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marketing

8 Offline Marketing Ideas

by BlondieWrites on August 30, 2010

8 Offline Marketing Ideas

…That Could Bring In Revenue To Your Online Business

Before businesses converted to online marketing, the bread and butter marketing and advertising techniques are mostly focused on traditional marketing or what is not called as offline marketing. These 8 offline marketing ideas have been around for years and have been proven time and again to bring in revenue to any business whenever they are well-placed and well-timed.

Classified ads
Ad placing on any local or national newspapers – if your pockets could afford that – can give your website traffic or sales a really good boost. How? Apparently, people still read newspapers and trust the things they read on print media. And with this same level of trust, people view newspaper ads as something that they can be confident about. Online businesses that have placed ads on newspapers have benefited from the great advertising rates of this medium.

Flyers and Posters
There’s a good reason why small and large companies alike still use flyers as part of their marketing campaigns. They work and they work really well. Place flyers somewhere with good traffic and watch as traffic get diverted to your website.

Direct Mail
The offline version of opt-in email listing and email marketing, offline direct mail is a marketing method that directly contacts individual and inform them of your website’s presence. When done consistently and with good email pieces, this strategy can help with brand awareness. This may even result to instant sales.

Infomercials
While this could turn out to be quite expensive, infomercials are actually very effective means to enhance brand awareness and to increase market reach. Since most infomercials run consistently over a long period of time, these often allow for some curiosity on the part of viewers. If you don’t have enough budget for infomercials, try group advertising. This will spread the cost between you and your partners.

Business Cards
These are possibly the least expensive of all marketing strategies. Give your business cards to anyone you meet and leave them anywhere you go. The results may not be instantaneous, but in time, your cards could bring in revenue for your online business.

Give Free Information
If you are an expert in a field relevant to your business, you could try to be a free learning resource. You could do this by holding a free offline class. Radio and TV shows are also good mediums as these could reach a wider spectrum of audience. If you can, try to get an interview over the radio or on a TV show.

Freebies and Giveaways
Giving away promotional items is still alive and well. Next to business cards, this strategy is probably the second least expensive. The cost of this offline marketing strategy could run up to a few hundred dollars or more though if you’re giving away expensive free items.

Network with Other Local Business Owners
The chamber of commerce as well as other local business associations are powerful tools to expand your network. Connections mean better opportunities. Try to get as many connection as you can by attending local business owners meetings and conferences.

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Help Your Startup Home Business With Creative Marketing Strategies

by BlondieWrites on August 27, 2010

Help Your Startup Home Business With Creative Marketing Strategies

Your low startup home business may not have as much resources as your bigger competitors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t earn as much profit as they do. Use the creative marketing strategies below to make your business generate gigantic returns.

1. Take advantage of the holidays.
Holidays give people a valid reason to spend more than usual and it’s a reason that most grasp eagerly with both hands. You need to take advantage of this by offering special products, services, or promos.

Christmas, for instance, is the season of giving and as such, if your home business can offer products that make perfect Christmas gifts, your business is sure to enjoy fantastic sales during the holidays.

Valentine’s Day, on the other hand, is a time for romance so you need to focus on pleasing customers not as individuals but as couples. Your strategies will be even more effective if your low startup home business can offer products with distinctive offers for boyfriends and girlfriends, engaged couples, and married couples. Consider as well those who are still in the dating stage as well as those who are planning to get back together.

2. Interact with your customers.
You need to strengthen and deepen the relationship between your business and its customers.

Many businesses use blogs to interact with their customers, but you can make your blog more effective by giving it a creative layout. Creativity can also be seen in the purposes it serves. Instead of merely posting entries and encouraging readers to post comments how about including polls in your entries?

Blogs are an avenue for you and your customers to bond. Scour the news for relevant reports that will be of interest to your target market. Post them on your blog then ask them the usual if-you’re-in-their-shoes questions.

3. Hold contests.
Don’t be lazy and make do with raffles and the usual question-and-answer contests. Make things more creative and your readers will be excited to join them not just for the prizes alone but also for the entertainment value.

Storytelling contests are fun and wildly entertaining. If you have an online jewelry shop, for instance, you can ask your readers to create the most romantic or adventurous legend for famous gems like diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.

Design contests are just as popular. Going back to the online jewelry sample, you can ask customers to contribute their own jewelry designs.

Prizes for the competition don’t have to be exceptionally expensive. In most cases, anything would do as long as it’s free and attractive to your customers.

4. Make a program.
There are two ways for you to create a program for your low startup home business: firstly, you can create a show by regularly uploading videos on YouTube. Secondly, you can have your own “radio” show by regularly uploading podcasts online.

Uploading videos in YouTube is for free. Video marketing is extremely effective for all kinds of businesses because customers can see, read, and listen to your message. You must, however, make sure that your content takes advantage of the extensive AV effects offered by videos. As for podcasts, you simply need to prioritize both content and sound quality.

Talk show format is the most popular reporting style used for marketing videos and podcasts. You don’t need to invite famous personalities as guests. You just need to discuss the most interesting and popular topics and your shows can help make your low startup home business profit!

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What You Need to Know About Affiliate Marketing

by BlondieWrites on July 3, 2010

What You Need to Know About Affiliate Marketing

Well you have finally done it. You have packed in the rubbish job and told your boss exactly what you think. You have taken the plunge and made the decision to begin your own affiliate marketing business. Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative. It provides people with the opportunity to work for themselves with very little risk to them. Those that are sales savvy, good at marketing and are not afraid of a little hard work can often do incredibly well with an affiliate marketing program.

Affiliate marketing sounds easy but you do need to exercise some caution. You want to avoid the affiliate marketing pitfalls that can ruin your business and worse, have you crawling on your hands and knees back to that boss that now knows how you truly feel.

People tend to get excited when they start a new venture. Unfortunately this excitement and eagerness can cause them to miss key things in their agreement. Whenever you sign up for an affiliate marketing program, you will be expected to sign an agreement. The terms and conditions of the agreement for both sides should be outlined. However, if they want to hide something this is where they will put it. It will either be in the small print, so get your magnifying glass out, or they will baffle you with legal language. Either way, you need to read and understand your agreement thoroughly to avoid disappointment and lost earnings.

If you are signing up for a commission based affiliate marketing program then you need to understand how the term revenue is defined. This is one of the biggest pitfalls of the contracts. They may advertise 5-10% commissions but it all fall on how they define revenue. Most affiliate marketing programs will calculate commission on the gross value of the sale. In other words, the amount of money the site will get at the completion of the sale. You may think that this sounds great. However, you need to read this part of the agreement very carfully. The amount of the sale almost always excludes credit card or debit card payment surcharges. They also are likely to exclude payment and delivery charges as well as any gift wrapping or other surcharges. What sounded like a nice commission is soon shrinking before your eyes. Ask these questions specifically before you sign an agreement.

Some affiliate programs are even stricter in their definition of revenue. Your commission may be based on the profit margin of the sold product. For example, if you help sell a book for 20 dollars but the company only makes 10 dollars profit, you’ll receive a percentage of 10 dollars not 20. This can make a substantial difference in your earnings. Again, make sure you understand these things and ask specifically what your commission will be based upon. Read your agreement and look out for odd sounding clauses. These could come back to haunt you later.

Something else to beware of when you work on commission is returns. Many affiliate marketing companies only pay commission out on completed sales and then only if the customer keeps the item. If they return the items your commission could be cancelled. To really rub salt in the wounds, you could be billed for the outstanding commission if you do not have sufficient commission credit built up. Make sure you understand this before signing on. You cannot expect a company to pay you a commission on an item that is returned but make sure you understand their return policy. Find out your rights in this situation.

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn money. If you have good sales and marketing skills then it can give you the opportunity to out them to good use. You’ll be able to work for yourself and not someone who undervalues and does not appreciate them. One needs to consider affiliate marketing carefully. Make sure you understand your agreement and exactly what you will be paid for. You don’t want to have to go crawling back to your boss begging for your old job back.

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5 Reasons to Create an Internet Marketing Schedule

by BlondieWrites on February 6, 2010

Do you operate a website or blog that generates income through the sale of a product, service, or affiliate links? If so, you not only need to be a webmaster, but an online marketer.

As a website owner who uses a website to generate income, internet marketing is important to your success. For that reason, you need to implement it. If this is a new step for you, you may be looking for guidance. The first step is to familiarize yourself with popular internet marketing techniques. You can easily do this online or by visiting internet marketing forums. Once you know how to market your website or blog, you start to implement the techniques you learned. Unfortunately, this is where many new marketers make costly mistakes.

To ensure you get the most out of your newfound internet marketing knowledge, you need to create a schedule. When properly complied and used, a schedule will increase your productivity. Remember, the more traffic you drive to your website or blog, the more your earnings potential increases. If that isn’t enough reason to create a schedule, continue reading on for five more.

1 – It Is Easy to Make a Schedule

An internet marketing schedule is essentially a detailed to-do list. What you do is start with times. Set aside blocks of times, like in one or two hour increments. For each time slot, write a task or two. This is what you want to do. For example, do you want to submit an article to a directory or send advisements to your followers on Twitter? If so, add to your schedule.

2 – You Have Many Options

Not only is making an internet marketing schedule easy, but you have many options. You can compose a schedule by hand, in Microsoft Word, or by spreadsheet. You also have the option of creating daily, weekly, or monthly schedules.

3 – A Schedule is a Guide

When you are familiar with internet marketing tactics, it is easy to advertise online. Unfortunately, many run into problems with distractions. It is easy to go from using the internet to research to reading the news or the latest celebrity gossip. To prevent this from happening, use your schedule as a guide. You want to avoid distractions, but if an interruption happens, don’t spend time trying to remember what you were doing or were about to do, just consult your schedule and get back to work.

4 – It Serves as a Source of Motivation

As previously stated, a schedule is essentially a to-do list with times attached. These times are important as they add pressure and serve as motivation. When you track your time with a clock or beeping alarm clock, you know when time is about to expire or has. When most know they only have X amount of time to complete a task, they tend to put forth more effort and increase their productivity.

5 – You Can Extend Your Reach

In terms of internet marketing, there are hundreds of successful tactics. You cannot implement them all in one day, but get the process started. When doing so, don’t place all your attention on one marketing tactic. Unfortunately, if you do not have a set guide to follow, you may make this mistake. The best way to market a website, product, or service is to spread your reach.

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Get 250 FREE Business Cards

by BlondieWrites on February 4, 2010

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500 Premium Business Cards for only $5.00

by BlondieWrites on November 4, 2009

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Marketing Your Small Online Business

by BlondieWrites on October 27, 2009

Are you a small business owner who runs an online business? If you are, are you currently satisfied with your business’s profits? Even if you are happy with the money that you are currently making, you may be looking to make even more. If you are, you may want to examine the marketing tactics that you are using, if you are even marketing your business at all.

When it comes to marketing an online business, you will often find that it is easier to market an online business than it is a storefront business. One of the reasons for that is because of the internet. There are a number of different ways that the internet can help you with the marketing of your online business. A few of those ways are briefly touched on below.

One of the many ways that you can go about marketing your business online is by using online message boards, which are also commonly referred to as online forums. Online message boards or online forums are communities where internet users are able to come together and discuss activities or interests they may share. There are many online message boards or forums that allow participating members to have what is referred to as a signature. A signature is a block of print that always appears at the end of a member’s posts. It is not uncommon for an online message board moderator to allow signatures to include business links, like a link to your online store or online website. With using online message boards or forums, the more you post the more exposure your online store gets.

Another way that you can market your small online business is by joining a pay per click advertising program, like Google Adwords. What is nice about pay per click advertising programs is that, just as the name sounds, you only have to pay when one of your advertisements gets clicked on. This type of advertising arrangement may be able to save you a considerable about of money, when compared to paying a flat rate fee for an advertisement that may never even be seen, let alone clicked on. Also, by doing business with a well-known pay per click advertising program, like Google Adwords, you are less likely to experience problems associated with malicious clicks, as the programs tend to be carefully monitored, to ensure that you don’ t end up wasting money on the marketing for your small business.

In addition to paying for advertising, you may also be able to get free advertising by doing what is known as a link exchange. A link exchange is when one website owner, like you, agrees to display the online website link or banner for another website owner, free of charge, as long as they do the same for you. If you are looking for free or low-cost ways to market your small online business, a link exchange may be the perfect option for you. The only thing that you want to make sure you do is not exchange links with your competition. You want to try and make sure that all links can be connected or related to each other, in one way or another, but you don’t want to end up generating income for your competition.

When it comes to running a small online business, standard internet searches may also pay a large role in the traffic that you and your website receives. That is why it is important that your website, whether it is used to sell products or services, is optimized for the search engines. This process is commonly referred to as search engine optimization. When it comes to search engine optimization, content is important. Your website needs to be filled with content that the search engines will pick up, as well as content that your visitors can read. If you need assistance with this, you may want to think about hiring the services of a SEO specialist or a professional content writer.

The above mentioned marketing approaches are just a few of the many that you may want to use to help increase your small online business’s profits. For the best chance of success, you are advised to implement more than just one of the above mentioned approaches.

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How to Create Product Descriptions that Make the Sale

by BlondieWrites on October 13, 2009

It doesn’t matter whether you sell physical or digital products, as an effective marketer you need to be able to convince a potential buyer that your product will meet their expectations and ultimately help them achieve their goals.

Creating compelling and accurate product descriptions is how you will achieve this task and hopefully move your viewer from a casual shopper to making an actual purchase.

So let’s take a closer look at the things that will give your potential customers the product descriptions that appeal to their senses, emotions and their expectations, but will also give you the edge for making the sale.

Use Descriptive Words and Phrases
Help your visitors learn about your product features and benefits by drawing them a compelling mental picture of your product.

It makes sense to use descriptive words and phrases but using words like better, nice, great and good won’t provide much descriptive value. You’ll have to be more specific. Describing a mystery as being ‘A really good thriller’ won’t captivate like describing it as ‘An exhilarating shocker that had me mesmerized’.

What Makes Your Product Unique?
Think about what really makes your product different from other similar products. For example, if you are promoting a diet program you might use words like ‘great tasting food’, ‘easy plans to stick to’, fast weight loss’ but what actually sets you apart from the competition? It might be easy online access, money back guarantee, personal support, etc. Whatever it is, use it to help your potential customer understand why they should make the decision to buy from you.

Put Yourself in Your Buyers Frame of Mind
Try reversing the roles and putting yourself in the place of your buyer for a minute. Now that you’re the buyer, what would you want from this product?

For example if you’re writing a product description for a weight loss program, it’s important to state the obvious benefits but if it were me I’d be wondering if I could eat chocolate cake once in awhile or how long will it take to get results and what eating tips it provides for eating out.

One trick I use in trying to cover as many bases for my readers as possible is think about the who, what, where, when and how of a product. What is the product about? How does the product work? How does it help accomplish a goal? Who is it designed for? Why would I use it over another product?

Write down all your answers and then craft them into a product description that convinces your reader of its value.

Use the Seven Deadly Sins
Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride might be sins but they also strike up emotion. Now think about what emotions your product strikes up.

For example, when I think of anti-aging skin cream I think about how much younger I will look, how my friends will be envious or how I will look more attractive. Notice how I’ve just covered envy and pride.

Help your reader connect with the emotions that are felt when thinking about your product. This is how you will effectively set the stage for putting your potential buyer in a buying mode.

Describe the Best, Most Appealing Features
Features are the actual characteristics or aspects of a product. If you are selling diamond necklaces the features will be the quality of the diamond, chain, clasp, etc. So when describing these features use compelling descriptive words.

For example, “Sparkling white diamond necklace with a glimmering 18k white gold cable chain”. Help them feel the features and appreciate its value.

Use different descriptions for different products
You might be selling ten necklaces but each necklace needs its own product description that describes the subtle uniqueness of each.

Don’t use cookie cutter product descriptions. It won’t help potential buyers understand the differences and make decisions accordingly. Generic across the board descriptions won’t impress a buyer.

Meet your customer’s expectations
Always understand your customer’s needs and expectations before setting out to make the sale.

Chances are your product meets the expectations customers have but if you don’t know exactly what those expectations are you’re not likely to mention in an impressive way. First understand your customer’s expectations and then be sure you describe your products as meeting those expectations.

Next time you sit down to write a product description do more than just describe its features and benefits, also learn to put yourself in your customer’s shoes, strike up emotion and meet expectations. The more your product description can connect with your potential customer the more sales you’re likely to make.

 

 

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Liz McGee, author and marketing specialist, offers free tips and help for those that want to make money online, not lose it. Join Liz’s free newsletter, blog & discussion forum where you can find out how to start an internet business

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