Going From Data To Marketing Leads

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AppId is over the quota

Perhaps the reason why business people still take data for granted is because some of them can't see how that data translates into money. One way to explain this is by showing the effects of information on the actions a company would make.

However, this would best illustrate if we use a B2B company as an example. In this case, suppose your company does advertising. Now advertising is an information-dependent industry. Everything from web-banners to TV commercials is supposed to be designed with the target market in mind. With that said, how can you do that when you don't know that market at all?

This is why advertisers do research on the needs as well come up with good reasons why they might want the product they're promotion. It's a common rule in advertising to really speak to your market.

This example only tackles things from the B2C perspective though. On the other hand, how does information get translated into sales in B2B terms?

Again, advertising can stand in as an example. You're not only dependent on information around consumers. Like any other B2B business, it needs information on possible clients: businesses who need advertising for their products. It actually gets trickier for them in this case because they can't use their advertising skills on B2B targets. Why? Obviously because you'll be targeting important decision makers who are far too busy to pay attention to anything unless you can make yourself uniquely relevant to their needs.

By uniquely, you need a large set of information solely dedicated to them. What is their budget? What methods do they prefer? Is their industry catering to particular sub-cultures or demographics? Unlike in regular advertising where you treat consumers as one big group, decision makers can only be impressed if you really did your homework on them as individual corporate entities.

That is how data ends up converting into sales leads. The information you get automatically maximizes your chances of making a sale. You'll now know exactly why your prospect should do business with you.

Finally, this leads you to the question of what method is best used to gather this information or at least establish a connection that will enable a careful exchange. Emails can make for a subtle start but you need something more direct to improve your chances.

Live conversations have this speed and at the same time flexibility. With that in mind, you should try telemarketing for this type of data for generating leads. Outsourcing it is also recommended since you'd normally spend much hiring, training, and equipping your own in-house team. Furthermore, you'll most likely be given a lot of access to their records and their conversations so you'll be knowing exactly what they do anyways. It's hardly that different from having one in-house.

So there you have it. Whether its B2B or B2C, you'll be taking wild swings in the dark if you lack the information that tells you where to hit. Improve the accuracy of your marketing efforts and collect more data!

Kurt Wyatt is a B2B lead generation and appointment setting specialist that aids direct marketing and advertising companies in generating quality sales leads and appointments. Kurt invites you to visit http://www.dmacentral.com/ for more information.

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Are You Creating Compelling Marketing Messages?

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AppId is over the quota

Do you wish your marketing materials were "pulling" clients towards you? Do you wish you could turn more prospects into clients? Do you wonder if your website copy is speaking to your ideal clients? If you answered "yes" to these questions, then you are going to want to spend some time focusing on your marketing message. Having a compelling marketing message is the entire foundation for your ability to attract new clients.

What's a compelling marketing message? It is a way of describing your business in your website copy, in your marketing materials, or on your business card, that when an ideal client sees, hears or reads about you, they will say, "Oh my gosh, I need to work with this person". Or, "Wow, you are exactly what I need, can I get a card?"

Have you ever come across a person's website where it felt like they were talking directly to you? That it described your pain, struggles and challenges to a "t"-and was so on target-it almost made you cry? I certainly have and then I said to myself, "I must work with that person, because they understand me EXACTLY and can solve my problems".

When you can get your clients to self-select and self recognize that you are the person, the ONLY person who can help them solve their problems then you have created a compelling marketing message! People must be able to recognize themselves in your message so they will say, "Oh my gosh, I've GOT to work with her/him".

What are the mistakes your clients are making? Can you describe the mistakes your clients are making? These may be the ones they aren't even aware they are making. Write down the top 20 mistakes your clients are making. This is where you can start to develop messages from this list. I'll guarantee most of your competitor's marketing messages are about themselves and the features they offer to their clients. By creating messages that incorporate the mistakes your ideal clients are making, you are talking about them-your clients rather than about yourself.

Next, you need to get clear on what results they receive when they work with you. Write these down-because it's all about RESULTS. You want to get really specific about what results you get for people. Look back at clients you worked with in the past and identify what results they got from working with you. Or call a couple of your best current clients and let them know you are updating your marketing materials and want to get more great clients like them. Ask them what results they've gotten from working with you.

One of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they look for more clients is to tell people about what they think they do, instead of telling them about the RESULTS they will receive by working with them. Many times, business owners make the mistake of describing "what" they do rather then leading with the solution that they provide.

After you've interviewed current or past clients and come up with a list of results you've provided, you can then begin to create your marketing messages based on the results and solutions that your current clients say you provide. Be sure to write these in the language that your ideal clients used. Don't try to use jargon, or turn it into "prettier" language. If you want to attract more fabulous clients like the ones you interviewed-use their language verbatim!

I challenge you to take a look at your current marketing materials and website and ask yourself: Are your messages all about you and your services, or are they about your client or customers? Because in order to attract clients...it's got to be about them!

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. And who would like to overcome their fear of sales, change their mindset, increase their self-confidence, and create a step-by-step strategy for taking their business to the next level.

Mandy's client's receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Mandy offers one-on-one coaching and consulting, as well as facilitates workshops and teleclasses and speaks on a variety of topics.

Get a copy of her free CD "7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs" at http://www.mandyschumaker.com/. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

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Dealing With the Customer in Field Marketing

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AppId is over the quota

At the centre of any successful business, let alone marketing, is the customer. It is imperative in field marketing- due to the high demand for knowledge of psychology and sociology- that the customers needs are recognised and consistently met.

Within these days of mass production and choice the marketer or entrepreneur must remember to brand. A brand can be marketed and promoted so that the customer becomes familiar with it, bonds with it and will repeat purchases again and again.

The age of the salesperson has gone. Now the consumers' relationship with a brand is far stronger. However it is important that this brand remains human or at least with some aspects of personality and progression.

When dealing with your customers the first thing you must do is identify your customer. Customers are affected by their background, their social or cultural influences and consider matters and think in differing ways. You need to understand your existing and potential customers simultaneously also. You need to find out all about them to serve them better, retain their custom and persuade them to buy more. Not only do you, as a marketer or business manager, need to understand in depth your customer, but every member of your organisation must be briefed so as to communicate effectively in the fashion appropriate to your specific brand.

Once this process is achieved it is time to segment your market. This is sorting all your customers into various classifications so you can better interact with them. This is very useful if each segment has differing patterns of buying. And only necessary if this group of altering psychology would be profitable to pursue. In this instance it is a fantastic idea to store data on your findings so you can reference it in future. Data allow the characteristics of the salesperson to be stored also, so that when there is a requirement to match a particular target audience with appropriate personnel, the right skills are found.

People carry baggage from their culture and social environment from their upbringing, their education and their life experience, and it is easy to make assumptions about how others think and are likely to respond to communications with them. We must remember to accept the fact that the people you are selling to may have a completely different background to yourself. Don't ignore the market research; believe it and act on it.

Here is a simple exercise to help when identifying customers in field marketing; Erase from your mind your own thinking and prejudices. Listen observe and grasp how your target think, communicate and come to conclude. This will help you to learn how the target think and react. This method has been known as 'self-recognition criteria' and will allow you to move on to learn more about them in the future, allowing you to make more informed decisions.

Cosine Field Marketing can help with further field sales solutions and are well known for their professionally with regards to customer analysis. Based in the UK their team is grounded on dedicated field marketing specialists.

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Simple Steps to Marketing

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AppId is over the quota

Marketing is typically ignored with Business Owners suffering from analysis paralysis. Marketing doesn't need to be that difficult, I've outlined some simple but effective steps below to help business owners understand the fundamentals of marketing and implement it within the strategic plan for the business.

So what are the simple steps to marketing?

1. Market Research
2. Identify your customer and what they want
3. Tailoring you product / services to meet the needs of your customer
4. Positioning your product / service to reach your target market
5. Create your value proposition (brand)
6. Promotion

Many people jump straight to step #6 which unfortunately results in wasted time, money and resources marketing to the wrong people with the wrong message and the wrong product or service. I'll go through each step in a little more detail.

Market Research

1. Get an overview of the economy. Are people buying what you're offering? Ten years ago people weren't hiring video or business consultants anywhere nearly as much as they are now - look up localworldstats.com.

2. Competitor analysis. You need to know what your competitors are up to so that you can position yourself and little bit different or package / price your products a little bit different. You'll need to know information such as business name, qualifications (check LinkedIn), products and services offered, mode of delivery, website, who their clients are and which industries they are serving.

3. Price and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) of competitors. What are they charging? What offers to they provide? What is their SCA? How can you do things differently?

4. News and Trends. Find out what's hot and what's not? How can you utilise new technology? Do you have RSS feeds that you check which keep you up to date?

5. Promotional strategies. What are your competitors doing? What are they offering in the way of promotion? Check out their policies on free consultation, social media, testimonials and freebies.

6. SWOT analysis. Work with a coach on an intelligent SWOT analysis, create an action plan on how you can work with your strengths to maximise your opportunities etc. You will need to know what your competitors are doing to know where your opportunities lie.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. Playing safe is risky.

Identify your customer and your ideal customer.

In order to be successful you will need to know your customer, find out information such as:

1. What size of organisation would you prefer to deal with?
2. Typically, how many people will they employ?
3. What market sector(s) do these organisations operate within?
4. Who specifically will be buying your products/services and what are their titles?
5. Where geographically would you like these organisations to be located?
6. What does your organisation offer that is unique? Find out from your customers.
7. What types of organisations will be attracted by this uniqueness?
8. What do your best customers possess that you would like to replicate in others?
9. Which of your existing customers were the easiest and quickest to convert?
10. What similarities do these customers possess?

Knowing this information will tell you where your customers hang out, on and off line and which language / marketing materials to use. There is no point marketing to 60-year-old CEOs via Hootsuite and talking about split testing!

Product strategy - What do they want?

1. Survey, survey, survey. I personally give clients 'what do you expect' survey's pre-consultation, another feedback form during our agreement (a few months in) and then I'll ask for feedback and a testimonial. Find out what they expect, what qualities that you have, what you could do better, what you're doing really well, what other products / services they'd like you to provide.

2. Segment your customers into different test groups, find out what they want, what they need. Find out the emotional desires as well as the product needs e.g. more clients, more profit, more time, focus, less stress, removal from overwhelm, accountability.

3. Qualitative research, have one on one conversations with your customers. Provide what they want, not what you want to give.

Taylor your product

What is your pricing strategy? What is the objective for your pricing? Do you want revenue, profit or business growth? Have you tested different prices on different customer segmentation? I typically test a price for a month or 2 on and offline and then I'll keep increasing it until customers are saying no!

Packaging strategy

This is a combination of both your product and pricing strategies, how can you make it different and how are you measuring the success of each? What different packages or bundles have you tried?

Position your product / service (place strategy)

How will your product get to the end user? Which places of purchase do you offer e.g. shop, website etc?

Often a smaller sale can be made directly from an ad or online but the larger sale won't. Typically a buyer of a larger product or service will have gone through several channels before making the sale. For example, one of my strategies is to run low-cost monthly educational workshops (channel), this lets the customer get to know me and to build a relationship. I then distribute one hour free consultation vouchers (hooks) to attendees which they can then use within a given time frame. If they choose to use this voucher, I will meet with the prospective client and hopefully convert into a contract or at least an introductory product. Other positioning may be a Facebook page which offers a free report which then offers a sample which may result in a sale. How are you positioning your product?

Create your value proposition (and SCA)

First of all, have you created your business statement? This identifies in a single statement what you do, for whom and just importantly what you don't do!!

We provide 'products and services' to 'customers' by 'activities'
What we don't do is: 'xyz'

For example;

Business Reboot fast tracks the success of SME Service Providers, Sales and Marketing Teams and Marketing Executives by providing a consistent set of business tools, proven strategic methodologies and experienced coaching support needed to achieve their sales, marketing and personal development goals. What I don't do is financial planning.

Your value proposition is created from your product / service attributes (features and benefits) plus the image that you want to portray plus the relationship that your customer can expect from doing business with you.

Create a table with four columns and in the first column list of all of your products / services, in the second your features, in the third the advantages and the fourth the benefits. To understand the difference, use the 'so what' test i.e. an advantage of coaching might be 'effective marketing techniques', you can still say so what at the end of this sentence so you haven't reached the benefit yet which is 'saves time and money by making intelligent decisions'.

To create your image, list the five top values that you'd like people to say when talking about your business e.g. integrity, professional, value for money. And then do the same for your relationships, what can you customer expect from your relationship e.g. speed dial, trustworthy advice etc.

Your customers buy benefits rather than products and features so use these benefits along with your company image the relationship that they can expect to create your marketing messages.

Sustainable competitive advantage

It wouldn't be right for me to write about marketing without talking about your sustainable, competitive advantage (SCA) or sometimes known as your unique selling proposition (USP). This is what makes you different to your competitors and is a whole other article but should be identified.

In Marketing SCA is an advantage that one firm has relative to competing firms. To be really effective the advantage must be:

• Sustainable
• Hard to copy
• Unique
• Superior to the competition
• Applicable to multiple situations

Determining the SCA for any organization requires an understanding of the customer's needs and preferences. A competitive advantage arises out of activities which provide high value to the customer and a strong ability to beat competitors. Examples of SCA include factors such as quickest turnaround time, high product quality, low-cost production techniques, patents and copyrights, government protected, extensive contracts and a good reputation.

Measuring
Marketing wouldn't be marketing unless everything was measured else how would you determine what works and what doesn't. Measure and test everything - your SCA, your headlines, your target market, your products, your price and perhaps your patience!

Promotion
There are literally hundreds of promotional activities that you can use, I have listed only a few.. measure, measure, measure!

-ezine articles
-email series
-blog posts
-online forums and blogs
-direct mail
-online ads
-print ads
-t.v.
-radio
-networking events
-monthly teleseminar
-website
-affiliates
-press releases
-social media
-workshops
-educational series - cd / webinar / video
-referral program
-joint venture flushing out the specifics of a new service you're going to offer
-public speaking
-special promotion
-writing a book

Good luck!

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Marketing A to Z: A Fun Read

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AppId is over the quota

Marketing A to Z:

A is for Appreciation - make sure your customers know they are appreciated...send them a card!

B is for Brand - live it breath it believe it

C is for Cool - no matter what your industry there is always room for an element of 'cool'

D is for Deliver - always deliver on your promises!

E is for Excellence - there should be excellence in whatever you do...your customers will recognise you for it

F is for Frank - be frank in all your endeavours, people can usually smell bulls^&% a mile away

G is for Goals - have them, but make sure they're not too lofty...

H is for Home Page - make sure yours is fantastic and drives people to take the action you want them to

I is for Innovation - don't be afraid to innovate, even if your market is conservative. We live in a fast paced world and innovation is key to survival

J is for Jupiter - don't be afraid to be bright - even if you're not the closest planet to the sun.

K is for Kickstart - bring life to a new concept with a kickstart

L is for Listening - with all the talking going on today, how about having a listening strategy

M is for MARKETING - we love it and you should too. Most businesses are made or broken by their marketing efforts

N is for Nimble - Being nimble is essential to getting new business and keeping current business...remember, being nimble means it doesn't hurt so much if you have to stretch yourself!

O is for Organisation - Being organised in your thinking and your actions pays wonderful dividends for you and the recipients of your work

P is for Plan - Big or small, we think planning is pretty important

Q is for Question - Sometimes you need to ask the right question before you can get the right answer

R is for Refresh - sometimes that's all it takes for a strong brand to stay at the top

S is for Strategy - Don't leave home without it or your business might get lost

T is for Timeliness - you might have the best ideas in the world, but if you don't time the launch properly you might be too early or too late...

U is for Uncluttered - make sure your message is clear and uncluttered

V is for Value - You should always provide Massive Value to your customers - they deserve it!

X is for X-Factor - sometimes it helps to have a bit in your kit-bag

Y is for Youth - You and Your Customers are never too old to think like the young

Z is for Zing - be brave and put some zing in your brand...you'll feel great about it

Amy Ward is the founder and director of OnTap Marketing - a Brisbane based marketing and business advisory service for local and international businesses. http://www.ontapmarketing.com/

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Three Major Mistakes Local Businesses Make When Using Mobile Marketing Campaigns

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AppId is over the quota

Lots of businesses are now latching onto mobile marketing and are recognising the importance of going mobile. In 2020, the prediction is that most people will be operating from a mini computer, i.e, a mobile device or tablet.

However, while there are some businesses latching on to mobile marketing, whether it be QR codes, SMS Marketing, or building a mobile website, some firms are indeed not using their mobile marketing campaigns right.

Mistake 1 - QR CODES

Lots of businesses are using QR codes, but some of those same ones are doing it completely wrong. How? Well, they are basically linking the QR code to their mainstream website, which has not been optimised for mobile. I scanned a QR code recently in my town to the local stationery shop, and behold, the link was to their main website, which looked awful on a mobile device. The lesson is when deciding to use QR codes in marketing, try to link them to something that will not drive the customer away!

Mistake 2 - SMS MARKETING BOMBARDMENT

Not many local businesses are using SMS marketing. Those that do use it, do this wrong, as well. They tend to bombard people with messages that are not content driven. When using SMS marketing, it's important to offer value in the text messages, and not to just use it as another sales bombardment. For example, a lot of firms generally think that once a customer has signed up to a list, they are ready to buy. Until they have forged an unforgettable relationship with that customer, they are still a prospect rather than a buyer.

Mistake 3 - MOBILE SITE SALES

Most local firms don't have a site optimised for mobile. Those that do tend to think it is just to put a link up to products and hoping they will get sales. A mobile website's main function is to provide quick information about the firm's business, and to make people want to go onto the main website at a later date. If you can provide a template and a reason why that customer should buy from you via a mobile website, then you will have more than just one sale later on.

There are lots of other ways to use mobile marketing - but if you avoid these three big mistakes you will be on the road to implementing successful mobile marketing campaigns.

Chris Gaynor teaches people the new wave of mobile marketing and how to connect this new marketing experience with internet marketing. If you want to find out more about mobile marketing, then click the link below...Sign up and get FREE ACCESS to Videos that show you how to get started using mobile marketing...

http://www.chris-gaynor.com/

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Destination Marketing: A Right Marketing Mix

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AppId is over the quota

Destination Marketing has many unique features that make sure that it is intrinsically complex and difficult, which includes the following:

• While talking about the marketing of a destination, it has to be kept in mind that it's an independent product compared to a seat in airlines or a hotel stay. Addition of numerous individual products makes a successful destination. These numerous products comprises of natural attractions, tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and spas and many others.

• It is quite similar to a Lego set, a visitor/can create his own set of products according to his taste and travel requirement. However, different travelers will pick different products from a single destination to design their own bespoke product or experiences that are unique and distinctive.

• Since destinations offers varied products to different sectors at various time intervals, in such circumstances' recognizing the competitors is one of the major chore for the destinations. This errand is tricky as far as destination is concerned.

• The task of identifying the real competitors and bating them is quite intricate. The destinations must have strategic and focused marketing plans through which it can be achieved.

Right Marketing Mix

A right marketing mix is quite vital for a destination marketing to succeed. For the brands that are passionate to bring up their destination worldwide, always consider tying up with a Destination Marketing Organization. The destination company concentrates on launching new products in the worldwide market through integrated PR, marketing and sales approach.

• FAM and educational trips for prospective clients

• Marketing and promotion of the destination through social media and email marketing

• Brochures, flyers, marketing and promotional supply of products

• Harmonizing with the delegates of trade fairs and events

• Organize global trade fairs and tourism shows

• Designing marketing strategies using the correct marketing mix method

• Representing and performing in the travel conferences and exhibitions

• Taking active participation in workshops

• Database Management

Staff Training and Support

• The mission of a destination marketing company is to help its clients to connect with prospective visitors. They market and eulogize the destination/brand to the worldwide target audience. They involve personally with your customers in travel trade shows and fairs to give a personal touch.

• A destination representation and marketing firm assists their clients with an everlasting presence in the worldwide market. These marketing companies work on the strategies and tactical plans to bring their customers on top position in the travel world.

Flora Pereira creates interesting and thought provoking content on a variety of niches. She writes mainly on the topics related to Destination Marketing, Travel Representation and Hotel Representation.
She loves reading, writing, socializing, meeting people, traveling and is also fond of good movies.

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10 Free Marketing Strategies - That Cost Virtually Nothing

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AppId is over the quota

1 - Reduce your advertising and marketing budget by 50%. This obviously seems a bold statement BUT the truth is that more than likely 20% of your budget accounts for 80% of your return on investment. If you're using 5 different channels of advertising and marketing then statistically 2 of those channels are dominating your results, so dump the other 3. Alternately we can use the money that we save on looking into new avenues for internet marketing. Be sure to speak with your media advertiser and ask/demand a discount, in this unstable economy they are very likely to give you a large discount.

2 - Public relations - PR. As we know, most people believe what they read in the papers, see on TV and hear on the Radio so if we can expertly position ourselves where we are able to incorporate these aspects then 'technically' we are considered an expert. For example you could write a small article or column for your local newspaper, most local newspapers are in need of good quality content. Most local newspapers are able to afford freelance writers so are very likely to welcome your input.

3 - Upselling. Many business owners are cautious about asking their customer to buy more. The idea that they have purchased anyway seems to most owners acceptable, but true success and momentum comes from selling the customer add-ons and 'up-graded' versions of the same product. If you sell a car, the idea is to also sell the alloy wheels, air-conditioning, the cleansing products etc. Remember - if you don't ask, you don't get.

4 - Know your customers. And I mean personally. Contact your top 20 customers and ask to meet, buy them a coffee or lunch and have a chat. We are not trying to sell them anything but we are going to ask them for referrals and to tell their friends about us. Now this may seem over the top and not something that is usual practice BUT remember, we are trying to defy the norm here - if no one else is doing this then it is the perfect reason for us to do it. Knowing your customers is one of the best free marketing strategies that one can do.

5 - Networking. Go to where your target market or synergistic businesses socialise and do business. I'm not on about spending money on joining a Networking Club or a Business Coffee Afternoon but anywhere they are, you should be too. Networking is an incredibly powerful business growth strategy that can take your business to the next level and the greatest thing about it is...it cost's nothing.

6 - Public Speaking. Now, for the more timid individual out there this may seem like a complete no go, but this must not be overlooked. Anytime you get the opportunity to speak in front of a large crowd - really what you're doing is Marketing. Along our business success journey we will encounter many opportunities to speak in public - we must stay aware of these and grab them with both hands. Are you still going to be shy when you realize it may make you 20K in sales?

7 - Sales skills. One thing that no one can ever take away from us is knowledge. We can never have enough knowledge. Read, read, read, learn, learn, learn. There are tons of books out there that will give you the extra skills needed to make even more sales. Becoming a great salesman will be the difference between a mediocre business and a very successful business. Books are relatively cheap, or you can go to the library - but we must learn as much as we can about selling. We must always be prepared to heavily invest in ourselves.

8 - Emails. Emails are FREE and an incredible way to contact and to stay in contact with our customers. If you are not emailing your customers at least once a week then you are not clearing up the money that is being left behind. At least once a week may seem excessive but remember that they don't (and shouldn't) be sales emails. Email them news, info, promotions something that will make them smile and that they can use. Trust me they will love it and it is one of the best free marketing strategies out there - as long as your not hard selling...all of the time!

9 - Joint ventures. What I'm referring to is non-competitive businesses that share the same customer. Lets say that you are in the Pet/animal industry & sell Pet grooming products. Now if you where to refer some off your customers to the local veterinarians then more than likely they will allow you to put some promotional material in their waiting room. You are both in the same industry with the same customer BUT you are not competing for the same customer. Be clever and work together.

10 - Internet Marketing. Become an expert in Online Marketing. Understand that there are thousands of ways to reach and attract new customers for free, via the internet. Research into this and become an expert to really take your business to the next level. There are also hundreds of thousands of sites that will teach you and give you all the tools and information needed including this site ;-) to become at expert in Online Marketing.

I hope you can make good use of these 10 Free Marketing Strategies.

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Crucial Email Marketing Tips to Remember

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AppId is over the quota

Email marketing can be your ticket to success and unprecedented sales and profit - but only if you do it right. There are many tips out there that preach how you should do email marketing, along with useful Web-based tools and services like name validation that will push for heightened efficiency and better results. Here are some tips to keep in mind when it comes to making email marketing work for you.

Of course, you should already have the basics covered - prepare your Web form, build an email list, or maybe use a tool to validate name and individual information. It's now very important to focus on one message. If you're sending non-newsletter email blasts, make each email revolve around one primary message. The more information you include, the higher the possibility that the reader (your prospective client) will be confused and reach for the Delete button. Stay focused, and make sure that the main topic surfaces on the subject line and the first few lines of the message body. If you're sending email newsletters, though, keep your blurbs short and straight-to-the-point.

Customize your message. Mention the recipient's name in the message whenever possible, because something as simple and seemingly inconsequential like customizing the email this way can make the recipient more likely to read through and produce the desired action, e.g. subscribe to new service, enroll in a program.

A call to action (CTA) is very important. Each email you send should lay down exactly what action you want from the recipient. Put your CTA in text buttons, the message body, and other places on the newsletter or email. Call attention to any special directions you are giving out. Being repetitive in CTAs is fine - put it on top and at the end for good coverage.

It is also crucial to use a template. Instead of using a generic email, devote time to customizing your template to reflect your business font, colors, and other elements in branding. This will improve company recognition and, as a result, generate trust. You should also provide a plain text version that holds the same message but doesn't include any special formatting. This is to target recipients that use email clients unable to view messages in HTML. Test your final template across multiple email clients - this will ensure that you know how it all looks in different platforms.

Finally, watch your statistics - monitor the number of clicks, unsubscribe action, and bounces, to name a few. Gauge your success by comparing stats produced through various formats and link placements. It may seem smart to unsubscribe bounced addresses right away, but you shouldn't do so. There are many reasons behind an email bounce, so it's best to wait it out and try to see if the address bounces once again. Additionally, don't hesitate to use reliable tools like name validation (some hosted, programmable XML Web Service can parse single-field names into components), email validation, and many others to guarantee that you're using correct and updated data before you dive into email marketing.

Discover how real-time name validation API can help improve your email marketing campaigns.

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Starting Up Their Own Business Is a Dream - Getting The Marketing Right

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Starting up their own business is a dream many people hold for a long time and somehow don't quite manage to turn them into a reality.

It may be fear of failure, no idea how to start or possibly too big a risk to contemplate without support, but there is help and support available.

In the current difficult economic conditions in the UK many people are finding themselves suddenly made redundant and still with commitments such as mortgage or children or perhaps a pension that may be worth less than it would be at maturity and need to continue to earn a living.

With competition for jobs fierce people may be considering using a redundancy pay-out or savings as the start-up capital for a new business.

There are many things to organise including a proper business plan and proposals for the services or goods they plan to offer. If the business is catering to a local market and is not necessarily going to be selling through e-commerce online, the start-up list will also include promotional and marketing materials.

These days this will cover both a website and print materials. To get some recognition quickly will mean having the right image, logo and branding that will help potential customers recognise the business whenever they see information about it.

Step one is to list all the materials the start-up owner thinks they will need. It will almost certainly include a business card, a brochure providing information about the new company's product or service, and leaflets and flyers.

Good quality design that creates a corporate brand, like the ones we all take for granted such as burger chains or pizza restaurants, is plainly important. Very often simple and stylish has more impact than a complicated or tricky design that will date, and too much clutter can also ruin a design so never feel that to get the most out of any marketing literature means covering every square inch or centimetre of every page with material. White space, carefully used can be really dramatic.

Good design does not have to cost a fortune. It is worth shopping around for prices for business printing as there are many online and local printers who are able to offer both design and printing in-house. Ask if they will offer you a special start-up rate in exchange for your publicising their services. You never know unless you try.

If the design has been done in-house it will also be much easier to ensure design continuity across everything from the business card to brochures to the leaflets printing.

It is not necessarily true that cheap printing suffers from quality issues. The reputation of good leaflet printing will spread and the printer can then offer very competitive prices as words spreads and they are able to print in larger quantities.

The key to a successful start-up is to plan carefully, know what materials you need and what branding will make your new venture stand out and ensure you get the most out of the money you are paying out.

Vegaprint provides:- Leaflets printing & leaflet printers & business printing

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Simple Guidelines in Fitness Marketing

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AppId is over the quota

Building up your business as well as gradually increasing the likelihood of making your enterprise's target market interested with your services and products can easily be achieved by making use of simple but nonetheless cutting-edge marketing techniques. You don't need to be a marketing expert with a decade's worth of experience in order to properly fulfill any related plans concerning marketing success. But with the help of the right tools alongside the right training which focuses on reliable marketing systems, you'll reach new heights in marketing success that you most likely haven't even dreamed about previously. All it takes is following consistent and reliable marketing tips and applying it to any business that you have in mind. Read on to find about the myriad of benefits and possibilities that you can attain from the highly recommended fitness marketing phenomenon.

First of all, you'll be able to get a promising head start against your competition through the fitness marketing regime's constantly updated guide, which helps you analyse your competitors and be able to discover innovative business opportunities which will maximize your company's returns. The multilevel planning that is being promoted out of fitness marketing strategies also allows you to map out your goals and accomplish every single task at a steady pace. The likelihood of your enterprise's chances of achieving success and transcending your peers can be made into a reality with the use of ingenious blueprints that will inevitably lead to your company's success. Each workday effectively becomes productive and relentlessly efficient once a unique system (created through fitness marketing) is established, and it's also good to know that every possible aspect that your business needs to tackle in order to succeed will be covered by this customized blueprint. Obviously, any business endeavor that you take up runs the risk of going through potential failures and hurdles. Following all the basic rules and groundwork featured in fitness marketing proves to be beneficial to any individual that decides to take it up.

In addition, fitness marketing can easily be integrated into various online and social media channels to improve your company's visibility as well as providing top quality advertising and promotion with minimal effort required on your enterprise's part. Advertising on a wide range of websites through PPC advertising is just one option that you can opt to pick. Another feasible way of acquiring free promotion can be attained by integrating your company's products and services into social media sites. Establishing a blog is also another notable way of squeezing out free promotion that in turn likewise doubles as an online newsletter that your clients can check for information and updates regarding your business. These online promotional techniques integrated into fitness marketing and gym marketing costs relatively cheap and you can always count on it to spread your message to your target audience the moment that you begin to publish it.

The author writes for http://marketingforgyms.com/ which provides information regarding fitness marketing.

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Top 5 Facebook Marketing Tools to Promote Your Events

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Facebook is gradually growing to be a hot spot for event organizers. The social media surge in recent years encourages event organizers to use Facebook as a convenient and a steadfast tool of event planning and marketing. Over the past few years, the website has brought a series of tools and features that help creating a buzz of your event in no time, thus helping you attract a large crowd to the events. Here, we are talking about five most important yet unheard tools of Facebook that help taking your event to the next level.

1. Social Ticket Buying with Ticketmaster

Facebook now offers an exciting tool for buying tickets for events right from its platform. The famous ticket provider of the London Olympics, Ticketmaster has collaborated with Facebook, which offers the facility of social ticket buying. It not only enhances your ticket sales, but also gives a significant boost to the social commerce.

2. Generate Guest List in No Time with GuestlistGen

The newest addition to the marketing and promotional feature of Facebook is GuestlistGen. The tool allows you to generate a PDF of your event guest list within a short span of time and that too, right on the Facebook platform. To do it, you have to just enter your Facebook Event ID and the rest will be done automatically.

3. Analyze Event's Performance with Tuneo

Tuneo is a tool that allows organizers to sum up polls to analyze the performance of the event. It is a kind of organizational tool that helps you track attendees on social networking site like Facebook. Tuneo seems to be a solution to save you from message overload.

4. Create a Buzz with WordPress Custom Tab

Keep in mind that Custom tabs are the fundamental part of marketing strategy in Facebook. You can now use WordPress Custom tab application to customize a tab of your event page in Facebook. It is true that WordPress extends your capabilities and thus, helps you reach a large audience. Moreover, the WordPress Custom Tab is compatible with most browsers and devices.

5. Set up Custom Tab with Pagemodo

Similar to WordPress Custom Tab, Pagemodo helps you to use and set up a custom tab in no time. Well, for large events, it is not that suitable, yet for smaller events, it is the best fit. You can even make the use of paid options, that allow you to set up a robust 'Like-gate' feature on your Facebook event page. At present, Pagemodo is known to be an amazing social media marketing tool.

Use these tools today to make your next event a great success.

Jonathan is a professional trainer. He employs latest technology for online class registration and online training registration that results in more attendance and ROI.

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Case Study - Figuring In Initial Marketing and Sales Costs for a New Automated Truck Wash

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Should an automated truck wash hire professional salesmen to come help sell the fleet accounts? Well, sure, nothing good in life comes free, and not many people are very good at selling fleet wash accounts, I'd say only 20 or so in the whole country, and they work for Blue Beacon, Fleetwash, and formerly for my company before retirement, plus there are vendor companies like Penske and Ryder Leasing who have kick-ass salesmen and any of those guys or gals can talk shop and sell fleet washing accounts too.

What if you, the owner of the automated truck wash has a bit of sales experience? Can you go out and sell yourself? Yes, I believe so, that is if one understands the philosophy and are halfway decent at sales and people skills, problem solving, and customer service. Plus, if the sales team has the knowledge of the process, equipment, technology, soap, and industry; do you have that knowledge, you'll need it? Also ask yourself if you know anything about the trucking industry? Have you ever driven a truck? What is your background here?

Now then, having put together Bonzai and Blitz Missions for marketing fleet accounts, putting together a full on marketing mission the way I'd do it would cost $5,000 and no I am not interested in doing that for anyone, but that is about the type of cost we are talking about here. And, to do it right would probably take a good week and a half even for me to do it, but if you pay attention you can do this yourself.

When setting up your own sales team to go out and get fleet washing contracts, you need to gather your sales people in a room, get them motivated and hyped up, and then strategically place them based on their personal personality strengths into small two-person teams. Then you need to send them out to conquer each grid of the city section by section. Literally canvassing and combing the area for every single truck and fleet vehicle that may need cleaning. They should have flyers, brochures, and they should be contacting every single delivery driver, every fleet owner, and every business they think they might score an account with.

In fact, I used to send our teams behind the grocery stores during delivery times, and they would hand out flyers to every single driver of every single company that pulled up during the day, they would give them a flyer, and convince them to take that flyer and go hand it to their dispatcher, or the owner of the company personally. It is amazing how well this works, and I'm so excited to tell you, because I know you're going to go out and get new business. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on the Truck Washing Industry. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Seven Questions That Every Business Owner Needs To Answer To Create A Truly Great Marketing Plan

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Have you ever spent time and effort creating a Marketing Plan to then experience disappointment and frustration because it made zero difference in your business performance?

If so it's probably because you fell into one or more of the following traps:

1. You may have followed a template that's been designed for a large corporate entity instead of one that's proven effective for a smaller business

2. Possibly you bought a Marketing Plan training course from a charlatan who knew that the course they were selling was useless but who continued to sell it regardless

3. Or perhaps you followed the advice of a well-meaning business coach or consultant (who probably didn't actually own their own business) that relied on out-dated theories. And if that's the case then you probably noticed that after several months and many thousands of dollars later you had no new clients to show for your time, effort and money

4. Or possibly you fell into the very common trap of starting with tactics and not paying deep attention to strategy first

If any of the above describes you then you need to know that it's probably not your fault: there are simply too many confident-sounding, smooth-talking crooks and simpletons out there who are selling half-baked theories that don't actually work.

And on the subject of putting strategy before tactics, the latter are the important details of a Marketing Plan and include the creation of testimonials, guarantees, websites, advertisements, email or direct mail campaigns and so on but whilst that's all very important you'll soon see that it's a big mistake to start with tactics before you've got yourself an effective marketing strategy.

This article in an introduction to seven strategic questions you need to answer when putting together an effective Marketing Plan.

Strategic Question #1: What's your PEG? PEG stands for Personal End Game and while it's technically an objective and not a strategy as such, I include it here because it's critically important as a source of motivation for when you hit the inevitable obstacles along the road to growing your business: "reasons are the fuel in the furnace of motivation".

The PEG question is normally the easiest of the strategic questions to answer. All you need to do is identify two numbers and three things.

The two numbers are: how much income do you want each year and how many weeks off work do you want each year?

Then you add three things that you will use that money and time for - three burning motivators. These can include your family but don't keep it completely pure! If big sea side houses and fast cars really spin your "whizzer" then add them to your list.

Strategic Question #2: What is your Ideal Client Profile and what is their Specific Unmet Need? You need to develop a simple description of your Ideal Client and what they want. And ideally the "what they want" part is a need that they can't get met someplace else.

This is not rocket science so keep it simple!

Include any generally applicable characteristics such as gender, religion, location, age bracket, occupation, company size, income and also a little bit about their buying motivators. Anything that you think is relevant is fair game for your list.

For example here's my Ideal Client Profile: English speaking business owners who are comfortable with the internet and who want a marketing plan that is designed specifically for small business and that's actually proven effective to bring in new clients.

Another example from a client: Fast food restaurant owners in the Asia Pacific region who want to increase their sales and profits through smarter sales software analysis.

And another client: Mothers in Australia, New Zealand and North America who want delicious but healthy Greek style yoghurt for themselves and their families and are prepared to pay a slight premium for healthier and more nutritious food

Note: in the last example we've excluded women without children to feed and we've excluded men despite being fully aware that some of those two categories will buy the product. However we want to create a marketing message (see below) that reflects their Specific Unmet Need and we can't do that if we try to appeal to everyone. The message that's designed for everyone is a message the no one is interested in.

Have you noticed that I haven't asked you yet about your product/service yet? That's because your product/service features are irrelevant at this point.

It's not until you figure out what your market place wants that you are in a position to know if your product/service can be effectively marketed.

That may sound like bad news but it's probably not. There's a fair chance that your product/service, with a few tweaks, is fine. But you can't assume that. If your product/service features are not well matched to market place needs, then getting people to buy will be very hard work.

An effective Marketing Plan always, always, always answers questions regarding market place needs before addressing the issue of product.

Strategic Question #3: What's your Bold Promise? Another way of asking this question is "what does my Ideal Client have to hear in order for them to want to buy my product/service?"

There are a number of elements that combine to create successful marketing results but let me be explicitly clear: the two most critical factors are who you put your offer in front of (Ideal Client Profile) and what you actually offer; your "value proposition" as I call it.

The best offer in front of the wrong person is dead in the water. For example if you were a teetotaller and I offered you a great deal on a case of fine wine, even if I discounted it by 90%, would you buy? Probably not. That's a great offer in front of the wrong person.

So now let's assume that we've got the right audience let's look at some different ways of presenting the offer.

For example: as a business owner which of the follow value propositions would you find more motivating?

"We show you how to grow your business" Versus "Increase your sales and profits by 50% within six months - or you don't pay"

The second one is the hands down winner because it's a bold promise, it includes a specific numerical benefit and it adds a guarantee. That combination is one Kick-Butt formula so take note.

Here's another set of contrasting offers to further illustrate the point

"Your Building Consent Experts" Versus "Your Building Permit Approved In 14 Days Or Less - Guaranteed"

Do NOT skip this. I know your brain may hurt but this is critical. If you can come up with a bold promise like the ones above then you'll achieve better marketing results and you'll get those results faster and easier.

Your Ideal Client is bombarded with literally hundreds of marketing messages every day. You need to do something dramatic to make your message stand out.

Strategic Question #4: Where do my Ideal Clients hang out? So far you've figured out what motivates you, who is your Ideal Client, what their Specific Unmet Need is and what they need to hear in order to want to make an inquiry or to buy.

Now you need to figure out what they watch, who they listen to, what they read, which meetings they go to, which clubs or associations they are members of, which other businesses have them in their network, which websites they visit and what they search for on Google when they are looking for your type of products or services.

The reason is obvious: once you know where your Ideal Clients hang out then you can direct your bold promise to them with direct offer.

And you don't have to spend much money on this. I've built multi-million dollar businesses on what I call my "Godfather" offers (an offer that you can't refuse).

I identify the owner of a database that contains a lot of my Ideal Clients. I prepare a great offer for their network and then I offer the owner as much as 100% commission on the sales.

Why would I give away 100% of the sale? Simple: I want people in my database who are buyers, not tire-kickers. And the purpose of a sale is to get a client (most people think it's the other way around).

Once I have a client, I can then nurture the relationship until they are ready to buy again... and again... and again.

(Bear in mind that most of my product offers are in digital format so I can afford to give away a lot because value delivery costs are zero.)

Strategic Question #5: What's your Black Jellybean? If there is a jar of jellybeans at a counter I'll be the guy standing there picking out the black ones. There is no such thing as liking black jellybeans. You either love them or you hate them.

Similarly, you need to figure out that what you offer, your Ideal Client will love and create/adjust/refine a product/service accordingly. And in creating something that your Ideal Client will love, probably means that there's a whole bunch of people who hate it.

For example: in my business I work with clients almost exclusively on-line. My clients love the fact that they don't have to travel to meet with me, that they are one click away from being straight back to work and that they don't have to have me in their offices or factories.

Naturally, there are others who would work with me if only I would visit them face to face, three dimensionally.

And so my on-line strategy is a Black Jellybean, in that people either love it or hate it.

Another example: the Quick Beauty House offers 10 minute haircuts for $20... for women! For every 8 women who hate that idea there are 2 who love it. And in a city of fifteen million people that 2 out of 10 adds up to a whole lot of women!

Strategic Question #6: What will your Funnel look like? Imagine a Funnel, wide at the top and becoming narrower as is goes downward. A Funnel represents a series of product/service offerings that are free at the top and then increases in price as you descend down the Funnel and its design is a critical part of any effective Marketing Plan.

a Funnel starts at the top with free stuff and as people descend down the funnel there are less of them but they are spending more with you.

Let's assume that whatever "Core Offering Product" you currently have it good or even great.

All too often business owners are trying to sell that Core Offering Product without romancing, seducing and engaging prospects with great added value free stuff first.

I got married three years ago. The millisecond I first saw my wife I was in love. Gone, smitten, out for the count!

Imagine I simply walked up to her and invited her to marry me on the spot. Or worse still, how do you think it would have gone if I'd asked her to join me in bed? Of course that's a ridiculous idea but how often have you put your Core Offering Product in front of an Inquiring prospect and popped the question "So, you want to buy it or not?" (or words to that effect).

You need to ask yourself what you can offer for free, that if a person grabbed at it, they would be qualifying themselves as a likely client.

For example: I offer a free Marketing Plan training course. It runs over 30 days and contains a complete step by step training system for putting together a truly effective Marketing Plan for a business owner.

I offer the training course for free because the prospect can get great value from me without having to risk anything more than a few hours.

I know that most people who get my free course will never pay me even a cent, ever.

I also know that enough of the people who do that course will descend down to the next level of my Funnel and (wisely) accept my two month free trial offer for my Killer Marketing Club which is a great example of the "Easy Entry Level" product from the chart above.

And enough of the people who join the Killer Marketing Club will go on to invest in something else and so on.

And so the Funnel represents a game of patience and romance. It also says to a potential new client "you may have been burnt before so let me prove to you that I'm different and that I can add great value to you before you trust me with your money".

Other examples and ideas for Free Added Value option: free trial period, free sample, free demonstration, free class, free added-value newsletters or Ezines, free check-up, free in-store tasting.

Patience + Free = Millions

Never underestimate the power of free!

Strategic Question #7: Which Streams will you tap into? A Stream refers to a source of prospects. I've identified well over sixty different places that most businesses can get qualified leads from. These include the traditional sources such as media advertising (don't start here, you'll burn too much money!), referral systems, Search Engine Optimization, banner adverts, direct mail or email campaigns, Joint Ventures, Host Beneficiaries, Social Media Marketing, Adwords, events, word of mouth and many more.

Your Marketing Plan needs to start off by listing at least ten different lead generation sources that you will start work on initially.

You take the one place that you think it will be easiest, cheapest and fastest to get leads and you put a system in place for getting your message out to that place and you then measure the results and when necessary, you refine the offer until you have a proven marketing system that brings in a predictable stream of new clients.

And then you do the same for the next system and so on until you have layered ten proven marketing systems on top of each other.

At that point you'll have a flow of new leads and new clients.

Conclusion: Creating a truly effective Marketing Plan that gives you a flow of high quality new clients, predictably and systematically, is both critically important to the health of your business as well as pivotal to your success in life financially and personally.

For free training on creating a marketing plan visit: www.8020Center.com/FreeMarketingPlan/

About the author: Tom Poland started his first business 31 years ago and has gone on to start and sell multiple businesses including two which he took international. Since 1995 he's trained over tens of thousands of business owners in almost every English speaking country in the world on how to get more clients and make more money by helping more people. In this article he reveals the seven strategic questions he asks business owners to answer when setting up their marketing plan. An overview of his free Marketing Plan training course can be viewed by visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc6paMhZmiM.

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What Is a Marketing Database and How Is It Used?

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Simply put a marketing database is a list of customer information compiled into a list in which you can send information about your products, services and current sales promotions. There are many avenues that can be used to collect customer information. A business must be very careful in collecting customer information.

Collecting Customer Information

People in general do not like receiving "junk mail." That also includes "Spam" through e-mail. By building a solid customer database a business can avoid sending junk mail or Spam. Privacy is taken very seriously around the world. Most countries have privacy laws governing what can be done with customer information.

A Privacy Policy is essential for both a "bricks and mortar" business as well as Internet businesses. Explaining to customers that their information is secure and will not be sold will build trust and confidence in your company.

One way to collect customer information is through surveys. These can be in the form of customer satisfaction surveys or new customer surveys. You might want to offer a gift for answering the questions. The gift does not have to be extravagant.

A business can also collect information if it has a website and has a sign-up page for customers or has a checkout system. Of course there is the direct mail approach. Your company can send out a general marketing survey. The drawbacks to this method are; Higher cost, and longer return and process time. After receiving the surveys, the processing time will be lengthy, as the information must be entered into the database. One suggestion is to hire an outside firm that specializes in database management and surveys. It is easy to find these companies on the Internet.

Another way to build a database is to purchase mailing lists. Many people will put their names and addresses on opportunity list because they want to receive information a business is sending.

Putting Customer Information to Good Use

Once a business has its database built and sorted, there are many ways to use it to get the valuable information to customers.

Direct Marketing is a tried and true way. With this method the business sends out a mailing to its customers about a special or sale the business is running. When the business sends out their mailers, it is a good idea to include a coupon with a specific amount of savings. The savings can be in monetary form such as $10 or as a percentage like 20%.

There are some definite advantages to using direct mail for small business. One is the small business owner can manage the cost of the campaign. You can start out with a modest mailing in the beginning. This will allow you to gauge the response you receive. Remember, you do not want to be overwhelmed by the response. That would cause a worst disaster than zero response. This is one instance where "too much is better than too little" is not desired. You do not want to damage customer relations before they can happen.

Email marketing is another great way to use your database. There are numerous websites that can help you plan an email campaign. You might even want to invest in a program that let's you design your campaigns. The easiest way to find these companies is do a web search. Type in the words "email marketing campaign" and you will get many results. Usually the first ten are the most popular. Make sure to visit more than one site before you make a decision. Many of these companies will offer a free trial or a low monthly fee.

In conclusion, customers are the life-blood of any business. Small business must use customer information wisely to compete with the large corporations. By building and maintaining a good marketing database the small business will be able to know the wants and needs of its customers. By using this database to offer customers special sales or services the business will continue to grow.

Kathy Rupert is a freelance writer and business consultant. She has had over thirty-five years experience in the business field. Kathy has a degree in Business Administration and Management with an emphasis on small business and customer service.

Kathy currently runs her consulting business called Rainwolf Consulting. She has a website where you can see her services she offers.
Site address: http://www.rainwolfaccountingbusinessconsulting.com/

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The Ultimate Power of Marketing Is in Creating 'Wants'

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AppId is over the quota

The marketing power of many corporations is so potent that they can create demands for whatever goods and services they choose to provide. That was the assertion - way back in 1958 - of John Kenneth Galbraith, author of "The Affluent Society" and a Harvard economist. A shocking statement back then, his premise is even more true today, particularly when selling to consumers. However, that statement is less true in business- to-business selling because emotions are less a part of those buying decisions.

Yes, companies large and small cater daily to the needs of consumers, their need for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, information, entertainment, companionship, health care. The list of consumers' needs is virtually endless. And, while the majority of such companies may be profitable, not all can be called truly successful.

The truly successful companies - those that generate huge revenues and proportionately huge profits - are the ones whose approach to marketing is vastly different. They choose to sell the sizzle rather than the steak. Their marketing approach tends to focus on creating an almost insatiable Want in the minds of consumers, a virtually unquenchable appetite for the products or services they and only they are able to provide.

Yes, some of these companies eventually have competitors, but there is historically a tremendous sales and profit gap between the first company to create a Want and those that rank second and third in satisfying it.

My earliest recollection of a company marketing to a Want it created is Sony with its Walkman. Though now that I think of it, it may have been Philco - a brand name from the more distant past. Philco, as I recall, created one of the earliest so-called portable radios, radios about the size of small breadboxes that, because of the battery needed to provide its power, weighed well over five pounds.

For years, Sony's Walkman' owned the take-it-with-you personal music-player market. For an even longer time it was considered the Cadillac of cassette players. There's another discarded term - cassette - from the distant past. Philco also had a lock on the portable radio market for quite some time.

Who are the Kings of the Hill today? Apple in the product category is a prime example. Verizon in the service sector is another. And in the drug category, at least until recently, it was Pfizer, the developer and manufacturer of Lipitor. In luxury import cars there's BMW, "The Ultimate Driving Machine," followed by Audi. In American-made light trucks, it's Ford, with Chevy licking at its heels.

Creating a Want is definitely how to make the greatest profits...if the marketing efforts are on target. Creating a Want among people who appear not to have the money to buy what you're selling is not the smartest marketing move in the book, though Nike seems to do that well with its uber expensive line of Michael Jordan athletic shoes. Proving once again that if people are made to want something badly enough, they'll find a way to pay for it.

For companies able to create such Wants, companies that can identify potential buyers able to afford their product or service, that can identify ways to embed their well-defined marketing messages effectively and cost-efficiently into the minds of their potential buyers, selling the sizzle instead of the steak is without a doubt the most direct path to success.

© 2012 Philip A. Grisolia, CBC

An accredited Certified Business Communicator (CBC), Phil Grisolia specializes in creating results-oriented marketing programs that generate additional revenue for his clients, money they can take to the bank. An award-winning copywriter and respected marketing professor, Phil is the author of 30 Money-Making Marketing Secrets No One Ever Told You which is available from Amazon. He is also a syndicated business columnist and an executive business coach. Discover for yourself the broad range of services Phil provides for his worldwide clients by visiting http://philgrisolia.com/.

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Marketing Strategies for Avatar

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Having put in a huge amount of effort into the production, the production team was determined to make it a success, hence they came up with a very elaborate marketing plan. On 21 Aug 2009, moviegoers in more than 100 cinemas worldwide watched 16 minutes of footage from Avatar. Ubisoft also launched a trailer for a video game of the same name. Mattel showcased actions figures based on characters in the film. The day before, the teaser for Avatar broke a record on Apple.com after being streamed more than four million times.

As can be seen from the above, the producers of the film Avatar engaged in a very shrewd marketing campaign. They did not just focus on the film itself. They tried to make this a truly multi-media experience for the audience, involving multi-senses.

There seems to be an emerging trend in using new and effective multi-pronged approach in marketing. With such rewarding potential returns, it makes the expenses appear insignificant. If one is successful in engaging worthy partners/leaders of various fields to collaborate in a rewarding project, it would be a win-win situation for all sides where the risks are shared, while the rewards are multiplied. Let us look at some of the major factors of this collaboration strategy.

1) Social Networks

With the widespread popularity of digital worlds/societies like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, companies can tap on these markets, which bring unlimited possibilities, at a relatively low cost.

2) The webpage

If you have not already noticed, the webpage of most blockbuster films are carefully created and constructed to attract audiences. It would not be exaggerating to say that the webpage may even be the key deciding factor that determines whether someone watches a movie or not. On the Avatar webpage, we can access the storyline, character information, music, wallpaper downloads, discussion boards and much more. These help to enhance one's experiences in relation to the movie, so that one feels that he is not only passively watching a movie, but actively taking part in the story as well. Remember the success of the American Idol series? One of the key factors of its success lies in audience participation, where one can 'decide' the winner by calling in through hotlines, rather than just merely watching a singing contest where the judges have all the power and say.

3) Interactive Trailers

This point is related to 2), where the key word is interactive. Audiences want to feel that they are participating in a show, rather than just merely watching it.

4) Augmented/Changed Reality

High-technology has changed the way we live our lives and our experiences of it. 2D and 3D movies are vastly different in nature. The producers of Avatar cleverly marketed several products by requiring the audience to purchase several 'keys' in order to unlock some features that are non-accessible to non-keyholders. This strategy has already been employed by many computer and online game producers to entice the participants into parting with their cash in order to enhance one's experience of their product. Indeed, some would even go so far as to say that they are "not marketing a product, but an experience of a lifetime."

Having employed all of the above marketing strategies, Avatar has become the biggest box office movie of all time, exceeding US$2 billion in total ticket sales. This was the result of a strong partnership between various industries and is not merely the effort of one particular industry.

How We Can Apply This To The Translation Industry

We can take reference from Avatar's success and apply their formula to the translation industry, where a fruitful relationship between a translation company and its clients depends very much on a strategic partnership, much like the marketing strategy described above. Reaching out to the consumers does not just involve pictures. It is an art that involves more than that. A few intriguing words can rein in the imagination and steer readers towards your desired direction.

Translation is more than just handing over the documents and expecting the translator to understand what you want to convey through those words. It is about leading your translator into your world, so that he/she can make you the Avatar of that world. He/she is your bridge, that will help you communicate with your audience, to localize your brand and facilitate the conversion, so that your marketing efforts can generate optimum results.

While we all have different goals and priorities, the key is to converge our interests in such a way that will benefit all parties. Indeed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and success is not a zero-sum game. Creating a win-win-win situation for all may involve putting in a considerable amount of time, effort and cost, but if well-planned and properly executed, it will all lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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