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Are You Marketing Backwards?
When you get in your car, you put it in forward gear to drive forward. You don't put your gear shift in reverse and expect your car to move forward! But that's how many folks market their services. In fact, most people market backwards. Most folks...
How To Succeed In Network Marketing (Part 2)
So, you've found a company that you truly believe in. You’ve researched it and learned the business plan.
Now it’s time to build your business.
This is the part of networking that many people have real trouble with...talking to others.
...
Marketing in the Good Ole' Summertime
Marketing in the Good Ole' Summertime Ah, summertime. It can be the most creative time to plan and implement marketing promotions. Living in Florida as I do however, summertime can be one of the most frustrating times of the year too! Everything...
Maximum Marketing - Minimum Budget
Two years ago I started my small Virtual Assistant business with a non-existent marketing budget. I borrowed marketing books from the library, read countless articles on the Internet and joined a professional trade association of my peers. I learned...
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF INTERNET MARKETING
A successful online business isn't built overnight; but is the result of many late nights. If anyone says that they can teach you to make a substantial amount of money without hard work, realize they are talking through "a hole in the head and...
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Marketing with Special Reports. It’s Cheap, Effective and Easy!
Providing your prospects or customers with information products is a great way to provide extra value or to provide an incentive for them to make a purchase or to register for your ezine or newsletter. And if you write a report or article and provide it as a free download from your web site, you have no printing or delivery costs and you can drive traffic to your site.
If you don't like discounting your products or services, but are looking for another incentive to get customers to buy or opt-in to your mailing list, offering free information as a special bonus is a great alternative.
Do you have a new product or service, or a special package or pricing that you'd like to promote? Put the link for your free report on the page of your site that promotes that product or service. You can also market in reverse. Include the web page link you want to promote in the signature on your free report. Send prospects or customers to your web site for more information on the report topic.
Or position your product or service as a great solution to a problem your report addresses. Just be sure your report includes plenty of good content. You don't want your prospects or customers to be upset when they take the time to download and read your report, only to find out it is merely an ad for your services. Provide good information. Address your customers concerns. Provide tips or solutions that will help them with their business, their relationships, their health and fitness, or whatever aspect of their life your product or service addresses.
Think about the expertise and experience that you have that your customers could learn from. What knowledge do you have about your industry that might be helpful? What types of questions do you hear from customers and prospects most often? Answer them in a free report. What do they have trouble with?
Help them with it through a how-to article. If you work in a business-to-business field, can you provide a checklist of what to look for (or look out for) when comparing products or service providers in your category?
Be creative. Write about what you know. And, what you know will help your customers.
10 Ideas For Creating A Special Report
Special Reports can cover any number of topics. Following are 10 ideas you may want to consider.
1) How-To Articles. These could be how-to-buy, or how-to-do something related to your product or service.
2) Special Reports. Write an article on a topic related to your business that you know a lot about.
3) Customer or Industry Survey Results. Conduct an informal customer survey and publish the results, or report on results of an industry survey.
4) "What to Look For" reports. Provide your customers or prospects tips on what to look for before making
a purchase in your product category.
5) "What to Look Out For" reports. Provide tips on things to watch out for when shopping or comparing products or services in your industry.
6) Shopping Checklists. Provide a checklist your prospects can use when comparing products or service providers.
7) Top 10 Problems or Mistakes. Provide a list of the top 10 problems consumers face with regard to your product or service category.
8) Top 10 Ideas or Solutions. Provide solutions to those problems!
9) Quizzes and Inventories. Create a quiz or an inventory consumers can take to evaluate their knowledge or fit for a product or service.
10) 10 Most Common Questions. Present a list of questions you hear most often in your industry, and provide answers to those questions.
Want to use special reports to market your product or service, but you’re not much of a writer?
You have two choices.
1) You can hire someone else to write for you.
2) Or you can learn how to write. My suggestion is that you learn how to write. Writing is a skill that can be learned. And if you are writing about an area that you have expertise in, you are the best person to share that information with your prospects and customers. Take a writing class at your local community college or adult school. Learn the basics of good grammar and then write, write, and write some more. Practice, practice, and practice some more. The more you write, the better you will become.
Register for and read free newsletters, ezines and reports so you can get a feel for how they are written. There is so much information available via the web; take advantage of it. Until you perfect your writing skills, always have someone else proofread and edit what you have written.
They will catch things that you miss. They will tell you if something is unclear or confusing. It's even a good idea to keep this up once you get good. Proofreading and editing your own work is difficult. And typos and mistakes don't reflect well on you or your business.
So if necessary, hire someone to do your writing until you learn or improve your skills. But do acquire the skills. Strong writing and communication skills will always benefit you in business and in life, so it will definitely be time well spent.
(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing
About the Author
20-year marketing veteran Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to help small business owners and solo-preneurs successfully market their business, themselves without spending a fortune on marketing. To learn more about this simple, step-by-step program and to sign up for her FREE audio class and FREE weekly ezine featuring how-to articles, tips and advice, visit http://www.10stepmarketing.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. |
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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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