Friday, November 16, 2012

What Auto Insurance Suit You?

When you buy insurance for your car, liability coverage is mandatory by law so you must include it on your purchase. Nevertheless, liability insurance is actually doing not give protection for your car and yourself. Liability coverage only protect third party that feel the loss due to the accident caused by you. Therefore, you need to buy more coverage for your car.

Full coverage is the best choice if you want full protection for the car but if you are in limited budget, you have two options. The first choice is buy the cheaper price for full coverage. You do it by comparing several full coverage quotes from multiple insurance companies. Use online quotes for auto insurance to make it easier and faster. If none of them affordable for you, you have the second option by choosing specific coverage you need for the car. You will need collision coverage to protect your car in case the accident in your fault. If you live in hazardous area, you may need vandalism protection, theft protection, wild animal protection, or more.

You need to consider your situation, driving habit, road condition, environment condition, and budget to choose the right car insurance coverage. Of course, you can consult with the expert to find the best package for you.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Tips and advice On Payday Cash Developments For The Needs

Cash advance funds innovations have Associate in Nursing unmerited stigma hooked as much as they. day loans region unit usually no  plan when you might like money quick. They happen to be very few circumstances inside which a day loan are often exactly what you might like. concerning by sorting away an a great deal of? Keep reading to find out even more about this excellent topic.

Before linguistic dialogued just about any formal documents for sum of assets, brand absolute you are prepared for all the conditions and terms which go to a sum of money. It's graspable if you need the revenue immediately, nevertheless if or when the payments are unaffordable included in a week you are penalized as well as it could bring about which makes the circumstances financially even worse. Study each possibility which is on the market to you. Researching your options can help to save you a significant time and also cash.

Analyze the advantages and also disadvantages if you want to have an online payday loan. Become hip with regards to exactly what the everyday rate of interest is on day money developments. To borrow $500 can value around $100. Should this be often the only thing you will be able to consider to urge funds currently, then it can be a particular truthful chance. With this particular knowledge, you are able to build up a sensible preference to get a smart  sides. Take precisely what you've learned as well as use it to the advantage. do not let day loan abuse add stress to the life. it's achievable to try to do just that by getting the information closes at hand.

The reason why The Company Requirements Public Accountability Insurance

Whenever you may be a corporation engaged within the public areas in most territories, the public sum Connect Nursing important part of merely however of daily.  you possess a fast one-person method that provides a small urban items, or may tend to the company of coming up with the duty of the city you're building a latest coming up with.

Although the particular details of every public insurance policy can vary from time to time, it's associate degree completely essential a part of calling. And you'll gauge simply however essential it's by considering the results of not eliminating insurance, If a client of yours bought one amongst your product and was scraped, or was hurt on your premises - or maybe if somebody was accidentally wounded by your staff's negligence - you may be sued for damages. If the applier was palmy, then you would be susceptible to pay.

The good news is that it's easier than ever to search out a flexible life insurance policy that suits you all the way down to the preceding detail - and the prices square measure usually cheaper than you think. take care to shop around and to use insurance comparison websites, WHO can usually be ready to get you additional competitive quotes than would be potential if you went straight to them.

Monday, October 29, 2012

System Marketing Is Focused On Repeating

DUPLICATION is that the KEY to coming up with a flourishing home based mostly business moreover as TECHNIQUES square measure extremely the Key to Duplication.

Soon after great work of time and also funds, we have built a particular Amazing Automatic Marketing and advertising & Training System for reps known as the 'Retire Prosperous' Duplication System. You can try it completely FREE for 30 Days to kindly article this page as well as try it since will allow you to grow the business.

In time-honored previous category network selling and advertising, we were given to contact our businesses prospects one by one, belly to abdomen or perhaps eyeball to eyeball, but that belief happens to be modified with machine-driven online DUPLICATION TECHNIQUES that make it easier to kind further As SIFT through hundreds or perhaps thousands of prospects further as permit you to contact those who SERIOUS!
The 'Retire Prosperous' computerised marketing and advertising & training System will program you exactly how to get to a full lot more leads, and will automatically tell the terrorist organization tale for you so that leads are an excellent deal inclined to hitch the corporate.

I could utilize the analogy of signing up here. Gold miners in Alaska used a gold pan. The couple scoop sandy and also gravel from a bottom directly into their skillet and so the couple wash the content once even more and when even more till really that is kept within the bottom of the skillet region unit little flecks of gold or perhaps oftentimes nuggets.

That is what this sales funnel will and you can be able to do this on a little scale with a pan otherwise you can have a go at it on an enormous scale with a front loader and an even bigger sluice box. the quantity of names you set in the funnel determine what number begin the opposite finish.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

How Copywriting Tips You Can Turn Into Gold

Are your communications clichéd, corporate-speak or plain vanilla?

As you may have noticed, bad writing is growing like a disease, especially online. Bad writing is boring, rambling, convoluted. Overly wordy or a grammatical nightmare.

Bad writing has no direction or too many directions. It can show up on your website, in emails, direct mail, ads, brochures, catalogs or just about anywhere.

At best, missed opportunities slip away.

At worst, potentially serious consequences can occur.

Rather than set your company apart in a positive way, bad writing reflects poorly on your company and may cause you to lose face with those you are wooing. Even damage your brand and credibility.

I call this the embarrassment factor. And there are plenty of examples, such as:

    Buzzword salad: "utilizing paradigms of support validation strategies of assessment"
    Overly hyped "we're a thought leader with an established legacy of innovation and we will continue to take the company to the next level in every encounter... "
    Self Important: Dow Corning's "Innovative solutions for wound management," simply means "bandages."
    Says nothing. The owners of the company have made a commitment to continue to provide excellent service and expertise which has led to the success of these firms through the years

Even if you avoid these pitfalls you are not home free.

Another potential powder keg is the very real possibility of saying the wrong thing. Or saying the right thing in the wrong way, by that I mean assuming the wrong style or tone for your target audience.

For example, a blog for moms must take a different approach and use different lingo than one for bankers... boxers... or baristas. Getting this right is not easy, yet it is critical to the success of your written communication. I call this the off-key factor.

There are things you can do to sidestep these landmines and create business communications that sing, generating leads and sales.

Take a look at all of your messaging

Are your customer communications weak and unconvincing? Are they suffering from obesity? Most writing, especially for the web, should be cut back by half. Could your communications be from Anycompany USA?

This could spell death for a business.

As I mentioned, most writing on websites, press releases and blogs is boring, egotistical or corporate-speak. Brochures are often a litany of we do this we do that rather than describing how products and services benefit the customer.

Think of it this way: Tell them about their thick, bright, green lawn rather than the ins and outs of your grass seed. See the difference?

Then take the bold step of developing a company personality - and let that personality shine through.

Let's take a peek at the company New Pig. They stand out with a memorable name and play it up. They are a company that produces serious safety and industrial products that doesn't take themselves too seriously.

Here's what they say:

    "We're a company with a really odd name... whose employees call each other "Piggers" or "Partners in Grime®." We create award-winning products to make your job easier... and we're absolutely, positively dedicated to helping our customers keep their facilities clean and safe. We know from experience that a clean, safe workplace is more productive."

Their catalog is called a Pigalog®.

You can call them at 1-800-HOT-HOGS and write them at One Pork Avenue. Wouldn't you remember them if you had an industrial spill?

If New Pig is too way out for you, there are plenty of other ways to get noticed.

Take Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, a company that's extra inventive about how they talk about their products and communicate with customers.

Their site includes a Scrapbook of the company history which mentions building the world's largest ice cream sundae... launching a cowmobile to criss-cross the country giving away free scoops... and details their environmentally-friendly activities.

You'll also notice how funky and original the names of their products are - like Kaberry KaBOOM, for example, full of cracklin' candy to tingle your tastebuds.

Doesn't that make you want to run out and get a cone?

Bottom line: Whether your audience is other businesses or consumers, there's a way to talk about your company and products that will help you stand out in the marketplace.

Start by putting yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Think like your prospects.

    What drives them?
    Keeps them up at night?
    What are their hopes and dreams?
    Worries and concerns?
    Fears and anxieties?
    Guilt or shame?

The more you know about your prospects and what makes them tick, the better you will be able to craft an ad, web page, direct mail piece or other communication that hits their hot-button issues. Then you can write from that perspective and position your product as the solution to their problems.

How do you get to this information?

If you have sales reps or other front-liners, speak to these folks. Call key customers and ask them directly. Or use an online survey tool like SurveyMonkey.

Speak to different customers differently

The days of one size fits all marketing are long gone. When you are writing the copy for a promotion, create different versions. Each version should feature a different offer to appeal to different segments of your audience, such as your most loyal customers versus first time buyers or prospects.

This will give your prospects and customers the feeling you are speaking to them personally because you are addressing their situation and their biggest desires or concerns.

Stay in front of your target audience at least 5 times a year - and as much as they will allow.

Most people don't respond to an offer the first time.

Perhaps your promotion hit too early in the buying cycle. Perhaps your prospect does not need or want what you are selling right now, but may be persuadable in the future. Some people need to see something a few times for it to register.

Also, vary the channel and format, switching between emails, postcards, articles even hand-written notes, since different forms of communication hit each of us differently and more channels = better response.

Up to 35% better.

Your aim is to stay on the radar of your audience at a frequency that is comfortable for them. How do you know what that frequency is? You can experiment, and monitor response until you find the sweet spot. Or you can survey your audience and send out promotions in accordance with individual preferences.

Once you treat your prospects and customers as individuals and take their specific likes and dislikes into account your marketing success will skyrocket.

That's the big picture - let's get down to the nitty gritty of how to write an actual promotion.

You can get in the right mindset by recalling that good writing has a strong purpose, so be clear what that purpose is for every business communication you write. Make it a "wow" experience by firing your biggest guns first and staying on target. You've heard of the upside down pyramid, right?

This means when it comes down to doing the actual writing, spend 90% of your time coming up with a good headline or subject line.

Imagine that you are a fisherman... the headline is your bait. If you do not use the right bait you will not catch fish. You must hook your prospect right from the get-go or you will not have the opportunity to go on to clinch the sale.

Four tips for effective headlines

    First and foremost, your headline must capture the attention of your prospect.
    Clarity is key - the meaning of the headline should be crystal clear, and the benefits to the prospect immediately apparent.
    The message must telegraph to your prospect that there is something in it for him. The headline should resonate so that he thinks, "This speaks to me personally!" You can accomplish this by stepping into the prospect's shoes and addressing his biggest concerns, as I suggested previously
    Lastly, your headline should pull the prospect into the copy, reeling her in with each word.

There is not one right way to create an effective headline. In fact, there are many ways. Here are the eight different kinds of headlines:

    How-to
    News
    Question
    Command
    Reason why
    Testimonial
    Direct
    Indirect

Let's look at each one:

    How-to - If your prospect wants to accomplish what the headline promises, she will read on
    News - Tout the benefit of a new product or service
    Question - Ask an interesting client-focused question that gets the prospect involved
    Command - Tell the prospect why it is in his best interest to act
    Reason why - Present facts that set you up as an expert
    Testimonial - Overcome objections and gain credibility by having your clients sell for you
    Direct - Announce a sale or limited-time offer
    Indirect - provoke curiosity and motivate the prospect to find out more

To determine if the headline you've chosen succeeds, you can try it out on a small segment of your audience, run a test where half sees one headline, half another (known as a split test or A/B split) or test different headlines in consecutive days, weeks or months when split tests are not available.

Let's look at a variety of vehicles from search engine listings to web pages and landing pages to see how effective headlines can hook more readers.

Search engine listings

I read in a Marketing Sherpa Search Benchmark Study that when your prospects are in search mode, they don't bother to read the entire listing - even though it contains so few words.

Their advice regarding search listing headlines: "The first two to three words pack a bigger wallop than words further on."

So, not only do you need to write a compelling headline, but one that conveys key information at the front end, not the back end.

Here's another point to consider:

To optimize your headline for the search engines, limit your head to 65 characters. Yes, a space counts as a character. The search engine will likely cut you off in mid-thought, which is another reason to frontload your headline with must-know information and nice-to-know information later on.

Landing pages and web pages

At a seminar I attended on optimizing landing pages, the speaker indicated that phrasing the headline as a question pulled more responses than a headline that began with the word Free.

Effective headlines for web pages can begin with questions as well. Why does this work?

Because you pique the curiosity of your reader, who wants to find out the answer to the question.

Use the body copy to give reasons why your prospect should take an action

You ultimately want your prospect to act, whether it is call, click, buy now, donate, subscribe or some other action.

    Give her reasons to take that action.
    Tell her what you want her to do, then tell her again.
    And again, continuing to motivate your reader to perform the action you desire.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to assess your company communications through a new lens!

If you discover your communications are flat, from Anycompany USA or worse, I can help inject personality into your copy, re-name your products and services and come up with a brand-building tagline.

I create all kinds of written communications - in print, on the web and for integrated marketing campaigns - copy + creative that boosts leads and sales.

Should you get stuck in the next 30 days, I can offer you a complimentary copy check-up for an ad, brochure or web page. I'll analyze what you have done well... what could be improved and include tips to get up to speed... so you get better results. Normally a $350 value, for those in this room, it's yours free.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Seven Promotional Marketing Ideas Gleaned From a Box of Detergent

As an owner of a service-based business, finding different ways to position your offerings doesn't have to be a struggle. In fact, it could just as simple as taking a stroll through your local grocery store. You can get great promotional ideas by looking at products on the shelf in the store, flipping through magazines and reviewing ads and paying close attention to commercials airing on television.

When brainstorming campaign ideas, look to strategies that are being employed by consumable product manufacturers. Whether it's laundry detergent or a bottle of salad dressing, we are exposed to special offers throughout the day.

Here are several ways you can market your services like a consumable product:

Bonus features

When a movie goes onto DVD or Blue-ray to sell for in-home viewing, many times the release will contain deleted screens, optional endings and interviews with performers. What bonus can you offer to entice a client to make a purchase? A free, 30-minute consultation, a bonus question and answer session, a free report or analysis?

Co-branding

Co-branding occurs when you join together two or more products into one promotion. Think about how the Keurig single-cup brewing system. It is co-branded with a litany of iced and hot beverage manufacturers, including Green Mountain Coffee, Celestial Seasonings Tea and Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa.

Let's say you own a CPA firm and you want to create a special offer for tax season to attract more clients. You could partner with a bookkeeping service and strike an arrangement to offer bookkeeping and tax preparation for one price. You can have co-branded materials created and cross-promote the special to both of your ideal client lists.

Coupons

Americans love their coupons. In fact, there's a television series that demonstrates how extreme couponers can buy massive amounts of products and take advantage of manufacturer coupons and in-store promotions to walk out the door paying next to nothing for their haul.

Couponing can work for just as easily for your service-based business. You can create a coupon for a percent or dollar discount on specific services or a buy-one, get-one half-off or free offer.

New and improved

You see the use of "new" or "improved" on products when they've been reformulated to perform better or provide more value than before. Have you revised or upgraded one of your services? If so, make bold note of it on your packaging.

Rebates

Rebates are ways to reward customers for making a specific purchase. For example, I recently attended an event that offered an incentive on the registration fee. I paid $1,495 upfront to attend. After I attended the event, I received a $500 rebate check in the mail for attending the actual event.

Redesigned packaging

How many times has your favorite laundry detergent had its packaging refreshed? It could be a different bottle or a change in the artwork on the actual bottle.

Simply redesigning your marketing materials is way you can redesign your own packaging.

Sampling

Sampling is a way to get your product into the hands of consumers by to offering a free trial or sample. Think of ways you can let your ideal clients take your services for a test drive. This could as simple as providing a complementary consultation.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Five Things to Do to Ensure You Get a Quality Printing Service

All kinds of businesses require printing services for a variety of marketing campaigns. In order to make the best of print media marketing, or to portray a professional image for your business, it is important to ensure that all printed material is of the highest quality.

But how do you ensure top quality?

1. Know the type of printing you want

Unless you are sure about the kind of printing offered, you could end up with a bundle of printed material that looks like something straight out of Yellow Pages. There are different kinds of modern techniques in printing such as digital, lithographic and screen printing, to name but a few.

For example, Gravure printing is the best technique for brochures, magazines and other high quality items. So, check if the printer is able to provide the most suitable technique that suits your individual requirements.

2. Turnaround time

If the printing company delays delivery, it could create a lot of inconvenience for you. It could be very irksome, especially if it sets back the schedule of your marketing campaign. Before choosing a printer, ask them about the company's speed of production. Also ask previous customers about the company's turnaround time so that you can be sure about their delivery speed. After all it is best to double-check any claims made by the company with current clients to ensure they are accurate.

3. Delivery

You can save a lot of time and effort by choosing a service the delivers the printed material to your door. Every online printing service offers home delivery however, check how much the company charges for it. If you choose a local printer, it is still important to check if they do home delivery. This will give you an indication of the quality of services, their flexibility and efficiency.

4. Cost

Cost is always important so that you don't end up exceeding your budget. The best way to get an idea about costs is to request quotes from a few printing services. Comparing and analyzing them will give you an idea about the current costs of printing. It also helps you obtain a good bargain. Don't forget to compare like with like so make sure the paper and printing processes used by all of the companies are identical.

5. Customer service

The business you choose should be always open to communicating with you, discussing your project and making any alterations that you think are necessary. The service should offer proofs before printing. A printing service that is responsive to your needs and is prompt in responding to your questions is always a good choice.

Choosing a quality printing service becomes simple when you look for these five aspects.

Get the best results

If you want the best possible printing service we recommend you get a quote from a reputable, well-known company such as Fulprint. You can see their website by clicking here. They offer a free quotation together with in-house designers, quality printing, all sorts of finishing options and international delivery with a choice of payment methods.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Top 7 Reasons to Use Printed Posters to Promote Yourself

1. Location and Visibility

There is nothing more important than location to reach your target audience. With TV or Internet marketing, you have to hope that your audience is watching your advertisement or visiting your web pages. Posters give you the advantage of allowing you to place them right in front of your target audience.

For example, if you are advertising for a new seaside restaurant, you can start by putting up posters around the beach and parking lots around the area. There is a good reason why subways and banks are cluttered with posters. These are places where people wait and are sure to have the time to read your poster and jot down your contact information.

2. Attention span of your audience

A long rambling advertisement can cost you more air time but cannot retain the attention span of your audience. Brief, concise information of your services is more likely to impress people and encourage them to call for more information.

3. A picture can convey a thousand words

A good layout and use of appropriate colours in a poster are sure to attract more customers than an entire website full of attractive videos and images. Your poster does not have to be elaborately designed. It just needs to have all the details presented against an impressive background that draws attention to the content rather than the design.

4. Cost effective

It is by far the cheapest form of advertising. But it does not mean that prospective customers might view your business as down-market. All the biggest products and services in the industry are sure to use posters to advertise.

5. Serves to highlight your product

Almost all the biggest products in the market put out posters in malls and supermarkets to emphasise the availability of their products in the respective stores. Without such posters to guide customers, they may even be unaware of its availability.

6. Flexibility of size

The best thing about posters is that you can customise them to any size you want. You can print an array of sizes and use them according to the space available.

7. Keep it fresh

Since you will not be spending much on them, you can keep things fresh by going in for new colours and fonts and updating the content as and when needed.

Taking your business and services to a new market is always a challenge. However, that is exactly what poster printing brings to the table. The familiarity of constantly coming across your posters can bring in new customers for your business.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Way to B2B Lead Generation Campaign Success

Back to Basics - What is lead generation?

It is the process of educating and creating interest in target prospects for products or services of your business. B2B lead generation is for companies who deal only with other businesses.

Who are the target prospects?

Target prospects are the important stake holders (who are involved in decision making) in the target companies with the potential to purchase your product or services.

Target companies are primarily filtered by:

    Geography
    Target industry - Prioritize the industries as per the market size and growth/penetration possibility
    Annual revenue
    Other custom characteristics

What is a lead?

Lead is a qualified prospect who is interested in buying or knowing more about your product or services. A lead is qualified by asking few qualifying questions set by sales team. Example of the qualifying questions are: When are you planning the purchase? Do you have the budget for this financial year?

Some of the tactical methods of B2B lead generation are:

    Website optimization
    Tele-calling
    Direct mailing
    Event marketing
    Print advertising
    Referrals - Partner, Client
    Email campaigns
    Lead scoring and nurturing
    Internet marketing - SEO, Social Media, Blogging, PPC, Banner Ads,

Who should monitor your campaigns?

Small and mid-sized companies have limited marketing and sales resources. The solution to the management debate, "Who should direct and manage B2B lead generation campaigns?" is an "Inside sales team". Inside sales teams is responsible for pre-qualifying marketing leads, executing tele-calling campaigns, account profiling and research and finally delivering quality B2B leads to the sales team. An inside sales team needs lot of support in terms of training and campaign messaging from sales and marketing teams. Marketing team needs to make sure that it clearly sets mechanism for messaging approval, offers, campaign response management and campaign tracking. Sales team also needs to make sure that they give proper instructions to inside sales reps for reporting, appointment setting, calendar invite set up and prospect list/CRM management. You can also hire a B2B lead generation services company to manage your campaigns.

Setting goals for campaigns

Monthly/quarterly/yearly targets for qualified leads and inquiries should be set which should be in sync with sales revenue targets. It is important to consider sales cycle length and lead conversion ratio. Based on goals proper B2B lead generation methods should be chosen. Finally, all the marketing and inside sales expenditure should be tracked against set ROI goals.

Finally, 7 steps to generating qualified leads:

    Identify your target prospect
    Set campaign budget and goals
    Decide the method/channel for B2B lead generation
    Develop and design campaign messaging
    Personalize marketing collaterals and special offers
    Set up campaign tracking - Campaign can be tracked using tools such as marketing automation solution, email campaign software or CRM.
    Execute the campaign

Thursday, September 27, 2012

6 Most Valued Render Farm Secrets

If you consider using an online render farm, there are facts you must know in order to take the right decision. I reveal the secrets here only if you can spare a little time to read them.

1. Investigate service providers: There are so many providers in the rendering business, consequently, you must carry out a little investigation to the right one. Some of the things you should know are the provider's location, product features, pricing, customer service and so on. It is indeed important to look around before selecting your choice provider.

2. Visit render farm blogs: Read everything you can on blogs to aid you in your decision making process. Information abounds everywhere, if you can it, you will find it. You will be treated to issues relating to the industry which will help you in choosing the best service provider.

3. Visit review sites: Every now and then, professional webmasters review products and services in specialized fields. Check out reviews for the rendering service industry and you will definitely see for yourself the big players around. However, be careful of reviewers who are sentimental in their write-ups or those who stand to gain directly from websites the review.

4. Visit forums: If you really want to know a good or bad provider, endeavor to visit online forums. The reason for this is not far-fetched; there is every possibility of meeting those who have used these services before and will like to share their experiences. As a result of this, you will be able to confirm your various investigations. Forum users are very blunt and do not mince words when giving their opinions about a provider.

5. Make inquiries: Consequent upon your research, you will discover many render farms all claiming to be the best. They have the right to do that and you have the right to investigate. Ask them questions, read their FAQ's, talk to them on the phone; during this process, you will discover the right provider that will meet your needs.

6. Tested platforms: Before you part with your money, make sure you attempt to avail yourself of a trial service. An online render farm that cannot offer you that should not be given a second thought. If you are able to test the service for a short period of time, you will be able to experience the provider's claims. Even though, all the features might not be available in the trial plan, it is equally a better deal to have a feel of some of the features on offer.

Friday, September 21, 2012

How Should Product Managers Price Their Products In A Down Economy?

How is your product priced? Are you playing a "price it and forget it" game? How about the "price it and then discount it down to whatever the customer will pay" game? You would think that product pricing would be a standard part of the product development definition, but all too often we skip over it because it seems too hard to do. No matter how your product is priced today, there is a good chance that it could be priced much better if only you knew how to do it. That's what we need to have a talk about.

What New Technologies Mean To Your Product's Pricing

Not that the world was ever all that simple of a place, but it has clearly become a lot more complicated these days (try putting that on your product manager resume!) Product managers are now facing a lot more channels that can be used to sell their products. When you combine this with more and more price point combinations that can be used across the new channels, and very quickly you have a product pricing situation that can get out of hand.

A lot of product managers rely on the old standby - Excel spreadsheets to keep track of what prices they are charging and where they are charging them. This is not going to work in the long haul. What's needed is a system of price management that will allow you to take an automated and integrated approach to solving your pricing dilemmas.

In a perfect world you would be able to incorporate your customer's price sensitivity into each stage of the product planning process - initial financial forecasting, promotions planning, allocation, replenishment, and finally management of markdowns at end of life. Clearly the old way of doing things won't cut it anymore and product managers are going to have to start to use new software technologies in order to do better price management.

Why Is Price Management Such A Big Deal Now?

One of the questions that product managers are asking is "why has pricing become such a big deal all of a sudden?" The answer is pretty simple: your potential customers have become much more price-sensitive. They have new tools to use, such as smartphones, and they know how to use the Internet to find the best deal possible.

The old days where product managers could rely on using a single price for their product are long gone. You are now going to have to be able to segment your product from a pricing perspective. What this means is that you are going to need to have prices that are tailored to not only the channel that the product is being sold though, but also to the specific level that it has in your product hierarchy.

The good news is that product managers have more data on their potential customer than we have ever had before. This means that we are going to be able to analyze the price sensitivity within each group of potential customers and determine how we want to handle such things as promotions and markdowns for our products. Using price management we can make our products more successful than they have ever been before.

What Does All Of This Mean For You?

All too often product managers believe that it is part of their product manager job description to spend the majority of their time looking for ways to get more customers for their product. What they are missing is that by spending more time on managing their product's price they can contribute just as much to the bottom line impact of their product as getting more customers would.

The arrival of new channels to sell products along with additional price points have made the old ways of tracking prices with spreadsheets obsolete. A more sophisticated price management system is called for. Taking the time to segment your customers not just by channel but also within levels of product hierarchy is what product managers need to do in order to maximize the benefits of pricing their products correctly.

Pricing is an activity that scares some product managers because it is all too often seen as being a black art that few are able to master. We need to overcome this fear and establish a clear price management system so that our products have the best chance of being a success in our marketplace.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Cutting Edge Strategies to Market Your Medical Practice

Let's face it! Competition is extreme in the healthcare industry and physicians, hospitals and medical practitioners are leaving no stone unturned to outdo each other. And, methods through which you can attract new patients are in abundance. Innovation in the healthcare industry has paved way to cutting edge medical marketing strategies. Conventional referral method and print advertising is a pass among today's physicians. However, you need to have a closer look at these strategies and select the one, which best represents your practice. Here's a checklist of all those medical marketing ideas.

Medical SEO has proven repeatedly that it is by far one of the most signifying online marketing strategies to attract new patients. Besides revamping your website, you can do a lot more to achieve a higher ranking in the search engines.

It's an internet age and most of the patients go online to find remedies for their issues. People rely heavily on reviews and then only they visit your website and look for directions to your office and more. When a patient searches for physicians in your community, you must come up in at least 10 Google listings. A Google Place listing is one of the newest ways to improve online credibility. One good thing about this marketing strategy is that it is free of cost.

Frequently adding fresh content to your website not only keeps your patients updated and engrossed with what's happening at your practice, but also incorporating explicit keywords and phrases into that content increases your rankings in the search engines. To perfect this strategy, write blogs and articles related to your specialty. Don't do all the stuff by yourself. If feasible, hire a medical content specialist. In addition, there are many article banks where you can obtain targeted articles that relate to your expertise.

When was the last time you actually thought of sending a press release for your practice? You probably would keep numb on this question. If you have added new facilities, doctors or services, let it be informed to patients through press releases. Here, local publications will help you generate a little media buzz about your practice.

It does not make sense to create a profile on social networking sites if you can't follow it consistently, It's like not thinking of the next shot to pin the ball in a 9-ball snooker game. Your social media strategy must include the target market, how frequently you are going to post, what content you would be using, what you want to achieve with social media. Play safe and incorporate only one social media profile. Then tracking its progress, gradually increase at a pace that is comfortable for you to maintain.

Friday, September 7, 2012

How to Integrate Social Media Into Your Medical Practice Marketing

We all know about the big bang that gave birth to the universe. Similarly, the explosion of social media has given birth to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and many more. In the past few years, we have seen how social media platforms have dominated the marketing campaigns of every business in the world. And results are noteworthy, as businesses who have integrated social media into their marketing strategies have experienced more brand awareness and growth.

If you are planning to take your competitors by marketing your medical service, be sure to include social media and social networking sites. Many healthcare professionals may be hesitant to start with social networking because they think of it as a time waster. In reality, it can save you on that part and empower your patients and staff to communicate effectively. Overall, it contributes to your practice to run smoothly.

Just think of social networking as an eminent source of information to your patients and vice-versa. If your patients are avid internet users and you do an immense work of updating your status, do you realize what impact it would have on your productivity and efficiency? Adding to that, patients can provide critical information to improve your customer service.

You can term social media platforms as "Referral System with a 21st Century Twist." In the previous years, when patients were to find a doctor, they preferred friends and relatives and believed they would not guide them wrong. With the onset of social media networking, the conventional word of mouth marketing has become archaic. Conversely, there are few practical ways to keep in mind before you think of creating a social networking profile.

When you create your Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook page, make sure you are advertising in the similar way that you would with any offline piece of marketing for your practice. To make it easy for the patients to recognize you, use the same logos and punch lines that you have used in newspaper ads, TV commercials or radio spots.

Once you have completed all the formalities related to profile making, it's time now to make the smart move. Promote your Facebook and Twitter account on other mass media marketing materials such as print ads and television commercials. A signboard hanging outside your clinic that advertises "Like on Facebook" and "Follow us on Twitter" will encourage patients to hit "like" sooner rather than later.

Remember: social network marketing is a dangerous weapon that can attack the enemies, but also has the ability to hit back. So much so, for the good news, bad news can also be spread rapidly just like fire in the jungle. If patients are dissatisfied with your services, their comments and interaction on your social media profile can put curtains to your medical practice. That's the reason why you need to be vigilant of what's being written about your practice.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

How Social Media Marketing Fits Into All Aspects of Your Campaign

Social media is a relatively new way for marketers to reach out to consumers and as such, social networks can initially be a challenge for brands to navigate. But once grasped, it can be an excellent marketing and publishing channel that can be integrated into all aspects of a holistic digital strategy. Including a social strategy is something that all brands should consider as it is truly a global medium with increasing and important reach.

Email marketing

Social media can be and should be easily integrated into your brand's email marketing campaign. Doing so will not only help your brand gain more fans and followers on your various social networking profiles; it can also boost your email list in return. By regularly posting updates to remind social followers of your email newsletter or even hosting a sign-up page right on your social media profile, you can make sure that both mediums are working together to grow your brand.

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is experiencing massive growth rates as the number of mobile and smart phone users continues to grow at exponential rates. The growing popularity of tablet devices has also encouraged marketers to invest even more focus in this field. In South Africa, more people connect online via their mobile devices than through desktop computers and the number one activity engaged in on these devices: social media. Brands that are able to establish social media presence and use it as part of a mobile campaign are very likely to see great return on investment especially if targeting a younger audience.

QR codes have also changed the way consumers find content and pages through their mobile phones. By including QR codes in print advertisements or even posters even traditional mediums can now become interactive points of connection.

Video marketing

Video marketing is another exciting medium that just effortlessly blends with social media. Video sharing sites such as YouTube almost function like social networks in their own right with user profiles commenting systems and the like. But it is first and foremost a publishing platform where brands can upload their own branded videos. Once live, these videos can then instantly be shared and embedded on websites and blogs as well as social networks such as Facebook to Twitter. Videos are one of the most popular content forms on the web and fare particularly well when shared with your followers via social media.

SEO and social media

In today's information hungry world, more and more brands are relying on being visible when their consumers search for them through major search engines such as Google. A major part of SEO is the process of link building and social networks provides brands and publishers with an organic way to do just that. By sharing your branded content online you'll be generating traffic to your brand's website and blog and from there things could get exciting. From there people can either link to your content or use their social profiles to share that very link - and so the cycle continues.

About Digital Fire

Digital Fire, an email marketing and digital media specialist with a head office in Cape Town. Digital Fire specializes in full service opt-in email marketing, email data rental, email database management, social media consultancy and management as well as Search Engine Optimisation. We provide cutting edge digital marketing and advertising solutions for our clients locally and abroad. Contact us today for digital marketing

Sunday, August 26, 2012

How Small Business Created The Internet Marketing Company

There are more than 23 million small businesses in the US, comprising 54% of all U.S. income. Despite the fact that almost all of these companies often have reduced marketing budgets in contrast to more substantial corporations, challenging versus the giant players develops into a vital aspect of any small company advertising and thereby an important emphasis for long lasting emergence.

Key reports collected from the SBA signify that since 1990, as mammoth business removed roughly 4 million work opportunities, small enterprises essentially supplied 8 million all new jobs. While small companies are necessary factors to the financial system, it is more and more tricky to contend in a global environment dictated by much higher leveraged businesses, until today.

Lower priced and significantly productive marketing instruments have moved into the current market and such instruments including social networks, mobile marketing, and even paid search components now find their way in to small business tactical organizing sessions. While these resources have proven to be incredibly strong for the small business world, there remains a major percentage of small business proprietors who are not wanting to recognize the change. Granted the reality that the average age of the US based private business owner is approximately 49 yrs old, this age bracket is typically hesitant to change their marketing techniques and add modern-day marketing and advertising, including employing smartphones versus t.v. and billboard ads.

There are at this moment 116,000,000 US smart phone consumers, a reflection of 37 percent of the complete population, as outlined by eMarketer. While mobile phone advertising and marketing has turned into a larger chip in the pile, research conducted recently signifies that only 20 % of local business owners claimed they are applying mobile marketing and advertising. The bottom-line is, businesses that totally focus the majority of their functions within a determined topographical distance are losing out on potential individuals, while larger sized contending companies are scooping up the opportunities. Take, for instance, a neighborhood coffee house shedding business to Starbucks or McDonald's.

Leveraging social websites is cost-beneficial and can also drastically boost the functionality of a small company marketing strategy. Customers reside on social media. They are not any longer tuned in to the radio and TV over the workday nearly as much as they are seeing what is going on via Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. The fact is that Facebook fairly recently crossed the one-billion user mark and Twitter comes with an average of 6.9 million active users every day. Building brand interest and maximizing presence through the use of social networks has turned into a big asset to small businesses.

Aided by the development of small enterprise advertising and marketing through the use of social networks, smartphone, and paid search, these organizations are going to comfortably reach out to their clients specifically, making use of a lesser amount of resources than big business. Lesser advertising and marketing expenditures can assist a small venture be competitive on price against the bigger firms which can ultimately improve their net profit and create continual emergence even in a recuperating overall economy.

Monday, August 20, 2012

How to Define Your Niche When Your Ideal Clients Are Women

Often my clients come to me with a very broad group of ideal clients and need help narrowing it down.
The more you get clear on who your ideal client is, the better your marketing message can speak directly to them and their concerns. This will significantly improve your marketing results as you pull clients in and they can more easily self-select to work with you.

One of the most common examples of a broad group is women. Think about women as a group - that is half the population right? So you need to narrow the field down. There are women who are moms, business owners, empty nesters, women who are divorced, addicted to sugar and the list goes on. How can you reach all these different groups of women with your marketing message without spending a fortune? That's not easy.

The smartest way to make your marketing efforts work harder is to focus on a particular niche. I'm going to make this really easy for you. The key is to look at where women are already assembled for you. One of the best target audiences for that is women business owners. Why? Because they must gather to get more clients and grow their businesses. So when you look for groups of women business owners, it's so much easier since they gather themselves.

There are so many places to find women business owners! Here are three national organizations:

1. National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)

2. eWomen Network

3. National Association of Female Executives (NAFE)

There is a directory of women's associations that's available online and the last time I bought it, it was only $75. The directory is like a phonebook of all the women's associations in the US and it is amazing.

You can also do a Google search in your area to discover groups that are regional or even local to just your state or town. New women's groups and organizations are popping up all over and growing in popularity every day.

Finding these groups makes is so much easier to market to women since you can rub elbows with many all in one place. And there will likely be some of any type you seek in whatever group you attend.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Do some research this week to discover women business owner networking groups in your area. Then make a list of everything available and when they hold their meetings. Pick the ones that sound best to you and schedule them into your calendar. Then make sure you attend.

My advice is to try a bunch of them before you settle into a routine of attending meetings. While it's good to be seen repeatedly at the same group so people get to know and like you, it's also helpful to make sure you find the right group with women who are receptive to what you have to offer.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

9 Slam Dunk Ways To Get More Clients Into Your Business

Forget magic closing tricks, gimmicky marketing, or having to chase prospects and beg for business. Attracting new clients in today's economy is actually easier than ever, without having to sully your good name or resort to sneaky tricks to get people to do business with you.

Whoa, back up the bus a minute Nelly. Yes, I did just say that prospecting for new clients is getting easier (if you know what you're doing, that is), and here's why.

    Because most businesses are terrible at marketing (and getting worse, not better)
    Because most businesses drop their customers like a lead balloon once they've got your money (you never hear from them again, or their service is plain awful)
    Because most clients are hugely frustrated/disappointed with the companies they do business with. They're looking for that one little nudge, that one reason, to switch allegiances and buy from you.

Right? So how do you get new clients jumping ship to you?

It's simple. Here are 9 easy ways:

    Quadruple check that your product/service solves some pressing problem, terrible pain, or difficult issue. If you don't think it does, then you need to go back to the drawing board and reposition your service differently. Moving away from pain is a far more powerful motivator than moving towards pleasure.

    Make being one of your customers mean something. Do they get a special gift? Some kind of recognition? A membership in a rewards programs that's actually useful? If not, get your thinking cap on. This is huge.

    Offer exceptional customer service. Everywhere you go, you can't help running into companies who treat their customers like dirt. These businesses won't last (no matter how big they are - mark my words). Show your customers how much you care about them and you'll be amazed at how much more they'll want to buy from you.

    Show that you've helped people just like them (make liberal use of testimonials).

    Be of service first. Create a powerful opt-in magnet for people, that's free. It could be a free white paper, audio series or video. But don't give free stuff without a plan. That's just throwing your money away. Your opt-in magnet should help guide people along your sales funnel.

    Write a great sales letter. Still the most powerful form of marketing on the planet.

    Implement an referral program with incentives.

    Follow up, follow up, follow up. Before the sale. During the sale. After the sale. Get a follow up system in place that gets triggered at each of these 3 points.

    Give your website a "direct response marketing" makeover. No I'm not talking about having to use flash and fancy graphics. I mean rewriting and redesigning your website so that it accurately conveys the value you provide, your expert positioning in the marketplace and magnetically attracts the right kinds of prospects, while at the same time repelling the wrong kinds.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

How Small Business Created The Internet Marketing Company

There are more than 23 million small businesses in the US, comprising 54% of all U.S. income. Despite the fact that almost all of these companies often have reduced marketing budgets in contrast to more substantial corporations, challenging versus the giant players develops into a vital aspect of any small company advertising and thereby an important emphasis for long lasting emergence.

Key reports collected from the SBA signify that since 1990, as mammoth business removed roughly 4 million work opportunities, small enterprises essentially supplied 8 million all new jobs. While small companies are necessary factors to the financial system, it is more and more tricky to contend in a global environment dictated by much higher leveraged businesses, until today.

Lower priced and significantly productive marketing instruments have moved into the current market and such instruments including social networks, mobile marketing, and even paid search components now find their way in to small business tactical organizing sessions. While these resources have proven to be incredibly strong for the small business world, there remains a major percentage of small business proprietors who are not wanting to recognize the change. Granted the reality that the average age of the US based private business owner is approximately 49 yrs old, this age bracket is typically hesitant to change their marketing techniques and add modern-day marketing and advertising, including employing smartphones versus t.v. and billboard ads.

There are at this moment 116,000,000 US smart phone consumers, a reflection of 37 percent of the complete population, as outlined by eMarketer. While mobile phone advertising and marketing has turned into a larger chip in the pile, research conducted recently signifies that only 20 % of local business owners claimed they are applying mobile marketing and advertising. The bottom-line is, businesses that totally focus the majority of their functions within a determined topographical distance are losing out on potential individuals, while larger sized contending companies are scooping up the opportunities. Take, for instance, a neighborhood coffee house shedding business to Starbucks or McDonald's.

Leveraging social websites is cost-beneficial and can also drastically boost the functionality of a small company marketing strategy. Customers reside on social media. They are not any longer tuned in to the radio and TV over the workday nearly as much as they are seeing what is going on via Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. The fact is that Facebook fairly recently crossed the one-billion user mark and Twitter comes with an average of 6.9 million active users every day. Building brand interest and maximizing presence through the use of social networks has turned into a big asset to small businesses.

Aided by the development of small enterprise advertising and marketing through the use of social networks, smartphone, and paid search, these organizations are going to comfortably reach out to their clients specifically, making use of a lesser amount of resources than big business. Lesser advertising and marketing expenditures can assist a small venture be competitive on price against the bigger firms which can ultimately improve their net profit and create continual emergence even in a recuperating overall economy.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Ten Tips to Make Your Marketing More Effective

Marketing is often the land of the lost for many business owners. They see it as essential but because its not planned and tracked it often is left to chance. Effective marketing exists for one reason only, to generate the opportunity for revenue for the company. Marketing needs to fuel your sales efforts with potential prospects to attempt to close, and you should measure your marketing based on how many opportunities for revenue it generates. We often get asked to help business owners establish or improve their marketing efforts; here are a collection of tips that have proven to make major improvements to our clients.

    Plan & Measure - the first step to good marketing is good planning, every aspect of the campaign ought to be planned out ahead of time and then the campaign needs to be measured so it can be modified if necessary to increase the success rate. Planning encompasses who you are contacting, how you are contacting them, what you are saying, why and how they will contact you, and when you expect to see results. The measuring is tracking the campaign and its executables for the number of new opportunities it provides. If you are driving prospects to a website and your site averages 1000 unique visitors a month, then your campaign hits and your traffic hits 5000 a month you can easily see the effects of your marketing effort. Know your industry averages for response rates (will vary by industry, medium, and target market) and measure against those.

    Answer a Clear Problem or Question in Your Prospect's Mind - because of the massive amount of data we are exposed to on a daily basis we really only listen to things that address a clear problem or question in our minds anymore. Make sure your marketing is addressing something you know your prospect is thinking about.

    Be Visual - this is a visual world now. Use a visual to catch their attention, remember you are competing for that precious attention with an endless number of things now so catching someone's attention is harder than ever thankfully visuals give us a great way to do this.

    Have a clear call to action - drive them to a hub, your website, email or phone number and make communication with you easy. If your using your website make the contact form as easy to fill out as possible, CAPTCHA based forms aren't convenient for the prospect they are used for the benefit of the site owner.

    Target your audience - shotgun approaches to marketing are usable if you're dealing with million dollar budgets, but for most businesses a targeted approach works much better. Aim clearly at an easily identifiable group and market specifically to them. Better yet have multiple subsets within your campaigns that are specifically targeted to different groups addressing their needs in a language they understand and a medium they accept. Remember if you can't out spend you have to spend smarter.

    Communicate through their medium - consider who your prospects are and what form of medium they prefer. If your audience prefers paper then use it (you will find many of us in the over 40 crowd still prefer to have something on paper). Likewise if your audience is on social media than use that. Think of how they like to communicate, and then use that medium to get your message across.

    Have a clear message - you have 10 seconds to tell me why I should care about you, make sure your message is short, clear and speaks to a prospects internal problem or question.

    Don't get distracted by shiny objects - technology advances provide a host of shiny new objects to take our attention away from the point of marketing, generating potential prospects. Focus on mediums your prospects use and messages your prospects respond to and make your call to action a simple one.

    This isn't about art - you're not out to win awards, your out to acquire new business, remember that as your designing your campaigns. What you produce has to get a response from your prospects so design has to first be attention grabbing (remember how much competition you have for their attention) address a problem or question in their head and have an easy and clear call to action. Leave the high style stuff to the big companies brand engagement efforts; you can worry about brand engagement once you have built up a significant business through effective marketing. Also remember its not a matter of what you like it's a matter of what your prospects will respond to that matters.

    Give it Time - marketing takes times, planning can take 30 days, execution another 30 days and all marketing efforts should be given a good six months to measure effectiveness. Don't rush into anything, give your plan time to come together and give your efforts time to show results. Remember to have time set aside to measure your progress and many any changes that become clearly necessary. A good marketing plan continues to grow and change as the results dictate.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Simple Mobile Customer Relationship Management Strategies

Gone are the days of simply informing your clients of a new product or service, waiting a few days, and having the phone ring with an overflow of orders. Consumers today expect a great deal more from the businesses they interact with, and like to be engaged throughout every level of the marketing process. With that being said, the value and quality of products while still very important, are not the only factors driving consumers to make purchasing decisions. Consumers love to feel as if they are involved in the decision making of a company, have an interactive relationship, or feel like they are the only client of a business. Twenty years ago, engaging a client may have been somewhat of a difficult task, but with current technology, and the strength of the mobile and social infrastructure, client engagement is an absolute necessity in building a successful brand.

Customer Relationship Management encompasses the processing and understanding of customer information, in an effort to effectively engage customers. This form of high communications is essential in a social and media driven world, as consumers now have more information at their fingertips than ever before. The payoffs for creating a CRM model can be huge, considering that heightened brand loyalty will improve revenues and also decrease marketing costs, as campaigns become more targeted. As it relates to mobile marketing, CRM can be implemented cost effectively and simply. Below are a few outlined strategies that will help with Customer Relationship Management, and can help improve overall satisfaction, loyalty, and client advocacy.

Targeted Distribution Lists
The creation and maintenance of an SMS distribution list is essential to any Client Relationship Management campaign. Since SMS distribution lists are highly targeted, and have high response rates (sometimes up to 30%), this is a perfect means of creating personalized offers that fit a client's needs.

The main goal of CRM is to make marketing to prospective and existing clients easier; building targeted SMS lists can effectively accomplish this. Let's say for example your company ran a mobile campaign, in which it placed QR codes in its existing print material, which reads, "Scan here in order to download our free ebook on personal success". Clients that downloaded the ebook are now opted into your SMS list, and can be sent marketing information on purchasing your "success" seminar (for example). While many of these clients may not have initially purchased your service from this first form of contact, your now have a list of individuals, who you know are at least interested in your product, thus future follow up with this population can be very targeted and much more effective in terms of sales conversions. Creating targeted SMS lists for each product niche can be a highly effective way of segmenting potential buyers, which can then each be marketed to using tailored strategies.

Loyalty Programs
Creating brand loyalty is a very powerful means of improving overall profitability. Loyalty programs not only create additional value for clients, but also create overall satisfaction, as clients feel they are part of a family, and share in the success of an organization. These programs reward clients for their repeat business and encourage loyal behavior. Also, loyal customers tend to spend more money on average, be higher promoters of a business, and are less elastic in terms of changes in price.

One very simple, yet effective way to build a mobile loyalty program is through the use of mobile coupons. These coupons are easily redeemable at a point of sale, or online, and can be implemented by simply sending a coupon code to an already existing distribution list. An easy mobile campaign can be set up, which drives clients to opt into an SMS list. Once opted in, the client will receive monthly coupons around the product or service of their choice. These recipients would typically be motivated consumers, as they are shopping for value around the products your company provides. Also, once your list has been established, you now have the ability to cost effectively cross sell to this target population. Another good practice would be to send periodic coupons to your other distribution lists, even if they did not initially opt in knowing they would be receiving this additional value. A coupon could read "Thank you for being a client for 6 months, please show this coupon on your next visit for 50% off!" This will show clients that their business is very meaningful, and will help establish a long-term loyal interaction.

Mobile Polling
One effective means of gathering client feedback is through the use of mobile polling. Client insight is key to building long-term relationships and creates a competitive advantage for companies that are able to process the comments that they receive on their front lines. One example of a simple polling strategy would be a Name That Product contest. A polling text could be sent out to existing clients, which reads, "Help us name our new Product, please respond to this text with the option you choose". Engaging the client in such a decision not only gives them a feeling of self-satisfaction and fulfillment, but also subsequently promotes the product at hand. Additionally, a reward can be given to the participants, in order to encourage them to become purchasers the day the new product launches.

While Customer Relationship Management can be complex, and touch many parts of an organization, there are a few simple strategies you can use to put your client information to work. This optimization of your client data will create more overall engagement, loyalty, and in turn create more long lasting customers. Maintaining niche based SMS lists will give you the option of implementing several means of CRM, not limited to those mentioned. The key is to become creative with the way you touch your clients, and the rewards will be bountiful.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Three Strategies to Include In Your Business's Marketing Mix

In today's crowded world of business, one marketing method alone isn't enough. You and your competitors are vying for the attention of you prospects and customers, but this audience is increasingly diversified.

You won't find them in just one place anymore, so you shouldn't be marketing yourself in just one place. Here, we will share with you a whole host of strategies and tips you should be including in your business's marketing mix:

1. Online

Whatever the nature of your business, your marketing mix should always start online. A professional, search-engine friendly website is vital. You need to be visible when your customers search for you online.

As well as a website, other strategies you need to be implementing include search engine optimisation (SEO), social media and email marketing, and a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Combined, these efforts will help drive traffic and boost your sales. This is, of course, the ultimate goal of your marketing.

2. Offline

When planning your marketing and promotional strategies, you shouldn't forget the importance of traditional methods. Even in a technology-reliant world, your business needs to be making the most of the 'old school' techniques.

Direct mail and telemarketing are essential for reaching out to prospects and clients. You can personalise and tailor your efforts to really tap into what makes them tick. Send them offers, follow up an enquiry, or just remind them of your amazing products.

Just be careful you don't cross the line into being 'spammy', though. That is the quickest way to drive customers into the arms of your competitors.

3. Experiential

Experiential - or experience-based - marketing is a great way for customers to see for themselves just how great you are. As far as promoting your business goes, attending trade shows and conferences should be a key part of your marketing mix.

Whether you're launching a product, or just looking to raise your company profile, exhibition marketing is a great opportunity. Make sure you're fully prepared with a well designed exhibition stand, eye catching displays, and that extra 'something' that makes you stand out from the crowd.

In today's fast paced world of business, it is vital that you keep your marketing fresh. With such stiff competition - both online and in bricks-and-mortar format - your company needs to stand out from the crowd. By integrating your efforts, and throwing a whole host of elements into your marketing mix, you will soon leave your mark on your customers.