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Marketing Strategies to Put Yourself Out of Business
Want to learn how to lose a billion dollars? Just follow the marketing strategies used by GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. Yes, some of the largest corporations in the world are missing some basic tenants of marketing and it's worth taking a look at...
Marketing Your Shows the 4 C's Way
Traditional marketing is changing: Customers are more sophisticated and price sensitive. They expect products and services to be delivered faster and more conveniently. And they have no qualms about switching to competitors. At the same time,...
Non-Stop Marketing Machine
What is the best way to market your company? How can you generate more sales? Use these ideas to develop your company's most effective sales tool, your web site. Company Information: Provide information about your company and products - List your...
Online Marketing: Five Fun Ideas that Increase Traffic
1. Using Hidden Links to increase subscribers or for a contest. Place a not so easy to find link in your copy and then ask people to find it. Give them a prize or freebie for finding it. Or you can give them the ebook after they find the link and...
The Rich Jerk: a Marketing Odyssey - Part 5 - We Have Lift Off
No matter what you think about the Rich Jerk, he has ultimately done something right. You may not approve of the tactics he used. You may not have liked his ebook (although many did). You may be pissed off at him, angry, whatever, but he got you....
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Are You Wasting Your Marketing Dollars?
I was horrified.
I had just spent $400 on advertising -- advertising that only yielded $100 in sales.
Desperate to make up my losses, and not knowing which of my three ad campaigns actually produced the sales, I made a guess. I figured that most of my profits must have come from the ad campaign that reached the largest number of people -- in my case, an ezine with over 50000 subscribers. So I naively shelled out another $200 for an ad - a wasted $200, I might add, since I didn't make a single sale.
Thankfully I've learned a lot since those frustrating days as an online business 'newbie' ... but the above scenario isn't uncommon for beginners to the Internet business world. We're constantly bombarded with claims of fast, easy money - and they're hard to resist.
For example, when I first started online, I was told that all I had to do was purchase a top sponsor ad in an ezine, place a 'tested' and 'proven' ad ... and presto! I'd be several thousands of dollars richer.
It didn't work. I faithfully purchased a number of ads and followed the instructions to the letter. Hundreds of wasted dollars later, I was completely discouraged and almost ready to give it all up.
I'm glad I didn't. I learned that not every marketing campaign will be successful ... unfortunately, all too often people try an online business and give up when they're unable to make money at it. In some cases, sticking with it a while longer could have turned a 'failure' into a 'success'.
That doesn't mean doggedly doing exactly the same thing over and over again, hoping to see better results. If you do the same thing you'll get the same results.
Testing your marketing efforts is critical to your success. And one of the simplest ways to do this is to use an ad tracker.
Ad trackers provide you with a way to 'code' each of your marketing campaigns. You use this special coded URL in your ads -- and whenever a visit clicks on the URL, the tracker records the 'hit'.
In other words, these tracking codes tell you how many hits and unique visitors you get from each
of your advertising campaigns. By analyzing this information, you're able to instantly see which of your campaigns are successful -- and which are not.
Ad trackers don't cost much at all ... yet this small investment can yield huge returns! Two of the most popular are:
= ROIbot, http://www.roibot.com/r_r.cgi?R46886_article - this is the tracker I use most. It's easy to set up and to manage, and it comes with a whole bunch of other features including an autoresponder.
= AdTrackz, http://www.buildyourhomebiz.com/rd/adtrackz.htm . This powerful CGI script is installed on your server, and you only pay a one-time fee for its use (unlike most of the others, where you pay monthly). Once set up, it's very easy to use.
Using an ad tracker really opens your eyes. I had always thought, 'The more people I reach, the more sales I'll make' -- you know, the usual traffic hype that we all hear.
Instead I found out real truths about what was working for me and what wasn't. For example, my ad tracker taught me that it's not the size of the ezine that counts ... it's how many people actually *read* it. It also taught me that just because a website gets a lot of traffic, it doesn't mean that advertising on that site will give you *results*.
By testing everything you do, you'll get solid proof of what doesn't work, what works well, and what can be improved. You know which ad campaigns to continue ... and which ones to dump for something more profitable.
So track your marketing efforts -- every single one of them. You'll gain valuable insight about where your sales are coming from, and be able to learn and grow from these insights. Your bottom line will thank you!
About the Author
Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, an exclusive newsletter for eBusiness beginners. She offers a 'no hype, no bull' approach to building a profitable Internet business. Every issue is packed with helpful tips and useful tools, specially selected to fit a beginner's shoestring budget. Visit her online today at http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/begin.html
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KnowThis: For Marketing, Market Research, Internet Marketing ... |
KnowThis.com offers a wealth of information, forums, and resources for professionals, academics and students in traditional and internet marketing, ... |
www.knowthis.com |
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Marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, ... The next big thing is a concept in marketing that refers to a product or idea that ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
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Marketing - Marketing Strategy - Marketing Plan - Marketing ... |
Learn about marketing careers, the stages of developing a marketing plan, how to begin marketing research, create a marketing strategy, and how to market ... |
marketing.about.com |
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Marketing.org - Home of the Business Marketing Association |
Serves the professional, educational and career development needs of business-to-business marketers. |
www.marketing.org |
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Welcome - American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com |
Dedicated to serving the educational and professional needs of marketing executives. |
www.marketingpower.com |
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Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic |
Find the latest Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news from Brand Republic, the online resource for up to the minute advertising and marketing news and ... |
www.brandrepublic.com |
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Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic. |
www.brandrepublic.com |
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Marketing (Canada) |
Offers a Canadian source of news and articles on marketing, advertising and media. |
www.marketingmag.ca |
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BidVertiser - Pay Per Click Advertising On Sites Of Your Choice. |
Pay per click advertising - online advertising directly on sites of your choice, internet marketing solution for online advertisers. |
www.bidvertiser.com |
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Online Behavioral Contextual Advertising and Marketing. |
Promote your business with today's most effective online advertising technology, contextual advertising at a cost effective metric of CPC, PPC, CPM or CPV. |
www.clicksor.com |
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Sales Jobs / Marketing Jobs / Advertising Jobs - MarketingJobs.com |
Employment site for marketing and sales professionals. |
www.marketingjobs.com |
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The Chartered Institute of Marketing |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world's largest international marketing professional body and helps with career support and information ... |
www.cim.co.uk |
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Marketing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with marketing on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
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Marketing Profs - Marketing Concepts and Strategies: Expert ... |
Marketing knowhow from professionals. Newsletter, articles and how-to's. |
www.marketingprofs.com |
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Guerrilla Marketing Online - The Official Site |
Guerrilla Marketing Online is anonline magazine for small business, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketers of all kinds. |
www.gmarketing.com |
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Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
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All About Marketing |
Adapted from Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation ... Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out: ... |
www.managementhelp.org |
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Pages tagged with "marketing" on del.icio.us |
USA Network Announces a NASHVILLE STAR Marketing Partnership With ... - Yahoo! ... Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing ... |
del.icio.us |
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ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
www.clickz.com |
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Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing |
Trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields, offering seminars and resources, and lobbying for ... |
www.the-dma.org |
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