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Good Online Marketing in a Bad Economy

The world economy is in a mess. Everyone agrees on that. And, sadly, nobody sees great improvement in the coming year or two.

That means that business owners need new strategies…especially new marketing strategies…to deal with the current economic ills. If you do not have a relatively new and comprehensive marketing plan designed to take you through the current “bad times”, you need to get started on one. The sooner the better.

The best way to begin building a comprehensive marketing plan start is by asking and answering a few essential questions. What are your challenges? What are your opportunities? Who have been your best customers? Who are your best potential customers now and in the future? What do you have to do attract and retain customers in the current economic climate? Do you need to expand, contract, or adjust your product mix? The answers to these and related questions will point you in the right direction.

Some businesses actually benefit greatly from a weak economy. However, their marketing mix and marketing messages may require a change when times are tough.

If you are selling home-based business opportunities, for instance, you may experience greater demand when economic anxieties are high. Thus, you will probably want to increase your outreach efforts to people concerned about downsizings and business closings. And, your marketing messages to these people might be different than in the past. While not entirely abandoning messages about the high income opportunities and freedom of working at home, you will almost certainly be well served by spending considerable time talking about the security of owning one’s own business and being immune to worries of layoffs and complete loss of income.

If you are selling high priced products, you will have a separate set of questions and concerns than do those of us with more mundane products and services. Your market may become even smaller and more targeted than ever as you seek to reach the shrinking number of the economically privileged; people who can afford luxuries even in difficult times. And, as your market shrinks, your frequency of contact may have to be greater, as might the average purchase size. Or, because very few people are entirely immune to anxiety about our current economic crisis, you might want to highlight your $100 bottles of wine, as opposed to your $300 choices.

At times like these, it is always important to reconsider pricing. Will lowering your price increase your sales volume enough to provide adequate revenue to compensate for a lower per unit profit margin? Or, will it lower the perception of the value of your product? These are tough but important questions if there is lessened demand for your product or service.

Of course, you have to consider what your competitors are doing. A little competitive research to find out where your competitors are putting their advertising dollars and what they are saying about their products can be very instructive, particular if you track them on an ongoing basis to see what they stick with. Remember, you can assume they only stick with promotional efforts that have proven to be successful. And, there are lots of good tools and programs that make competitive research easier than ever before.

If you ask yourself the right questions and take the time you need to answer them fully, developing an adjusted marketing plan will notprove to be rocket science. And, if need be, get some expert advice from someone with successful experience in your industry.

A good product in 2007 is a good product today. But, you may have to market it very differently to be successful.

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Brand and Deliver - Your Product In the Loop

What do you do? You have given birth to a great idea, a great big baby with massive potential. The problem is turning potential into genuine success. Where do you begin?

Frustration can easily manifest itself if you hit a brick wall when it comes to marketing and PR knowledge. You yourself are convinced your idea is a good one but how do you let the world know about it when the market place is already drowning in all singing, all dancing products.

It is a given these days that a little bit of showbiz dressing can push a product or an event a long way, provided it has some value to begin with. Your work might be the best in the business but if nobody else is aware of it, your endeavours may be fruitless.

So what are the foundations to build success on? What kind of makeover is needed to transform a brand name that is genius but painfully obscure into something that is on peoples minds everywhere and causing a real buzz?

Your goals are brand awareness and brand recognition. How do you get there?

Brand Identity: Does your product, service or event have an identity? Does it live and breathe or is it just a scribble in a notepad?

Brand Strategy: Identity for your brand has been achieved and established. What are the results you are hoping to yield? The benefits you hope to reap? What is your target audience and how do you best reach them specifically?

Brand Building: Your brand has the identity you created and your brand strategy is in place. Now you want to bring it all the pieces together to work as a cohesive unit. What tools are at your disposal to achieve this?

Once you have climbed these particular steps your brand should be ready for the rat race that begins once it is in the public eye. The hustle and bustle of competition, the pushing and shoving of myriad other brands diving for the spotlight of fame and fortune.

Tools: This is the moment when the decided upon tools become the main players for your brand. You are convinced you have chosen the correct tools for the job? What tools are available? Many are very specialised and technical, requiring a level of expertise to get the most from them. For some this provides another tricky obstacle but of course there are many who are able to manage all these tools themselves.

Crisis management, media relations, online Pr, social media Pr and press releases are some of the tools that will undoubtedly be essential when it comes to the brand battle.

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The #1 Secret for Article Marketing Success

Almost all website owners who want to promote their sites use article marketing. That should come as no surprise.

There are two keys, and two keys only, to a successful website…content and traffic (visitors). And, while traffic can come from many sources, the best traffic comes from organic listings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

To begin with, although it takes time and energy to build and optimize a site which ranks well in the search engines, the traffic your site receives from the search engines is free. If you advertise, it may cost you $5 or more to generate a visitor to your site. And, research has clearly revealed that visitors who reach you because they found your site in a Google or Yahoo search are far more likely to be buyers than those who come to you as a result of advertising. Four times as likely, in some studies.

In other words, because these visitors have gone to the trouble of searching for information related to the websites on which they wind up, they are more likely to buy, donate, request further information, add themselves to a newsletter mailing list, etc.

That is why smart website owners spend significant time and money trying to earn high search engine ranking. And, since obtaining links is critical to achieving such rankings, they are all engaged in a link building campaign of one kind or another. Generally, article marketing is a part of their campaigns because few other activities can be counted on to generate as many links as quickly. In fact, a popular article can produce dozens of links almost immediately and hundreds of links within a few weeks.

Generally, website owners write about the subjects of their websites…the subjects they know best and the areas in which they are seeking potential customers.

Unfortunately, most article writers compose articles only on things directly related to their websites. Big, big mistake!

By writing on a limited range of topics, they limit the article directories and websites which will be interested in using their articles. And, by doing that, they limit the number of links their writing efforts will get them. As an example, I have several education sites, so my articles are most often about college admission, scholarships, online education, and similar topics. I’ve gotten thousands of links with these articles, but there are lots of article directories and websites that have no interest in those subjects. Thus, by writing an occasional article (like this one) on another topic, I can can a whole new audience, and a much greater number of links.

I recently wrote an article on winning strategies for casual sports bettors. I have written about search engine optimization, teaching teens safe driving habits, helicopter parents, and dozens of other areas. My most published article was on great backyard hamburger grilling recipes. The very best tip I can give other writers is to write and submit periodic articles on at least 4-5 subjects in addition to the subject(s) of their websites. The rewards, in terms of links, are enormous.

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Choosing a trade show booth that reflects your corporate style

Choosing the portable booth for your company’s upcoming trade show can be a real headache but it doesn’t have to be. With a few simple suggestions in mind, the selection process gets a lot easier.

When your company participates in a trade show, your trade show booth says more about your corporate image than you might imagine. How you’re represented makes an impact on important people in your industry - the people who make the decisions. It’s important to make the best impression you can but how? You need a professionally designed trade show booth that grabs attention - in a positive way.

But with literally thousands of options, how do you narrow down all the choices and pick the trade show booth that best represents your company? There are three main factors to consider: size, style and price range.

Portable trade show booths can range in size anywhere from 10×10 feet to 30×100 feet you can even get a 50×50-foot display if that’s what your corporate needs dictate. It’s important to remember that the booth you choose will ultimately depend on the needs of your company, its style and budgetary limitations.

The style of your portable trade show booth depends largely on the image you wish to present. Are you looking for a simple backdrop with a few countertops for table-top displays? Or are you in the market for something really elaborate maybe a booth with shelving and partitions and small meeting and display rooms? Overhead banners? Large signage? The style options are practically endless!

Whatever you decide, you have to make sure your trade show booth characterizes your business well - and that it’s approachable. Ensure that your booth adequately represents the company culture, its products and overall goals.

Trade show booths come in all shapes and sizes and that means they come with all size price tags. But, just because you may be on a budget, doesn’t mean you can’t design a nice trade show booth in the $400-500 range.

But, if you’re looking to go really high end, how about custom designing a portable trade show booth with the potential to eat all the others alive? For about $240,000, you can get a custom-made double-deck booth with every imaginable feature. Okay, so maybe you’re not the marketing director for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs. Let’s think a little smaller.

However, somewhere between “bare bones” and “wildly outlandish” lies a grey area that comfortably encompasses many companies’ marketing budgets. This mid range includes a variety of nicely equipped booths that can appropriately depict your company’s style and corporate image without putting a huge dent in your budget.

Whatever size and style of portable trade show booth you decide on, ensure that it meets your needs and represents your business correctly within your particular industry. Choose wisely and you’ll have a trade show booth to be proud of for years to come.

The idea gallery at Expo Marketing (www.expomarketing.com) should be your first stop when looking for a trade show booth. Expo Marketing’s design pros will work with you to develop the ideal booth for you and your company.

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Have You Considered a Custom Poster?

Everywhere you go you see them: in store windows advertising this week’s specials, at a convention or science fair displaying information, or at a concert hall or arena with artistic renderings of the star act. You probably take them for granted as each one is a custom poster. You probably don’t even give them a second thought. You probably never think that you can have one yourself, but you can.

Posters for Information

Look around your job or business. Is there a use for a custom poster there? If you see handmade signs conveying useful information tacked to the wall, or if there are fliers done up on the computer and printed out on letter-sized paper to direct customers or inform fellow workers, then you may need a custom poster or two.

This is the information age, and as such, people collect and trade information in all forms at all times. We’re used to color and professional layouts telling us what we need to know. Big posters with big headlines are the medium we expect.

Did you even know that there are businesses available to print out large, color copies of your layouts? Are you aware that there are places accessible on the internet to design the layouts and make professional copies for you? For sales conventions, for directions to the fire exits, for any business need, you can have one or hundreds of custom posters made and delivered to you.

Posters for Entertainment

Since they’re so easy to get, why not use a custom poster for a party or a room decoration? You can take a family picture, manipulate the image digitally, and have it printed to portray your kids as pirates or ballerinas, monkeys or giraffes, cartoon characters or super heroes. If you can’t do the manipulation, there are plenty of professionals out there waiting for the chance.

You can get a custom poster of your son’s band imitating the poster of his own favorite band. You can have a couple of copies of an informative custom poster made for your next yard sale. You can get a fine looking wanted poster of Uncle Marty in time for his next birthday party. So what are you waiting for? A little imagination and a search on the internet is all it takes to have your own custom poster.

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How To Generate Offline Publicity For Your Online Business

There are many advantages to using the Internet to do business. For example, you can contact lots of people and work wherever you want. But you do not have to limit yourself to online publicity only.

Press releases are a great way to gain exposure for your business. They may sound formal and complicated, but they are simply documents containing information, submitted to the media, in hopes the media will feature the information.

Press releases follow the same standard format. You can find example press releases online. They should include facts about your company and details on special events or promotions that you will soon have. Press releases can be sent to newspapers in your area or online media sources.

Just giving someone a business card is a powerful publicity tool. You can promote your business by doing nothing more than putting your business card inside you mailbox, attaching it to the back of fliers, or simply handing it out.

Depending on the type of business you have, you may be able to find local events to sponsor. For example, if you have a business that pertains to children, you can sponsor a little league team or if you have a business in the health field, try looking into the next health fair.

Many groups, clubs, and organizations in your area would no doubt be interested in having you come and give a speech in front of a group. Even though this can be nerve racking, if you have the courage to do so it can be a powerful publicity booster.

Be creative and use your imagination when looking for groups to approach. When you find a group that is in your target market, call the group and offer to give a presentation.

The Chamber of Commerce in your area would probably be very excited to have a web designer come give a presentation. You could talk about websites and any related topics that you know how to speak about.

The members may be so impressed that they will want you to help them with their websites, or give your name as a referral when someone they talk to needs a web designer.

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Boosting Publicity by Means of Email

When you think of publicity, you may think of paid ads, press releases, and the like. When you think of email, you probably think of it as a communication tool; They may seem very different, but you can blend the two and use email as a publicity tool.

Email programs tend to allow their users to add a signature line at the end of all emails that they send. This signature line is automatically attached to your messages by your email program and can include information like your name, web address, phone number, and slogan.

Adding a signature line to your emails can expose your company to individuals who would otherwise be unaware of the products and services it offers. The information in your signature line will be sent to anyone you write to as well as people who receive a forwarded message from you.

You can boost publicity by means of email by using an autoresponder to keep in touch with individuals on a mailing list that you create. Such a set up works well if you design an e-course related to your companys market. If you are most interested in reaching mothers who are worried about health issues, your e-course could be about why using organic baby food is so beneficial.

Autoresponding services are readily available and each one offers a different set of specific services, so make sure that you shop around before choosing on one. These services let you make forms that will enable you to draw in subscribers. HTML code you receive from the autresponding service can be placed in your website or blog so that people can fill in their email address and receive emails from you.

You do not have to write a new email only when it is time to send more emails to your subscribers. Emails can be written before you want them sent and then loaded into your autoresponder with instructions to not send them for a certain number of days. Many e-courses send a new email out every day, starting with a letter of introduction to the e-course on day one.

Emails that you send with an autoresponder should all include some kind of call to action. If you design an e-course for organic baby foods, use this as an opportunity to include affiliate links to e-books or links to any other product that you are working to promote or sell.

The Internet is the best place to get information on any topic you want and email is a great way to get that information to your customers will simultaneously marketing your products and services.

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