Email marketing is comprised of two major parts: the email itself and the email marketing list (also known as the contact list). This list is the very core of every email marketing campaign, as well as the reason why you are email marketing at all. Without this list of people, all who should have given you permission to email them, you have no reason whatsoever to indulge in email marketing to promote your business, goods or services. Here are three questions most email marketers must ask when they're just starting out:
Where can I get my email list?
Before I go into where you can get your list, it's better to discuss where you shouldn't get your list first. Buying, renting or scraping email addresses off the Internet are all terrible ideas. Why? Because those people haven't given you permission to email them. The quickest way to lampoon your email marketing campaign is to obtain a list that includes wrong email addresses and people who haven't given you permission. This results in spam complaints that will ultimately ruin your email marketing reputation.
There are many creative, effective ways to build an email list. Your first shot is putting a ListBuilder (also known as a sign-up box) on every single page of your Website. Site visitors can use this box to enter info and subscribe your email or newsletter. You can also build subscriptions by providing email address cards at your shop, tradeshows and other venues. If you are creative and ambitious about growing a permission-based email list, you can do these things and you'll see your list grow.
What should I do with that list once I have it?
Your next step is to segment your list, if possible. Try and divide up the names and email addresses on that list by product likes and dislikes, geographical location and other data. By doing this, you're dividing your list up and making it more targeted. Sending an email that canvasses everyone on your list may work, but you'll most likely have better luck sending different emails that promote the products certain customers have already show they're interested in.
How do I choose an email marketing service?
If you're not sure where to start, go online and find which service you like best. The best email marketing services have sophisticated list management systems that not only let you segment your list and upload it to the system, but store your lists online and access them 24/7. The advantage of a Web-based email marketing suite is that you can pay a low monthly fee to use the service and you can access it anywhere in the world, as long as you have Internet access. The best email marketing services also include reporting suites that can tell, in real time, just how successful your email marketing campaigns are with recipients.
As an email marketer, remember that email marketing requires lots of patience, planning and creativity. However, if you build a great list and manage it accordingly, you'll gain more sales and respect from your email or newsletter recipients.
Gary San is a best practices activist and advocate for Benchmark Email ( http://www.benchmarkemail.com/email-marketing.aspx ), a leading Web and permission-based email marketing service.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Guide to Marketing Your Start-Up Business in 3 Phases
You’ve finished writing your business plan and decided it’s to take the plunge. But before you set to launch, start small and give your business a trial run. Make some prototype of your products from the house and fork out a hundred dollars for four color printing a few hundred flyers and brochures. See how well it sells and go from there.
Slow but sure business model
Low capital businesses need a business model that gives them faster returns on investment. They have to streamline their cost. Use a marketing strategy that focuses on small easily and quickly attainable goals, and done cheap. (Billboards, jingles, and commercials are out of the question)They need to break even fast and use the profit for additional capital instead of putting in more money from their pockets.
Unless you’re a multimillionaire, or have multimillionaire friends who can invest on your business, stick to the slow but sure business model and work your way to becoming the next big thing.
Here’s what your marketing plan should look like:
1. Long Before the Launch:
As previously suggested, you can start out with flyers and brochures for your products. This is simply a test to see the receptiveness of the market. At this point, your customers are mostly friends and family, and their own set of friends.
They may be enthusiastic about your business and can be very good salesmen, but they may get the facts of your products wrong. Arming them with a flyer helps them along the way. It will also help them give better feed back about your products.
2. Pre-launching:
You need posters, and plenty of them. The first few days of your business, you should expect a lot of curious people dropping in just to check what your business is about. They may buy your products out of curiosity, but only a small percent of them will be repeat customers. What’s important though is to let them know your business exists.
Start with a bang. You should have a gimmick for your launch: a guest celebrity, extended shop hours, games, free beer, anything to drum up excitement for your opening. Of course, direct-mail invites and postcards to your event can go a long way.
Your posters should shout out your unique selling point, and your USP should answer a problem or fill in an important need.
3. Launch: Depending on how well executed your pre-launching is, you can expect to have a number of people frequenting your store. Chances are, you won’t have a chance to talk long enough to each one to explain what your business is about or why they should be your customer. The next best thing though is give them a brochure.
Four color printing is your new best friend. Give an in-depth brochure that goes beyond your average hype. Talk about the needs you intend to meet with your business, talk about your need to hear their insight, talk about how you came up with the inspiration for your products and how that eureka moment felt. Small businesses thrive on long term relationships.
For an attractive and attention grabbing materials
four color printing will be an ideal concept to apply. To find more on its application please feel free to visit color printing wholesale
Slow but sure business model
Low capital businesses need a business model that gives them faster returns on investment. They have to streamline their cost. Use a marketing strategy that focuses on small easily and quickly attainable goals, and done cheap. (Billboards, jingles, and commercials are out of the question)They need to break even fast and use the profit for additional capital instead of putting in more money from their pockets.
Unless you’re a multimillionaire, or have multimillionaire friends who can invest on your business, stick to the slow but sure business model and work your way to becoming the next big thing.
Here’s what your marketing plan should look like:
1. Long Before the Launch:
As previously suggested, you can start out with flyers and brochures for your products. This is simply a test to see the receptiveness of the market. At this point, your customers are mostly friends and family, and their own set of friends.
They may be enthusiastic about your business and can be very good salesmen, but they may get the facts of your products wrong. Arming them with a flyer helps them along the way. It will also help them give better feed back about your products.
2. Pre-launching:
You need posters, and plenty of them. The first few days of your business, you should expect a lot of curious people dropping in just to check what your business is about. They may buy your products out of curiosity, but only a small percent of them will be repeat customers. What’s important though is to let them know your business exists.
Start with a bang. You should have a gimmick for your launch: a guest celebrity, extended shop hours, games, free beer, anything to drum up excitement for your opening. Of course, direct-mail invites and postcards to your event can go a long way.
Your posters should shout out your unique selling point, and your USP should answer a problem or fill in an important need.
3. Launch: Depending on how well executed your pre-launching is, you can expect to have a number of people frequenting your store. Chances are, you won’t have a chance to talk long enough to each one to explain what your business is about or why they should be your customer. The next best thing though is give them a brochure.
Four color printing is your new best friend. Give an in-depth brochure that goes beyond your average hype. Talk about the needs you intend to meet with your business, talk about your need to hear their insight, talk about how you came up with the inspiration for your products and how that eureka moment felt. Small businesses thrive on long term relationships.
For an attractive and attention grabbing materials
four color printing will be an ideal concept to apply. To find more on its application please feel free to visit color printing wholesale
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Media Marketing
In the media world, image is everything. Today's graphics hype and promotion gamble, it is hard running a magazine. Media can offer a cheaper ad to businesses who want to advertise in our magazine. However, this would reduce the quality.
On the other hand, to reduce the quality and increase quantity is a common trend, even though it does not increase the ad's effectiveness. It just makes it easier to sell, because business owners have a hard time comparing an ad's effectiveness against the number of issues printed, and the number of issues sent to the recycling center.
However, understanding the basics can mean the difference between success, and failure, in a small business.
Regional magazines are, arguably the most effective advertising medium today, as effective as television, sixty percent more effective than radio. Still, advertisers do not understand that the regional magazine does work because the quality is so high.
Lower the quality, and the effectiveness is lowered. Advertisers are distracted by distribution. The newspaper empires are built on the distribution myth.
Here is an excerpt from a conversation at a media meeting.
We had a funny situation happen recently. My sales person was at a call trying to educate a restaurant owner on the benefits of regional magazine sales. The restaurant owner kept repeating newspaper stats. One hundred thousand copies, over ten weeks, is one million people that see my ad.
Frustrated, the sales person kept trying to make this person see that only 300 000 people, including children, lived in the area. Where were the imaginary million people coming from? Then he tried to explain that most newspapers are returned each evening, and that it is important to produce these wasted newspapers, so the paper will have enough distribution incase something big happens.
Finally, he tried to explain that most people only read 5% of the newspaper. Not everyone who buys a newspaper will see his ad. In truth, this newspaper with a distribution of 100 000 would have the same number of viewers as our regional magazine. The sales person just shook his head and left the restaurant owner believing that one million people would see his ad.
This is an example of the old adage, 'they will always do some things better than you.' One of the biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make is in thinking they have no competition. They forget the indirect competitors.
A trade magazine may be the only magazine in the area, but there are several newspapers in town, and one advertising newsletter. It is important to compared prices and distribution to your target audience, not spamming. There may be no direct competition for a trade magazine, but, there is competition for the advertisers' dollar.
This is how a business owner needs to look at competition. Not as people doing the same thing they are, but people going after the same money. This matters when choosing the media type for advertising. If a newspaper spams 100 000 people, but only 50 read your ad, and a trade magazine mails to 1000 people, but everyone reads your ad, and people buy because you have reached your target market, then the magazine provided the better deal.
This means Wait a Minute needs to compete against the local cable company and radio stations. They are indirect competitors. To compete it is necessary to find ways to make the VALUE of our product better than their product.
This brought us to a problem. With cable, radio, and newspaper ads as our direct competitors, it was necessary to make sure the quality of our magazine, and the graphics, was top notch. We needed to meet the CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. The customers will judge or product against those they expect from the competition.
Value and customer expectations are the two most important factors to consider when doing market research.
Example from a new concierge service's marketing plan.
Do we go to the business section of town to do our research or find a plaza that does not mind us bothering their customers? Do we phone people? Or, do we send out a mailing?
A concierge service was one I thought about starting.
I started my business plan with 'my' idea about what I thought would work. Then I did market research, checking out the people I thought would be our clients. I found a marked difference in the service they wanted, and the price they wanted to pay. They wanted a guarantee that lunch would be served in 30 minutes.
We tried to explain that we were not a pizza delivery service where we had a couple dozen people with separate routes. The potential clients had a difficult time understanding our fee; they saw it as a tip and wondered why we wanted such a high tip. They wanted people to deliver food, pick up mail, take their laundry, and other services, at all times of the day and night. This was not a problem.
A problem rose when they decided we were to be on call 24/7. The idea that we would magically appear the moment they called intrigued them, and stressed me. After two months of research, I decided that a concierge service would not survive long in our area.
Brainstorming with other business owners, and learning more about marketing, will help you determine what media will serve your small business best.
Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at http://www.CashFlowInstitute.com
On the other hand, to reduce the quality and increase quantity is a common trend, even though it does not increase the ad's effectiveness. It just makes it easier to sell, because business owners have a hard time comparing an ad's effectiveness against the number of issues printed, and the number of issues sent to the recycling center.
However, understanding the basics can mean the difference between success, and failure, in a small business.
Regional magazines are, arguably the most effective advertising medium today, as effective as television, sixty percent more effective than radio. Still, advertisers do not understand that the regional magazine does work because the quality is so high.
Lower the quality, and the effectiveness is lowered. Advertisers are distracted by distribution. The newspaper empires are built on the distribution myth.
Here is an excerpt from a conversation at a media meeting.
We had a funny situation happen recently. My sales person was at a call trying to educate a restaurant owner on the benefits of regional magazine sales. The restaurant owner kept repeating newspaper stats. One hundred thousand copies, over ten weeks, is one million people that see my ad.
Frustrated, the sales person kept trying to make this person see that only 300 000 people, including children, lived in the area. Where were the imaginary million people coming from? Then he tried to explain that most newspapers are returned each evening, and that it is important to produce these wasted newspapers, so the paper will have enough distribution incase something big happens.
Finally, he tried to explain that most people only read 5% of the newspaper. Not everyone who buys a newspaper will see his ad. In truth, this newspaper with a distribution of 100 000 would have the same number of viewers as our regional magazine. The sales person just shook his head and left the restaurant owner believing that one million people would see his ad.
This is an example of the old adage, 'they will always do some things better than you.' One of the biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make is in thinking they have no competition. They forget the indirect competitors.
A trade magazine may be the only magazine in the area, but there are several newspapers in town, and one advertising newsletter. It is important to compared prices and distribution to your target audience, not spamming. There may be no direct competition for a trade magazine, but, there is competition for the advertisers' dollar.
This is how a business owner needs to look at competition. Not as people doing the same thing they are, but people going after the same money. This matters when choosing the media type for advertising. If a newspaper spams 100 000 people, but only 50 read your ad, and a trade magazine mails to 1000 people, but everyone reads your ad, and people buy because you have reached your target market, then the magazine provided the better deal.
This means Wait a Minute needs to compete against the local cable company and radio stations. They are indirect competitors. To compete it is necessary to find ways to make the VALUE of our product better than their product.
This brought us to a problem. With cable, radio, and newspaper ads as our direct competitors, it was necessary to make sure the quality of our magazine, and the graphics, was top notch. We needed to meet the CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. The customers will judge or product against those they expect from the competition.
Value and customer expectations are the two most important factors to consider when doing market research.
Example from a new concierge service's marketing plan.
Do we go to the business section of town to do our research or find a plaza that does not mind us bothering their customers? Do we phone people? Or, do we send out a mailing?
A concierge service was one I thought about starting.
I started my business plan with 'my' idea about what I thought would work. Then I did market research, checking out the people I thought would be our clients. I found a marked difference in the service they wanted, and the price they wanted to pay. They wanted a guarantee that lunch would be served in 30 minutes.
We tried to explain that we were not a pizza delivery service where we had a couple dozen people with separate routes. The potential clients had a difficult time understanding our fee; they saw it as a tip and wondered why we wanted such a high tip. They wanted people to deliver food, pick up mail, take their laundry, and other services, at all times of the day and night. This was not a problem.
A problem rose when they decided we were to be on call 24/7. The idea that we would magically appear the moment they called intrigued them, and stressed me. After two months of research, I decided that a concierge service would not survive long in our area.
Brainstorming with other business owners, and learning more about marketing, will help you determine what media will serve your small business best.
Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at http://www.CashFlowInstitute.com
The Marketing Secret: What's in it For Me?
You’ve heard it before: the basis of your marketing should answer the question from your potential buyer: “What’s in it for me?”
It’s the truth. You yourself don’t visit a website or look at a product unless there is a clear benefit for you doing so.
Keep this in mind for your next marketing campaign. No matter if you have a newsletter, a blog, a press release or a direct mail campaign, you have to give the reader a reason to read. Otherwise you’re missing out on potential business and wasting your time and money.
Here are some examples of how you can offer value in each of these types of marketing tools.
Newsletter I am a strong proponent of e-newsletters. I send two out to my company's subscribers each month. I include a personal note, links to places I’ve been interviewed, and an article on marketing. Now, while I certainly hope my readers will read the press releases I’ve included and listen to my interviews, I know the reason they open my emails in the first place is that article. I’m providing useful information they can easily digest in their Inboxes. In return, I hope they’ll explore my websites and contact me if they need marketing services.
Blogs Why do you read blogs? Probably because you find information that helps you solve a problem, like how to market online or how to write a press release. So free information is what’s in it for you. I do this out of the goodness of my heart. Again, I provide this information, hoping that when you need extra help with marketing, my readers will consider my company.
Press Release Think press releases are designed to help you promote your company? Think again. Their purpose is to help solve a problem a potential client has. Say you’re shopping for birth announcements online and you stumble across a press release for Baby’s Here Inc. You find out that this company sells unique, customized birth announcements online. It piques your interest, so you visit the site. You end up ordering all your announcements here. Problem solved.
It’s important to relay your news in a way that answers that question, “what’s in it for me,” for your potential customers. Address the problem your news can solve. A new office location can provide easy access to your store for people in your new geographic area. A new pet product may solve the problem of fleas on your dog.
Direct Mail We all get direct mail. We usually glance at it, and if it doesn’t catch our attention, into the trash it goes. Having attractive graphics is half of the battle. But once you’ve drawn in the eye, you have to attract the mind. Make sure your postcard or letter directly addresses how you can help the reader. Make them hold on to the card long enough to want to know more.
Susan Payton is Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations. She assists small businesses with marketing strategy. She is also the author of 101 Entrepreneur Tips, a guide that helps entrepreneurs make repeat customers, close the sale, and delegate work. For more information on Susan and Egg Marketing, visit www.eggmarketingpr.com or smpayton@eggmarketingpr.com. Get marketing advice on The Marketing Eggspert Blog, www.eggmarketingblog.com.
It’s the truth. You yourself don’t visit a website or look at a product unless there is a clear benefit for you doing so.
Keep this in mind for your next marketing campaign. No matter if you have a newsletter, a blog, a press release or a direct mail campaign, you have to give the reader a reason to read. Otherwise you’re missing out on potential business and wasting your time and money.
Here are some examples of how you can offer value in each of these types of marketing tools.
Newsletter I am a strong proponent of e-newsletters. I send two out to my company's subscribers each month. I include a personal note, links to places I’ve been interviewed, and an article on marketing. Now, while I certainly hope my readers will read the press releases I’ve included and listen to my interviews, I know the reason they open my emails in the first place is that article. I’m providing useful information they can easily digest in their Inboxes. In return, I hope they’ll explore my websites and contact me if they need marketing services.
Blogs Why do you read blogs? Probably because you find information that helps you solve a problem, like how to market online or how to write a press release. So free information is what’s in it for you. I do this out of the goodness of my heart. Again, I provide this information, hoping that when you need extra help with marketing, my readers will consider my company.
Press Release Think press releases are designed to help you promote your company? Think again. Their purpose is to help solve a problem a potential client has. Say you’re shopping for birth announcements online and you stumble across a press release for Baby’s Here Inc. You find out that this company sells unique, customized birth announcements online. It piques your interest, so you visit the site. You end up ordering all your announcements here. Problem solved.
It’s important to relay your news in a way that answers that question, “what’s in it for me,” for your potential customers. Address the problem your news can solve. A new office location can provide easy access to your store for people in your new geographic area. A new pet product may solve the problem of fleas on your dog.
Direct Mail We all get direct mail. We usually glance at it, and if it doesn’t catch our attention, into the trash it goes. Having attractive graphics is half of the battle. But once you’ve drawn in the eye, you have to attract the mind. Make sure your postcard or letter directly addresses how you can help the reader. Make them hold on to the card long enough to want to know more.
Susan Payton is Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations. She assists small businesses with marketing strategy. She is also the author of 101 Entrepreneur Tips, a guide that helps entrepreneurs make repeat customers, close the sale, and delegate work. For more information on Susan and Egg Marketing, visit www.eggmarketingpr.com or smpayton@eggmarketingpr.com. Get marketing advice on The Marketing Eggspert Blog, www.eggmarketingblog.com.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
How to use social marketing to promote your business
There are many different ways that you can promote your business by using social marketing. It is one of the latest and most popular ways to market your business. You must be sure that your products, services and market will lend themselves to this form of marketing, because it does take a little time to do and you want to attract the right market.
1. Myspace: Myspace has become increasingly popular, and is now one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. There are many tools you can use here. There is a classified advertisement center, where you can place ads. But the biggest way to advertise your business is not to advertise as such but to talk to contacts and mention products and services that can be useful to them on Myspace itself. This is a fun way to market and works well if you are not looking for a very tight niche market. You can specialise a little but this form of social marketing is better for a more general market.
2. Forums: Forums are a good form of social marketing, and some marketers use these a lot. Again do not advertise on these forums, because you will be pretty unpopular and may even get banned by the moderator. Instead participate by asking questions and giving good advice. Always leave your little sig file with your post; this is acceptable and even expected. When people get to know you and trust your advice they will visit your website and may even buy something in time. Always choose a forum that is targeted to your market.
3. Discussion boards: Discussion boards are similar to forums but there is a little more debate. The rules are the same and you can use the same techniques to promote your business. Yahoo and Google lists can also be used.
4. Network sites, such as Ryze can be useful. You can join networks that are related to your market. Here you can, not only post and discuss topics but can also post your articles. These are good places to prove yourself an expert in your field. Again you cannot advertise but can leave your sig file with website URL. As in the forums and discussion boards, people can visit your site. In addition there is a private message board that others can contact you on. Many times potential customers will write to you about your product or service.
5. Web 2.0 tools: This is a suite of social marketing tools. It includes video sites, where you can advertise your products and services through videos. This again will work with the right products and services and can be very effective. Some are useful to students others can be adapted for marketing. Myspace and the video sites are the most useful sites for marketing in this set of tools.
6. Seminars: Seminars have been used for many years to promote businesses. Again it is not for every market and they take quite a bit of work to organize and promote. If you are already a well-known figure it is much easier to promote and use. Be sure you have good speakers and target your market. You will need to give people their money's worth, and more, to make this fly. Plan a series of seminars. If the first one is successful then you can travel around the country and many people will gladly pay to go to all of them. Once you get a reputation of being a good speaker and having good speakers at your seminars then you will find this a wonderful marketing tool.
7. Blogging: Blogging is a powerful social tool when used correctly. You need to be aware of a few tips before you try this fun form of marketing. Make your blogs concise and enjoyable. Try to blog every 1-2 days to keep your readers busy and build up traffic. Make blog networks to really build up targeted traffic.
Be sure that you choose subjects and events that your special market will enjoy, and write them so that your readers will be compelled to read all your blogs. You can include links to bigger more detailed articles and also to new products. Properly done blogs can be very profitable and are one of the best social marketing tools you can use.
Social marketing is fun to do. It does take a little time but if you want you can hire other people to write your blogs and articles for you. You can make many friends and build up good business relations with social marketing. It is a wonderful way to practice customer relationship marketing and is well worth looking into, as an alternative and cost effective way of marketing.
Sean McPheat is a leading authority marketing consultant and helps businesses across the UK, Europe, US and the Middle East. Sean's marketing services include direct mail, internet marketing, sales copy, sales training, telemarketing, PR and strategic alliance marketing.
1. Myspace: Myspace has become increasingly popular, and is now one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. There are many tools you can use here. There is a classified advertisement center, where you can place ads. But the biggest way to advertise your business is not to advertise as such but to talk to contacts and mention products and services that can be useful to them on Myspace itself. This is a fun way to market and works well if you are not looking for a very tight niche market. You can specialise a little but this form of social marketing is better for a more general market.
2. Forums: Forums are a good form of social marketing, and some marketers use these a lot. Again do not advertise on these forums, because you will be pretty unpopular and may even get banned by the moderator. Instead participate by asking questions and giving good advice. Always leave your little sig file with your post; this is acceptable and even expected. When people get to know you and trust your advice they will visit your website and may even buy something in time. Always choose a forum that is targeted to your market.
3. Discussion boards: Discussion boards are similar to forums but there is a little more debate. The rules are the same and you can use the same techniques to promote your business. Yahoo and Google lists can also be used.
4. Network sites, such as Ryze can be useful. You can join networks that are related to your market. Here you can, not only post and discuss topics but can also post your articles. These are good places to prove yourself an expert in your field. Again you cannot advertise but can leave your sig file with website URL. As in the forums and discussion boards, people can visit your site. In addition there is a private message board that others can contact you on. Many times potential customers will write to you about your product or service.
5. Web 2.0 tools: This is a suite of social marketing tools. It includes video sites, where you can advertise your products and services through videos. This again will work with the right products and services and can be very effective. Some are useful to students others can be adapted for marketing. Myspace and the video sites are the most useful sites for marketing in this set of tools.
6. Seminars: Seminars have been used for many years to promote businesses. Again it is not for every market and they take quite a bit of work to organize and promote. If you are already a well-known figure it is much easier to promote and use. Be sure you have good speakers and target your market. You will need to give people their money's worth, and more, to make this fly. Plan a series of seminars. If the first one is successful then you can travel around the country and many people will gladly pay to go to all of them. Once you get a reputation of being a good speaker and having good speakers at your seminars then you will find this a wonderful marketing tool.
7. Blogging: Blogging is a powerful social tool when used correctly. You need to be aware of a few tips before you try this fun form of marketing. Make your blogs concise and enjoyable. Try to blog every 1-2 days to keep your readers busy and build up traffic. Make blog networks to really build up targeted traffic.
Be sure that you choose subjects and events that your special market will enjoy, and write them so that your readers will be compelled to read all your blogs. You can include links to bigger more detailed articles and also to new products. Properly done blogs can be very profitable and are one of the best social marketing tools you can use.
Social marketing is fun to do. It does take a little time but if you want you can hire other people to write your blogs and articles for you. You can make many friends and build up good business relations with social marketing. It is a wonderful way to practice customer relationship marketing and is well worth looking into, as an alternative and cost effective way of marketing.
Sean McPheat is a leading authority marketing consultant and helps businesses across the UK, Europe, US and the Middle East. Sean's marketing services include direct mail, internet marketing, sales copy, sales training, telemarketing, PR and strategic alliance marketing.
5 Clever Ways To Gain The Best From Article Marketing
Think of this! It is no more difficult to make your article marketing campaigns bring maximum benefits to a website as it is to lose the full effect on a hap-hazzard campaign. There is little extra effort involved. It's just a case of following a few easy guidelines and almost anyone can reap the rewards which come with good article marketing optimization. You are probably already doing most things correctly, but the finer points of article marketing can often make a big difference to the overall effect of your efforts.
Ok so let's imagine that your article is almost finished and perhaps requires just a little optimization before you submit your work to the hundreds of article marketing directories available on the Internet. Before you go further, here are 5 great ways to gain the most from article marketing which, if implemented correctly, will be sure to bring you increased benefit from your article marketing campaigns.
* Good Article Content.
To keep your article marketing campaigns effective, always make sure that the content of your article is original, grammatically correct and with no spelling mistakes. Your title or header should be short but eye-catching enough to be of interest, and be relevent to the content of your article. The article body should be interesting and intriguing enough to leave the reader wanting more information. This is where good article marketing can make a difference. Keep to the points you are making and don't pontificate. Avoid repetition and yet keep within the discussion area of your chosen subject matter. Article marketing pros often Use facts and figures to strengthen the points within their articles, and identify their points numerically or with bullets. All this makes for excellent article marketing practice.
* Keywords and Keyword Phrases.
The keywords or phrases you choose for your article marketing campaign are those words or phrases which identify the visitors you want to attract through search engines to find and read your article. They are the core of your article marketing efforts so research well and choose keywords you consider most likely to produce a high ranking position with search engines. A recommended article marketing ploy is to use just one keyword phrase for each article you write. This makes article writing easier, and you are able to concentrate your efforts around one word. Your article marketing campaign will struggle if you use keywords that many others are competing for.
* Keywords Density.
The term 'keyword density' refers to the number of times a keyword or phrase is used in the text of an article. It is shown as a percentage of the total number of words in the text. For good article marketing optimization, the recommended keyword density is between 3% and 7%. Higher than this, say 10% density will appear to be keyword stuffing and your article may be penalized by search engines, leaving your article marketing campaign on the rocks. In any case, articles with 10% keyword density hardly make sense, when read by a human. On the other hand, if the keyword density is too low, an article may be ignored by search engines, and your article marketing campaign again will have little effect. Ideally if your article is for example 700 words in length, you should use your keyword approximately 35 times. But keep in mind, keyword density in the title, the headings, and the first paragraph will carry more weight.
Article marketing tip: Remove small, insignificant and unnecessary words in your articles. This improves density without adding keywords.
* Article Cloning.
Article cloning, or article spinning, is a useful article marketing ploy to adopt where you take your original article and make a few alterations to each paragraph so it will appear like a new and unique article. This method of article marketing is often carried out by an original author or when working with public domain articles. Search engines will regard each version as unique when submitted to article marketing directories. It is important to submit unique articles so that they are individually indexed. Although this practice can be time-consuming, there are article marketing software programs available on the Internet that will clone your articles in moments.
* Article Submissions.
Perhaps the most important part of your article marketing campaign is article submission. Again there are many article marketing software programs available that will submit your articles automatically or semi-automatically depending on the product. Whether you use software or submit by hand, always go for quality over quantity making sure you submit to the high ranking article marketing directories at very least. Adapting article marketing cloning techniques, always try to submit a unique article to each directory and you'll get the best results from your article marketing campaigns.
So there you have it! Just 5 simple ways to gain the most from article marketing. Use these easy tactics with all your article marketing campaigns and you will soon bring quality traffic to your website or online business. Take the time to read article marketing software reviews when possible before you purchase software.
Trevor Taylor
Trevor Taylor writes about his experiences in article writing and article marketing arenas.
Article Marketing Software Reviews
Free Online Marketing Tools
Ok so let's imagine that your article is almost finished and perhaps requires just a little optimization before you submit your work to the hundreds of article marketing directories available on the Internet. Before you go further, here are 5 great ways to gain the most from article marketing which, if implemented correctly, will be sure to bring you increased benefit from your article marketing campaigns.
* Good Article Content.
To keep your article marketing campaigns effective, always make sure that the content of your article is original, grammatically correct and with no spelling mistakes. Your title or header should be short but eye-catching enough to be of interest, and be relevent to the content of your article. The article body should be interesting and intriguing enough to leave the reader wanting more information. This is where good article marketing can make a difference. Keep to the points you are making and don't pontificate. Avoid repetition and yet keep within the discussion area of your chosen subject matter. Article marketing pros often Use facts and figures to strengthen the points within their articles, and identify their points numerically or with bullets. All this makes for excellent article marketing practice.
* Keywords and Keyword Phrases.
The keywords or phrases you choose for your article marketing campaign are those words or phrases which identify the visitors you want to attract through search engines to find and read your article. They are the core of your article marketing efforts so research well and choose keywords you consider most likely to produce a high ranking position with search engines. A recommended article marketing ploy is to use just one keyword phrase for each article you write. This makes article writing easier, and you are able to concentrate your efforts around one word. Your article marketing campaign will struggle if you use keywords that many others are competing for.
* Keywords Density.
The term 'keyword density' refers to the number of times a keyword or phrase is used in the text of an article. It is shown as a percentage of the total number of words in the text. For good article marketing optimization, the recommended keyword density is between 3% and 7%. Higher than this, say 10% density will appear to be keyword stuffing and your article may be penalized by search engines, leaving your article marketing campaign on the rocks. In any case, articles with 10% keyword density hardly make sense, when read by a human. On the other hand, if the keyword density is too low, an article may be ignored by search engines, and your article marketing campaign again will have little effect. Ideally if your article is for example 700 words in length, you should use your keyword approximately 35 times. But keep in mind, keyword density in the title, the headings, and the first paragraph will carry more weight.
Article marketing tip: Remove small, insignificant and unnecessary words in your articles. This improves density without adding keywords.
* Article Cloning.
Article cloning, or article spinning, is a useful article marketing ploy to adopt where you take your original article and make a few alterations to each paragraph so it will appear like a new and unique article. This method of article marketing is often carried out by an original author or when working with public domain articles. Search engines will regard each version as unique when submitted to article marketing directories. It is important to submit unique articles so that they are individually indexed. Although this practice can be time-consuming, there are article marketing software programs available on the Internet that will clone your articles in moments.
* Article Submissions.
Perhaps the most important part of your article marketing campaign is article submission. Again there are many article marketing software programs available that will submit your articles automatically or semi-automatically depending on the product. Whether you use software or submit by hand, always go for quality over quantity making sure you submit to the high ranking article marketing directories at very least. Adapting article marketing cloning techniques, always try to submit a unique article to each directory and you'll get the best results from your article marketing campaigns.
So there you have it! Just 5 simple ways to gain the most from article marketing. Use these easy tactics with all your article marketing campaigns and you will soon bring quality traffic to your website or online business. Take the time to read article marketing software reviews when possible before you purchase software.
Trevor Taylor
Trevor Taylor writes about his experiences in article writing and article marketing arenas.
Article Marketing Software Reviews
Free Online Marketing Tools
What is marketing to you?
What is MARKETING to you? Marketing is about what's in it for them not about you!
Many people will have different perspectives but there are certain common factors that top marketers will agree.
One important thing about marketing is understanding your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
For example my USP: Bruce Seah is Asia No.1 Home-Based Business Coach with 14 years of home-based business experience and has written 10 books on network marketing. He has invested over $70,000 in personal development and business education and offers people an opportunity to leverage on his knowledge and experience in his 12-month coaching for free when they are part of his marketing team!
It is more powerful if you can communicate your USP in one sentence! For example: "I can teach you how to make one million dollars in your home-based business in my 12-month home-based business coaching for free!"
Your sentence got to have the WOW! factor! "one million dollars" and "12-month coaching for free!"
From my perspective, marketing is:
Mind - it is working with your mind, understanding marketing and willing to learn from top marketers such as Jay Abraham and Sergio Zyman.
Action - you got to put your ideas into action by having a game plan and looking for a team that can help you in your marketing, it is tough trying to do it alone - learn to leverage!
Responsibility - be true to yourself and others, be responsible for your words and actions, you are dealing with people and they are basically the same, they want to be treated well!
Knot - find out what are the painful problems people are facing, I called it "The knot that people want to untie!" People worldwide basically want to be happy, to enjoy good health and to make more money! Find the niches in these areas where there are people who are hungry for the things you are offering and are willing to pay you for it!
Ethical - Buckminster Fuller said it very well: Integrity is the essence of everything. Your marketing must be build on the foundation of honesty - delivering what you promised!
Team - effective marketing is only possible when you have an effective team. Don't try to do it alone, find a good team to help you in your marketing!
Innovation - constantly think of better ways to give more value to people that will make a positive difference to their lives!
Numbers - understanding the law of averages, you must do enough to get the results you want. Understanding numbers is critical to your success and that is why you must increase your financial intelligence by understanding the numbers that you will face in marketing.
Generosity - be willing to give more. Here is a wise saying: There was a man they thought he was mad, but the more he gave, the more he had! It is the spirit of giving, many top marketers contribute part of their profits to help others or constantly find ways to give more to their customers.
If you want to leverage on my knowledge and experience, do give me a call at 98565007 for a mastermind session.
"If you are not networking, you are not working."
Bruce Seah, Asia No.1 Home-Based Business Coach. Bruce loves to help people make money offline and online to achieve their dreams! For free ebooks on how to make money offline and online, go to: http://www.BruceSeah.com
Feel free to share this article at your web site or ezine as long as you include the author's name and web site.
Many people will have different perspectives but there are certain common factors that top marketers will agree.
One important thing about marketing is understanding your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
For example my USP: Bruce Seah is Asia No.1 Home-Based Business Coach with 14 years of home-based business experience and has written 10 books on network marketing. He has invested over $70,000 in personal development and business education and offers people an opportunity to leverage on his knowledge and experience in his 12-month coaching for free when they are part of his marketing team!
It is more powerful if you can communicate your USP in one sentence! For example: "I can teach you how to make one million dollars in your home-based business in my 12-month home-based business coaching for free!"
Your sentence got to have the WOW! factor! "one million dollars" and "12-month coaching for free!"
From my perspective, marketing is:
Mind - it is working with your mind, understanding marketing and willing to learn from top marketers such as Jay Abraham and Sergio Zyman.
Action - you got to put your ideas into action by having a game plan and looking for a team that can help you in your marketing, it is tough trying to do it alone - learn to leverage!
Responsibility - be true to yourself and others, be responsible for your words and actions, you are dealing with people and they are basically the same, they want to be treated well!
Knot - find out what are the painful problems people are facing, I called it "The knot that people want to untie!" People worldwide basically want to be happy, to enjoy good health and to make more money! Find the niches in these areas where there are people who are hungry for the things you are offering and are willing to pay you for it!
Ethical - Buckminster Fuller said it very well: Integrity is the essence of everything. Your marketing must be build on the foundation of honesty - delivering what you promised!
Team - effective marketing is only possible when you have an effective team. Don't try to do it alone, find a good team to help you in your marketing!
Innovation - constantly think of better ways to give more value to people that will make a positive difference to their lives!
Numbers - understanding the law of averages, you must do enough to get the results you want. Understanding numbers is critical to your success and that is why you must increase your financial intelligence by understanding the numbers that you will face in marketing.
Generosity - be willing to give more. Here is a wise saying: There was a man they thought he was mad, but the more he gave, the more he had! It is the spirit of giving, many top marketers contribute part of their profits to help others or constantly find ways to give more to their customers.
If you want to leverage on my knowledge and experience, do give me a call at 98565007 for a mastermind session.
"If you are not networking, you are not working."
Bruce Seah, Asia No.1 Home-Based Business Coach. Bruce loves to help people make money offline and online to achieve their dreams! For free ebooks on how to make money offline and online, go to: http://www.BruceSeah.com
Feel free to share this article at your web site or ezine as long as you include the author's name and web site.
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