DEMO: Marketing Theme

Business Cards Are Excellent Salesman
 by: Viojieley Gurrobat

Since the 19th century business cards were widespread among people of all classes with a business to promote. The earliest form of business cards, known as tradecards, were used as advertising materials and as maps used to direct the public to the merchant’s store. Today business cards are among the most important marketing material that every business must have.

The business card is perhaps the best salesman that you can have. That is why it is essential that it contains much more than your name, address, and contact numbers and services. It should be designed keeping its purpose in mind - that is its being a powerful sales tool. So let’s start with the design. If you want to create a business card that contains a photo with gradient colors you can try using a glossy paper to ensure that the cards are printed as good as they look on the screen. Or else, you can get disappointed with the print out.

Opt-in Emails Are Better
 by: Desmond Mantor

Buzzwords and other terminology relating to the internet are

being churned out constantly. However, they rarely mean

anything new and normally refer to terms used prior to the

internet age. Opt-in emails are one example.

Email marketing is little more than traditional direct

mailing. The format has changed but the principle remains

the same: send out a lot of ads to a lot of people and

hope for some responses. The problem with this marketing

strategy is that it is very inefficient and costs a lot

of money. Worse, there are thousands of ads that go unread

making the entire process a very wasteful affair.

On the other hand, opt-in emails produce qualified leads

only because you can send them to only those people who have

granted you permission to send your marketing material to

them. No wonder, any marketing major will tell you that

these are the best leads to have. Opt-in emails are

different from the basic email marketing campaigns in the

sense that people have started abusing spam and all the ads

How To Get Free Publicity For Your Home Based Business
 by: Daphne Succes

If you are just starting a new business or simply operating one on a budget, there are a lot of ways to get free publicity for your home based business. Not everyone can afford an aggressive marketing or advertising campaign. Lets face it - advertising is expensive. In fact, for many business, advertising is the largest expense that they incur. This is especially true of home based businesses due, in part, because there are not many additional expenses for a business operated in the home.

In order for customers to find you, they must first be made aware that your company exists. One such way to get free publicity for your home based business includes the distribution of a press release. A well-written press release will be one page or less in length. It will offer the basics - who, what, when and where. In order for your press release to gain publication, your business must be noteworthy or be hosting something that is of interest to the public. For example, if you are launching a home based business and would like to share your story, this would make a great press release. If your business is launching a new website, promotion or product line, these would provide for good quality news as well. In order for a press release to be printed, you must include a contact name, address and telephone number at the top of the page. Press releases can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to newspapers, magazines and local trade publications. This is a terrific way to get free publicity for your home based business.

Social Networking - The Next Great Marketing Medium?
 by: Rob Sullivan

There has been a virtual explosion of social networking sites in the past couple of years. Even the big players like Google, Yahoo and MSN are getting into it.

With so much interest in how social networks work, one begins to wonder if there is marketing potential within these social networks?

I’ve been watching social networking for some time now. In fact I’m a member of various social networking sites including MySpace and LinkedIn just to name two.

I joined partly because I wanted to see what they were, but more importantly to see what impact social networking would have on SEM in the coming years.

I’ve been a member of various services for some time and the reach these sites have is incredible.

For example, from my LinkedIn network of seven people I have an expanded network of over 12,600 people.

Imagine that - I’m only a click or two away from close to 13,000 other people who share my similar interests ranging from what I like to watch on TV to work I could provide to them.

So, why would you want to send your campaigns out using an email service provider(ESP) rather than your standard email program (SEP)? Here are some points to consider??

1. An ESP allows you to send the message using MIME technology, which means it sends an HTML (with pictures and colour) version to those who can receive HTML and a text version to those who can’t. An SEP does not recognise whether the recipient can read HTML emails or not when sending emails. Therefore if you send an HTML email to all your recipients, those who cannot receive HTML emails receive what looks to them like gobbledygook ? which reflects badly upon your Company and results in many unsubscribes.

2. An ESP cannot send viruses as they are designed to only send emails, not receive them, hence they are virus free. Using an SEP, you may unknowingly send a virus to your recipients, as your computer can receive emails and viruses.

3. Using an ESP, you can personalise your emails, thereby not only helping with to build the client/customer relationship, but also enabling the success rate to be higher as the email will be more Spam filter friendly.

Some sites are perfect for the Christmas season - their products fit easily into the idea of gift-giving. But what if the products and services you offer are for small business owners?

Or, as many of my clients ask, how do I survive the holiday season if I sell intangibles?

When a couple of people brought this question up to me in early fall, my answer was that I’d probably make enough money in October not to have to worry about November and December at all. Prevention made sense to me at the time as being the best cure, but it also doesn’t mean that I’ve resigned myself to slow sales during the holidays.

On the contrary, I think that most people who have businesses that offer intangibles such as ebooks, downloadable software, or marketing services can just as much, or more money as the rest of the year by changing tactics slightly.

In other words, just because much of the world is more focused elsewhere doesn’t automatically mean that there is a smaller pool of available customers.

To Attract Attention, You have to Show Off
 by: C.J. Hayden

Recently, a client of mine complained, “I’m really good at what I do. I shouldn’t have to market myself.” In fact, he is quite good at his profession, but the problem is that not enough prospective clients know about him. Like many professionals, he is reluctant to talk about his accomplishments. “It feels like bragging,” he says. “Doesn’t it make me seem unprofessional?”

If thoughts like these often cross your mind, ask yourself this — who are the biggest names in your profession? In your line of work, who might be considered unquestioned experts, those with maximum credibility? Now, how did you get to know about those people’s work? Did you read an article or book they had written, hear them interviewed, learn about them on the web? Or perhaps you were told about them by others who had heard them speak or read their words.

The point is that these well-known people became well-known because they showcased themselves, usually in multiple ways. They shared stories, examples, and ideas about the work they had been doing with a wider audience than just their friends and family. You know about their work because they showed it off. And I’ll bet it never occurred to you to call them unprofessional for doing it.

Ethical Search Engine Optimisation Services: Are You Unintentionally Search Engine Spamming?
 by: David Touri

Many people who have websites are not totally up to date with what is considered to be search engine spamming. Having worked on search engine optimisation for a few clients, I have come across websites that are using spam techniques to help elevate search engine rankings. When I confronted clients about this, they honestly did not know they were using a form of spam nor did they realise the consequences if detected by the search engines.

So what is search engine spamming? A simple definition would be; deliberately designing website pages that offer poor and irrelevant content, and are used to trick search engines into ranking the content highly for inappropriate search results.

People tend to use spam as a way of attracting as many visitors to their website. When caught by the search engines, this will result in a major setback to business. Websites will be blacklisted from the search engines and chances are they will not appear in the index for a very long time.

Not sure if you are spamming? Below are a few common forms of spam techniques that you should avoid.

Customer Problems–Your Sure Fire Way to Get Their Attention
 by: Al Hanzal

Was your 2005 full of competition? Get ready–2006 will be worse! Small businesses will find their customers dwindling. Why do I say this?

New businesses are created everyday. Some will take away your customers. More businesses are finding ways to cut their prices. Specialty businesses will give your customer more and more buying options.

In this crowded market place, how do you get and keep your customer’s attention? Let me share with you a sure fire formula that will get you more customers in 2006.

The Failure of Traditional Models

Traditional advertising and marketing fails to address today’s crowded market place. They tell you to copy what successful businesses are doing. And then spread your marketing net as wide as possible. This doesn’t work for small businesses.

 You are not IBM! Your pockets are not deep enough to market this way.

 When you copy other businesses, you force customers to buy on price. You cannot afford this.

 Who should the customer believe? Every business claims to be the best, have the best price, the greatest expertise. Where do you rank?

The MLM Business you are REALLY In.

In network marketing, you are in the business of change.

But we have mentioned 2 things that are the actual SEEDS of change, and need to be planted every phone call, every email, every conversation, and every communication.

Every plant that grew to 20 feet tall started with seeds.

Every garden started with seeds.

Every forest started with seeds.

Every field started with seeds.

Every orchard started with seeds.

Every animal started with seeds.

You and I had to have a seed to be conceived.

And in MLM, change has to have seeds to be planted as well in people’s minds and hearts!

The MLM Millionaire.

Every millionaire in this Network Marketing industry has figured that out. But you must also know in success what the seeds of change are.

If change were an apple, and you cut it in half, you would see the CORE.

And at the core of the apple, are SEEDS.

They are the seeds of HOPE and POSSIBILITIES.