PPC, or pay per click, marketing is essentially placing paid advertisements on search engine results pages as well as search networks, paying a certain amount each time a visitor clicks on your ad. Google AdWords is one of the most popular pay per click platforms, but Microsoft adCenter is also used by many businesses.

The Pros:

1.User-Friendly

Setting up and maintaining a pay per click campaign is fairly user-friendly. In fact, Google Adwords even provides free training resources to help you create effective campaigns for your businesses. Campaigns are easy to create and edit on an ongoing basis.

2. Easy Geo-Targeting

This feature is especially valuable for local businesses that are focusing on marketing products or services to their local area. When you set up your PPC campaign, you have the option to choose specific cities or geographic radiuses around a specific area where people will be able to see your ads when searching for specific keywords. This feature can be very valuable for businesses who are trying to target keywords that are extremely competitive to rank for organically.

3. Immediate Results

Many businesses prefer pay per click marketing because of the fast results it provides. Your ads start appearing as soon as a budget is entered into your account. This provides a great way for start-up businesses to gain a customer base very quickly.

The Cons:

1. Short-term Investment

Unlike SEO, when you stop paying for PPC marketing, your ads are no longer visible. Ads are only shown in search results as long as there is money in your account to spend. While PPC does provide a great opportunity for low costs per lead, the benefit doesn’t extend any further after your budget has been depleted.

2. Success is Dependent on More than Just Good Ads

While PPC creates an easy way for people to reach your site, it doesn’t necessarily mean that every click will convert into profit. Even though you may attract lots of visitors because of well-written and well-placed ads, your marketing dollars won’t do much good if visitors aren’t “converting,” or becoming customers because of those ads. Because of that, website design and content is also essential in the pay per click marketing process.

3. The Time Factor

While becoming self-educated in the PPC marketing realm is entirely possible, it does take time. If you’re involved in a small start-up company, you may not have the time it requires to learn about effective PPC and maintain a successful campaign. Many people choose to outsource their PPC, but that generally requires additional maintenance costs and agency fees.

SEO

In case you’re unfamiliar with this term, the purpose of SEO is to improve the position where your website appears when someone searches for a related term to your site. This is done by improving site structure and on-site keyword relevancy, and also increasing the number of high quality, relevant links that point to your site.

The Pros:

1. Visibility and Credibility

Ranking in the top organic positions on Google, or other major search engines like Bing and Yahoo, provides great exposure to your website in a credible way. Because organic rankings are not paid advertisements, people view them as third party suggestions for the best result to their search query. Websites that rank on the first page of Google, specifically those in the first five positions, have a much greater chance of being seen and clicked on by visitors.

2. High ROI

Visibility and credibility also play a big part in the high ROI that SEO can provide. Studies have shown that SEO, when done successfully, provides one of the highest ROIs of all other marketing tactics. While PPC does provide low costs per lead, many more people are actually clicking through organic search results than paid ads. Better visibility creates more clicks, which ultimately creates more profit for your business.

3. Long-term investment

Unlike PPC, marketing efforts that are put toward improving rankings organically generally last much longer than PPC. While PPC ads disappear when the budget runs out, your site will still appear in the organic results even if you stop putting marketing funds toward SEO. Granted, your site’s ranking will decrease over time if SEO is neglected; however, SEO funds provide ROI for much longer than PPC funds.

The Cons:

1. Results Take Longer

One of the main differences between SEO and PPC is that SEO generally takes much longer to produce results than PPC. While PPC ads appear immediately, SEO campaigns can take up to 6 months to really see success. SEO campaigns require much more patience, but the rewards and payoff is well worth it once high rankings are reached.

2. High Maintenance

SEO is much more technical than PPC. It requires much more effort and maintenance to really see success with an SEO campaign, especially with keywords that are very competitive. Learning SEO on your own is always a possibility, but because of the time required many businesses choose to outsource their SEO.

3. Tough Competition

Depending on the markets and keywords your businesses is targeting, it can be tough to break into the market, especially when the highest ranking sites have unlimited resources and budgets to put toward their SEO efforts. National keywords (those that don’t have a local town or city attached to them) can be particularly hard to rank for organically.

About the Author:

Erika Potter is the manager of online marketing at a Utah advertising agency that specializes in medical marketing, chiropractic marketing, law firm marketing, and more.

Whether you’re marketing your personal blog or quality products from a high profile company, you probably spend a good amount of time leveraging social media accounts to get the word out to the masses.

Therein lies a problem: social media platforms are intended to facilitate social activity, not necessarily business activity. While some sites, such as Facebook, offer specific business offerings in the form of company pages and streams, there are an array of rules outlined in that bulky terms of service page that you are not likely familiar with.

Wanted vs. Unwanted Messages

There will be times when you have followers or friends who specifically request additional information about what you have to offer, either by asking for it directly or subscribing to a page or feed that offers it, and these are the only people who should be receiving direct marketing messages from you.

How Much is Too Much?

In all types of marketing, less generally equals more. If you’re wanting to engage customers and encourage them to make the extra effort required to visit, subscribe or purchase, focus on winning them over in one shot as opposed to unleashing the same advertising material over and over again. Repetitive ads can’t help but look and feel like spam, and both your contacts and the powers that be will notice.

Walking the Line

More than one power social marketer has awoken to find their massive accounts blocked or deleted due to repeated spam infractions and, frankly, you could be next. Be vigilant in following the rules of a given platform, keeping up to date on ever-changing terms of service and using common sense at every turn or risk losing an entire audience.

The social media spam infographic is courtesy of SEOsmarty and placed through My Blog Guest Infographics Gallery!

BaseCamp

BaseCamp is one of the most popular project management tools for a reason. Basecamp makes it easy to communicate in order to avoid messy email chains or chat sessions that are easily erased. BaseCamp will notify you via email if someone commented on your project. You can sign up for the Daily Digest email to get a rundown of what happened the day before, and Basecamp allows you to upload files for easy sharing. The calendar function allows you to schedule events and keep track of time in order to make all of your deadlines. The program also includes group chat and Writeboard functions for real time communication. BaseCamp is available in a number of different languages, making international communication easier than ever. BaseCamp offers a number of plans with various pricing options to meet your company’s needs. With so many features, it’s clear why BaseCamp has millions of users.

Campfire

Campfire is a simple chat service that is designed to facilitate collaboration and editing in real time. If you need to chat about a project with a team that is in various locations, Campfire allows you to easily upload documents or photos for editing and feedback. The chat rooms are password protected and invite-only, so you can make sure to include only the clients and team members relevant to the project. Campfire is available as an iPhone app or as a service through your web browser, so there is nothing to install on you computer.

Google Docs

All you need is your team to have access to a Google account and pretty soon you will be using one of the greatest file sharing and collaborating tools Google has to offer. It’s excellent for editing documents with a group in real time.

Less Time Spent

Less Time Spent is a great way to track your time. Simply start the timer to punch in and start the time and punch out. You can also add a description of what you are doing and calculate in expenses in order to create an accurate expense report. If you need to keep track of how you spend your time in order to get paid, Less Time Spent is the tool for you.

Pivotal Tracker

Pivotal Tracker is an iPad app designed to easily track tasks for any given software development project. You can easily change task priorities while quickly sharing attachments and other files. Users can create, edit, and delete tasks for seamless collaboration. Anyone pursuing some type of business degree can get a head start on productivity apps with Pivotal Tracker, which allows you to make sure your entire team is on the same page.

Ta-da Lists

Ta-da Lists allows you to create to-do lists that you can access anywhere. It’s simple and easy to use, making your pen and paper list making a thing of the past.

Jessica Reedy graduated with a degree in Journalism and is now living and working in Washington, D.C. On her spare time she freelance writes on career opportunities, business degree programs and other business management tips.

CRM
Workbooks CRM – www.workbooks.com
The Workbooks product has been on the market for two years now, offering a modularised, cost-effective pricing structure and guaranteed levels of service. Two y ears is not a great age for an organisation but it serves here to underline that this is a new and innovative solution that will suit new and innovative organisations.

Workbooks Free Edition (two users) but with some advanced functionality; Workbooks CRM designed for sales, customer service and marketing teams and Workbooks Business package are easy to use and web-based. The Business edition will cover everything from sales and campaign management to customer communications, sales processing and order fulfilment, service management and predictive analytics and is flexible enough to allow integration with others.

Document and Content Management
Astoria – www.astoriasoftware.com
Document management solutions control workflows, provide work spaces for organisations to store and access documents. Astoria On-Demand (part of of TransPerfect, Inc) has both an on-premise and an on-demand, web-based offerings which utilises XML component content management for document publication. It offers low total cost of ownerships and high ROI and has attracted positive commentaries from its user base. It supports multilingual output to a number of formats: paper, pdf, CD-ROM, web as well as a host of digital devices. Astoria has recently teamed up with OpSource Inc – Dimension Data’s wholly-owned enterprise cloud and managed hosting business, to expand the company’s SaaS business offering them greater flexibility and its customers 24/7 technical support.

Enterprise resource planning
Plex Online – http://www.plex.com/
Michigan-based Plex Online software is that comparatively rare thing – a comprehensive multi-tenant on-demand ERP solution for manufacturing companies offered as a service. The solution offers some 350 functional modules including operational management, quality systems, product lifecycle… Plex has been around as a single-source on-demand product for 10 years. It is comparatively mature as a SaaS product, with most of its new features having been driven by its 500 manufacturer user base.

Healthcare
CECity – www.cecity.com
Healthcare industry SaaS provider CECity offers a web-based technology platform and distribution networks to healthcare professionals for the advancement of continuous development and lifelong learning. CECity has made considerable investment in technology over the last six years resulting in operational and financial success as well as industry-wide recognition.

This article was written by Workbooks, a leading supplier of web based CRM software.

Traditional forms of “pen and paper” marketing are seemingly being ignored by small business owners in favor of online campaigns. But even with a tight budget, the power of direct mail marketing is something that should not be ignored.

Why Direct Mail Marketing Can’t Be Beaten

Targeted forms of personalized, direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your sales leads. Marketers tend to forget that emails can be deleted without being opened and not everyone in their target audience uses social media.

Specifically targeted leaflets, postcards and brochures are a great way of conveying messages to your clients. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter, you are not restricted to 140 characters.

Research by USPS showed that 64% of customers said they valued the mail they received through the post, and 52% of people said they preferred this to email marketing. This highly personal way of targeting clients is proven to work. The study also showed that 94% of customers would act on a promotional offer they received in the post.

Social media may be a free way of communicating, but as this research shows direct mail marketing is preferred by your clients. You can reap the rewards of a successful campaign very quickly, and see a marked increase in your sales leads.

How to Run a Successful Direct Mail Marketing Strategy

When running a direct mail marketing strategy, it is important to follow a consistent and clear method. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive to increase your sales leads. By following these tips, you can get excellent results from your next campaign:

•    Target Your Mail – Identify your target market and write for them.
•    Use a Stamp – Franked and bulk mail gives the impression of junk mail. Increase your open rate with a personalized, bespoke envelope.
•    Handwrite the Envelope – Mail merge your envelopes with a special handwriting font to give the impression of a handwritten letter.
•    Copy Matters – Capture attention with a good headline and follow up with engaging and interesting copy. Provide a call to action and make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors
•    Personalize – Address your clients by name, this will make them feel valued and increase your open rate.

In an age where we rely on the Internet for so much, the importance of a personalized marketing strategy must not be over looked. Businesses of all sizes can yield the benefits of an integrated marketing strategy. Combining both the online and offline elements can give your marketing strategies a real advantage over your competitors.

Transform your direct mail marketing strategies with the help of expert print management company Charterprint. Contact them today to see how to make the most of your print marketing.

Featured image provided courtesy of thos003.

Advantages

Since the device plugs directly into a laptop, there is no need to purchase a land line. In this way, it may also be more cost efficient. There are no setup fees, and there is no need to mess with wires and cables. The device itself is similar to a cell phone. When the device is in range of a tower, there is a signal.

2. No Repetitive Software Installation

In addition to the easy setup process, the stressful task of software installation is minimized. Most providers offer an initial start-up packet, which includes any necessary software. The access program usually takes a few minutes to install. There is no need to go through a new installation process each time the device is plugged in.

3. Endless Mobile Benefits

Mobile Internet access has several benefits. For example, if a business executive finds out the hotel he or she is staying at has a temporary loss of high-speed Internet, the mobile device solves that problem. Several companies offer a bundling option, which provides mobile broadband and home Internet for an affordable price. The top benefit of this type of service is that it can be used nearly anywhere.

Disadvantages

1. Network Problems

Access is limited in remote areas, and there may be frequent network problems. In addition to this, many networks are bogged down on the weekends, so data speeds may be slower. For those who rely solely on mobile broadband, such network issues may be unacceptable. In such cases, it is best to purchase a bundled plan.

2. Cost

Mobile broadband may be more expensive than DSL. The availability of affordable service depends on where a person lives. There are less choices in remote areas.

3. Data Caps

Many companies offer unlimited mobile broadband for a flat rate each month. However, nearly every company still uses data caps. This means that users who go over a specific amount of GB each month will experience slower data transfer speeds. The unlimited feature means that extra access will not be billed. However, the speeds after exceeding the cap allowance are slower.

For certain tasks, a computer is still easier to use than a smartphone. People who agree with that statement and can benefit from mobile Internet access are probably the best candidates for this service.

Tony Alvarez writes for broadbandcomparison.org, where you can learn more about mobile broadband, and also compare broadband rates and values for your business or personal use.

Then I got ambitious and decided it was a good idea to grow my small business. This is when things started to go wrong. I hope reading this will give you some idea if what to avoid if you are thinking about expanding your successful enterprise.

Spent too much in the wrong place

I had grand ambitions. I wanted my cakes to be sold in all the boutique shops around the city, and in all the luxury cake sections of the major supermarkets. I moved immediately to larger premises across town and took on some staff. I started working on entire ranges of cakes with ideas for themed packaging and all sorts…all before I had even approach any major distributors.

When I had finished and finally approached the supermarkets, they liked the cakes but didn’t like the themes and so killed off my chance. I set up some repeat orders with delicatessens but ended up earning less than I had done through selling to the locals in my previous location. Plus I had to pay staff which ended up making me lose money.

Spent not enough in the right place

What I should have done was build my brand from where I was. I had a steady stream of customers that were all spreading the word about my cakes naturally. All I needed to do was to spend money on advertising in my local area; maybe with a banner campaign or flyers, and I could have expanded more naturally and with more security than I had.

Put on a Fake Front

One of the worst things I did was to act as if I was bigger than I really was. I would call myself a company and issue business-like pitches, when I should really have stayed true to myself and let my personality and my baking do the talking. I was just too formal and didn’t use one of my biggest assets to sell myself…me.

Forgot About the Cakes

One of the things I was most ashamed about was the fact that I didn’t even make the cakes that I took to the pitches. I was so busy working on my figures, my outfit and my branding that I allowed my trainees to put the cakes together. They were good, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t make them. I think this is a sign of how I truly got carried away with my ambitions and lost sight of where my proven talents lie.

I have learned my lesson and am going to start selling cakes again soon (bespoke wedding cakes this time!), but hopefully this article will help you learn from my mistakes before you make them yourself.

Emma Weir owns and runs a cake business from her home in Scotland. She now uses promotional banners and exhibition displays at wedding fairs to advertise her business. 

Featured cake image courtesy of dichohecho.

London

Being a capital city there are always going to be bonuses to having an office within it. Work that is coming into an office in the city is going to be larger and at a higher cost to clients but workers need to be top notch which means that they will need more pay, swings and roundabouts!

Of course, being a capital city isn’t all that London has to offer an office. The city is full of top businesses of the world that are always interested in what another business has got to say. If you are opening a business that can offer out a good service to a variety of other businesses then you are heading to the right city. There is also a lot to do in terms of entertaining clients in London from visiting some of the best restaurants in the world to a day out to London Zoo, there is something out there that suits almost any client!

On top of all of this you have two airports, Gatwick and Heathrow just a short journey away, both are two of the busiest airports in the world and if this isn’t good enough you have some of the best public transportation systems in the world, the London underground.

Sydney

Located on the south-east coast of the Tasman sea, Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the entire world and for this reason alone is full of business, wealth and some fantastic buildings to think about working in. Home of the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Bondi Bridge, Sydney is a city that is full of life and wonder and is always featuring on lists of top 10 cities of the world that are worth living in.

The way of life is really the main reason why it would be a fantastic idea to think about an office in this city.

New York

New York City is perhaps one of the most populous metropolitan areas on the entire planet and due to this reason, is one of the centre locations of the world for business. This includes, theatre, finance, art, fashion, technology, fashion, education and media. Major players in the USA have their main offices in New York and if you are thinking about an office here then remember who else will be on your doorstep!

New York is often referred to as the cultural capital of the world and this is something that any business can take advantage of. Things to remember are that it will take a long time to get from A to B in New York but what you will be attracting is some expensive clients with a lot of money to spend and some incredibly skilled staff.

So, where would you like an office? London, New York, Paris or perhaps even office space Glasgow?

Market yourself. Use your own photography on your website, on business cards, and on your social media site accounts. Let your work speak for itself. It’s the best marketing tool you have.

Choose a product. Do you want to conduct photo shoots, photograph weddings and other events, or make more creative pictures that can be framed and hung as wall art? You must decide exactly what you are selling in order to market your services or products.

Stock photos. One great way to get your digital photography business off the ground is to sell stock photos. You can take stock photos as a hobby and turn them into artwork that you can sell through your website, in between photo shoots and/or assignments. Graphic artists, web designers, marketing specialists, and a variety of other professionals rely on stock photos for their own businesses.

Branding. No matter what type of digital photography business you are interested in running, it is important that you develop a memorable brand for yourself. Choose a company logo, and even a motto. Use this branding on your website, business cards, social media accounts, and all advertising you do. The more recognizable your brand, the more people will be attracted to you, and the less you’ll have to work to get new business.

A digital photography business can be a great way to make money doing something you love. After all, digital photography is in high demand, and there are a lot of niches you may choose to specialize in. Aonsider these suggestions and you will be well on your way to bringing your business dreams to fruition.

About the Author: Jodie Farese is an amateur photographer and computer repair specialist. She specializes in helping other photographers with photos recovery projects when their harddrives or other hardware pieces crash.

Featured image provided courtesy of ginnerobot

For many years now psychologists have studied what makes a having a goal to be successful work for people. Why is goal setting so important to being successful? As part of this study hey looked at a lot of people that achieved what they wanted in life, they looked at Athletes, Scientists and Business superstars. The one thing all of these people have in common is that they set goals to become successful and they made it happen.

One of the keys to setting up the right goals for yourself is to visualize reaching this goal that you have done it whatever it your goal may be. Jack Nickolas the famous golfer explains when asked about what makes him such great golfer he describes the scene in his head in detail: he ‘sees’ the ball where he wants it to finish – the color of it and it’s surroundings. He then ‘sees’ where the ball goes next – its path, trajectory and shape, even its behavior on the landing.

What he is really saying here is that you need to really “see” yourself going for what you want and getting it. You have to be specific about what you want and how you will get there it is not enough to just dream about it you have to plan out the dream.

You have to plan it all out on paper not just in your head.

If you read the book “What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School”, by  Mark McCormack you will see that a study done back in the 1970s at Harvard Business School, that asked the students if they had written out clear goals for themselves and their future and only 13% had clear goals and of those none of them had taken the time to write them out. A whopping 84% had no real solid goals for the future at all. 3 percent of this class had clearly planed out and written out their future goals. Then ten years after this study the same students were asked how much money they were making on average and the students who had clear goals were making about 2 times as much as the ones that did not have any clear goals. And the 3% they were making as much as 10 times their fellow classmates.

One of the reasons it is so important to write down your goals in detail is so that you can see all the steps you need to take to reach you end goal. If you have it all planed out then you can see the obstacles that are in your way.

Further studies have shown that setting goals in this manner works well every time. Kids and adults who were not really exercising were asked to write down when they would exercise and how what they would do for exercise and they found that 91% of the people did do what they planed when they wrote down a clear plan. They were able to see schedule conflicts and other things that might have otherwise stood in their way.

How you feel about your goals will also make a difference. If your goal is something you really want to achieve then you will work harder to get there. That is why it is important to set small goals as well as large ones. The small ones help to build your self-confidence. The more small goals are successful in completing the better you will feel about your ability to reach the larger goals.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Yogi Berra

About the Author

Morris N. Mann, P.D. – Morris has a Ph.D. in psychology, and for 10 years has provided coaching and Morris N. Mann, P.D. – Morris helps professionals and private business owners gain success in business and true happiness for themselves. He has worked for over 15 years as a business executive responsible for marketing and systems management in international product and service companies. He has a Ph.D. in psychology and has been offering coaching and life training services for over 10 years.” life training services that helps professionals and private business owners gain success in business and true happiness for themselves. He has worked for over 15 years in marketing and systems management in charge of international product and service firms. 

Featured image provided courtesy of opensourceway.