Marketing, Lead Generation, and Research: A 3in1

Marketing, Lead Generation, and Research: A 3in1 Solution.

by: Jay Gilmore

I Hate Cold Calls

Long before I started my business, I realized that I wasn’t good at telephone sales and that I would need to generate leads in another way. I developed a surefire way to generate those leads, interest in me, and my business, through the use of telephone market research.

There are many benefits of doing market research including the ability to learn more about my target marketกs behaviors and opinions, honing messages and presentations based on real, first hand responses, as well as, to test out new messages or theories prior to wide release.

As a website developer and consultant, my large market is businesses and my main target group is small business owners. In order to contact these owners I would need access to their contact information.

For my target market, I found a regional business development directory to be very complete including names, addresses, phone numbers and website information. Some of the information was a little out of date but it was going to be far better than just cold calling to reach ‘the Owner or Managerก and get successfully past the front desk person etc. For other BusinesstoBusiness companies I might suggest the local Chamber of Commerce or Business Association. Contact lists may be purchased or leased from outside sources, however, that is beyond the scope of this article.

For a client of mine, who is in the property care and landscaping industry, I was able to suggest hitting the phone book in the areas he wanted to generate business in and call every twentieth or thirtieth name in the book. The only criteria his respondent had to meet, was that they are a homeowner or property owner. In his case, my client is located in a small town and most respondents would be homeowners. If he were in a major city I would recommend that he be calling property management companies and target areas of the city with a high concentration of houses. Most cities still have their phone books broken down by community or borough.

Developing the Survey

The first step in this process was to develop the survey. To do that you first need to determine the subject of the survey. This should also relate directly to the message you wish to communicate to the lead. For my company I wanted to find out one of two things, if the respondent had a website what were the circumstances, experiences and opinions of having it or if the respondent didn’t have a website the circumstances and reasons for not.

Tuning in the Respondent

As you can see, these questions relate to only one specific service websites. This allows the respondent to easily understand what subject area you are talking about so that when you switch to providing your message they are already thinking about that subject. In my case, the respondent could easily tell that I was asking questions about websites, they probably figure that my business has something to do with websites.

Keep Questions Open Ended

The survey questions should be as open ended as possible. This is not scientific, as it cannot be quantified in small sample sizes, but it is the best way to avoid leading the respondent to a perceived answer. They may feel that you are looking for a particular response. This can happen when you use a scaled response survey such as ratings of 1 to 5 or 1 to 7. In my own personal experience this type of survey is best left to academics. In most cases you are looking for opinions and experiences of an individual. Ask questions like, กCould you explain how you felt about the experience when you last purchased a car?ก

Keep Things Brief There should be no more than 10 to 15 questions on the survey. The fewer questions and the more open ended the better the dialogue with the respondent and the more valuable the information.

The Wrap Up

At the end of the survey when I ask if they are interested in more information about my company and services they already have an idea of what to expect and are more likely to be open to hear and receive my message because there is no surprise and I was not beating them over the head with message. I merely made them think about their website or lack thereof.

Script = Professionalism

Once you have developed your survey you should write a script. I know I can hear your sighs now you don’t want to sound like a robot or just another telemarketer but the use of a script will ensure that you sound like a professional. The danger with a script is that it might not be conversational or may not consider the person on the other end of the phone. To avoid sounding robotic and like you are reading a script you should read it aloud to yourself. If you are unsure about how it sounds try it out on someone in your home or office. The worst thing you can do is to call up someone and start in with, กUuuhhmmm, could I speak to uuuhhmmm�ก

Your script should include a brief introduction. In my case my introduction went like this, กHello, Mr. Adams. My name is Jay Gilmore. The reason I am calling is that I am doing some market research for my business services company in your area and I wanted to get some feedback from fellow business owners, like yourself.ก

Note that I didn’t mention the name of my company. This shows the respondent that I am a person calling to talk to another person people like to talk to people and not businesses.

Removing the Common Objection

The next words that come off the script are very important, กI am not going to try to sell you anything, and I just want to ask a few questions to help in planning my business.ก

This has worked every single time to break through the, กIกm not going to listen to a sales pitchก instinct that so many business owners and consumers have developed over the years.

Ask for Their Time

Now that I have broken through their resistance I am able to request permission and their time to do the survey. Be respectful of the respondentกs time by making sure that the survey may be completed in less than five minutes. Tell them how long it will take and be honest. It is not very professional to lie or mislead people about the time you are asking them for.

Once the survey is complete you should conclude by thanking the respondent for assisting you with your research.

The Marketing Starts Now Actually it Already Started

The marketing part is next. In closing you should briefly introduce your company and the service being marketed. An example would be, ก Thank you Mr. Adams for all your help. I would like to let you know that my business, Joeกs Flowers is a local flower shop that specializes in arrangements and designs from North American plants and flowers. Would you be interested in receiving more information about our services and our company?ก

After answering questions in your survey about flowers and their buying habits they are probably ready to find more information about your company and its products or services. Get their mailing address and / or email address and any other information you require to send them the information you want.

What to Send

Sending the information about your business can make or break this relationship. You have already gotten willing permission to send information to the respondent now you have to send them something that will lead them to choose to buy your product or service or refer a friend or colleague.

The contents of the information package be it electronic or print should be a letter of introduction and thanks for the participation in the survey and some free and useful information that they will relate to regarding your product or services.

This information package is a first step to an ongoing relationship that will allow you to nurture goodwill and relationships with people who are actually interested in your business. The respondents will be expecting some form of marketing message but don’t overdo it. Pushing too hard to close a sale at this stage will not work with this piece. This is not a direct mail promotion so don’t treat it as such. That being, said don’t hesitate to place importance and urgency on the message. Use benefit oriented copy to entice readers to take some form of action.

Followup Will Make the Sale Well Some Anyway

As you bring the respondents closer to your businessกs products and or services by providing valuable information and examples of how it can better their lives many will choose to buy your products and services.

Give Up The Cold Call

You have now just read a great way to expose you business to new markets, new people, learn more about those markets and people, and get your message out all with nothing more than a telephone and a list of phone numbers. What is best is that you were able to get people to willingly accept your message without the anxiety and resistance of a sales cold call.

About The Author

Jay Gilmore is a Developer, Consultant, and Author who develops affordable websites and practical marketing solutions for real small businesses. You can check out his website at http://www.smashingred.com .

Jay publishes his articles, insights and resources on Marketing, Website Development, and Small Business at http://www.smashingred.com/resources, whenever he is not helping clients achieve their goals.

Copyright 2005 Jay Gilmore, SmashingRed Web & Marketing. All rights reserved.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 12, 2005

by Jay Gilmore

Been Burned, Scammed, Taken for a Ride…

Been Burned, Scammed, Taken for a Ride…

by: Rachel Gawith

BEEN BURNT, SCAMMED, TAKEN FOR A RIDE……..
Well don’t worry, we have all been there. I doubt there is a single network marketer or homeworker out there who hasn’t at some point in their career fallen for an envelope stuffing scheme, been talked into selling potions and pills, tried chain letters etc. But the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and take something from every experience.
My first venture into working from home came when I answered an advert in a local paper which stated I could be earning £2000 a week part time, all I had to do was call. So I did and ended up trailing along to a meeting about how much money one could make from selling herbal diet supplements and how easy it all was. So I signed up and paid the £200 for the starter pack. Full of enthusiasm I started my 68 year old gran off on the diet. Well the first week she lost a few pounds and all was going well. I paid out another £100 to have a load of leaflets printed and spent hours putting these on car windscreens. By the second week, gran had given up on the diet as the stuff ‘tasted funny’ and she was bored with a milkshake three times a day!
Then I decided to try selling the products via the internet. It was a slow process but I taught myself html coding and built my first website. Then came the hard task of trying to market my site and get people to visit it. This is when I discovered that you could apparently make thousands very easily and with no effort online, simply by signing up for a website and placing a few free classifieds. So I joined every ‘next big thing’, every site promoting untold riches, only to find that the program disappeared after a few weeks, along with my money. But along the way I learnt what I should look for in an online business, the best ways to market online and my web design skills improved drastically. At times I became very disillusioned and felt like giving up when yet another program folded, or sponsor failed to get in touch and offer support but I learned valuable lessons. And after one such online opportunity disappeared and having convinced a number of people to join me in this, I thought enough was enough and started my own online program. Even that involved a steep learning curve, the site had to be revamped numerous times, parts of the program changed but I put the knowledge I gained from being a ‘newbie’ into building a good stable program. People need support, they want to see proper products and a realistic and achievable pay plan.
So don’t give up, from every bad experience you will learn something, be it a new skill, what to avoid next time, what advertising works or doesn’t and so on…Like life home based business, especially on the internet, is a learning experience which you must embrace.
© 2004 Rachel Gawith

About The Author

Rachel runs her own online business at http://www.earnmoneyhere.com as well as publishing a weekly newsletter at http://www.freedailycash.com Other opportunities can be seen at http://www.computerincome.net You’ll also find a vast array of free tools there to help you market any business effectively online and you can post your classified ad free for 7 days.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 03, 2004

by Rachel Gawith

Market Research Means Money

Market Research Means Money

by: Jason Carr

I recently made a critical mistake in my progression towards business success: I forgot about market research. I had decided that I was going to make some money with an online store. I thought to myself, where should I start? What can I sell? After a bit of brainstorming, I picked a few things that I thought might be good to sell online. I then proceeded to start looking for suppliers. This may seem like a reasonable course of action, but it is not. It is missing a key component of any business plan.

A basic assumption for the purpose of this article is that there is competition involved with any business. Even if you make your own, unique product, similar products will compete against yours. However, the existence of competition is not necessarily bad. The fact that online retailers are selling items similar or identical to your own means that there is demand for your product. Competition is only bad for you, as a retailer, when the market is becoming saturated (or is already at that point).

Check the electronics market for a good example of this principle. Electronics go for rockbottom prices online because there are so many different stores that sell them. The difference in prices between stores usually comes down to the cost of shipping. The competition in this area is extreme. If retailers cut their prices any lower they won’t make enough to survive.

The first person who had the idea to sell VCRs online probably made a killing. Nowadays, nobody makes anything more than a buck or two per unit. For a homebased business, that’s not good enough. Today’s electronics dealers depend on volume, and very good supply sources, in order to make their money. Generally speaking, small retailers cannot sell at those prices and turn a profit.

In order to be successful it is essential that you know what you’re up against, and that means market research.

If you are selecting your products, then you need to know which stores already sell those products. You also need to know how many stores there are, how much they are charging and, if you can find out, how well they are doing. Could you sell for less (if only a little)? What are other ways you could differentiate your store from the rest?

If you already have your product, then you need to know where and how your competitors are advertising. Are they concentrated in one location? Are there good places that they have overlooked? How much is it going to cost to compete with them for prime ad space?

So, you may ask, where do I begin? The answer is Overture. Owned by Yahoo, Overture is one of the largest and most reliable payperclick advertising services. Their program can be an extremely effective, but that is something for another day.

What you need for research requires no signup and belongs to no program. There are two web tools in the Overture Advertiser Center that can be amazingly useful. The first is the Search Term Suggestion Tool. This tool allows you to look up a keyword, like ขdigital cameraข, and find out how many people searched for that term last month. Not only that, but the tool will suggest a list of related terms, like ขdigital camera reviewข, for your consideration.

The number of searches per term comes from Overture’s partners like Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, CNN, etc. This is critical information because it tells you whether or not people are looking for your product online and, at the same time, shows you how they are searching for it. This indicates a certain demand for your product.

You may be able to judge the size of the demand, to a certain degree, by the number of searches for your terms. For example (numbers taken at time of writing and may not reflect current rates):

Digital Camera – 1,337,422 (high interest)

Used Car – 890,346

Mountain Bike – 133,553

Blender – 26,648

Bubble Gum Machine – 1,502

Chapstick Raspberry Vanilla – 25 (very low interest)

Keep in mind that users searching for ‘digital camera’ are not necessarily shopping for one. They may just want information such as reviews or feature lists. It is also good to remember that if people are searching on Yahoo and MSN, as in the case of digital cameras, then you can safely assume that even more people are searching for the same things on Google.

The second tool Overture provides is the View Bids Tool. This tool allows you to take the keywords that you found with the term suggestion tool and see how many ads there are for each term and how high the bids are (in order to be listed on top of your competition you must place a higher bid for the term you want). This tool can help you judge your competition.

For example, at the time of this writing there are 131 ads associated with the term digital camera. The top bid is 79 cents per click. Bubble gum machine has 13 ads with a top bid of 49 cents. Chapstick Raspberry Vanilla, not surprisingly, has no bids on the term which means that the top spot could be purchased for the minimum price of 10 cents per click.

After you have your information from Overture, Google is your likely next step. To my knowledge, Google does not provide any analysis tools to the general public, though information is available to registered advertisers. Despite this limitation, it is easy to find your competition on Google. Simply enter your search term and check the right side of the results screen. The first page should show the top advertisers. Checking subsequent pages will reveal the entire list of advertisers for that term.

Tip: Sometimes advertisers may be targeting your term, but not selling your product. Read through the ads and visit the sites to get a more accurate idea of your direct competitors.

The natural results (the normal, nonad results) of your search are important as well. Check those to see the top ranked sites in your market. Those sites are probably there because they employ search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Users are much more likely to click on the natural results than they are the ads. The stores at the top of the list are likely to be well established and may represent some solid competition.

Visit your competitor’s web sites and see what they are selling. Check for site quality, organization, ease of use and amount of products sold. Perhaps they sell your product, but it is lost in a vast sea of other related merchandise. That means better chances for your niche store. Maybe their site is ugly or hard to navigate. These are points at which you could gain an advantage over your rivals. Checking other sites will also give you ideas about how to run your own store.

The third step in this process is to check out Yahoo! Shopping. Yahoo! hosts what is known as an online mall. That is, retailers setup stores with Yahoo!’s services and are then included in Yahoo! Shopping’s listings. This can be a good way to get fast traffic. For market research, it means easy access to competitor sites. On the Yahoo! Shopping main page, do a search for your product (Braun blenders for example). The results will show sponsored ads and normal listings. The sponsored ads come from Overture, so you should already be familiar with those.

The normal listings come from a combination of Yahoo! Product Submit results and Yahoo!’s webcrawler search database. What is important in this list is actually displayed just below the top sponsor listings and just above the normal listings. There should be two numbers: the number of products found and the number of stores they were found in. For ‘Braun blenders’ there were 989 matches from 76 stores (at time of writing). Those numbers give you an indication of how many stores you’re up against.

Note: If there are too many matches, the number of stores will not be displayed (ex. ‘sony dvd player’ yields 3,660 matches). Of course, numbers that high shout, ขbig competition,ข even without store numbers.

Here again you have the opportunity to scope out competing stores. The thorough researcher would get their names and site locations. This may seem time consuming, and it is, but it will help with future research.

Our final recommendation is to visit eBay. Once there, find the eBay Stores area (located in the Specialty Sites box on the homepage at time of writing). Enter your search term to see how many eBay stores are selling your product. ‘Braun blenders’ shows ten items in eBay stores (not bad compared to Yahoo!). In addition, the search may show regular listings below the store results. These results should give you some idea of the popularity of your product as well as the feasibility of selling it on eBay.

Quick Recap:

Overture (free analysis tools)

Google (ads and natural results)

Yahoo! Shopping (number of stores)

eBay Stores (same deal)

Remember, some competition is good because it shows that there is an interest in your product. Too much competition is bad because it means low profitability. The spot where you can make good money is somewhere in between (most likely on the low end of the competition scale). Unfortunately, I know of no exact way to calculate your chances of success. For those who can afford it, hiring a market research professional might help considerably with that calculation. In any case, a solid business plan built on thorough market research will certainly boost your chances significantly.

About The Author

Jason Carr is a small business owner, dedicated student of ecommerce strategy, and producer of BeginBiz, an online resource for those looking to start an internet business.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 15, 2004

by Jason Carr

กInternet Marketing Simplified! 2 Pillars For Achi

กInternet Marketing Simplified! 2 Pillars For Achieving Massive Resultsก

by: Jeff Smith

Are you confused by the flood of information on how to improve your internet marketing results?

Mastering the search engines, payperclick advertising, affiliate marketing, website design, writing articles, and on it goes.

Doesn’t it seem more and more complicated to focus in on what really works and what doesn’t?

After working to build many businesses from the ground up over the last 10 years, itกs more clear than ever that there are 2 main principles that will largely dictate your success in any business. All of the other techniques build on these first two principles.

Think of these two main principles as the cement pillars that hold up a bridge without them, no matter how well you construct the bridge, it will still fall down.

Focus your energies, time and resources around meeting these two key principles you will immediately see a big difference in your results.

PRINCIPLE #1

You must have a well positioned product, fulfilling a hot desire within a clearly identifiable and accessible target market.

Letกs break this down.

Making a profit in business is really quite a simple concept, you have to earn more revenue than your cost. Revenue minus cost is your profit.

So where does that cost come from?

The two big sources of costs are: costs associated with creating or finding your product to sell and cost of reaching your market to sell your product

It only makes sense then that identifying a hot desire within a market you know how to reach will mean much lower costs for your businss. Ultimately, this means more profit for you.

Have you ever run against the wind? Tried to swim upstream in a river? Walk one way in a crowd when everyone else was walking the other way?

Itกs a very tough lesson to learn.

Iกve been brought it to consult with companies that have burned through millions of dollars before learning this lesson.

You cannot FORCE a lowdemand product on a market no matter how much money you spend on marketing.

You cannot hope to reach enough buyers in the entire marketplace even with a very highdemand product in one segment.

In fact, Iกve seen situations where unknown entrepreneurs enter a market, quickly identify a hot desire, address it with a less than perfect product and in a very short time have created wealth 100X higher than anyone else in that market.

An old mentor of mine used to tell me all the time, กfocus on the low lying fruit thereกs far more than enough to go aroundก

PRINCIPLE #2

You must reach your market with a clear, empathetic message that instantly catches your readers attention, interest, desire and moves them to see your product as THE answer to their deepest desires.

If you were reading closely, youกll recognize Principle #2 as the same principles that underly great copywriting.

How do you become a great copywriter and master Principle #2?

1. Research, research and research. I make sure I have a pulse on my target marketกs desires, needs, emotional triggers. Focus in on WHY they want a solution to a particular problem. Research takes many forms…

speak with them

survey them

read what they read

talk to others who do business with your market

test using articles and special reports to guage the response

do what they do

By doing this you should have content for 2030 (at least) different benefits for your product.

Then….

2. Polish your benefit statements. This is where you can use books of action verbs, swap files (samples of great ads, letters and webpages), the services of a copywriter. This is the technical aspect of copywriting which can be learned by reading other great material.

Far too many people go right to #2, as a result their benefit statements seem bland, miss the mark or seem the same as everyone else.

Next time you get distracted by the latest and greatest tip, technique or strategy know that focusing on these 2 fundamental principles: Indemand product ideas and effective copywriting, will make the most difference to your pocketbook in both today and in the future.

About The Author

Discover how to create your own bestselling eBooks, Special reports or books to sell online …AND keep 100% of the profits. Limited time complimentary access to 7Part Minicourse will get you started quickly and easily. Visit: http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 17, 2004

by Jeff Smith

Getting Subscribers For Your Newsletter Is As Simp

Getting Subscribers For Your Newsletter Is As Simple As This…

by: Emma okafor

Having a newsletter is one thing but how many subscribers do you have? Or are you ok with the number of subscribers you have? If you are not satisfied with the answer, then this article is for you. This article will show you how a simple approach did it did it for me, so now is your turn.

A good way of achieving this is through writing an article for submission in newsletters and ezines. Lets say your article got been published in an ezine with 100,000 subscribers and you make 1% success (1% readers click your tagline) and subscribe from your newsletter). It means you have 1000 subscribers. What if you make a 10% success that means 10,000 subscribers. For just only an article that didn’t cost you a dime!

Another way to build up a potential subscriber mailing list is with a drawing at a convection or trade show. You can have cards printed up for people to fill their names and address. All attendees would be interested in the subject matter of your newsletter. You can place ads in trade magazines that cater to the topic you are pursing. Include the full details of your newsletter, or use a leader to get inquiries and sent out details later. Build a direct mail piece that describes the benefits and features of your newsletter and pushes for subscription. You can offer a special free booklet to new subscribers or a discount. You may include a sample newsletter in the direct mail piece to show how worthwhile the publication is.

Pricing is always a tricky aspect of selling information. How much you price your newsletter and still keep your subscribers matters. You need to research the market to find out who will buy subscription and how much they are willing to pay. But there are sound methods of testing the market so you can be sure to come out ahead and establish yourself in the field. Frequency of your publication is also important. Although you may be able to prepare and publish a weekly newsletter, your subscribers may not be able to keep up with reading it and prefer a monthly subscription.

In addition to how often you may publish your newsletter, there are a lot of factors to consider. The main factor is how fast you can produce a newsletter? Secondly how long will it take you to research and write material for your newsletter?

Don’t forget that a good mailist should be used over and over. If you know you have a list of prime targets for you newsletter, don’t stop with one mailing. Follow through with subsequent offer at certain intervals to catch those who couldn’t decide the first time.

Follow the guidelines and you will find your newsletter will be readily accepted and flourish. Pal you can reap these PROFITS. You can MAKE IT WORK!

About The Author

Emma okafor, an online market researcher and writer. His blueprint success in online marketing is available in his site http://bizacumen.8k.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 02, 2002

by Emma okafor

Introduction to Marketing for 1st time business ow

Introduction to Marketing for 1st time business owners

by: Ben Botes

Marketing is determining which orders you would like to win. Selling is getting out there and winning orders once you have decided which orders you would like to win. Marketing is a continuous process of creativity, research, testing, analysis, development and implementation. We must stay close to our customers. We must satisfy our customersก needs and anticipate their wants. We love our customers and we always do that little bit extra for which we do not get paid.

Specialize and be excited in what you do

There is a strong relationship between high selfesteem and peak performance. The more you love doing something, the greater will be your success. All successful businesses specialize in their areas of excellence. Many unsuccessful people drift into areas where they do not have the excitement, enthusiasm, energy, knowledge, etc., to establish competitive advantage and find their market segment.

A few questions for you to answer at this point are:

Which product or service would you like to produce and sell?

In which area of human activity would you like to improve the lives of other people?

To which area of human improvement can you bring excitement and enthusiasm?

What is your area of excellence?

What is your core business?

For which product or service are you prepared to be a product champion? What would you love to do to improve the lives of others for 16 hours each day, even if you received no financial reward?

What is it that makes you feel valuable and worthwhile?

Differentiate for a competitive advantage

Perhaps the biggest question in any business is: why should anybody buy this product or service … from me? This is in fact two questions. The first question is: why should anybody buy this product or service?

What is the benefit?

What is the improvement in the life of the customer?

How is the customerกs life enriched by acquisition of the product or service?

If you cannot answer this question, then you do not know why a customer should buy your product or service. Remember the law of cause and effect. There is a reason for everything. There has to be a reason why your customer buys the product or service.

Segmentation or the creation of a market niche

If people buy from you because you are such a lovely person, then your market niche may well be your circle of friends and friends of your friends. If you own the village grocery store, then your customers are probably restricted to those living within a fiveminute walk or twominute drive, i.e. the local community. If yours is the best or cheapest product on the market, then this opens up huge opportunities. Who is your customer? Who buys this product or service? Identify your market segment. Describe your customer age, sex, income, occupation, education, other interests, area where he or she lives, type of family, other products he or she buys, etc. Where exactly is your customer? Identify the geographical concentration, understanding that 80 per cent of your customers will be within 20 per cent of your catchment area. How is your product normally distributed? How would you expect your customer to buy your product or service? To which customers does your competitive advantage make a big difference? Is there a small segment of the market which you could dominate?

Answer these question when considering your market niche:

Who are your customers?

Where are your customers?

Who cares that you are the best?

Who cares that you are the cheapest?

Who cares that you are the local dealer?

Who cares that you are such a nice person?

The answers to these questions establish your market segmentation, or your market niche, i.e. a small segment of the market which you can dominate.

Concentrating your efforts

With a view to succeeding in business, we have to concentrate all our resources, hitting our market segment with our competitive advantage in our area of excellence. We have to concentrate our creativity, our marketing, our sales skills, leadership skills, finance, time, energy, excitement, enthusiasm, advertising and promotional efforts, production facilities, etc., all of these resources being concentrated in enriching the lives of our customers at a profit.

Is the benefit we offer worth more to the customer than the price the customer is expected to pay?

Can we provide the benefit at a cost which is lower than the customer is willing and able to pay?

Can we provide the benefit at a profit?

These are four of the most important steps to consider as a business owner. For more in formation on marketing for first time business owners, please go to http://www.my1stbusiness.com.

Copyright Ben Botes and My1stBusiness.com – 2003 – 2005

About The Author

Ben is an entrepreneur, business owner, scholar, author and leadership coach, and one of the UKกs new leading thinkers on entrepreneurial leadership. He is a leading Coach with business incubators, enterprise hubs and high tech startups throughout the UK, Europe and his native South Africa. Ben holds Master degrees in Psychology and Business Administration as well as various qualifications in coaching and mentoring. Email Ben at [email protected].

This article was posted on February 17

by Ben Botes

Choose The Right Business For You In Less Than 15

Choose The Right Business For You In Less Than 15 Minutes

by: Charles Kangethe

3 Characteristics Of ‘the Right Businessก Model

The business must service a large market.

Niche markets are also very profitable but require specialist products and customer service. Target niche markets when you are more confident in your business abilities.

The business must adapt and change with the market.

Be aware faddish businesses can be very difficult to operate because of the rapid rate at which market perceptions change.

Initial startup capital requirements must be minimal

Many new business owners work to tight budgets and have limited resources to startup. Ideal business models should therefore have low startup costs.

What Business Fits These Characteristics?

A (home based), direct response marketing business, dealing in Information has all these characteristics and offers unparalleled flexibility for the serious Wealth Creator.

Direct response marketing is all about the targeting of a specific market by use of mail shots.

Mail shots can be sent by post as happens in mail order or by email as happens in the online Internet world.

Letกs get specific and see how direct response marketing fulfils the characteristics of ‘the Right Businessก

Large Market

Direct Response is a multi billion dollar industry and growing.

The US leads the world in direct response marketing, principally due to the geographical spread of the country, and the almost universal acceptance of direct response marketing as a valid means of buying and selling products.

The UK is a very sophisticated direct marketers environment, where many US trends manifest themselves as a result of the close cultural, economic and political ties between the two countries.

5 Reasons Why The Business Should Deal With Information.

People like Information. They seek it everywhere. On the TV, on radio, at the cinema, in newspapers, in books and reports and increasingly on the Internet.

The need for Information seems insatiable the more a person knows about a particular subject, the more they want to know. It is also true that the less someone knows about something which is of some interest to them the more they will seek out information to expand their knowledge.

Advances in technology in computing and desktop publishing means it is now unbelievably easy and cost effective to engage in Information provision businesses.

People will pay money for access to good, useful sources of information. They have little time to do the required research themselves and will pay someone else to distil the information they require into useable forms.

There are numerous Information product types and it is more than likely you will find one or more of the following financially rewarding. Ezines, audio tapes, video tapes, CDROM, DVD, Live teleconferences, workshops and Seminars.

Adaptable Business

A direct marketing business working with Information affords you the opportunity to change with your market as quickly as it takes to produce a new Information product.

This can literally range from a few hours for new, short shelf life information products to a few days or weeks for longer lasting Information items.

In some cases the changes you need to make to your products to stay ahead of changing market trends may be as simple as title changes and a few amended paragraphs in the content.

Low StartUp Capital Requirements

Many of your good ideas go by the wayside for one simple reason. It costs too much to successfully float the idea, and then to sustain it through the early years as it becomes established.

An Online direct response information product business can be started for less than $300 per annum in the USA or £200 per annum in the UK.

At the very minimum, you will require

A domain and website on a professional hosting platform

An Autoresponder Service to send out email communications to your prospects and customers

You will also require some means for accepting payment for your Information Product.

One of the truly remarkable things about this business is that these requirements can be achieved for the low capital outlay described above.

Conclusion

Information marketing is not the only กidealก business model, and I am sure you can think of others that fit the characteristics noted at the beginning. However, Information marketing via direct response offers you the perfect Business setup to ensure a positive startup and a healthy business model.

Charles Kangethe of http://www.simplyeasier.com is a leading new wave Netpreneur and a published author from England. The กSimply Easierก brand name is your guarantee of high value, quality Marketing Products, Services and Resources.

About The Author

Charles Kangethe has been involved in direct response marketing since 1982. He now lives in Suffolk County and spends his time working on new Online Marketing campaigns, with particular focus on helping new netpreneurs at http://www.simplyeasier.com

This article was posted on January 26, 2004

by Charles Kangethe

5 HighImpact Marketing Tips

5 HighImpact Marketing Tips

by: Bob Leduc

Here are 5 highimpact marketing tips you can use to boost your sales quickly. All are simple to implement and they involve little or no new expense.

1. Promote Only One Thing at a Time

Promote only 1 product or service each time you advertise. Many people have difficulty selecting one product when their decision forces them to delay or reject buying something else they also want. When prospects cannot make an easy choice they often make no decision at all …and you lose the sale.

Tip: Offer new customers a related product or service immediately after they buy from you. Many will accept your offer, producing an easy sale without jeopardizing the initial purchase.

2. Provide Multiple Ways for Customers to Buy

Providing choices of what to buy will reduce your sales. But providing choices of how to buy will increase your sales. Offer many different ways for customers to buy from you. The same method is not convenient for everybody. Prospective customers are more likely to act immediately when their favorite way of ordering is available.

3. Avoid Your Competitors

Look for some new niche markets you and your competitors overlooked. You may uncover a market you can dominate with little or no competition.

One quick and easy way to find profitable new markets is to subdivide your current market into several narrowly defined niche markets. Then customize your advertising to the unique needs of prospects in each niche market.

Tip: You can narrow the appeal of an existing web site without losing its effectiveness with your main market. Just create customized web pages for each market segment you want to target. Then add a link to each of these specialized pages on your home page.

4. Use Alternative Marketing

Look for alternative media your competitors may be overlooking. For example, many internet marketers are beginning to use direct mail postcards to generate traffic to their web sites. It?s a low cost way to bypass the heavy competition online.

A brief captivating message on a postcard with an enticing offer sent to the right prospects will generate a flood of traffic to your website or a large number of sales leads.

Tip: Postcards are also an excellent lowcost alternative to email. People get so much email today that even legitimate messages are getting deleted unread. But they get few if any postcards. Your message is guaranteed to get their attention when itกs delivered on a postcard.

5. Encourage Questions

You?re walking away from a lot of easy sales if you don?t encourage prospects to ask questions about your product or service.

Only interested prospects will take the time to ask questions. Many will buy …especially if you answer their question quickly and completely. You can even include a promotion for your product or service as part of your answer.

Make it easy for prospects to ask questions when they are at your web site or in other selling situations where there is no personal contact. For example, provide a phone number or an email address they can use to ask questions.

Tip: If you find yourself personally answering a lot of questions, add a Questions and Answers section to your web site or your sales brochure. Include the answers to the most frequently asked questions. It will reduce the number of questions you have to answer personally.

Each of these 5 marketing tips provides a simple way for you to boost your sales quickly …and for little or no new expense.

Copyright 2004 Bob Leduc

http://BobLeduc.com

About The Author

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards …and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. Youกll find his lowcost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 7026581707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

This article was posted on October 26, 2004

by Bob Leduc

Internet Marketing Idea: Publish an Ezine

Internet Marketing Idea: Publish an Ezine

by: Jack Elmy

Chances are if you surf the net much you have noticed that almost every website offers a free newsletter or ezine in some form or other. Wonder why someone would go to so much trouble to publish a newsletter and offer it for free? The answer is because it is a brilliant Internet marketing idea. True, it does take some work to publish a quality ezine, however the benefits you can reap in sales for your main product or service is worth the time and effort.

What makes writing and publishing an ezine such a good Internet marketing idea is that it allows you to have direct contact with your customers and readers on a continuing basis. Even if they forget to visit your site again (and let’s face it; with all of the work and family demands placed on all of us, no matter how good your site is, this is a possibility) if they are subscribed to your ezine you have a golden opportunity to remind them why your site is fantastic. Secondly, when done tastefully, it gives you a chance to earn a little extra through advertising. Finally, there are relatively few other ways you can build a relationship with your site’s visitors. And as all good salespeople know, building a good rapport with your customer is key to making the sale.

There are a few golden rules you should understand before hurrying to write your first edition, however. While you may be able to convince a visitor to sign up for an ezine when they visit your site, your job as a publisher doesn’t stop there. To get them to actually open it every time it lands their inbox and not hit the delete key, you need to develop a plan. At a minimum, keep these tips in mind in order for an ezine Internet marketing idea to be successful:

Take the time to include informative, interesting and entertaining content for your ezine. Give the reader a reason to want to read your newsletter and better yet, recommend it to others!

Reassure your readers. Always, always include a privacy statement and give them an opportunity to unsubscribe. Hopefully, if you provide relevant, original information you’ll never have to worry about this; but doing so shows you care about your reader and that you produce quality material.

Once you decide to publish an ezine, be consistent about it. If you tell your readers it’s a weekly publication, make sure it comes out weekly no matter what. Failing to abide by this rule tells your reader you’re unreliable and untrustworthy.

Finally, remember that although writing and publishing an ezine is a fantastic Internet marketing idea, it is also a chance for you to have some fun and really expand your skills. Be creative and have fun!

About The Author

Jack Elmyกs web site provides information on the basics of creating business plans that get results and will help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.900businessplans.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

This article was posted on March 06

by Jack Elmy

Build Your Marketing Muscle

Build Your Marketing Muscle

by: Sopan Greene, M.A.

During a saxophone lesson the other day I realized how much regular practice can help a part time internet marketer. My teacher taught me a long time ago to just play for 15 minutes a day to progress. I was shocked when I first started doing it, but it works. And it works fast.

As Iกve applied that theory to my business Iกve seen the same rewards. If you have a tight schedule, itกs actually better to work on marketing for 15 minutes a day than it is to come up with a block of hours to get a lot done.

The reason why is that a habit to make a little time a day to focus on your business keeps the ideas flowing and consistently builds your marketing muscle. Itกs also a lot easier to find 15 minutes every day than it is to find an hour or more.

Think about it. In 15 minutes you can send out some articles, work on an article or send some emails for ad swaps. All of these activities are building your exposure and your list.

Most internet marketers are part timers for at least 6 months to year depending on how much time they spend on their business. If you can go for a half hour or an hour or more a day go for it. But most newbies are struggling to put in 5 hours on weekdays while juggling a full time job and a busy family life.

The key is to pick an amount of time you know you can do. Commit to spending that amount of time every weekday with longer times on the weekend. If you can do it at the same time every day it works easier. Treat this time like itกs an important appointment with an important person. (You are an important person aren’t you? No one else will build your business.) Don’t let anything break your date with your business.

Too many folks fail because they simply don’t treat their business like itกs a business. A hobby is something that costs you money and you work on when you feel like it. A business is something that makes you money and you work on it even when you don’t feel like it. You deserve to reap the rewards that an online business brings.

The profits are bigger down the road, but treating your business with a business attitude will get you there faster. A 15 minute a day habit can build your marketing muscle and accelerate your progress.

Give it a whirl. What have you go to lose?

About The Author

Sopan Greene, M.A. is a marketing & life coach & editor of the Net Profits newsletter. Grab Your 2 FREE eBooks & a FREE report: กMillion Dollar Emailsก กHow To Start Your Own Traffic Virusก & ‘the 13 Deadly Internet Marketing Mistakes Almost Every Business Is Making…ก mail to: [email protected]

http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com

This article was posted on December 05, 2003

by Sopan Greene, M.A.

Google Adwords For Your Target Market

Google Adwords For Your Target Market

by: Bobby Walker

First off, let me tell you where most Internet Marketers make their mistake. You log on to the Internet, do a little surfing, when all of a sudden it hits you right in the face! The very product that you have been looking for! The perfect ขproductข as a matter of fact! You cannot use your paypal account fast enough, so you can start selling your ขproductข on the Internet like crazy!

Do you realize what you just did? You just combined two of the hardest industries there are to make money in, Internet Marketing and Gambling! That is exactly what you are doing by picking a product before you find out if people even want it.

A product is incapable of giving you money, only people can pay you, and a ขmarketข is made up of people. You must center your product around your market to be successful on the Internet.

So how do you uncover your target market? Easy, you just go to www.overture.com to use their keyword tool and type in what you want to search for and hit enter. It will tell you the most popular keywords for that particular word or phrase and it will also tell you how many people searched that word or phrase last month.

Typically, a good market will be between 40,000 to 100,000 searches for that particular month. Less than that may be a weak market, and more than that could be too competitive. To find out for sure use the overture bidding tool for a particular word or phrase, and look at the third bid, it should be at least .30 up to $2.00. Again, less than .30 could be weak and more than $2.00 could be too competitive.

With overture, you can basically be the highest bidder and get the first position, not too much guesswork involved there. But Google Adwords is a different story, there is definitely some skill involved in with this method.

However, with Google Adwords, you have the potential to bid as little as .05 and still be in first position! However, the problem is that most people do not want to take the time or put forth the effort to tweak out the perfect Google ad, myself included.

That is when I stumbled across a website http://www.perrymarshall.active.ws, which has an excellent course called, The Definitive Google Adwords Course. The basic course is fairly cheap at $49 considering all the information you get. If you want some audio thrown in, it is only $97, and if you want the deluxe with hard case cover, you will pay about $197.

Obviously, the best part about the course is that they tell you some of the secrets that are in the course. You can enter your first name and valid email address and get a free 5 day course.

They give away some good secrets, just enough to get you wanting more. But hey, we all have to make money somehow, right?

Seriously, this is a great course, I personally bought the basic course, and I have already raised the visitors to my website by 20% within a week of reading the course. Not bad for a $49 investment, I have spent more than that buying visitors from traffic exchanges! Which you should never do, by the way.

Any and every business needs to have the knowledge that is in this course. The bottom line is, if you do not have traffic to your site, you do not produce income. So I highly, highly recommend the Google Adwords Course.

About The Author

Bobby Walker

Internet Marketer

Dallas, Texas

3 Easy Step To Online Success

http://www.homebiz365.com/pips.html

Beat the Google Adwords System!

http://www.perrymarshall.active.ws

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 24

by Bobby Walker

Changing Your Position When Thereกs Competition

Changing Your Position When Thereกs Competition

by: C.J.Hayden

Are you finding many of your best prospects already working with competitors? When you pursue a new opportunity, is someone else capturing the prize? Maybe itกs time to reevaluate your positioning.

Your market position is the place you occupy in the mind of your prospective clients. Itกs how they think of you as compared to your competitors. Adjectives like established or cuttingedge; highquality or inexpensive; convenient or fullservice are all relative terms. When applied to you and your business, they distinguish you from the competition.

Your clientsก impression of how your business compares can determine whether they work with you or not. Try conducting some competitive research to find out what it is that clients like about the people you compete with. Are those qualities you can emulate? In what areas are clients not as satisfied? Could you offer more satisfaction there?

Ask your current and former clients about their experience with the competition. They may be quite candid with you about what they liked and didn’t like, and give you some valuable insight into why they chose you. Check out how your competitors are positioning themselves by surfing the Net. Mission statements, lists of features and benefits, etc. will often be posted on their web sites. You can also have a friend request their literature, or hire a professional market researcher.

Target market research can help if prospects are telling you they don’t need what you are offering. If you think they need a teambuilding retreat, but they are looking for more skills training, you won’t make a sale. If you learn more about how prospects view their own challenges, you can develop a new market position to better match their mental, or reallife, purchase order. Your retreat might fly if you called it กan intensive threeday training program in the critical skills needed for effective teamwork.ก

Ask your satisfied clients for a testimonial letter. The way they describe the work you do and benefits they received from it can give you valuable clues in how to sell it to others. An evaluation questionnaire can be used for the same purpose. Try asking, กHow would you describe my service to someone who could use it?ก

Your research might uncover that your service isn’t packaged in a way that prospects want to buy it. Developing a better service package could make what you offer more attractive. A marketing consultant who has been charging by the project might find clients more receptive to a monthly retainer they can budget for. An interior designer encountering resistance to his hourly fee might instead raise his commission rate on furnishings, and no longer charge by the hour.

Sometimes just naming your service package can make a difference. An image consultant might be much more successful selling the กOneDay Makeoverก than asking clients to buy six hours of her time to revamp their whole look. When doing your market research, try asking your prospects how they prefer to buy services like yours, and tailor your offering to their preferences.

You may make the discovery that youกve chosen the wrong market the perceived need for what you offer isn’t strong enough, they aren’t willing to pay what you need to charge, or the size of the market is too small. In this case, itกs time to position yourself for an entirely different market.

A career counselor who can’t find enough individuals who will pay her fee can market herself to companies who need outplacement services. A software trainer who discovers that large companies prefer training firms that can serve them nationally might find a better market in midsize organizations. Keep asking the question, กWho is MOST LIKELY to hire me?ก until you find the right fit.

About The Author

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of กFive Secrets to Finding All the Clients Youกll Ever Needก at http://www.getclientsnow.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 12

by C.J.Hayden