New Marketing

Recessions come and go and no matter what you have to do what you can to keep your business going. It is normal to believe that because there is a recession your business must cut costs. This is true if it helps your business stay in business but cutting your marketing budget may not be something you should consider.

What is required during a time of recession is for your business marketing to be much smarter with each dollar spent. You need results from your marketing efforts and how to achieve this in a recession will be a challenge.

The main approach you should take with your marketing is to focus on what you know about your customers. You need to know all you can about your customers. From what they generally think to where they are located. You also need to know just how the recession is affecting their lives in general.

When you do your marketing efforts make sure that you center it on the pain they are going through during the recession. Make them feel that you are reaching out to them and that your company understands. You may also need to look at, and possibly revise the products you now have. If necessary you may need to develop solutions that cost a lot less if this is possible.

During these times you need to strategize your marketing efforts so that they are effective. Find out what your customers needs are and do your best to fill them as fast as you can. If you cut your marketing budget you will not be able to find out what they need and to get it to them.

Cutting your marketing budget will lead to your customers having difficulty finding you. It is important that your company be seen and accepted as a solution.

Some thrilling news for you all, I was speaking to my friend the other week and he has just got a lovely new gig at an hr management software company. Well done Susan!

Your present business strategy must be constantly be reviewed as these days the cost of acquiring new customers is quite high. Enjoying a loyal customer base is a a good thing and it ensures greater profitability for your business. So, to retain your existing customers you need to delve deeper into your business plans and strategies.

Here are four factors that affect your ability to develop your customer base and sustain a long-term client relationship

1. Highly differentiated product from those of its competitors
2. Highly expensive products where purchase is not restricted by pricing
3. High service component packed products
4. Various products for the same customer.

Market directly to your customer base

Your marketing ideas and campaigns should be aimed directly to your existing customer base. For example, if a customer is buying a new lorry, let the dealer sell him allied products such as alarm system, extended warranty, rust proofing and so on. This is quite an easy sale and does not cost the dealer anything extra. So, always be on the look out to sell additional items to your existing customers.

Get feedback to get more business

Do regular after sales follow up with customers to ascertain their satisfaction level. Online questionnaires, courtesy calls and feedback forms often help to resolve customer queries and complaints on a faster basis. This helps to retain existing customers effectively. The natural tendency of the customers is not to complaint directly to you but they will speak about problems to everybody else. So it is advisable to follow up with customers to ensure long-term productive relationship for greater business and mutual benefit.

Reach out to your customers

For retaining existing customer base, it is important that you remain connected with your customer. Be it by sending newsletters, mailing season greetings or inviting them for trade shows, ensure that you contact your customers.

Understand your customer’s needs and preferences to enjoy greater benefit in business in the long run.

Some exciting news before I go, I was talking to my cousin the other week and he has just got a excellent new post at an hr management software company. I am sure that I have mentioned this company before as they are excellent! Well done George!

Before the Internet became a big marketing tool for many businesses, small business owners had to rely on offline marketing strategies. This isn’t the case anymore. The Internet provides many possibilities when it comes to getting the message across about your business. You can market all over the globe instead of relying on local business only.

One of the most highly effective and easiest forms of online marketing is PPC (pay per click). When people search for something they need, they type in specific keywords in major search engines such as Google or Yahoo. PPC marketers bid on these keywords so that their business website displays in the search results.

There is a great deal of competition out there with PPC, so it is important that you set up your PPC campaigns to get the most out of them. Many people that are new to pay per click advertising generally try to outbid their competitors so that their ad campaigns are on top all the time. This is fine as long as you have the budget for it and you optimize your ad to bring you in sales. For instance, writing creative and compelling ads that visitors will want to click through and buy from you does the trick.

If you do not have a large budget to spend on PPC, you will need to play around with your keywords. Choose long-tailed keywords instead of broad ones. For example, instead of choosing "homeowners loan" as your keyword, go with something like "homeowners loan for people with bad credit". This type of keyword is more specific and will convert much better than broad keywords. Plus, it will cost you less per click.

PPC marketing doesn’t have to be rocket science. It can actually be one of the fastest ways to get your business website on the Internet. You literally can set up an ad campaign in 5 minutes and be making your first sale within a couple hours. Just be sure to do your proper research and set yourself up with a daily limit so you do not go over what you can afford.

And finally before I go, a bit of exciting news for you all, I have decided it was about time to just get it over with and book the appointment to get that tattoo that I had gotten on that very drunken night removed. It has been infuriating me for far too long, evidently I have grown out of that whole defiant stage now. However, I was looking on the page for laser tattoo removal and I don’t actually know if it will look better afterwards, some of the photos are a little bit unconvincing! What do you guys think is inferior, a chinese symbol or a faint outline of one?

Contrary to what people are saying regarding banners marketing, it is still an effective way to market your business. Once you create a few successful banner campaigns, you will begin to benefit from sales almost on autopilot without having to spend a whole lot of advertising dollars. Getting to this point is the tricky part. You just need to understand some of the basics to banner advertising to make it work.

You should only promote your banner ads to your desired targeted audience. Do not waste money on irrelevant websites. There is plenty of advertising space out there in many different niches. Choose your space wisely as this will be the ultimate fate of your banner campaigns. Sometimes, spending a little more money on advertising space that has a more targeted audience is much better than trying to save a buck or two on inexpensive sites. These sites usually prove to be useless.

When creating your banner ads, avoid making them sound like a sales page. Avoid offering every detail about your business. Instead, make your ads simple and to the point. You want to peak curiosity and interest with your banner ads. Also, include text such as "click here", "visit here" or "free information" in your ads to encourage action.

Avoid flashy banners at all costs. These look too spammy and chances are you will lose a lot of potential clicks. Instead, use attractive banners that are subtle, simple but get the message across to your audience.

Offering something for free on your banners is a great way to get those clicks and hopefully conversions. Use your better judgment when using banner advertising in your marketing methods. Things to consider is find that targeted audience and make it simple, interesting and give your audience a reason to click on your banner. Once you do this, you will begin to see those sales.

Twitter can be a very effective marketing tool for your business. It allows you to build an online presence and drive traffic to your business in a relatively quicker time than other marketing methods. There are some tips you need to follow along with a couple things you should avoid in order to make Twitter work for you.

Tip # 1: Do not be afraid to be yourself. Do not make your tweets all about business. Add a little personality into your tweets. Connect with people by sharing your values, dreams and goals. People want to buy from people who they trust and when you totally unfold yourself like that, they will want to buy from you.

Tip # 2: Offer inspiring quotes on Twitter. People love motivational quotes. It keeps their day on a positive note and shows that you are an inspiring person.

Tip # 3: If you are looking for a specific action to happen on Twitter, ask for it. For instance, if you are looking for one of your tweets to be retweeted, ask people to retweet it. Do not be afraid to ask for what you desire. People love to help people out and the more retweets you get, the more exposure you get.

Mistake # 1: Do not set up a Twitter account and begin to instantly market your business. Just like everywhere else, you need to build relationships and make connections. Nobody wants to be sold. They want the decision to buy something to be completely theirs. They will buy from you if you have built a strong enough relationship with them.

Mistake # 2: Do not log into your Twitter account, tweet something and log back out. Get involved with the community and take part in the discussions. This will get you recognition and will set you apart from the other marketers. Besides, this is a great way to build those relationships.

Before I go, I have just found a really up-to-the-minute blog on Enigin. It has all sorts of exciting new energy saving ideas and promotions, and some pretty delightful posts as well! Check it out!

There are so many people in business nowadays. There is so much competition out there. What sets certain businesses apart from others is personal branding. Take for example, small businesses on the Internet. Thousands upon thousands of people are marketing the same business opportunity over the Internet. So, what will make customers buy from you instead or what will make people want to become a part of your team? That would be through personal branding.

You see, people only buy from people (or businesses) they trust. The same goes for opportunity seekers. People only go into business with others that they feel can help them become successful. The key to gaining the attention of these potential prospects is by establishing yourself as a leader or someone who can help them. You need to make yourself popular over the Internet so that people will know who you are and want to be in business with you or buy from you because you are a name that has gained credibility.

To personally brand yourself, you need to first start out with your own website or blog (not just a company website). This is where you are going to add your own personality, strengths, knowledge and expertise and promote to the online world. Next, you will want to become part of the social networking and social media community. Places such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook can help with this. Other things you can do is write articles that contain valuable and helpful information to other people using your name as the author (not just a pen name) and link to your business. There are many other ways to brand yourself, but these are some of the most popular and most effective.

There are so many scams and schemes out there today making people very skeptical when it comes to doing business or joining a business with other people. That is why it is important that you personally brand yourself (not just your business) and show that you have other people’s best interest in mind. It is when your name becomes popular that your business will start to grow.

Lastly before I go, I would really appreciate a bit of advice on this: A friend of mine has recently started an online arts and crafts business and was really interested in finding out about new ways to contact her clients Since she has started online, her mailing list has grown massively and she has been looking into email marketing, does anyone know a good company who do this for start-up businesses for a good price?

I’ve been working from my home for over 7 years now. I have to say that in the beginning it wasn’t an easy choice. I had a very established job and was making decent money as a customer service manager for a newspaper company. I actually promoted a couple times within the company. However, something was missing and I still had that empty feeling in my gut every time I set out on my 15 minute commute to work everyday.

I missed my kids for one thing. It teared me up to put them in a daycare all day long so I could work. Also, I hated having to listen to a boss dictate how things should be done, even when I knew it was wrong. Getting screamed at on a daily basis because one of my representatives screwed up was always a blast (yeah right!). Oh yeah, and then I couldn’t take the early morning bundle ups to go trudging through 3 feet of snow to un bury my car and warm it up each morning. I was up to my ears with the 9 to 5 routine. I decided to turn in my resignation and start my own business from home. It’s nice to be able to look back and be happy with my decision.

When building a business, people tend to look at paid advertising. Paid advertising would include methods such as PPC (pay per click), paid classified ads, ezine advertising and purchasing leads (people who have an interest in your product or business). Although paid advertising is a great way to build your business, many people overlook the power of free advertising.

One method of free advertising is promoting free ebooks. Now, you can either write these free ebooks yourself or you can outsource the work (although this wouldn’t be free anymore, but the one time fee is worth it as you can use the ebook over and over again).

Things to include in your free ebook would be information relevant to what you are selling and other valuable information that will help the reader. For example, if you were trying to sell something like running accessories, you could write an ebook on physical fitness, general health, or even something as exotic as foreign marathons. In this free information you will be placing links to yours or other business. Eventually, once you have built trust with your readers, they will click on your links to see what your business is all about and hopefully join under you.

Free ebooks are viral, which means they tend to get shared all over the Internet because they are, free. When this happens, you will start to see an increase in traffic as well as business enrollments.

Just when you think that the Government has made as many dumb moves as it possibly could, they come up with yet another one to surprise us. This time Gordon Brown’s giving our finances and children a miss, and targeting on the UK justice system instead.

Now most of us, being of sound logical mind, are quite content that a punishment should fit the crime for which a person has been found guilty. Mr Brown however is thinking that perhaps it would be better if each person received a sentence that fitted not the crime, but rather the number of spaces available within the jails.

OK, so I’m just a member of “Joe Public” and so perhaps there’s a rationale that extends far above my commonsense intelligence level. To me it seems more appropriate to create more jails, or change the sentencing on petty crimes which removed the need to imprison people for say not ensuring their children stayed in school, or not being able to pay their community charge.

With the ideas that our Prime Minister is coming up just now I’m beginning to wonder if he’s tired of saying hello to the policeman outside Number 10, because he’s certainly not doing anything to inspire the voter confidence - criminals pending trial notwithstanding!

(Putting the Prime Miniter aside for a moment, I’d like to mention a thanks to the caravan insurance people over at stoneways for giving us a discount last week)

When marketing your product or company, it pays more as time goes by into looking into ensuring that you are visible in the search engines. Most people do this by hiring or contracting in someone to do search engine optimisation for them. Once you begin to rank in the search engines, you will begin to get traffic or visitors to your site. Most of your work has then been done, however it’s not over. You have to convert these visitors into paying customers, and this is where you really have to look at your landing page.

Your landing page is the one that people actually get to when they click the link. It is really important that the page they get to is as relevant as possible – preferably it is selling exactly what they were looking for when they first used the search engine to look around. Let me give you a good example. This cosmetic surgery site sells laser hair removal. Now when you search for it they appear quite high up in Google. Even better though, when you click on the laser hair removal link look where it takes you. That’s right, straight to the page that is selling laser hair removal. If it had gone to the home page, there was a chance that the short attention span of the visitor would have led them to leave before navigating through to the actual laser hair page. These people have done a good job, because the landing page is the one that the internet surfer is looking for.

I thought about providing you a bad example, but there are so many to choose from, I’m not going to. There is blog here called usage stats that talks about these things in more detail, and I would recommend it if you are interested in learning more.
Ultimately though, as long as you consider the page and look at it asking yourself the question, does this clearly sell what I want to sell, you’ll probably be able to solve half the problems straight away. It is surprising the amount of people that don’t do this.