Category Marketing Management

John Wannamaker, founder of the east coast Wannamaker’s Department Stores, is credited with having once observed, “I know I waste half the money I spend on advertising, the problem is figuring out which half.”
This is an insight that is often lost on inexperienced marketers, particularly new businesses.
Wannamaker understood that for a variety of reasons only half of those who were seeing his ads were customers or potential customers for his store, and that he was wasting his money advertising to the half that were not. The irony of Wannamaker’s observation is that it was made more than 100 years ago, when his media choices were a tiny fraction of what they are today — maybe he had the local newspaper, some billboards and perhaps handout fliers to choose among, but certainly there was no TV, cable, radio, the Internet, bus signs, logo wear…
Wannamaker clearly understood he needed to target his marketing efforts specifically at those people who were or were likely to become customers. Like Wannamaker, as a marketer you need to know your customers or potential customers because if you don’t know who they are, then you could very possibly waste half or more of your promotional dollars on media that will charge you lots of money for viewers / readers who are not and likely will never be your customers.
Here’s an extreme, but true, example of someone’s misguided media buy: I once heard a high-end jewelry store advertising their pricey crystal glassware on a hard rock station. Yes, the station was the number one in the market, but that “number one” included a great many young people (high school age and below) who were certainly not in the market for expensive glassware.
As a small business can you afford to throw away half of your marketing budget like this?…

Some people have come up with all kinds of different ways to get traffic to a website. Some people use formulas, theorems, flow charts, and just raw knowledge to get traffic to their website. Personally, I don’t think getting traffic is an art or science… instead, I think it’s just something that can be easily done if you put your mind to it.
So if you’re brand new to internet marketing and don’t know how to get more traffic to your website, then I think you will stand to benefit from today’s lesson. I would like to show you some easy ways to get traffic to your website for free, and you don’t even have to spend a lot of time doing these strategies either. Here’s the first strategy that you can use to get traffic to your website today:
1) SEO
SEO stands for “search engine optimization”, but I just like to call it search engine marketing. No matter what you call it, it can be a great way to get a lot of traffic to your website. Now some people have SEO down to a science, and know how to rank high for a particular keyword term in a matter of days. And because of it, they get instant traffic to their website because of it.
The 3 biggest search engines on the internet are Google, Yahoo, and Bing – and all of these strategies can deliver for you a ton of traffic on a daily basis. You will definitely want to try and rank high for obscure keyword terms so that you can capitalize on all of this traffic that you could be getting.
Here’s another great way to get traffic to your website:
2) YouTube
YouTube is the number 3 ranked website on the internet today in terms of traffic. They get millions of hits each and everyday to their website from people looking to hear music, and from people looking for information that they can use for a particular reason. You will want to be right there with the information that they are looking for.
You can definitely get a lot of traffic from YouTube. It’s an easy way to promote your business, and it’s very user friendly. You will want to make sure that your website URL is listed at the bottom of your videos, and also is displayed first in the description of your video – so that it can turn into a clickable link.
You can use a camcorder, webcam, or even a sell phone to create your videos. But if you want the most quality, use a camcorder. It may sound expensive, but it’s a great way to produce the high quality videos that you are looking for. If I had to guess, I would say that you can get a good camcorder for around $100… which isn’t too bad.
YouTube and search engine optimization are 2 great traffic strategies that you can use to make more money in your online …

If you think that blogging is easy, you’re correct. Blogging is easy. All you have to do is get a free blog, customize it, add some Google AdSense code on it, and start making blog posts each and everyday. You want fresh traffic that the search engines will love and will want to share it with others by ranking it high in the results.
I’m willing to bet that if you started your own blog that you would be able to earn money from it over a short period of time. Using Google AdSense on your blog is a great way to monetize your blog, but if you’re only making 20 cents per click from each time someone clicks on the ad… you will need a lot more traffic than what you are getting now.
But you should keep your head up high, because there is another way to monetize your blog, and to earn lots of money from it. I’m talking about selling affiliate products on your blog. You can use ClickBank, Commission Junction, Paydotcom, eBay, or even ‘s affiliate program to make money with your blog.
Or you can take things to a higher level, and become an affiliate for the “HostGator” web hosting company. At least with this strategy you earn income month after month all on autopilot – and you don’t have to deal with customer service, refunds, or answering any questions. HostGator will take care of all of that for you. And if you become an affiliate for HostGator, they even give you the tools you need to succeed to promote their services easily.
This is how a lot of people make money with their blogs. If this doesn’t sound appealing to you, you could always sell advertising space on your blog. This is also a major profit generator for those who have high traffic blogs. So when your blog becomes successful and starts getting thousands upon thousands of visits per day, you can use any one of these income generators to help you make more money with your blog.
But to get this traffic in the first place, we have to rewind and take a look at the traffic strategies that you need to be using to get people to your blog. One easy way to get people back to your blog is with email marketing. Encourage your readers to subscribe to your blog so that you can bring them back on a daily basis.
This recurring traffic along with the new traffic that you get everyday is something that boost the profitability of your blog in a short period of time. I would know, because I get recurring traffic from my email subscribers everyday. And they come and leave comments on my blog for me to read and respond to.
You should know that there are a lot of ways to get traffic to your blog, but you just have to put the time and effort into it to making it work. Along …

If you own and operate a dental practice, and would like a few helpful tips on how to grow your practice on the back of Halloween, then give this short article a read.
Let me explain:
It drives my wife crazy.
I cough.
I hack.
I snort.
And at times, I sound like a farm animal.
How come?
Well, for some reason my sinuses get clogged up like a Plumber’s worst nightmare. And to figure out what’s going on, I’ve been through a battery of allergy tests which turned up nothing.
So the next logical step was to get checked out by an ENT doctor.
And here’s how my appointment went:
I go into the doctor’s office. I fill out a bunch of forms. And a few minutes later the doctor whisks me to his office. We go through a bunch of questions. He does a host of tests. And he leaves to get something.
While he’s gone, his nurse walks into the room.
And while she’s here, I asked her a question:
“So what are you guys doing to promote your business for Halloween?”
And she looked at me light a deer in headlights. Because come to find out, they were not planning anything for Halloween.
Say what?
How in the world can a business pass up a chance to have fun (and promote themselves at the same time) by piggybacking off Halloween?
That would be like having a winning lottery ticket in your pocket, and not cashing it.
Really?
So what can you do to promote your dental practice for Halloween?
For starters, how about making your staff get dressed up in a costume? This is easy enough to do. And it’s fun for both your staff as well as your patients.
Or, how about having a Halloween party and inviting your patients to attend? They can even “bring a friend” which is a clever way to drum up some referrals!
Or, how about buying back sugary candy from your patients, and sending a press release to your local newspaper announcing what you are doing?
Or, what about holding a “trick or treat” contest in October? And if your patients schedule and appointment, they’ll get a “goodie” bag which includes a FREE electric toothbrush (and a few other valuable items). How can you get these items? Call up your vendors. Tell them what you’re doing. And ask them to donate items to your goodie bag.
Look, your options for Halloween are limited to your creativity.
But please… please… please make sure you do something to promote your dental practice.
It’s a goose the goose that is waiting to lay a golden egg!…

Are you struggling in your network marketing online business? Then it is the right time to learn how to leverage the power of internet to achieve great success in your business. In order to attain massive results online, you need to generate traffic to your site. Before implementing any marketing techniques, you have to understand that everyone doesn’t want to join your MLM business. You need to identify your niche first and then find out what they are looking for. Identifying people who are interested in what you are offering can help you take your business to the next level.
Targeted traffic is the lifeblood of conducting network marketing online. Therefore it is imperative that you master the art of generating traffic on your own. Content marketing is one of the simplest, yet most powerful strategies to attain results in network marketing online. It can help you drive more traffic. Your content can be articles, blogs or videos.
You have to learn how to create good content and put it in the right place. It is critical to fully understand the needs of your prospects and create content that provides solutions to those needs. Interesting and informative content builds your credibility and keeps you in a position that allows your prospects to be converted into your customers and/or distributors.
This industry is all about connecting with people and introducing them to your business. Lead generation and building relationship with leads are the keys to success in network marketing online. A lead capture page or a squeeze page is another essential component to help you create high quality leads. Learning some techniques to make your lead capture page effective can lend you a hand to achieve your marketing goals.
Little details like what the headline says, the font size and color are all important areas in your capture pages. You have to create a magnetic headline that attracts the attention of your prospects. You need to offer something of value in your capture pages that is compelling enough for them to make the decision to opt into your email list.
It is also worthwhile to learn how to take advantage of the social networking sites on the internet. You can use the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to brand yourself and your network marketing online business to targeted people. These sites allow you to expand your online circle easily and quickly. You can connect with the people who are interested in the opportunity, product or service you are offering. You can post blogs, make frequent updates, answer the questions your prospects might have and share your knowledge about the topics relevant to your business with them. This in turn can add to your network marketing online business and generate profits quickly.
Some network marketers follow old school marketing techniques like buying leads, making cold calls, chasing family and friends and spending hours attending countless meetings. However, the average person rarely finds success by using these techniques. The success of …

Email marketing is an incredibly powerful method of promoting your products or services. You can’t go wrong, in most cases, because most of your prospects will voluntarily sign up to receive your e-mails. Your challenge is finding an e-mail marketing software program that will allow you to easily and effectively market your campaign.
There are hundreds of different e-mail marketing software programs to choose from. You’ll want to start by deciding whether or not you want an online or offline software program. There are a few considerable differences you’ll need to think about.
Offline programs need to be installed on your computer and can only be used if you are logged onto that machine. On the upside, you have complete control over the way your program is set up and you can choose the email server you use to send messages. Unfortunately, you’re going to pay hundreds of pounds for an offline program and it takes a lot of time to set them up.
Online programs are either installed on your web server or on the company’s server and can be accessed from anywhere you are able to log onto the Internet. The software company has preprogrammed the software and you simply need to enter your lists, schedule your emails, and check your reports to confirm which emails are effective and which are not. The only drawbacks are that you have no control of what server you used and you may have to put up with occasional downtime if the company experiences any sort of technical difficulty.
So where can you find a good email marketing program? I recommend doing a little bit of research and comparing features to determine which are best for your individual needs. Start by doing an Internet search and compiling a list of services that look like they’ll work for you. Then visit a few online forums and ask other users what they think of each one. A particular e-mail marketing program may be the most popular, or the least expensive, but that doesn’t mean it will be right for you.
If you’re stuck and don’t know where to start, I recommend searching for and checking out a few of these popular programs:
o Constant Contact
o Vertical Response
o Elite Email
o Send Studio
o EXP Elite
These e-mail programs represent only a small handful, and I offer them not as recommendations for use, but as a guide to help you get started.
What programs do you use now and would you recommend them to others?…

If you are a business owner, many, if not most, of your customers have one or more social media accounts. You need to make sure your business is also on these sites. Discover which social media sites are of the most interest to your customers, and get your business branded on them immediately. WIthout it, you are missing opportunities to build deeper relationships with current customers, and to find new customers that may have never heard of your business before.

Maintain a current and relevant blog. Post everything new you have to say on your blog. Your blog can also announce clearances, specials and changes in location or hours. – don’t forget to add them to your blog.

Businesses that rely on Twitter to promote upcoming sales should make an effort to interact with customers. Give people who retweet your content a thumbs-up, and quickly respond to questions people ask. This creates a growing and interactive relationship rather than a simple “company to consumer” transaction. This also helps your followers connect to you as a person, rather than a representative of a business.

You should always link all of the sites together. Put links in place on your blog that allow readers to follow your Twitter comments, view your YouTube videos and “like” your Facebook page. List your blog and your Facebook page on Twitter. Creating links in different forms of media will widen your costumer base.

Make sure that you really want to build a two-way relationship with your clientele before you get aggressive with social media marketing. If you desire to maximize sales, try to advertise using social channels and remember to keep it simple. If you desire getting on the same level as your customers, just say hello to them! Your customers will let you know where to go from there.

One of the best ways to attract your target market is to promise incentives and offers exclusively to those who follow your business on social media. If they’re noticing deals that they can’t get elsewhere on their page, they will pay a lot more attention to your social media marketing. This leads to them telling their friends, which costs you nothing.

Before getting started in social media, find out what your options are on these sites. All social networking sites function differently, and if you are aware of how their differences can benefit you, then it will help you greatly in your promotional efforts. If you know which sites reach the most people in your target audience, you can use your time wisely when reaching them.

Be flexible with updating your pages. Your audience will be looking for frequent updates on any new campaign, right after you launch it. But, if you cannot come up with good content topics, you may be better off posting less frequently.

Social media networks are great ways to help your business grow! It allows you to communicate with your customers, attract new customers and get the word out about your …

What a time to start! You likely have many questions on where and how to start, and this article will help you. Read on for some important tips that can help you launch your own affiliate marketing campaign.

Taking advantage of this can lead to negative consequences. At best, this will annoy your visitors. You could possibly spread viruses or break the customer tracking chains.

Once you start making good money, you may want to ask for higher pay from your program. If you are generating enough sales, the marketing program you joined will be eager to keep you.

To make your affiliate marketing programs pay off, you should maintain only the most profitable affiliates. Check up on your affiliates and their projects often. Choose to eliminate affiliates that are not giving you much revenue. This way you can add advertisers who will be more profitable.

Becoming a super affiliate can really have some real downfalls. Do not do too much, you will wear yourself out. You have to keep in mind that maximum results are not an option. Once you find the approach that works for you, you can make a lot of money in affiliate marketing.

You’ll always be looking for new customers because they’ll keep unsubscribing. To get yourself new customers, send out your best e-mail formats to attract them via first contact.

Text services are a great technique for affiliates to use in order to earn commissions. This is still a relatively new service, but already there are thousands of affiliates using this text service to keep their customers informed and to promote new products and affiliate offers.

Affiliate programs can be quite different from one another. All of the affiliate programs will be different.

One way that a business name is spread quickly is to use different paid programs that google offers. Purchasing ads will help to increase the amount of visitors that your site receives on a daily basis.

You should engage an affiliate marketing service that is well established because it is important to deal with an honest company. Disclose all affiliations and tell people what you are trying to accomplish. If people don’t think you’re being honest for any reason, they’ll have no qualms about bypassing your site and head directly to the retailer to purchase the product.

Statistics that reveal information right away can be invaluable. Because they allow you to see how many visitors have come through the site, and how many people have made purchases.

Tell your readers up front that you’re part of an affiliate program. Your readers will be grateful for your transparency and will be encouraged to use your ads to help make you more money.

You have to understand that the products you choose are directly linked to the niche you will be working with and the methods you will be using. If your product is inexpensive, simply casting a wide marketing net may generate sales. When you have a product that is costly, you …

What a time to start! You likely have many questions on where and how to start, and this article will help you. Read on for some important tips that can help you launch your own affiliate marketing campaign.

Taking advantage of this can lead to negative consequences. At best, this will annoy your visitors. You could possibly spread viruses or break the customer tracking chains.

Once you start making good money, you may want to ask for higher pay from your program. If you are generating enough sales, the marketing program you joined will be eager to keep you.

To make your affiliate marketing programs pay off, you should maintain only the most profitable affiliates. Check up on your affiliates and their projects often. Choose to eliminate affiliates that are not giving you much revenue. This way you can add advertisers who will be more profitable.

Becoming a super affiliate can really have some real downfalls. Do not do too much, you will wear yourself out. You have to keep in mind that maximum results are not an option. Once you find the approach that works for you, you can make a lot of money in affiliate marketing.

You’ll always be looking for new customers because they’ll keep unsubscribing. To get yourself new customers, send out your best e-mail formats to attract them via first contact.

Text services are a great technique for affiliates to use in order to earn commissions. This is still a relatively new service, but already there are thousands of affiliates using this text service to keep their customers informed and to promote new products and affiliate offers.

Affiliate programs can be quite different from one another. All of the affiliate programs will be different.

One way that a business name is spread quickly is to use different paid programs that google offers. Purchasing ads will help to increase the amount of visitors that your site receives on a daily basis.

You should engage an affiliate marketing service that is well established because it is important to deal with an honest company. Disclose all affiliations and tell people what you are trying to accomplish. If people don’t think you’re being honest for any reason, they’ll have no qualms about bypassing your site and head directly to the retailer to purchase the product.

Statistics that reveal information right away can be invaluable. Because they allow you to see how many visitors have come through the site, and how many people have made purchases.

Tell your readers up front that you’re part of an affiliate program. Your readers will be grateful for your transparency and will be encouraged to use your ads to help make you more money.

You have to understand that the products you choose are directly linked to the niche you will be working with and the methods you will be using. If your product is inexpensive, simply casting a wide marketing net may generate sales. When you have a product that is costly, you …

Never underestimate the power of email marketing. Marketing through email was among the earliest marketing strategies available over the Internet, and it is far from obsolete. New methods and ideas are continuously being generated that make marketing emails unique and interesting. Read the following tips and make your email marketing work for you.

Never send out emails that are unsolicited. If marketing materials are sent out to individuals who didn’t request them, they could mark these massages as spam. This hurts your reputation, and if there are too many complaints about your messages, you may get your IP address blocked.

Make sure to email only people you know. Most people treat email from unknown parties as spam. They will try to remember if they have ever heard of you, and ask themselves why they should care about your products. They’re likely to delete your email, wasting everyone’s time.

When developing an email marketing plan, make sure that every customer on your email list has voluntarily “opted in” to be on that list and provided you with an email address for that specific reason. If you don’t, you could get a lot of spam complaints or lose customers for good.

Only make one clear message for each email you send. This can help to keep your customers from becoming bored or confused by information overload. Formulate one text only, and make sure it is brief and concise. Your clients will be happy to not have too much information.

Use a number of different resources to learn everything that you possibly can about how to successfully utilize email marketing. Don’t just check online, but head to your local library or bookstore too. Some areas even offer classes to help you improve your knowledge.

Use A/B testing to view the subject line. Send half of your messages with one subject, and half with the other. You will be able to see which subject lines encourage people to open your emails and which ones you should avoid.

Try to send only one email campaign message each week. Most of your customers probably receive multiple emails each day, and are too busy to constantly open message after message. If you send out too many emails, they might not read them anymore and that’s not good if you spent a lot of time working on the messages.

Give your customers a reason to answer the call to action in your email message. Give them a little extra encouragement to give you their business. For instance, advertise a discount, free shipping or a free sample with every purchase.

A simple, but often overlooked, part of running a successful email marketing campaign is validating the email addresses on your list. Having to resend emails or having them go to incorrect addresses will be a complete waste of your time and resources, and could cost you customers! This can be a waste of your time!

Marketing emails continue to be a valuable tool. If you use the advice in …