New Marketing And Promotional Ideas

New marketing and promotional ideas! Free! Most are related to internet-based businesses, but even those can usually be adopted in some way to other businesses. Here are half a dozen marketing ideas to get you thinking.

A one-hour coupon. Offline businesses that want to increase the traffic to their websites can announce an "internet coupon" good for a free drink (or whatever). The coupon would be up on the site for an hour, sometime on a Friday, say. Visitors will return again and again to try to be there at the right time to get the freebie. If you collect pay-per-click advertising fees, this repeat traffic might be especially profitable.

Free gift article teaser. A free gift is certainly not a new marketing idea, but it hasn't been done much in internet article "resource boxes." My click-throughs from articles increased when I started putting in the author's resource box, "For more information and a free gift, visit..." The gift is usually a short course, or an e-book. If you don't want to write an e-book, you can find one with free distribution rights.

Word links for sale. Maybe you have heard about the entrepreneur that sold a million pixels on one web page for a dollar each. Advertisers could buy a minimum of 100, and the image would link to their site. I've seen many copycats, but I haven't yet seen anyone selling words. This could be even better for advertisers, because they could buy the words that are relevant to their products. A page full of random words isn't pretty, but these things get publicity and traffic for their novelty.

Product user contests. If you have a product that's used in many ways or many places, this is a great promotional gimmick: a contest to see who has used their cell phone, watch, or whatever in the wildest place or the most unusual way. ("I took my walkman to the north pole!") Customers could post their stories and photos directly to your company web site. They wiould return repeatedly to see new stories, and the results of the competition.

Advertising on cereal boxes. A lot of time is spent staring at cereal boxes. Perhaps you could get a good rate on advertising on them. There have had some advertising, but no boxes covered in ads yet. Brokering ad space on cereal boxes could be a good business to get into.

Pay for article placement. Many of us distribute articles to generate traffic to our web sites, and many also pay to advertise. Since articles are especially good marketing tools, why not pay to have other webmasters put them on their sites? This is done for free now, but not often enough. Maybe offer a small one-time fee, with a minimum time commitment. Explain that leaving the article there forever can generate search engine traffic.

Put ads on private cars, advertising on sidewalks, have a contest to see who can get your product mentioned on and seen on TV - there are endless possibilities for new marketing and promotional ideas.



Steve Gillman has been exploring new ideas for decades. Visit his site for invention ideas, business ideas, story ideas, political and economic theories, deep thoughts, and more. Get a free gift too: New Ideas (http://www.999ideas.com)




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Web Business Ideas Using The Affiliate Marketing Business Model

Something I like about affiliate marketing is how many web businesses you can set up based around this business model. Let's look at four web business ideas that an affiliate marketer can make money with.

1. CPA programs. You get paid by the cost per action affiliate programs when your website visitor performs a specific action. Usually this is where people fill out a short lead form with information such as their name, email address or zip code.

As you will never run out of opportunities to promote this is actually a great web business to be in. A fast way to get access to multiple CPA programs to promote is to join an affiliate network.

2. Create blogs with Google AdSense. Using WordPress themes with the Google AdSense plug-in is a quick way to get started making money.

A lot of themes come with this plug-in already installed and all you do is activate it with the click of your mouse. With others you will need to install it and then activate it, but that is very easy to do.

It is very easy to arrange where you want the AdSense adverts to appear on your blog. You make money with the Google AdSense affiliate program every time somebody clicks on one of these ads. You may not believe this but it is true that there are people who earn 6 and 7 figure incomes just doing this.

3. Sell digital information. It has been reported by Amazon that more people purchase digital books than hardcopy books. Hence the reason why the Amazon Kindle is so popular.

But ClickBank is the largest digital information provider in the world and they also have a great affiliate program. You can make a lot of money with this type of Internet business when you focus on selling information that solves people's problems.

4. Promote physical products. Sign up free and join the Amazon affiliate program. Their program contains products that range anywhere from $1 to several hundred thousand dollars.

A common tactic today is to set up a business promoting one specific product by that product name or model number. Create a one page website with graphics and website links leading to your Amazon sales page. You earn a commission every time somebody purchases a product from your sales page.

These are four proven web business ideas you can earn with affiliate marketing. Some affiliate marketers focus on one specific type of business model while others incorporate all of these to make a lot of money.



Cynthia Minnaar works full-time online and is the owner of cyns-home-biz.com She invites you to visit her online business ideas site for a variety of web business ideas.




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Web Marketing Ideas To Promote Sites

Internet marketing trends change really fast so you if you want to be an effective online marketing guru, you need to be aware of updates on web marketing ideas to promote sites. Promoting websites is really not that hard as long as you have the right road map needed.

Let me help you get ahead of your competition by showing you a good variety of web marketing ideas to promote sites in this article. Now, keep in mind that there's no magic button online, which means that you need to be persistent with what you do if you really want to be successful at promoting your websites. The first essential technique that you need to be aware of would be SEO or search engine optimization. This is a process that's specifically designed to get websites hooked on search engine page results. This is a vital technique that you need to know about because most of people today are no longer taking the time to remember the name of the different websites that they go to. Instead, they make use of search engines to lead them to the pages that they want to read online. Among the various search engines available on the internet, Google is the largest one so you need to focus your optimization efforts on this guy. When you do SEO tactics, the ideal results that you want to get would be rankings on the first three pages of search engines. It is said that if your site is not on these pages, then you might as well take it off the internet. People who surf the internet are stubborn by nature. They want their answers fast and they usually perceive those on the first pages of search engine results as the best sources of the information that they're looking for.

Next to search engine optimization is social bookmarking. This is considered as a really favorable technique because most of search engines today especially Google favor activities that come from real people. Social bookmarking sites are often flooded with people and so the results that you'll be able to get from using them will be promising as well. This will be really helpful in increasing the rankings of your websites on search engines. Social bookmarking sites basically work by having little snapshots as well as links to the different pages of a website. Through this, traffic or visitors are generated.

Social networking comes next to social bookmarking. There are tons of really good social networking sites today. Two of the best ones would be Facebook and MySpace. These sites are flooded with millions of people every single day, which means that if you put something up on the pages of these sites, you'll get really large amounts of exposure for your website. In order for you to make the best out of social networking sites, you need to do regular updates because posts made on these things are quickly forgotten.

Lastly, produce online participation. You can do so through the help of forum sites. Real people visit these sites on a regular basis to get good quality information from other people. Take part in discussions made on these places online. Share what you know and turn yourself and earn yourself an expert image in your own niche.



What I've shown you here is just the tip of the iceberg, get the real meaty information about web marketing sites at the Austin SEO Academy website.




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Small Business Marketing - 3 Simple Promotion Ideas

A major hurdle for any new small business is attracting new customers. Getting the word out about your new product or service can be expensive, but there are some inexpensive methods that will have people finding your business in no time.

Get listed in the Local Search Engine Directories

Most people use the internet these days to search for businesses, including local businesses that they want to patron. Even if your target market is over 50, old and young alike are using the internet more and more to gather information on a business, before they visit or call. If you do not have a presence on the web, than you are missing out on a large number of potential customers.

A great way to be found quickly on the internet is to get listed on the Local directories for the various search engines. If someone is looking for a plumber in their town, they will generally do a search for town name plumber; for example, Philadelphia plumber, or plumber in Philadelphia. For that search, the search engines will display at the top of the page, a map of area plumbers and a corresponding list of these plumbers with links to their websites if supplied. If you list your business with the local directories on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you will get listed on this map. Many people will choose one of the businesses from this map, especially if you have it linked to your website.

EzineArticles - Article Marketing

To further take advantage of your internet presence, you can submit informative articles to online article directories, such as EzineArticles.com and articlesbase.com. These article directories and others allow their articles to be reprinted, as long as they are kept intact. So if you write an interesting article on your area of expertise, with a link back to your website, this could be reprinted all over the internet. The more links you have back to your website, the higher it will rank in the search engines, and the more people will be able to find your business.

Rent Space on a Billboard

With the wide variety of marketing options available today, some forms of advertising have become cheaper. Renting space on a billboard is not extremely expensive, depending upon location, and can be used to increase awareness of your business. With a little creativity, a billboard can create interest and intrigue for your business. Provide little teasers about your product or service along with either your web address or phone number. People will visit your website just to see what you are all about.

So What Next?



For more business promotion ideas and a free usb sample request, click here to check out a range of promotional usb options.




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Traffic Driving Internet Marketing Promotion Ideas

Internet marketing promotion serves two main purposes: 1) Driving

traffic to a website; 2) Ensuring that the traffic is targeted

traffic.

It is really crucial that your promotional efforts fulfill both

of these purposes. Without traffic, a website is nothing more

than a piece of art that is taking up space on the World Wide

Web.

Like an incredible, decked out building that is vacant, it

is simply decoration that accomplishes nothing. On the other

hand, a website that has loads of traffic and tons of unique

visitors per day is no more effective than the website that has

no traffic if the traffic visiting the website is not targeted

traffic.

Thus, if either of the two main purposes of internet

marketing promotion is not fulfilled, your business likely will

not benefit from your promotion efforts.

In order to drive traffic to a website, getting the website

listed in the search engines, either through search engine

optimization or through pay-per-click advertising is pretty

important.

Search engine marketing is undoubtedly one of the most

effective forms of internet marketing promotion in existence. The

majority of internet users who seek information via the internet

us the search engines to gather information, so a search engine

listing can be extremely fruitful in driving traffic to your

website.

In order for that traffic to be targeted, your search engine

marketing campaigns have to be carefully designed.

Keyword

research to determine the popularity of certain keywords and

keyword phrases among your target audience is essential to

designing an effective search engine marketing strategy.

Using

the right keywords for your target audience will increase your

website's potential for receiving targeted traffic. The titles of

your web pages and their descriptions that show up in search

engine results also play a large role in getting internet users

to click-through to your website and to view what you are

offering or displaying on your website.

In addition to search engine marketing, there are other internet

marketing promotion techniques that have potential for driving

qualified traffic to your website. These include:


Link exchanges

Banner advertising

Publishing of expert articles

Email marketing

Starting your own affiliate program

Listing your website in directories

Listing your website in portals

Buying advertisements in ezines

Participating in newsgroups and online forums

Using shopping bots

In addition to these internet marketing promotion ideas, you can

also attract visitors to your website through more traditional

marketing methods.

For instance, you can issue press releases to gain media

exposure; place classified advertisements in newspapers or

industry-related magazines; deliver advertisements or coupons

through direct mail; advertise on radio stations or television

stations; engage in telemarketing; put up billboards; participate

in trade shows; or even hold seminars in which you share your

expertise and promote your internet business.

There are many different ways to drive traffic to your website.

Opening your mind to the possibilities of both online and offline

advertising for the purpose of driving qualified, targeted

traffic to your website is the first step to devising an internet

marketing promotion strategy that will be wildly successful.

Both modern internet marketing tactics and traditional marketing

methods can be used to promote your internet-based business.

Conducting market research to clearly define your target market

and to learn about the characteristics of your target market is

crucial to successfully promoting any business through marketing

or advertising efforts.

For some people, designing and administering their marketing

program for their internet business is something they can do

themselves.

Others may benefit from professional services from expert

marketers who know how to market an internet-based business using

both state-of-the-art and traditional marketing methods.



Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope, fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing advice you're getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing, or a website owner who wants to make more money from your website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your internet business at http://BiznessTips.com




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Internet Marketing Promotion Today

Businesses are moving at a furious pace to the Internet. Being online is becoming a commodity! Business owners who do not know a great deal about Internet marketing but who wish to implement Internet marketing into their overall marketing strategy should carefully study the basic principles of Internet marketing before launching their online marketing campaign. Fortunately for these business owners, particularly Multilevel Marketing business owners, there are a variety of options for learning about Internet marketing. Business can now market their presence on the internet in a number of ways including web sites, blogs, email, articles, and various forms of advertising and brand awareness. Therefore why would a business worry about creating an e-presence today?

Internet marketing promotion and advertising is crucial for your website?s success. Take time to create a buzz about your site and that will keep people coming back. Internet marketing promotion as one example is the fastest growing and most dominant tool used in the travel market today. Without an effectively designed and marketed website, web sites run the risk of becoming invisible.

Online promotion is all about name exposure, getting your name all over the internet. Not only does the content on your site need to be optimized, but you also must generate online exposure all over the internet in order to generate traffic and improve your search engine rankings. Online businesses operate in a highly competitive, global marketplace. However the Internet has broken down geographical barriers, enabling fast moving small companies to compete effectively with much larger rivals. Online advertising, print advertising and niche advertising are but a few of the advertising ideas an organization can use and these are discussed further.

Advertising that promotes both your products and your website will keep them coming back for more. Web site traffic should be the focus of early Internet marketing promotion advertising. Advertising & sales methods include search engine marketing, optimisation of keyword content, advertising of website banners, paid inclusion of sites in search engine listings with high volume media assetts. Other online marketing & promotion approaches including online blogging, display advertising, email marketing & affiliate advertising and search engine programmes.

Advertising through banners is the best first option for beginners. Additionally, these internet entrepreneurs looked to other media to spread the word of their wares, and quickly these leaps of faith paid off. Print ads are now routinely taken out for online businesses, and in many cases a website takes the place of a telephone number. Additional categories might be added at a later time. For now, if you have websites that fall into the above categories, go register then start submitting your best content

Search engines are divided into two sections, search engines and directories, and pay per click engines. While the most favored and effective form of internet marketing promotion, this category is also the most expensive. Search engines are the method most consumers use to find the products and services that they are looking for. This very important advertising medium can be paid for by becoming a page sponsor or with correct registrations, rich content, and with following protocol.However businesses may find themselves on the first two pages of a search engine results without buying a sponsorship. Internet marketing and promotion requires only the very best tools to promote your web site to the world,with total web site promotion tools and internet marketing tools to drive your online traffic.

Article writing and distribution is one of the best means of Internet marketing promotion.Article directories always allow you to include information about yourself and your website, so people can see it and be encouraged to visit your website to see what you're all about. While you're at it, why not try offering a freebie, such as an e-book, to get visitors to your site? Article marketing fundamentals are like the parts of a house; you must have a foundation, a frame, walls, and then, if you like, trim and decoration. Follow this blueprint and you will become a successful article marketer.Just like article writing, you may also use weblogs or simply blogs for your Internet marketing business promotion.

Web promotion and marketing's one another internet marketing promotion advertising tip is always to explore new options.As an example you can think of maybe trying direct mail etc. Websites with a page dedicated to a privacy policy also get a higher ranking and your site will show up higher in the search results. Website promotion and SEO campaign management is a full time job,and there is a lot of research, trend studies, and analyzing statistics that go into any successful web campaign.

Advertising a web site involves using creative thinking just like any business. Using a popular keyword for your online advertising campaign may cause additional expense to your search engine placement.However remember this, business and marketing knowledge in most cases are very limited.However Internet marketing imagination encircles the world.



Find out how..You...can..Quickly...Expand Your Horizons And Achieve Real...Success...on the Internet

At [http://www.douglas-stuart.com]




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Internet Marketing - Website Promoting Ideas

Now you have your website, and you are wondering how do you go about promoting it? Getting traffic to your website is very important and without traffic you will not get any sales. The more traffic to your website, the higher the chance you will have in obtaining sales for your efforts.

Briefly, I will cover some of the areas that I have used to achieve traffic to my website that has resulted in sales. I will be covering this in more detail later on my website in the blog section. One of the ways that I find works is registering your website with major search engines.

How this is done is by using keywords related to your niche and registering with search engines such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo. A tip that I use to ensure a good listing position, for a certain keyword on Google for instance, is to implement the following:

* Have a content rich website

* Make sure to keep changing or add fresh content

* Use keyword or variations of keywords on your landing pages

* Try establishing links from well-respected and established websites in your related niche

Keep in mind, you do not need a special software that will submit your website to hundreds of search engines. I personally do not recommend those. Using a directory like Dmoz is another great way to get your website out there. Websites like Dmoz will list web addresses by category and is a great way to get exposure to your site. It takes a while to get indexed, but is worth adding your site to. Both Google and Yahoo also have directories.

Some key points I would like to point out in promoting your website. Make sure to use keywords that are specific to your niche. This is very important. Make sure that your landing page which, is the page that your visitors will arrive at, is relevant to your niche and grabs your visitors attention. You will have approximately five seconds to grab their attention, so keep this in mind when creating your landing page. Keep moving, keep testing out ideas, add or remove wording, etc...

Last, but not least, this is one of my favorites. Writing unique articles on your niche and submitting them to article directories like Street Articles, EzineArticles, and Article City. Always make sure when writing your articles that you use unique content and include a link to your website. Your articles should be interesting, and contain useful content for your readers. These are just a few techniques to drive traffic to your website, and the best part is they are free!



My name is Tanya and I'm an internet and article marketer with several years of experience. I enjoy providing useful and helpful information. [http://internetmarketingnewshub.com]

"Don't let what you can't do stop you from what you can do"

- John Wooden




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Amazing Affiliate Marketing Ideas Coming Straight From Marketing!

It is not always easy to discover new affiliate marketing ideas. Affiliate marketers need new strategies that bring them biggest commissions at the end of the month.

While there is no magic formula to win the affiliate game, you must not over complicate the process. Just follow these online marketing practices that have been proven to work.

There are techniques that have worked before with online marketing and are still working today. You will find new affiliate marketing ideas from these marketing tips, and you will be able to increase your sales and win the affiliate marketing game.

Be ready now to extract tons of affiliate marketing ideas from these marketing tactics:

1. Use separate web pages to promote each product you are marketing. Do not put tons of banners and links on your affiliate website and wait for your checks. Although it was working before, it is best to have a site focusing on each product.

2. Don't forget to include product reviews on the website. Everybody loves them, and visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do.

3. An other affiliate marketing idea is to include testimonials from real people who already tried the product.

4. Write articles that highlight the benefits of the product you are promoting and include them on your website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive and compelling and include a call to action

You must use strong headlines to attract the readers. With attractive headlines, your readers will know what the page is all about and will be more likely to read the whole article.

5. Include an opt-in form on every page of your affiliate website. For better exposure, position them at the very top left side of your page so it simply cannot be missed.

6. Create autoresponder messages that will forward a free e-course, mixed with your affiliate products. According to various marketing research, the sale is closed usually after the seventh contact with the prospect.

When a visitor lands on your affiliate website, only two things can happen: he buys the product through your affiliate link, or he leaves the page and never returns again.

By following prospects with your autoresponder messages and giving them useful tips and information, they will not forget you, nor your website. Be sure that your follow up email content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. It must never be a sales pitch.

By promoting each product separately and following up your visitors with autoresponders, you will increase your commissions. Better, you just learned successful affiliate marketing ideas as well.

It's up to you now to implement, test and tweak these proven tactics, and find new affiliate marketing ideas.



Franck Silvestre is a full time affiliate marketer and the owner of Affiliate Marketing Ideas, a website born of his passion. He is also an active blogger. Visit his blog now, and Learn Affiliate Marketing.




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The Brand Story Web Marketing Process

If websites have one overarching goal it is to create confidence in whatever the website is promoting and who's promoting it. It doesn't matter if it's a product, a service, a sales campaign, or an idea, if the presentation is not minimally credible or optimally motivational, then it fails as a means of marketing communication.

Communicate to the Subconscious Mind

Branding is often thought of as a marketing strategy reserved for major consumer product companies, but the fact is all businesses are brands that are either cultivated so they blossom, or let go-to-seed like a garden full of weeds.

Marketing neophytes often think of branding only in terms of some physical manifestation, like a logo, but a brand is the full complement of residual impressions resulting from all the experiences associated with a product, service or company. And today, the online experience is a vital venue for creating those experiences.

By using video, the marketer has the opportunity to tap into the audiences' subconscious mind, the buried remnants of both remembered and forgotten experiences; the kind of experiences that form attitudes, prejudices, and preferences that inform our decisions, most importantly our buying decisions.

Where Businesses Go Wrong

Where businesses go wrong is settling for only the obvious, the logical, and the rational. Brands are formed in the subconscious, so if your marketing communication doesn't reach the subconscious mind then it is not establishing or enhancing the brand in any meaningful effective long-term way.

What video does, when done right, is communicate on both the obvious and subconscious levels, making it the ideal Web-communication vehicle for creating a powerful brand experience, but only if you understand how to use the presentation and performance elements available.

Considering how powerful a tool Web-video can be, it amazes me how so many normally intelligent business people can opt for second-rate presentations. The do-it-yourself and user-generated efforts compete for the booby prize with the mindless corporate drivel - they all miss the point: a persuasive motivating presentation must communicate on multiple levels.

How To Deliver A Brand Story

We like to refer to developing, delivering, enhancing, and managing a Web-based brand, as The Brand Story Process. By thinking of your brand in terms of a story rather than just some graphical image, or nebulous mission statement, you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with ineffective branding.

A story, any story, has certain fundamental elements:

1. A storyline, plot or arc that moves the audience from skeptical Web-surfers to loyal customers.

2. A hero, who vicariously represents the audience and their dilemma in satisfying their subconscious needs or desires.

3. A villain, who represents the problems, obstacles, or challenges that confront the audience in satisfying those subconscious needs.

4. An agent of change that represents your company's ability to resolve the dilemma by providing a solution to satisfying those needs.

5. And a format that structures the presentation in a series of procedural or serial video episodes, that establishes and enhances the brand image, all while delivering literal and subliminal benefits.

Storyline - The Arc of Transformation

At the heart of your brand story is your marketing message and that message must invoke change: a transformation from dissatisfaction to satisfaction, and not just a presentation of features and benefits.

Your brand storyline puts what you offer into context, and illustrates the achievable results through onscreen surrogates acting out the audience's hidden agendas. A competitor can always cut your price or add new features, but neither tactic can overcome brand loyalty based on satisfying subconscious emotional needs.

Hero As Brand Messenger

It's not just the message; it's the messenger. There is no substitute for the human being. No avatar, cartoon character, or computer-generated equivalent will provide the subtlety and nuance required to communicate on the verbal, visible, and subconscious levels.

The one caveat is that real people can be 'too real' for their own good. We rarely recommend using company executives in front of the camera because the camera picks up all kinds of signals that the unpracticed performer is not aware of, resulting in an impression often contrary to the intended message. An uptight senior executive, no matter how well meaning, delivering a reassuring message to the public over some product liability problem can actually hurt the company's rehabilitation efforts if that onscreen presenter is deemed untrustworthy or deceptive.

He'll Always Be Tricky Dick

There are many examples of this sort of marketing faux pas, with Richard Nixon's 1960 television debate with John Kennedy being one of the most famous. On the radio many people thought Nixon, the veteran campaigner, won the debate, but under the penetrating scrutiny of the television camera, Nixon's true self came through. It was not just the five o'clock shadow; it was his buried true-self delivering a negative impression to the audience's subconscious mind. The negative Nixon brand was established forever, one that never fully recovered.

A Brand Should Never Get Old, Ill, or Fat

Even positive reaction to a real personality can turn out to be negative. Take the example of Steve Jobs. His keynote addresses are treated like rock star performances, but when not available to perform for whatever reason, rumors start, and even major corporations like Apple feel the effect.

What you really want to create is a brand character, a spokesperson that can be managed, cultivated, and grown into a long-term brand representative, one who can deliver your marketing message and brand story in consistent, effective, and controlled campaigns.

Every Brand Story Needs A Villain

When we speak of the brand villain we are not necessarily referring to another character although that can certainly be one way of illustrating the issue at hand. As an alternative, situations or scenarios can be used to represent the problem or dilemma.

Psychological issues are most often not so cut-and-dried as to be presented by the black-hat villain and white-hat hero. Engaging heroes are often tainted or damaged in a way the audience can relate to, and effective villains are not so much evil as they are representative of an alternative agenda.

Take for example the recent commercial campaign for 'Oatmeal Crisps' that is currently running in the Canadian market. The series of spots features a father who is trying to protect his favorite cereal from being consumed by his teenage son in one commercial, and by his elderly father in another. This extremely clever campaign digs deep into the emotional resentments and psychological issues involved in the family dynamic, but it does it in a humorous, lighthearted manner, where the audience can relate to the situation, and accept the underlying message. Here's a case of protagonist and antagonist, a more sophisticated approach to the hero-villain relationship.

You Are The Agent of Change

By adopting the Brand Story approach to marketing, you need to accept the notion that your brand is an agent of change. All stories are about change: transformation from one state (dissatisfaction) to another (satisfaction). You construct your brand story based on the idea that your brand will transform the audience somehow.

Take the 'Multi Grain Cheerios' commercial featuring a husband and wife discussing the ingredients listed on the cereal box: while the overt message is buy this product because it tastes good, the underlying message is that it helps control your weight thus making you more attractive to your spouse, not a subject that any sensitive spouse would suggest. The cereal is presented as the agent of change: overweight and unattractive, to slim and beautiful, while at the same time removing the stigma of dieting by providing the taste excuse to justify the purchase.

This commercial like the previously mentioned 'Oatmeal Crisps' commercial creates a conflict that delivers multiple messages through the familiar husband-wife scenario; one that is familiar to anyone who has ever dared suggest their significant other should lose some weight.

Are You "Law and Order" or "Prison Break"? Format: Procedural or Serial

The two most commonly used presentation formats are Procedural, think "Law and Order", or Serial, think "Prison Break". Procedurals follow a strict formula that continuously replays the basic story arc with the context of each episode emphasizing the consistent attitudes, perspective, and point-of-view of the franchise or brand. On the other hand, Serials move the plot along from episode to episode keeping the audience in suspense as to what is going to happen next and whether the brand hero will win the day.

One of the best Serial advertising campaigns every implemented was the Nescafe Gold Blend coffee campaign that ran from 1987-1992. You can watch the whole campaign from beginning to end on YouTube.

One of my favorite Procedural style campaigns is the recent Kleenex (Let It Out) campaign that was brilliantly executed. It played upon the audience's emotions, memories, and experiences, while associating those deep-seated feelings with their brand of facial tissue that is normally regarded and sold as a strictly commoditized product.

Doing Something, Isn't Necessarily Doing It Well

Far from being restrictive, these formats provide familiar structure within which the company can establish and enhance their brand, but failure to grasp the underlying emotional element inherent in your offering will lead to failure. A current Canadian advertiser tried to copy the Kleenex format without understanding what made the Kleenex campaign effective; they copied the physical presentation but without any emotional subtext, relying totally on a cost-to-performance benefit, and the result is a second rate effort rather than an effectively clever slipstreamed homage.

It's About People, By People, For People

Unlike television advertising that is restricted to only those that can afford it, the Web is available to all. The problem is easy and affordable access to the tools and venues to deliver your brand story does not mean that you are telling it effectively. Marketing communication is not about research, technology, or statistics; it's about people and the underlying emotional needs your brand satisfies - therein lies the basis upon which you build your brand story.



Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads and http://www.136words.com.
Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.




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Simplify Give up Expensive Marketing Tactics

Traditional marketing methods are expensive, time-consuming, frustrating and all too often the lone focus of a speaker's efforts. Meeting planners are swamped and have an endless stream of choices. Their mailboxes are overflowing with promotional packets and their voice mails stuffed with speakers pleas. When it comes to marketing, I believe that many in my industry as well as others involved in marketing complicate the issue, and that simplicity is the best policy.

In October 2000 I became a full-time speaker, jumping into the profession without a part-time job to make ends meet, no credit and very little savings. Since bank robbery was no longer an option, I had to develop a marketing plan that was cheap, easy and would quickly result in paid gigs. The first year I turned a profit, the second year I turned a substantial profit and now, entering my fifth year in the business, I speak as much or as little as I want to. In this chapter, I'd like to share that marketing plan with you.

What little marketing my office does is exclusively via email, and requests for additional information are directed through my web site. My only large initial investment was made in identity design and website development. By having a site that is professionally done, easy to navigate and properly indexed, it can provide meeting planners with all the information they need to make a decision.

I do not incur the time or costs associated with mass mailings or large print runs of marketing materials, and my office never makes cold calls- ever. The promotional material I do send is specifically tailored to each target group. One-sheets are printed as "blank" templates, with high-quality photos, graphics and titles only. Customized program descriptions, specifically targeted to each industry are then printed on demand or simply e-mailed in PDF format. Potential clients that see me as a specialist in their industry are more likely to respond than those who receive material with generic appeal.

Pre-qualifying those who receive your material dramatically reduces overhead. No one receives a packet from my office until the following facts have been established:

o They know what my program(s) consist of, either through my website or word of mouth;

o They know my full fee;

o My fee is within their budget;

o They must have the authority to hire me; and

o They must have an upcoming venue in which professional speakers are utilized.

Too many people just enjoy getting mail- they won't be getting mine.

E-Mail

Identify your target group, go to their website and send a simple e-mail to the meeting planner, President, President-elect, anyone who looks like they may be part of the decision-making process. The message is customized to include their group name, an introduction of your program that encourages a trip to your website, and a bit of "name dropping". This is particularly effective if you have a glowing testimonial from one of their colleagues. Either paste an excerpt in to the body of your message or include a link to the full testimonial on your website. Nothing sells like a good word from their own.

Send out e-mails only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This way, your message is less likely to be discarded as people skim their full in-boxes on Monday morning. If you get a reply stating they do not want to be contacted this way in the future, it is important that you respect their wishes.

After a presentation or any mingling event, be sure to ask for a list of attendees and e-mail addresses. Some organizations and associations have strict policies against sharing this information, but many don't. Send a thank you note that directs them to your website. It is a great way to build your database, sell additional product, get people to sign up for your e-zine and just generally keep you in mind.

Increase Your Exposure

During the original negotiations with your client, receive permission to have a few guests present during your presentation for preview purposes. Any guests that do attend your presentations are going to hire you if you do your job on the platform. This is a wonderful negotiating tool if the client cannot meet your full fee. Determine an exact "allowance" of table space and make it clear that your guests will be there to preview you only, not to partake in the meal, sessions or any other aspect of the event. When sending invitations, indicate that there are "x" number of spaces available that will be reserved on a first-to-reply basis. Even if you extend an invitation to a total stranger, you'll be amazed at how warmly people respond when you are "offering" rather than "asking".

Local calendar- Contact the Hotels, Convention Center, Visitors Bureau and Chamber of Commerce within the city you are visiting. Either visit their website, send an email or call the sales department and introduce yourself as a professional speaker, coming to town for an engagement. Ask about Associations or companies that may be holding events around the same time as your visit. For some there will be a policy of confidentiality and they will not share this list with you, but many will. Then, pull up the company or associations website and e-mail the decision makers an invitation. Printed material and video can never sell like a live presentation!

Database- Pull up every warm lead in your database that resides in the general area of where you are presenting, and call or shoot him or her an e-mail letting them know that you are coming their way. Seeing you in action may be just the thing to get them off the fence and on to your calendar.

Target Groups- We all have or should have specific groups that make up our bread-and-butter. For me personally, education, banking and credit unions, counseling/social work, HR professionals- these sectors encompass about 50 percent of my engagements, with each target group being comprised of state associations or individual companies that would jump at the chance to see me live as a way to preview my presentation. You take away the uncertainty and nervousness that meeting planners feel- they see exactly what they are getting. You are getting the idea- shoot them an email.

Bureaus- Stop wasting time and money sending unsolicited packets and videos. If you have ever visited a bureau's office, you have witnessed the infamous "closet" where all the promotional packet and videos are kept for review. They are inundated with material and cannot possibly get to them all, as they receive dozens of inquiries a week. If you are going to a city where a bureau is located, make a phone call and invite a representative to preview your presentation. If nobody is able to attend, offer to stop by the office for a quick introduction. A face-to-face impression will keep your name fresh in their minds when clients call.

NSA Chapters or any organization you are a member of- Contact the state chapter and inquire about their monthly meeting. Offer to also present while in town, and while they are usually set months in advance, you never know when a cancellation will come up. This is a great networking opportunity, and you will be surprised how your business will bloom if your colleagues know your program.

Press- Look up and contact every major (and minor) newspaper within the general area. Contact every department, area or section you think may be interested in your topic. Let the editor(s) and/or reporter(s) know your coming their way, invite them to visit your website, and let the coverage begin. It's fast, free and easy- and the paper loves it because a newsworthy event falls right into their lap.

Think Outside the Box

I have several shirts that have printed on them both front and back, "I am a Professional Speaker, ask Me What I Talk About". When traveling, particularly in the larger airports I will wear one of these shirts and am amazed how many people "Ask Me What I Talk About" (I do not do this if I am exhausted following an engagement or multiple engagements where I just want to curl up in the corner of the airport and rest my eyes). Think about how many CEO's, Executive Director's, and other Decision Makers are in airports!

I have even taken this one step further and have given them to family and friends who are familiar with my topics (My brother is a Professional Speaker...My Son is a Professional Speaker...My friend is a Professional Speaker, etc.). For them I offer a commission for each engagement that can be traced back day they wore one of my shirts and they love the attention and extra money!

Marketing does not have to be time-consuming, expensive, or a dreaded part of any business. My office enjoys our marketing methods because in most cases we are dealing with warm leads and are offering people something that does not come around very often- an opportunity to see me for free! If a beginner, this is a great way to get started with minimal cost and I can guarantee you that Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs will gladly let you have guests. If a seasoned pro, you should have a gold mine of contacts. Implement these ideas and you will witness leaps and bounds in referrals, references and your phone ringing. And the best part... it's cheap!



Troy Evans is a professional speaker and author who resides in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Pam and his dog Archibald. Troy travels the country delivering keynote presentations, and since his release from prison has taken the corporate and association platforms by storm. Overcoming adversity, adapting to change and pushing yourself to realize your full potential. Other speakerÂ’s talk about these issues, Troy has walked them.

The Evans Group
3104 E. Camelback Road, #436
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-265-6855
Fax: 602-285-1474
troy@troyevans.com
http://www.troyevans.com




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Internet Marketing - The Amazing Ron Paul

Wow, check out Ron Paul's Internet Marketing campaign!

Without doubt, Ron Paul's success on the Internet is nothing short of amazing. His team's approach has been ground breaking in the way they've applied Internet Marketing techniques, not only to reach potential supporters, but to attract a significant number of contributors.

Although not currently one of the frontrunners, Ron Paul is now being called an "Internet Phenomenon" by many political strategists.

While the Internet Marketing strategies being used by Ron Paul's team are not necessarily unique, the dedication his team has shown in reaching potential supporters online has been outstanding. By deploying a very aggressive Internet Marketing campaign, Ron Paul's team has attracted a flood of contributors and a huge number of avid supporters.

In a very short period of time, Ron Paul's team has developed an enormous Internet presence. In fact, anyone who's been online in the past six months has certainly seen multiple references to Ron Paul on the news or social media sites.

If you consider the raw numbers, Ron Paul's Internet Marketing strategy leaves his competition in the dust - and it's a big reason he's still in the race:

Consider the facts ...

· Last month, Ron Paul's site had well over a MILLION visitors, more than all other Republican candidates combined!

· In one day, Ron Paul's team raised over $6 Million dollars on the internet.

· They raised approximately $20 Million Dollars in the 4th quarter of 2007 alone.

· On YouTube, there are 109,000 videos currently available about him.

· And in the past month there have been over 89,000 blog posts about him, according to Google.

The bottom line ... Ron Paul's focus on Internet Marketing is changing the face of political campaign strategies.

Ron Paul is not the only candidate making use of the Internet ... on the other side of the aisle, Barack Obama's team has deployed a very well designed Internet Marketing strategy - over 728,00 visitors last month - and has been very effective in reaching potential supporters and contributors in his own right.

An Objective View

My analysis of Ron Paul's internet success is purely driven by curiosity; I have no political affiliation or opinion of Ron Paul's political platform.

What intrigues me about Ron Paul's Internet strategy is not only the response he's received (over a Million visitors last month), it's the number of contributors he's attracted and the dedicated constituency he's built on the Internet. With a major part of his communications being conveyed via the Internet, Ron Paul's campaign team has demonstrated beyond any doubt that Internet Marketing is a formidable tool in building a successful political campaign strategy.

Perhaps the Ron Paul campaign chose to focus more on Internet strategies and less on other media simply due to budget constraints. Whatever the reason, their decision to use the Internet as an integral part of their campaign strategy is undoubtedly a big reason he's still in the race.

This is not the first time we've seen a candidate deploy an Internet Marketing strategy as a part of a political campaign strategy - but it may be the first major campaign that has used the Internet as a primary part of their campaign strategy.

So, what does this say about future political campaigns and the tactics that will be developed to exploit the enormous potential of the Internet?

Political campaign teams can be very creative in developing marketing methods and I have no doubt we will learn a great deal concerning Internet Marketing by watching the successful political campaigns.

If 'necessity is the mother of invention', then the Internet Marketing strategies being developed by political campaign teams like Ron Paul's will no doubt be leveraged by other organizations to help build their own visibility and success.

Ron Paul's Internet Strategy

So, what does Ron Paul's team do differently?

The short answer lies not in what his team does, as much as it does with how his team 'works' their strategy.

First, the Internet Marketing strategy Ron Paul's team has implemented focuses on some very basic Search Engine Marketing tactics:

· Website optimization,

· Compelling content,

· Intuitive site navigation,

· Social Media,

· Press Releases,

· Videos,

· Blogging,

· RSS feeds

· Email Marketing, Newsletters, & Breaking News

Pretty straight forward, right? No real surprises here with the exception that Ron Paul's team does not really use of PPC strategies to any great extent.

The real difference lies is the way Ron Paul's team implements their tactics, especially when compared to other Presidential contenders' strategies.

The body of the site contains very compelling content that is easy to find and leads you to endless amounts of interesting information concerning Ron Paul.

Maybe the most obvious difference is Ron Paul's site is constantly being updated and changed; the team adds new information daily and continually works to improve their Search Engine visibility using well attended blogs, Press Releases, and Social Media.

Web Site Optimization

Overall, the Ron Paul team has deployed a very solid website in a short period of time. Not that every part of the site is perfect, but the good points far outweigh the bad. In fact, with just a few slight changes, the Ron Paul website could serve as a great model for other political candidates.

One somewhat insignificant difference, but one that I personally like about Ron Paul's website, is that his team does not use an annoying Splash page as many other candidates do.

I know splash pages look good to the website owner, but they're almost always a waste of time since most people just want to get to what they came to the site to see - in this case, information about Ron Paul!

The 'home' page Ron Paul's team has designed is very intuitive and easy to navigate. They've placed breaking news, volunteer sign up, Blog access, and an excellent menu of choices that covers everything from Ron Paul's position on the major issues to videos and recordings of his major appearances.

Looking at the foundation of the website, Meta Title tags are the same for all pages. Concerning the Meta Descriptions, they're also identical across all the pages of the website, so the Search Engines choose their own descriptions to display with the Ron Paul listing. Not recommended, but it probably causes no real harm in this case.

Looking deeper, the site could use some fine tuning, adding Alt tag descriptions that contain more keywords would help; as well as adding unique Meta Descriptions for each page.

Links into the page are almost non-existent and I would recommend adding a number of related, quality inbound links to the site. It couldn't hurt and would probably drive even more traffic to the website and/or Blog.

The site could also use some additional keyword research to help Ron Paul key in on the potential voters who are not familiar with him, and to present his message to more of them.

The Ron Paul interactive videos on top of the 'Issues' page are a great addition. It seems to me if more detail were added concerning Ron Paul's stance on the issues, it would be a more valuable contribution to the site.

Although there are some obvious opportunities for improvement; given the website's presentation, the information available, and ease of use, I give Ron Paul's team very good marks in the SEO category.

Social Media Strategies

Ron Paul's team's approach to social media marketing has made him a Republican powerhouse. His campaign team understands social media and knows how to use it.

From photos and videos to networking, Ron Paul can be found across the Internet.

Most candidates' teams have begun to use social media sites but most of them don't seem to be very active on them. Ron Paul's team excels

here because they are very active - they make continuous updates on his social media profiles all hours of the day.

Increasingly, as new generations enter the voting ranks, social media is becoming an indispensable part of successful political campaigns. The current generation of younger voters has grown up using the Internet as their primary means of communication. It's second nature for them to use the Internet to gain and share information.

Currently on MySpace, Ron Paul shows over 273,000 friends, Facebook shows over 205,000, and YouTube has over 109,000 videos under his name.

On the Ron Paul Blog, links to submit posts to Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious and others are available. Also helpful, is the RSS feed button that's displayed in the upper part of the left column. Having an RSS feed signup on the blog helps to promote the blog even further in the social media outlets.

When you look at the popularity of Ron Paul on the social media sites and compare the other candidates to him, he is definitely using the social networks more than other candidates to promote his grassroots efforts.

Blogging Strategies

Ron Paul has a very active Blog [http://people.ronpaul2008.com/campaign-updates]. His team consistently posts new information and breaking news all hours of the day. The Ron Paul team knows they have a very active and captive audience on the blog and they actively cater to them.

There's an RSS button to easily subscribe to blog updates and links to YouTube and other social media are scattered throughout the page to promote Blog entries.

Overall, Ron Paul's campaign team has done an outstanding job developing and deploying a very effective Internet Marketing strategy.

Summary

Internet Marketing is quickly becoming an integral part of nearly every political campaign.

Increasingly, the Internet is becoming a news and recruiting source that is irreplaceable in major political campaigns.

Pressed for campaign funds, both Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul have used the Internet as a very cost effective way to get their message across to potential contributors and voters.

Without their efforts on the Internet, it could be argued that very few people would have ever heard of either candidate. While both candidates are underdogs, they probably would not even still be in the race without their well orchestrated Internet Marketing campaigns.

How much of Ron Paul's or Mike Huckabee's success is due to their Internet Marketing efforts? There's no doubt Internet viewers looking for information concerning these candidates have had no problem finding it on the Internet.

The real question is how many potential voters will actually be affected by the Internet Marketing they come into contact with? Judging from over a Million visitors to Ron Paul's website and the amount of contributors he's been able to inspire, there can be no doubt many potential voters have been directly affected by the Internet Marketing strategy his team has deployed.

It's now clear Political Internet Marketing is a very effective campaign tool and will continue to be an increasingly important part of successful political campaigns well into the future.

By Scott Porter

MarketBuilders

2008 All Rights Reserved

Ron Paul Page [http://www.ronpaul2008.com/]



Scott Porter is President of MarketBuilders [http://www.search-engine-marketing-company.net/], a full service Internet Marketing firm. MarketBuilders uses targeted Internet advertising, top search results, sponsored advertising, Email marketing, Blogs, social media, Press Releases, copy writing, link building and optimized website design to provide businesses a significant competitive advantage on the Internet.

Scott Porter has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Marketing & Information Systems, and has over twenty years experience working with Fortune 100 firms to develop and promote marketing and information systems strategies.

by Scott Porter

Managing Partner

MarketBuilders




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How to Effectively Promote Your Legitimate Work at Home Business Online With Forum Marketing

Forum marketing is one of the most effective and free traffic driving tactics to your legitimate work at home business online. The misconception still exists that traffic will automatically come rushing in after a website is created and published to the web. Please understand that an online business is the same as any other businesses. For it to work, you must promote it. You must treat it like a real business, because that's what it is. Read on to find out more on how you can use forum marketing to your best advantage

Since the beginning of internet marketing, internet gurus have been using forum marketing to promote their legitimate online business. There are however, rules that you must adhere to in order to see a good respond. For one, when you first register with a new forum, make sure you always read through and understand its rules and regulations. Every forum will have their respective rules and regulations. Most of which are similar but don't take that for granted. Read them all. For example, most online business forums will have a thread or a discussion topic where you can promote your own products or services.

Some forums will only allow you to do so after you have made 3 postings in other threads where else some forums do not have this clause. There are also some forums that do not allow you to include a signature in your first few postings and many more. I'm sure you understand the idea here is to always read the rules and regulations. Forum marketing is a great way to network with other online home business owners to strike a joint venture with. Whether it's cross promotions or link exchanges they are all possible. It is also a great way to promote yourself as an expert in your niche market and to promote your legitimate online business by adding a signature that is linked back to your website.

Always remember though to post quality comments. A simple one line yes or no answers will not do. Elaborate on your opinion and raise your views if you can, but don't ever get into a dispute. You can get banned from the forum. Now we don't want that to happen right. Where can I find forums on my niche to participate in? Simple, just google; forum+yournichemarket. I just googled; forum+online business. The returned results were 284 million online business forums that are available. You have no excuse not to join forums now.

The thing about forum marketing is that it takes a comparatively longer time to see the result. If you are looking to drive massive traffic tomorrow by doing forum marketing today, you will be disappointed. Nevertheless, its worth the while because once the traffic momentum gets going you will be amazed. To achieve this you must do forum postings constantly, for when the it starts to fruit, they are plentiful and the sweetest. This is when you start to enjoy the fruit from your labor.



Steven Fu, an Infopreneur recommends and provides valuable advice on top legitimate work at home businesses online. Download his FREE "Plug-in Passive Income Toolkit" Now and discover the Proven way to start a legitimate online business.




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Jumpstart Your Web 2.0 Marketing With A Top-Notch Article Marketing Service

Many marketers are jumping on the bandwagon of using Web 2.0 marketing as a way of getting additional visitors and link love to their websites. This can be a terrific way of promoting your main sites, and if done correctly can provide some inbound links, traffic and additional search engine rankings. Let's look at how you can use an article marketing service to help you create the load of content you'll need to do this effectively.

The idea of using Web 2.0 sites in your marketing efforts is a sound one, and is based on the love that Google and the other search engines show for many of those sites. They possess an authority and ranking presence that is difficult for a new site to attain, and in fact, can benefit older sites as well by providing platforms that have relevant content with links pointing to their main sites.

This can be beneficial in terms of link building, page rank passage, additional raw traffic, authority and trust rank. The time it would take to build and rank authority sites for this purpose is prohibitive, and makes the appearance on the scene of many of these Web 2.0 sites very appealing. Thus, many webmasters use these sites to put up content that supports and serves their main sites.

This leads to the need for a boatload of content that is not spammy, is very useful in its own right, and will speak to the topic and purpose at hand. It's sometimes quite difficult to come up with all this website content, and that's where an article marketing service comes in. A reputable ghostwriting service that specializes in web content creation can be worth its weight in gold, as it allows you to scale your efforts in a fashion that you alone might no be able to accomplish.

Hiring out your web 2.0 marketing content is a smart tactic, as it allows you to focus more on the things you do best, and leave the tasks that others can do for others to do! Many times a good article marketing service will be able to have the Web 2.0 sites built and posted to, thus saving you even more time and possibly learning curve. While you may well be the architect, leaving the actual construction to those who are capable and professional, and leveraging your efforts many times over. You'll be amazed at the results.

Of course, there are many aspects of Web 2.0 marketing you'll still need to control, such as the sites you want to utilize, the type of content and keywords to use, as well as the actual links you want to implement.

Web 2.0 sites go in and out of fashion quickly, so keeping an eye on the Web 2.0 marketing scene in general is a good idea. Some sites are making the links out of their sites nofollow, which negates any link benefit you might have received. Think before deciding against a site for that reason: many times the direct traffic may be worth it!

Outsourcing your Web 2.0 marketing is a great way to scale your marketing efforts. Just be sure to find the right people to help you!



Give your online campaign the boost it deserves with high-quality, professional content you can be proud of. Timeliness, widespread promotion and unique content created just for you is what Content Divas thrives on. Find out what the Divas can do for you. Visit us today at http://www.contentdivas.com




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The Untold Secrets To Succeeding In Web Marketing

Have you ever felt fed up with all these web-marketing experts and super millionaires around?

I have.

Have you ever felt that one of the reasons you keep trying to make it online is to justify yourself in front of the eyes of your family members and friends?

I have.

Have you ever felt like a fool wandering around on the net all day wasting time and money having zero or very poor results, while your friends and family laugh at you behind your back?

I have.

How about listening to what I discovered that has literally changed my life during the last month and will certainly change yours as well? Well, I cant keep such an info to myself, I have to let it out, I have to share it with all marketers or non marketers, experienced or newbies. And I suggest you do the same.

For the last 6 years I have read more than 50 books on email marketing , listbuilding, advertising, traffic generating, web-business developing, web-advertising, article writing, google adsense tricks, google adwords tactics, blogs and ping, social marketing websites, SEO techniques and everything there is as well as hundreds of e-books others purchased and others offered for free as bonuses to software or digital info products I paid for.

Well, I don't complain for all this wealth of information, but although you'd guess I'd be a web-marketing genius by now, till one month ago I was a BIG NOBODY, a ROUND ZERO, or maybe a MINUS, because I had paid for Google Adwords, e-books and books a small fortune and all I had got in return were a few dollars here and a few there.

You can get access to the info that turned this whole status upside down, by visiting my website, but even if you don't, I'm sure you'll find your own way to that info if you take a few minutes and sink into what I'm going to share with you here, but it will take you sometime, hopefully not 6 years as it took me.

Through my long journey to knowledge and self improvement as an Internet Marketer and as a person, five phrases originating from five different people who have my respect and admiration, were the milestones of my thinking and "reprogramming" and my point of reference - sort of compass - every time I was badly sidetracked.

1. Common sense is more rare than blue diamonds.

2. It's a numbers' game.

3. 90% of those who buy the e-books don't even finish reading them. A very tiny percentage of them will apply some of the actions or strategies presented. And just a few or nobody will follow exactly what the e-book publisher suggests or recommends.

4. People would do anything to avoid thinking for themselves. People hate thinking.

5. The solutions to the biggest problems are ridiculously simple and right under our nose, that's why we don't see them.

These "gems" have been spinning in my head all the time and have been my "filtering criteria" of what I had to cope with and how I should do it. But still, although applying online marketing techniques and approaches to my offline businesses, worked EXTREMELY FINE, I repeatedly failed to create an automated business online, even after having set up more than 15 websites of my own.

Trying to locate the reasons of my inertia, I realized that I was suffering from info-overload, and although I had all pieces of the puzzle in my mind, I still needed a SYSTEM a step by step guide which would help me put them together in a way that would enable me to get optimum results in minimum time and with minimum effort.

A WEB-MARKETING GUIDE and a SYSTEM which will give us the basics to an online business we're more apt to, is essential and once we realize it, our share of web-profits is there for us to take it. But nothing will come alone without us lifting a finger. Yes, automation power is there only after you've sweated a river and have your eyes turned red from countless trials and errors till you set up the website, write a compelling sales copy, set your auto-responders, pick up the right product to promote, or write your own and have it properly compiled edited and secured. Not to mention the endless hours till you get acquainted with the right websites that offer you high exposure potential and those who will actually be your key-partners on your way to success.

And the main ENEMY of yours will be procrastination, distraction, sidetracking ... My "handcrafts" website is a typical example of a great idea and a nice project in the hands of a "I know how to do it, but I'll do it when I'm ready for it" loser. This website (* I can't mention its domain here for reasons you can understand) would have been a "killer" in its own niche market should I had done 2 years ago what I always had in my mind but DIDN'T APPLY SO FAR. Maybe you should face your mistakes like I did when i came to realize that i had wasted precious time doing nothing to nurture, sustain my online business and help it grow. Never is too late for a new beginning.

It is so incredibly simple and obvious, but still we prefer to complicate our lives. Common sense is all it takes and you'll see your online business like a proper offline one. A big offline business. I would urge you to tap in the numbers' power which is offered to you on the web. How many customers would visit your offline business in a day : 3, 30, 300 ? Through the web your products or services are available to millions. All you need is a couple of thousand visitors on a daily basis, turning 20-50 of them into buyers. Believe me both can happen in a few days time. Just find a SYSTEM like the one I recommend on my website, and STICK TO IT. Don't quit till you put everything together as presented step by step. Assuming you were going to make a cake using a recipe a friend gave you. Would you follow a few steps and then quit? Would you improvise? Or would you apply with absolute precision EVERY SINGLE STEP described on the recipe? Well, web-marketing results not to a cake but to the life of your dreams.

Following one by one ALL THE STEPS as advised and systematically is so rewarding that goes far beyond your wildest dreams. Start to love thinking and enjoy thinking for yourself. Analysis and synthesis , the two components of critical thinking will bring you closer to your dreams' realization. And so will the power of intention and the definiteness of purpose, both empowered by visualization. There is a "trick" I've invented in order to align myself with my primary aims and achieve an efficient level of visualization. Once every month I pretend writing an email to my best friend who lives to another city, by sending her an email - sending myself an email- with "MY LIFE's JOURNAL" describing things I want to experience as if they have already happened. In this "JOURNAL" I am the celebrity and I am to be admired and envied for all I am and all I have and do. Put this exercise in your weekly or monthly routine. You'll be amazed by the results.

If biggest truths lie just under our nose, why don't you try to see things from a different perspective. You'll soon discover solutions that were lying right under your nose. I have found the exact Web Marketing Guide you need and I highly recommend it.



Sophia Stavropoulou knew how to get results offline. She has now discovered the real power of applied web-marketing techniques and you can read more about the Web-Marketing-Guide that helped her boost her online profits here: http://www.webmarketinguide.com




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Successful Content Marketing - Amazing Tactics Part 2

I'm sure you're looking for more amazing tactics that you can apply on your content marketing campaign. Well, I'm not here to disappoint you. Go and read on!

1. Write and distribute eBooks. At least 2-4 times a year, write and distribute free eBooks that you can use for continuous opt-in engagements. Remember to make them meaty so they'll be worth your readers' time. What I suggest is that you write topics that are extremely controversial but ensure that they're related to your products and services so you can capture the attention of qualified prospects. You can also write about your potential clients' most pressing issues and give them step-by-step guide on how they can solve them ASAP.

Don't forget to include the link of your website and blog all throughout your eBook. Also, mention your paid offerings without sounding like you're doing hard selling. Subtly mention them at the end of your eBooks and highlight their unique selling preposition. Lastly, encourage your recipients to forward or share your free eBooks to their friends and family members. Yes, not all of them might be interested with what you offer but I'm sure some of them will.

2. Use Facebook. I'm sure you know that this site is one of the most accessed on all points of the globe. Register your own fan page account and use it not only to get in touch with your prospects but also to promote your articles, blog posts, free eBooks, and free reports.

3. Webinars or teleseminars. These would definitely excite your potential clients. At least twice a year, offer seminars that you can conduct via web or through phone. As these are considered to have higher value compare to eBooks and articles, you can be assured that you'll be able to attract more attention. My advice is to keep them short but meaty. Remember, you don't want to give your attendees everything they would want to know about especially if you're selling information based products. Just give them enough to convince them that you're really an expert in your niche but make sure to leave them wanting for more.

Boost the number of your attendees by properly promoting your seminars. Also, make them interactive by allowing some of your attendees to ask questions but be prepared for these questions ahead of time.

4. Offer free group coaching programs. Teaching your potential clients through coaching programs will really do your business good. As online users will consider these as gold mines of useful information, you can be assured that you'll be able to attract hundreds of people from across the globe. Make them worthy of your attendees' time and ensure that they'll put you in a nice position; you would want to use your coaching programs as tools in positioning yourself as an expert in your niche and someone who's to be trusted.

Nobody said that doing content marketing is a piece of cake. But with proper planning and precise execution plus your commitment to giving only the best to your potential clients, you can be assured that this long, overwhelming process is the key to getting them to swipe their credit cards in no time.



By the way, do you want to learn more about using articles like this to drive traffic to your website and increase online conversions?

If so, I suggest you check this out: article marketing traffic.

Or do you want to learn more about how I teach my clients to build simple coaching programs that create much more revenue than just creating information products?

If so, download my free guide here: How to Sell Coaching




Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize

Amazing Marketing Secret

E-commerce is a rapidly expanding, yet not overly saturated market, in which to sell your products or services. However, as more individuals worldwide join the online business trend, competition is growing more compacted. Perhaps the headline is a bit sensational but there are a few, rarely used tactics that can greatly improve your online sales. I will approach five simple strategies that can generate additional streams of income continuously.

• Do what your competitors don't/won't! This may sound odd even negative, but research your market niche, what is being offered and what is missing? Look closely at your competition: what do they promise, offer, or give? In what facet can you exceed their pitch? What are they NOT doing?

It is simple enough to over-deliver. Is there a free eBook or newsletter you can provide. Special give-a-ways and incentives are always a hit; always over deliver. For example, if your niche is dog training and your competition offers 32 secrets, you should offer 40 tips in video format with an easy to follow guide book and a forum.

You may even find that there is a neglected "sub-niche" waiting to be filled. Perhaps you have a web-site and eBook dedicated to digital photography, once you survey the online landscape, you may realize no one is paying particular attention to portrait photography with digital cameras. That is a sub-niche within the large field of digital photography that needs to be filled. You can put yourself into a position to "fill the void" in that category.

• Keep your first customer! It is harder to acquire new customers than to keep the one you already have. Why would any sound entrepreneur make a sale once, and then cast aside that client to begin searching for a new buyer. Yes, the smart business person will always be seeking new customers but wise entrepreneur will also keep previous customers as continuing buyers.

Once you have concluded a successful transaction, there is already a level of trust. Your customer knows you and, hopefully, appreciates your service. It is far better to approach the consumer from a position of strength and understanding. Keep your buyers in the loop with newsletters or promotional emails. You don't have to be pushy, use wording like, "customers how bought 'A' also really enjoyed 'B'.

• See what your competitors are offering, replicate it, and then GIVE it away! If within your niche, a competitor is selling an eBook, write a similar book and give it away as part of a larger package or service. Why would someone buy a product they can get for free somewhere else? In so doing, you endear the customer to you as a person who gives greater value and you have opened the door to future sales. Remember, value must outweigh money! As always, your free item should have an up sale element and numerous references to your site, products, and services.

• Know your competitors! This isn't spying, it's good business sense. As an entrepreneur, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of the market. You must understand the trends and tides of your niche. Examine who and what your competitors are. What do they offer and how successful are they?

You must be able to lay out a reasonable argument as to why your product or service is superior! Research, including purchase of a competitor's goods, will allow you to construct a better product. Show the buyer how you are different!

• Customer Service! Once the transaction has complete, go above and beyond with any customer service issues that may arise.

Give a free gift or bonus! The best gifts to deliver are unannounced. If people expect a gift, you are predictable but the surprise bonus, even a small token, is greatly appreciated and remembered. Don't do things by habit, do the unexpected.

Contact your buyer by email, phone, or a service such as "send out cards." Don't use this as an opportunity to up sale, just thank them for their purchase and ask if there is anything more you can do. Add the quality factor to the equation to change the game. Be personable and forthright not pushy or neglectful.

These little secrets are not revolutionary but they are often overlooked. With the growing competition in the online market, you must separate yourself from the competition. Compete on value. Give twice the value and your buyers will come back for more. Understand the competition, adjust to what is missing, fill the void of customer service, and you can dominate your niche!



Brian Trimmer is an established entrepreneur specializing in affiliate and article marketing. Also a known researcher and ghost writer, Brian has numerous e-Books and articles to his credit. Lastly, he is part of one of the most dynamic entrepreneur protege groups on the web. To learn more about starting and growing your own online family business, and to discover a remarkable entrepreneurial community, go to http://www.LearnFamilyBiz.com.




Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Trimmer

7 Best Marketing Tactics to Boost Your Sales

Astute internet marketing tactics are vital now with millions of websites being visited by millions of computer users. Otherwise how can you, for instance, ascertain that your product or service can be viewed by your target customers and that your leads will be taken up by them? Here are 7 tips for both paid and organic (free) advertising:

1. Placing a link (also called a backlink) to sites that are similar in content will improve your page rankings, especially if those sites themselves have a high ranking. Furthermore, investigate the reasons those websites' search engine rankings are high, why they get traffic, where there is external linking and what other ads are placed on them. If you provide links to these sites, then it will improve your own page ranking. When your ranking begins to climb, this is a recognition that the content of your site is weighty so other sites, in turn, choose to have links to your web pages. This will mean that people can reach the site where your product or service is located, even if they are searching from a different site.

2. Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a web advertising strategy that is a form of paid advertising. You will only have to to pay for the ad if the link is clicked. If you choose this method of advertisement, ensure that you are using services that set restrictions on day by day expenses. There are also tools that help you examine the PPC results.

3. Choose your domain name judiciously. Domain names that are product - related help consumers to remember your domain, so they can return to your site even without the links. Do your best to select a dot com or dot net, even if hyphens are used.

4. Article writing that gives relevant and useful information is another powerful tool for attracting people to your site and improving your sales. There are amazing tools to assist you with article writing that will speed up the process.

5. Ensure you have useful content on your sites. While keyword density is vital for search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not encourage repeat customers to your site.

6. When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers. Watch out for current trends that may be a profitable niche and ask: What keywords will people explore now? Invest in keyword search software or use Google Easy Search which is free.

7. Track and measure responses to your articles, videos and advertisements. Software is available online that is simple, free and powerful for this purpose.

Effective advertising of your service or product can be achieved with forward planning and some shrewd marketing tools. Learning marketing tactics that boost search engine rankings will make your product or service more accessible to your traffic and potential clients. Identifying relevant keywords, using targeted advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results. Your online advertising and promotion strategy will be sure to succeed!



Article by Gail Bottomley, from New Zealand, is your best internet marketing tactic of all at http://www.onlinemarketingtacticssite.com. Gail is an internet marketing coach of international repute, offering excellent, live support to all her students. To access many tools and to download her free Sales & Marketing Tactics visit http://www.onlinemarketingtacticssite.com.




Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gail_Bottomley

5 Ways to Improve Your Online Marketing

1. Site Design

Make sure that your Web site is professional and has a great design. You want your Web site to have a clean, tight look so that customers are compelled to return. Professional site design means having a Web site that is easy to navigate, has appropriate logos, has up-to-date information, answers customer questions, and doesn't look like an amateur site. Use the techniques we have given you to ensure that you have a professional-looking, quality Web site. Make sure you incorporate the techniques in later chapters of this book to ensure that your Web site is optimized for search engines.

2. Honesty

Never hide anything from your customers. Give them all the data that they need to make an informative decision about your products or services. Follow through on what you say you offer at your Web site to maintain credibility and trust. You don't want to be identified and exposed in the media as a poor company, scam site, or rip-off artist. Bad news travels fast, and it travels even faster on the Internet. A great example of this is in a PowerPoint presentation titled "Yours Is a Very Bad Hotel," authored by two extremely dissatisfied businessmen after their bad experience with a hotel. The hotel's poor customer service and failure to hold a "guaranteed" room reservation was widely distributed on the Internet. As a result of the negative publicity, the nationwide hotel chain changed corporate policies and no doubt suffered from the unwanted attention. This is a superb example of very negative exposure that was spread virally and very quickly around the world - literally.

3. Customer Incentive

Make sure that you give your customers a reason to visit your site, to spend time browsing it, to interact with it, and most importantly, to return to it. Offer incentives by showcasing featured products or promotions, and use creative and new Internet tools, such as video and audio, to create an interactive experience.

4. Domain Name

Try to get your own domain name for your Web site. As simple as this concept may be, it makes the difference between prospects remembering who you are and moving on to your competition. Use brief, benefit-related terms for multiple-site URLs. Don't rely on only one domain featuring your name or organization.

5. Testimonials

Using customer testimonials is a great way to promote the quality and reliability of your Web site and, more importantly, promote your products or services. This is an amazingly effective tactic. The media you create and the coverage that you get is a subtle, third-party referral to you. However, the strongest and most effective sales assistance comes from direct customer testimonials. We recommend using audio and video testimonials as well as printed quotes on your Web sites.

Remember that no matter how flashy or impressive your Web site may look, it is customer service, satisfaction, and reliability that keep them coming back. The success of your online strategy relies on combining all of the above tactics for maintaining successful online positioning and presence.



Colchester web design company Synaxis Solutions offers you a full suite of Internet marketing and development services. Whether you're looking for a simple site build or a comprehensive online business strategy, we're ready and willing to lend a hand.




Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Robert_Wood

Restaurant Marketing in 2009 - Modern Systems and Tactics That Work

I am going to review what is traditionally done and how we can improve on that for 2009; and also how we can implement new ways of promoting our businesses that cost less than traditional media and are a lot more effective.

 

Newspaper ads 

 

Most print advertising is a waste of money. That is a fact, you can do better with your money else where. Publications will tell you that your competition is in so you should be, and they will tell you that they are read by x y and z. But at the end of the day this form of advertising is hard to track and very hard to get clear results from. This is how they manage to keep selling it; its hard to show that it does not work and it is traditionally what everybody does. I say it's time for a change; it's time to try new tactics for a new age - the information age. Below I go into more detail but lets get back to those print publications for a moment.  

 

Times are hard but they are harder for those selling advertising so expect a discount and always ask for 50% off the rate card. At the beginning of 2009 I ran a campaign in the Mail and the Mail on Sunday that ran for 5 weeks, in Friday's Mail and Sunday's and cost less than £200 per week. I got my offer in front of over 8 million pairs of eyeballs a week.   Now it was a small ad but none the less the numbers soon stack up and the results were well worth the cost. So negotiate and haggle for the best possible deal and then you will get the best return on your investment. One of the reasons that newspaper and magazine advertising is less attractive is the lack of tracking that you can implement. How do you know that people who come to your restaurant have come from a particular advert? With other businesses you can do things like give a 0871 number which diverts to your normal line but that you can monitor the number of calls.  

 

When you take bookings on the phone you can ask if someone has responded to an advert or how they came to ring you, but results are often difficult to collate and staff often forget to ask.   To have a truly effective campaign you need really good ad copy and you need to test which variants of the copy work the best and to which audience. With my Mail adverts I ran different adverts on different days to see the results; I had to find out if one advert worked better in the Sunday paper than in the Friday one or did one advert out perform the rest in either papers?   Then from the results I knew what to do to get the best results for my investment. 

 

Editorial ads  

 

Editorial copy is read 10 times more than advertising copy and people believe it. Where as advertising copy is often overlooked and seldom believed to be the whole truth.   When you advertise, get the publication to do an article on your restaurant to go with the advert. It pays to have a story of interest so that the editor accepts that it is not just an advert. Stories about new staff, a manager come in from Italy to run the Italian ristorante, or a new direction or product. You may be the first restaurant in town to sell the famous Humbug cake from Austria, made on the thighs of virgin cowgirl's.   There are stories everywhere you just have to look and use a little imagination. If you can make it interesting and get people excited about your food or restaurant then all the better.   If you can't get an actual editorial then you can style your advert to look like a piece of editorial. You have probably seen such things in the national papers and next to it is probably a disclaimer from the paper saying that it is an advert.  

 

Plan your advertising  

 

One of the best ways to plan your advertising is to look around in the press or what ever media you are going in to. The biggest thing to avoid is brand advertising because unless you are a big company it will be a waste of money. Coke can do it, car companies can do it but for most businesses it's a waste of money.  

 

Internet advertising  

 

The internet has given us new ways to advertise and it has one huge advantage over all other mediums; the analytics. You can place adverts then monitor and modify according to the results. Tracking advert response is easy and accurate so you can really see what works and what is a waste of money.   The most important thing here is to study first before you start an online campaign because otherwise you will have wild results. The most effective forms of advertising on the internet fall in to two categories; those you pay for and those you don't.  

 

What does work

 

In fact for most businesses advertising in the media is not an effective way to get business. The best ways to get results are either as stated with editorial ads or through voucher offers. "Cut the voucher out and bring it in for two for one". That way you can monitor the results and see that if you spent £250 0n the advert and 50 people brought it in spending £30 each after having the offer discount. Total income generated £1,500 at a GP percentage of 30% gives a net result of £450 minus the cost of the advert and you are up £200. Then there are the other costs too and taxes of course but you are up and your turnover was too.   Of course the real benefit comes from having those customers return and we go on to look at that below; remember that Customers are for life - not just for Christmas.  

 

Pay per click

 

Paying for advertising on the web is something to consider carefully because you can throw money away easily and see little in the way of results. Most people will tell you that Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is the best and it is true, for most businesses it can be very effective if done properly. If done badly the costs can spiral and you can end up paying a fortune for no gain.   Google will give you a PPC account and even some credit to get you started but my advice is to get some help first or it can be expensive (that's why they give you credit to start with!). You can also get an expert to manage your campaign for you and they will charge from about £200 a month. That is plus the actual cost of the clicks themselves which can vary from a few pence, to pounds.   For most restaurants this is not a good option. If you are a bigger restaurant, especially that has takeaway food, or part of a chain then the benefits can be great. For more help with this subject go to Sales and Marketing Wealth and put "PPC" into the secrets slot. 

 

Listings

 

The other forms of paid advertising on the internet are things such as banner adverts or paid for listings. Banner adverts might go on a "What's on in Dulwich" type page so that when people are looking for a place to go in your specific area, assuming you are in Dulwich, they will see your advert.  This form of advert is pretty good but to radically increase the results you should ask for a review on the restaurant page near your advert. People love reviews and will follow recommendations much more than paid for advertising. The irony is that you are paying for the review and it is your advertising, but it seems like editorial, and that sells.   Another option is ezines (online magazines or newsletters) but as you will see you are soon to create your own for next to nothing. So here again I urge you to look to other systems before you try this one.   If you do find a good online ezine or newsletter for your area then participating can be worthwhile and doesn't have to cost the earth. As with traditional publications, ezines often struggle for interesting content so offering editorials or articles on food or drink, or dining, could get you in, or even get you a regular feature. 

 

Internet advertising that works

 

What ever you decide to do in what ever medium you will need a website. If you don't have one then it is easy and very cheap to build one and host it. I will show you how to do that for as little as £5 a month in a moment.   Almost all internet advertising revolves around getting people to your website to see your offer. Too many marketers try and make the sale with their advert, this is wrong, you need people to take the first step towards your restaurant doors, and online that step is for them to visit your website. In traditional print media you may be trying to get people all the way to your doors but with online advertising and promotions you need to take it one step at a time.  

 

Step one is to get them interested enough to go to your website and find out more. Step two is getting them to give you their details and step three is getting them to come to your restaurant. Then you have step four which is trying to get them to partake in your community of diners which leads to the next step of getting them back in to eat again and again.   The one thing the web is very good at is forming communities and getting people to belong. You want people to belong to your restaurant community and feel that they are part of an inside group. If they are made to feel special about being in the group they will feel your restaurant is special and they will enjoy visiting it all the more.  

 

Don't think that this does not apply to your particular restaurant because it can; you just have to make it happen. Making it happen is not that hard and I will take you though the steps below. You can soon build a community of clients that will become loyal followers of the restaurant, and regular clients. It is from a solid group of regular clients that we can build a larger group of followers. If your inner group is involved and enthusiastic then they will help spread the word to their friends and bring you more business.   This spreading of the word has never been easier and more prevalent than now with the internet and all the social networking that goes on. You can shout about your own product until you are blue in the face and get little result, but if enthusiastic and happy clients are talking about you, people will listen and want to find out more.  

 

Your website

 

Your website should be full of great photos of the restaurant and the food that you offer. Here you can use artistic licence and take photos from websites like iStock that are of similar types of food and dishes to the ones that you offer; after all we are not all great photographers.   You will need to get some good shots of the restaurant though and if you find that hard to do because of lighting or space you can use shots of just a nicely laid table with a blurred background. Better still ask some clients if they mind being in a photo and get them smiling and looking like they are having a great time. 

 

KISS

 

Your site should not be too wordy but more give the impression of a light and enjoyable place to be. This is then projected in your offer of the restaurant as a nice place to be, with friendly helpful staff and great food.   Always use the KISS test; Keep It Simple Stupid. You want a site that is easy to navigate and that isn't loaded with text. People who see loads of text bounce to another site. Keep it fun, easy to use, bright and full of pictures as they say a thousand words for you.   The most important feature of your website should be the newsletter signup box. Here you ask people to sign up for your monthly newsletter. You can incentivise them to sign up by offering a £5 voucher or a free bottle of wine for the next time they come in. This is a great way to get people to sign up and it encourages them to come back. You can put stipulations on the offer such as week nights only and pre-booked tables etc. it's up to you.  

 

Building a list

 

The list that you build is the most valuable thing that your restaurant can have. You can use your list to promote the restaurant, bring customers in during quiet times and sell them other products and offers (more on that later).   You must give people something in order to get people to sign up to your list, as mentioned, an incentive. You have to work so hard to get customers through your door in the first place don't let them get away without adding them to your list. Then they become your customers for life.   List opt-ins I mentioned ways of incentivising your list offer and online that is fine, but in the restaurant you need to act differently. Some places give a mini flyer with the bill which says to go online to claim £5 off the next meal (or whatever the offer is). But this relies on people actually going online to register, and the majority will not. The best thing to do is give them a little form with the bill which asks for their name and email address, you need no more and people prefer to give as little as possible so leave it at that.  

The form says that they will get "the offer voucher" sent to them by email if they fill out the form. Leave them a pen; train the waiters to ask if the clients have filled out the form when they pick up the payment. Then you simply add their details to your list through your website sign up form.  

 

The list is king

 

You can communicate to your list easily and for free. This is direct advertising without any printing or postage costs. These people know you, like what you do and are hot for more. You can talk directly to them through a monthly newsletter and thus have no mailing costs, no advertising costs and very little work.   Write one email and send it to the whole list with the click of a button and in this way you can afford to give your list incentives to get them to return frequently. If you make them feel special and part of a group, they will respond positively.   As your list builds you can use it to promote events and special evenings or to help fill tables on quiet evenings. 

 

Automated profits

 

Use a CRM or web based database service to run your newsletter and autoresponders and you can build your list easily. Then you will be able to use this list to create automated profits through promoting affiliate products as well as your own.

 

Avoiding the bounce 

 

You only get one chance to make a first impression and that is so vital on the internet. People might arrive at your site, but you have to get them to stay, and then you have to get them to sign up to your newsletter and finally you can get them to come to your restaurant.   Don't imagine that people will see your site and just think "Oh that looks nice, lets go there" because that is not likely to happen. Think of yourself when browsing the internet, you get bombarded with offers and sometimes you will arrive at a place you did not intend to visit.   If you stay to have a look then that site is doing something right, if you immediately go back or click off then there was nothing there to make you stay. The actual truth is that there might have been just the thing that you wanted but it was hidden from you or what was offered first was repellent or put you off in some way.   When people arrive and then leave a site instantly we call this a bounce and the bounce rate of a site is a very telling thing. I run many websites and I constantly adjust the pages to get the maximum effect and minimum bounce. I recently lowered the bounce rate on one site by around 5% just by one tiny adjustment. Now 5% more people stay on the site to look around and see my offer. That equates to hundreds of people and that means significantly better results. 

 

The rules of building a successful website

 

First ask yourself why people are visiting your website and normally it is for one of 2 reasons:

1.      They want your phone number to make a booking.

2.    They want to know what you offer. Simple as that; why they are there or how they came to be is another subject altogether and driving people to your site is something we will look at later. When building, or improving your site first look around and see what the big boys are doing and learn from them.  

Basic rules are:

1.      Don't talk too much about your company; people don't care beyond the basics. "We are a small two restaurant company started by my father with his secret recipes and now run by me and my brother. We stand for consistency and service and always put quality ingredients before our profit margin." That is enough, then you can talk about the food a little, but again don't get too wordy. And don't put that on the front page, it can go on the "about us" page where people can find it if they want to.

2.    Pictures talk for you, use plenty of them. If you don't have nice pictures of your restaurant take some. As mentioned buy stock photos of dishes that look like yours. They are not expensive to buy, some are even free, but look a million dollars.

3.    Signup box; this should feature prominently on all pages of the site. If someone goes to a different page it should still be there so that if they are convinced at page three that your offer is a good one they can instantly sign up. Or page two, or four or wherever.

4.    Contact page; sometimes forgotten or under played. Have your address, postcode and email (or preferably an email form) and once again, even bigger this time, offer people a chance to sign up for the newsletter; and a big phone number. The phone number should be on every page so that they can call you easily.

5.     Newsletter signup; as I have said put this on every page and make it obvious. Offer an incentive such as a free bottle of wine, or two for one meal offer; you can add terms and conditions to the offer. But make it irresistible, because once you have people's details you can mail them, at no cost, every month with your offers and they will come to the restaurant, and if you are any good they will continue to come and become part of your community of diners.

6.    If you are not sure ask for help. Don't just ask any old web designer, most of them are not marketers they are just computer geeks. In fact most of the web designers I have encountered have a really geeky website themselves that is designed by geeks for geeks. If this is the case avoid them as they don't know about marketing and sales. If you get stuck then ask for help at Sales and Marketing Wealth there you can get free advice and help in building your own site or getting someone to do a good job for you.

7.     Finally apply the KISS test; "keep it simple stupid!"; is your site simple, easy to follow and use? Remember the things that you are trying to achieve and why people are there in the first place. Too much text on the front, or any pages, and people will bounce. Make it plain how to get in touch, post your phone number big and clear on the front, and all pages. And make people keen to sign up to your newsletter and get their free bottle of wine. I can't say that enough. 

 

  Promotional ideas

 

How to get people to your website and then to your restaurant 

 

Too often people think that if they put up a website it will bring them business but most websites get almost no visitors. Think about it; most websites get almost no visitors.   So a website alone cannot make you money, and unless you are in the centre of Covent Garden the chances are you will need to promote your business. One of your selling and promotional tools is your website and in order for that to work we need to get people to visit it.          

 

Planning a strategy

 

In business you must plan ahead; think of where you are and where you would like to be in 6 months or a year. Try and step outside

the day to day running of the business and look to the near and distant future.  

 

Backwards Planning

 

One of my favourite ways of planning how to get somewhere is to plan backwards. Imagine that you are already where you want to be and then think back to what got you to that place. What was the last step in the process? And what was the one that led to that? In this way you can work your way backwards to where you are now and see all the steps that you must take that will eventually lead you to where you want to be.   I find this is also a good way to help set targets in the first place, because if you just make up a target and then head out for it you may not know how or if you can get there. However if you look at all the steps involved you are more aware of what has to be done to achieve your goals.          

 

Aim and focus

 

Above all, to achieve a goal, you have to know what it is. That means you need to know what you want in order to take steps to get it. That may seem like common sense to some people but all too often small businesses lack direction. So have a direction and goal set out and then plan how to get there.  

 

How to get people to your website

 

So people came in to the restaurant for various reasons and a lot of them may have stemmed from a visit to your website. But as I have said having a great website isn't the end of the process, and it's not the beginning either. Imagine a fantastic billboard beside a road; if it grabs people's attention that pass by and 10% of them take action as a result of it wouldn't that be great? If it was beside a motorway like the M25, wow! But what about if it was beside the B3332 in deepest Cornwall? 10% of 5 farmers and a dog isn't very much business.   So you need your message to be seen by as many people as possible, and preferably people who will be at least a little bit interested and likely to visit your restaurant; the dog's definitely out and so are the farmers if you're based in Glasgow.  PPC The most targeted method of sending people to your website is through Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. If you are not familiar with this it is the adverts that you see at the top of the page when you do a search on Google or whatever search engine you use. You choose a key word, words or phrase and then when someone searches for that your advert comes up. If they click on it then you pay Google for the click. The amount you pay for the click depends on many factors and can be quite a mine field. You can pay from a few pence to a few pounds per click. 

 

Making PPC Work for you

 

For a lot of restaurants this is not a good form of advertising but if you are careful you can get good results with little money, especially if you are in a small town. The best way to get cheap clicks is to choose an obscure search term that no one else is using.   If you are in a small town you can take advantage of this by using the town name in the text of the search term. As with "Places to eat in Little Hampton". Alternatively you can be specific about the type of food you serve; if you are a vegetarian restaurant say so, alternatively if beef is your thing you may want to look for people searching for a good steak. So be careful, be specific and go slowly, if at all, down the PPC road. 

 

Blogs and reviews 

 

Blogs and reviews are a very powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal and to have them work for you to their full effect you need to try and involve your customers. One of the best selling tools that marketers and sales people have is their customer testimonials. These can be employed in several ways to great effect. In days gone by you would see quotes on brochures saying how Mrs. Seymour of Upton had been most pleased with her new widget and it was great value for money. These days' testimonials are used on websites in much the same way, and they work. The important thing is to use real ones from real people and quote their name and at least part of their address or location. If you use Mrs. Sedgemoor you will get caught out, especially if you spell her name differently here and there!   The best way to get great testimonials is completely overlooked by most people who are not professionally in sales. That is to simply ask for them. Ask your happy customers for a glowing reference, you can even suggest what they might say. Then write it down, ask them if they mind you using their name and location, a photo of them at their table would be even better, and off you go. If you post the quote next to a picture of the happy diners at their table smiling then it will carry all the more weight. Believability is what you need; people have to know that you haven't just made a load of great stuff up to make you look good.   Your customers can become the most powerful sales people in your business. I use customer's quotes in almost all my websites and offline promotional material.

 

I even videoed one happy couple for a promotion that we were running. Apart from getting quotes to post on your own websites you need to ask customers to post about you and your restaurant on blogs and other websites. That is harder as once they leave the restaurant they will forget or not bother. If you can ask them to post a review on one of the restaurant sites like Out to Lunch Club or even Google then you may stand a better chance. The more listings free or other, that you have the better and you can turbo charge them by having reviews on them so focus a little effort on that and get great results.

 

There is much more 

 

Get proactive and research marketing through the internet. There is a wealth of knowledge out there and most of it is freely available. Remember that restaurateurs are traditionally not good marketers so give your business the edge and get that knowledge and put it to good use.

This will give you the advantage and mean that you will prosper no matter what the economy is doing. It never ceases to amaze me that there is so often a queue outside my local Pizza Express almost every night and day. This is for one reason; marketing.

 

Take it seriously and get seriously busy.

 

Alex Joll



Alex Joll has a background in marketing and sales and has developed several business over the last 20 plus years. These days he specialises in online marketing and his company Sales and marketing Wealth Ltd has lately been responsible for the launch and promotion of Out to Lunch Club and Customers are for Life.

Alex is an active member of his local business community and chambers of commerce and provides advice and support for many businesses and budding entrepreneurs.

You can contact Alex through the Sales and Marketing Wealth site or by email: alex@AlexJoll.com




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