Your Ideal Client – A Key Concept for Solo and Small Business Marketing
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."--Bill Cosby
Have you ever had clients that were more trouble than they were worth? Maybe they were always late to pay, or didn't do what they said they'd do. Maybe you just had a personality clash, or they expected more than you were able to offer. Whatever the situation, chances are you had an inkling when you first met that client...a tiny voice that you didn't listen to, that was probably oversha ...
Author: Terri Zwierzynski
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Small Business Marketing Secrets: Look Like Sizzle, Be The Steak
You've heard marketing and advertising gurus quip, "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Advertising initiatives best reach their target audience with benefits and the "wow" effect, not the value or features of their product or service. This may work well to get customers in the door. But once they're in, you better have some substance. How can you ensure you uphold the integrity of your business and still maintain the "Wow Effect"? It just takes well executed strategic steps for business AND per ...
Author: Monikah J. Ogando
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5 Steps for Developing a Marketing Tag Line for Your Product, Business, or Website
A marketing tag line is the one or two line descriptor that often comes after a product logo or company name. It is one of those things that looks simple but isn't. Large companies pay advertising agencies a lot of money to develop tag lines for their companies and brands.
Many companies, however, do not have a large enough budget to hire an advertising agency. If you belong to one of these small budget businesses, do not despair. With some creativity and persistence, you can develop yo ...
Author: Bobette Kyle
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Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures
-- Beyond Cold Calling, “Warm” Calling and Sending E-mails --
Many Solo Entrepreneurs work from a home office. Our only connections to the outside world are the internet / e-mail and the telephone. Cold calling, “warm” calling and sending e-mails may seem like the most obvious way to let people know about us and to generate sales. But, there’s another way that works even better.
An alliance is usually an agreement between two businesses whose services or products compliment each o ...
Author: Janis Pettit
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Business Marketing Strategies
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Author: Bobette Kyle
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Learn How to Market Your eBusiness in Real Time: Dissect, Study, Emulate
Everything you will ever need to know about internet marketing is plainly available to you everywhere you go on the internet. All you need to do is dissect, study, and emulate these methods and you invariably will become just as successful as the people who created them.
How do I know this? Because I use this exact pratice to make money with my own online businesses and newsletters. Whenever I have a problem, I look to other successful internet marketers and see how they have overcome t ...
Author: Isaiah Hull
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Small Business Savvy: Reaching Key Big Business Decision Makers
As a solo entrepreneur or small business owner, one of our key challenges can be reaching key decision makers in larger companies. Getting to the right person who can seal the deal can be a frustrating experience, especially if you don’t have a game plan. Here are three ways to connect with the right people.
Cold Calling
In this age of voice mail, reaching prospects by phone has become more difficult. Cold calling will most likely reap stronger results if you’re trying to ...
Author: Janis Pettit
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Small Business Marketing - Clarify Success
When you hear the word “success” does it bring on visions of fame and fortune for your business? Have you clarified and articulated what that success will look like for your business and how you’ll know when you’ve achieved it?
What’s the definition of success for your business? Most small businesses are selling their time and expertise to deliver a service to their clients. So the question I want you to reflect upon is this… “What does success look like?”
Now before you start ans ...
Author: Kevin P. Dervin
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Attract More Clients by Raising Your Profile
One of the most common issues I'm asked about is how to raise the profile of a business to attract more clients.
This is an important issue no matter how small or large your business may be.
For example I'm working with a client in Brisbane who is well established in their industry. They've been operating for many years and have a very good client satisfaction rate. However, their flow of new clients is very unpredictable. And there's still a heck of a lot of potential clients who ...
Author: Stuart Ayling
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You Want to Know About This---- Revealing the Real Value of Relationship Marketing & Management
Relationship marketing uses event driven tactics, but treats marketing as a process over time rather than single unconnected events. This simple concept could offer a guidepost in developing and implementing your business marketing strategy. Every encounter should be viewed as a public relations event. Glitz without substance provides a weak business foundation at best. The primary public relations opportunities are with customers and must be maximized if your business is to survive.
Th ...
Author: Yvette Dubel
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Top 8 Techniques - Secrets - Create Ad Copy For Your Business To Sky Rocket
Perhaps the most important benefit in the material that follows is its ability to provide you with the necessary concepts and constructs which are critical for becomingsuccessful by utilizing many of the high-tech, high-touch capabilities offered by the use of online marketing. Building your home business "Internet-Style" is not only exciting and challenging, it can also be very beneficial in more ways than can be imagined. Promoting - By taking advantage of all the Free and Low Cost services ...
Author: Erny Setyawati
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Don't Clone your Book or Business Marketing
...
Author: Judy Cullins
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Four Obstacles to “Fame and Fortune”
2005 is just around the corner. What are some of the obstacles that stop business owners from reaching their Biggest Vision for their business each year? There are four that come up over and over with my business owner clients. They are:
1. thinking small
2. marketing issues
3. time management issues
4. not enough money
Just like many success blocks, these are often fear based. Let’s look at them one at a time.
1. I’ve had clients who felt so elated ...
Author: Janis Pettit
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Online Network Marketing Business is Your Highway to generate more Passive Income Faster
This is the fact of the world : People need MONEY to fulfill their needs and wants. And other fact : Some people earn money easily, and some other take the hard way.
Smart people are looking for a business opportunity that can earn passive income with less efforts, small investment, but with great opporunity to earn a lot of passive income.
I'll tell you why I choose Network Business Marketing :
************************************************************
1. Passive In ...
Author: Myra Susanti
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Are You Worth Investing In?
Do you realise that if you're green you're growing and if you're ripe you're rotten? So says Winston Marsh, Business Marketing Guru in his recent newsletter.
Here's an excerpt from it ...
"Over the last week or so I have been presenting a series of seminars for MYOB throughout New Zealand and I have made an amazing discovery.
Most people would rather service their car than service their brain!
Now what do I mean by this? Well, quite simply, nobody gives a second though ...
Author: Lorraine Pirihi
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Managing Your Home Based Online Business – 4
Working at home in a business on your own, and having responsibility for managing yourself and all the specialist functions of the business, has been my theme for the last 3 articles in this series.
One of the most important departments in any company is the marketing department. That particular “specialist” function is one that is critical to any business, small or large, online or offline. Now you are working alone in your own internet business, you are the one who has to know:
...
Author: Roy Thomsitt
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Three Brand Identity Myths That Will Bring Your Business Down
To begin, let’s define “Brand Identity,” which is the combination of consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic Brand Identity Kit consists of a logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a website, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other professionally designed pieces.
Having a Brand Identity is incredibly important to your business’s success. However, many business owners have some misconceptions about brand identities ...
Author: Erin Ferree
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Give Your Web Site a Small Business Marketing Tune Up
Your web site is like your car. Both are significant investments that require the right features and regular and proper maintenance to ensure maximal satisfaction and performance.
Your car is a finely tuned machine. You bought it not only to get you from point A to point B but also perhaps to have some fun and look good as you go. If you purchased your car new its engine had no wear. To keep it running like the day you bought it you maintain it regularly: you change the oil every 3000 m ...
Author: Jeremy Cohen
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Small Business Marketing - How Important Are Your First Words?
"What do you do?" It just might be one of the most asked questions there is, at least here in America.
Are you prepared to answer this question and make a positive impression for your business at various networking (and social) events you attend?
How about this one... When you go to a business event and everyone in the room gets to make a 30-second introduction, do you feel like you know how to gain attention and interest from any potential prospects or referral sources in the roo ...
Author: Kevin P. Dervin
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The Secret To Beating Tiger Woods At Golf … And, Its Correlation To Success In Business!
The game of Golf, although difficult to master, can nevertheless be narrowed down to three fundamental disciplines: 1) The Power Game [Driving & Iron Play], 2) The Short Game [Finesse / Shots within 100 Yards] and 3) Putting.
Success in golf is largely focused on mastering each skill ‘to the best of one’s ability’ and in so doing, a player’s talent or the lack thereof, becomes evident.
Ask any golfer, even the pros and they’ll tell you which of the three disciplines they are best ...
Author: Paul Shearstone
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Eliminate Your Health Care Headaches With A PEO!
There are many complications to being a small business owner but none so pressing as the need for health, dental and life insurance. Many small business owners obtain coverage through the employment of their spouse. However, there are just as many small business owners who are not married, whose spouse is also self employed or not offered benefits through their employer.
Another option for a small business owner is to partner with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). PEO’s, also ...
Author: Bonnie Jo Davis
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Triple Your Business In Three Ways
There really are only 3 marketing functions...once you master them, the rest of the game is pretty simple.
Every small business owner wants more business. So what do they do. They focus all of their marketing attention one thing - advertising, lead generation, making the phone ring.
Oh sure, without a steady flow of new leads most businesses are sunk. But, it does no good to have a bunch of leads unless you can turn them into clients. And, you are absolutely missing the boat if yo ...
Author: John Jantsch
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11 MONSTROUS Small Business Marketing Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
Increase your profit potential by identifying – and avoiding – these 11 marketing mistakes.
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, ...
Author: Susan Carter
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Desperately Seeking the Truth
People today are bombarded by so much information that they have become numb to what feels like advertising or, during political cycles like we are in today, out and out fabrication.
Small business owners should resist the temptation to copy what passes for advertising today and focus on telling the truth. I don’t really mean to imply that companies are lying about what their product or service can do, I just mean that they aren’t giving us any reason to believe in or trust what they ha ...
Author: John Jantsch
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How to Drive More Targeted Traffic And Sales Than Mini-Sites And Gateway-Pages Combined – Anytime
Many top gurus promoted mini-sites as the cheapest and easiest way to make a profit from an affiliate program.
Nevertheless, in spite of good intentions, it’s well known that true-lasting success with the search engines, (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) is through a Theme-Based Keyword Focused Content site; which beats a mini-site and Door-way pages combined, anytime.
That is because a mini-site is not a viable concept for the average webmaster or affiliate, selling products of their ow ...
Author: Charles Longsworth
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Have You Identified the Enemy?
One of the most powerful driving forces in human nature is competition. The desire to overcome something or some company, the need to win, the cause, can in many cases be more important than the day-to-day work of the company.
If your company and your people are to ever reach some level of greatness, you must identify and focus on beating something, on creating and communicating a reason for being.
If your reason for being is that you got fired, so you decided to go into business ...
Author: John Jantsch
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Have You Sold Your Internal Customers?
You can make the sale. You know your core message. You know your target market inside out, right?
But if you have even one employee than you've got another sales job to do. Everyone in your organization must also be sold on the dream you have. Everyone who answers the phone, walks the sales floor, attends that Chamber event, or follow-up on a sales lead in your company’s name must be sold first.
Let’s start to think of your employees and strategic partners as internal prospects. W ...
Author: John Jantsch
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Advertising DOs and DONTs
From early on in my online career I realised that the fastest way to internet riches was to find a marketing concept that brought me profits and plough as much as I could into that resource, thus building my business and capital as I went.
For those just beginning in home business marketing it would be prudent to start off with a very small investment (I started with around $30) and try to build from there. It would like to report that I was very wise after the first investment but the ...
Author: Mal Keenan
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80% of All Advertising Is Wasted Due To This Common Mistake
You’re flipping through this publication as you wait for your latte, when suddenly you decide to stop and read an ad. What made you stop? I’ll bet it was an attention grabbing headline.
It is a scientifically proven fact that 5 times as many people read headlines as read the body copy of an ad. So with the headline, an advertiser has spent about 80% of their advertising dollar. It doesn’t take a genius to realize then the headline is the most important part of any ad.
Yet, most sm ...
Author: John Jantsch
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How To Create A Complete Referral Marketing System
These steps are taken from the Referral Flood Marketing Program. Referral Flood is an insider’s shortcut to referral marketing and features over 4 hours of audio training, 54 real-world referral marketing systems, and a host of referral marketing tools, letters, postcards and forms.
Step #1 - Create a referral target market(s) – you must create a target list of companies and individuals who can be motivated to refer. This can be clients or a network of related businesses.
Step #2 ...
Author: John Jantsch
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3 Steps To Turning OK Sales Into Unbelieveable Results!
Have you noticed that 90% of "How To" information about creating and marketing your own information-based products online is basic beginner stuff?
Yet, every week we hear from those looking for help taking their business to the next level.
It's true, the vast majority of dreamers never earn a cent because they simply don't get started.
Most of the how to ebooks are aimed at this audience.
What about the large group who struggle to turn initial success into a massive su ...
Author: Jeff Smith
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Are You Using a Chess or Checkers Small Business Marketing Strategy?
Until the day I learned to play chess I loved playing checkers. Both games require a strategy that maximizes a player’s ability to capture her opponents pieces without first losing her own. Checkers was fun. But the complexities of chess lead to more satisfying victories and defeats.
Chess is a more complicated game than checkers as there are more variables. Therefore, much more thought and concentration is required to win a game of chess than is required to win a game of checkers.
< ...
Author: Jeremy Cohen
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Comprehensive Marketing Details Not Found in Beginner Books
If this is the first marketing article you are reading, go find some other more basic articles that I have written and then come back. This data is for the intermediate to advanced marketers.
I want to go over a three-step outline for your marketing which are:
1) Surveys
2) Getting Attention
3) Postage
Marketing surveys save you from flying blind in your business marketing strategies and are the best way to find out what you should be offering, to whom and how. W ...
Author: Joy Gendusa
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Stress is a Killer…Will it get YOU?
What good is Personal or Business Success...if your Health is in the pits ? Here*s a New and Original Stress Antidote...that really works...and works every time.
Stress will Kill your good health !
I have read a number of times that the medical profession does not know why a preponderance of heart attacks occur on Monday morning throughout the world. I believe I have found an answer to this riddle.
This Killer Monday Morning Syndrome comes about, I believe, because most peop ...
Author: Dr. Rich Starr, Ph.D.
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Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Joining a Professional Association
I'll be the first to admit that I went a little nuts when I moved I moved recently in terms of going all-out to participate in a variety of professional associations. I had some experience with most of the groups that I visited in other places I had lived, or had clients who had positive experiences with certain groups. I was so eager to become involved again in professional associations that instead of really paying attention to a group as it exists locally, I made decisions to join groups b ...
Author: Donna Gunter
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Marketing Your Small Business - The Top 10 Brilliant Ideas
A Brilliant Marketing Idea... sounds great but what is it? Is it the idea that results in the mailman ringing your doorbell, signaling in a caravan of postal workers with mounds of letters (all in response to your latest advertisement)? Is it the idea that brings a 20% response rate on your direct mail campaign?
Surely these ideas would be considered brilliant marketing ideas...right? Well, maybe. It depends on the costs incurred generating the response. If the cost of the marketing was ...
Author: Alex Barrington
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Business Marketing Strategy
The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is esoteric or stratospheric, so let’s 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 strategi ...
Author: Joy Gendusa
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Search Engine Keywords - What Do People Search For?
Do you ever wonder how people search for things on the Internet? What if you knew exactly what words they typed when using a search engine? If you're marketing a product or service it's extremely insightful to know what are the most popular search terms relating to whatever you're marketing.
The Overture Company
Overture.com is a Yahoo! company that supplies the Pay Per Click infrastructure for Yahoo! and other websites on the Internet. If you do a search on Yahoo! you'll see anyw ...
Author: Bryan Brandenburg
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Don't Forget your Existing Clients
Quest for new clients shouldn’t ignore those who pay the bills
Acquisition. It’s a big word in small business marketing. Companies are constantly looking at ways to draw new people to the business and generate new streams of revenue. In this quest, some small businesses make the mistake of focusing too much on new customer acquisition, only to find that their existing customers have been lured away by a competitor.
Ironic, isn’t it? The very tactics you use to drive new customers ...
Author: Will Dylan
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Google AdWords and AdSense - A Dynamic Small Business Marketing Duo
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year or so, you probably know that Google has become the king of the search engine hill. There are many reasons for this but number one in my opinion is that above all else they put value on content. Today I want to introduce you to two very powerful small business advertising options created by Google.
These two ingenious programs have all but revolutionized the way advertising is done on the web. Warning: If you are thinking..."web ...
Author: John Jantsch
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Blogging For Business - Great Reasons For Every Business To Start A Weblog
If Howard Dean’s failed political campaign accomplished anything, I would say that it brought to the mainstream the use of something called a weblog or “blog” as it known in cyberspace.
A blog is really nothing more than a diary uploaded to the Internet and until about the last 12 months was the realm of the individual who saw it as a way to publish there random (and sometimes disturbed) thoughts. The great thing about weblogs, and the growing set of software that is being created to pu ...
Author: John Jantsch
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There’s More to Marketing ROI (return on investment) Than Meets the Eye
All too often people look at marketing ROI in terms of response rate: in other words, “I sent out 10,000 pieces of direct mail and only got 39 responses which is terrible.” This is wrong think.
When it comes to marketing ROI, you have to realize that the term means Return On Investment and the return is measured in dollars (or your local currency). Let’s say you spend $2,000 to get out a bulk mailing of 5,000 pieces and you get 10 calls as a result. Doesn’t look like much. But of these ...
Author: Joy Gendusa
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Postcard Marketing Done Right
Say it with a post card. A well designed, colorful, high impact postcard in the mail box of your prospect is your best ticket to a new customer. For your existing customer, a marketing campaign which includes frequent post cards is the perfect start to new sales - this is one of the key small business marketing strategies.
For the recipient:
• You don't have to open a post card!
• You see it right away, the bright picture is not hidden from view by an envelope.
• The m ...
Author: Joy Gendusa
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Direct Mail Marketing Done Correctly, Cannot Fail
So how do you do it?
Direct mail marketing. When it comes to marketing your product or services there are two basic challenges:
1. How do you obtain new customers or clients?
2. How do you get your existing customers to come back for more?
Direct mail/direct response marketing answers both these challenges admirably (it’s not the only way to do it but it is a proven method that always works). You can ALWAYS rely on DIRECT MAIL MARKETING.
The postcard—direct marke ...
Author: Joy Gendusa
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My Favorite Home Business Marketing Ideas
If you’re planning to make money online with a work from home opportunity then you need places to advertise. Fortunately there are literally thousands of places for you to advertise your business and or products online. Both FREE and FEE based advertising. Below is a list of my top 5 ways I advertise and get good traffic to my work from home based web site.
1) The major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista can bring you lots of FREE traffic but getting your site optim ...
Author: Tom Worsley
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Lumpy Mail Gets Your Message Through
When it comes to your gravy, lumps are bad. When it comes to getting your marketing message through the mail room, past the gate keepers, and onto your buyer’s desk, lumps are just the ticket. I love direct mail for small business marketing and I’m particularly fond of something I call “lumpy mail.” Lumpy mail is a direct mail piece or package with some dimension to it. A box is lumpy mail. A balloon arrangement, a kitten, a hoola hoop. You name it. The point is you just can’t ignore a piece ...
Author: John Jantsch
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How to Set (and Get) the Right Prices
Which product feature of yours is every buyer keen to know about? Which sales tool closes prospects instantly? Your price. Yet, despite the far-reaching consequences of a company’s pricing, I’m surprised at how little time small business owners spend on it. Here are a few ways to bring pricing to the forefront of your marketing plan.
Price is a promise
Let’s say you’re shopping for cereal and come across two varieties. One is a well-known brand in a resealable 20 oz. package, whic ...
Author: Jay Lipe
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The Top 10 Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business in 2004
Looking to grow your business? Make sure you have these marketing tools in place:
#10 A powerful tagline
In 10 words or less, a good tagline reinforces a company’s reason for being. And smaller companies will find it to be one of the hardest working tools. To get one, first boil down to a single sentence, the benefits of doing business with your company. Then, take write up a few version of this and take them to a good copywriter. After deciding upon one, marry this tagline up wit ...
Author: Jay Lipe
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Service Marketers; How’s Your Packaging?
When a shopper picks up a product in a store, what’s the first thing they notice? The packaging, right? The same holds true for someone buying a service.
Yet instead of a folded carton with colorful graphics, you are the packaging for your service business. Intangible points of contact, including your clothes, your briefcase, maybe even your breath, all burn a lasting image in your buyer’s mind.
Here are some of the more common packaging elements all service marketers should pay a ...
Author: Jay Lipe
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What A Newsletter Can Do For Your Business
Newsletters are often thought of as easy, do-it-yourself communications projects. The reality is different…and that can be discouraging.
Developing a good newsletter concept can be difficult and time-consuming. It takes market intelligence -- and maybe research -- to find out what people will read. Then it takes careful planning, discipline and skill to crank out something worthwhile on a schedule.
Why bother? Because the rewards are there for those who enter the newsletter game.< ...
Author: Claire Cunningham
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