The marketer - Only marketing tips

There are over 200 million people worldwide connected to the Internet, with over 64 million regular users in America. Its no wonder that such a vast audience has made online marketing one of the fastest growing industries in the world. However, half the trick of conducing successful ecommerce is finding a way to get people to your site in the first placehence online advertising.

Internet advertising generated an astounding $1.92 billion in 1999, double from the amount generated in the previous year.

According to the Association of National Advertisers, nearly half of all American companies are selling online. The American City Business Journal reports that businesses that use the Internet grow 46% faster than those that don’t. Continue Reading »

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I have been involved in Internet marketing since the world-wide-web began and I consider myself to be an Internet marketing expert. From my experience helping clients build successful websites, I have learned what works and what does not work when selling on the Internet. To help you avoid costly mistakes, I have listed what I have found to be the biggest Internet marketing mistakes.

Mistake 1: Using too much Flash. If your website is one big Flash presentation, you are making a huge mistake! Why? Because consumers go to your website to seek information, not to watch an “I’m so cool” Flash presentation. Ask yourself, when you go to a website, do you sit there and watch their ego-building Flash presentation or do you click the “skip flash” link to get to the real information? If you are like most people, you click the “skip flash intro” link as quickly as you can find it. Continue Reading »

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The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is esoteric or stratospheric, so lets take the mystery out of it so you can devise and implement your own business marketing strategy that fits in to your small business plan.

Strategy comes from a Greek word “stratagein” meaning to be a general. Think of a strategy as an overall plan of action needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called tactics. You can have tactical plans which help you achieve your strategic marketing plan or overall business marketing strategy. Thats simple enough, isn’t it?

A business marketing strategy or strategic marketing plan is an overall plan of marketing actions you intend to take in order to accomplish a specific goal for your company. Continue Reading »

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December is a month in which many organizations make plans for the coming year. Now is a great time for you to look at your marketing systems for attracting and retaining customers.

Although front end systems such as advertising, public relations, press releases, direct mail, sales letters and promotional items are important, equally as important are what you and your staff do after you gain new customers. It never ceases to amaze me how companies will invest money in campaigns to gain new customers yet have no system to build and maintain those relationships they were so eager to attract in the first place. Having a system in place to keep your name in front of existing and potential clients is a very important part of a great marketing campaign. Additionally, having programs in place that make it easy for people to do business with you is essential to the health of your bottom line. Continue Reading »

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Often new website owners ask me how to get traffic to their new creation. Some have been known to stare at their computer in an attempt to will visitors to the site. The truth is, the Internet is evolving every second of every day. And with that, it becomes more difficult to establish a viable presence–or does it? Follow these easy steps and carve your slice of the cyber pie.

Step One: Preparation
Before going out to proclaim the glory that is your website, first make sure it’s in tiptop shape. Was your website carefully and professionally constructed? That includes content copy. It’s vital that your copy (the text on your website) be written well, including a logical flow, clarity, good sentence structure, wise word choices and proper grammar/punctuation. Continue Reading »

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Once upon a time, in 1969, there was a young woman who had a dream of starting her own company. She had ideas, talent and work ethic to spare but what she didn’t have was cash. After careful research she found that marketing would cost more than all the other aspects of her business combined. Out came the credit cards, family loans and savings. After a few months the woman realized that she had mortgaged her future to the hilt and she still couldn’t make enough money to buy her way out of debt. Sadly, she closed up shop and went back to a job she hated at an uncaring corporation.

Fast-forward thirty years and meet a young man working at an insurance company who dreamed of starting his own small business as a financial planner. He had the education and experience but what he didn’t have was cash. The year is 1999 and after a few weeks of research the young man realized that marketing and promotion were vital to the success of his business. However, the young man knew about a magical method of promotion that wasn’t available to the young woman in 1969. What was the magical method he used to start his business part-time and build it into a full-time thriving practice after six months? The answer, of course, is the internet! Continue Reading »

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Whether it be an overanxious affiliate of a pay per click search engine, or the search engine itself, if you have participated in search engine marketing you have most likely found yourself to be the victim of click fraud, whether you know it or not. Click fraud is tainting the image of many pay per click search engines and costing advertisers far too much money. Although the negative effects of click fraud are obvious to both advertisers and pay per click search engines, many engines do not take the necessary steps to curb click fraud. The result is that you are losing money. Continue Reading »

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Business marketing is expensive. Despite adequate funding, even large national businesses often find it difficult to develop successful marketing campaigns. And, with an increasing number of businesses marketing through every imaginable communication avenue, it is becoming increasingly hard to attract the attention of consumers.
For successful business marketing, you need to develop a proper business marketing plan, and then gauge its performance for your business growth. There are many things that your business marketing plan needs to address and these points may include some of the following:
What are your business marketing goals? Continue Reading »

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A few months ago, I wrote a series of articles on online marketing - the last of which dealt with email marketing and SPAM. This article in particular garnered many responses from readers both for and against the idea of mass-email marketing of any type.

Although that article is itself a great resource, I still find myself being asked questions about the use of email marketing online. Since I didn’t go into depth about the specifics of marketing using email in that previous article, I thought another was in order.

How do you go about sending email or marketing yourself online without crossing into the “SPAMmer” category? First and foremost, KNOW WHO YOU ARE SENDING YOUR EMAIL TO. You don’t have to be familiar with each recipient personally, but you’d better know whether or not they really want to hear what you have to offer. Always keep that in mind when sending an email to anyone, especially if it’s an email meant to market your product or service. Continue Reading »

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E-mail marketing campaigns can be integral parts of any organization’s marketing strategy. That’s because e-mail marketing can be a powerful tool for differentiating a brand, driving targeted traffic to a Web site, and increasing sales. In addition, one of the greatest benefits of an e-mail marketing campaign is that online reporting tools make measuring results easy and data is available nearly instantaneously after launching a campaign. Continue Reading »

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