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The Best marketing management Articles on Wine
Marketing Your Home Based Business Website
Copyright 2005 Paul Jesse
So you now have your own home based business and you have a website promoting your products or services. You sit and wait expecting fame and riches but the orders are not coming in. Where are the customers in this global marketplace you are now part of? You thought they would be beating down your door to send you money.
A home based online business is not any different from a traditional brick and mortar business in the sense that if no one knows you are in business, no one will come. You must aggressively market your home based business. There are millions of websites on the internet and possibly thousands who are selling products or services similar to yours.
How can you market your website online and offline so that people can find your business? How do you set yourself apart from the competition?
There are plenty of low cost strategies you can take to increase your chances of being found by potential customers on the world wide web.
1. Put your website URL address on everything. It should be on your business cards, your letterhead and any other materials you use for promotion. Your website address should be at the end of every e-mail you send as part of your signature. For example, if you have a website that sell leather apparel you might sign all of your e-mails with something like:
John Doe
John Doe Leather Company
www.doeleather.com
2. Submit your website URL to the major search engines. If they do not add your site to their data base then you will never be found. You are better off to go to each search engine and submit your site on your own than paying a search engine submission site to do it for you. You can do it for free yourself and if you pay a service you have no way of knowing whether they actually submitted your site or not.
3. Subscribe to various Internet forums which pertain to your particular industry. Post messages on these boards and each time you do sign your name and website address just like you do in your e-mails. Be careful not to appear to be only promoting your website. If it becomes apparent that you are spamming for your site then you will be kicked out of the forum. When you post make sure to post insightful, relevant information pertaining to the topic.
4. Set up a Blog and post to it daily, about the topic of your home based business. This is currently one of the hottest Internet marketing tools on the web. A blog is like an online dairy. Every time you post to your blog sign your posting with your name, business name and url address. For more information on blogs try searching on the term and you should find plenty of resources available.
5. Include keywords pertaining to your home based business all over your website and within the title of your website. It is not considered appropriate to simply type your keywords over and over again. This is considered spam and you could be kicked off of a search engine for doing that. Instead include lots of relevant text on your website including your keywords within the content as naturally as possible but as often as possible without going overboard and sounding silly.
The above strategies do not cost anything to implement and if done consistently over time will increase the chances of people finding your website and consequently buying whatever it is you are selling through your home based business.
About the author:
Paul Jesse is a retired government employee and the author of several articles on working from home. Interested in working from home?
Launch your very own money making website today that's
100% ready to take orders and pull in profits, set up
absolutely free usually within 24 hours. http://www.sheamarketing.com
Advertising for the perplexed - part IIDave CollinsCopyright 2005 Dave Collins
The previous article examined some of the basic ideas involved in advertising. We looked at why a company may want to advertise, the factors involved in choosing a suitable venue and the costs and time involved. We also explored some of the practicalities to consider and how to research your potential venue.
Once you've chosen where you're going to advertise, the next critical factor will be how well you know the target audience. The more information that you have to hand, the better you can tailor your content around their needs and expectations.
You need to make sure that you speak in their language, try to give them what they're already used to, or grab their attention with something new. But be warned, these are pushy and innovative times. Whatever gimmick or spin you use to stand out may well have been tried many times before, so don't over-rely on it.
Like a good informative web page, the ad needs to first of all catch their attention, and compel them to click on it.
There should be more focus on the benefits of the software than the features, and the ad should really push the download or sale. It should also be as compelling and striking as possible - not easy when you're limited by a number of characters, file size or space to work with!
Bear in mind that like any strategy, your advertising will only be as strong as its weakest link. Don't spend thousands of dollars on good placement, only to use some awful home-created banner that you knocked together with Paint Shop Pro 4 three years ago.
If graphic design is not your strong point, then get a firm to design some decent graphics for you. The same goes with writing the ad copy. Most people can write, but few are writers. Try to make sure that someone with more than a thesaurus-dictionary gift set writes your copy for you.
Aside from the wording, the basic market principles apply. Grab their attention, tempt them, and compel them to act. "50% discount" is eye catching, as is some form of "only valid today" type of offer.
But when the potential customer clicks on your ad, you're only half way there. You now need to make sure that the page they land on carries on the good work. Realistically, many will click on the ad out of idle curiosity, and very few (if any) will have made up their minds to purchase already.
You should therefore use a separate landing page, as opposed to your regular main website page. It should contain the same information and use the same language, tone and focus of the ad, but now you're not restricted as to what you can do, or how much space you have to work with. Here, you have all the space you need to go all-out with the sales drive.
On a technical level, make sure that your landing page is not linked from anywhere in your website, so as to ensure that everyone coming to this page has been driven there by the ad.
If you're sharing a landing page, then at least make sure that you use a unique referral string. To be able to evaluate the success of the ad, it's critical that you can distinguish these visitors from the regular site visitors.
This brings us neatly onto the subject of tracking, without which you are effectively deaf, dumb and blind to the effects of the ad. A unique landing page on your website is ideal, and if possible, make this point to a separate payment page as well. You can also use cookies or referral strings in order to sharpen the accuracy of the tracking.
Usage of decent web log analysis software should let you see how many people came to the landing page, how long they spent there, which links they then clicked on, who downloaded from there, who purchased, and perhaps even who came back to the website later.
The analysis and follow-up of the campaign is surprisingly often completely overlooked. This is a great loss, as in some respects this is one of the most important stages of the whole process.
When it comes to gauging the level of generated sales and registrations, you need to take into account the final date of the ad, plus the full length of the trial version and then add a little extra time. Some may view the ad, click, download the software, but may not install it for a few days or even longer.
As an example, a company may choose to run a series of ads in a newsletter that is sent out from Monday to Friday of a given week.
Some people may not respond to the ad until the following weekend (or later), and only then download your thirty day trial. So we're already looking at 35 days after the ad was first run, and that's assuming that they install the software as soon as they download it. Some people may even register after the trial has elapsed. So don't go writing it off as a failure on day two of your advertising campaign.
To accurately evaluate the success of the campaign, you need to go back to your original goals.
If your primary goal was to achieve a higher level of sales, then it should be reasonably easy to see how many were generated by the ad. As with everything related to advertising, your data won't be 100% accurate, but it should give you a good idea.
If the primary goal was increased exposure, then you should be looking at how many people were exposed to the ad, how many viewed the landing page content and website, and perhaps even downloaded and purchased the software.
At this point, there are four possible scenarios.
(1) The ad appears to be successful.
Your goals have been achieved as a direct result of the ad, and more advertising with this vendor may be considered for the future. Even with this success, don't rule out the fact that your figures can be further improved, but don't forget that they can worsen too.
You should also be careful not to immediately engage in a long-term contract with this vendor. Not only because there are other advertising options out there, but also because any ad has a certain lifespan until it reaches its saturation point. At the very least consider trying different products, wording (or graphics) or even a different type of offer or discount.
(2) The ad doesn't appear to be successful.
There has been little generated in terms of exposure or sales, and you can't help but feel that the venture has been a failure.
The first thing you have to do is to try to determine the reason for this.
It may be the product itself, the ad copy, the ad, or perhaps the targeting was off. It may even be as a result of the ad placement, or the offer or discount not being generous enough.
If the ad failed, it is very important to ascertain exactly why. Don't just dismiss it as a failure, or a "bad" place to advertise, and don't be afraid to go back to the vendor for feedback. If you explain that you're interested in making this work, as opposed to complaining that they didn't deliver the results you expected, you'll usually get a positive response. See what they can do to help, after all, it's in their interests that you walk away satisfied by your experience.
(3) The ad appears to break-even, but little more than this.
Go back and read number (2). Not being a success counts as a failure.
(4) You're not sure whether the ad was worthwhile or not.
There has been some response, but it's difficult to see whether it was a worthwhile experience or not.
It's very important that you get to the bottom of this. Go through your statistics again, and filter through your logs to see exactly what the visitors did, where they clicked, and why they behaved as they did.
It is extremely important that at the end of the process, you know whether it was worthwhile or not. Failure to do so will result either in a wastage of money or a wastage of opportunities.
It's all too easy to throw money away on bad advertising. It's just as easy to be scared-off by risks, or for that matter throw potential opportunities away. Like any form of marketing, there are no guarantees that you'll achieve the results you hope for. But by failing to try, you're absolutely guaranteed never to reach them. The best you can do is to prepare the ground and cover all options as thoroughly as possible, take a deep breath and then take the plunge. Be seen, be sold.
About the author:
Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UK-based company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.comand http://www.davetalks.com
Another short marketing management review
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The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas
The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas
Your projects, programs, and career turn on the difference between no and yes. Yet selling ideasespecially the kinds of ideas that make organizations workis a skill shrouded in mystery. Part emotional intelligence, part politics, part rhetoric, and part psychology, selling ideas is not like tricking someone out of his money. Its about helping others to see things your way engaging their minds and imaginations.
Charles Lindbergh needed woo to assemble backers for his famous flight; Nelson Mandela used it to lead a revolution in South Africa. In any context, woo is two parts art and one part science.
Richard Shell and Mario Moussa offer a self-assessment to determine which persuasion role fits you best and how to make the most of your natural strengths. They also share vivid stories from their experiences advising thousands of leaders, and stories about famous people like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Andy Grove, and Bono.
Whether youre introverted or extroverted, competitive or collaborative, intellectual or practical, The Art of Woo will strengthen your persuasion skills in every aspect of your life.
Customer Review: Excellent book on how to pitch winning ideas!
I read this book after failing to arouse significant interest for my idea within my company. After reading this book, I realized the flaws in the plan of action I had followed in pitching my idea. Good read especially if you plan to pitch new idea within your organization!
Customer Review: "Winning Others Over" to Mutual Advantage
Almost 2,500 years ago, one or more of Aristotle's students assembled notes they had taken during his lectures and compiled them in a single volume now known as "The Rhetoric." To the best of my knowledge, that is the earliest text on the general subject of persuasion. In essence, Aristotle suggests that there are four levels of discourse: exposition that explains with information, description that makes vivid with compelling details, narration that tells a story or explains a sequence, and finally, argumentation that convinces with logic and/or evidence.
In their book, G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa develop in a modern context many of Aristotle's ideas about principled as well as effective persuasion. The objective of Woo is to win others over to mutual advantage. That is, Woo "is relationship-based persuasion, a strategic process for getting people's attention, pitching your ideas, and obtaining approval for your plans and projects. It is, in short, one of the most important skills in the repertoire of any entrepreneur, employee, or professional manager whose work requires them to rely on influence and persuasion rather than coercion and force."
Shell and Moussa recommend a four-step process to achieve influence goals and then thoroughly explain how to complete each. More specifically,
First, survey the given situation by forging and polishing the idea, map the decision process by understanding the social networks within the organization, determining which persuasion style will be most effective, and summoning whatever passion and conviction may be necessary to achieve the desired objective. (Chapters 2 & 3) Next, confront the given barriers that may include negative relationships, poor credibility, communication mismatches, contrary belief systems, and conflicting interests. Shell and Moussa offer eminently practical advice on how to transform barriers into assets that can be leveraged. (Chapters 4-6) Then make the pitch by presenting solid evidence and arguments as well as using various devices to give the proposed ideas and/or course of action a personal touch. (Chapters 7 & 8) Finally, secure the commitments by dealing effectively with politics at both the individual level and throughout the organization. (Chapter 9)
Where to start? Shell and Moussa identify "the six main channels of persuasion that provide the conduits for most idea-selling messages" (each explained in detail, Pages 32-40) and suggest that their reader complete a self-diagnostic (provided in Appendix A) to determine which of the channels would be most appropriate. In Figure 2.1, Shell and Moussa provide a grid within which they suggest that there are five primary persuasion styles and a range of Volume" at which the message is delivered as well as orientation that is either focused on self or on others: the Driver (e.g. Andy Grove), the Commander (e.g. J.P. Morgan), the Promoter (Andrew Carnegie), the Chess Player (e.g. John D. Rockefeller), and the Advocate (e.g. Sam Walton). The challenge when preparing to persuade others is to formulate a presentation that is most appropriate to one's personal style (i.e. authentic because character and purpose "matter most") but also, and just as important, one that is appropriate to both the given objectives (e.g. explain and/or convince) and the given audience. Only then can the appropriate channel be selected.
For example, the essence of the interest-based persuasion channel "is inducement, not trading. Thus, you are engaged in interest-based persuasion whenever you pitch your idea as addressing the other party's underlying needs." As for rationality-based persuasion, Shell and Moussa define it as "trying to influence someone's attitudes, beliefs, or actions by offering reasons and/or evidence to justify a proposal on its merits." With regard to the relationship channel, they recommend it whenever similarity, liking, rapport, and reciprocity are used or when there is reliance on an existing network of contacts and friends to open doors as part of an idea-selling strategy.
In this remarkably lively and eloquent volume, Shell and Moussa provide their reader with a comprehensive, cohesive, and cost-effective process by which to use strategic persuasion to "sell" her or his ideas. (They use the term "road map" but I much prefer "process" because the "geography" of strategic persuasion will vary from one idea or one audience to the next whereas the information and counsel that G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa offer will be relevant to any "journey," wherever and whenever it may occur, whatever its ultimate destination may be.) They conclude with a list of "Ten Questions for Would-Be Wooers" that must be carefully considered, then answered with a high level of specificity. I remind those who read this review that self-audit diagnostic exercises are provided in the first two appendices. Each alone is well-worth the cost of this brilliant book.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Shell's Bargaining for Advantage as well as two books by Stephen Denning: The Leader's Guide to Storytelling and his more recent The Secret Language of Leadership. Also, Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick, Howard Gardner's Changing Minds and his more recent Five Minds for the Future, Robert B. Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, and Dale Carnegie's extraordinarily durable classic, How to Win Friends & Influence People.
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Labels: free email marketing software | online business marketing | email marketing companies
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