|
|
How Does Internet Marketing Cut Steps from the Marketing Process?
Internet marketing can cut steps from the marketing process, save you time and money, increase your customer base, and help you to keep the customers you have. How? Consider this: No more waiting for the printer to produce your marketing material....
Taking Marketing To The Extreme
Marketing is a fundamental aspect of virtually every business
that is out there. For many companies, this is where most of
their budget goes: advertising. There are hundreds of ways for
you to advertise from coffee shop windows to on the web...
The E-marketing Plan - Brief Overview And Working Scheme
I. Summary of a marketing plan The marketing planning (concretized in the marketing plan) is an essential organizational activity, considering the hostile and complex competitive business environment. Our ability and skills to perform profitable...
Top Three Small Business Marketing Tips
1)The first step to a successful marketing campaign involves planning. Know what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, what your distinctive sales message is, what your competitive advantages are (from the customer's point of view), and...
Why You Need A Marketing Plan To Achieve Ultimate Success
Effective marketing plays a critical role in businesses that are successful. How effectively the marketing plan you develop markets your business, will ultimately determine your degree of success or failure. The key elements of a successful...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Great Direct Marketing Conundrum
Many a home business owner has spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to turn his venture into a higher profit-making unit and build it to be his primary source of income. This is never easy for a home business because most start-ups face initial lack of money and cash flows. A small cash strapped business would also find it a little uphill to get outside funding. The best way, anybody will tell you, is to Advertise…. all big companies do it, and get good returns. Undoubtedly, advertising, even PR, has a great impact on sales, but for a home business owner these may be cost prohibitive in the beginning. The trick is in getting a little creative and using low cost – high impact strategies. Go through help sites on the Internet and you’d be spoiled for choices. We suggest putting direct marketing on top of your list. Why? There are several reasons:
-It is more cost effective than mass media strategies like Advertising
-There is lesser “spill – over” than mass media like advertising and public relations
-You can “measure” the effects of direct marketing
Solving the direct marketing riddle
By definition direct marketing is a sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via direct mail, telemarketing, door-to-door selling or other direct means. Direct marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools a home business owner can employ to expand his business and make it more profitable. It can help you create visibility for your company and educate the targeted audience about the products and/or services you sell.
www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/starting/glossary.html
Direct marketing is not a complicated, puzzling marketing option that will leave you frustrated and down with a few thousand dollars. If executed with proper planning, focus and some creativity, these tools can do wonders for your home business. Some of the most popular and time-tested direct marketing tools are:
- Brochures: A brochure is your sales person in paper. It gives your potential client all the information he needs on your company; an opportunity to evaluate your products, services, your expertise and a platform to get in touch with you for more information. A brochure created with serious forethought and meticulous detailing can do all of this and more for you. A few tips:
- A compelling covering letter is a must to getting the prospect to read the whole brochure
- A well-designed brochure must keep the target audience in mind, the level of sophistication in style and content and the market you are operating in.
- A brochure must be aimed at finally getting the prospect to send in a business enquiry. Don’t forget to add the contact details; a postage paid business reply envelope attached with the brochure would be a good idea.
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol134/brochure.htm
- Direct mailing: Direct mailing involves sending out sales letters, fliers, reply cards and other promotional literature through snail mail, to a pre-decided mailing list of potential customers. If targeted to a precise audience, it can get you faster responses and does not have to cost much. The most important part of direct mailing is building a robust mailing list with the right names. You could either develop this
list yourself through your own records or buy lists from a List Broker. You could also try and take help from the SBDC (Small Business Development Center), a government program sponsored by the SBA that provides expertise to small and home business owners and has access to targeted mailing lists, which it can offer you as an SBDC client. Take a look at www.sba.gov/sbdc http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,317818,00.html
- Telemarketing: For telemarketing you can use the same list as for your direct mailers. Take care to suit the message to a telephone call; keep it short and conversational. Telemarketing, by far gets you the quickest result. One phone call can get your sales team appointments for demos or a meeting to talk about your company. Another valuable response it can get you is a confirmed negative answer. This will help you fine-tune your list better and not waste any more time or money in trying to contact a person who really doesn’t need your services or is plain not interested.
- Postcards: One of the biggest advantages of using postcards is its “openness”, literally. Use compelling and creative copy on postcards. Team it up with visual content, and nine times out of ten, the receiver is more likely to give it a read rather than dump it in the bin immediately. It is an effective and a very affordable way to contact and keep in touch with your existing and potential customers.
- Email: With the WWW being the life source of home businesses, can you ignore email? It is easily the most affordable and time saving direct marketing tool, that can get your message across to thousands of people and allow them to respond just as easily. Decide on the copy very carefully, so that it stands out above all the junk mail that account holders receive every day. You can buy mailing lists, again from list brokers. Fine-tune your message so as to be able to pack in the most relevant information in a short paragraph. Add visuals, links to your website and contact information. This should include a phone and a fax number a postal address and a contact person’s name.
Before you begin a direct marketing exercise, spend considerable time on evaluating what tools would be the best for your business; effective but not cost-prohibitive; how would you tailor your message for brochures, mailers, emails etc., so as to break away from the clutter and maximize impact. Once you are through with this, spend time on creating the mailing list with the right names. If you are able to bring down the cost of your direct mailing exercise to even 30 cents, but have a mailing list of 20, 000 people, all wrong names…. every cent has gone down the drain! Someone once said, “There is a difference between Efficiency and Effectiveness. Efficiency is doing the right thing, but Effectiveness is doing the thing right!” So work at making an effective direct marketing plan and see your business expand and become financially more robust.
About the Author
Perfect Home Based Business Opportunities - The Net’s Top Growing Source for Home Business Information.Attention:Free Web Site Content
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
  |
|