Tips to Sell Your Product

Here's a few tips to help sell your products. The whole idea of the marketing and sales is to play with the psychology of the consumers. In any campaign, efforts should be made it make it so influential that the decision making of the customer is totally in the favor of the company.

There are some tricks to manipulate the mind of the consumers, which can be utilised by not only ordinary sales person, but can be used by larger firms. Although they are used unknowingly, there is no set list.

Mutual exchanging is the first and powerful trick. The company can start with giving something for free to the customer. He will take it for the first time, but from next time he will feel obliged and will try to return the favor. Offering the product for free initially can do this. And if the customer is satisfied with the product, he will buy it for himself from next time. Some salespersons get confused with this principle. For example, it is ineffective and wrong according to this principle, to quote ‘Spend over $25 and get a free t-shirt’. The offer is not free; the customer has to spend something to get the free product. The product being given should be totally free without any condition to be fulfilled. For example, the line ‘Get the latest lipstick shade absolutely free’ will do the trick. If the shade is really good, they will buy it the next time and might even think of buying other shades of lipstick.

The next trick is to present something as of high value, but the company should incur only small or no amount in producing it, like information. It can tempt the customer by saying that the information provided to them is a big time secret and is not known to anyone at all. But some mess it up, by saying that they are providing very valuable information, but it turns out to be another advertisement.

Another example is giving out free sample to the targeted customers. Again the mistake made here is that companies distribute samples of poor quality or rejected products. This certainly lowers the customers liking towards the product and he will assume that’s the way the product is actually and won’t go ahead to buy it.
Use words, which initiate immediate action, like ‘Limited time offer’, ‘Offer ending soon’, and ‘Offer till stocks lasts’ are really motivating. The customer gets the impression that the offer will end really soon as the products are limited edition and he should go out and buy it at the very first chance. This works well specially with customers who have an interest in collecting antiques, collectibles and anything which are not easily available.

Tricking the customer in making a commitment is another next good method to increase sales. The trick is to make the customer to take small steps toward the goal, without realising about it. Like when the customer requests for some information, provide them with the relevant information for free and make them fill a form and take contact information from them. This is like committing to get offers and information about products in future. Do not advertise in this step. In the next step advertisements about products and services can be sent to the customer to the address provided by them. Conducting surveys is another example.

In the above practices it’s very vital to not to advertise in the first step. Only after getting the customer contact information, should promotional mails be mailed to him.

Have a good week.
Arlene

Establish A Database

The most important part of the system is a detailed and easy to use database. If you haven’t got a list of your customers’ names and addresses, you really haven’t got a business.

Your database should become the most valuable asset of your business. Your customers are your goodwill. But if you have a database that has detailed information on all your customers and is useable on a continuous basis then your good will is no longer something imaginary, intangible airy-fairy figure. It’s a proven and tested customer base that you can in the future show to prospective purchasers of your business. It will add much more value to your business.

Every business no matter what industry it is part of should have a database. Doctors, dentists, solicitors, accountants, all take your name and details and send you newsletters, and other interesting mail. They keep in contact with you to ensure you use them when next you need professional assistance or service. But that’s not the only reason they are keen to keep in contact with you.

They realise that their database is their business. They have learnt that when they wish to retire or sell up they will not be selling the office or shop premises, or the furniture, or even their own expertise as they are “off to the beach”.

They will be selling the list of names and the system they have used to promote their business to that list. They sell a tried and proven system and all the records they have maintained over the years in business. These records not only have the details of each and every customer but have all the promotions that worked as well as the promotions that didn’t work.

The customers of any business are the business. The business that has a detailed database of all it’s customers showing how often each customer visits and makes a purchase combined with a systemised effective marketing program of tried, tested, and proven strategies in place confirming how and why those customers keep coming back, is a far more valuable business than the business with no customer and marketing records at all.

That is why all businesses whether they be an accountant’s practice, doctor’s surgery, ladies fashion boutique, the local fish & chip shop, restaurants, café/bars, men’s wear shops, and sports stores, should all have a database which is constantly used and updated. So when any business is put up for sale and the outgoing owner can show a list of customers, together with a history of correspondence and a marketing system for keeping those customers coming back, then that person has a real business to sell. This business is far more valuable than a business with no system and marketing records at all.

With any business the value is in the system and the customer list. It is not in the fish & chips, or the recipes, or the clothes on display, or the fancy furniture or display stands. You are selling the customers and the system implemented to get those customers in the first instance and to keep them.

The better the database and the systems for getting customers the more valuable the business.

Once you have your customers on a database the most important task from here is to keep in contact with them. The post or email is the most efficient way to do this. Just imagine you were receiving over a twelve month period from your local café a newsletter every three months, together with a birthday card including a gift voucher, as well as regular prize draws and discount vouchers. Where would you go when you next had to take your family out for lunch?

How are you building your database?

Have a great week.

7 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Website

Ok so you have your website - is it working for you?  For a successful website, you need TRAFFIC.   How are potential customers going to find you?

Here's 7 ways to increase your traffic to your website.

1.  Create an adwords campaign with Google or MSN to generate paid traffic.  This is pay per click advertising on search engines.  When someone clicks on your ad, you pay.  Pricing is determined by how many competitors there are paying for that particular keyword.  You can set a monthly or daily budget and the ads will stop when your budget is reached.

2.  Exchange or build links with other quality related websites.  Make sure they are quality sites that are not in direct competition to you but enhance your business.  For eg: Businesses or wholesalers who receive or supply your business with products or services.

3.  3) Use Viral Marketing.   This allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or very minimal.  This is a method that can be quite sneaky for eg: you can attach your logo or company's name product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, game or article or blog.  People enjoy the creativity and entertainment of it and they will pass it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.

Marketing - Snail Mail vs Email

It was not too long ago that most people had no internet leave alone e-mail address.  But the internet brought in a new era that is full of unlimited information. Internet gave birth to electronic mail popularly known as e-mail.   E-mail opened new avenues to the world of communication.  In the beginning e-mail was only used as another means of communicating with other people for personal or business related matters.  Now people of every age group have an e-mail address.  But, since past few years its potential for marketing has been exploited to its maximum both in good and as well as bad manner.  At the same time who can disregard the services of direct mail which has been operating since nearly two centuries?  It is still the preferred method of communication for many people.

E-mail is the cheapest method of communicating available as of this date.  The advantage with email is that you can send email to many people at the same time just with the click of a mouse where as in the case of direct mails one has to go through putting letters in envelopes for each and every person, make different address labels, mail it and also have to bear the cost of mailing. Time is money and e-mail marketing saves a lot of time.

While e-mail marketing might look easy but if you compare the net result the story is totally different.  When you are marketing through e-mail you go to make sure that you are e-mailing the right person otherwise the e-mail would end up going to junk folder.  Also you got to be careful that you don’t miss the subject or the body of the e-mail otherwise the net result would be same.  In this age of spamming, spammers use variety of subjects, so you have to put the subject keeping in mind that it wouldn’t send your e-mail to the spam folder again. In contract the direct mail gets a better treatment. Studies show that direct mail is more efficient and has better success than e-mail.  First, it is not as easy to block direct mail as junk e-mail and secondly the process of blocking mails itself is not automated like e-mail.  The other reason why people hate e-mail marketing is due to constant bombarding of e-mails from spammers and illegal marketers from Nigerian money scams to porn to online prescription drugs to stock quotes to what not.  In addition to that, you also get promotional offers from big companies and who can ignore phishing these days.  Due to all these people have developed a negative perception about e-mail marketing and they simply delete or spam the e-mail if they do not identify it as their regular e-mail.  In contrast direct mail is seen with respect and people pick their mail as a daily routine and open them with a priority.

Direct mail has a personal feel attached to it, one of the reasons why people prefer mail greetings over an electronic greeting.  It takes time to personalize a direct mail where as an e-mail is instant and the fate of e-mail is also instant i.e. immediate deletion.  Researchers are constantly puzzled by the mystery surrounding why people are so enthusiastic about direct mail.  But no worries this only good news for the marketers that they have something in their tool kit that works.  So marketers have the mailing list of potential customers handy and send some nicely composed letters to them about your company and its products.

Snail mail has a potential of going through the hands of gatekeepers and administrative assistants before actually going to their boss which can end up being thrown in trash.  The survival chances are rare unless its subject is business oriented and has some important information.  But e-mail wins in this regard, as it reaches directly the person to which it is intended to go, after that its fate is left to the person whether to read or send it to spam folder.

A more scientific explanation of why direct mail is dearer to people than e-mail is the sensory perception of people.  A direct mail uses three of the four senses of a person i.e. visual, verbal, listening and touching where as e-mail does not use sense of listening and touching.  But this can be achieved by adding appealing graphics, text reading ability and streaming audio to the e-mail.

The statistics show that direct mail has not died and in fact the volume has grown by leaps and bounds in past few decades.  A typical example is the fact that we receive more magazines, journals, DVDs etc. than we used to receive few years ago.  This leaves the marketers with a dilemma about which method to use.  The answer is simple, use email to contact only those people who you know and use direct mail for the people who don’t know you.

Is Your Website Search Engine Optimised?

Is your website being found online by the search engines?  Are you getting visitors to your site?  Many website designers are fantastic at designing amazing looking websites, but that dosen't mean they will generate visitors to your site.  Search engine optimisation is very important.  So how well optimised is your website?
I recently looked at a website who's niche was electrical goods.  When I viewed their meta tags, I noticed that it was loaded with incorrect data for the search engines.  The title, description and keywords were accommodation related.  Huh?  No wonder they were not generating any visitors to their site as the search engines couldn't clearly understand what the site was about:  electrical goods or accommodation??
To see if your website meta tags are keyword phrases for your niche,  follow these steps:

• Bring up your website
• Click on view source - (in Internet Explorer go page and view source) (Google Chrome click on the spanner, tools and view source)
• This brings up the html code for your webpage.  Scroll down until you find the Title, Description and Keywords.  Are they the correct phrases for your niche?

I am surprised as many websites are not loaded with the title, description and main keyword phrase so search engines will take longer to understand what it is about and could reduce the amount of visitors you receive.
You can also view your competitors websites and see how well they are optimised.

Is your website search engine optimised?

Article Marketing For Your Online Business

What is article marketing? One of the most important aspects of growing any business is branding it, which is creating a name and reputation for it. It is building your reputation and is how you are known. Article marketing is using articles to identify yourself and to help create an image that future customers can identify with and know that you are someone that they want to do business with now and in the future.
Four things that successful branding will incorporate:
1. Name- it has to be recognizable
2. Image- it has to be respectable and appealing
3. Promise-  you have to tell them that you can help them
4. Motivation-  they have to be motivated to work with you
Name:
The name in online marketing has to be something that is recognizable, memorable, and will stand out. The strategies used in giving yourself a name will different because it will most likely be incorporated into your URL in some way. It has to be easy to remember, which means most likely short. It has to stick to the person's mind so it needs to be unique and memorable. It has to be easy to spell so it can be typed into an address bar.
It has to be associated with your key benefit. The name also has to have a relatively generic name in it so it can be readily associated with your product or service, just make sure that it has a unique twist...preferably not with the spelling. Article branding will allow you plenty of opportunities to get your name out there by repeating that name throughout your article. This will help those reading it and others you write associate your name with the topic.
Image:
The image you convey has to be appealing to the consumer. They have to want to do business with you. They have to feel good about it. You need to approach this from a couple different fronts. You have to make things appealing to the eye and to the mind and one or both of these have to come to the consumer's mind.
When you are able, use graphics or logo's that will catch the eye and that will help you stick in the person's eye. Also try to present an image that says you can be trusted and respected. Article branding will help you accomplish this in the way you write and the amount of knowledge that you convey. If you set yourself up as a reliable source of information and an authority on the subject through your articles, it will go a long way in helping your image.
Promise and Motiviation:
You have to let the consumer know that you intend on helping them and that you can meet their needs. Article branding will help you establish this because in your articles you are going to be letting them know that you can help them and that it is your desire to meet their needs.
Establishing your brand can be one of the most difficult things for any business to do and many live and die by how well they brand themselves. Large companies give themselves giant budgets to help establish their brand but the Internet levels the playing field. Branding your online entity can be done very inexpensively and efficiently by making use of article writing and article branding.

Small Business Websites ? Why a Small Business Website Does not Produce Results

Small Business Websites ? Why a Small Business Website Does not Produce Results

So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online. Order of links So many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of i
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