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Developing an effective marketing plan requires time and expertise. Here is a simple outline to help get you started. Please contact us you think you can use some professional help. :)
Marketing Plan Outline
1. Executive Summary – A brief overview of the proposed plan for management
2. Marketing Situation – Relevant background data on the market, product,competition, distribution, and market trends
Market Situation – defines market size, growth and key segments
Product Situation – Provides sales, profit, trends, cogs, spend, distribution history by product
Competitive Situation – Describes major competitors size, share, strategies, spending, and comparisons
Distribution Situation – Describes each distribution channel and its relative importance in terms of percent of total sales, volume, distribution costs, growth potential, and competitive status
Target Market Situation – Describes end users in demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle terms; actionable information such as buyer wants, needs, attitudes, perceptions; segment growth or decline and why
Macro-market Situation – Demographic, economic, technological, political, social, cultural trends that have a direct impact on the company
3. Situation Analysis – External opportunities and threats, internal strengths and weaknesses, and issues facing the organization
4. Objectives – The goals of the plan in the areas of sales, market share, and profit
Marketing objectives may include sales revenue, sales volume, market awareness, distribution channels, average price
Financial objectives may include gross sales, cost-of-goods, gross margin, net profit, cash flow, return on investment
5. MarketingStrategy – The approach to how the marketing objectives will be achieved
Descriptions of target markets, segments and customers, product lines, distribution/sales channels, unique positioning/messaging, pricing, marketing/promotional spend, research and development and market research plans
6. Action Programs – The details of what will be done, who will do it.Whenitwillbedone, and how much it will cost.
7. Projected Profit-and-Loss Statement – The expected financial outcomes of the plan.
8. Controls – Indicates how ]the plan will be monitored, measured, and refined.
About the Author: Mark Schmukler, Sagefrog Marketing Group, Strategy and Managing Partner, leads Sagefrog's marketing strategy, research, and interactive marketing practices. He brings more than 25 years of global marketing and consulting experience to his work. He managed worldwide marketing accounts and worked on famous branding campaigns for Kodak. He also helped pioneer e-Business in the late 90s when he was recruited by VerticalNet to lead their global business development and execute some of the largest Internet deals in history.
Early in his career, Mark cofounded Desktop Graphics (the makers of DrawArt™ desktop publishing software) and Doyle Consulting (a management consulting firm specializing in growing early-stage health and information technology companies).
Mark has a very diverse educational background. He studied Engineering, Computer Science, Business and Pharmaceutical Marketing at Penn State, Rochester Institute of Technology, Wilmington College, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and St. Joseph's University.
Promote Your Online Business Offline. There are a number of great ways to promote your online business offline. Combining offline advertising with your online presence will create momentum and increase your profits. There are a number of ways to promote your business offline. Generate traffic. Produce sales. Increase profits. Those words are gold to every business with a Web site. But an overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs don't ever reach their goals of gold. This is mainly because there seems to be an unwritten code of Web advertising. It states you can only be successful on the Internet if you are using online advertising methods like search engines, banner ads and buying online ad space. True, this should be a factor in any company's marketing efforts but there's an old rule of advertising you should Consider... offline. There are three main offline-advertising mediums worth investing in to drive people to your site. Print, television and radio ads are fairly inexpensive and have the power to promote your dot com presence effectively. It's cheaper and more effective than you think.
Print Newspaper advertising and Direct Mail advertising are easy ways to get your message in front of a large audience. When placing these kinds of ads you want to put them in the business opportunities or work at home section of the classifieds. If you are only going to run them one day a week focus on the Sunday edition as this normally has the highest circulation. If possible run the ad consistently as this will build some familiarity with the readers and will lead to better response. Be sure to find out the circulation and compare the cost with the circulation to find the best deals. Solo direct mail can be very affective in reaching a specific demographic. Using a targeted list/ database, you can focus on the type of customer you want, not the ones you don’t. If you've researched your list, you have a higher chance of hitting potential customers instead of the trash can. You've made your list and checked it twice, so-to-speak. It's the perfect list. Now it's time to write. Define your objectives before you start writing. Stay focused and hit the points of your objective. If you get off track, your reader is going to stop reading. Spend a lot of time on your headline. Just remember how you feel when reading mail that comes to you. After you read that headline, do you keep reading? The headline can make or break your direct mail campaign. Does price really matter? Not unless you know what you're getting for that price. Hook your reader with all of the product benefits. By the time they get to the end, they should be saying, "I can't live without that!" And then you let them in on the price. Even if the price is extremely low, you have to tell potential customers about the product first. Disclosing this price shouldn't put people into shock. Is your product priced according to the market? If you're selling a new teddy bear, it should be priced within reason. Not many people will pay $90 for a tiny teddy bear, right? Truth is, a lot of direct mail goes unanswered because the products are unreasonably priced. Success!
Your potential customer read all the way through your mailing. Now what? Did you tell the reader what you want them to do? You can't sell if you don't tell. Your readers need a call to action. Tell them to send in the card, call you, etc. Then tell them again. Once your direct mail is ready to go, test several smaller mailings before sending out a huge chunk. Test each of these mailings by changing a few items when you send them out. Have two or more sales letters you test against each other. By testing, you will find out which of those mailings are bringing in more responses and - hopefully - more orders. Stick with the clear winners. Remember the saying; Direct mail is a waste of money for a lot of people. But it doesn't have to be for you. Understanding direct mail deadly mistakes -- and avoiding them -- will lead you to sales success!
Flyers the next offline advertising method I am going to talk about in this article is a simple flyer. These are a great way to get your website in front of a wide audience. Make 1000 copies and dedicate yourself to handing out all of them in the next 7 days. Here are just a couple of places to hand these out: around your neighborhood or a large neighborhood nearby, place stacks at local restaurants, dry cleaners or other places of business, or go to your local college campuses and find areas you can place your flyers. Novelty advertising there are loads of novelty ways to advertise. Use your imagination and be original. Depending on the product you could have your web address printed on t-shirts and give them away to tourists. If you make them bright enough they will wear them with big smiles on their faces all day advertising your website try printing on mouse mats, pens, balls or any other novelty item. It doesn't even always have to be related to your product to get good results although a related gimmick can work wonders.
Radio/TV
A 30- or 60-second radio spot is quite a bargain. Rates vary depending on your area's population. Even still, you can negotiate a cheaper price and receive a better rate if you buy a bulk amount of commercials. One of the many advantages of radio is that you can target your audience. Specific age groups and lifestyles are all defined by the station's format. Ratings also help determine this information and can help you choose the best station and time slot for your company's commercial. The key components of your radio commercial include your name, address, telephone number and selling message. But be sure to ask listeners to visit your site. Repeat your URL at least twice and, again, tell them what they'll gain by visiting. Television Get ready to shatter the myths about television commercials. You don't have to be a major corporation or have tons of disposable ad dollars to hit the airwaves. Buying airtime on your local television station is actually very affordable. But for an even lower rate, check the cable TV companies in your area. Airtime is significantly lower than broadcast television ad rates. You also have the added benefit of reaching a specific target audience. Your cable operator can even gear the commercials to a zip code or local community. Infomercials aren't too far behind commercials as a low-cost, traffic-building tool. Even a 15-minute infomercial can explain your products/services and promote your Web site at the same time. Just like with print, make sure your URL is prominently displayed in your commercial and/or infomercial. Keep in mind, not everybody has a big screen TV at home and this can make a huge difference to a potential customer with a 19" screen. Conclusion New technology forces us to adapt to new advertising means. But sometimes old school techniques are overlooked when, in fact, they can actually help propel business into the money-making wave of the future. Don't just do it once and be happy with your results, if something works keep repeating it and as you make money put more money into your venture.
Design Agency LeedsDesign agencies can help you to develop new brand identities and corporate literature. When marketing your company these are extremely important areas to get exactly right. You need to get across a strong message at the same time as having a nice attractive look to your corporate identity. This is one of the most difficult areas getting your brand noticed and talked about. A design agency can help you with all these aspects. They will obviously listen to what ideas you have got and then they should be able to advice on the best options to go for.Design agencies offer many different services including Print, Web Design, Brand Identity, SEO and marketing. Depending on the size of the agency they may outsource some of these services.Print ServicesPrint services include the design and production of corporate literature such as flyers, complimentary slips, invoices, brochures and newsletters. Other print services include business cards which these days come in many different forms such as single or double sided, glossy and even folded business cards.Web DesignBeing designers design agencies do tend to make great looking websites. If you want your website to be found high up the major search engines you do need to ensure that the design agency takes this in to consideration. For example a flash website might look fantastic but search engines have difficulty ranking them because at the end of the day it is a picture. Search engines like text especially unique content. Getting the balance between looking great to a human being and looking great to a search engine robot is what it is all about.Brand IdentityGetting your brand known is a difficult task but a design agency can help you to get your name noticed. They are usually very good at coming up with campaigns that will make you stand out from the crowd. Having a good image such as a logo that stands out is a must. Things to bear in mind are colour, font and simplicity. Everybody recognised global brands such as Coca-Cola, Dell, Microsoft, Levis and McDonalds. Other ways to get brand identity include catchy or maybe annoying jingles that stick in peoples’ minds.AdvertisingDesign agencies can help you with advertising campaigns ranging from TV and radio adverts to newspaper advertisements as well as online advertising methods such as banner adverts. Articles are a popular form of advertising and this can be aimed at online websites that accept articles or magazines that publish articles. Other forms of advertising include billboards, bus and train adverts as well as cinema adverts.SEO or Search Engine OptimisationDesign agencies tend to get asked about SEO since they are involved in web site design, marketing and advertising. Design agencies will often look at outsourcing this type of work. SEO is a specialised area and requires experience and patience. Unless they are a large design agency they won’t have the in house skills to run a successful SEO campaign. For more Information Design Agency Leeds
The content of a text often represents the mood and intention of the writer. However, many times, the desired effect is not accomplished due to the wrong choice of words or incorrect framing of sentences. The use of emoticons can help convey the exact intention of the writer. An emoticon is a textual expression used to alert the reader to the exact expression that the sender wishes to convey.
Such expressions have been used to convey messaged since the nineteenth century. They were primarily used in casual writing and textual conversations. The advent of the Internet made them popular, and they came too used frequently. They are now an indispensable part of any conversation in chat rooms. The simple stroking of a few keys can convey a wide range of emotions. They are the easiest way to respond in any instant messaging mode of conversation.
*Grab Them For Free
With the correct use of emoticons, you can convey your exact mood to the responder. The smiley perhaps is the most commonly used expression. However, there are dozens of them to choose from, as the list is constantly renewed, with newer forms of expressions and gestures coming up daily - from the simple to the slightly complex; from the naughty to the non-sensical. Many sites allow free emoticons downloading. These can be downloaded easily and quickly.
We have often heard that a picture tells a thousand words. Nothing justifies this more perfectly than emoticons. The increasing use of this medium has prompted the developers of technology to help create expressions using shortcuts on the keyboard. For instance, if you type the word 'y' in the course of a conversation, the receiver will see thumbs up expression, thus conveying exactly what you wanted to tell.
The use of these tiny symbols is universal across cultures throughout the World Wide Web. Though the proliferation of its use is a recent phenomenon, there are many claimants to its invention. However, there is absolute consensus that the first emoticon used was a smiley, :-), which later led to the creation of many other facial expressions built with the use of keyboard characters. The invention of the word emoticon, to describe such expressions, is not attributed to any individual. The word is a combination of words emotion and icons. The availability of free emoticons has contributed to its rampant use as a communication tool.
*The Pros And Cons Of Using Emoticons
As in any medium, these forms of expression have their share of supporters and critics. Conventionalists, who are extremely conscious of the correct use of languages, mock at the very idea of using emoticons. They scoff at the use of such expressions, arguing that good writers must be able to use the written word to express their state of mind or heart. Communication experts opine that the use of emoticons in text-based online messages more than makes up for the absence of body language and the tenor of voice expressions usually used in verbal form of communication.
Although they might seem casual and silly, emoticons fulfill an important function. Even for those not gifted with the art of good written communication skills and vocabulary, it can help them convey their exact emotional state of mind during an online conversation process. They are innovative and add a splash of color and dash of energy to a drab prose.
In the process of their evolution, emoticons are turning from being just a means of expressing humor to exhibiting many other forms of expression. Traditionally, the youth dominate in the use of this medium. However, do not be surprised if your professor or employer uses this form of expression to convey their displeasure :-=(( or their approval :--)) in official communications in the near future.
In the process of their evolution, emoticons are turning from being just a means of expressing humor to exhibiting many other forms of expression.
Cross-selling: Tips To Take Your BPO Further The key driver behind off-shoring operations is the opportunity of cutting costs. But most of them miss the prospect of cross-selling and up-selling, which constitutes for about 21% of the customer contacts. One of the most effective ways to generate revenues is to strategically concentrate on these two aspects.
What is Cross-selling?
Cross-selling refers to the practice of providing existing customers with the chance to purchase additional items offered by the seller. In most cases, it deals with the provision of something complimentary along with the original product or service. The key factor influencing cross-selling is the potential expansion of the targeted market base. The basic idea is to give the customer something extra, which will enable him or her to make use of his existing product in a better way. Offering car-wash at a gas station is a perfect example of cross-selling.
What is Up-selling?
This is a sales technique where the buyer is convinced to purchase an upgraded version of the existing product. It may also refer to the sale of an add-on. This results in a more profitable sale by attracting the customer to a costlier product or a service.
Now, where does the BPO industry fit in all this? The call center industry attempts to attract the existing customer base with the chance of cross-selling or up-selling. This is done by extensive research on the customer and his consumption pattern.
Tips on how to cross-sell and up-sell:
Suggest the right services:Most of the callers are open to suggestions if the product or service is appropriate. Catering to the needs of a customer allows cross-selling to thrive.
Pick the right time: The call center agent should be able to time his suggestions well. Often the offer of an add-on or compliment is accepted if made at the right instance. Recommending a soda after the order of a burger is placed should be the right thing to do.
Show care and concern: Most of the callers tend to be focused on the prospect of sale or bargain. The agent should stress on the special offers or discounts in order to help a sell. A BPO should instruct the agents to promote the products on sale or on discount. Some products can be bundled together in order to facilitate their sales. Often they are cheaper than the individual products. The agent will find it easier to sell a T-shirt and a cap together than the two products separately.
Go with the flow: Often cross-selling opportunities arise on its own. A sale of a product may invite an opportunity to sell a complimentary. The call center agent should focus on the sale of anti-virus software when a laptop is being sold.Offer a range of prices: While attempting to sell more than one product, the agent should provide multiple pricing points. The cheapest product gets easily purchased and then the rest can be sold through cross-selling or up-selling.
Offer a range of prices: While attempting to sell more than one product, the agent should provide multiple pricing points. The cheapest product gets easily purchased and then the rest can be sold through cross-selling or up-selling.
Thus, we can see that the cross-selling or up-selling plays a pivotal role in the BPO industry. The aim should be backed up by focused efforts from the agents. Meeting the callers' requirements should be the aim and not the sale itself.
Ah, Marketing. Enter a world of countless project requests, numerous stakeholders, limited resources and rapidly changing market conditions.
Sound familiar? In fact, marketers face a lot of the same challenges as development teams, and Agile can be a powerful way to alleviate those common issues and intelligently plan our work.
In steps 1-5, I’ll explain how Rally’s marketing team conducts our version of Release Planning. In steps 6-10, I’ll explain how we run our iterations to meet those commitments. Our planning processes continue to evolve, though this method has worked for awhile now.
10 Steps to Successful Marketing using Agile and Lean Practices
1. We recognize that Marketing has challenges that are different from Development.
There is no unique product owner. For example, if we chose Sales, then we would always rank lead generation over branding, customer programs or analyst relations, and that could ultimately hurt our company. Therefore we have to use some best-guessing to prioritize our backlog and determine what is most important.
We face hard event deadlines set far into the future. Sometimes we have no choice but to commit to an event or sign a contract months ahead of time.
Each team member has unique expertise, i.e. writing, event planning, PHP development and so forth. So one shared backlog is inefficient.
Now that we’ve reviewed the challenges, we give ourselves permission to do what we need to do, have patience and adjust anything that isn’t working for us.
2. Conduct an ORID to learn from the past
Before planning for the next quarter, we hold a retrospective in the form of an ORID, “a means to analyze facts and feelings, to ask about implications and to make decisions intelligently”, a process created by the Institute of Cultural Affairs. We gather as a team to share:
Observations (O) – What do we know?
Reflections (R) – How do we feel about this?
Interpretations (I) – What does it mean for the organization?
Decisions (D) – What are we going to do?
This strategic overview helps set context for us to prioritize our focus for next quarter.
3. Align ORID decisions with company strategy
At Rally, we conduct quarterly and annual planning using the Plan Do Check Adjust methodology as explained in Getting the Right Things Done. As we look at the overall company direction and goals, we keep these in mind as we hold planning at our own level. Ideally, our major commitments support and align with company strategy. This also helps inform our “stop doing” list.
4. Poll our stakeholders
As part of determining quarterly commitments, we poll our major stakeholders for their top requests. We use a Google survey to rank these requests by importance, size each request and bring these epics into our release planning meeting, to be included as part of our ranked backlog.
5. Conduct Release Planning to prioritize and agree on quarterly commitments
Now that we have all of our inputs, we hold our quarterly Release Planning session. We write each epic on a sticky note and look at all of the possible work we could do this quarter. Then, we evaluate epics based on importance taking company goals, stakeholder wishes, market realities like conferences and our own passions into consideration. We decide what we can realistically commit to, and agree as a team. We keep in mind that making and meeting commitments is a huge deal, and we try really hard not to over-commit.
Part 2 – Meet our Marketing Commitments
6. Create a task board
Since our marketing team is mostly co-located, we pin up several large sheets of paper to use as a task board. This is where we review our commitments on a daily basis as a sanity check that our stories are prioritized correctly and that we are tackling the right work as the quarter progresses.
As a team, we write our quarterly commitments on the task board with the definition of done assigned to each one. We also include our “foundational” work – recurring work like website updates, online ad campaigns, field events, press releases and other important work that we need time to do.
Note: this is not a Kanban board because we do not have a shared backlog nor do we have a team-wide WIP limit. As we break into smaller project teams that do share a backlog, we often use AgileZen to manage this work.
7. Hold iteration planning every 2 weeks
Every 2 weeks, we hold an Iteration Planning meeting. Each team member has her own sticky note color, creates stories on those notes and manages her own prioritized backlog using T-shirt sizing to roughly estimate each story. In this hour-long meeting, we begin by expressing appreciation for team members who gave exceptional assistance. Then we hold a brief retrospective on what worked and what should change for the next iteration. Finally, we each read out our prioritized stories for the iteration, putting them on the task board’s backlog. This gives everyone visibility to what’s happening, identifies if someone is over-committed and lets the team swarm any epics with looming deadlines.
8. Conduct a daily stand-up
At the same time each day, we hold a stand-up meeting (with a consistent conference call #) that is at most 10-15 minutes long. We form a semi-circle in front of our task board and share no more than 2 cross-cutting significant actions or take-aways from the day before, no more than 2 that we are planning to accomplish that day, and whether our work is blocked by any issues beyond our control. As we start working on stories throughout the iteration, we move them from the backlog into their section of the task board to show what we are working on. When the story is complete, then we move it to a place on the task board labeled “Done”. Once the commitment’s Definition of Done is met, we check off that commitment and feel good about completing it.
9. Be patient as things change
It would be lovely if nothing changed during the iteration, but that just doesn’t happen. The goal is ultimately to respond to change rather than cling to an outdated plan. As new opportunities arise, new time-sensitive information appears and new requests are made, so our iteration work changes and that’s ok. We try to just document what we’re working on and create new stories so that we can make intelligent prioritization decisions during the course of the iteration.
10. Retrospect, inspect and adapt
As we keep running our iterations and fulfilling our commitments, we are always looking for ways to improve them. Ultimately, we’re using Agile to improve the quality of our work life by using objective, smart ways of planning how we spend our time. And we’re learning a lot from the journey.
Web Site Promotion-Advertising Your Website For Profits.. Making money with your web site is the dream and goal of millions of webmasters all over the internet including myself. In order to reach this goal you need a variety of web site promotions running all at the same time.
Search engine optimization is still my number one traffic generator. I receive more traffic from Google than any other source on the internet. But it is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to achieve a top ten placement on Google or any other search engine as the internet grows and more webmasters compete for the same key words. There once was a time when I could rely on Google to provide me with all the traffic I needed but not any more. I need to promote and advertise my web site elsewhere if I expect to continue receiving good quality traffic to my web site.
Writing articles like this one is just one of the ways I use to promote my web site. There are literally thousands of sites on the internet that will allow you to submit articles such as this one. Your article will remain in their database or directory and as long as you allow re-print instructions along with your author bio you may also see your article on other sites that you did not even submit to. Make sure your web site URL is in your author bio and make sure the URL is active. Some sites will only post your article with static URL's which will not be quite as effective. You can also use anchor text for your URL to help your search engine rankings. Use your targeted key words as your anchor text and you should see an increase in your search engine optimization efforts.
Number three on my list of web site promotions requires some cash. The majority of people I talk to about getting good quality traffic to a web site all want to do it for FREE without any advertising dollars spent. Although it is possible to promote a web site for FREE with no money, I highly recommend some form of pay per click campaign using Google adwords or Yahoo search marketing (formerly Overture). There are also a host of other smaller pay per click engines that I have used in the past including Findwhat and 7Search.
Press releases on the internet are gaining in popularity recently and you can actually get a press release published and listed on Google and Yahoo news search within 24 hours. For guidelines and how to get published visit the following web page. http://www.prweb.com/
Reciprocal linking has dropped off of my priority list of web site promotions but it can still be a very important means of web site promotion if done properly, and back links to your site are also essential to a good search engine ranking with Google. First of all you are not going to want to trade links with just anyone. Make sure the page's your links are going to be on are actually indexed by Google. If you do not have the Google toolbar get it. It will tell you if a page has been indexed or not. Also ask the webmaster you are trading links with how many links they have per page. If they put more than 30 links on a page chances are your link will be lost and never clicked on.
Free classified advertising is another way to promote your site for free. But as the internet grows so too does the amount of webmasters submitting to these free classified sites. And the more people there are posting the less likely your ad will be seen. The key to good free classified advertising is testing your results. Test everything you do. When you find a good classified site that is giving you traffic keep using it but follow their guidelines on how often you should post.
Last but not least you need to be collecting e-mail addresses from your web site. Start a newsletter and ask your visitors to subscribe somewhere on your site. Once you have built up a good subscriber base you can e-mail your subscriber base a weekly newsletter that has to do with your web site's theme or subject matter. Always include UN-subscribe instructions in case your visitors change their mind and no longer would like to receive e-mail from you.
I have just touched the surface on a few of the different techniques that I have used to promote my own web site. There are actually hundreds of other offline and online methods to promote a web site. Use your imagination and do not be afraid to try new things. Test everything you do and when you find something that works keep doing it.
Advertising - The Key to Success. You have got a great idea, and your website is now complete. You are ready to open for business but where are your customers? Simple - you are going to have to go out and get them. It sounds easy, but advertising can be a pitfall that can cripple many e-businesses.
There are several methods of advertising on the Internet. Some are free, some are low cost, while others are insanely expensive. The first thing you will need to look at is how much you are willing to pay for traffic, and how far your advertising dollar can go.
One of the most effective, and cheapest, methods of advertising is through e-zines. There are thousands, if not millions of e-zines published every single day. The best way to approach e-zines for advertising is to join a couple that fit your product profile and that you find interesting. Most e-zines offer incentives to new businesses signing up, and will even run your ad for free just for subscribing. You can find many e-zines that offer ads for as little as a dollar. It is a fantastic way to reach thousands of people who are already interested in your type of business.
In fact, you can utilize e-zines to promote your product for free, if you can write an informative article. E-zines are desperate for content, and will often offer to publish your article in exchange for a link back to your site. If you go this route, make sure that your article is informative and not just a sales pitch. For example, if your e-business deals with making money from home, an article about how working from home decreases stress would be very well received. You can rely more on making a good impression with the article and a simple link back, than a hard sell that might not even make into print.
Link exchanges are another free alternative to costly advertising. Be prepared to get lost in the shuffle if you choose a popular site. The best way to make use of this method is by running your own link exchange from your site and offering a free posting in exchange for a link back to your site. My links page, for example, can be found at http://www.iscaweb.com/Links.html
Targeted advertising is by far the best way to bring in traffic to your website. By using targeted key words, your customers are not just stumbling into your website. Half the work is already done by the key words. You just need to supply the information. Google Ad Words can be used very effectively as well as other targeted key word companies. Most of these operate on a pay per click basis, so you will need to research your key words and supply the best possible words to ensure a good cost-to-click ratio.
Press releases are a great way to get the word out about your site and possibly create media buzz. While this method is more expensive than the above methods, it has the potential to bring in substantial traffic. Before sending out your release, make sure that it is formatted correctly and contains a powerful first paragraph. News editors are inundated daily and you do not want to get lost in the shuffle.
When writing your press release, it is important to make it news worthy, instead of a plain announcement. Using our example above, if a recent study is released about stress management and working from home, it would be a perfect time to send out a press release that mentions the study and your business. Be prepared to receive phone calls and answer questions if your release is a hit.
You don't necessarily have to wait for an event to happen to send out your release. If all else fails, get creative! There are many ways to tie in your business to current events, all you need is a little imagination.
We have covered just a couple of ways to effectively advertise your new or existing e-business. The best advice is to start wisely, plan your advertising budget accordingly and get the word out as effectively as possible.
About The Author
Julie Martin is the publisher of "Iscawebs Internet Income eZine" a weekly eZine dedicated to increasing your online profits, no matter what you are selling. Julie also uses the "Plug-In-Profit" system to GREAT effect!
Those of you reading this who run your own online businesses know that the aim of the game is traffic - qualified, targeted traffic - and lots of it.
There are a number of ways to drive qualified traffic to your site - some of it costs you money, some of it costs you time. Some of it costs you both and doesn't work.
This article is all about the best form of free advertising - writing articles.
How can writing articles give you free advertising? As you probably know, there are hundreds of thousands of people publishing an ezine (electronic newsletter) on a regular basis. For some of these people, publishing the ezine is the central plank of their business - they set out to create a business involving, primarily, the publishing of the ezine. Others, however, publish the ezine only as an adjunct to their website - a way to get their site in front of their ezine subscribers in the hope that this will generate repeat traffic.
Both types of ezine publishers have one thing in common. The need for great content. If you've spent much time online you'll no doubt have signed up for more than your fair share of free ezines. You'll have come across some that are really good, some that are OK and some that are nothing short of woeful, with content that looks like the publisher has picked up the first piece of regurgitated whatever he happened to come across today to fill up the space between the ads for his numerous affiliate programs.
Your site may include links to your affiliate programs. After all, that's how you make money, right? But rather than go the road of the ezine publisher who thinks she can serve up any old porridge to her subscriber base and they'll eat it up, spend the same time writing just one good article on a subject matter relevant to your target market and invite publishers of ezines with complementary subject matter to publish that article, together with your resource box at the end (the four or five line blurb you see at the end of articles that give a little information about the author and the author's website together with a link to the site).
Now, here's the important point if you expect others to publish your work. Your ad is your resource box, it is NOT your article. Your article is content. Your article should not mention your product, your site or anything related to it. Your article must stand alone as an independently useful piece of work (and when I say useful, I mean it must be useful to the READER, not the author!). Don't insult your readers' intelligence by dressing up an ad as an article. They're not stupid - they'll see through it and you immediately, they'll put you on their blacklist for insulting their intelligence and no publisher worth their salt will run your articles anyway.
The whole purpose of writing the article is to make it such a worthwhile piece of work that many publishers will want to put it in front of their subscribers. Get a good article published in an ezine with 10,000 subscribers and see what that does for your traffic when hundreds of those subscribers click on the link to your site that you've included in your resource box.
Beginning to see how this works? And the best thing of all is that it only costs you time - maybe an hour, two tops to write a decent article. Commit to writing one a week and getting them published and you'll have a nice little traffic flow going, believe me (AND, if you make sure that you write about subject matter relevant to your site, that traffic will ALSO be targeted, qualified traffic - so much the better).
OK, so now you can see the power of writing articles as a method of generating traffic to your website. How the heck do you find other people to publish your work? Thanks to the fact that so many publishers out there don't have the time or (so they believe) ability to write their own articles, or are looking for articles to supplement their own, you have a ready-made market of thousands of publishers who are always on the lookout for quality content to present to their readers. You just have to find them.
Here's a partial list to get you started:
Yahoo Groups (submit from the Yahoo Groups website at http://groups.yahoo.com/ - you'll need to subscribe to these groups first):
When submitting your articles to the above websites, be sensitive to the types of articles the site is looking for. Some accept articles on any subject under the sun, others are looking for articles on specific subjects such as internet marketing, for example.
Over time, you will be able to add to this list. If submitting to individual ezine publishers, don't be surprised or offended if you don't receive a response. Most ezine publishers of any size receive dozens of article submissions a day. Time normally doesn't permit a response to each submission. Also, try and find out from the publisher whether they even accept article submissions. Many don't (me, for example). I receive many article submissions a day which just get deleted unread.
The point is, just work up your own list, write articles consistently and submit consistently. Over time, you'll develop your own style of writing and attract a following.
Although it may be slow to start, you'll start getting a trickle of new traffic from people who have come across your article somewhere, some place and were interested enough to click on the link in your resource box. Over time, that trickle will become a stream, then a river, and then a flood.
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** Reprinting of this article is welcome! ** This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you include the following resource box; and (2) you only mail to a 100% opt-in list.
Here's the resource box to use if reprinting this article:
Elena Fawkner is an attorney and editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the work-from-home entrepreneur. She offers discounted, fixed-rate legal services to her ezine subscribers and site visitors within the United States. http://www.ahbbo.com http://www.ahbbo.com/legalhelp.html
The more targeted the e-zine is for your offer, the greater your response will be for your proven ad.
2. Track your ads.
Don't leave your ad campaigns to guesswork. Use ad tracking to show you exactly which e-zines and ads are most profitable.
3. Run your ad for multiple issues.
You'll get a better response, and possibly save money as many publishers offer special deals on bulk advertising.
4. Spend lots of time writing your headline.
An effective headline will successfully grab your reader's attention and target your audience.
Your winning headline will also get people to read the rest of your ad, leading to more traffic and sales.
If you're new to writing headlines, and need some help check out my "9 Power Packed Headline Formulas" at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5652
5. Don't try to sell your product from your ad.
Write your ads to create interest and get people to visit your site.
From here, your powerful sales page will do the selling for you, and you'll be able to get people to join your e-zine or mailing list for successful follow up.
6. Don't use all caps in your headline.
You'll appear like your yelling at your reader, and your ad will come off as amateurish.
7. Include a "call to action."
At the end of your e-zine ads, include a call to action that tells your reader what you want them to do next (i.e., visit your site or subscribe to your e-zine).
8. Don't be cute or funny with your ad.
You might put your reader in a good mood, but don't count on that translating into more visits to your site or more sales.
9. Offer something for free.
Provide an incentive for visiting your site such as a free ebook, sample chapter, or trial.
10. Subscribe to or view the archives of the e-zines you would like to advertise in.
You'll be able to see the quality of the content provided, how many ads are published in each issue, and you'll get a good idea of the products those readers are interested in by the ads being run.
Copyright 2005 Ken Hill
About Ken: Ken's articles have been published in numerous e-zines and web sites all over the net. Keep up to date on his latest articles, and get more new valuable tips by visiting him at: http://kenhill.blogspot.com
Internet technology offers vast opportunities to promote your business with virtually no advertising borders, and you can find countless sources online directing you towards budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines for maximum effectiveness in the information age.
Enterprising people know all the benefits of optimizing their online advertising, and because of this fact the 'pay-per-click' (PPC) technique has been developed to meet the need. PPC is certainly at the cutting edge of Internet advertising today, because you 'bid' or budget on the exact amount you want to put into your advertising campaign, giving you the choice to state just how much you'll pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
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The most widely touted benefit of budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines is that it delivers your product information and your web site to the very consumers online who are searching for such products, be it business, science or technology-related, trips and travel, car buying, entertainment ideas or wedding planning! Your business specifically reaches those already interested in knowing more, and enthusiasts of budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines will tell you that no other advertising medium can give you that kind of bang for your advertising buck.
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About the Author
Paul Jesse is a retired worker turned Internet Marketer. You can visit his website at: http://www.breastfeedbaby.com
I have been involved in a few, due to the lack of time making revisions, unfortunately few wins :(. I have noticed however that the best logo doesn't always win. I have seen thousand dollar logos ignored. Logos that were well representative of their clients needs. Ive seen logos chosen, that were very amateurish and bad representations of the clients business. I know the idea of having tons and tons of drafts to choose from seems like the best way to go, but is it really? Professional designs are getting overlooked.
I ask my self why? And the answer is simple. The clients purchasing the logo, really don't know what makes up a great logo. (some do, but most don't) This is a slight problem for the client, because they are choosing the logo based on what "their" idea is, instead of whats the best for their business. A client may see a nice color combination that they like, but don't happen to notice that the icon next to the text resembles a Kue Klux Klan man. This could be a problem. I know my example is a bit far fetched, but you get what I'm saying.
In my own business, I have had to steer my clients into a proper direction. I have had clients request things that would not only look horrible, but would possibly deter clients from their business instead of attracting them.
In conclusion, I do love these contests, but I just wonder
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