Marketing Blog - Ideas That Work
2004 was my first full year in business (started 04/2003) and I ended up with a total of $223,000 of commission income for my insurance agency. In 2005 my goal is to double that income through more agressive marketing, website marketing, my referral reward program and using my autoresponder better.
Tom Larsen
Larsen & Associates Insurance Agency Inc.
www.anarmoragent.com
To keep a postive focus.
L. VanPopering
www.rogueriver.com
My first resolution will be: 'As part of my six-monthly business plan review to re-define my marketing strategies and set specific marketing targets.
David Moffitt
Managing Director
www.transformlighting.co.uk
To build my financial services clientele big enough so that I can do that full time.
Casey Ditmore
To overcome objection, ask for the sale and increase sales for my business.
Nikki Morrile
http://www.iabweb.com/yourchoiceforhealth
Your newsletter hit a particular chord with me as I have been feeling overwhelmed by all there is to do. As you suggested in your article I have chosen one focal point only for the next week or so. This is to run a survey of potential product ideas, so that I can choose a product to develop.
Janice
www.weight-loss-motivation-program.com
More contacts from persons who visit my site.
Paul Hegele
"What do you think of BNI?" - Coki Cochran
I've never been a member of Business Networking International though I've seriously considered it. I do know people who are members and generate lots of new leads and business from their involvement. There are lots of online and offline networking groups to choose from. You can review with the Business Networking Guide
on my site.
To take full advantage of BNI and other networking resources take a look at Creating Opportunity with Next Step Networking. - Charlie Cook
"I have recently bought a golf driving range wich was in a poor state. In six months i have gained many new menbers and feel that we are going in the right direction by offering special offers at different times of the day or week, but locally there are newer driving ranges in operation. What i am looking for is a new angle on marketing, a fresh idea?" - live Staddon
Offers can be a great way to get first time prospects in the door but you need a long-term strategy for building client loyalty. Think about why people like golf driving ranges, what they are looking for and find a way to give it to them. The age of your facilty isn't necessariy a negative. Focus instead on creating a unique ambiance, one that will keep golfers coming back. And look for ways for first timers to connect with other people who use your facility to create a strong social bond.
Relationships rule in keeping people coming back and then you can leverage those relationships to get existing customers to bring in new customers. - Charlie Cook
Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you're doing and where you are going similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you visit.
Take a look at their updated privacy statement : http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a link that says web beacons. Click on the phrase web beacons. That will bring you to a paragraph entitled" Outside the Yahoo Network." In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link that will let you "opt-out" of their new method of snooping. Once you have clicked that link, you are exempted. Notice the" Success" message on the top of the next page. Be careful because on that page there is a "Cancel Opt-out" button that, if clicked, will *undo** the opt-out.
One note: before doing the above, make sure you LOG IN to Yahoo with your Yahoo account name. Otherwise, it may not take effect. - Contributed by Lorraine Carol
"We are strictly performance based and charge $6.00 per qualified lead we deliver. There are no set-up fees or other costs to you." - (requested name be removed) Ouch, $6 per lead is a lot . Now figure what it would cost to generate 10,000 or 100,000 leads. I do spend some money on google and ezine advertising which pays for itself in sales. In addition the majority of my leads come from free lead generation strategies I use and have documented in Creating Web Sites that Sell bringing my costs per lead down to pennies not dollars. - Charlie
"I pay $24.95 a month for a plug in profit site with 5 affiliate streams. Each time I can get an affiliate to sign up I will make money from their sales. The site was site up for me but I have no idea how to market it." - Joseph Hinkle, Locksmith
My advice, don't market the site. Dump it. These programs are scams and I have yet to hear of anyone other than the person you are paying your monthly fee to making any money. Not to mention marketing something you don't know anything about is rarely effective.
You'll be much more effective marketing something you know. As a locksmith you already have a valueable expertise. You can leverage this expertise to grow your locksmithing business. The two marketing manuals which I wrote to help you include The 15 Second Marketing Guide and Earning More by Marketing Smarter. - Charlie
I'm always working to update and improve each and every marketing manual I provide, free and otherwise. I just did a complete update to the free marketing plan guide to make it even more useful.
To get the latest version just sign up for the Free Marketing Plan Guide and let me know how you like it. - Charlie
"I think your blog looks absolutely great! There’s an interesting cross pollination that can go on between ezine and blog and you’ve got a good think going on. Questions work well…
I’m reformatting my primary site How Much Joy to sell much bigger and getting a lot of inspiration from the layout of your site, so I hope that is OK and I thank you muchly." - Suzanne Falter Barns
Thanks, Suzanne. Of course it was your comment that prompted my new marketing blog. And, yes since I added the blog to my site, traffic has jumped another 10%. - Charlie
"My husband and I have a commercial real estate appraisal business here in California. We had a great year last year and want to double our revenue in 2005. How can you help us given that you're not familiar with the appraisal industry?" - A.M. Fischman
A- Imagine you were planning a trip up the coast to Oregon but your car needed a tune up. Would the mechanic need to know your route before he could fix your car?
Of course not. His or her job is to make sure your vehicle gets you where you want to go. The same is true for your marketing plan and marketing strategy. My role as a marketing coach is to help small business owners like you take your businesses where you want to go whether its in the appraisal, web design, accounting or investment management industry. - Charlie Cook
Alexa rankings are really just a snapshot -- the data they collect is only from people who have downloaded the Alexa toolbar. As they travel the web and visit sites... the toolbar collects the data and uses it for the Alexa rankings. I have a client that was successfully able to improve his Alexa rankings drastically just by having everyone in his company install the toolbar at work and at home, have all his relatives install it, and set his site as the home page. He ended up with a great Alexa ranking.
Discovering that they 'combine' sites and data they think is similar really surprises me... and coupled with the fact that their stats only represent Alexa toolbar users - pretty much nails the coffin lid shut on any usefulness this has in my opinion. Nice to have a good ranking if you are marketing your site as a portal, or are looking to sell the site -- but other than that -- not sure it's worth even paying attention to. In fact, I only go there and look when somebody asks me about it.- Tracy Sabattis, Mannix Marketing, Inc.
Many web site owners check Alexa to see how their and their competitors site ranks. Until now I thought it provided valid information. Now I'm not so sure.
This past year when I've gone to Alexa to check the improving ranking of MarketingForSuccess I've noticed the information for my site listed under "todaysinspiration.com" a site I have no affiliation with and which in fact doesn't even exist yet. After numerous inquires I got the following response from Alexa.
"When Alexa crawls the Web, it merges together sites which we think have the same content. When we merge two or more sites, we combine their traffic to form one ranking and list them under the domain with the most traffic. With tens of millions of domains on the Internet, our automated procedures for determining which hosts are serving the same content may sometimes be incorrect and/or out-of-date due to ownership or content changes. We will separate the sites during our next update of the service. "
If site rankings represent combined information what's the validity of Alexa's rankings?
- Charlie Cook
"I'm starting a new business and would like your opinion." - Lori Emberland
A - Including a bio in your marketing materials can be helpful or not depending on how its written. Most people make the mistake of making their bio about me, me, me. The key is to write your bio in terms of the the problems you've solved and the clients you've helped. This makes it not only more interesting so prospects read it but helps postion you as someone who can help solve problems. You can learn more about how to assemble and write your marketing materials with The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing. - Charlie Cook
"I am enrolled in the University of Phoenix, pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, with a focus on e-Business. I know of two large marketing associations, the American Marketing Association and the eMarketing Association. Are you a member of either of these? Would you recommend membership in either of these associations? And, do you know of any scholarship programs for marketing, emarketing, or e-Business students?" - Amanda Larson
A - In the small business arena I only know of a small handful of people who understand how to use the internet to attract clients and generate sales successfully. If I was fresh out of college and wanted to learn corporate eBusiness my plan would be to find a way to get hired by Amazon or EBay or even LLBeans. Amazon of course has been the trail blazer and much can be learned just by studying their web site.
Joining eMarketing Association and AMA are both good ideas, ways to find out what people are talking about and more importantly to build your network.- Charlie Cook
"I need direct marketing ideas, a list of RN , LVN, CNA, with addresses so I can send flyers, postcards and market to these individuals and not all and every one because its more costly, I'm sure there is such a list, I just don't know where to get it.
I am a Nurse myself and I always get mail from hospital or home health agencies with job offers so where did they get my name and address? and how do they know I'm a Nurse?" - Liz
A - I'm sure your town has a couple of printers who specialize in direct marketing mailings or can help you find someone to create a mailing list for you. Start with your yellow pages. I use Betterlists.com here in Stamford, CT. They have access to databases that can provide current listings of nurses, doctors or almost anything. If you can't find a list provider in your town you can always use google.com. Just type in "mailing lists, nurses" and use the results to find a provider. - Charlie Cook
"Hello Charlie, your articles are excellent. I am in the process of building my market survey questions. I have to see what my defined market thinks of my concept prior to my marketing strategy. Do you have materials on developing market survey questions? I would like to know if I am on the right track and like to double/triple check my work." - Nicole Bourquin
A - The key marketing questions to ask prospects and clients (relevant to your products and services) are:
- What do you need?
- What do you want?
- What are your biggest concerns?
The objective is get the conversation rolling so you can get them talking and ask follow up questions to learn the specifics. - Charlie Cook
"I'm interested in buying your Ulitmate Article Distribution List but Ezine Announcer looks like it does the same thing for less." - Suzanne Falter-Barns
A - Often you get what you pay for. My ezine announcement list is constantly updated and checked and costs roughly half as much per lead if you used Bacon's service to create your own list.
You might be interested in the following letter sent to me. I haven't verified this personally but it suggests checking this resource out carefully before opting for the less expensive ezine announcement solution." - Charlie cook
"I do use EzineAnnouncer but I don't recommend it to anyone else anymore. I seem to be the only person who can use it and there is NO technical support. I know people who couldn't even get it set up after purchasing and had to ask for a refund.
Last summer Jason updated the database but not the software. The software has not help section, no user manual and the new database is all screwed up. He just shoved thousands of new listings in without setting up the software to send to those sites so most of what he added does not work. It took me three entire weekends to fix the mess.
If you can set up software and use it with minimal instruction then you might want to consider EzineAnnouncer. I only continue using it because I spent so much time fixing it!"
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