Archive for February, 2011
What is it and who needs one?
The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is esoteric or stratospheric, so let’s take the mystery out of it so you can devise and implement your own business marketing strategy that fits in to your small business plan.
Strategy comes from a Greek word “stratagein” meaning “to be a general”. Think of a strategy as an overall plan of action needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called tactics. You can have tactical plans, which help you achieve your strategic marketing plan or overall business marketing strategy. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?
A business marketing strategy or strategic marketing plan is an overall plan of marketing actions you intend to take in order to accomplish a specific goal for your company.
Start with a goal: million in sales this year; expand into new premises by a certain date; double the size of the company in 2 years… whatever the goal may be. Something realistic but challenging. That’s the “war” you want to win. Guess who the general is.
Then work out a simple, overall plan of the major marketing steps needed to accomplish that (for example):
Publish a newsletter for all existing customers and mail out quarterly.
Work out 4 special offers in the year and promote them to all our customers.
Set up on-line shopping and expand the web site.
Direct mail campaign promoting the web site to all customers.
Get mailing lists of (target markets) and do a series of 3 mailings of postcards to them and follow up on and close all leads.
Etc
You get the idea. Don’t rush this. Do your homework. What worked in the past? Read up on successful marketing campaigns.
Your business marketing strategy needs to be laid out in the right sequence and you should have some idea of budget when you write it. “Run a series of 30 second TV ads during the Superbowl” might sound like a good thing to do but can you afford it? On the other hand, when you build your business marketing strategy you mustn’t try and cut corners. If you don’t promote heavily, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, no one will know about it and you will go broke.
What really works when it comes to marketing?
Many business owners don’t have a good enough answer to this important question. I learned by a combination of study and trial and error.
From my own hard won experience I have discovered that a real marketing campaign will take into consideration at least the seven points which are outlined below:
1. Target Your Market
Your marketing will produce the best results for the lowest cost when you target prospects with the greatest need for what you offer.
Identify the best people to send your postcards to. Design your postcards to appeal to their greatest need.
If you are able to break down your target market into sub markets you can then write postcards that specifically speak to the needs of those people (an example is breaking down your own customer list into customers who buy most often, customers who spend the most money with you, customers who have been your customers the longest and then making them special offers based on the category they fit into).
2. Create A USP For Your Business.
USP stands for “Unique Selling Proposition”.
It is a statement of what is different about your company and its products. Your USP gives the reason people should do business with you. It amplifies the benefit of doing business with you and your company. My USP is POSTCARD MARKETING EXPERTS.
Create your own USP and put it on all your promotional materials, invoices, shipping labels etc.
Use your USP to communicate the benefit of doing business with you and why you are better than any of your competitors.
3. Always Make an Offer.
Make sure you ask your prospects and customers to do something when they receive your postcard. By offering them something you know they are likely to want and giving them a smooth path to respond on, you are making it easy and desirable for them to respond.
4. Create and Maintain a Database of The Customer Information You Collect From The Responses To Your Mailings.
Most people who receive a postcard from you won’t contact you the first time they receive one.
But once they contact you, you must create and maintain a database which allows you to repeatedly contact them with offers to respond to.
Fifty percent or more of many businesses’ sales come as a result of following up with people who were previously contacted, but didn’t buy right away.
No kidding, repeat contact does drive sales. One-time mailings can get response, but are bound to leave sales on the table. Those sales can be picked up with repeated mailings.
5. Take Away the Fear of Loss
People don’t want to be fooled, plain and simple. Unfortunately trust does not run high today between customers and businesses in general. People have been disappointed too many times by being sold one thing and getting another.
A guarantee or warranty is a good way to reduce or eliminate the customers’ risk of getting something other than what they bargained for.
Guarantees and warranties increase response and sales by reducing customer risk.
6. Expand Your Product Line
Getting new customers is more expensive than selling to existing ones. By regularly developing new products and services to sell to your customers and offering these new products and services to them, you can expand your business efficiently and easily.
7. Test Your Postcard Promotions
Track the effectiveness of your postcard mailings. How many people responded to your mailing? What dollar amount of sales resulted from those responses?
Is the money you are spending to attract new business giving you a good return? What can you do to make your marketing more effective? Change your offer, headline, price, the timing of your offer. When you do track the results and improve your response.
These are the points to follow when designing your own marketing strategy. When you are done, you will have laid out the steps needed to accomplish your goal using existing resources to achieve a great marketing ROI (return on investment).
After that, you simply have to get those steps executed and that might require further planning but it is all in the context of your main business marketing strategy.
It sounds obvious but your televisions streams images straight into your home
You take these images onboard, register them in your brain and can actually be influenced by them. Advertisers know this and over the years TV Advertising has almost been as popular as the main television programmes. Clever marketing is used during the TV Advertising and catchy slogans or ongoing themes are used to captivate the target audience.
The best TV Advertising is a powerful proposition and its little wonder that businesses use it to good effect on a daily basis.
You’ve got something to sell? Leave it to experts in TV Advertising and Billboard Advertising they can help you to put your product on the map.
A memorable campaign
There are certain TV Advertising campaigns that will stick in your mind. They might make you laugh, could make you stop and think, or shock you by their content. The main thing is to leave a lasting impression and the TV Advertising has to be a call to action for the viewing audience.
Quality TV Advertising handled by professional agencies can be a powerful weapon.
It has the ability to drive sales forward, promote new or existing goods and help to part customers with their money. Want to market your goods, services or new product ranges?
Enquire about TV Advertising with an agency that runs Billboard Advertising campaigns.
It’s Christmas
The television is filled with festive TV Advertising designed to sell products and goods. Have you thought about TV Advertising over the yuletide period? What are you waiting for? It’s the perfect opportunity to send a little festive cheer to your customers and remind them about the fabulous range of products that you sell.
Not sure where to begin with the TV Advertising? Have a meeting with an agency who creates standout advertising campaigns. They’ll be full of ideas, have creative people waiting in the wings ready to bring your project to life and be able to provide you with dazzling TV Advertising dedicated to your individual needs.
At Xmas or any time of the year, the best TV Advertising campaigns are created by agencies that specialise in TV, radio and Billboard Advertising.
As a marketer disguised as a consumer, I enjoy being actively solicited. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of friend requests I’ve received over the years via MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. What I can tell you is how many I’ve accepted – 3. Most of these were businesses reaching out in an attempt to introduce me to their products and yes, this does include bands. I consider musicians to be business owners with a product that needs to be sold just like anything else. I accept those 3 solicitations from a local cake decorator, a band from California and a fellow marketer. Maybe I am someone who critiques more difficultly then others because of my career but I would like to share with you the reasons I choose to accept these solicitations because I think it may help business sway their pathetic attempts at social networking in a more profitable direction.
When I was first confronted by a personalized friend request on MySpace from a local cake decorator, I was intrigued.
The first reason I didn’t automatically click the “block” button was because it was something new, something I hadn’t seen before – a cake decorator who owned her own business reaching out to the local community, I was impressed to say the least. The second was because she sent a personalized message with the request, it said: “Hello, my name is [Name Here] and I decorate cakes. There is always a birthday, wedding or anniversary so I thought you would like to add me in case you should ever need a cake!” You can’t beat that message, you really can’t. I enjoyed its simplicity and how genuine it sounded. The third reason I accepted was because her picture wasn’t something obnoxious and distracting, it was a candid image of one of her best custom cakes. Maybe it was my passion to support local small businesses, the fact that the request was so refreshing or that she doesn’t SPAM bulletins or messages or status updates. That will get someone deleted quickly and I will get into that in my third and final example below.
If you (as a consumer) have a MySpace or Facebook – I can almost guarantee that you’ve been friend (fan) requested by a band at least once. These are some of the most struggling young individuals who actually know a lot about the different websites to join and how to send requests for better exposure but have absolutely no idea what they are up against. There are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of bands sending SPAMED requests each day – so what set this band apart from the rest and spiked my interest enough to accept their plea? Most of the examples of things I appreciated about the requests will run common through my three “acceptance” examples because they are all just proper conduct when sending a request.
The first thing I noticed about this band that made them different was their default picture. It wasn’t of flaming skulls or weird cryptic text written in blood, it did not contain weird cult-like images of cows being sacrificed or the typically image of a red rose – it was candid image of their band and it wasn’t professionally taken. The second thing and final thing that caught my attention was that they set the music player on their page to only play when you clicked play. Who here has visited a MySpace page before and been blasted by music? We all have. This showed me that they didn’t want to push their music on me and that they wanted me to make the first move. I browsed their images and read the short about me and clicked the Play button. The music wasn’t necessarily what I typically enjoy but I accepted the friend request and have started to listen to their music – and that’s what’s most important.
The third and final example of a business that I decided to accept a request from came via Twitter. Unfortunately, businesses are trying way too hard to force themselves into networking these days and Twitter is a terrible place to learn network etiquette. The way businesses treat a tweet-relationship is a terrible, terrible way to gain market share. I was recently ‘followed’ by a company that specializes in marketing and PR. At first, I felt that they simply aligned my interests with their own and sent the request, so I didn’t reciprocate the request by following them. However, when I had a few moments I looked over their recent tweets and found a few things that I enjoyed.
This company posted very useful, industry related information and links in their tweets and didn’t use their Twitter account to SPAM information or sales about their own organization. This is a common fault with businesses and Twitter – no one cares that you are the self-proclaimed experts in the field. I accepted this request because they posted short and useful tweets that also included brief updates about the new relationships they forge with clients. These are examples of ‘ok’ tweets. Finally, I noticed something else and this is very important. I looked at their following to followers ratio. About 50% of the people they are following follow them in return. This is an awesome ratio for a business and I was quickly impressed. You are always tipped off when the ratio is 17,385 following / 123 followed.
So what can you as a business do to improve your chances of being accepted in the online social networking world? It’s actually quite simple. Here are three rules to get started:
1 – DO NOT SPAM – This includes friend requests, bulletins, messages, status updates, tweets and referral requests.
2 – KEEP IT PERSONAL – When sending a request treat it very professionally but try to add a personal message, keep it short and to the point.
3 – DON’T TWEET NONSENSE – Consumers will quickly identify a tweeter who posts things that have no value and do it every few minutes.
Mega-corporations like Bank of America are starting to adapt to the sensitivity of social networking with their clients. In this case, it can become more harmful then helpful should you begin to bother your current customers. Small businesses seem to have jumped right into their efforts to network sometimes do not have the guidance to engage these methods properly just yet. You can quickly expand your online portfolio if you follow just a few simple steps (some listed above) and do so at a careful pace. I encourage business owners, especially small business owners to do some research and test it out personally before plastering their company names in front of everyone. Learn the programs, language and techniques first and lastly – have fun! Enjoy this opportunity, it will help you make it more personal!
In India, at present there are many lenders and private & government banks offering Automobile Finance to the automobile industry. Millions of new and second hand vehicles are sold in India every year. There are very few people who are able to make payment for new and used car. Shortage of cash forces them to leave their dreams. In such condition, automobile financing plays an important role and helps people in fulfilling their car dreams. It is an ideal option for the middle class people who couldn’t afford brand new car.
However, there are couple of things depends when you take external financial help. First important thing is that whether you are looking for brand new car or looking second hand car available in your nearby area. Second important thing is your repayment ability means your monthly salary and collateral or security conditions. Before going to any loan provider, check all your requirements and important obligations.
If you have ability to keep collateral against the borrowed amount, it will help positively. There are more chances that you will get required cash at affordable rates. You must earn a good salary into your bank account. It is an easy way to grab external financial help and meeting car dreams without hitting your pocket.
Are you looking automobile finance provider in India? It is one part of the middle class trifecta the cool car along with the comfortable job and the own home. Only a minimum proportion of people select to purchase a car outright. There are very few people who go for the car loan route. All you required to have sufficient monthly income and all the vehicle papers in place.
Internet is an ideal way to grab financial help without leaving the comforts of your home. You can check out interest rates and different loan programs through bank’s online websites. Even you option of online application. You can send your request online. After proper evaluation of the paper, lender will approve your loan and give you desired cash amount. From a signal click of your personal computer, you can compare and contract different deals.
Password policy For domain or local user accounts, determines settings for passwords such as enforcement and lifetimes
Account lockout policy For domain or local user accounts, determines when and for whom an account is locked out of the system
The policies in the Local Policies security area pertain to the security settings on the computer used by an application or user in the site, domain, or OU to which the GPO is linked. Local policies are based on the computer you are logged on to and the rights you have on that particular computer. This security area contains attributes for the fol?lowing:
Audit policy Determines which security events are logged into the security log on the computer (successful attempts, failed attempts, or both). The security log is a part of the Event Viewer console. Audit policy is discussed in detail in Lesson 3.
User rights assignment Determines which users or groups have logon or task privileges on the computer in a site, domain, or OU. A user right is authorization to perform an operation that affects an entire computer rather than a specific object on the computer. To ease the task of user account administration, you should assign user rights primarily to A+ certificate group accounts, rather than to individual user accounts. You can find details about user rights in Appendix C, “User Rights.”
Security options Enables or disables security settings for the computer, such as digital signing of data, Administrator and Guest account names, floppy drive and CD-ROM access, driver installation, and logon prompts.
Local policies, by definition, are local to a computer. When these settings are imported to a GPO in Active Directory, they affect the local security settings of any computer accounts to which that GPO is applied.
You can also configure the default security log size in the Security Properties dialog box. The Security Properties dialog box is located by right-clicking Security and then clicking Properties in the Event Viewer console.
publish To deploy a program to members of a group where acceptance of the pro-gram is at the discretion of the user.
software distribution point (SDP) In Software MCITP Enterprise Administrator Installation, a network location from which users are able to get the software that they need.
In addition, John Molsons School of Business (JMSB) and McGills business schools, are among the top Canada-wide, producing some of the top marketing and business grads across our nation. Montreal also has access to online marketing programs, and grads can also work affordably for a variety of online marketing companies.
It is important to take the time to evaluate multiple online marketing companies prior to selecting one. Luckily, online marketing companies are ubiquitous, as we witness their work on a daily basis, whether it is, checking email, using Facebook or other social media, scrolling through search results using a search engine.
In fact, there has been a decline in the demand for traditional advertising, while public relations and online marketing companies have been steadily on the rise. This trend will likely continue as revenue from television, radio, and other more traditional media continue to decline. However, such media sources are now taking action to develop their online presences. The result is online radio stations, streaming television programs, podcasting, affiliate marketing and video marketing.
When selecting amongst the myriad of online marketing companies that all proclaim to be #1, a thorough background check, consisting of certifications, references, and a thorough overview of their accomplishments, should be weighted against the price-points that each respective online marketing company is requesting. In addition, a local presence helps get an idea of the people behind the technology. Ideally, your prospective online marketing companies will meet with you, and will take the time to develop effective online marketing strategy. At the very least, I would recommend a few Skype or MSN or GTALK chat, voice, and video discussions prior to signing an agreement.