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Digg it UP - 6 Critical Elements in Creating Successful Web-Marketing Campaigns
Discount coupons have long been used by merchants and companies to market their products. Coupons have a lengthy history.The whole concept of coupons first started in 1894 when the druggist Asa Candler gave out 'handwritten tickets' for a free class of Coca-Cola! This proved to be a successful venture and we're still drinking the secret black mixture even today.Just the very next year, C.W. Post created the first grocery coupon by giving shoppers one cent towards the purchase of a new health cereal, Grape Nuts. And as they say, the rest is history. The discount coupon was born.By the Dirty 30's, coupons became a household stable as an efficient way of saving money during the Great Depression. It helped many families survive through a very difficult time by putting more food on the table. Even today, for low income and middle income families, coupons can stretch the weekly shopping budget and put more food in the grocery cart.You can read more on the history of coupons here: www.couponmonth.comAnd according to this same coupon site, coupons are becoming even more popular with 76% of the American population using coupons. The average coupon was only worth $1 but in total it saved shoppers around $3 Billion in 2004. Companies and manufacturers offered up more than $300 Billion in coupons in the same year. This amounts to significant savings for the prudent consumer.The first National Coupon Month was celebrated in 1998 and has continued each year since, raising the profile and highlighting the importance of coupons in our daily lives.With close to 80% of shoppers using coupons, covering all the major age groups, it can add up to one powerful marketing tool. Coupons can be a very effective tool in reaching your targeted market segment and selling your products. One every business shou
With the growing realization that the marketplace is not what it used to be, more and more companies both large and small are turning to the Web as an alternative marketing environment capable of reaching a dispersed diaspora of 'Long Tail' (Chris Ande
Raise your hand if you've tried typical display ads in the newspaper or magazine. How about a nice yellow pages ad? Hmmm. What about sponsoring a local sports team and getting your company name on some banner in the outfield?Can you quantify, with accuracy, how much you spent on each of these lead generation devices and the direct result of their use measured in new customers and sales?How about another question - Why did you select those particular marketing methods? (My guess is you read about it, was told about it, had it recommended to you or some other business was doing it and you figured that was a logical step.)The problem with copying other businesses is that maybe they're copying someone else who in turn is copying someone else who, as it turns out, is copying the marketing of a business on the brink of bankruptcy.I'm of the mind that business owners are IN BUSINESS to make a profit. And I believe each and every marketing effort should BUILD the brand, customer base and of course, the bottom line.So what's a business owner to do? THINK!Don't spend money here and there HOPING it'll drum up business. Invest the time and EVALUATE the advertising method - it's reach - it's ability to sell (or convert a reader into a buyer) - it's cost versus likely reward.Here's a start:Consider direct mail. Grassroot/Neighborhood marketing. Charitable marketing. Co-op advertising. Joint ventures. Endorsed mailings. Free standing inserts. Advertorial copy rather than pretty print ads. Community events. Chamber meetings. Local associations/memberships. Religious channels. Public speaking.
Marketing can be an extremely frustrating and expensive exercise if we mistakenly view it as merely an advertising function. Any discussion of marketing should be preceded by a definition of exactly what we mean by marketing: marketing is not just sales, or advertising, or promotion, but rather a combination of all these functions plus more.
One comprehensive definition of marketing provided by authors' Boone and Kurtz in their book 'Contemporary Marketing Wired (1998)' published by Dryden Press states: "Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services, organizations, and events to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives."
This definition seems to satisfy all the basic requirements of marketing; a recognition of which must made before we can proceed to creating a successful Web-marketing campaign.
Six Critical Elements of Web-Marketing Campaigns
If your marketing efforts fail to deliver the results you want, it could be due to a lack of resources, or more likely the lack of achievable expectations and patience. Marketing is a strategic exercise requiring a commitment to a long-term comprehensive plan, not a short-term fix to create instant sales. Concentrating your resources on stand-alone advertising and promotional efforts without considering the more important conceptual marketing framework is a prescription for disaster.
Ultimately most business managers come to realize that one-time advertising and short-term big-splash ads are a waste of time and money, but the lure of quick-fix shotgun advertising based on old school broadcast and print distribution volume seems to be a business addiction that is hard to kick. Even deep-pocketed corporate advertisers keep plowing money into television advertising that has knowingly become increasingly irrelevant and ineffective.
With the growing realization that the marketplace is not what it used to be, more and more companies both large and small are turning to the Web as an alternative marketing environment capable of reaching a dispersed diaspora of 'Long Tail' (Chris Ander
Unless you are in the top 2% of sales professionals worldwide it's pretty hard to create need. Only those who are able to ask questions which surface a subliminal need and then develop that need into want will be able to make that sale.Sales people should find other ways to identify need through questions which establish the qualified need. Merely having the prospect tell us he has a need does not always identify the real need. What we really should do is probe with questions which spring the need behind the need. That's what's referred to as the qualified need. Prospects usually state their need, yet unless we can drill down a little bit further, we will not be able to discover the refined need, which if course is the qualified need.For example you are selling cars. The suspect shows up on the lot, you approach and ask them what they are interested in. They say 'a four door sedan'. But when you see what they are looking at you notice they are looking at a sports car model. You quickly calculate the GAP between what they said and what they are looking at. It's clear there is a wide spread and you know that something is not right with this picture.You have a choice here. You can start to extol the benefits of that racy convertible rolling down the freeway with the top down and help the buyer see how good they'd feel about themself and the way other drivers would gawk with envy at them. Or you could probe to see why what they said they're interested in [the four door sedan] and what they're drooling over are different.You can bet the farm on this one. More sales never happen because the sales person didn't take the step to determine the GAP between what is said and what is meant. Frankly, they failed to qualify the need.Would it surprise you to know that with a few well chosen questions you could discover why they were
This definition seems to satisfy all the basic requirements of marketing; a recognition of which must made before we can proceed to creating a successful Web-marketing campaign.
Six Critical Elements of Web-Marketing Campaigns
If your marketing efforts fail to deliver the results you want, it could be due to a lack of resources, or more likely the lack of achievable expectations and patience. Marketing is a strategic exercise requiring a commitment to a long-term comprehensive plan, not a short-term fix to create instant sales. Concentrating your resources on stand-alone advertising and promotional efforts without considering the more important conceptual marketing framework is a prescription for disaster.
Ultimately most business managers come to realize that one-time advertising and short-term big-splash ads are a waste of time and money, but the lure of quick-fix shotgun advertising based on old school broadcast and print distribution volume seems to be a business addiction that is hard to kick. Even deep-pocketed corporate advertisers keep plowing money into television advertising that has knowingly become increasingly irrelevant and ineffective.
With the growing realization that the marketplace is not what it used to be, more and more companies both large and small are turning to the Web as an alternative marketing environment capable of reaching a dispersed diaspora of 'Long Tail' (Chris Ande
How would you like to get paid for selling products that you don't own and not go to jail for doing it?That is what affiliate marketing is all about. Somebody else goes through all of the trouble to develop a software program, service, or digital content product. They build the web site; they process the credit cards; they deliver the content and they handle the after-sale support and customer service. You collect the money!What is affiliate marketing?Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing arrangement between the product developer, called the affiliate merchant, and the affiliate marketer who is anyone willing to promote the sale of the product by independently advertising it using any legal means.This relationship allows the affiliate merchant to grow their revenue by only paying for advertising that actually results in a sale. The affiliate marketer profits by making a commission on a sale that he does not have to manage after the fact. It's a win-win for both parties.How do affiliate marketers get paid?That depends upon how the affiliate program is set up. Some affiliate merchants run their own affiliate program. They have special software that assigns each affiliate marketer a special URL to be used in promoting the product or service. The software tracks sales by each affiliate marketer and the merchant pays the commission on a periodic basis using PayPal or some other method.Other affiliate merchants use third-party affiliate management programs like ClickBank, Commission Junction, ShareASale, and others. The tracking functionality is the same but the payment process and procedures vary among the different services.How to select a profitable product or service to promote?Because your income is directly tied to how well the selected product or service sells, and the size of th
Six Critical Elements of Web-Marketing Campaigns
If your marketing efforts fail to deliver the results you want, it could be due to a lack of resources, or more likely the lack of achievable expectations and patience. Marketing is a strategic exercise requiring a commitment to a long-term comprehensive plan, not a short-term fix to create instant sales. Concentrating your resources on stand-alone advertising and promotional efforts without considering the more important conceptual marketing framework is a prescription for disaster.
Ultimately most business managers come to realize that one-time advertising and short-term big-splash ads are a waste of time and money, but the lure of quick-fix shotgun advertising based on old school broadcast and print distribution volume seems to be a business addiction that is hard to kick. Even deep-pocketed corporate advertisers keep plowing money into television advertising that has knowingly become increasingly irrelevant and ineffective.
With the growing realization that the marketplace is not what it used to be, more and more companies both large and small are turning to the Web as an alternative marketing environment capable of reaching a dispersed diaspora of 'Long Tail' (Chris Ande
Basic Paper Piecing TipsHere are some tips that will help you create paper piecings that will sell!Save some time by eliminating the "tracing" of patterns. Take your pattern, lay it over your cardstock and use your stylus to "trace" it onto your cardstock. You won't need a light box or copier for this and you can re-use your patterns again and again.Use the Fiskars soft-tip micro-touch ones. They have an ultra fine tip that will allow you to get into small spaces and make precision cuts. You should also try to move your paper around instead of moving the scissors. This will allow you to cut a smooth and even line.Sets that have more than one matching piece do better than a stand alone paper piecing. Even a title or matching smaller accent piece of paper helps! Other things that help are matching tags, journaling boxes, corners, borders, or stickers.Learn how to do details. Invest in a very thin tipped black pen and a white gel pen to add detail to your pieces.Use lots of shading on your paper piecings. Shade with chalk - use the teenie tiny pompoms with hemostates to hold the pompom to do your chalking and shading in small places. Take a look at some tole books to learn how to create proper shading on your sets. Practice shading techniques by taking a household object and shining a light on it. Note where the shadows and highlights are. Move the light and see how the shading changes.Make your paper piecings special or unique. Try to use the latest scrapbooking trends in new and unusual ways.Pay attention to color schemes. Invest in a color wheel and earn how to use it.Organize Your Paper PiecingsUse a set of drawers, page protectors or other filing system to keep track of all of your paper piecings. Separate them by:(1) paper piecings that have been bid on/s
Ultimately most business managers come to realize that one-time advertising and short-term big-splash ads are a waste of time and money, but the lure of quick-fix shotgun advertising based on old school broadcast and print distribution volume seems to be a business addiction that is hard to kick. Even deep-pocketed corporate advertisers keep plowing money into television advertising that has knowingly become increasingly irrelevant and ineffective.
With the growing realization that the marketplace is not what it used to be, more and more companies both large and small are turning to the Web as an alternative marketing environment capable of reaching a dispersed diaspora of 'Long Tail' (Chris Ande
Yes, I know that the title may have either spooked you or made you laugh but I’m glad that you made it past that initial reaction because if you're a manager this may be one of the most important articles that you'll read.There are individuals who think that conflict is not only unavoidable in an organization it is the "creative driving force" that keeps it afloat.Well I'd like to dispel both of these beliefs here and now.What is consumed when a conflict situation is in progress?Well, energy of course!Whose energy? The energy of those involved in the conflict. If that energy is meant to be directed at some more creative goal like moving the organization in a positive direction then it is also the organizational creative life energy that is being consumed. After all the organizational energy resources are dictated by the energy of its employees, correct?So in this light "conflict" is just like the friction that exists in you car. Friction has only one purpose, if you can call it that. That purpose is to consume energy and convert it into wasted heat energy or entropy that then can do no work. In other words it reduces the efficiency of the energy conversion process in your car.In the same way "conflict" reduces the efficiency in which your organizational energy resources are converted into viable products and/or services.No matter how you look at it this is what happens whenever you have conflict occurring.Now as I said some believe that conflict can be productive. For instance isn't that why teams and team work originally came into vogue? Isn't it thought that having many individuals in a room together "fighting" with each other over their differences is supposed to create wonderful new insights?Well have you ever been in such a situation? How does it feel to be there? If you're conscious enough t
With the growing realization that the marketplace is not what it used to be, more and more companies both large and small are turning to the Web as an alternative marketing environment capable of reaching a dispersed diaspora of 'Long Tail' (Chris Anderson, "The Long Tail", Wired Magazine) interested prospects with a relevant memorable marketing message.
Realizing that you now have an economically viable multimedia platform that evens the marketing playing field, you must carefully consider how to proceed. If you merely transfer your traditional print advertising and direct marketing mailings to the Internet, you will be left behind.
Any business can put together a successful Web-based marketing plan if they take the time to define the six critical elements of a Web-marketing campaign:
1. Marketing Purpose
2. Marketing Objectives
3. Presentation Vehicle
4. Information Format
5. Marketing Venue
6. Achievable Expectations
1. Marketing Purpose
Marketing is all about building a brand personality that relates to an interested audience of either business-to-consumer or business-to-business prospects. Prospects search-out brands that help them construct and maintain their own self-image or at least an image that they aspire to, an image that they are comfortable communicating to others. The purchase, for example, of a Macintosh computer says as much about who bought it, as it does about that person's computing requirements.
"Thus, while the psychological/emotional need is to construct, reconstruct, and maintain the self-identity, the socio-cultural need is to communicate to others the self-identity." -Ouwersloot & Tudorica, 'Brand Personality Propositions'.
Accepting the need to build a brand personality that legitimate prospects can relate to might very well mean rethinking exactly who you are as a company and exactly what you are offering on both a psychological, emotional and socio-cultural level.
Most companies have a well-defi
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