|
|
11 Internet Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Visibility
It's so easy to fall into a 'labor of love' - painstakingly revamping our websites so that they look absolutely 'perfect' ... or pouring our heart and soul into creating the best product possible, one that's sure to draw rave reviews. The problem...
How to Brief a Marketing Agency
A new client recently emailed us a brief here at Mano Design. It was very brief brief indeed. All it said was, "Can you write me some copy for a postcard?" Resisting the urge to write, "Dear Customers. Having a wonderful time - wish you were...
Little Known Secrets About Credibility Marketing!
A key factor in successfully marketing your business is to establish credibility within your market. How, you might ask, is it possible to establish credibility quickly? This article is geared toward helping you understand the importance of...
Marketing Operations Elevates Communications & PR Pros
Is your marketing department taking advantage of MOM and MRM? Do you have BAM and DAM systems in place? Do you know how to measure NPV? Do you even know what I'm talking about? If so, you may not be a "Quant" (a marketing scientist or specialist...
So You Think Marketing Has Changed
With the proliferation of the Internet, the meaning of the word "marketing" has also proliferated. There seem to be as many definitions of marketing as there are marketers. Many see marketing as a series of tactics or gimmicks. Some push pyramid...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How Nearly Going Broke Taught Me The Value Of Niche Marketing
If you want to learn how effective Niche Marketing can be, I suggest you "don't" take the route I did.
Back in 1983 I started a company offering general Electronics Subcontract Assembly services to just about anyone who made Electronic products.
By 1985 my company was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and I was perilously close to losing my home because of a large overdraft pledged against it.
Why did this happen?
Well Electronics Subcontract Assembly is a huge, highly competitive market place with lots of heavy hitters. Being a little naive at the time, I thought that my little three man company could carve out a big enough slice from such a huge market to make a very comfortable living - I was dead wrong.
We did get work, but only the jobs the big boys didn't want. The work was labour intensive and even with our tiny overhead we couldn't make enough profit to sustain the business adequately. We could never get the big, lucrative contracts because we weren't considered big enough to handle them.
By December '84 I was desperate. Sales for the previous four months had been abysmal and cashflow almost non-existent. My Bank Manager was on my back demanding that I reduce the business overdraft or he would call it in. My suppliers were baying at my door to be paid. As if that wasn't bad enough, during the first week of 1985 my biggest customer suspended production for six months on a games gizmo we were making for him.
Things were so bad I was seriously considering bankruptcy to get out from under this financial nightmare. Fortunately I'm a bit pig headed about giving in too easily so despite all the problems I hung on, and I'm glad I did because fortune suddenly smiled on me.
What happened?
A couple of weeks into 1985 a business acquaintance came to see us with a sample cable and asked if we could make 5 up for him. The cable was for an IBM PC. At the time I knew nothing about making cables and even less about PCs, but I had his sample to work from so I took the job.
When our now customer came to collect his finished order, he mentioned that there were a few other Dealers in the PC market who would probably be interested in having us supply them with these cables - he even gave us a mailing list.
I was more than a little sceptical, I have to admit, but I had nothing to lose so I went for it. I wrote a short,
snappy sales letter, scraped together the money, mailed out to the 100+ dealers on the list and crossed my fingers.
48 hours later we had our first order for 10 cables, within 7 days we had 11 more orders for 10 cables each.
That one small mailing brought us an amazing 12% initial response - and it just kept going from there with week after week of repeat orders.
Pretty soon after that, my wife Maxine joined the business and set up a telephone sales desk and customer service system. By that time we were averaging about £1000 a week and that was from just the one cable type.
At that point I dumped the subcontract work and focussed on the cable business.
Once Maxine took over the sales function she immediately followed up with the companies who hadn't responded to our initial mailing. That brought in another 26 new customers. Within six months we were supplying most of the major Dealers and Distributors in the then burgeoning PC market and our cable sales had quadrupled.
Inside a year in this niche business we were selling thousands of computer cables of all descriptions, including highly lucrative custom formats, and we were being asked to provide advice on how to design cables for specific applications - we had arrived - we were now the acknowledged experts - customer loyalty rocketed and by 1988 our turnover reached £400,000+ with gross profits of 50% or more.
Now I'm the first to admit that luck played a hand in turning my company's fortunes around, but the experience taught me my most valuable lesson in business - you have to focus on a specific, under-served market niche if you want to be really successful in business.
I have applied this premise to four other businesses since then and, with one exception, all have been successful.
My advice? Find yourself a small, focused market niche (the Internet is full of them) where you can carve a reputation for yourself and become an expert in the field - like I did.
About the Author
Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How
André Anthony owns and operates Niche Market Know-How a resource for beginning Niche Marketers. Visit http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com today to find strategies,tips, tools, products and resources for effective niche product creation and marketing. Get his Niche MarketKnow-how Mini Course here: http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/course.htm
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
  |
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 |
  |
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 |
  |
Marketing.org - Home of the Business Marketing Association |
Serves the professional, educational and career development needs of business-to-business marketers. |
www.marketing.org |
  |
Welcome - American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com |
Dedicated to serving the educational and professional needs of marketing executives. |
www.marketingpower.com |
  |
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 |
  |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic. |
www.brandrepublic.com |
  |
Marketing (Canada) |
Offers a Canadian source of news and articles on marketing, advertising and media. |
www.marketingmag.ca |
  |
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 |
  |
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 |
  |
Sales Jobs / Marketing Jobs / Advertising Jobs - MarketingJobs.com |
Employment site for marketing and sales professionals. |
www.marketingjobs.com |
  |
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 |
  |
Marketing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with marketing on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
  |
Marketing Profs - Marketing Concepts and Strategies: Expert ... |
Marketing knowhow from professionals. Newsletter, articles and how-to's. |
www.marketingprofs.com |
  |
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 |
  |
Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
  |
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 |
  |
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 |
  |
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 |
  |
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 |
  |
|