I can see the hate email pouring in from this one. Well, quite honestly, I couldn’t care less. In fact, I’ll even post my email address at the end of this article so you can tell me what a jackass I am. In the meantime, you might want to read this before you even consider getting into article marketing. Why? Because the rules have changed and, quite honestly, nobody cares about your crap.
You’re probably wondering where this rant is coming from. Well, here is the back story so you can understand where this is coming from. It certainly isn’t from a relaxing evening at Sardi’s. Oh, and by the way, from what I hear, the scallops there aren’t all that great. But back to the main topic at hand.
So I’m at the Warrior Forum and some idiot asks if article marketing still works and wants to see PROOF that it works. He wanted one of the best article marketers on the planet, one Alexa Smith, to reveal one of her hard fought for niches in order to PROVE that she’s not full of it.
Well, I couldn’t help but stick my nose into this confrontation and give this pigs feet for brains moron a piece of my mind. For starters, since Alexa’s not trying to sell him anything, she doesn’t have to PROVE to him anything. I then went on to give him the straight poop about article marketing. And if you’re smart, you’ll make a note of all of this.
The biggest problem with article marketers is that they think they can write about any old crap, slap it up on an article directory, and it’ll bring in LOADS of traffic. My friend, those days died along with the Ford Pinto and Circuit City. Today, it’s a whole new ball game. So, I’m going to give you a list of things that you better do if you’re going to have ANY chance at all of making it as an article marketer.
1. You have to write about stuff that people actually care about.
2. You have to write in a way that is engaging and doesn’t put your reader to sleep. You can be controversial and even a little arrogant like me, but for crying out loud, don’t be a snooze fest. In short, LEARN HOW TO WRITE.
3. Don’t make your writing sound like you’re trying to sell something to your reader. People don’t want to be sold stuff. They’re looking for information when they’re looking for articles. The selling stuff part comes in your signature or at your web site. Just give them info that they can actually USE. For crying out loud, help them to solve their problem or at least give them more insight into their problem.
4. Don’t just rely on article directories. I’m sorry, I love these guys but Google has basically said, if you rely solely on them, you’re not going to get the optimal results. Put your articles on …
Methods for Effective Sales Collaboration
Methods for Effective Sales Collaboration
Business collaboration is nothing new. It has been in the business world since times immemorial. However this has gained a priority in the recent times, as more and more, people are merging two businesses to create an innovative and improved enterprise. This is helping both the businesses to garner more customers and the owners are becoming successful in their endeavors.
During the First World War, it has been found that work councils came into being in the 1940s. This was mainly popular in the engineering and technical departments in an organization. Collaborations in the world of business can be both intra and inter organization. The collaboration can range from the simple kind of partnership to funding of crowds to the complex situation of starting a multinational company. The collaboration between the team members also helps in the prosperity of the company.
Some of the methods that can be used for effective sales collaboration are as follows.
Team Lead:
Team leader is one of the most important people for the creation of effective collaboration both for online work as well as for the offline work. They are the ones who know how to build relationships with the partners or the employees for the effective working of the company. This is the reason why Bill Gates, Steve Jobs are well known as great team leaders who could lead their company from the front.
Dream Team!
The second element is a dream team which can support the team leader in his actions to make the team strong and independent. One has to be devoted to the idea of the product or idea and committed to the success of the other team member. Selecting individuals with the right attitude, skills, commitment level is very helpful for a team leader in making a good team.
Broadband Connectivity!
It is very essential to have a good and a reliable internet connection. In recent times, a major chunk of the work is done online. This is the reason having a reliable internet connection helps a person much. Web based applications, sending emails, management platforms, online editing documents or even blogging for the company will require the help of a good internet connection. Therefore, one must ensure that their internet connection is reliable and can work properly.
Sales Collaboration Software:
There is a number of collaborative software available in the market which you can install for completing the work fast and quickly. One can simply register and create an account with the help of which the person can coordinate work online using the project management software. This will quicken the pace of your work and you can select as per your needs.
Hosting Server
A good hosting server is essential for a company that will be working in collaboration. Account security levels, scalability, and downtime statistics are some of the elements that one must check before selecting the hosting server for their company.
Deploy these methods for increasing the effectiveness of Sales collaboration …
Marketing a Small Business Online – Crucial Step to Improve Your Business Online Marketing Efforts
Marketing a Small Business Online – Crucial Step to Improve Your Business Online Marketing Efforts
Marketing a small business online is not that difficult when you break it down to small easy steps. Many small business owners do get overwhelmed in the amount of work they do for their day to day operations. But when you step back and develop a step by step approach it just makes it much easier for you to progress your marketing efforts. Small business online marketing is wide open for search engine optimization. Most of the local small business market is not utilizing the certain techniques to improve their web site results. Now picture your business on the top of each search engine results for your given keyword. Imagine how many free referral and product sales this can achieve. There is one critical thing you can do that will prime your business for a hostile takeover in your market.
The most important part of marketing a small business online is to list your business on the local search engines. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all put out results for existing local businesses in your area. A quick search for “Accountants in LA” can show several hundreds of listings of accountants that are in the city of Los Angeles. Everyone knows that the Yellow Pages is not what they used to be. More and more people are using the internet to find products or services. Now imaging if you business was listed on top for accountants in LA. Off course assuming you’re in the accounting business. But go ahead and give it a try. Put your kind of business as the keyword and end it with “in your City”. Replace your city with the city you live in. What are the results? Was your business listed?
Let’s face it; marketing a small business via the Yellow Pages is becoming less and less common these days. Phone books just get tossed in the recycle bin every time I get them in my house. It is just a fact that I can find information much faster by using the internet. More people are getting online than ever before. Internet access is just the way television first got started; eventually everyone will have at least one in their household.
Google, Yahoo, and Bing are slowly taking over your local search engine results page. It is time to ensure your small business is primed and ready. Visit the websites and find out how to get your business listed right away. I have been doing it for clients and some have gotten it listed into Google in less than 48 hours. The other search engines, Yahoo and Bing, take a little longer. For one thing Bing mails out a confirmation letter to your business mail box. …
MLM Opportunity – How to Be One of the Top Five Percent That Succeed and Thrive
MLM Opportunity – How to Be One of the Top Five Percent That Succeed and Thrive
It is a well-know statistic that 90-95% of all new businesses fail within their first year. This is no different when relating to an MLM or network marketing business opportunity.
What will set you apart from the crowd and allow you to not only succeed but thrive when so many before you have tried, given up, or flat out failed?
If you’ve been in the network marketing business for any amount of time you’ve probably heard about or been told to develop your “why”. Your “why” basically summarizes your motivations for joining your MLM company in the first place.
A strong why can help you remain centered and strong when struck by adversity. It gives you motivation when you are tired and inspiration when you’re feeling stuck.
I like to think of your why as passionate purpose.
So do you have a personally crafted, written down passionate purpose for your MLM business opportunity?
If yes, great! But I’m still going to suggest that you finish reading the article and go through the following exercises/questions.
If no, then now is the perfect time to develop this crucial piece of network marketing business success.
Most of the time people’s “why” centers around an income goal. For example, “My why is to make $5,000 per month so I can quit my corporate job.” Or “I want to get to the executive level so I can get the company car.”
And I say….Boring!! Ho-Hum. Is this really inspiring? Motivational?
Nope!
Let’s expand the possibilities and change your “why” to passionate purpose.
Passionate purpose is what makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning absolutely ready and on fire to begin the day.
Passionate purpose keeps you strong and steady in your business endeavors no matter who laughs at you or says no.
Passionate purpose keeps you holding your head high and inspired even when half of your team quits and joins the latest super-juice company.
So how do you dive past your normal “why” and connect with your passionate purpose?
Well, it’s going to take a little time and some soul-searching. Make sure you have at least 10-15 minutes to begin the exercise, a pen and of course some paper.
Ready?
Answer the following 5 questions as quickly as you can. No deep thinking, just initial reactions.
1. What gets you really excited? Or what do you love to talk about with anyone that will listen?
2. What huge problem would go away if you suddenly had unlimited money?
3. What problem scares you the most that money can’t solve?
4. You’ve been told that you have to start a charitable organization. What would it be?
5. List 5 reasons why you would start this particular charitable organization.
Put your answers away for at least a day. It is essential that you give yourself some time between answering the first 5 questions and finishing this …
Network Marketing Tips – For Momentum, This Works Like Crazy
There’s way to much noise out there in the internet wonderland, in case you haven’t noticed. Everyone’s yelling and screaming about what it takes to become a success in network marketing. Well, as I see it, as I discussed in a previous article, having the correct mind set is the first and foremost when it comes to success in this great industry.
In other words, it will really make or break you. However, MOMENTUM is the next best on the list. Why? because what good is a great mind set if you’re doing the minimums or nothing, for that matter? In essence, “peak” states of mind mean nothing without “peak” performance.
In case you didn’t know, taking action alone won’t lead you to success, taking it to the next level will, and that, my friend, is…momentum! You’re about to discover the three tips to take your network marketing business to the pent house. These three tips development, field development, and massive action!
Self Development
Well, let’s assume that you’re doing what it takes on a daily basis to keep your mind set in check. You know, running your energy in a quiet place everyday visualizing what you want to be, do, and have, as I eluded to in a previous article. That’s all well and good, but, what are you feeding your mind to maintain and expand upon that?
You see, you must be setting aside time each day to read books, listen to audio, and watch videos regarding self development. You can choose the best way to interpret the above mentioned or any combination there of. Of course, the best is to internalize this mind set stuff is to implement all three methods; read, listen, and order to increase your network marketing momentum.
Do whatever works for you, but, just do it! Start off indulging in self development for at least thirty minutes a day and increase it as you retain more information.
Field Development
Are you feeling better now after saturating your mind with all of that good stuff from all of the great minds of the past and present? Now here’s where it starts to become intense. You must always block out time in your day to “hone” in on your craft.
This is what will separate you from the pack. In so many words, you must ALWAYS be studying about your industry and specific marketing strategy or strategies, period! Do not just depend on your company provided sales and marketing materials.
That’s a great place to start, don’t get me wrong, but, again, in order for you to excel beyond your wildest dreams, you’ll have to assimilate, manifest, and APPLY information from other colleagues, systems, and companies. Which leads us to the final and most powerful tip.
Massive Action
This is where the rubber meets the road. This is what separates eagles from seagulls. This is what separates good from this is what separates you from the masses. It doesn’t matter what marketing strategy you’re using, …
The Unique Features Of Customer Relationship Management Software
The Unique Features Of Customer Relationship Management Software
Customer Relationship Management Software normally abbreviated as CRM is a special application properly designed to help a business organization or company in managing all data that are associated with its clients. Aspects covered include sales, marketing, ongoing follow-ups, support services and so on.
The CRM software is known for its wonderful features tailored to meet the needs of any business organization. Listed and discussed below are some of the vital features.
Multiple User Environments
The CRM software application comes with unique multiple user environment which allows every member of your organization to communicate effectively. Each member is allowed to have access to the schedules of the other members connected. This encourages effective network connectivity.
Sale Force Automation
This is another wonderful feature of the CRM software. It could be in form of Marketing Automation which enhances connectivity among marketing departments of the company making use of the software. This feature makes various marketing processes easier by automating repetitive tasks. Most consultants and marketing employees of the company benefit from the feature as they are given the room to specify various criteria and outcomes for all kinds of tasks and processes. The software interprets and stores the processes perfectly thereby reducing human error in the organization.
Effective Data Backup System
It’s always a tragedy to lose vital data in a computer network system by any means. The Customer Relationship Management Software has an effective hourly data backup feature that prevents data loss. You’re sure to retrieve all your data anytime as they are automatically secured through the back-up system each time an operation is being carried out.
Document Sharing
The CRM software also allows document sharing among all the members of the organization who are connected through the application. Each member can easily have access to other members’ document. This enhances perfect communication in the organization and also ensures quality output production.
Wide Range of Reports
The software allows wide range of reports in diverse manners. It supports proper email Marketing Automation and reporting without any hassles. This enhances the connectivity of all members using the software. Time is also effectively utilized in the process.
Indeed, the CRM software has other unique features such as contact and lead management, import and export functions, customizable knowledge base and so on. It also has features that support outlook express and other likely applications. Your company stands the opportunity of changing level digitally when this software is properly installed.
Finally, you can always go for the best type of CRM software application for your company. You can go for the locally hosted version which demands your constant control and management. You can equally go for remotely hosted version which is usually hosted by the CRM Company that provides the service to your organization. This last option is usually the best version since, the responsibility of managing the technicalities software rest on the shoulders of the CRM service provider.…
Ensuring Successful Marketing Automation Solution Implementation
Ensuring Successful Marketing Automation Solution Implementation
Usage of marketing automation solutions can streamline sales and marketing operations to a great extent. However the implementation of such sophisticated solution presents complexity and common pitfalls that can be avoided with some marketing automation software implementation best practices. In fact efficient operation of such solution depends largely on advance preparation as the automation technologies go from purchase to getting put to work.
Following logical steps in implementing marketing automation solutions
Firstly it’s important to define the business problems and then work through the solution. Setting milestones and defining the metrics to track the progress and to measure the benefits of using marketing automation solutions is the next logical step. Today social communities are widely exploited by organizations for marketing purpose, but very few of them actually use them to the best of their advantage to promote their offerings. Hence it is essential to understand how these social media channels work and how people use these channels before jumping into it. Determining your social goal and using analytic tools to measure and monitor the social activities over time is the key to successful social media marketing.
Technology aspects to consider while deploying marketing automation solutions
User adoption is critical in running the solution effectively. Therefore go for solutions with more intuitive User Interface (UI). In fact many marketing automation vendors are customizing their applications to suit specific user roles. It should be remembered that even if the solution is endowed with powerful analytic tools, it could tantamount to nothing if the user is unable to properly handle it. Organizations must make it a point to invest in training and education before starting to use the solution. A clear idea about operational changes and other forthcoming changes in strategies, processes will put the employees in a better position to make more efficient use of the marketing automation solutions.
Statistics show that an organization can typically save as much as 20% of total sales and marketing costs by organizing and automating key sales and marketing processes. Better co-ordination between sales and marketing teams to convert maximum number of leads into winning deals is possible only though the use of a framework that will establish standard definition for lead qualification, lead scoring, build joint teams to facilitate consequent sales enablement and include provisions for reporting. Additionally design your campaigns keeping both and marketing and sales team in the loop. For example a well-structured offer for a new service or product might drive a potential customer to contact the sales people for more information. So if your sales team is not conversant with the offer they might end up painting a picture of incompetence.
The next important thing is to find an executive sponsor who understands the value of marketing automation solutions and the need for process changes to keep the project aligned with organization’s strategy and portfolio direction. Likewise the solutions implementation should be also aligned with the company objectives.
Conclusion
Because of recession and economic downturn …
Search Engine Marketing Tips – 3 Reasons Why You Must Do It
It is true that not 100% of all businesses will work well with search engine marketing, however, we will look into the reasons why you must consider search engine marketing for your business.
Fast Active Searchers
In sales, is it easier to sell something to someone who may not want to buy your product or is it easier to sell something to someone who is actively looking for the products, services or solutions that you provide. When people are actively searching for you, how hard can it be for you to sell something! Talk about target marketing to super targeted visitors & it can all happen very quickly online!
Quick Inexpensive Research
The search engines are the most common thing people use to search for stuff, either they want some information, they want to buy something or they are seeking a solution to their problem. Now, you can simply reverse engineer & find out how much searches are there for a given keyword or phrase. Never in history can we find out the demand of a marketplace simply by using a few inexpensive or even free tools.
Fast Inexpensive Testing
For every marketing campaign to be profitable, you must first run a test. Where else can you get inexpensive web traffic to test your offers other than paid search engine. The best part, it can all happen in just in a few minutes. No other advertising media is that fast!
Summary
With active & targeted visitors, quick market research & super fast testing, search engine marketing is an important skill that you simply cannot ignore.…
Practical Affiliate Marketing Tips – 2 Basic Components You Must Have to Do JV As Affiliates
Doing a joint venture with other marketers who have their own list is one of the more profitable strategies that you can use in your business. You will be able to get instant list of subscribers and get some sales when the marketers promote your squeeze page to his list. But in order for you to do JV effectively, there are 2 basic and important components that you must have so that you can get more marketers to do a JV with you.
The 1st component that you must have is to have free bait that you can offer to the visitors who come to your website. It can be in the form of eBook report, ecourse, audio report or video report. You will want to make sure that you are giving good content in so that the marketers that you are doing JV with will be confident that his subscribers will get good value from you when they join your list. This kind of free bait is good as you will be able to encourage more of the visitors to join your list and you will be giving good values at the same time.
The 2nd component that you will need is to have your own list subscribers. If you are just starting out, you will want to build your list as soon as possible so that you will have your own list of considerable size. The main reason you will want to do that is because most marketers will only be willing to do a joint venture with you if you have your own list and they will be able to get some benefits from your list. In order to receive something from someone, you will have to give value first. As you keep on growing your list, more people will be interested in doing a joint venture with you and you will be able to grow the business to the next level.
Here are the 2 basic and important components that you must have so that you will be able to strike a successful joint venture with other marketers. You will want to invest your time and effort into getting these 2 components so that you will be able to start using the joint venture strategies as soon as possible.…
7 Reasons Why Focus is Your Number 1 Asset in Your Online Business
7 Reasons Why Focus is Your Number 1 Asset in Your Online Business
Most people want to make money online but very few actually do it. Why is that? There’s a simple answer really. Most people have a lack of focus when it comes to starting their own business.
Developing a crystal clear focus on your goal is the only way you’re going to make headway with your online business. Here are seven reasons why focus is essential if you want to succeed.
1. Focus helps you clear out the clutter from your mind.
When you have singular purpose, it’s easy to get rid of what’s not working and focus on what does. The next time you hear a piece of advice, read an article or look at a report, you can ask yourself “Does this serve my purpose?”
If not, feel free to get rid of it or disregard it. It’s much easier to purge yourself from information overload when you’ve got focus.
2. Focus helps you define your time.
When you sit down to the plan the next week, you can define exactly what tasks need to be done each day. When you’re focused on putting your plan into action you can break down your big goal into precise daily tasks.
3. Focus helps you get more done.
When you’re focused on a specific set of tasks for your day, you’ll get a lot more done. Rather than starting a project and then hopping around from a forum to your e-mail to Twitter and then back to a forum, you’ll actually lay the groundwork for your future success.
4. Focus makes your decisions easy.
Developing focus makes it easy to decide whether or not an activity is worth your time and attention. If it doesn’t serve your purpose and get you closer to meeting your business goals, you can simply push it aside.
5. Focus gets faster results.
What do you think happens when you spend more time working on your business and less time pretending to work? You get more done. Picture the difference in the amount of work you’ll accomplish if you’re working on just one business model, versus trying to hop from model to model each day.
6. Focus gets better results.
In order to succeed online, you need to become a master of what you do. By working on one business model and learning the ropes, you’ll become really good at what you do.
Since you’re practicing at it each and every day, you’re going to become better at the basic elements of your business and you’ll get much better results.
7. Focus makes your work enjoyable.
When you develop laser focus in your business, you’ll enjoy it more. Getting better results on a faster timeline will encourage you to work more on your business.
You’ll want to see more of those good results pouring into your life. Focus also makes your life simpler, which can make it more enjoyable to work on the …
Why Your Credit Card Processor is Holding Your Business Funds
You’ve had a very promising start to your business and are looking forward to reinvesting funds to chase your goals. However, you check your merchant account and find that a hold has been placed on your funds. Plans stall, frustration sets in, and now you’re wondering what it all means and where do you go from here. Most importantly, how are you going to pay bills on time? What should you do when card processors hold funds?
First, it’s important to know the difference between a merchant account hold, also known as a “funds hold” and a merchant account freeze.
What is a Merchant Account Hold?
A merchant account hold happens when a credit card processor pauses settlements and holds all processed funds in security. This is why you’re not seeing the money deposited into your merchant account. (Keep in mind a hold differs from an ACH delay or rolling reserve; these are an internal issue at the acquirer or processor level.)
There are many reasons why your provider might choose to withhold your funds. In the event that your provider says you broke the terms of your contract, you could wait up to 180 days to receive your funds. Common reasons why a hold might occur include limiting risk and chargebacks. The primary reason a processor will hold funds is to limit the risk of a merchant closing their account while they still owe fees, chargebacks and fraud.
They may also choose to hold funds to ensure there is money available in case chargebacks occur. Having funds on hold helps to shield them from suffering losses due to a merchant conducting fraudulent transactions, and to ensure they can pay any accompanying fees.
What is a Merchant Account Freeze?
A merchant account freeze is similar to a hold, but a freeze is a worst-case scenario for merchants. When a freeze happens, your business will no longer be able to accept credit and debit card transactions. To complicate matters further, any and all income from recent transactions will not be deposited until the processor lifts the freeze.
How to Avoid and Fix Account Holds
The most important thing is to be transparent and communicate clearly when it comes to your merchant account. Before partnering with a processor, spend some time going over the terms and conditions in the agreement so you can avoid unnecessary holds and freezes. Make sure you only use your merchant account for your business (not another business or person), and only sell items that you agreed on initially.
It’s also important to keep in touch with your processor over any and all changes to your business. For example, if you starteded out processing around $10,000 in transactional volume per month, but you suddenly experience rapid growth and it jumps to $40,000 per month, you’ll need to let your processor know. Another big thing to manage diligently is chargebacks. Find a processor that can help you fight against and protect your business from chargebacks.
All in all, …
Google AdWords – 3 Mistakes People Make
With beginners to Google AdWords, it’s easy to make a lot of mistakes. If you’re a newbie, you’ve probably heard of tremendous success stories on how Google AdWords can make you rich and incredibly profitable. But you should know that the reality, is much darker than the fantasy.
In short, what I mean is that you can try your luck at Google AdWords, but without the proper guidance and advice… you will more than likely lose a lot of money in the process. So before you embark on your pay per click adventures, make sure you don’t follow any one of the following mistakes when using Google AdWords. Here’s mistake number 1:
1) Using the display or content network to advertise “everywhere”
This is one of the biggest mistakes that people to Google AdWords do all the time. And in fact, even I was guilty of making this mistake. Even though you will see big companies advertising their products and services all over the internet, it doesn’t mean that you should go out and do the same thing. These companies have major advertising budgets, and you have no idea of how they are making their money.
The content network should be used as an ezine ad. What you want to do is find websites in your niche who are running Google AdSense ads on their website, and list these sites individually in the content network URLs to advertise on. This is a much better way of marketing using the content network instead of just opting to have your ad listed all over the place – on non-related website. Here’s another mistake people make:
2) Having low quality landing pages
If you’re going to advertise on AdWords, you will need a good and relevant landing page. Sometimes, Google doesn’t even accept “squeeze pages”… they want landing pages that are full of content. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should create a sales letter styled website – because they hate this also. Here’s the last mistake that people who use Google AdWords make.
3) Making your daily budget high
If you are making a profit or at least breaking even, I have no problem with making your daily ad budget high. But if you are losing money and are spending $10 to $20 a day on a campaign that isn’t profitable… you have to change something within your marketing strategy.
Maybe you should test a new niche, or change the price of your product if you want to test things. If it’s not working, it’s not working, and a high daily advertising budget will only cause you to go broke. I don’t recommend it to any beginner who are limited funds but thinks that AdWords will be their meal ticket to riches.
These 3 mistakes that people make on Google AdWords are things that need to be considered before the next time you go out and start trying to make your advertising campaign a success. Test first, then proceed if profitable. That’s …
Creating New Play Lists To Increase Number Of Views On YouTube
This one’s a little bit more advanced. Basically, all it means is that you basically create new playlists. If you’re in your channel, you look on the right here and you can click on that link. You can add basically of it on your videos. This is useful for when people search for a series of videos and they don’t want to keep searching for new individual videos. They want to see a series of videos and it takes them through the course or something. You can create this sort of idea for them to not go through all your list to search video.
You can use this to your advantage. You can look for other popular videos on YouTube and combine them inside your own list with your own videos. When other people search for those videos, the play-list with the popular video in it will come up, and because your videos are in there as well, when people go through it they’ll be able to see your video too and increase your views that way. Just play around with this. You can create your own if you’re on the play-list-menu. You create it by just going to New and click on Play-list-link, and you can select any video you want to add to this new play-list-area. It’s a pretty cool strategy. We haven’t done this too much, but it’s a strategy that Julie Perry is very keen on.
Moving on. This is the last one for creating increasing number of views, then we’ll go on to the next area that you can increase the number of videos. This is the bulk of it, so we’re getting there.…
Make The Most Of Social Media Marketing With These Important Pointers
Think about adding social networking to your marketing strategy, if you find that your statistics for the month are disappointing. Incorporating something new and fresh might be just what your business needs to help it claw its way out of a slump. Social media marketing can be successful, cost effective, and gets you out to a new audience. This article provides smart, easy steps for starting a successful marketing campaign with social media.
Create a plan before you start social media marketing. You will have to determine how you want your page set up, how often you can work on it, and who will do the work. Establish time guidelines for each aspect of your campaign. Stick to your plan as firmly as you can, and you will find success in social media marketing.
Become completely compatible with the big social media sites by adding comments, ratings and a sort function on your website. By adding these things, your readers will be able to mark their favorite articles or pictures. You should keep track of what kind of content is popular.
Post new updates as often as possible. A lot of social media users expect frequent updates; if you don’t come through, you may lose a lot of people. Work on updating your followers a couple of times each week.
Utilize social media to create a user friendly atmosphere. Design a store on Facebook which can be readily accessed through your posts, as an addition to your independent site. Many Facebook users prefer to remain on the site while browsing, so this option allows them to see and even purchase your products without leaving Facebook. You can have them make their purchase without leaving Facebook to go to your main site, which is usually their preference anyway.
When posting from your social media accounts, you should strive to come across as humble and approachable. Regardless of whether you are a start-up or an established business, readers will recognize arrogance and be turned off by it. You must always remember that it is your customers who ultimately wield the most power in your relationship, not you. Without them, your business can never be successful.
If you don’t already have a Yahoo account, make one so you can go through Yahoo Answers. Users submit their questions here and other users can answer them for free. Search questions in your market niche and give answers that highlight your products or services. You can become an expert through giving quality answers in a specific category.
You will frequently see interesting photo-shopped images on social media ad pages. Using these images is very smart because it draws peoples eyes to your ad. Once they look at your ad, then there is a greater chance they will visit your site.
This article should have convinced you that it’s pretty easy to get into the social media marketing groove! Once you start something like this you can keep on educating yourself in the ways you can make …
Article Marketing Secrets – Learn How To Properly Optimize Your Article Marketing Strategy
What are article marketing secrets and how can you use them to your advantage? Most people are lost when it comes to thinking outside the box and becoming creative. Super successful article marketing experts have implemented and applied the information given in this article. The reality is that the strategies always work, but you have to put them to work for you. Let’s have a look into HOW you can be unstoppable profitable with this strategy.
Picking your niche:
How can you be successful in writing content if you are not passionate about what you are writing? You can’t be effective in doing a task, content creation, and providing value in an area that you simply don’t like. What is the solution? First of all you need to be sure about which niches you want to write about. It might online marketing, training dogs, hotels in new york, scuba diving in Philippines or even gardening. It doesn’t matter what it is that you want to talk and write about, but make sure to select something that doesn’t bore you.
You might have to do some research to get to where you want to go. Go to and search for the topic that you’ve selected. After that you need to spend some hours, maybe even days or weeks to train your brain with practical and useful information. Once that is done and you managed to do some consistent research, you can freely and independently write about your chosen topic. Don’t forget that the first step always is to INFORM yourself first.
Practical article marketing secrets:
The second step to focus on content creation, so that you have the possibility to establish yourself, position yourself as an EXPERT, and deliver your website or article visitors maximum value. The reality is that the more you focus on what you need to write about that is useful to others, you won’t concentrate on black hat methods such as keyword stuffing, providing general content.. How fast will you be in the position to write freely about a topic or subject? That’s hard to say, but it should take you at least several weeks of practice to write in a way it is most beneficial for both you and your readers.
Make sure to entirely concentrate on writing, planning, putting more and more content up, and reviewing your published articles and posts. Reviewing is the key to judge whether your previous hard work was effective or not. Even if it wasn’t effective, reviewing will help you to correct mistakes and make it BETTER. These are all the article marketing secrets that should help you to become a professional writer.…
3 Big Tips to Using Article Marketing to Build an Email Marketing List
3 Big Tips to Using Article Marketing to Build an Email Marketing List
If you want to know about using article marketing to build your email marketing list, then you are in the right place. This article will cover 3 tips to help you along the way of building a list with articles.
Many people use pay per click to build lists, and that works fine. But for the Internet marketer who wants to do it for free, articles marketing is the way to go.
One way to do this is to write articles and submit them to article directories. Ezine Articles is the most important directory because it gets the most traffic, but there are other ones also such as GoArticles and Buzzle. By submitting articles to these directories and then adding a good authors resource box that makes readers want to click, you are well on your way. When the readers click on the links in the resource box, you should direct them to a squeeze page which will sell the reader on giving you their email address. Without enough articles in the directories, you will get a lot of traffic and a lot of people potentially clicking on your links to visit your landing page and sign up to your email marketing list.
Another way to use article marketing is to write guest articles for other marketers. As a marketer with a list, we want to give our subscribers useful information. So offering a useful article to another marketer will benefit both you and the marketer. You will benefit because with you resource box intact, the marketers readers will have the opportunity to join your list. And the marketer benefits because his or her readers get beneficial information.
A third way to use article marketing is to sign up to a program that syndicates your articles around a network of blogs. These programs will allow you to place links in your articles which you can direct to your landing page to collect email addresses. There are several programs like this out there, one of which is Article Marketing Automation. Using a combination of these three methods will put you on the fast track to building your email marketing list.…
Reconnecting After Recession
Reconnecting After Recession
Economists all over are now predicting that the end of recession is near. While the Feds won’t still acknowledge that, it makes sense for your company to be ready to play the game again. But, the recession has caused a paradigm shift in consumer behavior. Consumers will now think twice before parting with their dollar and expect more value for money. What should your marketing strategies be so that you are all set to face the recovering markets? Read on…
1. Reconnect: It’s great that your company managed to stay afloat through the recession. Reconnect with your customers and tell them you are still around. Something as simple as e-mail flyer would do. Since your customers will now look to stretch that dollar to the maximum, offering online discount coupons is also a good idea.
2. Learn more about your customers: This is a good time to understand and get to know your customers better. This way, you are better equipped to meet their needs once the clouds of recession lift. Use this time to study customer patterns. If you are using a marketing automation software, start generating relevant reports and studying them. If your firm does not use a marketing automation tool, this would be a good time to migrate to one.
3. Be selective: One common mistake companies make at this time is getting too desperate. Don’t fall into this trap and bombard all the prospects in your database with marketing e-mails that resemble junk. Instead, target those areas intensely, which are expected to be brimming with opportunities once recession lifts. A good example would be sending personalized HTML e-mails or e-newsletters to your best prospects rather than sending a generic e-mail advertisement to everyone on your database. Do not compromise on customer privacy or permissions. Try too hard and you may be perceived to be as annoying as the telemarketer who calls up during dinner time…
4. Provide value, restore faith: Provide value to your customers. The term value here doesn’t only mean monetary value. Define value from the customer’s perspective. The first step involved in doing this is to understand what the customer values. Recession has caused an erosion of faith in all corporate brands. To regain that trust, you have to enhance customer experience at every chance you get. Remember that by providing more value, you can create more business.
5. Changed conditions: While it’s true that no pessimist can be an entrepreneur, don’t expect things to return to normal too soon. You might have to make changes in the way you currently conduct business. Do majority of your sales happen online through credit card transactions? Post-recession, you may want to offer other payment options to your clients, as many of them may be wary of buying too much on credit. Anticipate your client needs and start working towards satisfying them.
The ideas mentioned above will not require any major increase in your marketing budget, but, on the other hand, can offer …
Market to Succeed in 2010
Market to Succeed in 2010
2009 saw marketers experiment with varied strategies in the hope that something will yield results. These experiments along with the current economic conditions have shaped the marketing strategies for 2010. This article outlines some of the up-coming marketing trends.
1. Value addition: The recession is just lifting and people are still cautious. They don’t want to spend too much too soon. People are willing to put their money only where they get real value addition. What you need to do is position your brand in such a manner that it reflects value.
2. Meet expectations: We spoke about value addition above, the next challenge is to meet consumer expectation-ensuring that what you offer is of value to your customers. People now want more for less. To make your brand truly successful, it is important that you offer them what they perceive to be of value and importance.
3. Enhance consumer experience: Does your company perennially put clients on-hold? Does your site take too much time to load? Now is the time to look into these areas and fix any discrepancies. People are still lethargic when it comes to spending money. You need to be proactive and make every interaction your prospect has with you, a positive experience.
4. Use Social Media effectively: We all remember the buzz created by e-mail when it entered the marketing world. Today, it’s the Social Media that seems to be all-set to take the center-stage. In fact, a report published by the Social Media examiner states that a startling 64% of marketers spend over five hours each week on social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Blogs, You Tube have become solid platforms for networking and improving business relations.
5. Content: Update all your customer touch-points with relevant content. Whether it’s your website, blog or your social networking profile and wall, make sure it reflects the latest on your brand. If you send newsletters to your prospects/clients, ensure they reach them consistently. And last but not the least, try and keep the content customer-centric.
6. Personalize: Don’t want to spend too much at Pizza Hut? How about the pizzeria at the corner of the road? More and more people are turning towards local businesses. This is time to make your presence felt locally. Get to know your customers, personalize your communication with them.
7. Intelligent Marketing automation: So you have a marketing automation software program or intend on using one to take the pressure off you. Sounds good, but make sure that the program you deploy is intelligent. An archaic automation model that helps you send mass e-mails won’t suffice. What you need is an intelligent marketing automation tool that can integrate the various modes of customer contact and thus enhance your marketing efforts.
Marketing in 2010 is not shouting from roof-tops about what you have to offer. It is all about anticipating what your prospects want and giving it to them even before they ask for it.…
Streamline Your Sales by Switching To a Marketing Automation Solution
Streamline Your Sales by Switching To a Marketing Automation Solution
A manual process is time-consuming and has a high rate of errors whereas an automated system enables one to get rid of redundant data and focus on quality data, leads as in this case.
With a marketing automation solution marketers can manage all the complex and time-consuming tasks of lead management, lead scoring, lead nurturing and CRM integration. Thus marketing automation is the optimization of the complete marketing process right from campaign planning to lead winning.
What does marketing automation software do?
Marketing automation software studies a prospective buyer’s digital body language and can assess their level in the buying process and zero in on their area of interest.
The automation software also assists in scoring leads by carefully categorizing the readings and letting a marketing person know if the buyer is ready to talk with him or whether his Digital Body Language shows his disinterest in the product.
Delivery the right content
The content to be delivered needs to be highly personalized and the buyer has to feel important. Furthermore, this data needs to be cleansed and standardized periodically. Delivery the right message at the right time can be done through marketing automation. With automation, workflow is streamlined and time saved.
Campaigning
Marketing automation software allows aligning the campaigns with the sales teams in an efficient way. The software targets, builds, executes and measures the success of the campaign, the issues therein and converts good leads into qualified ones. The software further helps to customize email messages and campaigns that match the customer needs.
Creating promo offers
The software helps create discounts and promo offers based on the buyer data and interest. This is a smart way to manage your leads.
Post sale – The automation software organizes post-purchase actions like helping you develop better customer relationships and follow-up.
Automating the billing process – The software’s billing automation features manages your billing and collections processes. In addition it automates multiple accounting tasks that otherwise eat up a lot of time
Inventory tracking – Automation software tracks your inventory and sends alerts if the product is out of stock. It also sends delivery details directly to the person eliminating any error.
Thus the best part of marketing automation software is that organizations can use it in different ways to meet their specific needs. They also use marketing automation tools for creating, executing, managing and measuring online marketing programs.
An automation software ensures that marketing and sales can work together to ensure the right follow-up of each potential customer. Automated workflows analyze and deliver automated responses based on the customer’s area of interest. The moment the marketer knows that the customer is showing interest, the software further helps him in narrowing this customer and organizing the next step of lead nurturing. This automatically turns into lead scoring and finally lead winning.
The above shows that a automation software helps marketers to focus on managing demand rather than following – up. It …
Internet Marketing – Will Your Business Benefit From Internet Marketing?
Internet Marketing – Will Your Business Benefit From Internet Marketing?
Every day more people turn to the internet to find information to solve their problems and to network with others online. We also hear about numerous offline businesses finding further success by creating an online presence. However in order to work out if your business will benefit from internet marketing you need to find out what is really happening in your business niche online.
How do you find out what is happening in your business niche online?
The first thing you must do is find out how likely your targeted audience is to look for your products and/or services online. It stands to reason that if no one looks for your products online then internet marketing will do little for your bottom line.
Conducting market research will help you determine whether or not you should market your business online. You could survey your existing customers with suitable questions to find out if they use the internet to research information about your products and/or services. Alternatively you could hire a market research company to carry out this research for you. They will conduct research quickly for you, gain a lot of valuable information and give you their opinion of the outcome you can achieve marketing your business online.
They will be able to tell you things like whether your targeted audience only searches for information about your products online or they actually make online purchases. Without this research you may have little idea of whether or not internet marketing will benefit your business. So a little time, effort and money spent on research first may save you wasting more time, effort and money on marketing that will have little effect on your business.
If your research indicates that an online presence is worthwhile for your business then you will need to work out how you are going to advertise your business online.
How do you advertise your business online?
Your research will also give you a good idea of whether people search for information about your products and/or services online or will actually buy from you online. With that information, unless you have a good knowledge of marketing online, it will be extremely worthwhile to seek the help of professionals. They will consult you to determine which online marketing strategies will be the most effective, design advertisements for your campaign, help you implement the campaign and evaluate the results of your online campaign.
The success of your online marketing is only limited by your ability to execute effective marketing strategies to promote your products and/or services. Some strategies you might employ may include optimizing your website for relevant search terms, placing links to your site elsewhere on the internet, writing and publishing articles and newsletters and using affiliates to promote your products.…
Automating Sales Follow-up
Automating Sales Follow-up
How many times have you called on a “small business” owner/prospect only to be told that now is not a good time to even talk, much less buy? After a few more follow-up calls and no progress made, you are ready to give up. In fact, most salespeople give up before they call five times. Yet 80% of all sales are made at or after the fifth call.
How do we get to that magic sales closing time without irritating the prospect? After the second follow-up call we are beginning to feel that we are too intrusive, yet we know that the prospect needs our product and will probably eventually buy it – unless we are too irritating in our follow-up initiatives and are told to stop calling.
Here’s a suggestion. After the second follow-up call, mention that you don’t want to regularly intrude into the prospect’s busy schedule, but would like to keep in touch by sending an email periodically that provides information that is of interest to business owners. Close by saying you’ll call again in a few months and see how things are going.
For the next few months, maintain contact automatically with Marketing Automation Software. You will have already prepared a series of 8-10 emails that can be used for this period of time in almost every situation. Each email in the series was designed to provide useful information and to be a gentle reminder of what your product can do in that particular situation.
Add this prospect to the mailing list and let the software keep in touch. It is likely that the prospect will reach that pivotal point when he/she is ready to buy and your product will be fresh in his/her mind. If that hasn’t happened at the end of the series, you will automatically be reminded by the software to make that promised follow-up call.
When you call, you will already have your lead-in pitch ready. You have been providing him/her with a service. Talk about the emails you have sent and the information they contained. Inquire regarding any other information needed to make the purchase decision. Then branch out into your sales-closing routing.
Visit ES-Review for more information on the best Marketing Automation Software.…
Infusionsoft Versus a Marketing Assistant
Infusionsoft Versus a Marketing Assistant
Before you read this, remember that we created computerized solutions to save ourselves the work. In many cases we used to hire people to save ourselves the work, today we can choose either a biological solution (an employee) or a digital solution (a piece of software.) With that thought out there for your consideration, consider this…
As of 2009, the median expected salary for a typical Marketing Assistant in the United States is $37,471 or $3,122.58 per month (excluding all the other costs an employer must bear.)
Assuming a typical 37 hour week this equates to 160 hours a month of “working” time, about $18.74 per hour. There are approximately 1600 working hours a year for a typical employee and 8,760 total hours in a year.
We work for about 20% of the year when you compare total time to work time. So it’s fair to say that if you made your marketing assistant work every hour of every day then you’d have to pay them about 5 times as much or about $187,000 a year!
Currently Infusionsoft Pro costs $499/mo or about $5,988 per year. Already this is about 6 times cheaper than the media salary of an marketing assistant but Infusionsoft works 24/7/365.
If you run the numbers you’ll find that Infusionsoft is about 30 times cheaper. Put another way, you’d need at least 5 full time marketing assistants to handle the workload. And frankly I’m unconvinced they’d match the speed and efficiency of a computerized system which operates at millions of cycles per second.
My point (for I know this is a somewhat “silly” comparison) is that if you think of Infusionsoft as a person hired to your team, they’re the best value you’ll ever get for your dollars. They won’t quit. They won’t get sick or demand a pay raise. They will not need vacations and won’t ask for double-time on statutory vacation days. And the quality of their work will remain consistent day after day, year after year.
Nope, for a mere $499 a month you’ll get the digital equivalent of staffing nirvana (or pretty close to it… nothing’s perfect!)
So, for those who wonder about the price consider this, $499 is the PRO level. If you are sending less volume through the system (upto 75,000 emails) you can pay $299 a month – it’s cheaper still. And if you didn’t want ecommerce, a shopping cart, affiliate management or sales force automation then you can use the $199 service (upto 25,000 emails a month.)
It’s really a no brainer when you look at this way.
*Disclaimer* Infusionsoft will not give you super powers. You do need to take this powerful system and implement it. This will require some planning on your part. If you are a fan of process and systemization then you’ll enjoy the experience. If you are not, then you will need some help either directly from Infusionsoft or from one of their Certified Marketing Automation Coaches (like …
10 Great Strategies When You Establish An Online Business
Building an online business is an exciting time. There is so much to look forward to – and a lot to get wrong as well.
So here are my top 10 considerations to think about when you are first thinking about starting out:
Tip 1 – Select a niche you are keen on:
You will probably be spending quite a bit of time on your new online business, so select a niche that you enjoy, not one that you just consider will make the largest profit. There is money to be made in pretty much every niche if you approach it sensibly, so you may as well enjoy the ride.
Tip 2 – Don’t get ahead of yourself:
There is a lot to take on board when you are starting out online for the first time. Take it one point at a time and only think about developing a new area of expertise when you have mastered the last one, otherwise you will end up struggling with "information overload" and begin making mistakes.
Tip 3 – Be mindful of the LARGER picture:
Whatever niche you select will have a direct influence on the overall size of your marketplace. Decide upon a relatively small sector and you will reach fewer potential customers than if you specialize in a bigger marketplace. It does not mean that you are bound to make less profit in a less significant niche, but you ought to think about your long-term goals and how big you want to eventually make your internet business.
Tip 4 – You MUST be prepared to work hard at it:
Developing an internet marketing venture is identical to building any offline business – you need to be ready to commit the time, effort and work at the beginning if you are wanting to benefit from the rewards later on. Do not expect to do well by devoting only half an hour here and there on your new venture, it will call for a more dedicated and consistent approach if you want to be successful.
Tip 5 – Grasp the basics before you start:
Getting appropriate internet marketing coaching and advice before you start is crucial. Spend time learning as much as you possibly can before creating your first blog. It will prevent disappointment and heartache later on and considerably improve your likelihood of success.
Tip 6 – Get your finances planned properly:
Building an internet business can frequently be accomplished on a surprisingly small budget, but you need to be prepared to "speculate to accumulate" as the saying goes. Work out a sensible budget at the outset and be ready to spend this if the need arises. You might wish to invest in a paid advertising campaign, or subscribe to a niche membership site, or outsource your content creation for example. If you have not allocated a budget to underwrite this expense, this may cause your new business to suffer a bit.
Tip 7 – Learn to test every bit of marketing …