that, article automation tools will also provide backlinks for your website in the process.…

Using Blogs For Small Business Seo

Blogs are probably one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective marketing tools out there for small businesses today. They have so many benefits, especially in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO).

Google, and the other search engines love fresh content; same as humans, we don’t want to read out of date content, and neither do the search engines (not that they actually ‘read’ the content, but they don’t want to present old content to searchers). Because of this, Google will prioritise fresh content over old content in their results. So imagine you have recently created a blog post all about the benefits of your product – such as your particular brand of easy clean paint brushes. When someone searches for ‘easy to clean paint brushes’ in Google, there’s a good chance that your blog post on your super easy to clean paint brushes will show up high in the search results. Your result is likely to be higher than some of your competitors who just have a product page featuring their brushes, that they’ve not updated in six or more months. In terms of search engine optimisation, you must remember that search engines don’t rank websites, they rank pages – and they love brand spanking new pages! Having a site with regularly updated content and regular new pages also means that overall your site gets more ‘trust’ from the search engines. So some of the benefit from the new content will roll over to other pages as well, even if they haven’t been updated in a while.

Another benefit of adding fresh content to your site on a regular basis is that the search engine bots will crawl your site on a more regular basis – meaning that any crucial updates you’ve made to your site/content will be refreshed in the search engine results a lot quicker. Have you ever wondered what the ‘cached’ link means when you look at search results in Google? Clicking on this will show you the last time Google crawled that web page – so you can see exactly what Google is seeing. If you have updated your website with some new product pages, Google will not know about it until the next time it comes to crawl your site. So if you hardly ever update your site, Google will be in the habbit of only crawling your site on a monthly (or so) basis. This means that none of your new product pages will appear in the search engines results during this month – not until Google crawls your site again. However, if you constantly add new content to your site, Google will get into the habit of crawling your site a lot more often – the ideal crawl amount is daily, but realistically, weekly will do. Having your site crawled on a regular basis, means your brand new product pages will show up in the search engine results a lot quicker.

So we’ve established that the …

Social Media Automation Tools to Increase Your Marketing ROI

Want to stop wasting time on social media and get better results from your social media marketing efforts? Then this list of social media automation tools is for you. One or more of these tools could help you to save time while increasing your marketing ROI:

Facebook to Twitter: This is a tool for Facebook which can be used with any profile or page. Just click the Facebook to Twitter link while you’re logged in and you can link your pages to Twitter and share your content instantly.

Gist: Gist is a handy tool which can keep track of all of your social networking, social media and email contacts with one easy to use web based interface; it’s also available for Outlook and Gmail, so you never have to lose an opportunity to connect with the people you need to keep in touch with.

Hoot Suite: If your business uses Twitter, this is one automation tool you’ll want. HootSuite allows you to write tweets and schedule them to post later and keep an eye on keywords as well as providing a lot of other useful functions. It can also be integrated with other apps, making it an especially helpful tool to have.

: This tool can update your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking and social media pages all at once, or any combination you like. It’s free and works on mobile devices as well.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an easy way to aggregate the content you need in one place, saving you the time of going from one site to another or wading through content you don’t need. It works with Google Reader and other RSS feed readers and can also be used with Google Alerts for user specified keywords so you can keep an eye on what people are saying about your business.

Selective Tweets: This is an application for Facebook which allows you to decide which updates you want to share with your Twitter followers rather than sharing all of them. You don’t want everything on your Facebook page out there for the whole world and this tool gives you total control over what to share and what to keep to a smaller audience.

SocialOomph: This service lets you schedule your social media communications and post it automatically. There are both free and commercial versions available; only the commercial version handles Facebook page and profile posting and scheduling.

Tweet Old Posts: Sometimes you come up with blog posts which have information which is useful whether you publish it now or years from now. This plugin for lets you repost old content which is still relevant to your readers.

TweetBleep: This service lets you monitor any keywords you like on Twitter for $20 per month; the results are sent to you by email.

TwitterFeed: This cloud based service lets you share your blog content as you post it to Twitter, Facebook and other social media and …

Internet Marketing Automation – Is There a Way to Cut Time, Save Money & Increase Productivity?

Does internet marketing automation really exist or is it just a pipe dream? Can you really cut the time spent on daily tedious tasks such as checking email, answering support tickets, submitting to article directories and social media sites? Is there a way to automate the tasks that take forever to do yet are so important you just can’t afford to skip?

Simply put, can you save time and increase your productivity using some level of internet marketing automation?

The successful Internet Marketer knows that in order to continue to prosper at what they do, they need to incorporate as much internet marketing automation as they possibly can to avoid spending hours upon hours on their computer doing all the things that are required in order to succeed in this very competitive environment.

Real internet marketing automation would help in performing tasks such as:

Checking email

Writing content

Checking stats online

Managing websites

Managing PPC campaigns

Building websites or web pages

Handling customer service

Logging into a website or member area

Social networking

Creating backup files or folders

Other online business-related activities

I’m sure the average Internet Marketer, when they first imagined their lifestyle, had no idea that they would be cooped up in some place in their home spending hour after hour on their computer performing mind numbing work but for most that is the reality, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Although some fortunate internet marketers can outsource their day to day tasks, others can’t afford to do that. Do they have options? Now they do but they may not be aware of new cutting edge tools available that can literally cut their work by more than half the time they are currently spending.

Thanks to some very talented individuals we now have ground breaking technology in internet marketing automation that can automate an unlimited number of tasks, including very tedious things like writing content, checking website stats, building websites just to mention a few. This special software can perform on demand and has the ability to adapt to whatever the Internet Marketer needs to perform.…

Disruptive Innovation and Small Business Growth Strategies

Harvard professor Clayton Christensen coined the term disruptive innovation to describe “a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors.” An example of disruptive innovation is the cell phone (disruptor) displacing fixed line telephony.

There’s never been a better time to be a disruptive innovator. If you have a good idea, the barriers to market entry are shrinking. Business innovations like crowdsourcing and outsourcing provide cheap access to technology development, marketing resources and administrative support. You don’t need massive resources to invest in hiring employees to perform these business functions for you – you can design business graphics, develop an iPhone app or outsource your IT function using the new business models.

At the same time, large corporations have never been more vulnerable. A new survey by Right Management, the consulting arm of staffing group Manpower, finds that a whopping 84% of employees are planning on searching for a new job in 2012. That’s not surprising, considering how big business has laid off employees, reduced salaries and eliminated perks over the past 4 years. Do you think that this 84% is focused on providing innovation and exceptional customer service to their employer’s customers? I would posit that they are not and that their customers are ripe for the picking by a nimble competitor, particularly a disruptive innovator.

Small businesses that focus on providing groundbreaking solutions to customer problems are in a good position to take business away from corporate monoliths, particularly at the smaller end of the market. While large enterprise customer-facing employees are focused on internal politics and avoiding the next round of layoffs, small business owners can focus on providing excellent service and solving customer problems efficiently and affordably.

A good example of a disruptive innovator is Hubspot, a provider of marketing automation software located in Cambridge, MA. Formed in 2006 by MIT graduate Darmesh Shah and venture capitalist Brian Halligan, Hubspot started their business by providing an end-to-end internet marketing software solution to small businesses, a market that was not served prior to their entry. Five years later, Hubspot has grown to be ranked #33 on the Inc. 500 list (#2 for software providers.) As is typical of disruptive innovators, Hubspot is moving upmarket into the enterprise market.

Small businesses that use inbound marketing technology like Hubspot’s can get found by buyers and earn the right to have a conversation with them. When prospects see that you have the capabilities, determination and drive to solve their problems, you will win your share of business.

So take heart my friends – become a disruptive innovator!…

Article Marketing Automation in the World of Web 2.0

Every day millions of people all over the world go online to research and purchase products and services. As a business owner, taking advantage of the actions these potential customers are already taking is a smart move. Reach thousands of customers who are already searching for you with article distribution in the world of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is simply the next new generation of online activities and applications. It can provide great marketing opportunities through communication, collaboration and interactive networking because it’s all about people. Social networking sites connect people daily regardless of their locations or routines.

Web based communities make sharing information simpler than ever. Web 2.0 goes hand in hand with article distribution as a way to interact with customers and teach them instead of providing passive images and advertisements.

Article Marketing Automation

Combining article distribution with the tools available in Web 2.0 can make increasing sales on your website easier than ever. Creating and distributing original content online allows you to share your knowledge with a targeted base of potential customers. By providing the answers they are seeking, you gain their trust and build faith in your credibility.

One of the newest tools for online marketers is article marketing automation. Through your chosen publication service, you can utilize this Web 2.0 tool to provide information and interact with customers on an ongoing basis. With article marketing automation, you are allowed to submit as many articles as you wish at one time for publication at one or more predetermined future dates.

Article marketing automation can be especially beneficial for startups and businesses that experience times of high and low traffic. You can create as many articles as possible during your startup phase before your website goes live. Take advantage of the slow times when you have more time to write.

You submit your content today and schedule it to publish any time. Before you know it you’re running a successful article marketing campaign without even thinking about it on a day to day basis. This lets you spend more time on the daily needs of your business and customers.

Social Networking

Share links through social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter once you’ve published a few articles. These sites allow you to set up a page where consumers can become followers or fans of your business. Whether they’re just interested in your area or have made a previous purchase, you are making a valuable connection with your customer base.

You can share information about products or services as well as links to articles you’ve written. Keep your customers informed with new and exciting information about the industry, or your thoughts on current events and the world of business.

In this new world of Web 2.0 and marketing online, you have the opportunity as a business owner to be uniquely connected to your customers. By sharing parts of your business and life with people, you build bridges with …

Why Maps Are Important to Small Business

Introduction: Your customers are using maps on their home computers and on their mobile phones. Internet mapping and the social internet have converged and this creates a huge opportunity for small business. Have you checked to see if Google has mapped your business? It probably has. These days, when someone is deciding whether or not to become your customer, where they are in relation to where you are is more likely to influence their decision than ever before. Two big opportunities stem from this – Search and Social. Each uses maps in a different way, and the way that will work best for you will depend on the type of business you have.

Using Google maps for Search: These days, someone driving through a town would search for a cafe using Google Maps on their smart phone. Smartphones can show them a Google map of where they are and all the cafes near them. Of all the cafes on the screen, those that haven’t completed their Google Place page are unlikely to appear first. Most people click on one of the first few search results, so being at the top of the list is important if you want your business to be found.

Using Facebook Places for Social: Another way customers can find you is through their Facebook friends. When a customer can check-in to a cafe using Facebook Places they automatically share their location with all of their Facebook friends. If their friends are close by, they might meet up!

Your customers are using internet maps to search for you, so you need to be sure that you can be found where they are looking. Businesses that traditionally would have been found using the Yellow Pages now need to have a Google Maps presence. Hospitality businesses need to be active on the social internet as well as being on Google Maps.…

7 Easy Tips to Generate an Extra Income Online by an Internet Genius!

The question has come into everyone’s mind at one point or another…”How can I make money fast?” or “how can I make money online?”

We know in the back of our minds there is simple way to do just don’t know how to to it.

Luckily for some, there is a straight forward answer!  There are several ways to make money quickly online using the internet, a tool we often take for granted and now we can find out just exactly how to use it properly and to our own advantage.

So here goes…

The 7 Easy Tips To Generate An Extra Income Online:  

1. Before you can start making money, you will need to register as an affiliate with a reputable company. This is where you will be able to track your progress online and most importantly, get paid!

2. Carefully select a quality product to promote and get your Hoplink code which will enable you to get paid. This could be a service or product you will be promoting online.

3. Purchase and register a domain name for your business to promote your new product. You can arrange for domain forwarding so that your new domain name will take visitors straight to the product you are promoting. This will be connected to your affiliate account via your Hoplink code. Having your own domain name is CRUCIAL in making your promoting efforts a MASSIVE success.

4. Spend around 1 hour a day writing an article or advertisement for your product or service which is the cheapest and easiest way to promoting your service or products online.

5. Post your article or advertisement  to online various forums and groups. Do not spam as this can cause your account to be blocked. Imagine having the ability to join hundreds of online groups and have the ability to instantly email tens of thousands of people to promote your product or service for free. 

6. Keep track of your business by checking on sales daily. Remember to update your articles. Place lots of mini advertisements by using free online classified ad sites.

7. Keep looking out for new services or products and stay focused then start the process all over again!

Overall, there are tons of ways to make money online but these tips are tried and tested. They are true and the best of the best and most importantly, they work! …

A Lead Capture System – Getting More Customers

Keeping in touch with your customers is easier than ever with a lead capture system. Many of you may be asking, what is a lead capture system? Basically, it is a nurturing system that develops a relationship with your potential customer by sending messages routinely that are relevant to their interests and loaded with valuable information. A lead capture system can simplify your life by automatically sending out preset messages to your customer list, weekly, monthly, etc.

A lead capture system, also known as marketing automation or an autoresponder, is designed to capture your visitor’s information. This is how you build a good, qualified list and convert more traffic from your website into customers. Give your visitors an offer or product of value for free to download. Once the visitor responds, require the following information: name, and email by using an Opt-in form on your website.

A good lead capture system consists of four major components:

An Opt-in form on a Landing Page. This is a form where visitors to your website can enter their information to receive your free offer or product. The Opt-in form is typically on a separate page, called a landing page, which explains your free offer in detail.

An Autoresponder. This is a piece of software that automatically sends a series preset messages to your potential or existing customers. It’s a good practice to send valuable information that interests them, not so much about your products and messages should be more toward benefiting your customers, and once in a while, how your product or services can benefit them. In this way your lead capture system helps your potential customers to know you, like you, and build enough trust in you to buy your products or services.

A Confirmation Page. This page comes up to thank your customer after they have Opted-in for their free gift or product and directs them to go their email to confirm it’s their correct email address.

A Double Opt-in Pagethat points to the Gift Delivery Page after they have confirmed their email address where they can receive their gift or product.

A lead capturing system is all about establishing relationships with your website visitors. Building these relationships can also bring in repeat business because now, they know, like and trust you. By acquiring the contact information from your visitors, you position yourself to build a good customer list.

The goal is to get your leads to respond to the free product and engage further with your business through a lead capturing system.…

Time, Consistent Work and Affiliate Marketing Equal Success

Do you live by the philosophy that what ever you do today you will harvest tomorrow, you are a very intelligent person. Then you also know that what ever you do this week, you will reap next week, and if we bring it up one step: What ever you do in 2010 you will reap for years to come. This couldn’t be more true for your affiliate marketing business or what ever internet marketing you do. Or in any other area in your live for that matter.

In our first year in this business we worked our tails of without to many results (as we could see than), and we used a lot of time and money on education that all said we would succeed quick like: ” Make $30 000 in your first 30-60 days bla bla bla”. And we all know this is BS for the majority of the people. There are a lot of affiliate marketers that makes these amounts and more each moths, but in their first two mounts ever in this business? Don’t think so.

The Education from our first year in business are paying off big time now, and the reason is one major factor: TIME AND CONSISTENT WORK! We are getting a lot of traffic from work we did two-three years ago, and makes a lot of money from it. But we didn’t see a dime in our account back then. The reason is simple: It takes a long time for your work to be indexed by the search engines, it takes time for your blog to get a decent page rank from Google even if you follow our guidelines in our free e-book: “The Blog Set Up Check List 2.0”. From the time you submit your “killer article” it will take some time before you get some serious traffic. So if you like to be success full in your affiliate marketing/internet marketing business and you don’t have a lot of money to invest in your business but time. Follow these steps for a least 12 months:

1. Set up your blog. This will in time be the “nerve center” in your business for years to come if you follow the steps in our free e-book.

2. Post regularly on your blog, three times a week is a good start. When you reach 100 posts you will see traffic you never thought possible.

3. Submit one article a week to “top ten article directories”. Submit only original content here!

4. Set up a blogger blog with two keywords linking back to your “nerve center”, this will simply give you more quality back-links to your main blog.

5. To get some fast traffic, sign up at relevant forums with more than 5000 members and post there 2-3 hours a week without SPAMMING, just leave your link in your signature field (just use forums that allows links in the signature fields) This is another great way to …

Email Advertising – 3 Common Mistakes

Email advertising is a very efficient way to promote your business and is a perfect example of online marketing automation. However many approach this strategy the wrong way which results in decreasing the marketing effectiveness of their messages.

3 of the most common errors committed that diminish the marketing effectiveness of an email campaign are discussed below!

Foregoing Relationship Building

In just about every case the only reason people opt in to your list is they feel they will benefit in some way! The last thing you want to do is flood their in-box with nothing more than sales pitches! Offer subscribers useful information and speak to them in a casual and sincere way and don’t regard them as a sales target. The best way to promote your business to these subscribers is to show them your willingness to be helpful and with no strings attached! By doing so your marketing effectiveness will increase when you do make an offer to them! Focus more on being helpful and less on making sales and in the long run you will be more profitable in doing so!

False Product Claims

What need do you have in hyping any product or service to the people on your list? Think about this for a moment! Firstly hype is typically used to capture a persons attention however if these people have subscribed to your list I believe you already have their attention! Secondly consider how you would feel or react if and when someone uses hype on you! Remember when you promote your business you are also promoting and branding yourself! Making false product claims is NOT the brand or image you want to have online!

Misleading Subject Line

By saying whatever you may think it takes to get people to open up your email, you will quickly lose their confidence in you! The worst of it is usually these subject lines bear little relevance to the content found within! Now in this case you’re branding yourself as an irritating liar, good going but this brand is no better and possibly worse than the one we discussed above! Always keep your subject lines relevant to the content of your message or people will simply unsubscribe! If your word is not taken as true or accurate your marketing effectiveness will suffer as a result!

Remember these people were good enough to join your list and for that you should be thankful so don’t abuse them or you will lose them!

Email advertising is a very effective way to promote your business and when done correctly is a shining example of online marketing automation. Many people however severely diminish their marketing effectiveness by using strategies that are far too aggressive. The discussion above reviews 3 of the most common mistakes marketers commit in their ‘bull rush’ to make a sale! Recognition needs to be given to the fact that the people on your list will remain subscribers and likely periodic buyers …

Marketing Automation And Lead Nurturing – Not Only For The Big Guys

The common perception among marketing managers at relatively smaller companies is- we are too small to think about marketing automation or implementing a lead nurturing program. Many a times, it is difficult to break this perception although there are solutions available which suit the needs of smaller companies. It is very common to hear thoughts like ” we are interested in setting up lead nurturing program but we just have about 100 inbound leads in a year” or ” we don’t have the budget to invest in marketing automation technology so we will stick to email for the time being. If you believe in the same thought – I differ to this idea of lead nurturing being exclusively for the big guys.

It is true that a large company with thousands of leads from different sources needs some form of marketing automation to find which ones are ready to be engaged. The lead nurturing program is capable to deal with individual lead level. The question which pops up- can lead nurturing help to a one man marketing sales team armed with a list of 150 target accounts and 300 decision makers, the answer to this question is a big YES. Let us understand it with the help of an example- If email are sent to all the 150 target accounts, it is still very much possible to keep a track on the response and study their level of interest. Personalized emails can be send and according to the interest levels we can get in touch with the prospect or even not connect them till they are ready. It’s an effective way to keep in touch with your prospects who are not yet at the buying stage of the cycle.

So why does many believe that it’s out of reach or they are not big enough to make use of something like this? Is it the budget? Many of us read about how global giants managed to drive millions by nurturing their large databases, it doesn’t mean it is out of reach or expensive. It should be accessible and coast effective to both big and small companies.…

Does your home appear dull and lifeless? If so, landscaping can provide many benefits. Just a token amount of landscaping can really make an old home look like a stunning piece of art. The tips in this article will guide you down the path to yard rejuvenation, so read on.

Try sketching out your ideas on paper prior to starting any landscaping project. When you make a sketch, you get a visual of your ideas and you will get a more realistic idea of what tools will be needed to finish the job. You can also adjust the sketch more easily than you can the yard after you have made the alterations.

If your landscaping plans include an outdoor kitchen, it pays to use granite as your primary material. Although granite may be expensive, it has many advantages including less maintenance and the ability to place hot pots on it without damaging the surface.

When planting your garden, ensure you have focal points for all seasons. Select different plants that flower in different seasons, paying attention Home Improvement Contractors to what will grow well in your area. You can also pick trees with nice foliage or evergreens which make your yard look alive all year long.

Select plants wisely, because that could seriously affect the result of your overall landscaping project. You want to avoid things like putting plants that need lots of sunlight in a shady area. Don’t plant trees if there is not enough room for growth. A little extra effort means that you will have beautiful, healthy plants.

Now that you are aware of the advice presented here, your yard can be a beautiful and exciting place. You can make your home look very vibrant and as though it was part of a film. Take advantage of this advice and you are on your way to a spruced up home.…

Article Marketing Automation – More Than Just Submission to Article Directories

Article marketing automation can help you save time and money, especially if you outsource your article writing work. This is because a single article gets submitted to multiple article directories under the same author name. This means no content duplication plus wider exposure to your target readers, more so since these directories have content syndication members regularly taking published content and syndicating it on their sites. This then means more exposure and backlinks for you and your sites.

Article marketing is a content marketing strategy. It can direct target readers back to your sites when your article content is properly written. It can also get more target viewers reading your articles because your published articles can have high search engine rankings for your target terms.

Usually, you submit articles to directories which publish your articles for free. Many think that article marketing will bring more visitors to the website: true, but not directly. Most directories do not send you a lot of traffic. What they do give is a keyword anchored link back to your site. It’s a well-known SEO tradition that the more keyword anchored back links point to your site the better it will rank in search engine results.

Article marketing automation is a new strategy for article marketing and the biggest break for anyone who likes their online business as automated as possible. Aside from just submitting to directories, it is also a link building service, or a source of free content for bloggers and a bum marketing tool (content marketing without a website). As a one-way link service, most directories frequently permit 3 links to be placed into the resource/bio box section of each article you write while there are others which allow your links to be placed in the body of your articles.

Backlinks are important for your SEO/SEM campaigns. Search engines like Google keep track of the links pointing to the content pages of websites, and when it finds a lot of links on high PR dofollow pages of sites with high domain authority, it considers the linked page to be important and relevant to the keywords used as anchors of the links. This then means higher search engine rankings for your content pages after relevant keyword searches.

Article marketing automation can automatically submit your articles to directories as well as to blogs relevant to your keywords. For example: if your article is about dog grooming, then it is posted on blogs about pets and petcare. If you write about cooking, your article will be posted on blogs about food and health.

With automated article marketing, your articles are distributed without requiring much manual work. This means you could get more traffic from your work since you can write more articles and have them submitted to article directories and blogs or other sites without wasting time submitting them manually.

Article marketing automation also ensures that your article is slightly different each time it …

Tips When Printing For Business Marketing Material

A successful and effective marketing plan is a crucial part of the success of any business. This is why you need to carefully consider every aspect when printing for business marketing material as this will influence the success of the marketing plan quite a lot.

Here are a few top tips that should be noted when printing for business marketing material:

The first thing that you need to determine is what exactly you are advertising. Are you advertising a certain promotion? Or are you selling a product? Either way, you need to make sure that your advertising material makes it clear. People need to easily understand what you are trying to sell.

Remember that most marketing media have the sole primary purpose of attracting new business. This means that you simply need to entice potential clients and make them want to find out more. You do not need to include every last detail about the product or service on the pamphlet. Include just enough information to make the client want to find out more about this product now.

Always ensure that your contact details are clearly visible on all promotional material. A potential client should never have to look for a way to contact you. When printing for business marketing material there should be a few different contact details included. For example, try to include the address, email address, website and contact telephone number for your business.

Make sure that the design of the printed material reflects the correct image of the business. Market material is a direct reflection of the business and helps to build brand identity. For example, if you are a creative company then your marketing should be fun, arty and creative. If you are an accounting agency then this type of marketing would be inappropriate and a more professional design would be better suited. If you budget allows for it then seek the advice of a professional graphic designer before you send the design to the printers.

When choosing a printer you should always opt for quality over cost. Never choose to work with a printer simply because they quoted you the lowest price. When printing for business marketing material the material needs to be printed professionally. High quality prints may cost a bit more but they will be a lot effective in the long run as they project a professional image of your business. Always ask to see samples before making any decision about which printing company you would like to use. You can then be sure of the quality of prints that you can expect to receive if you choose to do business with them.

If your take the above mentioned tips into account when designing and printing for business marketing material then you would be ensuring the success of the marketing plan and your business as a whole. Remember that marketing materials are often the first impression that potential client has of your business and this …

Marketing Automation – The Key to Lead and Demand Generation

Marketing Automation refers to the various software platforms which allow organizations to automate the repetitive marketing tasks. This results in increased demand and lead generation. Understanding the interests of the buyers and responding to it as if on a cue is impossible to do via a manual process. Automation ensures that the marketers target prospects with appropriate content when the time is ripe for the picking. This software platform customizes messages and automates the market communication timing.

Nowadays there are various tools available to the buyers which help them to make the right purchase decisions. Therefore, the organizations need to change their marketing stance and guide the prospects through automation software. This software prods the buyers to consider and then select specific products and services. This is done simply through proper timing of the right messages. On that precise information is given which the targeted customer needs to make the required decision.

Demand Generation:

Marketing Automation is the key demand generation, there is no question about this fact. In today’s highly competitive marketing scenario creation, nurturing, and the management of the buyer interest in specific product and services requires a change of strategy. Simply pushing messages under their nose is bound to fall flat and prove ineffective. An understanding of the needs of the prospects to facilitate the buying process is crucial. This is demand generation and it is successfully achieved through the use of Marketing automation software.

Demand generation is all about the gauging of the buyer’s area of interest, as well as the level and stage of that interest. A study of the online behavior of the buyers helps the software to pinpoint the time when pushing sales is going to provide the best results. For the demand generation to give the intended results through the automation process, focus on the quality of data is crucial. It needs to be kept current and precise.

Lead Generation:

Social automation software is the key to lead generation just as they are crucial for demand generation. With the help of this software it is possible to shorten up the time required between the generation of the lead and lead closure. This happens because this automated system takes into account every digital activity performed by the prospect before it is considered to be a sales worthy lead.

Lead generation is quite a complicated process which involves target account setting up, target segments, title cloud and multi-channel marketing set ups. Also, there is prospect identifying process, qualified lead establishment, sales qualifying, sales nurturing and the sales feedback. And this whole elaborate process is automated through marketing automation. This makes everything simpler for sales and marketing departments of various organizations.

Automation software helps in lead generation which can then be passed onto the sales team. Also, it is possible to cultivate leads using this process that are not even near sales closing. There are myriad benefits of using the automated system since when maintained …

It’s All in Your Head: Easy Ways to Stay Positive and Boost Your Business

I did a lot of things over the past few years to grow and expand my business, including working for the lifestyle I want, defining my ideal clients and taking care of my physical and mental health.

Part of my mental healthcare included maintaining a positive mindset and it really made a huge difference. It cleared my head and allowed me to really focus on my business. Here are the four things I did to create a constant source of positive energy.

1. No News!

My first rule was no news, no radio and no reading the newspaper. That meant not flipping on the radio in the car. It meant not turning on the TV – even for two seconds – because it seemed like I’d always hear bad news. It’s amazing how I always manage to hear about the top news items anyway.

2. Positive Programs and Music

I made sure that I had a lot of positive audio programs and music. This can be any kind of spiritual teacher, guru, coach, leader or author who resonates with you. Buy their audio books or seminars and put them in your iPod or on your computer; rent them from the library and listen to the CDs in your car. Positive, uplifting music is good too. I, myself, like music that includes chanting, affirmations and stuff that’s just fun and fancy-free. We all have music that puts us in a good mood – so use whatever works for you.

3. Positive People

I decided I only wanted positive people around me. That meant I needed to not hang out with some of my family and friends. I worked hard to avoid energy vampires – those people who are so negative they just suck the life right out of you. To be honest, for a while I went into kind of a little cocoon. I needed to reconnect with my family and myself and be very purposeful about who I was spending my time with. Also, I attended retreats and conferences that were in a positive, spiritual realm. If that doesn’t work for you, find something related to a hobby. For example, if you’re into genealogy or you’re a stamp collector – whatever gives you energy – put yourself in those environments.

4. Community Connection

I made sure I was connected to community. This is a really big one because we tend to isolate ourselves. As entrepreneurs with our own businesses – most of us in our own homes – it’s very easy to isolate. So, find some like-minded groups, like a book club, spiritual group or volunteer activity, and attend regularly.

Taking care of oneself physically and mentally – and keeping a positive mindset – is a great way to keep yourself in the game. You’ll be amazed at the renewed motivation you have for doing the things that are not your core passion, but will make …

How to Leverage Marketing Automation in a Hi-Tech Start-Up

Marketing Automation focuses on lead generation with targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company’s products and services and nurture leads from first interest through to sale.

Commonly used in business-to-business (B2B) or longer sales cycle business-to-consumer (B2C) sales cycles, Marketing Automation is really the marriage of email marketing technology coupled with a structured sales process as defined by a customer relationship management (CRM) program.

Setting it up

Firtsly you need to configure your website to collect registration information which you can score in your Matrketing Automation program. Score thresholds need to be approximated to distinguish between those leads that are worth following and ones that should go into a nurturing program for further qualification.

If a lead meets the score threshold just by filling out the registration form it should be immediately exported into your CRM. If not, then a ‘leadflow’ should be used to ‘nurture’ the lead with multi-touch email campaigns until it has accrued enough points to be exported to your CRM as a ‘pre-qualified’ lead.

Points can be attributed to a nurtured lead when they open or click-through from an email or visit high-value pages on your website (e.g. a pricing page).

When you’re dealing with high volumes of leads a quantitative and dispassionate means of assessment is far more efficient than qualitative judgments made by different members of your sales team.

Marketing Automation and your CRM

Once a lead is in your CRM, then what?

If you’re using a Sales and Marketing CRM system, leads can be automatically assigned to sales reps depending on their location, industry sector or whatever parameter is right for you. ‘Views’ can be assigned for each rep that lists these pre-qualified leads. Once visible to reps, these leads can be moved into their respective Open Lead queue for further qualification. If the lead is interested but not ready to buy, they can be pushed back into a leadflow for further nurturing.

If your automation and CRM systems are properly aligned they can assist sales reps during their qualification process by presenting essential lead information right inside the CRM including lead score, latest activity levels and recent behaviours (pages visited, emails opened etc), giving your rep insight into hoe engaged the prospect is.

As your team grows you’ll need to keep on top of your lead scoring thresholds so that reps don’t starve. High score thresholds might stop a few sales reps getting swamped with leads (or only focusing on the best quality leads), but once you have the manpower there is nothing better than real salespeople qualifying real prospects.

One final tip is to ensure that all leads, whatever quality, are eventually exported into your CRM. Even though they may be disqualified by your marketing automation system, their behaviour can continue to be tracked and scored. You may want to periodically trawl through these disqualified leads to find out if any are responding to email campaigns or visiting …

How To Build A Mailing List For Your Business

Building a mailing list is one of the most important aspects of building and growing your business online. Most marketers online will tell you that the money is in your email list. Building a mailing list is a matter of some simple steps that you can take and build a list of customers interested in the services and products of your business. I will present some simple ideas that can be easily implemented.

Make an offer of something of value of interest for signing up. Providing your website or blog followers with a special E Book that is of interest to your readers in exchange for their email address when they sign up. You set up your email marketing software to send the E Book when they have confirmed their name and email after signing up.

Create interesting and valuable video and upload the video to sites such as YouTube. This is a great way to generate leads by having a link to your sign up page on your video channel profile. You can add a link in your video as well. This is one of the easiest ways as millions of people watch videos on You Tube and other Video Sites. There is an enormous audience for video. Using something as simple as a slide show presentation draws interested viewers.

Sign up for Google Alerts and Forums in your business niche. You can comment on these blogs and forums to build back links and get follow backs to your website or blog to where your sign up form for your list is.

Sign up to the social networking sites such as Facebook. You can publish your information and articles of interest and get link backs to your website and blog.

Using marketing automation software is the best way to build your business fast online. It is very necessary to acquire a good quality email software with auto responder to automatically deliver your products of interest for sign up and to create automated followup letters for your product sales.

For more information on list building with marketing automation software go here.…