If you're in business and want to grow quickly, there are 397 ingenious marketing strategies in just 12 areas of business to get your there. Most of these strategies your competitors have never even considered using.
Why? Because they make the mistake of relying on commissioned sales reps for marketing advice.
That's dumb.
As psychologist Abraham Maslow is famous for saying: "to the person who only has a hammer all problems look like a nail."
The same is true of ad agents. Since the only thing ad agents sell are ads, they never advise on other ways to grow a business. They instead preach "branding" and "top of mind awareness".
That's the wrong focus for small to medium sized businesses.
I know that may sound offensive. Many business owners have yelled at me, cursed me, even scornfully ridiculed me before walking away without testing a single strategy. Why? Because their egos were bruised when I pointed out imitating big business image advertising is a mistake for a business of their size.
Instead of imagining even for a moment there might be a better way to grow a company than throwing away money on ads that don't work, they chose to act like the naked emperor who refused to admit his nakedness.
Whether you realize it or not, the real purpose in marketing an independent businesses is totally different than the reasons large corporations advertise.
Large corporations advertise first and foremost to avoid being forgotten. Second, they advertise to appear proactive to investors, retailers, and wholesalers.
By running big expensive ads, the corporations appear to support retailers and investors with big ad budgets. They are NOT advertising to generate leads or to increase sales. They are simply trying to give the image of spending money to help drive sales.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Few investors, wholesalers, or retailers have spent decades studying marketing. Most have no clue what a good ad is or what a bad is. All they know is whether or not an ad made them laugh, and whether or not a company is advertising at all.
I've heard investor say things like, 'any ad is better than no ad.'
Not for small business it isn't.
Ads that don't generate sales actually hurt your bottom line. You are losing money instead of making money.
When an independent business tries to grow by imitating the ads big businesses create, they are flushing cash down the toilet. That's because those "entertaining" image ads were never designed to generate a sale in the first place.
And that's the way ad agents like it.
Ad agents don't want companies running ads that are supposed to generate verifiable sales. Ad agents make their money in volume of ads sold, not on sales results. Besides, IT'S NOT THE AD AGENT'S JOB TO MAKE YOUR AD PROFITABLE. It's your job!
Ad agents provide you a medium to communicate with your market. Getting your market to respond is your job.
If you really want to grow your company, focus on marketing methods designed to generate sales.
Why run ads that never were designed to make your phone ring, make someone visit your web site, send you cash, or step through your doors? Isn't getting a predictable action from your market really what you want?
I've seen as much as a 6,000% return on smart marketing dollars. Increasing your sales is possible. But not through image advertising.
For every dollar you invest in smart marketing you MUST get back $10, or $100, or more in new sales. It isn't uncommon for smart marketers to generate $15,000 in sales from a $100 marketing investment. All without advertising.
As I said in the beginning, there are 397 ingenious marketing strategies in just 12 areas of business that can help just about any company double or triple sales in a short amount of time. But the bottom line is, I can't make you believe this is true. And I can't make you agree with me.
In the end, it's your company and your decision. Just ask yourself, do you want marketing that generates more sales and more leads, or do you just want to make people laugh at you?
You decide.
Showing posts with label Web Hosting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web Hosting. Show all posts
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Web Hosting
Many Income Streams Available With Online Business
Looking to making lots of money with an online business can take time, effort and imagination. Every successful business operator knows instant riches are available to only a few with most having to spend time promoting their business and treating their customers with respect and honesty before they could grow into a viable enterprise. Online businesses work the same way, except on a much larger scale and with a much larger base of competition.
Creating an income stream is what operating an online business is all about and creating a stream large enough to support yourself and your family in high fashion is everyone's dream. Unfortunately, many have adopted the attitude that if this business does not produce a huge income, they should forget about it and try something else that appears to be more promising.
There is always the chance of finding an online business that will produce the income to expect, but it may be easier to reach your income goal by being in the flow of income streams from more than one source. If your online business generates an income, it is still and income. Do not give up on it as it is probably not taking all your time to operate it. Find another promising opportunity and begin another online business. When that one starts producing income, you now have two streams flowing into your bank account.
You will still need to pay attention to your first online business while building the second, but as your income grows so will your enthusiasm for both businesses. There are people who operate four or five or even more online businesses with a stream of income from each forming a virtual river of money flowing to them on a regular basis. Hopefully there will come a time when you may need help to operate your online businesses to keep the streams flowing.
Creating an income stream is what operating an online business is all about and creating a stream large enough to support yourself and your family in high fashion is everyone's dream. Unfortunately, many have adopted the attitude that if this business does not produce a huge income, they should forget about it and try something else that appears to be more promising.
There is always the chance of finding an online business that will produce the income to expect, but it may be easier to reach your income goal by being in the flow of income streams from more than one source. If your online business generates an income, it is still and income. Do not give up on it as it is probably not taking all your time to operate it. Find another promising opportunity and begin another online business. When that one starts producing income, you now have two streams flowing into your bank account.
You will still need to pay attention to your first online business while building the second, but as your income grows so will your enthusiasm for both businesses. There are people who operate four or five or even more online businesses with a stream of income from each forming a virtual river of money flowing to them on a regular basis. Hopefully there will come a time when you may need help to operate your online businesses to keep the streams flowing.
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Web Hosting
Gardening Tips
Gardening is a pleasure activity as seen by most people. Many believe that only people who have lots of spare time and nothing to do take up gardening. However, this is not true. Gardening can be done by any one irrespective of age, region or any other discrimination. Gardening is an activity which is practiced by people who want to make their lawn look attractive. It is also cost effective and can be practiced by anyone.
The good thing about gardening is that you need not spend a lot of money to bring up a good garden. Some people spend huge amounts of money to decorate their patios or lawns by incorporating some artificial decorations. Gardening helps you save all the time and money invested in such expensive undertakings.
The positive thing about gardening is that you don't even need a vast space of land to grow a garden. Flower plants can also be grown in containers or polystyrene boxes. All you need to do is make a hole at the bottom of the box for draining the excess water.
Then soil from which rocks and weeds have been removed and which has been nicely broken up must be filled in the container. There are 3 types of soil available for this purpose:
· Sandy soil: This type of soil loses water very fast. Hence some peat should be added to it to increase its water retention capacity. In some cases, lime must also be added to the sandy soil to neutralize its acidity.
· Loamy soil: This type of soil holds moisture for a greater amount of time than the sandy soil.
· Clay soil: This type of soil holds moisture for the longest period amount the three. Organic matter or peat is to be added to this soil to prevent it from becoming too hard after planting.
Addition of lime to soil reduces its acidity, breaks down the organic matter that is added to the soil and prevents growth of fungi and bacteria. Due to these steps, nutrients added to the soil will reach the plants easily. Water retaining capacity of the soil is also increased.
Another important step to be taken is addition of fertilizers to the soil. Fertilizers can increase the nutrient quantity in the soil and increase your chances of obtaining a better crop output. Fertilizers are available in cheap as animal manures and also in expensive forms as nitrogen or other chemicals.
The good thing about gardening is that you need not spend a lot of money to bring up a good garden. Some people spend huge amounts of money to decorate their patios or lawns by incorporating some artificial decorations. Gardening helps you save all the time and money invested in such expensive undertakings.
The positive thing about gardening is that you don't even need a vast space of land to grow a garden. Flower plants can also be grown in containers or polystyrene boxes. All you need to do is make a hole at the bottom of the box for draining the excess water.
Then soil from which rocks and weeds have been removed and which has been nicely broken up must be filled in the container. There are 3 types of soil available for this purpose:
· Sandy soil: This type of soil loses water very fast. Hence some peat should be added to it to increase its water retention capacity. In some cases, lime must also be added to the sandy soil to neutralize its acidity.
· Loamy soil: This type of soil holds moisture for a greater amount of time than the sandy soil.
· Clay soil: This type of soil holds moisture for the longest period amount the three. Organic matter or peat is to be added to this soil to prevent it from becoming too hard after planting.
Addition of lime to soil reduces its acidity, breaks down the organic matter that is added to the soil and prevents growth of fungi and bacteria. Due to these steps, nutrients added to the soil will reach the plants easily. Water retaining capacity of the soil is also increased.
Another important step to be taken is addition of fertilizers to the soil. Fertilizers can increase the nutrient quantity in the soil and increase your chances of obtaining a better crop output. Fertilizers are available in cheap as animal manures and also in expensive forms as nitrogen or other chemicals.
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Web Hosting
Home Business Selling Second Hand Books
New books can be expensive, and if you think the prices in the USA are high you should see what they are charging in Europe. But once having read them people often either give them away or sell them for a few cents.
Buying second hand books is easy visit any flea market, thrift shop or charity sale and you will find plenty to choose from. The most saleable books are non-fiction hardbacks which should be in a good to reasonable condition. You may be able to get a good price for a slightly dog-eared copy if the subject of the book is good but ideally you should be looking for as near mint a copy as possible.
Many book second hand booksellers specialise in a specific subject area or niche and this is a good idea. If for instance you specialise in military subjects you will be able to build up a list of customers and offer them further military books as you acquire them. The secret of success in the second-hand book business is to have a list of customers who you can make regulars offers too. In fact many of your customers will send you their "wants list" of books.
There are plenty of places on the Internet that you can offer your books for sale, www.alibris.com ,www. amazon.com and of course www.eBay.com. It is a good idea
to browse these sites to guide to the prices that you should be charging for your books. Of course on eBay you have the option of selling your books for a set price (Buy It Now) or putting it in to the auction and letting the market set the price. I have found that quite often I get a better price by auctioning a book rather than setting a price. This is particularly true if you get 2 or more people chasing the same item.
I said that non-fiction books are the best but there is one area of fiction that you should keep an eye open for and that is modern first editions. There is a strong market for these especially for books by top writers such as Stephen King, J K Rowlings and
Ian Fleming. For more information on modern first edition books visit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/antiques/expert_tips/firsteditionbooks.shtml
Buying second hand books is easy visit any flea market, thrift shop or charity sale and you will find plenty to choose from. The most saleable books are non-fiction hardbacks which should be in a good to reasonable condition. You may be able to get a good price for a slightly dog-eared copy if the subject of the book is good but ideally you should be looking for as near mint a copy as possible.
Many book second hand booksellers specialise in a specific subject area or niche and this is a good idea. If for instance you specialise in military subjects you will be able to build up a list of customers and offer them further military books as you acquire them. The secret of success in the second-hand book business is to have a list of customers who you can make regulars offers too. In fact many of your customers will send you their "wants list" of books.
There are plenty of places on the Internet that you can offer your books for sale, www.alibris.com ,www. amazon.com and of course www.eBay.com. It is a good idea
to browse these sites to guide to the prices that you should be charging for your books. Of course on eBay you have the option of selling your books for a set price (Buy It Now) or putting it in to the auction and letting the market set the price. I have found that quite often I get a better price by auctioning a book rather than setting a price. This is particularly true if you get 2 or more people chasing the same item.
I said that non-fiction books are the best but there is one area of fiction that you should keep an eye open for and that is modern first editions. There is a strong market for these especially for books by top writers such as Stephen King, J K Rowlings and
Ian Fleming. For more information on modern first edition books visit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/antiques/expert_tips/firsteditionbooks.shtml
Labels:
Web Hosting
Team Building Something Better Than Good Bingo Players
The journey of team building contains a certain dynamic that can help empower your team members in their personal lives and the legacy they will ultimately leave behind. Let me illustrate.
Someone once told me about a funeral they had attended. It wasn't so much that they knew the woman who had passed away, but she was the mother of a member of their team and out of respect they attended the funeral.
Appropriate songs were sung and the minister stepped to the pulpit where he began to deliver the woman's eulogy. It was easy to see he struggled with what to say. As it turns out it wasn't that he was emotional, he just didn't know the woman well and very few relatives could recall deeds of heroics or selflessness she had exhibited over the years. Her life might well have been described as self absorbed and unremarkable.
In the end the minister briefly mentioned her role as mother and an employee at a local factory, but then he said something rather peculiar, "She was really good at bingo."
Bingo, by its very nature is a game of chance. There is no prevailing skill in playing the game. Letters and numbers are called and you fill in the blanks until someone gets a bingo. Yes, the game can be fun, but to have one of your best life moments described as a good bingo player may not be the legacy one might hope to leave. Yet, one of the things most recalled about this poor woman was a game that required no skill. I do not bring this up as a point of humor, but rather a sad commentary on a life without purpose.
No one could seem to come up with the very things that could help identify her purpose and legacy in life. There just wasn't much to work with.
Sadly the daughter agreed. Her mother had never really been one to invest in the lives of her children or grandchildren. She didn't care for other people and was not generally thought of as a kind person.
This brings us to team leaders. You have a choice to be selfish or giving in relation to your team members. You have a choice to invest in your team or let them struggle on their own without any encouragement from you.
You could leave them on their own, but why would you want to?
At the end of your life someone will eulogize you. Will they have something better than, "He or she was really good at Bingo?" Will you be thought of as a kind leader?
You and your team members are in a silent, but steady pursuit of a legacy. That legacy demands that the sum total of the team efforts creates something much greater than a list of individual talent and statistics.
This same concept should follow all team members into their personal lives because our individual and corporate legacy is comprised of something more valuable than the winnings of a game of bingo.
Someone once told me about a funeral they had attended. It wasn't so much that they knew the woman who had passed away, but she was the mother of a member of their team and out of respect they attended the funeral.
Appropriate songs were sung and the minister stepped to the pulpit where he began to deliver the woman's eulogy. It was easy to see he struggled with what to say. As it turns out it wasn't that he was emotional, he just didn't know the woman well and very few relatives could recall deeds of heroics or selflessness she had exhibited over the years. Her life might well have been described as self absorbed and unremarkable.
In the end the minister briefly mentioned her role as mother and an employee at a local factory, but then he said something rather peculiar, "She was really good at bingo."
Bingo, by its very nature is a game of chance. There is no prevailing skill in playing the game. Letters and numbers are called and you fill in the blanks until someone gets a bingo. Yes, the game can be fun, but to have one of your best life moments described as a good bingo player may not be the legacy one might hope to leave. Yet, one of the things most recalled about this poor woman was a game that required no skill. I do not bring this up as a point of humor, but rather a sad commentary on a life without purpose.
No one could seem to come up with the very things that could help identify her purpose and legacy in life. There just wasn't much to work with.
Sadly the daughter agreed. Her mother had never really been one to invest in the lives of her children or grandchildren. She didn't care for other people and was not generally thought of as a kind person.
This brings us to team leaders. You have a choice to be selfish or giving in relation to your team members. You have a choice to invest in your team or let them struggle on their own without any encouragement from you.
You could leave them on their own, but why would you want to?
At the end of your life someone will eulogize you. Will they have something better than, "He or she was really good at Bingo?" Will you be thought of as a kind leader?
You and your team members are in a silent, but steady pursuit of a legacy. That legacy demands that the sum total of the team efforts creates something much greater than a list of individual talent and statistics.
This same concept should follow all team members into their personal lives because our individual and corporate legacy is comprised of something more valuable than the winnings of a game of bingo.
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