Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Added for You - 11 MONSTROUS Small Business Marketing Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
A new client of mine bought a 54-year-old company and told me that his first objective was to give the company a long overdue face-lift including a new logo. We sat down to talk about what he wanted, and though he was relatively open to ideas, I received strict orders to avoid the yellow and orange combination used in the company's current logo. While we were on the discussion of color, I brought out a Pantone swatch book to focus our efforts. My client was curious about how designers like myself went about choosing color.While getting a design degree, I took several semesters of color theory. I learned to look at color in many different ways, how colors react to each other, the relative nature of color, the emotive quality of color, how a prism breaks light into a rainbow, and about additive and subtractive color theory. I told my client that most designers develop their own sense of color after a lot of practice. When my client left, I realized that the way I chose color was really not based on scientific theory or anything I learned in college. The truth is that I never learned anything as valuable as the rules dictated by the basic box of Crayola crayons.First of all, there really are only eight colors. Pantone comes out with newer, bigger swatch books every few years, but the reality is that there are still the eight basic colors we learned about in first grade: red
To stay in business you must profit.
To profit you must sell.
To sell you must market.
The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take the control out of your potential customers' hands and put
There are many powerful subliminal messages in advertising. We are only going to deal with one of those messages which I think is probably the most powerful one. And that message or emotion is greed. No one likes to admit this particular emotion but it courses through each and every one of us.One of the best ways to get through the barriers that people put up in order to protect their finances is through the emotion of greed. People love to know that they are getting more than they are actually paying for. They love a freebie, or another word for it is bonus.If you give them free bonuses that are worth $100, but the product that they are purchasing only costs $7, then you are well on your way to capturing their $7. Mind you, the free bonuses have to be something of value. They also should be closely linked to the product that is being purchased.It doesn't make sense giving $100 worth of Internet Marketing material to someone who you are trying to sell knitting needles to. Obviously, your bonuses should be in the area of maybe wool or even an ebook teaching different knitting patterns. Gifts like these show the power of subliminal messages in advertising.When you give gifts like these, it is like putting bait on a hook that lures their finances by way of greed. In order to get them to spend they must perceive that the free bonuses you are giving them conta
MONSTROUS Marketing Mistake Number 1: Sinking a Fortune Into an Unproven Product
Is your business idea built on market research or a hunch?
Entrepreneurs often fall in love with their products or services before they determine if there's a real market, and they throw fistfuls of money into the venture. If you, your spouse, your uncle, and your neighbor think you've got a winning idea, that's simply not enough qualified input to run to the bank and drain your savings account!
Avoid this mistake by:
- Conducting your detective work (research).
- Testing your business idea with the real marketplace.
Do you think you have a product or service that will practically sell itself?
Trust me - you don't.
There is a misconception among small business owners that, with the right product or service, your customers will simply "find" you when you open your doors for business. Whether you have a physical storefront on a corner lot in the busiest part of downtown, or a graphically pleasing online storefront offering easy access to your hot products and services, your customers will not find you if you do not market to them.
The day you open for business is the day you put on your "marketer's hat" and never take it off. You must consistently move product, or schedule service time.
To stay in business you must profit.
To profit you must sell.
To sell you must market.
The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take the control out of your potential customers' hands and put
(1) Relevance The convention of relevance emphasizes the fact that only such information should be made available by accounting as is relevant and useful for achieving its objectives. For example, business is interested in knowing as to what has been total labor cost? It is not interested in knowing how much employees spend and what they save.(2) ObjectivityThe convention of objectivity emphasizes that accounting information should be measured and expressed by the standards which are commonly acceptable. For example, stock of goods lying unsold at the end of the year should be valued as its cost price not at a higher price even if it is likely to be sold at higher price in future. Reason is that no one can be sure about the price which will prevail in future.(3) FeasibilityThe convention of feasibility emphasizes that the time, labor and cost of analyzing accounting information should be compared vis-?-vis benefit arising out of it. For example, the cost of 'oiling and greasing' the machinery is so small that its break-up per unit produced will be meaningless and will amount to wastage of labor and time of the accounting staff.Accounting Concepts(1) MaterialityIt refers to the relative importance of an item or event. Those who make accounting dec
Avoid this mistake by:
- Conducting your detective work (research).
- Testing your business idea with the real marketplace.
Do you think you have a product or service that will practically sell itself?
Trust me - you don't.
There is a misconception among small business owners that, with the right product or service, your customers will simply "find" you when you open your doors for business. Whether you have a physical storefront on a corner lot in the busiest part of downtown, or a graphically pleasing online storefront offering easy access to your hot products and services, your customers will not find you if you do not market to them.
The day you open for business is the day you put on your "marketer's hat" and never take it off. You must consistently move product, or schedule service time.
To stay in business you must profit.
To profit you must sell.
To sell you must market.
The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take the control out of your potential customers' hands and put
Back in July this year, blogger and Yahoo! employee Russell Beattie published a well-publicised rant about the tactics PR firms are using to insert their promotional press in this untapped domain of publishing. In it, he fumed at the PRrazzi: “What are these people thinking? Do they really think the same lies and manipulation that they use on the corporate media establishment is going to work on me? Blogging isn’t my “job” - I do this for fun. I’m not looking to fill column inches or dead airtime with your crap, I’m looking to provide real information and opinion to my readers who in turn return the favour and educate me.”This type of article should make anyone working in PR sit up and think hard. As media trends towards a more democratic process, everywhere from sit-at-home online book reviewing on Amazon up to the more substantial form of Blogging, customers are becoming increasingly savvier about identifying PR insertions.The most obvious – and intellectually redundant – aspect of PR is that it is designed specifically to sell products, and as such it initiates a dialogue but does not follow up on it. On the few occasions that it does follow-up, the dialogue contains none of the natural reasoning that ordinary conversation tends towards and hence there is little valuable exchange of information, opinions or ideas.What the PR firms miss in targeting ‘weblogs’ an
Do you think you have a product or service that will practically sell itself?
Trust me - you don't.
There is a misconception among small business owners that, with the right product or service, your customers will simply "find" you when you open your doors for business. Whether you have a physical storefront on a corner lot in the busiest part of downtown, or a graphically pleasing online storefront offering easy access to your hot products and services, your customers will not find you if you do not market to them.
The day you open for business is the day you put on your "marketer's hat" and never take it off. You must consistently move product, or schedule service time.
To stay in business you must profit.
To profit you must sell.
To sell you must market.
The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take the control out of your potential customers' hands and put
Making money using direct mail isn't easy. And anyone who tells you it is, is lying.To run a successful direct mail campaign, you must have a compelling offer... amazing copy... and most important... the right list to mail to.And even if you have each of these things running at their peak, there are many other subtle "little" tricks you can use to increase the responsiveness of your mailings, which is what it's all about, right?Because this means...You'll Be Increasing Your Cash-Flow As Well!And remember, in whatever you're doing: All you need is 5-or-6 little steps that each increase your response rates 1 or 2 %, and before you know it, you've got a lot more money pouring in than you did before.So don't start neglecting the subtle differences -- this is usually what separates the people who are marginally successful, from the people who are wildly successful.First, always hand-address your envelopes. Why? As my mentor Gary Halbert taught me from "Day 1", you'll always open a hand-addressed letter because you think its "personal" mail -- as opposed to a sales letter or a bill.Make sense?Remember, if your letter never gets opened, I promise you... you'll never make the sale.Second, in your corner card (which is the upper left-hand corner of the front of your envelope, where your name and address goes), DON'T put your
The day you open for business is the day you put on your "marketer's hat" and never take it off. You must consistently move product, or schedule service time.
To stay in business you must profit.
To profit you must sell.
To sell you must market.
The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take the control out of your potential customers' hands and put
Everyone is familiar with the 3-R’s from school – reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. This was our first introduction to an effective performance model. As proficiency increased in each R, performance was further enhanced. Effective performance models by their very design are a continuum that automatically raises performance to the next level.Today’s businesses have their own 3-R Performance Model. This model hasn’t really changed since the early of origins of business enterprises. No matter what the latest business guru advocates, good business practices and most importantly the “bottom-line” always appear to return to these basic 3-R’s. For without Relationships, Referrals or Revenue, today’s businesses will not achieve current goals nor grow.R1 – Relationships - With the Internet providing immediate access to unlimited vendors, products and services, today’s business owners must develop sustainable and loyal relationships. Current customer service research suggests that the cost to attract a new customer or client is 10 times greater than to maintain an existing customer. Relationships lead to the second R.R2 – Referrals - Referrals according to recent research account for 84% of all sales. This research supports what our common sense tells us about human nature. We are more likely to believe a close friend and probably a not so close friend over the slick Madi
To stay in business you must profit.
To profit you must sell.
To sell you must market.
The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take the control out of your potential customers' hands and put it into your own. If you have a product that will "practically sell itself," then your marketing job will be easy. Just remember that the job must still be done.
Avoid this mistake by:
- Defining your niche market and USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that differentiates you from your competition.
- Developing a marketing action plan and strategy to reach your niche market with your USP message.
Marketing is an age-old practice with some very basic principles. Yet, I'm sure you've read many marketing information products that stress the importance of being innovative and creative with your marketing efforts. It's easy to get caught up in the innovation process and forget that the REAL focus should be on results.
Avoid this mistake by:
- Emulating success instead of trying to create something completely new. Please note that I am not saying, "copy" what others are doing. Look at the basic structure of a tactic, campaign, advertisement, or event and use the same formula as a basis for developing your own tactics.
- Realizing great marketing ideas are used over and over again with just the right twist to make them fit a specific business. Focus on results, and choose imitation over innovation to create your own twist on a proven, winning technique.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.added4u.com/article/43911/added4u-11-MONSTROUS-Small-Business-Marketing-Mistakes-and-How-To-Avoid-Them.html">11 MONSTROUS Small Business Marketing Mistakes and How To Avoid Them</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.added4u.com/article/43911/added4u-11-MONSTROUS-Small-Business-Marketing-Mistakes-and-How-To-Avoid-Them.html]11 MONSTROUS Small Business Marketing Mistakes and How To Avoid Them[/url]
Related Articles:
Get Equipment For Your Home Business With A Personal Loan!
The Better Business Bureau; Is it real?
The Critical Components of Human Resources Training
Bookmark it:
|