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Article Marketing: Is It Worth It?
Having your website rank at the top of the search engines will provide you with a stream of traffic ready to read, buy or interact with your site. Getting this high first page ranking in the main search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN is...
Does Your Organization Need a Marketing Makeover? Take The Quiz!
1.Does one of your employees “do the marketing” in his/her spare time? Yes No 2.Have your customers pointed out spelling errors in your materials? Yes No 3.Has it been more than 6 months since you read through your marketing materials or web...
Marketing-Minded Financial Planners Find Free Publicity on Google and Yahoo
When a big story breaks, hundreds of media people begin searching for subject-matter experts to interview. They are also suddenly very receptive to stories that tie into the big story. But...the window closes as quickly as it opens, for two...
The Fine Art of Relationship Marketing
“Quality and service are important, if you want to make a sale. If you want to keep a customer for life, keep your promises.” – Heidi Richards The buzzword these days is “relationship” marketing. Just what is it? And why is it important?...
Use Hands-on Marketing to Sell Like Crazy
I have a neighbor who, last year, started her own house-cleaning service. Paula had been living on a shoe-string for years, and now that her children had all reached school age, she decided she needed to enter the workforce. She was looking for...
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How to Organize Your Marketing
"I hate sales pitches!" You may have felt this way yourself or heard others say it. If it's such a common response, what's the best way to organize your marketing to attract new clients and customers?
While getting all aspects of your marketing right can be complicated, the simple truth is that you can attract many more clients and be far more successful by doing just one thing.
To get the attention of your prospects and gain their trust and their business, base your marketing on the way your prospects make buying decisions. Just as a sweater needs to fit its owner, your marketing needs to fit your prospects.
Mirror Your Prospects' Decision Making Patterns How do your prospects make purchasing decisions? A research study by Enquiro and Marketing Sherpa found that 86% of Internet users begin a search using Google. Of these, 63% scan the search results, looking for key phrases in order to determine which sites to visit.
If your target market doesn't find the key phrase they are looking for, they won't contact you. It doesn't matter how long you've been in business or how happy your clients are; if your marketing message doesn't match the language your prospects use, tens of thousands of people will n/ever find you. This is true even if they need and want your products and services.
First If you want people to respond to your search engine listing, billboard ad, radio spot or business card, the handful of words you use need to grab their attention. Invest the time and effort to create a brilliant marketing message. Tailor it to your prospects' problems and concerns and they'll take notice.
Once you have your prospects' attention, you may want them to buy your products and services right away, but this is not realistic. While a small percentage of prospects with an urgent need may buy on first contact with you or your website, the vast majority won't. The research by Enquiro and Marketing Sherpa found over 80% of people looking to buy research a purchase for a period of time ranging from one week to four months, with 54% taking one to
three months.
You may be doing a great job at getting attention, but if you're not motivating prospects to contact you, your business is leaking leads. You could be missing more than 80% of potential buyers.
Does your company have a web site? How many visitors stop by your site each month? How many of these contact you?
If you're a small business you could easily be attracting 3,000 to 20,000 people a month. Typically, 10 to 30% of these people can be motivated to contact you, amounting to 300 to 6,000 leads per month.
You may be attracting more leads than you need. Make sure you capture them so you can market to them. One of my coaching clients had a web site that was attracting 40,000 visitors each month. With a site this popular, he should have been able to generate 8,000 leads each month. All he needed was to structure his web site to prompt prospects to give him their contact information. Instead he was getting an average of only 10 leads each month.
Second Motivate prospects to give you their contact information. Give them a reason to contact you. I give away a free marketing guide that prompts almost a thousand people a month to give me their contact information. Once you have your prospects' contact information, follow up regularly to further establish the credibility of your firm and clarify the value of your products and services.
Moving Prospects to Client or Customer Status When you provide your services or develop your products you shape them to fit your prospects' wants and needs. Similarly your marketing needs to be shaped to fit your prospects' buying patterns. When your marketing strategy and materials reflects the information prospects are looking for, you'll get their attention and their business.
About the Author
2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. - The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com
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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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