Sowing and Growing Your Network

Keywords: Networking

The N-word! We all know the value of networking and we feel we should be doing more of it. Unfortunately, for too many of us the very thought of attending an event where we have to mix and mingle with total strangers is enough to drive us into hiding until it's all over! What a pity we often force ourselves to go to a potentially great conference, but we're so busy worrying about the networking part that we forget to enjoy the event!

But networking is like so many other activities in life—it's easy when you know how. I call the process "Sowing and Growing Your Network" because it has two distinct, but equally important, parts.

Sowing Your Network

Over the years, people have often told me they don't "do" networking any more because it doesn't work. When I hear this, I know that person has committed at least one, and perhaps all three, of what I call the three cardinal sins of networking.

1. The first cardinal sin of networking is selling. Oh dear, is that what you thought it was all about? Well, although networking can be an integral part of the selling process, the two are distinctly different. Have you ever been circulating happily at a networking event (even at one of your own conferences or tradeshows), when suddenly someone has you backed into a corner trying to sell you mutual funds? That's the cardinal sin!

A Couple Of Basic But Killer Internet Marketing Techniques

Keywords: Internet Marketing

There are many simple, infallible ways to earn income, and one of the surest ways is through marketing your business on the internet. When you learn basic internet marketing techniques, you'll wonder why you haven't already jumped on the bandwagon. When you think about it, the only things you'll need to make money is a vision of what you want out of life and the wisdom and energy to put your ideas into motion.

Basic internet marketing techniques can teach us how to acquire wealth, and an important factor is to provide something the public needs (or think they need) whether it is a product, a service, information or something else entirely - there are many choices.

Every business has a goal of making money, and every business has something to sell. You will need knowledge and a product before you begin your internet marketing. You may need at least a small amount of capital to start your business, although the outlay could be relatively small if you are selling information or services as opposed to a tangible product.

You will need to develop a web site for advertising and informational purposes; if you have the ability to do it yourself, so much the better. If you don't then consider one of my business partners Plug-In Profit Sites, they are an excellent way to start out in online business.

Like any other business, internet marketers need sales leads. Retail merchants who set up offices or shops are able to buy lists of potential customers, or they may ask their employees and acquaintances to provide them with lists of names to get their business started and begin making sales. The world of internet marketing utilises marketing leads, which you can purchase from reputable companies.

How to Profit from your Home Business Blog

Keywords: Blogging

A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.

I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www.blogger.com it's a completely free service, and it's really easy to set-up. I followed directions on an excellent article on getting a new website listed in Google in 48hrs check it out here, http://www.scamfreezone.com/gg/. I just followed the advice in the article and got started with no problems in no time.

I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! So clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, but they do take time to grow and build up a readership. Treat your blog as a marathon not a sprint, because it will take time.

Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I'm sure you've heard many times over 'content is king' in the search engines eyes and if you can provide high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.

Easy Marketing Communications Planning Steps

Keywords: Communication

‘Tis the season to be planning. Most business people are familiar with strategic planning. But what about your marketing communications program? Do you have a plan for that?

For those of you with marketing communications anxiety, here’s a step-by-step guide to follow to create a plan.

1. Begin with the basics. Marketing communications involves what you say about your business (message) and who you say it to (audience). Start your plan with this information.

2. Solidify your identity. Define your logo and colors and use them consistently. Make sure they’re on your signage, business cards, web site – anywhere you’re seen by your audience. Invest in a professionally-produced logo. It will reflect positively on your entire operation.

3. Provide basic information. Every business needs a brochure and web site -- professionally-done materials that cover the basics, like products, services, people, facilities, etc.

50 Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing

Keywords: Joint Venture Marketing

What Is A Joint Venture?

A joint venture is an agreement in which two or more businesses work on a project for a set period of time.

Joint ventures can be long-term, like promoting a product together, or some can be short-term, like bartering (trading) products and services. Joint venture ideas are virtually endless.

The Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing

1. You can build long lasting business relationships.

2. You can increase your credibility by teaming up with other reputable, branded businesses.

3. You can get free products and services.

4. You can construct most joint venture deals with little or no money.

5. You can gain new leads and customers.

6. You can get discounts on products and services.

Customer Lifetime Value - The Key To Maximizing Your Profits!

Keywords: Maintaining Customers

The greatest asset to your business is your Customer, specifically, your Customer Lifetime Value.

In my many years in Sales and Marketing, I've met many CEOs and business owners who don't have much clue as to what Customer Lifetime Value is, much less its importance and the impact it has on their bottomline. To most of them, what matters most is to increase revenue by continuously acquiring new one-shot customers.

This is one of the fatal mistakes that many business owners make; it's a sad scenario, but it's also the reality. Let me tell you something: it'll cost you 5 times more to attract a new customer than it is to bring one of your past customers back to you.

I don't know you personally, but if you're a smart business owner, you'll understand that every cent you invest in advertising is going towards acquiring new customers. You'll also realise that once you've acquired the customers, you just can't afford to let them go.

----------------------------------
So what's Customer Lifetime Value?
----------------------------------

Advertising Made Easy (Secrets to Getting Better Results)

Keywords: Advertising Strategies

Advertising Pay Big Dividends?

McGraw Hill once commissioned an extensive study to determine what marketing weapons make a company famous in it’s market or community.

The study went on to show that advertising created more product, service, or brand awareness than all other marketing weapons combined.

The fact is, we know that Coke is “The Real Thing” because Coke advertises, not because it has good salespeople or does great direct mail.

Advertising stays in front of your prospects when you can’t be there. While a handful of salespeople can only be in front of perhaps a hundred or so prospects per month, advertising can reach thousands of potential buyers each and every month, week, or day.

Studies also show that advertising inspires confidence from your current clients. When current clients see your ad, it reinforces their belief in you.

It makes them feel like they made the right decision to be your client. But advertising can also waste money if you don’t use it properly.

How to Become A Top Internet Marketer

Keywords: Internet Marketing

A recent thread at The Internet Marketing Warriors member-only discussion forum examined what it is that separates the big Internet marketing successes from the "also rans." There was no argument that one key to being an online success is learning to write great copy. Great copy is what gets your site's visitors stirred up enough to actually take action... often a monumental challenge.

The discussion also asked why big online successes would bother with learning to write copy when they could hire someone else. The answer was that it's fun trying to see if you can create, or improve upon, a winning sales letter.

Many of the top copywriters are also so busy writing copy for their own projects that if you could afford the ten to fifteen thousand dollars they'd charge you, you'd also have to get on their waiting lists. So clearly, learning to improve your own web copy is a worthwhile investment.

The fact is, anyone can get a web hosting account, throw together a hastily written web page, and say that they are in business on the Internet. In-fact, that's what far too many people do. That's one of the reasons why most netrepreneurs never earn a respectable income. They never bother to learn what it is about good copywriting that makes it work. They never learn enough about human behavior to understand what makes us behave the way that we do.

Modern Marketing With Postcards

Keywords: Postcard Marketing

Postcards may be one of the best kept secrets of modern marketing. They produce even better results now than in the past. That's probably because postcards deliver information the way people want to get it today ...fast and with little or no effort.

Use Postcards to Generate Website Traffic and Sales Leads

A brief captivating message on a postcard with an enticing offer sent to the right prospects will generate a flood of traffic to your website - or a large number of sales leads.

Keep your postcard simple. Make it look at first glance like a message from a friend instead of like an advertisement. This creates a pleasant emotional response from readers even though they quickly realize that it is a commercial message.

State the biggest benefit you offer to customers. Then briefly add a few other advantages or features you provide. End with a compelling reason for prospects to contact you...or to go to your website for more details. It's that simple.

7 Pitfalls of Using Email to Sell

Keywords: Email Correspondence

* Are you sending e-mails to prospects instead of calling them?

* Do you wait and wait for return e-mails from prospects that will give you the green light to move the sales process forward?

Sad but true, these days most people who sell for a living spend 80% of their time trying to communicate with prospects via e-mail instead of actually picking up the phone and speaking with them. Are you one of those people? If so, you aren't alone...but do you understand why you've turned to e-mail instead of personal contact? I think there are 2 core reasons that underlie this unfortunate trend:

* Fear of rejection. The sheer negative force of anticipating rejection makes people turn to e-mail to generate new prospect relationships because it hurts less to not get a reply than to hear that verbal "no."

* Getting blocked by gatekeepers and voicemail. When salespeople don't know how to break through the barriers of gatekeepers and voicemail, they start thinking, "Forget it -- it's not worth the aggravation, and it takes too much energy. I'll just e-mail instead."

Do’s and Don’ts for the Internet Marketing Newbie (Part 1)

Keywords: Internet Marketing Tips

I, myself, being an internet marketing “newbie” (endearing term used to refer to people who have just started their own internet business and don’t know what the ---- they are doing) have learned a few things and would like to share my observations, tribulations, and triumphs with my fellow “newbies”. In sharing my experiences I hope I can help you avoid some of the pitfalls and obstacles you will face. Let’s try to avoid some of those “Information Overload” headaches as well. I don’t want you to walk through the same mud puddle if I can point it out and help you avoid it.

First, in the article which is Part 1, I will list some important “DO’s”. Part 2 will cover the DON’Ts.

· Do take your time, one step at a time. Do understand that building your business is not something than can be done in a matter of days, not even months in most cases. It’s going to take time, lots of time.

· Do practice Patience! I know it’s not one of my virtues either and it’s really hard to put into practice, but to save your sanity, try to be patient!

eMarketing Sabotage -Top 10 Steps To Kill Your Search Engine Marketing Practices

Keywords: Search Engine Marketing

We at America Web Works find ourselves amazed at the amount of effort people spend trying to fool or manipulate their positioning in search engines. People seem to focus on the shortcuts to success and NOT on their Web site or the true value their content provides to their prospects.

In the spirit of educating marketers about best practices, we present this list of ten things you can do to sabotage your search engine marketing project in a "New York" second.

1. Invisible (Ghost) Text

You have kept a good secret! Your visitors might not have noticed, but all search engine crawlers have been trained to be on the lookout for this obvious technique, last fashionable circa 1997. The search engines may very well purge all your pages from their index due to deceptive practices.

And, if you are feeling really frisky, you can make this technique even more effective if the invisible text has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the page it sits within.

The 6 Top Reasons Marketers Should Blog

Keywords: Blogging

If there is a downside to blogging, I have yet to find it. The more you learn about blogging, the more there is to like.

In fact, here are 6 mouth-watering reasons why every marketer should be blogging:

1- Fast Search Engine Spidering and Indexing of Your Site:

Did you know that Google owns the most popular blogging platform on the planet? Blogger at http://www.blogger.com is used to produce thousands of blogs. Even a complete internet newbie can set up a blog in about 5 minutes at Blogger. And guess who can be counted on to come by and quickly spider all those new blog posts as they are written?

Yahoo is also embracing blogs and feeds in a big way. Savvy marketers know that adding their blogs and feeds to their MyYahoo page can bring the Yahoo spider to their site almost immediately.

One of the reasons that blogs get spidered so quickly is that most of them produce a feed. Many blogs automatically "ping" (or notify) some of the large sites that carry these feeds and make them available for syndication. Search engines spider these sites many times a day. Blogger, for instance, pings Weblogs every time you make a post. You can also "ping" a free site called Pingomatic (http://www.pingomatic.com) every time you add a new blog post. Your ping will notify Yahoo and 11 other large feed sites that you've added a post. If it only were so easy to get Google to notice new pages on regular sites!

Why People Buy: The Psychology Of Sales And Marketing

Keywords: Sales

Did you know that when people make a purchase, they generally buy with their emotions and then justify their decision with logic later on?

What? You didn't know that? If you truly want to succeed in business, you need to learn and understand how using psychology can set you apart from the rest of your competition and take your business to the next level.

Psychology can be applied to all aspects of your sales and marketing efforts and will give you that all important "edge" over your competitors.

When you write an ad or sales letter, seek first to understand, then to be understood. In other words, first strive to understand what's going on in the readers mind, and attempt to allay any fears or doubts.

When you do this, the reader will have the perception that you understand and care about him and he in turn will begin to care about and understand you--thus greatly increasing your chances for making the sale.

People desperately want to feel cared for and understood more than anything else, and the businesses that understand this vital pyschological factor will gain a major advantage over their competitors.

The Unrecognized Importance of Grammar in Sales Writing

Keywords: Sales Writing

When most people think of grammar at all, they think of boring, dusty English teachers droning on about rules and sentences and agreement and... *yawn*...

Surprise! Hiding under all that mold and garbage lay some very important gems. Maybe you missed them then, as so many did, but now you have no excuse. Here they are, slime-free and ready to use.

What's that you say? You've gotten along without knowing much about grammar for years and don't need it now? Fine. Really, that's fine with me. I have no problem with you making and living with your own decisions.

For you other guys, who are looking for ways to improve, to get an edge, to make that sales letter worth another few sales, I got a few words...

Gem Number One: Grammar is not a bunch of rules.

All that grammar is, and this is why it is SO important, is how to arrange words to get your meaning across clearly. That's it.

For some reason, this is not taught in school as the very first principle of grammar, even though it would make all the rest make a lot more sense. But you know it now.

Five of the Most Powerful Elements Anyone Can Use To Grow a Highly Responsive List

Keywords: Market Research

Lack of trust is the biggest problem marketers have on the internet, or better yet, the biggest opportunity.

The power in this lies in the fact that affiliate programs have given us easy access to a huge variety of products and services that we can present to potential buyers, opening up an endless number of possibilities.

And really, you’re not limited to affiliate products. Many businesses would be happy to compensate you for bringing them sales.

But too many people have no reason to believe that out of the multitude of marketing messages they see every day, yours is one they need to pay attention to. You have to provide them with something they’d have a hard time finding elsewhere.

Usually, the easiest, most effective, and most permanent way to first is to earn their trust - that something they'd have a hard time finding elsewhere.

Here’s the key thing you must remember...

Your readers can only benefit from you and you can only benefit from them to the extent that they can trust you!

Internet Marketing - High Tech Direct

Keywords: Internet Marketing

Almost everyone has received unsolicited offers in the mail. These are what many call "junk mail", and more often than not, end up in the "circular file", more commonly known as the trash can. But anyone who is considering Internet marketing as either a part-time or full-time business may want to at least give a moment's pause before the big toss. Better still would be to study and reflect on the material you've received, and in some cases, store it in a real file for future use. The reason is because Internet marketing today is, in reality and when done properly, a high-tech enhancement and expansion of old-fashioned direct mail.

Those sales letters that arrive in your mailbox aren't randomly sent there, nor are they sent to everyone in your country or state. Instead, successful direct mail operators rent carefully selected mailing lists. These lists may be buyers of a particular product, people who've expressed interest in topics and products through surveys and registration forms, magazine subscribers, people who live in a certain postal code, and so on. The underlying principle is that the direct mailers target a select audience to receive their offer, and a certain percentage of the recipients, known as the response rate, will then accept that offer. Then through continual testing and refinement of the sales letter, pricing, terms, colors, and other variables, direct marketers work to improve their response rates over time.

Imagine PR Like This Helping You

Keywords: Public Relations

As the kids say, how cool is this?

You're a business, non-profit or association manager and, finally, you decide to do something positive about the behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours – behaviors that MOST affect your operation.

What you're doing, of course, is creating the very external stakeholder behaviors that will help achieve your managerial objectives. Best part is, you'll actually pull it off when you persuade those key outside folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary reach its goal.

What it comes down to is this. Your public relations effort must involve more than news releases, special events and brochures if you really want to get your money's worth. The right PR really CAN alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors that help you succeed.

Here's a public relations blueprint that functions like your own PR Global Positioning System: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect your organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Be Patient? Nah, Let's Kill Something

Keywords: Referrals

There's the old joke about the two buzzards sitting in a tree overlooking a highway. One responds to the other, "Be patient? I'm hungry. Let's kill something." Just like that buzzard, it is not in the nature of most marketers to be patient for business to grow. They want to go out and "kill something," too.

The trouble is that most marketers go after new business the wrong way. They want to "take down" the new piece of business using all the tools of the trade from advertising and direct mail to cold calling and event marketing. This is an expensive way to drum up business. Your existing clients are just waiting to tell you about people they know who could use your services, and then help sell you in to these people they refer. Not only is this more cost effective, it practically guarantees the prospects will share the same characteristics of your best customers.

"OK, Harry," you're asking, "but how do I do it?"

The first rule of getting referrals: ask. When should you ask? Let's review.

- After your customer has purchased something from you is a great time to ask. The new customer is pumped up about your offering and you can harness that energy by asking for names of others who could beneft from doing business with you.

Present for Success

Keywords: Presenting

Tomorrow’s the day and you’re dreading it. You’re scheduled to give a presentation to the senior management team about the new program you’re proposing. You’re excited and enthusiastic about the program but nervous and anxious about the presentation. You don’t know how you’ll manage to sleep tonight. These thoughts keep running through your mind; What if I stumble? What if I talk too fast? What if they get bored? What if they ask questions and my mind goes blank?

Do any of these sound familiar? If you answered yes, don’t worry! Try some of these simple strategies for your next presentation to help you build confidence and credibility with your audiences.

Developing your presentation

Change the paradigm: Think from your listeners’ perspective If you can change your focus from "What do I want to communicate?" To "What does the audience need to hear and understand", you can be a more relevant and engaging presenter. By focusing on your listeners’ needs, rather than on yourself, you can relax and let that focus guide you through the development and delivery of your presentation.

Here are the essential questions that will help you stay on track.
Who is your audience?
What is most important to them?
What is their current level of knowledge on your topic?
What do they want or need to know about this topic?