Marketing Archives - Page 2 of 10

Send Out Post Cards As an Effective Marketing Method

Jody Flowers, a portrait photographer, increased her fame as well as her business by sending out post cards that had up to four examples of her work printed on them. Instead of having to advertise to get people to come to her studio to see her work, she actually got more work because people were already aware of how beautiful it was.

And that’s the wonderful thing about post cards. They can be printed with anything on the front, be it a logo, a piece of clothing, a cartoon, an example of your work, or testimonials about your work. You’ll find that when sending out a post card instead of a letter, 96% of the time your message will be read. Plus you can even use a post card to advertise a hot line or give free advice by sending out weekly tip cards, or for many of the other techniques listed.

Frankie Freecards, a post card advertising network in Virginia displays racks containing anywhere from 10 to 20 free post cards in various nightclubs. Advertisers can use a picture or a message on the front the post card, on the back there can be a coupon, a message about an upcoming movie or a new CD. Club goer’s are free to pick-up ? couple of post cards and as you can guess, many of them mail the post card’s to somebody which means your message receives a much wider reach. I myself have used Frankie Freecards to get money off music CD’s and find out about art exhibits.

Benefits:

– Most people tend to read post cards because the message is right there.

– Mailing a post card first class costs only $.29 versus spending $.44 for a letter.

– You can custom design your own post cards using your computer and printer with pre-designed paper through Paper Direct.

Technique Tips:

– Real Estate Agent: Photograph 3 or 4 houses to use on a post card that could be sent to prospective home buyers.

– Contractor: Have a before and after photo card of a newly added deck.

– Restaurant: Send an appetizing photo card of 5 new meals to prospective customers in the area.

– Clothing Designer: Send photo cards of your latest designs to store buyers.

Business Communication Writing Skills Benefit From Originality and Media Based Marketing Training

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.”

~anonymous high school essay

Greetings. Thank you for indulging me in yet another example of analogies collected by high school English teachers. I do so because the language we all share is a treasure chest of words that in the odd combination can make us smile, chuckle, even laugh out loud. And, like Larry the Cat — whose house we share and whose antics are just plain goofy — the best humor is unintentional humor.

Anyway, the gaffe above resulted from a sincere, albeit immature, effort to be original and evocative. Good for him or her, I say. At least the brain has been engaged. But what about the way us adults fall into shallow “copycatism” when we communicate in a professional setting? And how does that reflect on you and your business communications when you mindlessly insert those phrases in your website text or emails? Do you really want to sound like a faceless, unimaginative bureaucrat when it comes to writing skills?

Herewith some inaugural entries in my Language Hall of Shame:

o Negatively impact, as in “Our failure to fabricate even one paper clip that actually holds two sheets of paper together is negatively impacting our sales performance.” First of all, “impact” became a verb only about 30 years ago, even though the verbs “affect” or “influence” did the job quite nicely. But now that it’s here, why compound the damage by adding an awkward adverb (fellow Mainer Stephen King said in his book on writing, “The adverb is not your friend.”)? Why not rely instead on unambiguous, active, space-saving standbys such as “harm” or “hurt?”

o Core competencies, as in “Our core competencies include a flexible attitude about quality control and a collective tendency to stretch the lunch hour beyond normal parameters because we adhere to the principle of saving personal energy.” Does anyone realize that by using the adjective “core” to define “competencies,” you’re implying that you have other “competencies” that might not be so “core?” And that a careful reader could deduce that those other competencies might actually be subpar, or least rather pedestrian? Here’s a solution, in plain English: “What we do best is…” or “Our reputation rests on the way we…” or “We are known for…”

I bring this up because I don’t doubt that your readers are critical thinkers (at least that’s what I tell my writing seminar students to expect), which means they will view phrases like “core competencies” as lazy, unproductive thinking.

o Skill sets, as in “Our employees can bring the most unique set of skill sets to finding a solution to your problem, which is why we consider ourselves a high-end firm that can justify overcharging you for our services.” First of all, you can’t be “most unique” because “unique” means one of a kind. I used to think that foolishness was restricted to the sports broadcast booth, but now I’m seeing it on websites, which was probably inevitable.

Anyway, I ask you: What’s wrong with just using “skills?” How can adding “sets” possibly add anything beyond the useless appendage of another four-letter word? If you use “skills sets,” ask yourself: “Why? What have I gained beyond the obvious tendency to imitate others unthinkingly?”

The News Media…Not Always Nosy Busybodies

“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.”

— Cyril Connolly, English writer

Learning to deal with the press constructively need not be limited to traditional definitions of news. Some realistic role-playing in a media training setting can, in fact, help you frame and sharpen your message for commercial purposes. That’s where I can be of assistance. As a former newspaper and magazine reporter, I like to know how things work and what sets them apart. Then I try to pass on what I’ve learned in succinct prose, as Connolly noted.

Let me describe the sort of training I do. A couple years ago, a clever nurse in Maine came up with a blend of four aromatic oils that she said eased the nausea of first-trimester pregnancy, chemotherapy and motion sickness. To help with marketing, I put her through questions a reporter for the business section of a newspaper or magazine might ask. Then I wrote an article about her “aromatherapy,” which we discussed in detail for lessons learned.

The result? She and her marketing and investment associates came out of the exercise with a much clearer view of how the public would perceive their unusual product. The questions I asked were born of healthy skepticism, and she said she planned to adjust her pitch accordingly.

Direct Mail Marketing For CPAs And Accountants

In the accounting industry, direct mail marketing can be very cost effective. CPAs and Accountants are fortunate to be in an industry where they are able to purchase a database, which provides precise information on potential clients. This makes marketing with direct mail a very cost effective approach to develop new clients.

The first thing a CPA Accountant will need to do is purchase a list of businesses that meet the criteria a CPA Accountant establishes to qualify a client for his or her firm. There are many criteria a CPA Accountant may choose, but the most common are, location, number of employees, sales volume, and industry. Some list companies will even provide limited credit information. It is best to generally select locations closest to your office. Most compiling companies use databases with zip codes to establish locations. Accordingly, the CPA Accountant should start by providing the zip code for his or her office working a radius outward until the desired number of businesses on the list is reached.

Once the criterion is established, the Accountant is now ready to purchase a database. Info USA and Dunn & Brad Street are perhaps two of the largest companies that compile and sell database information for resale. It is recommended the list be purchased from one of these two companies. They are reliable and have been in business a long time. Unfortunately, there are many companies selling list information that are not reliable and that have high error rates. Many other companies are basically just list brokers who purchased a list wholesale from one of those two companies and then resell it to you. It makes sense to always purchase your list from a database compiling company, which has a proven reliable record.

With the list purchased, the Accountant now has a defined target market of potential business that could be good clients for his or her firm. Direct mailing to the defined target is cost effective. The CPA Accountant is not incurring costs of marketing outside of his or her target market. Radio, television, and newspapers all broadcast or publish to the general public. Advertising in these forms of media would subject the CPA Accountant to incurring cost communicating outside of his or her target market. Direct mail focuses the cost of communication to his or her defined target market.

There are three basic rules the CPA Accountant must follow in direct-mail marketing. The first rule is always use professional letterhead and envelopes. Many times Accountants generate “in house” their own business stationary giving it a “home made appearance.” The CPA’s direct mail piece is the first representation of his or her firm’s work that a potential client might experience. The CPA desires his or her marketing piece to be of the highest quality. A professional appearing CPA Accountant direct mail marketing letter to a profession or business will be opened while a low grade appearing letter is often just discarded.

The second rule is never use bulk mail or mailing labels. When unsolicited mail is received, the business owner will look at it and make a decision. Does this look like something he or she should open? The decision is then based on visible attributes of the CPA’s direct marketing envelop labeling. If the labeling of the envelope was with a pre-printed mailing label accompanied with a bulk mail stamp, most likely the letter will never be opened and will be discarded. However, if the Accountant directly labeled the envelope with postage paid via a metered or regular first class stamp, the envelope will appear important influencing the decision to open the letter.

After the business owner decides to open the Accountant’s letter, he or she will always scan the piece to discern quickly if it is of interest. The third rule is to always keep the letter short and to the point. The prospective client will quickly determine if it is interesting and short enough to read while not consuming much time. A common mistake CPA Accountants make is attempting to write long lengthy letters to “sell themselves”. This is a very costly mistake. The objective of the letter is to initiate a positive response. Once a prospective client responds positively, he or she will be provided an opportunity to convey those things in subsequent conversations and meetings enticing him or her to use the CPA Accountant’s services.

In addition to the three basic rules, it is always recommended the CPA Accountant include a business card with the direct mail letter. This will allow the prospective client to locate the CPA Accountant’s contact information and retain it for future reference. It is also recommended that the CPA Accountant refrain from using postcards in direct mail marketing for the accounting industry. They have a commodity appearance diminishing the perception of the quality of the CPA Accountant’s firm. Finally, always use industry-specific direct mail pieces whenever possible.

In summary, direct mail marketing for CPA Accountants can be very cost effective. The use of target markets avoids spending advertising dollars outside of the target audience. It is important to always follow the three basic rules for direct mail marketing for CPAs and Accountants. The costs of violating those rules can be enormous. Marketing for CPA Accountants does not have to be expensive but can be very cost effective if implemented correctly.

Mobile Marketing: Integrating Offline Marketing In Print Media

If you’re like me, then you must have heard or been a recipient of some form of mobile advertisement in one time or another. Despite its promising spiel for being the next big thing, not only in the smartphone revolution but, in the realm of marketing as well, it is not intended to independently cater to all of your marketing needs.

The objective of mobile marketing is not to interact with the consumer exclusively on their mobile phones alone, but to constantly engage with them.

Repetitive exposures to a stimulus would increase the likelihood of them being able to remember your advertisement. Research indicates that a majority of consumers have to come in contact with a brand at a minimum of eight times before they are cognitively mindful of it, and an additional two before they actually take the consideration to purchase it. This type of dynamic and regular engagement is termed participatory marketing. Any time mobile marketing is incorporated in on-and offline strategies, it may end up being participatory and become fully employed to produce a profound and enduring relationship.

The proper mobile marketing can certainly create that essential connection between your customers’ offline and online experience (e.g. online for browsing through your catalog and offline for the particular transaction). The cost of an item is the usual reason in the delay concerning research and purchase. An incorporated participatory marketing strategy creates an awareness of your brand that will most likely influence the consumer. And by increasing consumer awareness, you may be able to generate those sales to boost your quarterly net profit.

Using Print

One of the most significant and most economical mobile integration options is by using print. This is often as basic as motivating customers to view your website using a mobile phone or to send a code via SMS to sign up in a study or sweepstakes or to obtain customer details.

* Flyers

* Letterheads

* Banners

* Instructions

* Newspapers

* Business cards

* Catalogs

* Magazines

* Handouts

* Menus

* Tickets

* Manuals

Among the best approaches would be to use current print promotions in classified ads, newspapers, and magazines. With these, you can integrate a mobile initiative which is associated with the advertising campaign, directions for downloading featured mobile vouchers for consumer convenience (the customers will not have to cut one out of the paper), or marketing content material that promotes the advantages of your campaign and describes the way to get connected to current location-based ads.

Businesses may also integrate within a direct-mail campaigns. They are able to enable customers to enroll in mobile alerts whenever their monthly bill is due or when their membership status has been updated or changed. When they send merchandise to the customers, they could also let them send a text message to obtain the status of their delivery, or motivate them to subscribe for promotions or special discounts in connection with whatever they have purchased.

An additional way to integrate print in mobile marketing would be to include things like mobile directives to respond (call to action campaigns) or Quick response (QR) codes in your packaging or provisional service products, including disposable paper plates, utensils, cups, and napkins. Alternative paper resources, like envelopes, letterhead, banners, flyers, and business cards, could be employed to direct people to your own mobile website or even get them to text in a brief code to acquire a file format (Vcard), with significant contact details or to receive an open source calendar standard (Vcal), of your respective events.

For an Effective Online Marketing, Do Social Media Marketing

Every website owner desires to be visible on the search results web page in search engines. When they want to be on the race towards online presence, they need to have techniques or strategies. Marketing strategies, for example, search engine optimization, website design, social media marketing, pay-per-click management and printing are currently the most effective methods toward driving higher quantity of people to one’s internet site.

Search Engine Optimization. The optimization of the site is the most certain means of getting visitors or traffic and achieving greater ranking from engines. It is because of this that advanced methods of search engine optimization such as keyword research, backlinks building, article marketing, and refining a website as well as other strategies are ought to be done to help make a website stand above others.

Web Design Project. In web development strategies, models that are innovative, user-friendly and also useful are supposed to be created. One can make use of the website CMS (Content Management Systems) that allows him or her to have full charge of the actual website’s content. Specific top features of CMS include plug-ins, user supervision, E-Commerce functionality, textual content enhancing, sub-page development, picture modifying and banner supervision.

Print Layout. In order that the online reputation as well as exposure of a web site is best, you need imaginative style to do these. Personalized packages include emblem, business card, quote, sales receipt, letterhead as well as account models, making pamphlets, booklet, flyers and cards that will captivate each and every customer’s curiosity.

Social Media Marketing. Using the growth associated with social networks these days, one can make use of sites for example Facebook or Twitter to improve the particular visibility of his services to be able to millions of internet surfers. Efficient strategies including establishing social media marketing accounts, creating these to stand above the fall behind MySpace pages/Twitter pages, creating tournaments and also special gifts, getting visitors to some web page utilizing Facebook marketing, participating followers by asking questions, carrying out polls, tests as well as blessed attracts as well as computing just what proved helpful and exactly what didn’t can easily definitely assist a single drive traffic to their website within a couple of hours.

Pay-per-click Management. If a person likes his merchandise to be elevated in major search engines by paying advertisements, what he needs is pay-per-click supervision. He will acquire more visitors using PPC supervision methods. Staff who were educated from the unique Yahoo Ad Phrases team can easily optimize and take away unproductive advertising campaigns, observe and keep track results, discover new markets, uncover new clients which rivals have not reached yet.

Web Hosting and Attention-Grabbing Facebook Mobile Marketing

Web Hosting and Attention-Grabbing Facebook Marketing

What works with social media for business owners?

Facebook Mobile for Business

To begin with, the majority of websites and blogs are created using WordPress. So, the security of your Word Press website or blog is crucial.

Two very cool security plug-ins for bloggers who use WordPress are available. Imagine this scenario. One day you wake up and your blog has been hacked and every single article had disappeared. Thank God for backups. It could be absolutely disastrous if someone were able to hack into your WordPress site. SecureWP and WSDSecurity are two plug-ins that can be used collaboratively and they give you increased security for your WordPress blog.

Password generator generates super secure passwords that no one can guess. If you have an administrator that has full access to your account, you need to be sure to generate extremely secure passwords.

A lot of hackers use systems that are smart. They go to a WordPress blog and look at the source code so that they can tell which version of WordPress your blog is running. These plug-ins eliminate the version of WordPress from your source code. Hackers try to exploit challenges of your version of WordPress, so by eliminating the version of WordPress from your code, it is extremely difficult for automated attacks to target your blog.

When you try and login to WordPress with the incorrect password, it generates a response. These automated systems look for those responses in an attempt to hack your blog. These plug-ins remove that response completely. Instead they jingle or blink the login screen so you, as the user, know you have the wrong password, but a machine or a software tool would not know that, therefore, automated hacking attempts are reduced.

Facebook Marketing on a Mobile Platform

Four hundred and eighty-eight million people are using Facebook mobile every month. That is bigger than the entire population of the United States. Additionally, three hundred million pictures are uploaded to Facebook every single day. Close to a billion members take pictures and upload them to Facebook using their smart phone. People have Facebook on their smart phone and check Facebook when they are in a line waiting for a coffee, stuck in traffic, and doing it almost everywhere, this makes mobile users very important to Facebook. Half of the nearly billion Facebook users use Facebook through their mobile device and they are actually twice as active than non-mobile users.

People have a tendency to never leave their house without their mobile device. This is wonderful news for business owners! The more you as a business owner can get your message in front of those users who are in constant contact with their circle of friends, the better. Marketing has shifted from trying to get your message in front of people during certain times to becoming an intricate part of their social experience. Ads are coming in through their news feed and users don’t even know that what they are looking at are ads. Facebook’s mobile ad click-through rate is an astounding four times higher than Twitter!

Facebook, Instagram and Cameras

In the past, Facebook’s weak spot was mobile. They were behind the eight ball for developing a robust app so with the purchase of Instagram, Facebook took the lead in this market. It shows the marketplace that Facebook is serious about mobile. Instagram is solely a mobile app. You have to view photos through a Instagram partner, but Facebook might be rolling out an Instagram.com profile where users can share their photos through the web. It could be a whole new social network like Pinterest.

Steve Jobs was a mentor for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook is rumored to come out with their own smart phone. They could be taking a leaf out of Apple’s book and be working on a whole new market in the smart phone industry. It would be a whole new developer marketplace that is perfectly feasible. At some point, there will be more mobile phone subscriptions than there are people on the planet. The whole world is in your hand with a smart phone. You can check your e-mail, check in with friends, view the news, use apps to do just about anything. It is only going to grow and it is a wonderful thing for connecting people among the world. The Facebook mobile app is still relatively limited. For example, you can’t share with the app. So, many people are using Safari to view Facebook on their smart phone and accessing the social media network that way. Facebook might very well venture into the hardware market in the near future to further capture market share within the prominently growing mobile marketplace.

Facebook Page Manager App

Facebook page manager is a great way to manage multiple pages. You can have access to your page on the fly, post content and quickly reply to comments and moderate them. Its very helpful for business owners and entrepreneurs. The latest update to the Facebook iOS and Android apps will now let you tag your friends in status posts and comments. The feature, which has long been available on the Facebook website, can be activated by typing “@” followed by the name of the friend you want to tag in your comment or status update. You can use this feature on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or any Android device running the latest version of the Facebook app. The biggest feature that is still missing, however, in the Facebook mobile app is share. This means half a billion people per day are not able to share something on their mobile device.

Marketing Tips for Businesses

Mobile users should be engaged and treated differently. It is all about content. Mobile users default to the news feed so the more you can be an effective producer of content the better.

Shorter posts are better – 160 characters or less
Be entertaining
Make use of photos
Ask questions that are short and sweet
Include a call to action such as “like” or “add your comment” or “click here”.

Local Businesses and Facebook Mobile Marketing

For the longest time, people could setup a check-in deal. Offers are only available if you have a place page. But if you do not have a place page and can’t setup an offer, you can instead periodically post a status update, for example, “Are you reading this on your mobile phone, come in for a free latte.” Every single member of your staff should know all the ins-and-outs of what your company is doing on social media. Offer a coupon on-the-spot if people check-in. Encourage visitors to take a photograph of themselves in your store and post it on Facebook. It can go a long way and get people excited if they see their friends at the store.

Facebook and the Future of Marketing

There have been a lot of changes with Facebook since it went public. Some of the changes include “promoted posts” and it is more difficult to get into the news feed. Edgerank is the algorithm that all content passes through on Facebook. Content passes through the Edgerank filter, and that is how it is determined what content will show in the news feed. Ultimately, Facebook is saying that they are only going to display your content on average to sixteen percent of your fans. There are, however, some tools that can increase your visibility on Facebook.

Ads
Friends Lists
Interest Lists
Sponsored Stories
Promoted Posts
Reach Generator guarantees up to seventy-five percent of your content

As a marketer, you can do some split testing and allocate a budget to see which will work well for you:

Either a sponsored story which is a post made on your fan page that is turned into an ad
Promoted posts which will be visible to mobile users and is given more visibility in the news feed, which is what people look at on their mobile device.

There are some creative ways around this. Fan pages like George Takei (an actor) is a page that has a phenomenal following and has a very high engagement rate. Study fan pages that are successful and watch their page to see how these brands are achieving fan engagement. People on Facebook want to know that there is a real human being behind the brand.

Business owners have put an enormous investment into creating a fan base. People have expressed concern and frustration resulting from Facebook now requesting more investment to get your content visible to more than sixteen percent. Next to every single post on Facebook, you are given the option to pay for your post to be more visible. The large denominator problem is when companies have a huge fan base, so if that person is not regularly interacting with the fan page, they will not see the content. It can get very pricey to promote a post, sometimes from three hundred to five hundred dollars per post.

Why would you use a Promoted Post on Facebook?

If you have a webinar or special event coming up a promoted post could be a good option. Some companies have been able to double their reach, increase engagement with promoted posts. If a page has a low number of fans or has plated or a low engagement rate such as less than two percent, you might want to play with promoted posts to see if it is a worthy advantage. You can better reach the mobile users with a promoted post.

Web Hosting Tips for Facebook Visibility

If you are like the majority of business owners, you have a website or blog that serves as your ultimate destination for visitors. Some people call it their “money site”. A Facebook fan page for your business can funnel visitors to your website or blog, where hopefully that visitor will perform the MDA (most desired action) such as joining your e-mail list or purchasing a product. So, as a business owner, it is imperative to keep a professional looking website or blog online. This can be done with a web hosting account through a reputable hosting firm that offers tools such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal content management systems for creating an engaging web presence.

Carwash Marketing and Customer Retention – Back to Basics

Creating marketing and promotions that work are a great challenge for car wash owners and operators. The fundamental problem that many car washes run into is that they will never generate the level of customer loyalty that they are hoping for unless they meet the basic needs of their customers first. If a wash owner can identify consumer behavior, he or she will be in a better position to target products and services at them. Buyer behavior is focused upon the needs of individuals, groups, and organizations.

It is important to understand the relevance of human needs to buyer behavior because marketing is about satisfying needs. Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs is taught in psychology classes around the world and the theory outlines the very basic human needs that must be provided in order to truly experience higher emotions such as achievement, respect, and self-esteem. At the lowest tier of this hierarchy are the basic needs such as food, air, water, heat, and the basic necessities of survival need to be satisfied. You cannot move up to higher levels of the hierarchy unless your basic needs are met.

Consumers also have a very specific set of needs that must be addressed. To understand consumer buyer behavior is to understand how the person interacts with your marketing message.

Consider that every consumer is going to be influenced by their culture and word of mouth, attitude towards washing, their ability to learn by instruction (customer education), and their perceptions of the wash facility. There are a number of NEEDS that must first be met before a consumer can move to making a purchasing decision, location choice, brand choice, and any other choices they will inevitably make.

Customer Needs

At the very basic level a car wash operator must appeal to the basic needs of their customer before they can consider focusing on establishing customer loyalty.

The decision making process for a customer of a car wash will be to first determine which car wash facilities they will use followed by comparing the available choices against a number of other criterion.

Basic Need 1: Quality

This is where it comes down to truth in advertising. You need to provide the very basics for a customer to properly wash their vehicle. If you cannot clean the car with soap and water your failing as a business that specializes in vehicle care. It should be no surprise to a wash owner that people will stop using your wash if it does not get their car clean. The second aspect of quality is when a customer has access to problem-free equipment. If wash equipment is damage or in disrepair this will impact whether a customer will use your facility.

Basic Need 2: Appearance

Most wash customers rate cleanliness as one of the most important factors of a car wash. Locations with dirty walls, peeling instruction signs and faded decals will see a noticeable drop in customer retention.

Basic Need 3: Safety

Customers that visit car wash facilities next consider their safety when using a wash facility. Locations with poor lighting and excessive loitering will drive customers away and keep them from coming back if they did not feel safe when using the wash facility.

Basic Need 4: Value

In order to create a loyal customer a car wash owner needs to create value in the service that they provide. Value is going to be perceived differently by every customer and as a wash owner you need to evaluate your demographics to find out what will be the most important to them.

Examples of Value Propositions:

Environmentally Friendly – A car wash that focuses on environmental stewardship, water conservation, energy conservation, sustainable chemicals, and promotes this will create value for a wide demographic.

Charity Support – Car wash owners have the opportunity to get involved in their local community by supporting local charities and organizations. Car wash operations have a huge opportunity to be known as the community-based wash business in town.

Car Wash Club – By taking advantage of a loyalty card system car wash operators can give customers a reason to ‘buy-in’ to their loyalty program through incentives and promotions. Consumers have been trained by big-box retail to be a card-carrying customer and operations that take advantage of loyalty card programs are highly competitive in their local markets.

Rain Guarantees – Many full service and express wash operations offer a rain guarantee which gives a consumer piece of mind and security in their wash purchase.

Unlimited Wash Programs – Programs that allow for unlimited washes in exchange for a monthly payment or an annual subscription have been found to be highly successful in certain markets.

Low Price Guarantee – There has been a huge explosion in the number of low-cost express washes opening up around the country. This model will not work for every owner or even every market, but the growing trend is worth watching. Some markets are having record-breaking profits and others struggle to make ends meet with such low margins.

Superior Customer Service – Having great services has long been one of the big selling points for going to a full service carwash. Whenever you have employees on site you have a wonderful opportunity to provide great customer service.

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is something that is earned by a business by satisfying your customers needs as a consumer. If you can meet the basic needs, establish value in your services, and remain consistent in the delivery of your service your customers will remain regular customers.

What does success look like?

In order to appeal to the widest number of customers your focus should be to focus on getting back to basics. Once you can be the clean, safe, quality carwash that offers simple value statements to your customers you can then focus on additional value added promotions to bring customers back.

The difference between a successfully promoted business and a business that fails to promote successfully is that in the long run you are remembered by your customers for what you’ve done for them. Far too many car wash businesses think that by slashing prices and giving huge discounts will win over new customers. Discounting only goes so far when you are trying to bring in new customers because discounting is temporary and long-term price cuts hurt your bottom line. As long as you are meeting your customers basic needs a successful promotion will engage your customers and community in ways that will endear themselves to you and your business. A successfully promoted car wash business will not be known as “the cheap wash” in their community. The successful wash in town will be known as “the charity wash”, “the fundraiser wash”, “the wash that drives the funny car in the local parade”, “the fast wash”, “the convenient wash”, or we can hope at the very least the wash is known as, “the wash that gets my car clean”. These are the value statements that we should strive for within our local communities and with the customers we do business with.

Understanding the Basic Principles and the Advantages of Affiliate Marketing

Understanding Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a online phrase used to describe the promotion of internet businesses by the channel of affiliate programs and the marketing of these products on websites and it dates back to the mid 90’s.By doing this the vendor compensates the affiliate (also known as the publisher) a approved percentage of commission based on the amount of trade their website brings the merchant company.

Some companies such as Clickbank, Paydotcom and Shareasale typically have set percentage rates for affiliates which can be up to 75% for some products. Some consider affiliate marketing to be a form of revenue sharing or another term regularly used is commission based advertising.

In the early days of “affiliate marketing”, it was associated as another structure of network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM) and as a result of this misconception allot of online businesses made the decision to use the expression “performance marketing” to steer clear of any relation to affiliate marketing. This also created a large problem for affiliates in the past, as many online users had a propensity to frown on whatever thing that even looked like multi-level marketing.

Over time and with a great deal of determination from those that are now established as super affiliates it has turned out to be the most cost effective way for merchants to market their products or services online as it is very efficient in the fact that the affiliate has to do all the work to make the sale. So as a result of this, many online companies especially those that embraced this form of marketing in the beginning owe a tremendous amount to affiliate marketing as a perfect example just take a look at amazon.com and the way it has become the done thing for online companies to include affiliate marketing in many of their online strategies to promote their products.

The Advantages Of Affiliate Marketing

The model of revenue sharing has been around for some time, allot longer than online business and the internet. But the idea of affiliate marketing has taken it to new levels, and become a primary form of advertising and bringing in business for all types of e-commerce. Internet merchants find affiliate marketing highly advantageous due to the fact that it presents little to no risk both for the merchant and the ‘affiliate”.

Here is how it all works, the affiliate will earn money if the affiliate brings to the merchants website, either through on-line links on the affiliates website – or through email, blogs, RSS feeds and many other kinds of on-line communication that are available to the affiliate. If a sale is made or the desired action is accomplished then the affiliate will earn a designated commission payment from the vendor or affiliate network.

Some merchants (only about 1% of affiliate marketing) use a cost-per-click remuneration system but this is now starting to grow as a viable form of money generation from main stream affiliates by using the CPA marketing networks, which simply means that the affiliate earns some form of commission every time a website visitor clicks on an advert on their site or when you send out an email with a affiliate link.

However in the past and mainly due to the many “blackhatters”and fraudsters online that were taking advantage of this method by way of creating such things as (ad-ware, sending spam, or keyword heavy and useless indexing sites) this form of remuneration is now allot more regulated and even to the extent of having IP addresses tracked and accounts canceled if you are generating what is considered as fraudulent clicks and for many in the past this form of advertising had become too risky for merchants to use.

What Are The Distinctive Forms Of Affiliate Marketing

There are a few different ways that an affiliate can earn commissions online. Firstly you need to decide which of these is right for you and then join the merchant affiliate program this is so any payment can be received through any referrals from your website to the merchant, Here are four methods that are currently used online today, however you need to read the terms and conditions of each affiliate program you wish to join.

Pay Per Click Marketing is simply a strategy that affiliates use where they display advertisements on their affiliate site and they are then paid when a customer clicks on that website advertisement whether it is a text link or image link.
Emailing your subscriber lists sending legit emails to your website opt-ins with your affiliate link embedded “Spam Is Not Tolerated” make sure you study the TOS of the affiliate program before doing this.
CPA Affiliate Marketing is when one of your website visitors registers with a specific site whether this is a free newsletter or subscription, free offers from other companies are represented and advertised through this form of marketing as well.
Clickbank, Shareasle, Paydotcom are all affiliate marketing networks they have many thousands of products or services for you to choose from as well as being free to join. Some programs even allow multi-tier or what is called a recurring payment structure set up.

Hopefully our article has helped you to understand more about affiliate marketing and we would like to wish you well in all of your undertakings online.

Is Network Marketing the New J-O-B?

First, let me say that I LOVE network marketing and am involved in several companies myself. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that network marketing is fully endorsed by the financial powerhouses Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki in their book “Why We Want You to Be Rich.” This article is meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit serious, and hopefully, a “lot” insightful for those wanting to seriously pursue a network marketing business.

My personal recommendation is that a person can have up to three network marketing involvements. One strictly for fun or because it is something you are passionate about. If that’s the case, then you are simply enjoying the discount and that’s perfectly OK. The second one can be for the residual income. Once a person signs up for your product or service, whether it’s a $1, $10 or $100, the money keeps rolling in. Nothing wrong with that, either. The third one is where you’re not just getting residual income, you’re also building a team. It’s the “sink your teeth into” company where your objective is “unlimited income.”

It is this third one that I will focus on because I think it is the one that as Christian entrepreneurs we need to be the most thoughtful about because of potential spiritual “land mines.”

In Business For Yourself but not By Yourself?

So often in network marketing we hear that “you are in business for yourself but not by yourself.” Much is made out of replacing your current J-O-B with your particular networking marketing venture. In addition, much is made out of how you are merely “trading time for dollars” in your current position versus the “unlimited income” you could obtain from such and such company.

For sure, networking marketing has evolved considerably from back in the day when people would chase you down to come to meetings to sign up for something that you really didn’t need or want but felt obligated to join because your sponsor was a relative, friend or suddenly “new friend.”

With modern technology, there are fancily titled meetings, conference calls, flash presentations, webinars and of course, the almighty DVD (how did we live without those things?). Nowadays, you don’t even need to meet or personally know someone to sign them up. Just buy some Internet leads and you’re set to expand into Antarctica, by golly!

Networking marketing today is slick and sophisticated. Even Magic Johnson and Warren Buffet have major stakes in network marketing.

Your upline is likely to call himself or herself a coach (hey, you’re likely to call your own self a coach). Information packets after sign up ask for your goals, how much you want to make, how much time you’re willing to put into your business and other roadmap type questions. Then, there is an endless slew of meetings and conference calls. There are even accountability partners, weekly and monthly check-ins. What’s next? Performance reviews? 360-Degree assessments? Myers-Briggs?

Still Trading Time for Dollars

As a result of all this, it occurred to me that the being in business for yourself but not by yourself, suddenly seems like the ole J-O-B except now, you have NO steady income, NO benefits and NO vacation. On top of that, you’re probably involved in some type of autoship or monthly subscription. Nevertheless, it is a known fact that most people in network marketing don’t even earn enough to cover their monthly expenses associated with the company. These days, if you’re not serious about working your tail off, then you’re probably better off not even signing up for a network marketing company no matter how dazzling the opportunity may seem.

From my own experience and observations, the people who are the MOST successful in network marketing are those who virtually eat, drink, sleep, dream and WEAR network marketing, just like someone who is climbing the proverbial corporate ladder. I meet people who may be making plenty of money in network marketing, but when are they really relaxing and enjoying the fruit of their labor when there is call after call, training after training, and meeting after meeting, including on Sundays, presumably a day of rest.

Simple brochures and easels have been replaced with LCD projectors and DVD players so now there is equipment to lug around and get tangled up with. Are these network marketing diamonds and bionic-diamonds REALLY enjoying a better life outside of the brick and mortar workplace when they seem to be consumed by their network marketing advancement? Still sounds like trading “time for dollars” to me.

Business Meeting or Revival?

As Christians, we are reminded to keep our focus on God and not to be distracted by other gods. Go to some network marketing meetings and you might wonder if you’re at a business meeting or at church. In my opinion, just as “The Secret” for all intents and purposes took “religion” out of the equation, just because religion is placed “into the equation” doesn’t necessarily make it “holy” either. “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.” (2 Cor. 2:17)

As you look at various network marketing opportunities, especially the one in which you will be “sinking your teeth into” remember to apply the same rules that you would to any other major investment.

1. Pray about it. There is no need to jump into anything, no matter how groundfloor it may be. It has to be the right opportunity for YOU. Of course, you can’t beat a GOOD groundfloor opportunity, either, so don’t be the perpetual “hem and hawer,” either. People DO make lots of money in network marketing, but it was to be the right company and at the proper position in the product life cycle.

2. Use your discernment about the people involved. Remember, actions speak louder words, no matter WHAT is being “preached.” Observe the leaders and others in the organization and make sure their actions are congruent with what they say. It will be hard to stay enthusiastic if you have an unresponsive or uninspiring sponsor. Network marketing is about building relationships and they have to be good all around.

3. Is the venture in line with your own spiritual gifts? If it doesn’t align with what you’re good at or what have a passion for, then it’s probably not a good fit in the first place. And remember, just because it’s someone else’s passion doesn’t mean it has to be yours. It doesn’t matter WHAT status Sally has obtained in XYZ company, if you’re not excited about “thing-a-ma-jigs,” then you’re probably not going to do very well. Donald Trump, Martha Stewart and Barbara Corcoran are just some of the many people who advise on how important it is to have a passion for your business.

4. Will the time commitment allow you adequate down time for Bible study, prayer and meditation or will you be consumed with meetings five to seven days a week? What is your threshold? Will you still be able to go to church and do meetings on Sundays? Remember, God wants us to keep him first. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be added to you.” (Matt. 6:33)

5. If you are a business owner, will the time commitment of network marketing allow you to fully maintain, develop and nourish your own business? It’s so easy to find yourself shifting over to the network marketing side and spending less time on your own business if you are not careful. If that happens, then you’re not even business FOR yourself.

6. There are only 24 hours in a day and at least eight of them should be spent on sleep. The body truly does need time to rejuvenate itself and it does this when we are sleeping. Make sure you’re getting the proper rest so that you can be a HEALTHY entrepreneur!

7. Have fun! Remember the Lord said he came so that we “may have life … more abundantly,” (John 10:10) and not be stressed out, tired and overworked.

In conclusion, using the above guidelines, I wish you the very best of luck and may your network marketing business turn out to be all you hope for and much, much more. See you down the road apiece in our new Cadillac or Benz or Mustang!

©2007 by Paula Quick. This article may be forwarded, copied or distributed to others only if it contains the title and author as shown above, along with the websites of reference: The Faithpreneur and The Lemonade Coach.

The Little-Known Marketing Secret That Allows You To Write Advertising Homeruns

You remember Sherlock Holmes don’t you? Holmes was the fictional consulting detective invented by Scottish physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes, as you know, is famous for cracking open difficult cases and solving them with almost magical abilities.

So, grab your inspector’s hat and let’s play Sherlock Holmes for just a moment. We’re going to do a little spying today and see if the “Sherlock” in you can turn up a few profit clues lurking all around.

This is the shortest course to the profit-land in this crazy fun business. The direct marketing or “mail order” business as we affectingly call it have a “secret” way of “spying” on the competition. It’s called “seeding.”

Very simply, seeding is where you get on other businesses mailing list

… for the sole purpose of snooping and finding out what’s going on in your selected marketplace.

This does several things for you.

First, you’ll start receiving offers from the company you inquired about plus competing companies. And these offers can be golden to you by seeing exactly who’s mailing what.

You’ll see firsthand what their winners are, how the copy reads, what offers are hot and ideas will start to catch fire.

And if you go the extra yard and actually buy something, you’ll experience firsthand how you were treated, what upsells they offer, and how they run the customer service side of the business.

Simply put, this is one of the best direct marketing educations you can get. And best of all… it won’t cost you a fortune.

Basically, you get a master’s level marketing education for the mere cost of a postage stamp and the time it takes to “sign up.”

Pretty damn cool, right? As my late marketing mentor Melvin Powers once told me, “There are no secrets in the mail order business.”

You’ll be tuned in to ‘real world-real time’ marketing methods and strategies. This is one of the best ways to stay up-to-date with powerful trends and effective marketing that’s cutting edge.

Seeding gives you another huge benefit…

… A swipe file right at your fingertips.

What’s that, you say? Swipe file? YES! Swipe File!

What’s a swipe file? Hey, I’m glad you asked.

A swipe file is a collection of marketing pieces that have a proven history of positive results. These ads are bringing in bucket loads of profits, leads, store visits or whatever action the ad is asking from the customer.

But how do you know if these ads are profitable or not? It’s not really that hard to figure this out… and you don’t have to guess.

If you see a marketing promotion (advertisement, sales letter, squeeze page, etc.) that runs over and over or is mailed over and over, then you’ll know for sure it’s a winner.

Most marketers, especially direct response type businesses loath wasting money. Again, if you see an ad repeated over and over again, you can rest assured that it’s making money for the advertiser.

Once you start building your swipe file you’ll want to see how you’re marketing stacks up to the competition. Ideas gleamed from your swipe file could be used to improve your marketing.

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. In direct marketing (or mail order), you have learned that there are no secrets. Everything is laid out there for you.

And by the way, did I mention swiping is legit… it’s sharply slices a huge portion of the learning curve!

Let me tell you a quick story about one of the most successful, profitable and effective direct marketing promotions to hit during the 20th Century.

It was 1974 and Martin Conroy was commissioned to write a sales letter to sell subscriptions for the Wall Street Journal.

No big deal, right? After all it was only two pages printed front to back… a mere 780-word letter.

But here’s the thing. Did you know that one of the most successful and profitable sales letter ever written…

This super-successful sales letter mailed for 28-years with almost no changes to the original copy. It raked in over an estimated TWO BILLION DOLLARS in gross revenues!

Take one of the most famous copywriting controls, The Wall Street Letter written by the late Martin Conroy. He in fact swiped it from a sales letter written many years before.

So what was the secret to this mega-success letter?

The secret, according to industry insiders, is that Conroy relied on a little-known “trick” to cheat his way to writing the pitch.

It’s helpful to know that Conroy’s letter was not beaten until 2002. It was beaten in two consecutive tests… the first test Conroy’s letter was beaten by less than 10%. The second by a huge 24%.

The second letter was written by copywriting legend Mal Decker.

So, the question is how did Mal Decker come up with a letter to beat the ‘unbeatable’ control?

The answer… again… it’s surprisingly simple… and you my friend can use this ethical “cheat” to produce blockbuster ads, web pages, sales letters, and just about any marketing piece you need to write.

Now I’m not saying its OK for you to straight out copy the ad word for word. Not at all… I’m saying it’s fine to borrow or swipe ideas, concepts and compelling parts that intrigue you and adapt them to your marketing.

Swiping is a great way to infuse new life in old copy and can often lead to more sales and leads.

So start your swipe file today and let the ideas flow.