Internet Marketing Tips

0800 Numbers or 0845 Numbers: Which is Best?

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:09:00 +0000

0845 numbers and 0800 numbers are useful for businesses of all sizes. Both number ranges allow firms to keep one telephone number for life.Both are also a great incentive for customers to call more often, increasing business and developing customer loyalty. However, there are key differences between the two number ranges that businesses should consider. What do you want to use the number for? If you are looking for a telephone number to use in your marketing and advertising then 0800 numbers are the clear winner. 0800 numbers are totally free for your potential customers, meaning that you will receive more sales/enquiries to the number that you have promoted.
For companies looking for a main contact number, 0845 prefixes could be the ideal solution. 0800 numbers actively encourage customers to call because they are free, but 0845 numbers are not free. You might think this would minimise their popularity, but they are in fact the UK’s most popular number range. When they were first introduced, 0845 numbers were known as ‘local rate’ numbers, though this is not strictly the case any more given the rise of inclusive call packages offered by mobile and landline providers. However, BT has recently made 0845 numbers free to call for its 16 million residential landline customers, so the cost barrier has been removed for many consumers.
Overall, both 0845 numbers and 0800 numbers are great ways to improve business communications. Both number ranges give you more control and flexibility over your phone systems and each has its own advantages.0845 numbers and 0800 numbers are different tools and should be carefully selected to suit your business needs. 0800 numbers will definitelyencourage responses from ad campaigns for example, whether they are direct mail or above the line display ads. 0800 numbers also tend to convey the impression that you really are committed to your customer far more effectively.

How To Be A Joint Venture Matchmaker

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:30:00 +0000

A good joint venture marketing partnership creates a type of synergy that benefits both parties in greater ways than going solo. One could say that the sum of a JV is greater than the individual parts. How is this so? Using the right marketing techniques together in a combined effort just makes sense if it saves money on the budget and generates more revenue.

JV Match Maker

Finding the right JV match can be time consuming. When you look for a potential JV partner, you should consider which type of people (direct, aggressive, or creative) you like working with. Sometimes a great JV partnership is gained from sharing different talents in a combined effort. For example, you may be a techno wiz and need a creative person who can help with marketing messages. Together your talents can benefit the other.

You also may want to look at the type of industry or business of your potential JV partner. Sometimes working with someone who does a similar business can create a synergetic partnership, and sometimes a company doing a completely different business can be beneficial. Look for what you want to gain.

Sending the Right Message

A synergetic JV partnership develops the right message to customers. Opening the right market channels through your message helps both parties gain more clients and customers, as well as other potential business partners.

More Money

Of course, one of the main goals of a joint partnership is earning more revenue. Through the synergetic efforts of both parties, a JV partnership can save money on marketing costs, possibly production costs, and generate more revenue with increased sales.

Consider if you had a budget of $10,000 per year on marketing costs. Through a combined joint venture effort, including sharing marketing costs, you’ll find that you can save $2,000 a year on that portion of your budget. That’s $2,000 that could be spent on other efforts such as R & D, or perhaps hiring additional employees for all the extra products you need to produce.

Another way of forming cost savings with a JV partnership is by creating an economy scale. Perhaps by using your special container equipment combined with your JV partner’s ability to efficiently manufacture and package goods, your economies of scale synergy can result in saving of costs of goods sold and increased revenue.

Ultimately a successful JV will produce satisfying profits for both parties. Increased revenue with only half or a portion of the effort is successful synergetic business. With increased revenue, you can help take your company to another level of business.

Your potential joint venture partner can help your business succeed. Consider the possibilities of working with another business owner to develop ways of making new business. It starts with choosing the right partner, and working your synergy to develop the right marketing message that results in extra money in your business account.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Using Psychology to Stimulate Action in your Joint Venture Marketing Messages

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Consumers love to spend money. They want to purchase goods and services. But how do you get them to purchase from you? A joint venture may be a good way to develop the right marketing message to consumers. Through your combined efforts, you can convince them that the products or services you sell will fulfill their needs.

Marketers have used consumer psychology for years to help sell their goods and services. Studies of consumer patterns and behaviors have helped them formulate a message that creates the desire to purchase. Understanding a bit of the consumer decision making process can help you find the right JV partner with whom you can develop a product or service that consumers can’t resist.

The Stimulus

You need to get the attention of a consumer in order to eventually make a sale. That means working with your JV partner to create a “package deal” or new product that you feel consumer’s need, and getting the message to them through advertisements, word of mouth, etc. Your marketing message must arouse a consumer’s interest and motivate them to act further. Make your ads attractive with photos, graphics, and colors. Use easy-to-read fonts that are large enough to read.

Do You Have A Problem?

Getting the attention of consumers is the hard part. Once you’ve grabbed hold of their focus, the rest is simply convincing them they need your product or service through problem awareness. At this stage of consumer decision, they must recognize that your product or service fulfills a desire or solves a problem for them in your marketing message. Does your JV effort potentially increase the consumer’s status? Can it help make life easier? Demonstrate the problem in your message.

More Info, Please

If your marketing message has grabbed their attention and highlighted a potential problem solver, consumers will want to know more through an information search. Their search could be external, or your marketing message could contain additional benefits of your JV product. Always emphasize the benefits to your potential consumer.

What are the Alternatives?

Before making a final decision, a consumer may want to know what else is available. Is there a cheaper product? Can someone else offer better services for less? You could even point out in your marketing message the differences of other similar products or services and why yours is the best choice.

I’ll Take It!

The final process of consumer psychology is the decision to make a purchase. If your marketing message has fulfilled all five previous processes for the consumer, give them a call to action. Let them know what they need to do to buy your product or service. Do they need to come to your store? Can they buy online? Is there a limited time only? Always give consumers the final information on how to purchase through your marketing message.

If your JV partnership is to be successful, you need to send a convincing message to consumers about the benefits of the JV effort. Solve the problem for them. Convince them that yours is the best choice. And always make it easy to know how to buy.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

How Great Graphic Design Will Create Better Sales Figures

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:54:00 +0000

There’s a well known saying: a picture is worth a thousand words. In fact this saying is even more applicable today in an age where we're bombarded with such a mass of written information that we find it hard to keep pace. These come in the form of blaring headlines, websites and email messages. A creative image is a perfect way for you to cut through all this clutter and convey your message quickly to your target audience.

If you asked the average person what they think a graphic design is, they would probably know that it involves things like colors, typefaces, designs on paper or on websites or posters. However what most people not understand is that graphic design is a vital ingredient of marketing. Graphic design toay, is a critical influence in a world where there is competition from so many different marketing messages and ideas.

The idea of good quality graphic design as explained at graphic designer fulham london is that it will enable you to boil down your company concept into a single image – or a group of images. These ideally will be created in some way that communicates instantly to your target audience.

When you prepare your business cards, web sites or any other company material, it is very much to your advantage to ensure that your marketing message is placed on those documents in a prominent and effective way – in a form that will be remembered by your future customers.

Good graphic design is therefore helpful to you in all your business communications, whether they’re for public viewing, for an existing client or a new sales prospect.

A graphic designer can give you objectivity about your business. He or she will be able to appraise the different concepts you have about your business and pick out the ones that are best communicated to the world. In other words he or she will be able to take your business personality strengths and express those particular strengths in graphical form.

Take Your Joint Ventures Global

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Forming a joint venture partnership is a great way to combine efforts, resources, and ideas to make greater sales for both parties. The more people you reach with your JV effort, the more likely that your sales will improve. Why not make a global JV partnership and have access to potentially millions of people in another country?

Taking Textiles Global

The India-headquartered textile giant, Raymond, is a $500 million a year company that sells designer wool fabrics and readymade garments to over 55 countries. They went from being India’s most respected textile company to a world textile leader through strategic joint venture partnerships with companies across the globe. Their joint ventures use a combination of technology, manufacturing and marketing that help both Raymond and its partners earn great financial rewards.

Working with Leading Partners

In one of their biggest joint ventures, Raymond teamed up with European denim supplier, UCO NV, to form a new company; Raymond UCO Denim Private Label Ltd. UCO NV had access to large European markets with a high reputation for quality. UCO NV also brought the strength of European design skills and integrated manufacturing processes. Through their synergetic strengths of sourcing raw materials and combined use of machinery, Raymond UCO created a strong global position and has become an international supplier of denim fabrics.

In Italy, Raymond has partnered with cotton fabric manufacturer, Cotonificio Honegger, and wool manufacturer, Lanificio Fedora. Cotonificio is part of a high fashion textile group that supplies leading shirt fabric for designer makers worldwide. Through that joint venture, Raymond set up a designer cotton shirt fabric in India. Combining wool manufacturing with Lanificio has resulted in a more worldwide business of woolen blankets, shirts, and jackets.

Japan has a strong market for designer clothing and fashion. Using their garment manufacturing facilities in India, Raymond formed a joint venture with Flex, Japan’s leading dress shirt manufacturer. With their combined efforts, Raymond and Flex produce more than 1 million shirts per year.

Using Joint Ventures to Open Doors of Opportunity

Raymond is proud of their joint venture efforts to expand their own business to global markets. They strongly advocate the use of joint ventures to open new markets. Through strategic joint venture efforts, Raymond says that a company can have access to technology, marketing expertise, and manufacturing capabilities that otherwise would be prohibitive in entering foreign markets.

Foreign joint ventures can be risky and potentially unstable due to differing cultures and business values. When considering a foreign joint venture, you should always consider first the possibility of making arrangements to do business yourself through contracted local help.

If you decide that a joint venture is a good option, you may want to “test” a joint venture by doing business together informally to see if the partnership is a good fit. And finally, always set up a mutually agreeable exit strategy for you and your joint venture partner if the venture does not work.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

What Do You Have to Offer a Potential Joint Venture Partner?

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:36:00 +0000

What are your fields of expertise? What business process have you mastered? Have you developed a new and useful product? When you form a joint venture, you need to bring your strengths to the table and find a way to leverage those strengths with your joint venture partner to benefit both parties.

A joint venture can result in changes to your own business, or require you to build on the resources you already have in place to make the venture a success. However, it’s important to have a strong strategy and know where your strengths can best be utilized before taking on such a partnership.

Disney Breaks into Russia through Joint Ventures

Want to break into new markets? Here’s an example where the Walt Disney Company utilized its marketing strengths to form a joint venture with Media-One Holdings Limited. Media-One is a major broadcaster in Russia who owns and operates over 30 televisions stations throughout the country. Disney proposed a joint venture with Media-One to launch a Disney-branded television channel to be broadcasted in Russia.

Disney offered to use marketing, content support, and programming to design a family-oriented channel. Disney would also provide cash and acquisition support for a 49% stake in the venture. Media-One would hold a majority stake and receive the benefit of Disney’s name brand and media experience.

As a result, Media-One’s knowledge and operational experience in Russia, broadcast station portfolio, and advertising sales expertise created a unique family entertainment channel that plans to launch in 2009 with great success.

The goal of this joint venture was to become the most popular free television channel to kids and families in Russia, and create a large and profitable revenue stream from advertising sales. The strength of Disney’s brand name and outstanding programming capabilities are sure to make it a success.

Mom and Pop Stores to Disney Conglomerates: Joint Ventures Work

Your combined strengths in a joint venture can very well increase your productivity, help your business grow faster, and produce greater revenue. Choosing the right partner can be the key to the success of the venture. In the above example, Disney chose the Russian television-broadcasting leader to ensure that the proposed channel would reach the biggest markets. That doesn’t mean you try to form joint ventures with only Fortune 500 companies. However, you should take a look at the success of your potential partner.

A JV partner should compliment your strengths as well. Do both of you reach completely different markets? Does each of your products or services fit well together? Your best chance at a successful joint venture is one where both parties can offer something to the other resulting in financial rewards for all.

Joint ventures aren’t a way for one party to depend on the other to do the work. Make sure you are willing to share your expertise and time, and ensure that your potential partner is willing to do the same. With combined strengths, your joint venture equation could most certainly be 1 + 1 = greater than 2.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Tapping Into New Client Networks Through Joint Ventures

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Being a joint venture partner has many benefits to you and your business. When you enter into a joint venture agreement, you agree to share strengths, creativity, and efforts for the prosperity of all parties. However, what are the main benefits of the teamwork and cooperation between joint venture partners?

Increased Revenue

Certainly the main goal in forming a joint venture is to increase your revenue. By sharing resources, your joint venture partner and you hopefully can experience more revenue streams in one or both of the following ways:

Revenue Sharing – A joint venture may be one where products or services are combined and packaged for sale to clients and customers. A package deal of services or products could result in more sales, and thus, more revenue for you and your joint venture partner. Though you would be splitting a portion of sales, don’t think of it as a smaller percentage of profits, but a percentage of a much bigger piece of pie.

New Business – Your joint venture partnership could be using the talents and strengths of each other to increase each of your respective businesses. For example, you could be sharing your graphic design expertise to provide great brochures to your partner, while he gives you access to lead lists of potential customers. The result of this type of joint partnership is measured individually rather than combined.

New Networks

Your joint venture can lead to new networks of potential business partners and customers, which can benefit your business. It could bring your products or services to new channels of customers who otherwise would not know your business exist. Find ways to market to your joint partner’s mailing lists. Perhaps provide a free sample to your joint venture partner’s regular and loyal customers. But don’t forget to do the same for your partner. Promote his or her business to your current customers as well.

Your combined networks could also allow you to find other ways to improve your business with other joint ventures. You could find other affiliates or individuals with strengths that could result in another business relationship. This may take time and effort outside your joint venture purpose, but sharing your partner’s business contacts can be beneficial as well. Just be sure not to steal or sour any business relationship for your joint venture partner.

Joint Venture Case Example: Saving Money and Increasing Clients

As an example, John was a freelance writer who found that he could offer copywriting services to his joint partner, Michael, in exchange for free web hosting that Michael’s company provided. While working with Michael, John was introduced to Joyce, who was a CPA and performed Michael’s bookkeeping. John approached Joyce in a similar manner and offered his copywriting and promotional services in exchange for tax advice for his freelance business. Joyce agreed, and the result was increased business for both Michael and Joyce, while John saved heaps of money on accounting and web services.

Save Time and Money

Your joint venture is a way to combine efforts and resources. By doing so, you could save money on your own marketing budget if you share marketing costs. And you can save time by sharing the required tasks with your joint venture partner. Freeing up your time and money to focus on other ways to grow your business, or even to spend more time with family, can be one of the best benefits you enjoy.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

0800 Numbers Assist in Internet Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:15:00 +0000

0800 numbers beef up call rates because the caller knows they are free of charge to them.0800 numbers demonstrate just how far you are prepared to go to help your potential customers by saving them money.The free 0800 number facility gives real meaning to your professed committment to customer support.
Using 0800 numbers will aslo help in running online marketing campaigns, regarded as essential to business survival.Almost every commentator says that getting online is the only way to grow and prosper as a business, but even if all your marketing budget is going online, it still needs to be disbursed effectively.Freee 0800 numbers are good at generating data to determine where your business is coming from - PPC or SEO.
The combination of Google Analaytics and 0800 number data can give you an accurate idea of which channel is performing well, and therefore which channel to give more budget to.Depending on the initial entry route, this can be achieved by simply changing the telephone number on the site. In fact, there’s no reason why you cannot use several different 0800 numbers to cover all the different methods a potential client or buyer finds their way into and accesses your site.
Although Google Analytics will deliver accurate information about wher your online business is coming from, the actual conversion of interest into a sale will often still depend on an inbound phone call.No matter how informative you make your website, especially if your product or service is complex, there are customers who will still want to speak with a person before making a purchase.
Giving out a free 0800 number will increase inbound traffic and allow you to maximse the natural visibility achieved via SEO. They cost nothing to set-up, so there’s no real budgetary restriction in applying this level of tracking for your online business.In addition to facilitating response, measurement and budgetary tuning of marketing campaigns is possibe using an 0800 number.

Recognize the Potential for a Joint Venture

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:26:00 +0000

Part of becoming a successful entrepreneur and business owner is recognizing opportunity and the potential for opportunity. Advantages abound for those who are savvy and keep their eyes and ears open for a chance to combine forces and form a joint venture partnership. A joint partnership can open up new revenue streams and expand your branding opportunities as well.

What Are Your Strengths?

What do you do well? Legal services? Online media creation? A large contact base for distribution? Your special niche in the business world is your opportunity to serve a joint venture partner. If you are especially talented in creating great websites, perhaps you could find a joint partner who has a need to reach more clients through the internet, but doesn’t have the tech savvy to design a website or doesn’t have the time to maintain one. These types of opportunities are what you need to recognize as an entrepreneur.

As an example of how to recognize opportunity, coffee giant Starbucks recognized that a large number of online daters would choose their locations for a first meet with a potential date. As a response, they partnered with Yahoo! Personals to create an “Espresso Dating Guide” with advice for dating and relationships. This guide not only helped couples in finding a good date, but also gave Starbucks additional customers for “first date” couples.

Can 1 + 1 = 3?

If you’re good at math, you know that this formula is false. But can a pair of business ideas with good synergy create something greater than the combination of the two separately? Absolutely!

Consider Jean who owns a floral shop in Houston, Texas. Her products are sensitive to heat and air, and thus, limited to the amount of stock she could keep in her store. Large orders were difficult to fulfill due to the time and expense it would take to request stock from greenhouses to be delivered at a specific time.

Jean found a refrigeration and cooler storage business that had frequent space available. Jean worked out a joint venture with the company, offering them a percentage of all the sales of the orders that would be housed there. Without the overhead cost, Jean could offer a discount to wedding organizers and funeral homes for advance orders, and then Jean was able to acquire stock and store it in a rented portion of the cooling facility. As a result, Jean was able to expand her business triple-fold by fulfilling large orders, and the cooling facility had additional income from their extra space.

Think ‘How’

You already have the strengths and abilities to make a joint venture partnership work. You are only limited by your imagination. Rather than asking if a business idea will work, you should ask,” how it will work”. There is an abundance of opportunities for you to join forces and create a synergetic joint venture partnership. Be creative. Look at the big picture. And when you have an idea in mind, be sure to present your potential joint venture partner with how it will work, not if, and the benefits that your partner will enjoy.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Why Joint Ventures Are Worth Your Time

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Most new entrepreneurs and business owners believe that joint ventures are difficult and complicated. In fact, when you think of it, being an entrepreneur itself is difficult and complicated, with all the minute details involved with growing a business. Proposing and forming a joint venture is just one of the many important cogs in the wheel of entrepreneurism.

Joint Ventures: Large Successes

Joint ventures can take many forms. It could be a simple as selling advertising space on a menu, or a complicated agreement to combine capital resources in a high stakes moneymaking venture. An example of a high-tech joint venture is a partnership between the Canadian telecommunications company, Nortel, and the China based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Both companies are world leaders in networking, networking products, and broadband access. Through their partnership formed in 2006, they planned to expand the potential market by using combined technologies offering innovative broadband solutions.

The partnership between the two global communication giants involved Huawei’s worldwide leading broadband access combined with Nortel’s voice and networking technologies. The combined products provided extra value and enhanced performance to service providers.

Internet service providers around the world were able to deliver an ultra broadband product that included voice, video, data, and wireless services to both businesses and residents using copper, fiber, and fixed wireless networks.

The successful joint venture created new revenue opportunities for Nortel and Huawei and through their combined strengths, both companies gained a larger market share in the ever-growing broadband and Internet services industry.

Using Joint Ventures for Small Businesses

This type of large-scale joint venture example can be used to see how you can gain a larger market share in your community, region, or even nationally by envisioning a combination of strengths with a joint venture partner. Your potential JV partner doesn’t have to operate next door. Look around and research businesses that offer similar products or services as yours in other parts of your state or across the country. When you find one that you feel has strengths that are synergetic with yours, begin the process of brainstorming JV ideas.

Like in the example above, you could combine technologies and resources to form a better and more innovative product. Or perhaps your potential partner manufactures a product that is a good fit with yours and could be sold as a package. You can simply start a joint venture marketing relationship that allows you to contact and market with each other’s existing clients. A good and creative entrepreneur can think of a myriad of ways that a joint venture could succeed.

If you are an entrepreneur who wants to expand your business, then a joint venture option can be a big winner for both you and your potential partner. Remember that entrepreneurship involves being creative and forming new business ideas and promotions. You don’t have to do it all by yourself. Look around. Find a potential partner. Get enthusiastic about your combined business idea. Your efforts in promoting a joint venture are worth your time to expand business and gain new business partners.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

The Benefits of Bum Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:52:00 +0000

When you say bum, it naturally means someone who has no home, no work, no pay, no life but when it comes to Internet and making money on the Internet, it’s different and it’s really great to be a bum, to be in bum marketing, that is. So, what is Bum marketing? Bum marketing simply means that you sit on your computer, or in front of it, seriously, and type away all day and make money. So, what do you need to type? Any articles of a topic that has potential in the niche market. You write a topc and Google will help with the search, and a customer reads your topic, clicks on the ads in there, that's the time you make money.

Well, what can you say about Bum Marketing? Good or very good? It's really awesome and now, a lot of people are enjoying their time and financial freedom being a bum maketer. The bum marketing method right now is very popular and very in-demand as lots of people today are laid off from their work. With nothing to do, some of them have discovered that there really is money on the Internet and you don’t have to be a great writer, you don’t have to have skills in web designing. You just need to be very passionate about what you write and you just go on writing based on what you think and that’s it.

Anybody can be in bum marketing? The only thing you need is your PC or laptop and you bang away on your computer writing anything under the sun. Just make sure your articles are currently interesting and timely as today’s headlines or whatever is the interest of people at the very moment. For example, if there is a huge sell-out for teddy bears, why not make an article on how to write a teddy bear and all that sort of thing? Then, when you post it on the Internet and someone reads your article and clicks the affiliate links included in your article, you make money. Okay, therea re affiliate links but where can you find them? Nice question.

You Want Traffic And Lots Of It, Well Here's How You Get It

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:15:00 +0000

The first question that most webmasters ask is "how do I get more web traffic?". Let's suppose you're into Internet Marketing and you've got a brand new Web site. You'll find tons of books for sale on the Internet about how to multiply your Web Traffic in 30 days, etc. Do not waste your money, most of that information is not worth reading.

Web Traffic Optimization

If you don't have your site optimized for your primary keyword you're just wasting your time.
Be sure to put your primary keyword for each page in your title tag.
Is very important that your pages are optimized for your keywords and that you take the time to do it properly.

Obtaining links from other authority websites that already have lots of web traffic is important. You've got to get links from other Websites in order to get indexed by the search engines. Look at it this way, how are the search engine spiders going to find your site pages if there are no links pointing to them?

I know, you built it and they haven't come yet, and they won't come unless you do certain things. It's not real easy, but you have to have a little patience. It may take several weeks for your site to be listed in the search engines, which are the engines you will get most of your web traffic from. During that time period you should be busy getting links to your site. Writing new articles is an effective way of getting links.

Obtaining links can be automatic in some cases. You can sign up with a free service like Linkmetro and get links from other web sites automatically. I've found that you will get a lot of links from websites that have no page rank when you go this route. Another, way is to install a linking script on your server so that webmasters can trade links with you without you having to do anything. I like this unique method better.

4 Web Traffic Tips

Another neat way to get links is to join forums that you have an interest in and start participating.
Don't make the mistake of joining a group and try to sell something in your first post.
Contribute content to the forum and your sales posts will be accepted later.
Be sure to put your URL in your signature so you'll get a backlink back to your site.

After you have been getting links for a while you will want to start checking to see how many links you have. An easy way to do this is to go to Google and type in links:yourdomain-com. This system works for most search engines and will tell you if your link activities are working.

Your largest obstacle to getting web traffic to your site is information overload. After you have been on the world wide web for a while your inbox on your email client will begin to fill up with offer after offer. You'll be tempted to buy them all and what will happen is that you end up studying and reading all the time instead of working. Remember this and you'll do fine. Always do the most important task to get web traffic every day.

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Blogging: Free Internet Marketing Method

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:13:00 +0000

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It's been years since blogging has been practiced. But it's just recently that it has been considered as one of the addicting fads. Many teenagers have resorted to blogging as an outlet for their emotions, a little online nook where they can blurt out whatever just bugs them or whatever makes them feel elated. Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that won't cost you a cent.

What exactly is blogging? Blog is the widely used term that refers to web log. Basically, a blog is an online journal. A blog could be set up to no cost at all, and can be used for just for the fun of it or for business reasons.

Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to boost the visibility of your products and services. Here are a few ways to boost your internet advertising with the help of a blog:

1. Make your clients or customers abreast on your website's alterations. Your new products and affiliate websites could also be announced through your blog.

2. Keep track of your business objectives and plans through open writing. Your blog content can be easily stored through archives. What could be better than searchable information that could be easily accessed by anyone browsing the web, right?

3. Air your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.

4. Include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. This could be better executed through putting well-written articles in your website. Affiliate links could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.

5. Collect response through the ability of blogs to fetch comments from your blog readers. You can learn and improve your products and services through with the feedback from your readers.

6. Connect easily with other bloggers. When other bloggers notice that you have something good in your blog, they will put you in their favorite lists that will automatically link you to their blogs.

So, how do you set up a blog? Here are some of the options you can make use of to take advantage of this fun way to advertise your Internet business.

Either you load a blogging software or let a blogging hosting service do it for you. Host services such as LiveJournal and Blogger.com are the most popular in this field. Those hosts will provide you with easy instructions on how to put up your blog.

Joe Kaz

Sales Grew from $130k to $1.3 Million Using a Joint Venture Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:39:00 +0000

Entrepreneurs sometimes endure the feeling of having the weight of the world on their shoulders. A business can encompass an abundance of time with all the details of administration, getting new business, marketing, development, and of course, taxes. Entrepreneurs are idea people. They like to create business ideas and watch it become successful. But sometimes there just isn’t enough time for business development.

That is why a joint venture can be a great option for an entrepreneur to explore new business ideas and expand revenues at the same time. A joint venture allows an entrepreneur to remain autonomous with his or her business and still enjoy the benefits of a partner sharing expertise and part of the workload.

Roxanne Batson, an entrepreneur and managing partner of two separate small businesses, found out just how forming joint partnerships helped in both the quality of the end-product and increased revenue.

One of her businesses, WomenCorp.org, is an online multi-media women’s magazine. Roxanne started the magazine as a business newsletter to deliver learning opportunities for women in business. However, she had to perform all the work herself – researching topics, writing articles, marketing the site, and designing and maintaining the website itself. The workload was too much for Roxanne, who had other obligations to attend in addition to the newsletter.

Her solution was to be open to the possibility of a tech savvy joint venture partner who could help with the maintenance and upkeep of the website. With a great web media specialist as a joint venture partner in hand, Roxanne then found 20 content providers who could do the research and write the continually updated content for the website.

The result was a richer, more dynamic online magazine that attracted more visitors and is more profitable. Profit is generated by ad sales and shared among the joint venture partners.

Roxanne is also the managing partner for an offline business called Clicker Girls, a business that developed the Classroom Performance System (CPS). CPS involves the use of a remote response pad technology. The clicker technology allows students to engage with teachers and receive instant feedback and automated grading during classroom lectures.

Sales of the system were stagnant and Roxanne wanted to find a way to grow the business and increase revenue. She found the help of DCI, a whiteboard technology dealer. Their product allows teachers to more easily interact with the student’s responses through the CPS remote technology. Through this joint venture, they were able to approach school districts together with their interactive products. The result? Sales skyrocketed from $130,000 to $1.3 million!

Making Life Easier and Business More Profitable

Roxanne Batson is a believer in joint ventures. She says they make life easier, can build a better business model, and she can make far more money than she could alone. If you are an entrepreneur, consider that your business can have more growth and more revenue if you share ideas and marketing strategies with a joint venture partner.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

10 Low Risk High Return Tactics to Attract New Clients for Your Business in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Evan Sohn, a Business Networking Specialist from New York shares his insights on how to attract new clients for your business.

All businesses share the challenge of finding new business. We recently conducted a survey of 700 small businesses. 43 percent of them needed to add over 10 new clients a year. It should come as no surprise that $90 billion is being spent by businesses in the US to grow (American Marketing Association). $20 billion is being spent in online marketing alone. The common marketing portfolio for a company includes advertising (online and offline), public relations, event marketing (tradeshows), client marketing (referrals) and telemarketing (cold calling). An effective marketing strategy will employ multiple initiatives under these areas targeting their customer/prospect segments. Each of these items is important (in different varying levels) to achieve marketing results. But, is there a way to achieve consistent marketing results without having the budget of a Cisco or a Microsoft?

Having been in technology marketing for nearly 20 years, I have seen various marketing methods emerge and some fall to the waste side (does anyone remember direct mail?). The Internet has also provided alternative marketing methods by establishing new channels to targeted customers. Our survey pointed out that most small business are not only concerned about getting good results from their marketing campaigns but are also concerned with high upfront costs of specific marketing campaigns. With this in mind, here are ten low cost and low risk ways to drive new clients for your business. By the way, it goes without saying that you have a clean web site that provides enough of a user experience regarding your service and easy links to the appropriate calls-to-action.

The top ten low cost and low risk ways to drive new clients for your business:

1. Client Referrals

Your path of least resistance to new customers is often from your existing client base. Assuming you are delivering quality work, getting a client to refer another client often happens without even asking. So why not ask? Put together a campaign to drive new client referrals offering incentives to your existing clients. Perhaps make a donation to their favorite charity, or discount on your service or even cash! Be prudent in tracking client referrals, as it is likely that your best referrals will originate from the same set of clients. Always send thank you notes although I recommend David's Cookies or Dale and Thomas Popcorn (a real office pleaser).

2. Blog yourself

While I know I am merely inviting you to join the myriad of people out there who are sharing their views, opinions and thoughts via the web it really is a good way to get the word out there. Blogger and Wordpress are two free Blog sites that make it really easy to set up and publish your blogs. Blog regularly and more importantly make sure you publish your blog on your social network pages. Blogs are often tapped right into the search engines so even by doing nothing you are getting the word out there. (Check our Fastpitch Networking Blog promotion tools.)

3. Inverse Public Relations

Have you ever read an article online and seen a trail of comments and responses to the article? Well why not do that yourself (assuming you have something interesting to add). If you are a subject matter expert (and even if you are not) why not add your two cents to topical articles. Include a link to your Blog or your web site in the response. Of course it is self-promotion but it is promotion nonetheless.

4. Socialize yourself online

Word of mouth is always a great way to drive new business. Working ones rolodex was often the terminology for the art of taking out ones rolodex and "dialing for dollars" - reaching out to your contacts to see who might be able to refer some business. Social networking and moreover professional networking has added a whole new dimension to managing ones rolodex. Networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook as well as niche professional networks such as BizNik and Fastpitch make it easy to establish an online profile and provide good tools for reaching out to your network. Join a group on Facebook or set up a live event on Biznik.

5. Face-to-face networking

Although there is a fee for the more popular networking groups they are a great way to meet other professionals all of whom are interested not in sharing photos or videos but in growing their businesses. There are online versions of these groups such as Network for Professionals and a number of Meetup groups. Start a Meet up or join one inviting everyone to happy hour (on you of course). You'll be certain to draw a nice crowd of likeminded professionals.

6. Web site optimization

Having a web site without it being optimized for search engines is like having an unlisted telephone number - both are bad for business. You need to make sure that people could find you. Go to Guru.com or eLance and find an expert in SEO (search engine optimization) and pay some money to make sure that your web site is posted across the internet.

7. Pay-for-Performance

If you don't have the stomach to deploy a PPC campaign and wade through all the unqualified leads and responses why not look into a pay-for-performance model. These are also called CPA or cost per acquisition. Usually the vendor will determine the price per successful lead acquisition. This could be paying only for leads that complete a registration process for instance. Salesconx.com (self promotion) also employs a pay-for-performance model, which allows the buyer (the marketer or business) to establish the price for being introduced to a potential customer. Salesconx has one advantage over current CPA provides insofar as having no minimum commitments. This lets you get up and running very easily, quickly and inexpensively to closely monitor your return on investment.

8. Share the Wealth (Partnering)

Aligning yourself with another company is a great way to "double up" on your sales efforts. If you providing expertise in X and a likely other vendor of your customer provides Y why not partner up with that company. Create an incentive for the other company such as a percentage of revenue generated. You could share clients and create targeted marketed programs reaching out to both your client bases. Maybe deliver a unified presentation or online seminar to draw the synergies of both your companies. This is generally an easy initiative to ‘kick off' but often a bit harder to deliver in full. To make a partnership successful requires investment (mostly of time) so be patient. Keep in mind that your object is to add N new clients from this partner. So as long as you are meeting your objective it is certainly worth the time and money.

9. Expert yourself

Assuming you are knowledgeable in a certain field why not make your expertise available to others ‘free of charge'? For example, if you are a Tax specialist why not offer your community church or local library a free communal lecture on "Tips and Traps for Tax Preparations". Many organization and institutions are regularly looking for topical content and experts so why not offer these folks your services. My mother was an interior designer in her own practice and started out by writing articles for the local paper on low cost decorating tips. If you are in the health sector try the local gym - they regularly have evening informational classes. Local chambers of commerce also have periodic meetings are often seek panel representatives. Any opportunity for you to speak in front of an audience where you look like an expert in your field is a solid opportunity.

10. Independent sales reps

If you believe that your product or service is easy to understand and relatively straightforward to sell, why not recruit selling professionals that are paid only on commissions. It wasn't too long ago that most sales representatives were independent and there are presently 2.4 million independent sales representatives in the US alone. Granted most of these folks aren't selling synergistic products/services but it does demonstrate just how many folks out there make their money solely through sales. Try placing an advertisement in Craig's list for independent sales reps in your industry or marketplace and see what happens. It does require a good of time to train and manage independent folks but getting a few more clients into the pipeline thru a commission only source is certainly worth the effort.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Key Points and Benefits to a Collaboration Marketing Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Relationships have always been a cornerstone of effective marketing, and collaboration marketing is a way to foster trust and build strong alliances. The following are a few ways in which a collaboration marketing strategy will benefit your business.

Take Advantage of Size Economics

Often, though not always, you can enjoy significant cost savings by collaborating with other businesses, which require the same supplies that you do. In this way, you may be able to command a higher market price for your product.

Maintain a Steady Flow of Product

Having your product readily available at the time your customer wants to buy it is essential for a successful business. Even the most popular products will quickly lose their market share if they’re not available when the customer wants them. By collaborating with others in your industry, you can be certain to always service your customers in a timely manner. The collaboration ultimately benefits all parties involved.

Preserve an Existing Market

As the structure of business changes, there is much concern about the disappearance of local markets in favor of global markets and outsourcing to other countries. A collaboration of small businesses in local markets can protect these smaller markets and help sustain the existence of small independent businesses.

Create a New Market

There are two sides to every market: suppliers who offer a product to sell and customers who are looking for the product to buy. Sometimes, potentially viable markets fail to develop if a minimum volume cannot be reached. If several small businesses are struggling to sustain enough customers, collaborating with other business owners may create a way to develop a niche market for your products, allowing you and your contemporaries to stay afloat in a situation where that may otherwise have been difficult.

Gain Access to Knowledge and Professional Expertise

Access to business owners who have knowledge in areas in which you may not be an expert is one of the most important and beneficial aspects to collaboration marketing. Everyone has different skill sets and areas of expertise. By collaborating with businesses and professionals who have strengths and capabilities in areas where you are weaker, and vice versa, will ultimately benefit and create stronger and more thriving individual businesses.

The collaboration marketing strategy is a potentially vast tool to help you expand and sustain a strong business. There are many applications of collaboration marketing to consider, and if initially you don’t feel it will be a good fit for your business, a closer look at the benefits of such a model may quickly convince you otherwise.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

How to Get Instant Targeted Traffic Without Paying For It

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Traffic is the life-blood of your Internet business. No traffic, no business. So how do you get traffic?

With joint ventures and affiliates you're relying on someone else to get you the traffic. Your business (and the size of your bank account) is in their hands. With hocus pocus SEO techniques, you've got to stay a step ahead of the search engines. Good luck.

With pay-per-click, you're p-a-y-i-n-g. Through the nose. Forever and ever. Ouch. What if you can get INSTANT targeted traffic to every single one of your sites, courtesy of the search engines?

No, not Adwords. You NEVER ever have to pay for this traffic.

http://patbell.gsnatch.hop.clickbank.net

There is a whole world of buyers out there looking for what you have to offer. And you don't need to pay Google (or anyone) for them to beat a path to your website. Think about it... you can actually earn 5 or 6 figures a year without spending a cent on advertising.

This means you can start earning NOW, without an investment. And you can do this whether you have your own products, or you're an affiliate. Doesn't matter. What does matter is that YOU get the traffic you need to make your living online NOW, starting today.

No matter how much you're currently spending on Adwords, it's too much. Why PAY for traffic when you can get the same traffic for... nada... zip... zero... zilch... diddly-squat... and don't forget... F*R*E*E?

Not paying for Adwords? Scrounging for traffic where ever you can find it? Stop wasting your time on the latest SEO voodoo, and stop chasing affiliates. Get your own steady stream of traffic NOW.

It doesn't matter what business you're in. If your niche has a market, that is, people who are interested in what you're selling, this will work for you. When you know the real secret to getting traffic in any niche, you can DOMINATE any (and every) niche you set your sites on. There are simply NO limits.

For More Info please go to http://patbell.gsnatch.hop.clickbank.net

Profitable Customer Life Stages in Relationship Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:18:00 +0000

Building a consistent customer base through strong relationships with your clients is the foundation of all relationship marketing plans. Focusing on understanding the customer’s perspective, as well as delivering products and services that address a client’s specific needs, will help give your company an edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Attracting new customers, gaining new business, and maintaining these ties throughout a lengthy period of time is often referred to as a “customer life cycle,” or as “customer life stages.” These terms are part of a relationship-marketing platform that presupposes an extended affiliation with a client.

The goal of every marketing plan is to get a new prospective client into a relationship with your company so a customer life cycle can be developed. Thinking of your customers in terms of a long-standing relationship will determine how you approach your prospects.

At the beginning of your relationship, it is a good idea to have a customer life cycle method in place. This will target your strategic thinking in a different way than if you were looking only to develop clients in a short-term relationship. If you approach and engage a client as though he will be with you for a long time, the chances are higher that this relationship will be realized.

A customer life cycle strategy is a system that keeps the customer as the center of importance through the lifetime of your company’s relationship with the client. There are a few key points to keep in mind when developing a plan for a customer life cycle.

Satisfaction vs. Loyalty

It is important to keep in mind that customer satisfaction is not the same as customer loyalty. Customers may feel completely satisfied with your products and services, but not feel a sense of loyalty to your company – a loyalty that would inspire them to purchase from you each time, instead of one of your competitors.

An important part of a successful relationship-marketing plan is to engage a customer in a life cycle so he will be both loyal and satisfied. This is a subtle distinction, but one well worth keeping in mind: satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal customers.

Product Purchase vs. Product Consumption

Product purchase and product consumption are two distinct phases in the customer life cycle, and it is important to keep this in mind. A customer may purchase a product, but may not immediately use or consume the product.

Getting a clear idea of the relationship between purchase time and consumption time for each of your customers will help you to better facilitate a successful long term relationship with your clients. You may need to alter your company newsletters, emails and re-order reminders based on the purchase/consumption relationship. For example, let’s say your company sells contact lenses online. If a particular customer tends to buy a repeat order of lenses several weeks before he needs them, you will have to make sure your email re-order reminders are in sync with this customers purchase and consumption habits to help you maintain him as a loyal customer.

Understanding the customer life cycle and these subtle distinctions are one step towards building a successful relationship marketing strategy, and ensuring the longevity of your business.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Relationship Marketing: Using Demographics As a Lead Source Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:10:00 +0000

A good lead-scoring model is an important part of a successful relationship marketing plan. The impetus for implementing a relationship-marketing scheme is to build, develop and maintain strong customer relationships. Implementing and reacting appropriately to a lead-scoring model developed for your company is one of the first steps towards turning a lead into a client. By knowing how to contact and develop potential leads, you will better know how to nurture these relationships once they move from the lead phase into the client stage.

Types of data for relationship marketing

The most successful and accurate lead-scoring models use both explicit and implicit client information. Explicit data are hard facts about your leads that are often provided by your prospects themselves, such as gender, geographic location, company, company size, and title. Implicit data is collected from monitoring the behavior of your leads: web site visits, emails they open, and sometimes previous purchases.

Used together, explicit and implicit factors create a comprehensive picture of your prospective clients that help you make an accurate determination of their likelihood to purchase your products and services. Demographics and psychographic information are two important types of explicit data that are integral to the execution of a successful lead-scoring model.

The value of demographics data

The demographics section of a lead-scoring model categorizes individuals based on characteristics of both the individual, as well as the company for which they work. Some lead scoring models will rely heavily on individual information, some will rely more heavily on a lead’s company information, and some lead-scoring models will use a combination of the two. This will largely depend on the type of business you have, and the types of products and services you provide.

Demographic information collected for your lead scoring can be extremely useful and help to shape the relationship marketing campaign for your company. If you sell beauty products online, you may discover that a certain brand sells better on the East coast than on the West coast. This will help you further tailor your lead scoring model, as well as your relationship-marketing plan.

Demographic information can be extremely useful, but it does have a few pitfalls, of which you’ll want to remain aware:

Self-reported information is not always accurate

People often give answers that they believe are more desirable, such as overstating the size of their company or their salary. Beware of potential aspiration data.

Company information tends to roll towards the mean

Leads at large companies may downplay the size of their company, or their role to avoid potentially hassling sales calls, while leads at small companies may pad their numbers to appear to be a bigger player on the scene than they are in order to be given more attention or to be taken more seriously.

Sometimes people lie

Unfortunately, not everyone will tell the truth on your data collection forms. For a variety of reasons ranging from embarrassment to annoyance or secrecy, some people are reluctant to reveal personal information. If this is a prerequisite for downloading something from your website, they may enter incorrect information.

Lead scoring is a very successful tool, and demographic information is one of the most essential aspects of a lead-scoring model. Keep in mind that the data may not always be 100% accurate and figure this into your scoring system. It is also useful to remember that scoring doesn’t have to take place all at once – you can do it over time, and this may be a more effective way to run your lead scoring model, as part of an effective relationship-marketing platform.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

Discover Professional Associations to Develop New and Profitable Relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:42:00 +0000

Marketing your small business can be tricky—there are a myriad of approaches, theories and potential platforms in which to structure your marketing plan – so putting a plan into action can sometimes seem overwhelming. If your business is relatively new or a marketing strategy such as relationship marketing is unfamiliar, you may want to seek help from a professional association.

Professional associations offer a wealth of information, training classes and expert contacts to help guide you in the right direction. If you choose to join a professional association, you’ll have immediate access to creating relationships with other companies who are also members of that association.

The Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing (AARM)

The Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing (AARM) is the most well known professional association committed to helping businesses develop relationship-marketing platforms. AARM is an international association that offers training courses and information on how to integrate a relationship-marketing scheme into your company’s business structure.

AARM focuses on Customer Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management, both commonly known in the business world as CRM. CRM is the central marketing practice under which relationship marketing fits.

AARM offers professional development workshops, seminars, and coaching with certificate programs to help you integrate a relationship-marketing platform into your business. If your business is new to thinking in terms of a relationship marketing strategy, guidance from a professional association like AARM can help you navigate these uncharted waters that may seem a little daunting.

If you are a business with an established marketing platform, news, information and workshops from a professional association like AARM can help you stay on the cutting edge of marketing ideas for your business, and help you develop new and creative ways to meet the needs of your customers.

It is not necessary to join a professional association like AARM to benefit from what the association offers—you may participate in the seminars, workshops and classes even if you are not a formal member of an association. But one of the main benefits of becoming part of a professional association is the networking possibility that it offers. Membership in a professional association gives you access to other members who have the experience and knowledge that could benefit your own business.

Networking for Marketing

Professional networking is an important part of relationship marketing. By networking with other businesses, you enhance your professional relationships, which can only help benefit the relationships you have with your current customers.

Forming alliances with other companies, or just making a new business acquaintance, can enhance your existing client relationships also. Learning from other experts in your field, or even people in related fields, can give you insight and ideas on how to approach problems and issues with your own business. Another benefit of professional networking is the potential to share clients; you may meet a contact whose clients are in need of the types of products and services that your company provides, and vice versa.

There are many benefits to exploring a professional association, even if you do not want to make the official commitment to join as a member. The networking opportunities and business contacts you’ll make will be beneficial and you’ll stay informed and on the cutting edge of what is happening in the relationship marketing industry, which will only improve your business’s relationship marketing platform.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing
firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by
creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

Relationship Marketing: How to Increase Qualified Leads by Using the Purchase-Readiness Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:24:00 +0000

The Internet marketplace is growing increasingly competitive and difficult to navigate. The response rates from customer inquiries are trending downward and the process of driving new leads is becoming more expensive. Therefore, it is critical to incorporate a relationship marketing strategy into your businesses marketing plan to help maximize the power of each and every client lead with which you are presented. Simply put, not taking advantage of customer prospects that you have so diligently laid the groundwork to pursue is tantamount to handing these clients to your competition.

The process of ensuring that your client leads remain engaged and interested in ultimately pursuing a relationship with you is one of the central principles of relationship marketing. There are a few fundamental tactics to use in this early stage of building client relationships, which is also sometimes referred to as the nurture phase. These tactics are a good guide to help you increase the number of actual customers you obtain from your prospecting activities.

Purchase-Readiness Survey

If you do not have or are not already using a purchase-readiness survey, it is time to incorporate this survey into your relationship marketing strategy. The purchase-readiness survey should be incorporated into all of your lead and prospect generating mechanisms. A purchase-readiness survey allows you to gather critical contact information, as well as a customer’s readiness to make a purchase. Some standard questions to consider incorporating into your survey are:

Timeframe for considering a purchase
The customer’s role in the decision making process
Key qualifying questions

Finding the Right Balance of Questions

You will need to balance and be aware of a prospect’s tolerance for and willingness to share information, with your need to gather information. Nobody likes to feel invaded or pushed, so it is important to be clued into the mood of your prospect. The more information you request from a client prospect, the more time it requires of your prospect, which they may be unwilling to give. It may be that the more eager you appear to gain a prospect and make a sale, the more you will alienate this prospect. You do not want to appear desperate to land a prospect (even if you are) –most humans can smell the essence of desperation– and nothing makes a person retreat faster.

Try to take cues from your potential clients: if they seem willing to talk and divulge information, it is okay to proceed with your questions and your purchase-readiness survey. But if you sense reluctance in your prospect, it is always better to scale back and give them space, and perhaps come back and approach this prospect at a different time when they may be more amenable to hearing what you have to say. You may have better luck at forging a lasting relationship at a different time. Nobody likes to feel intruded upon or pressured. Adopting a persistent but more laissez-faire attitude in your relationship marketing plan, you are likely to be more successful and have satisfied clients who are loyal to your company.

Giving the Unexpected to Your Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:28:00 +0000

In a relationship marketing platform, creating long-term relationships with customers is an integral part of a successful marketing strategy. Building strong affiliations and contacts through superior customer service is the first step towards a successful marketing platform. Just as important as building strong customer relations, is developing new ways to give the customer more than other companies are providing and more than then the customer expects.

Giving Customers Something They Can't Get Elsewhere

If you are operating in a niche market, chances are you are already offering a product or service that's difficult for customers to find elsewhere. In a competitive marketplace, what can you do to distinguish your business from the competition? Give your customers something that they don't typically get from other companies.

One idea that isn't universally implemented is free samples and discount coupons with each order. Another good idea that's only utilized by a handful of businesses is birthday recognition. You can send your customer a birthday greeting by email or by card, offering special discounts or free samples during their birthday month. People love to get something for free even though a high percentage of people who receive the coupon never actually redeem it. The feeling of goodwill and loyalty is still planted in your customer's mind.

Giving Your Customer the Totally Unexpected

This is somewhat similar to the above suggestions, but with a slightly different twist. Doing something for your customers that is really unexpected and out of the ordinary will set you apart from your competition.

How about a follow up email after an order to be sure that the customer is happy with their products? Instead of a free birthday coupon that the customer can redeem, how about just sending a small sample with a birthday greeting? What about automatic re-order email reminders? Reminders are popular for products like contact lenses, but how about for coffee or skin care supplies?

Thanking Potential Customers Who Don't Make a Purchase

How about a "thank you" to customers who don't end up buying from your site? This may sound a bit odd, but if you've reached out to a new client, but they haven't made a purchase, it's still a good idea to thank this person for their time and consideration. This is not a widespread practice. Typically we only thank people who make a purchase. The idea here is that just because this person did not buy this time doesn't mean they never will. If they are thanked regardless, this will distinguish you from the rest and cause them to think of your company when make future purchases.

All of these strategies are suggestions and ways to help you strengthen the relationship marketing platform you are building for your business.

Social Networking as Part of Relationship Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:48:00 +0000

If you’re doing business in the eCommerce universe, it’s vital to build a strong network of relationships with your clients. From time to time, it’s necessary to gain new business, new clients and new customers to bring into the pool of focus for building this network of relationships. You may be doing all the “right” things, such as newsletters, email marketing campaigns and advertising on other websites, but you still feel that you’re not attracting as many new customers, or building as many new relationships as you’d like. Exploring social networks, as a way to form new or expand upon existing business relationships will be worth investigating, if your business has not yet done so.

Social Networking

Popular social networks like Facebook are thought of as a place to keep in touch with long distance friends, share photos and stories about your life. But these online social networks are also a great way to make new business contacts. Each network is structured differently so you may want to join several, or investigate the sites on your own before deciding which ones to utilize for business purposes. Implementing consistent social networking can be the next step in a relationship-marketing based strategy for your business. Below are a few of the most popular social networks and what they have to offer from a business perspective.

LinkedIn

When thinking of a social network, many adults assume they are juvenile or the domain of teenagers and twenty-somethings. If you have an aversion to the idea, LinkedIn is the best place for you to start, as it has a mature, professional audience with a combination of social and business networking. When you join LinkedIn, you can list your contacts, both social and professional, and invite them to join. Once your contacts have joined, you then have access to their social and professional contacts and they have access to yours. This is a great way to reach out to new people and make connections because of the mutual friend/associate you have in common.

Facebook

Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore, the demographic of this particular social network continues to broaden, and it’s a great resource for making contacts and potentially looking for people to hire if and when your business expands. Facebook has a number of useful features and advanced applications, along with a certain level of privacy that doesn’t exist in other networks. It also has the sheer volume of numbers on its side: with 600 million searches and more than 30 billion page views a month, there is a seemingly endless pool of resources to tap into.

MySpace

MySpace is perhaps the social network that is geared most towards a younger population. However, try not to let that deter you. The Internet is making it easier for younger, tech-savvy people to create their own online companies, which means there is large market of younger business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as potential customers that you can connect with on MySpace. Young people also have more disposable income than ever before, which means that subscribers to MySpace have money to spend, and they’re always looking for unique, niche market products.

Building strong customer relationships as part of a relationship-marketing platform is an important ingredient in the success of your business. Using these social networking sites has the potential to connect you with an extremely talented and professional cross-section of people previously untapped by your business. Part of any successful relationship-marketing platform involves reaching out and building relationships with people with whom you have something in common. These social networks are an excellent way to expand your network of business contacts.

Relationship Marketing: Tips for Getting Started

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:46:00 +0000

Simply put, relationship marketing is the strategy of building strong, loyal and committed relationships with your client base. Often in striving to gain media visibility and recognition, businesses temporarily forget or overlook their most important marketing resource, your business relationship with people!

Below are a few handy tips to help you reassess your relationships with your customers, and how to develop a plan for building and improving those relationships.

Get Organized

It’s difficult to target and streamline communication and build relationships if you don't start out knowing where you stand with your customers. You probably have files on your customers, but do these files include the tracking of correspondence? If not, this is an aspect that should be added to your customer files.

Another idea is to develop a file of success stories. Are there customers with whom you have a strong relationship, who are loyal and devoted clients? If so, assess the history of your relationship with these clients to determine if you did something different to gain their loyalty. You may even want to start a file of success stories to refer to for inspiration when creativity about how to expand customer relationships may be waning.

Develop a Communication Plan

Communication is the first step in building strong relationships with your customers. First, assess what your communication strategy is. If you do not currently have a strategy for ongoing contact with your clients, it’s time to develop one! Whether it’s a weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly correspondence with your clients, it’s important to decide on a plan of action and implement that plan.

If you already have a communication plan in place, and are tracking your customer communication, now is the time to review and assess the effectiveness of your plan.

Do your customers seem engaged and interested in your communication with them?
Is your customer base steady, or do you seem to be losing customers?
Have you had any repeated complaints from multiple customers?
How can you better serve your customers?
Is there an easy and reliable way for customers to reach you if they have a complaint, concern, or would like to make a suggestion?

This may all sound overwhelming at first, but these are just a few areas to get you started thinking about how to facilitate more communication with your customers. You are probably already doing some of these things. If there are several of these suggestions that you are not doing, yet you feel compelled to implement, don't panic! Just take one suggestion at a time and move forward that way.

Relationships with clients are built over time, and anything you do now to start the process is a step in the right direction. Once you start to understand and embrace the importance of customer relationships in a strategic marketing plan, you will be heading for success.

Relationship Marketing: A Brief Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Fatin Pauzi) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:28:00 +0000

The relationship marketing strategy developed from the direct response marketing campaigns popular in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. These campaigns emphasized the importance of customer retention and continued customer satisfaction, rather than an emphasis on individual transactions, and per-case customer resolution.

What is Relationship Marketing?

Relationship marketing is a type of strategic marketing that targets it’s audience with more direct information on the specific products and services a customer may have interest in. It differs from other forms of marketing in that it seeks to retain customers by building relationships with them, rather than a direct or intrusive strategy, which focuses on acquisition of new clients by targeting majority demographics, based upon prospective client lists purchased from third party sources.

As traditional marketing took off in the 60’s and 70’s, companies found it more difficult to sell consumer products. The original model had developed into a system, which focused on selling relatively low-value products in mass quantities to a higher volume of consumers. Since the beginning of modern day marketing platforms, many methods have been developed in an attempt to broaden its scope. Relationship marketing grew out of this era, and is one example of an attempt to expand the reach and applicability of marketing.

Simply put, relationship marketing focuses on targeting the relationship of company to customer. If you have an existing customer base, it makes sense to learn what these customers like about your products and services and how you as a company can improve on this. If you build on the good relationships you already have with your customers, and create customer loyalty, this is more valuable than putting energy towards always attempting to gain new business.

Defensive Marketing vs. Offensive Marketing

Relationship marketing can be understood in simple football-like terms of offensive and defensive approaches. “Defensive” marketing and “offensive” marketing are terms that were coined by C. Fornell and B. Wernerfelt in 1987.

Defensive marketing describes attempts to reduce customer turnover, increase customer loyalty and retain the customer base already in place, by keeping them happy with your service, and interested in your products. In contrast, offensive marketing seeks to obtain new customers and increase purchase frequency. Defensive marketing focuses on reducing, or better managing customer dissatisfaction, while offensive marketing focuses on “liberating” dissatisfied customers from competitors and moving them into the offensive marketer’s customer base essentially getting customers to switch teams.

Customer & Consumer Relationships

Relationship marketing is a key collaborative strategy to retain customers. It is essentially an offshoot of customer and consumer relationship management. The theory is this; attracting new customers is more costly, yet less profitable than developing existing client loyalty. By developing and promoting your existing client base through research and an understanding, you will create a loyal client base for years to come, with less expense and higher returns. Building lasting relationships with the clients you already have is a recipe for long-term marketing success.