5 Deadly Marketing Mistakes
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The 5 biggest marketing mistakes I have seen (and done myself!) are things that can be easily corrected.
It’s been said that “A problem identified is a problem half solved,” so after personally coaching hundreds of people, and seeing everything from miserable failure to fantastic success, here’s my list of five deadly marketing mistakes, hopefully it can help you in your marketing efforts.
1. Not getting started. Yup, seems pretty obvious, but this has got to be number one by a long way. Question: why do we buy programs, courses and books, learn some great ideas and techniques, but not take action? Purchasing information can be like a drug, it feels good at the time, but leaves us worse off than we were before. That’s how too many people treat the very information that can help them be successful.
2. Bad Philosophy. OK, I know that may sound weird, but I’m convinced it’s another huge reason people don’t succeed in their online marketing efforts. They have bad philosophies. Here’s some samples of destructive philosophies:
-”How quickly will this work?” That’s a killer. It’s a nonsensical question. It doesn’t matter how long it took the people in the testimonials, it doesn’t matter how long it took anybody. Your story is your story. It will probably take longer than you hope, but if you quit it’s guaranteed to never work for you. Don’t waste time thinking about something that is impossible to predict. You might succeed faster or slower than others, but the only way to know how long it takes is to persist until you succeed. Read More→
Why Use Permission-Based Email Marketing?
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The goal of all marketing is to attract interest in, build desire for, and generate sales of your products or services. Email marketing is a perfect medium to pick up where other marketing leaves off. Email marketing is still one of the most cost effective ways to contact prospects and customers. It’s far cheaper than traditional bulk postage mail and in many cases can have a much larger impact on immediate sales and long-term relationship strength than traditional advertising.
When done correctly, email marketing can be an extremely powerful and effective marketing technique. It’s a medium that allows a buyer and seller to freely communicate with one another and build a relationship based on value and trust. When done incorrectly, however, email marketing can be destructive, erode brand equity, and turn your happy clients into litigious flamers. It is for this reason that one must make sure they send only permission-based email communications to their subscribers.
Before we proceed any further, let’s define exactly what permission-based email marketing is. It is important to note that there are two types of email marketing. One can either send unsolicited email promotions or send out emails only to persons who have requested to receive them. Unsolicited email is, of course, called spam. Sending spam will ruin any legitimate organization’s reputation and brand value faster than mold grows on bread that is left outside in the middle of summer. Rule number one of becoming an intelligent email marketer is to not send unsolicited email. Read More→
5 Business Blogging Tips
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By Seomul Evans
If youre an internet marketer or internet business owner, you know that the quest for inbound marketing is constant. And one of the best ways to enhance inbound marketing is to constantly create and publish great content. Great content keeps readers coming back to your blog, and compels them to tell others about the insightful, relevant, timely, and witty things you have to say. Its your best advertisement for your business. Unfortunately, given everything else you have to worry about, business blogging can seem somewhat overwhelming. Here are 5 tips to get your blogging done efficiently and easily.
1. Keep an Idea List. Get into the habit of keeping a small notebook with you at all times. When you have an idea that youd like to blog about, jot it down. If you dont write it down as soon as possible, chances are youll forget about it by the time you get home or get to the office. You never know when youre going to be inspired to writein the car, in the line at the grocery store, at a seminar, etc., so dont assume that youll only want to write while youre sitting in front of your computer. And having a list with you at all times sure beats trolling the internet for topics to write about.
2. Stop Obsessing. One of the major roadblocks to business blogging is the incorrect assumption that every post should be a work of literary art. Yes, your posts should be grammatically correct. Yes, you should spell words correctly. But youre not aiming for the Nobel Prize for Literature, just an engaging, relevant, interesting post that your readers will like. Write your post, use spellcheck, leave it alone for awhile, come back and proofread it one more time, and hit Publish. Thats all the time you need to spend. Read More→
Increasing The Online Awareness Of Your Blog
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For any blogger the need for traffic is mandatory and only occurs as the online awareness of the site itself increases. As business blogging has grown however, so has the competition for readers leaving many site owners frustrated and leading others to simply quit.
As many already know operating a business blog takes patience, effort, diligence and passion. Now none of these things are hard to do or apply unless of course you are by nature a very lazy and impatient person with a passion for absolutely nothing! On the other hand, if this does not describe you, business blogging may be right up your alley!
With that said you will still need traffic which is easier to come by as you increase your online presence and notoriety within your community.
Here are 5 simple strategies you can use to increase the online presence of your business blog leading to a growing stream of visitors, many of whom will likely become loyal readers!
Maintain Your Consistency
Whatever style, attitude, tone or stance you elect to take on your site stick with it because it will help you to build an identity with readers. This is especially true when it concerns the content of your business blog. If what you represent either in content or demeanor tends to change from time to time visitors will become confused and you will lose your identity.
In so many words it is always easier to be found if you are not constantly moving around. Therefore by maintaining consistency on your site it will better enable you to build a stronger online presence. Read More→
7 Advantages of Business Blogging
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Business blogging has proven to be a very effective and efficient way of marketing on the internet. In fact there are countless companies with off line roots as well that have established business blogs in an effort to increase their online presence.
With the growing popularity and acceptance of e commerce it makes good business sense for even offline companies to take a position on the internet to help capture some of the global traffic it offers. It seems that business blogs have become the platform of choice for many and with plenty of good reasons.
Here are 7 distinct advantages you can expect to experience when using a blogging platform for marketing on the internet.
Cost Efficient
The cost of setting up and maintaining any business blogs will easily fit into even the tightest budgets. Your only outlay of cash would involve purchasing a domain name which can be done for under $10 and paying for a hosting service which amounts to pennies a day. For the exposure you get, you can not beat the cost efficiencies involved in blogging. Read More→
Internet Marketing For Small Business That Produce Bankable Results
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Internet marketing for small business is quickly becoming the new advertising platform for many small business owners these days and for good reason, the internet has proven to be an excellent way to get your brand, business, product and/or service to the market.
As more and more consumers decrease the use of yellow pages and local newspapers as a way to find local business the return on investment for internet marketing for small business is very attractive.
However now is the time to start establishing your businesses online presence if you haven’t already. For years a few smart companies who saw the trend and jumped on early have quietly being growing their businesses while many of their competitors who in some cases are much bigger have scaled down due to financially tough times.
Internet marketing for small business is not just a getting on the first page on Google as most small business owners desire. Having your website optimized for the search engines and showing up in the top results is an important part of internet marketing however this is only one part of a much bigger strategy. Read More→
15 Email Marketing Best Practices
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As you may know, most people now spend more time reading their emails than they do surfing the web. Email is one of the most powerful mediums that you can use to talk to visitors, customers and prospects.
In this article I will discuss 15 best practices that you can use everyday in your email marketing activities. Used wisely and consistently, there’s no doubt you’ll see an increased response from your subscribers — whether it be for more feedback, more product/seminar registrations, or even more orders.
1. Avoiding the Spam Filters — The majority of large Internet service providers now use rigorous spam protection mechanisms to trap unsolicited email before it gets into their customers inboxes. Spam filters generally “rank” each email by a number of different criteria, and, if that email rates above a certain level (such as 10 spam points), then it is flagged as spam and deleted.
To make sure your emails don’t get flagged as spam — and deleted before they even get to your subscribers — avoid using words such as ‘Free’, ‘$$$’, ‘Save’, ‘Discount’, etc in both the subject line and the content of your email.
2. Maximizing Click-Thru Rates — Both web pages and emails can contain a lot of text and graphics, and this sometimes makes it harder to get your subscribers to perform a certain task, such as clicking on a link to see your special offers.
Numerous research papers tell us that the majority of Internet users respond better to a plain, bold, blue text link — such as this — as opposed to a banner or button. So, if you’re going to include links in your emails, make sure they are bold, blue and underlined. This will mean that more subscribers click through, meaning more conversions/sales for you. Read More→
Internet Marketing for Small Business-Do It Yourself or Outsource?
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Internet Marketing for small businesses is becoming a must these days as more and more people are going to look online before they go out to shop. No longer can you rely on a yellow page or newspaper ad to find customers, but with the internet marketing skills you can become the hunted instead of hunting for customers. Many business owners want to embrace the internet but just do not know where to start. The question becomes whether or not you should pay for or outsource your Internet marketing or learn how to do it yourself?
The Internet is the greatest and biggest communication median in the history of planet earth and continues to grow with its presence. Statistics show that 60% of people will go online first for information on the product and locations of retailers that carry the product or service they are looking for.
Internet marketing is a definite must for any business in today’s marketplace. You need to be found on the first page of a local Google search for your product or service or you simply do not exist. It does not mean you do not have a good product or service but you need to have a presence on the internet and be on top. Read More→
Concise Email Marketing Tips and Strategies for Novices
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Email marketing guidelines and strategies are crucial to make a mark in the business world. Anyone who thought that sending out mass emails on a regular basis translates to email marketing, needs to think again.
Strategies have to be worked out in order to be successful in an email marketing venture. And we are here to tell you about you some email marketing tips and strategies.
In a world of severe spam laws, it can be quite complicated to begin an email marketing venture. But our email marketing guidelines and strategies will direct and help you set up your business as one of substance.
Email Marketing Tips And Strategies To Start You Off
• Double Opt-In: A customer must be given two chances to verify their subscription to your mailing list. A double-opt in usually works in the following method. The customer gives his email address on your website. He then has to click on a verification link sent in the first email by your company. This is an excellent email marketing tip or tactic. Read More→
Why Blogging is Crucial to Your Business: Three Reasons for Starting Your Blog Today
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In this short video Ed Andriessen answers this question with three reasons why:
Ease of use – the fact that these powerful platforms can be set up quickly and maintained easily
Central Hub – Your blog becomes a virtual storefront where people can find out about you, your products and services
Connection – your blog becomes a direct connection between you and your customers
