MashBorg Blog » Spot Market

Small Business Marketing in the Real World — Article Marketing

Tue, 04 May 2010 06:42:37 +0000

By: Nancy Amada

Billboards, magazines, television commercials, newspapers, and radio spots. There are countless ways to market your small business. Hiring a sky-writer or paying millions for a few seconds of airtime just isn’t the most cost-effective way to do it.

Sure the advertising hoopla surrounding events like the Superbowl is exciting. It just simply is not necessary for a business to succeed. Unless you’ve got a very generous donor who insists that you spend your marketing budget frivolously, finding practical ways to get your name out there is not all that difficult.

Article marketing has proven to be one of the most widely used of these methods. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it doesn’t cost a fortune. It requires a small investment of time to get the article marketing campaign fired up, but then takes on a life of its own.

To begin the process, business owners write short articles about topics relating to their business. The articles serve as informative pieces, rather than sales pitches. The authors are careful to provide useful information, not just a bunch of advertising mumbo jumbo.

Once the articles are created, they are sent off to an article distribution service. These services specialize in making thousands of contacts with websites who are looking for fresh content.

The article distribution service reviews each and every article to determine what types of websites might want articles about the subject at hand. This greatly increases the chances of the various articles being published.

The magic really happens when the first articles are published. As readers connect with what you say in your articles, they are likely to click on the link back to your website. And as more people visit your website and see what your business has to offer, the more customers you gain.

Article marketing is truly a win-win process. The arrangement between business owners and publishers allows both sides to benefit. While business owners have the opportunity to get their names out there, publishers are able to constantly offer their readers new and interesting information.

It is this vital partnership that has allowed article marketing to take off in the business world. It is now being utilized by companies both big and small. Regardless of the product or service being offered, article marketing gives business owners a platform from which to speak to customers.

While the article marketing phenomenon may seem to good to be true, it is definitely more pragmatic than pie-in-the-sky advertising ambitions involving Superbowl ads. Article marketing has shown to be a powerhouse in the world of marketing and small businesses, and it is likely to continue gaining speed as more and more companies jump on the bandwagon.

Nancy Amada helps small businesses become more successful, and offers more
ideas at Chapter Two. She is a frequent contributor to Article
Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service.

Find out how it works to get your business noticed.

http://www.articlemarketer.com

The 7 Key Which is Extremely Crucial to Succceed in the Forex Market

Tue, 04 May 2010 06:40:30 +0000

By: Brian Aulay

1) Knowledge – As we all know already that Knowledge is power without Knowledge is just like working without getting paid. Get your Free FX Power Trading Course value @ $500! This ebook alone would teach you how to become a successful forex trader! http://www.eforex22.com/

2) technical and fundamental analysis – be prepared to trade and analyse the the chart and look out for the news annnouncement. Don’t ever trying to spot market tops and bottoms you’ll certainly get wrong as market is not predictable. Nobody can point the tops and bottoms perfectly and consistently even however good you are. Trade news & calendar reports, i.e jobless claims, (un)employment data, trade balance, budget deficits, productivity, Univ. Michigan Sentiment, PPI, CPI, FOMC, interest rates, Greenspan comments, consumer confidence, leading indicators, GDP, inflation, money supply, government intervention, IMF and/or World Bank intervention. News & Reports Tools: Shirmeyer economic calendar, Bloomberg TV and web site, Reuters.

http://www.eforex22.com/

3) learn to manage risk – stop losses quickly let profits run. Limit your lossses to only 15 – 30 points and make sure to ride your winning to at least three folds of your limit losses points. For instance if you were to risk your losses to 15 pips make sure you ride your profits to at least 45 pips if you’re risking 30 pips make sure you ride your profits up to 90 pips. if you apply this method you could be right only 50% of the time yet still make money in the long run!

http://www.eforex22.com/

4) follows the trend – always remember trend is your friend and trade only when market begin to trend don’t ever go against it.

5) Time frame – look out for higher time frame and trade the 1 minute chart. Price directions are much much clear when you use this method for instance if you were to trade daily chart look out for smaller time frame such as 1 minute chart or 15 minute chart. There are 60 bars of 1 minute chart and 4 bars of 15 minute chart to contained in 1 hour bar chart and there are 24 bars of 1 hour bar chart to that of daily bar chart. By figuring out this smaller time frame your’re certainly on the right side to predict the future market directions.

http://www.eforex22.com/

6) The best trading time -

a) London opens at 8 am GMT or 3am EST. Closes at 4 pm GMT or 11am EST. The most active pairs during this session are EURUSD with 39% of the trading volume, GBPUSD with 23%, USDJPY with 17%, USDCHF with 6% and USDCAD with 5%.

b) Europe opens at 7am GMT or 2am EST,Closes at 3 pm GMT or 10 am EST.The European session is the most volatile session most of the time.

c) New York Opens at 1pm GST or 8 am EST.Closes at 8pm GMT or 3pm EST. New York is the second largest forex market place. The busiest time is 8am to noon EST. News releases can result in a volatile market. Trading activity usually winds down after the U.S. afternoon trading period.

d) The Tokyo session opens at 1am GMT or 8pm ESTand closes at 8am GMT or 3am EST.Sometimes volatility is low and sometimes good moves occur. The USDJPY is the most active pair with 78% of the volume followed by EURUSD with 15% and EURJPY with 5%. UK is on British Summer Time which is one hour ahead of GMT.UK, Europe and USA are on Summer/Daylight Saving Time until Sunday 29 October 2006.

http://www.eforex22.com/

7) knows the indicators: All of these indicators i.e. moving average convergence divergence (macd), fibonacci retracement levels, moving averages, ATR, RSI, momentum are absolutely important without it your chances of winning the market are absolutely slim it’s just like travelling without a map.

Brian Aulay is a professional and an experienced day trader in forex market and has been trading for more than 9 years
and keep profiting consisistently up till now. For more details go to http://www.eforex22.com/ and get your Free FX Power
Trading Course value @ $500! This ebook alone would teach you how to become a successful forex trader!

Focus on Differentiation in Your Dental Office Marketing

Tue, 04 May 2010 05:57:17 +0000

By: James Erickson

Last September, I decided to finally take a vacation, and headed off to fabulous Las Vegas.

Vegas is one of my favorite vacation spots because it seems as if no one there has a care in the world except what time they’re going to the pool, and what casino they will attempt to win money in later.

As I walked up and down the strip (it seems like you walk more than anything in Vegas), I started to notice something very peculiar about my surroundings. All that seemed to be in Vegas were Hotels and Casinos. Nothing else. No matter what door we walked in, it was still a casino; same horrible carpet, same smoky air, same noisy slot machines that the last place had.

In fact, every place in Vegas was exactly the same business. Hotel and Casino, Hotel and Casino, Hotel and Casino…

So, what created the need to go to any one particular casino? Anywhere my wife and I went, it was just a casino, and we could gamble there the same way we could gamble anywhere else. So why did we trek up and down Las Vegas Boulevard going into each and every place we could? Because, every Hotel and Casino was different.

The Luxor has a pyramid; The Bellagio has the computerized fountains; Caesars has a great mythical theme; The Mirage has an erupting Volcano; Treasure Island has a sinking pirate ship and outdoor bar; and The Stratosphere has a space needle.

All these hotel/casinos, and not a single one of them was the same. Everything had its own UNIQUE way to get patrons in the door. The owner/marketing genius of these places realized that success as a casino relies on patronage, and without other attractions to set them apart from the crowd, they were just a casino. However, add a fountain show, or a pirate ship that sinks, and you get people in the door that, in turn, bring their money.

As applied to your dental practice, how does it compare?

Drive around your city and look at the other dental practices. Same buildings, chairs, and carpet as yours. Those other dentists most likely have the same credentials, as well.

Do you have a run-of-the-mill dental practice – same chairs, carpet, service, and pictures on the wall as the place down the street… Or have you created and promoted the kind of uniqueness that creates word-of-mouth, and curiosity by people, to help draw them into your office?

Look at your local tribal casino. A regular run-of-the-mill hotel and casino, that’s all. This is like your dental practice. Successful, yes. But, has it reached it’s full potential? No.

Now take Treasure Island in Vegas. Hotel and casino? Yes, it is. Successful? Yes… beyond all imagination. They have created an attraction that creates word-of-mouth (I’m telling you about it right now) and creates a need to go there to see the attraction, and probably spend some money. Do you need a pirate ship in your office? It wouldn’t be a bad idea, no one else has one.

But you don’t need one. You just need some simple changes and promotion to show how your dental practice really goes the extra mile to make your patients excited and pleased with you and your practice. Show the public some way you are different than the others, and it will attract them to your office like a magnet.

The computer controlled fountains aren’t a bad idea either. Think of the crowds that would draw.

James Erickson is the President of EMC Dental Marketing which gives Dentists a resource for turn-key dental marketing programs and dental practice marketing education including new patient attraction, and internal marketing systems. Visit www.EMCdental.com and get a free practice
building kit sent directly to your home or office.

Small Firms Must Exploit Gaps in the Market

Tue, 04 May 2010 04:43:20 +0000

By: Tom Whitney

In a recession, the temptation is to sit tight, keep costs down and focus on your core market, but small firms should not be deterred from exploiting potential gaps in their sector, according to marketing experts.

Common wisdom might suggest that a recession is not the best time to launch a new product or service, but small firms with a strong idea and a clear grasp of what their customers want could do well by branching out, says Andrew Gerrard, managing director of InTouch marketing and expert contributor to Marketing Donut, the new marketing website for small businesses.

“Just because there is a downturn doesn’t mean that no one is buying,” says Gerrard. “It’s a question of assessing your market, identifying consumer demand and trying to match it. You might decide that now is the time to launch a value range, for example, or a more affordable version of a premium product you currently offer.”

The key to success, he stresses, is thorough planning and research. “In a tighter market, it’s likely that customers will evaluate a new product more critically, so they’ll only buy if the product or service really meets a need. So, don’t take any short cuts,” he warns. “Better thinking and more honest evaluation should mean longer term success.”

So how can businesses spot an opportunity? Gerrard suggests looking at which of your current products or services are either doing well or declining, and using customer feedback and complaints to identify new areas.

Assessing what competitors are doing and keeping an eye on new types of financial support, such as grants, can also help inspire a new direction.

Once you’ve got an idea, it is essential to evaluate how it might work, he says. “Talk to target customers, monitor reaction and don’t be afraid to make changes if necessary.

“You don’t want to find out that there is already something on offer which does the same job, or that it doesn’t in fact offer any benefits to the consumer or the price you need to charge doesn’t reflect the price customers are willing to pay,” explains Gerrard.

While launching a new product is never cheap, one advantage of the current downturn is that small firms should be able to negotiate good rates on advertising space and airtime. “It’s largely a buyer’s market, so firms should be able to get much better value out of their marketing budget,” says Gerrard.

The Marketing Donut is an exciting new website that will help businesspeople do their marketing better. On the site you will find marketing resources, tips and advice from more than 150 marketing experts from across the UK. We’re launching in April 2009. Visit the Marketing Donut Website www.marketingdonut.co.uk

Evaluating your Search Engine Marketing Adviser

Tue, 04 May 2010 04:41:37 +0000

By: Brian Offenberger

As with any industry in its infancy, the search engine marketing and search engine optimization professions are full of many people making claims of professional expertise. With no standardized set of professional certifications or demonstration of competency, just about anyone can claim to be an expert in search engine marketing.

How do you know if the adviser you are working with is any good? Unfortunately, there is no central spot allowing you to research an adviser’s professional qualifications and results history. This leaves you with both subjective and quantitative analysis to be done to arrive at your conclusion. Here are some key questions to ask:

How well am I doing?

Mike Moran, IBM’s search engine marketing expert, states that many companies make the mistake of measuring their performance against others. The error with this approach is that it fails to allow for differences between businesses’ goals and objectives, as well as fails to acknowledge incremental improvements gained through search marketing efforts.

It’s also important to make sure you are evaluating the elements that are really important to your business success. Most organic search marketing programs need six months or more for maximum impacts. With all this being said, the key thing to look for is consistent incremental improvements in your key metric performance areas.

What is this costing me?

The purpose of a search engine marketing or search engine optimization adviser is to make you money. Obviously, if your results are improving, that’s a good sign. However, it’s a short-sighted approach to focus on growth only without costs being considered. Great advisers provide gross results and net results with management and advisory fees included. This allows you to fully assess how much you are paying for performance.

Am I getting the correct advice?

Is the advice you are getting specific to your situation, or is your adviser currently promoting the latest internet fad that they recommend to everyone? What qualifications does the adviser have to make recommendations? What attempts has the adviser made to understand your business objectives and processes. What do they know about your other marketing initiatives, both traditional and online?

Your adviser should be up-to-date on the latest communication technologies and their impacts on search marketing. They should be actively involved in trade associations promoting best practices, ethical search engine marketing standards and on-going education. Some of the professional associations promoting these ideals include the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), the Web Analytics Association, the eMarketing Association, the American Marketing Association and the Direct Marketing Association.

How often do I hear from my adviser?

Regular interactions with your adviser are crucial for long-term, consistent search engine marketing success. The purpose of these interactions is to discuss results and take corrective actions.

Search engines constantly change the factors they use to provide organic search results. The highly competitive and ever-changing nature of online marketing demands more than just yearly attention to your search engine marketing program. A quarterly review should be the minimum requirement for most search marketers.

Great advisers also publish newsletters, write blogs, and produce podcasts, all with the intention of increasing your online marketing knowledge and effectiveness.

Finally, ask yourself how often you hear from your adviser and how long it takes them to respond to your inquiries. If the only time you hear from them is when they want you to buy something, that may indicate a need for a change.

Is my adviser putting my interests first?

Trust your instincts on this one. Is your adviser more interested in getting your money or in helping your business profit from their efforts? Are you working with a “bill you by the second machine” or someone that appears genuinely interested in seeing your business grow? Do you feel like your adviser really cares about what happens with your investment and its return?

Do I need more than search engine marketing advice?

Developing search engine marketing and search engine optimization strategies and tactics may be all you need from a search engine marketing adviser, but most companies require a broader array of professional services, including web site development, copywriting, ad campaign management, web performance analytics and more. Is your adviser capable of providing that?

A great search marketing adviser helps your business to be found online; works to convert web site visitors into desired business actions; and, measures impacts and analyzes data to ensure peak marketing results. This often requires the search engine marketing adviser to offer programming and development services, graphic design, link building, newsletter, web page and other copywriting services, web analytics services and much more.

Make an assessment of your current and future online marketing needs and make sure your adviser has the professional expertise to assist in those areas.

Still unsure if you are working with the right adviser?

Ask for advice from professional trade organizations like those mentioned earlier within this article. Ask your accountant about other businesses like yours (not direct competitors) that are growing well and contact them to find out who they work with.

For those of you with multiple websites or businesses, hire multiple advisers. Let them dish it out while you evaluate who performs the best. Returns are important but also test them by asking their opinion on issues of importance to you. You’ll learn a lot by the answers you receive.

© 2006. BizGrowth Search Engine Solutions and Brian Offenberger. All rights reserved. Permission to publish online or in print granted provided the article and byline are printed intact with live links.

Launch your business to greater success through better online marketing results. Learn from an online marketing expert, Brian Offenberger, and benefit from his wisdom by visiting http://www.bizgrowthseo.com or http://www.rssray.com. Get free tools for search engine marketing success at http://bizgrowthseo.com/free_seo_tools.php.

Discover the Secrets of How to Boost Skyrocket Online Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity & Profits From Home!

Tue, 04 May 2010 04:41:27 +0000

By: zmilliondollars
Now, I am going to give you the secrets of how to boost skyrocket online affiliate marketing business opportunity and profits from home. You’ll learn inside secrets in this article.

Within this article on creating an online affiliate marketing business opportunity, we’ll look at ways that you are able to build your online affiliate marketing business opportunity through online affiliate marketing. There are many different ways that you can go around this online affiliate marketing business opportunity so we will look at a couple of very good and low-cost ways to do this.

READ THIS: If you are truly serious about how to discover great online affiliate marketing business opportunity and boost profits online through your online home based affiliate marketing business.

One of the best ways that you’re able to market online at a low cost is through giveaways. You can do this in many different ways but one the best ways is to go to free forums and post that you have free giveaways at your affiliate website. You will want your giveaway item to be very low cost. By keeping costs low, you can post to these forums on a regular basis and receive steady traffic which can help you build your affiliate website. You’ll be generating a great deal of traffic for yourself at a very low cost. There are many different ways to run a sweepstakes or a giveaways contest but many affiliate websites will have giveaways pursuant upon the fact that you sign up for their newsletter. Make sure that the people who sign up are ones that you want to target because your newsletter can be your greatest source of marketing.

Another great way that you can bring about more traffic to your affiliate website is through Adwords. Adwords is a form of advertising that is run by Google where you are allowed to bid on certain keywords that people search for. You can run your marketing using a budget and you’ll know that you’re getting the target audience that you want towards your affiliate website. One of the ways that you can work at saving and maintaining a budget using Adwords is to log into your Google account every day to see how much it is costing you to use your keywords. By looking at how much it costs for keywords, you can make sure that your marketing budget is right on track with what you should be. You can also get an idea as to trends developing with the costs of Adwords.

Read more articles about Internet Marketing Advertising Ppc Adwords and how to build highly profitable successful ppc campaigns at: http://www.iPayByClick.com. You’ll discover a lot of great tips on Internet Marketing Advertising Ppc Adwords & Pay Per Click Search Engine.

Final thoughts, hopefully this article on creating online affiliate marketing business opportunity will help you out. The first part of this article focused on online affiliate marketing business opportunity and how to build your business. A different angle on creating online affiliate marketing business opportunity is spotlighted now. There is a great deal of unused advertising out there which could be bought up at discounts on what online advertising firms normally charge. If you were able to find a great deal of this unused advertising and buy it at a discount, you could resell it to other companies looking to put more of their advertising out online and charge them a higher price. This is often known as advertising arbitrage where you buy the ad spots at a discount and then resell them at a slightly higher price but making sure that the people who ultimately by your ads are getting a very good discount. All parties win in this particular engagement. This gives you something to think about the next time that you see empty spaces on a website’s home page.

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Get free report now to learn more about how to maximize your profits online through Pay-Per-Click online advertising and affiliate marketing. You’ll discover great tips, workable strategies, and inside secrets of how to drive more traffic and turn the visitor into the customer. Also, you’ll save your time for learning how to build highly profitable pay-per-click advertising online campaigns.

*Reprint Policy: Reprint in full with writer’s name, contact information, active links and brief bio.

Siripong R. or zMillionDollars is a recognized authority on the subject of making money online from home through highly profitable & successful home based business. His websites, www.zMakeMoney.com and www.zMillionDollars.com, provide a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you’ll ever need to know about earning money online.

How Expensive are Google Internet Marketing Services for a Small Business?

Tue, 04 May 2010 04:22:25 +0000

By: Perry Reynolds

How Expensive are Google Internet Marketing Services for a Small Business?

It all depends on the competitiveness of your industry keywords. That’s the largest factor in your cost factors. What is a fair cost for hiring an expert in Internet Marketing Services?

“Basket weaving Montana” is going to be a lower cost compared to “gastric bypass surgeon Texas” because the competition is lower. The amount of search engine optimization needed to rank on the 1st pages of Google, Yahoo and Bing is not as time consuming. It would take about 1-3 months to rank for ‘basket weaving’ keywords.

However, if your marketing “gastric bypass surgeon Texas” or “auto repair Denver”, they are going to be more expensive campaigns because the Internet marketing services necessary to achieve their higher ranking on Google is more in-depth.

SEO needed for the ‘basket weaving’ scenario will require basic on-page SEO optimization, but probably needs only about 25-50, quality, inbound links to start getting higher rankings.

Google marketing services needed for “gastric bypass surgeon Texas” and “auto repair Denver” keywords are going to be more complex and customized. They will need 75-150 inbound links and more website pages inter-linking with keyword-rich text. To get those types of sites to rank higher, it would take about 3-6 months depending on the current SEO state of each site. The reason is two-fold.

One, the business owners in the medical field all have more incentive to spend more dollars on their Google Internet marketing budget because they make more money per sale or operation. The profits are much higher for selling one gastric-bypass surgery to an obese patient than selling 10 handmade baskets to a housewife.

Two, there are simply more doctors, surgeons and auto repair shops competing for the ten top spots in any area who are fighting to be on the 1st page of Google. It’s just like spending money on the yellow pages 10 years ago. The bigger your ad, the more calls you would receive. The same goes for Google Internet marketing services.

The more money a company spends on Internet marketing, the more likely they are to rank for their keywords above their competitors.

The ‘auto repair’ is a little different in that it’s not so much the money they have to spend, as it is that there are so many auto repair shops in any larger city. But, when you rank higher than your competitors, not only do you get the business, but they don’t. So, spending the money may be worth it in the long run.

Internet marketing services for Google consist of many different strategies nowadays.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization strategy, involves taking a website’s code and inbound links to make the website’s URL (web address) show up in the long descriptive links on the left hand side of Google. There is no cost-per-click for this.

If 1 million users click your link through search, then all you pay for is the Internet marketing that the SEO marketing firm is doing.

How much business can I expect from the Internet marketing services I pay for? Qualified Internet leads are necessary to succeed in today’s marketing arena. Most Internet clients average about 55-85% of their web traffic from “organic” search engine ranking results when ranking properly for their keywords.

PPC – Pay-per-Click or sponsored linking are well-known as Google AdWords for those that use Google to search. Since, Google has over 60% of the search engine traffic; marketing through them is a good base for ROI. This involves links showing up on the top and right hand side. You only pay when a user clicks on your ad-link and visits your site. Google even monitors click fraud, so one of your competitors can’t just click your ad 1,000 times and blow your whole budget in one day.

Google AdWords generates about 35-55% of web traffic visitors and the rest comes from referral listings from other sites linking back to them.

SMM – Social Media Marketing is a newer Internet marketing service being offered to clients. It involves a combination of creating and running accounts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to start.

VVM – Viral Video Marketing is the use of Video or Article Writing to get people to forward your SEO video or SEO article on to friends and associates there by increasing the value of the marketing money spent on each.

A business can market their website on the Internet for the same amount it cost for ‘paper marketing’ with the enormous added benefit of long-term ranking of keywords that continue generating search engine leads after the marketing work is done. That is a huge positive for a business that wants to push hard and just sustain.

The Internet allows them all to be more efficient with marketing, a sometimes costly, but needed business expenditure. Google Internet marketing services are also available to anyone. It’s an equal playing field for many website owners.

The only thing they would have to pay for is SEO maintenance monitoring to sustain the high ranking once it has been achieved. Usually maintenance monitoring is about 10-15% of the initial monthly marketing fees during the SEO Ramp Up.

How much should I expect to pay for an Internet marketing solution? It usually costs about the same as advertising in the Yellow Pages directory or in a Big City Newspaper. It can be less depending on how competitive your industry is.

Some Internet marketing campaigns can be as little as $400 a month for 9-12 months while others can be $3,000 per month for 2 years. And, you should always continue with SEO marketing maintenance once your site’s ranking. If you don’t, it’s like buying a new engine for a car and not getting future tune-ups. Silly.

Remember, your competitors are always after you too. In the end, when you choose an Internet marketing service provider to work with, they should provide you with Monthly Ranking Reports.

Perry is a senior SEO consultant and writes for Business Oceans™ Web Marketing Services.

Creating The Perfect Marketing Plan

Tue, 04 May 2010 03:00:38 +0000

By: Derek Both

Marketing is one of the most important strategic decisions your company has to make to survive and the plethora of advice on how to market, who you market to and how much effort to put into marketing is overwhelming.

Modern marketing theory dates back to the 70’s when a new data source on consumer demographics opened up: Credit card transactions. Now it was possible to buy data from credit card companies about what consumers in which areas bought what items, along with how old they were, their marital status and their credit ratings.

With this information in hand, marketing switched from a product marketing focus (how do we get our products in the hands of the most consumers) to a consumer marketing focus (what untapped needs and wants in the consumer space are out there and how to we meet them and be first to market in meeting them?).

Consumer-focused marketing and market research pervaded the entire retail tier, even down to super markets with their discount cards, tracking what consumers buy and how frequently, to tighten up their stocking levels on products.

Market research is important to your business and marketing, above and beyond the research is all about converting that research into generating leads for customers who want your services and converting those leads into buyers. Once they’ve bought your services or products, marketing is about maintaining the relationship with your customer, being responsive to their needs, finding out what they want and getting it to them before your competition does.

Most marketing plans can be broken down into three phases.

Phase 1 is defining and narrowing your objectives: Important questions to ask are: Who are our potential customers? What do they want or need that they aren’t getting right now? How do we meet that need in the current market place? Understanding what the strategic landscape is, and knowing who your potential customers are is essential to any marketing plan.

Phase 2 is contingent on phase 1, and the important questions at this phase are: Who are our current customers? What are we doing to make them return to us, rather than look at the competition? Based on what they’ve bought from us before, what new product ideas, packaging or categories can we offer them to increase our perceived values in their eyes? How are we bringing information about our new products to our customer base? What are we doing to ensure brand loyalty? Understanding how your existing customers purchase in aggregate, and spotting trends in their needs is important for remaining nimble in your marketing plan. You don’t want to abandon your current customers while searching for new ones.

Phase 3 is the most nebulous phase of your marketing plan and it requires a firm commitment to phases 1 and 2. As your business grows, you need to constantly look for new trends and product categories you can sell to your existing customer base and use to find new customers to add to them. It requires flexibility and planning and forethought.

Thinking through these three phases will greatly improve your marketing plan and bring success to your business.

At Smarter Marketing you can view the 3-stage effective marketing strategy that will enable you and your organisation to create effective marketing communication that is accountable and generates both extra sales and revenue growth.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing

Tue, 04 May 2010 02:48:24 +0000

By: C Smith

Starting out as an affiliate marketer can seem like a tough thing to do. Most of the people on the internet want you to think it is, that way they can make more money on the sales that should be yours. I am here to tell you though, that it isn’t tough at all. In fact, being an affiliate marketer is extremely relaxed and fun to do. Let me share my story.

So a few months ago I wanted to get into something to make more money. I was sick of seeing all of the people make their claims on the internet about how they were dirt poor and now they can afford my house and cars with their weekly income. I am sure you have seen these ads, they typically want your money to teach you how to do it. Hey, I guess that is part of their money making secrets right? Ok, so I digressed, I went online to see what the deal was though and was surprised by what I found.

There I was, pouring over website after website, promise after promise, and then I realized the underlying theme. Affiliate marketing! That’s right! The secret isn’t a secret at all. In fact, open a new internet window and do a Google search for it and you will see millions of articles. People are doing this all the time to supplement their incomes. College kids make enough to stay in school, some people have actually earned enough to retire. This is something to really look into, or so I told myself.

Then I was right at the spot you are now. I knew what I wanted to do (affiliate marketing) and I knew where I wanted to be (rich), but I had no idea how to get there. With a lot more research I learned that affiliate marketing is picking a product, promoting it, and then earning money. Sounds too easy, but that is the general overview of it. There are millions of products that you can choose from. They range from health and beauty to electronics.

The funnest thing about affiliate marketing is that the internet is your play ground. You can work from home…in your pajamas (or worse). You can sign on whatever time you have. If you get off of work and take a nap, you won’t lose your affiliate marketing job. You don’t have to call in and you make money even while you are asleep. With all of the positive things that this offers, why do we continue to slave away at our current jobs? (oh yeah, the bills need to be paid until we are the annoying rich person)

Promoting a product is easier than you think and you are more capable than you ever thought. Don’t let indecision or fear stand in your way, delve in and make the money you deserve. If you don’t, I will.

Did you find this information useful? If so, get more info here!
Go To: Maverick Money Makers

Finding Accurate Internet Marketing Business Reviews

Tue, 04 May 2010 02:44:03 +0000

By: Andy West

The prospect of starting or looking into an internet marketing business can be quite tricky, especially without much knowledge or insight into the field. Using a variety of accurate internet marketing business reviews can be a great way to shed a little bit of light on your research. But finding reviews can be as tricky as balancing a bicycle on the nose of a seal. It may seem like a circus trick, but there are tricks of the trade that can be used in order to decipher the nonsense and the spin from the truth.

One way to start looking for information about internet marketing businesses is to use a basic search engine. There are many out there that can make looking for marketing reviews easier for the consumer or the prospective business owner. Some are more reputable than others. Using search engines usually involves knowing, specifically, what to search for in order to get accurate and primary results.

A lot of the marketing opportunities available for people fail because they are unreliable and unrealistic. This is coupled with the fact that finding reputable press about the business or opportunity can be complicated, probably due to the fact that the business may not be too reputable to begin with. Using search engines and website lookup information portals can be a good first step to take in terms of looking into the reputation of a particular Internet business or marketing opportunity.

There are many opportunities out there for less than honest business people to attempt to take hard-earned money out of the pockets of web surfers. These businesses and these marketing opportunities simply rely on the ignorance of the consumer, so the alternative is to become an educated consumer and learn more about the business than the scammers believe you do. Doing this is simply a matter of having the right sources, reading the right internet marketing business reviews, and learning how to spot a scam.

Internet marketing business reviews can come from multiple sources, but a general rule of thumb is to keep an eye out for a general consensus amongst the reviewers. If a business is realistic in its business plan and worth a look, the reviewers will likely agree even if they have a difference of opinion on some of the company’s philosophy. Finding this particular type of consensus can be challenging, because of the apparent bulk of negative press available. It is a fact that consumers are more likely to give a bad comment when they are dissatisfied, yet will give no comment at all when they are completely satisfied.

There are many issues that may come into play in terms of Internet marketing business reviews. Some reviews may use testimonials to attempt to create a more realistic tone. These testimonials are not necessarily genuine and should be checked into further.

Avoid glossing over statistics, especially if the statistics in one particular internet marketing business review can be compared with those from another. If those numbers or those stats do not line up, you should start asking some serious questions about the worthiness of the company.

Reading Internet marketing business reviews can be complicated and tricky, especially because of the constant use of flowery language and avoidance tactics. Many reviews will talk about an internet marketing opportunity without actually mentioning anything about the opportunity itself. When reading internet marketing business reviews, it is important to maintain a clear focus so as to understand the actuality of what the review says and not just the spin.

Andy West is a freelance writer for My Top Reviews. My Top Reviews offers business advice and internet marketing business reviews. For more information, visit http://www.mytopreviews.com .