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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Small Business Marketing Ideas - How To Get Your Newspaper Ad To Work Better

Small Business Marketing Ideas 

Running an ad in the newspapers is costly and there's no guarantee you will get a response from it.  How many people buy a newspaper to read the ads?  Not many so here are a few tips to help your ad be found and help improve the response rate from it.

1.  Make your newspaper ad look like an editorial article and your readership will increase.

2.  If your ad doesn't work the first time, test another one.  Don't keep using the same ad if you are not getting a response.

3.  Your company name should not be the headline.  You have 3 seconds to grab their attention so make your headline catchy.  Research headlines to see what other industries use.

4.  Don't always listen to the advice from friends who say that kind of ad won't work.  99.9% of people you ask will have no idea of what a good ad looks like.  Test, test and test again.

5. Put an offer in your editorial.  What can you give away for free to get their details or get them into your business?

"Great advertising is often not seen as advertising by the purchasers.  It is simply seen as useful information that helps them make a decision."  Peter Sun

If you've recently put an ad in your local newspaper and received no response from it, email it through to me and I'll critique it for you for free.  If your ad received a good response, I'd love to hear from you.

Have a great week.

Arlene 

Why Should You Get a Website For Your Business?

For small business owners, getting the best return from your marketing strategies is vital.   There are many advantages to having a website for your small business.  Here's 5 benefits of having a website and creating an online presence.

1. It gives you credibility as a serious business and providing your content is good, you'll have a professional image for minimal cost.
2. Your website is your sales brochure, helping you to build your brand and product awareness and is a cheap was to advertise your business.
3. Provides information about your company, products or services.
4. Being online helps your business to expand your market nationally and globally if your product has a market elsewhere without any additional costs.
5. Your content can answer the many questions potential customers may have about your product and provide them with helpful information without having to set up a costly helpline.

Finding a simple website design that is practical and easy to maintain, that you own and have control over, you can change whenever you want at no cost and interlinked with your social networking, media and bookmarking sites, generates leads into your business and doesn't cost you an arm and a leg is important.
Arlene

Search Engine Friendly Pages On Your Website

There is no point in building a website unless there are visitors coming in. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista and so on. Hence, by designing a search engine friendly site, you will be able to rank easily in search engines and obtain more visitors.

Major search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. They follow links to a page, reads the content of the page and record it in their own database, pulling up the listing as people search for it.

If you want to make your site indexed easily, you should avoid using frames on your website. Frames will only confuse search engine robots and they might even abandon your site because of that. Moreover, frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.

Do not present important information in Flash movies or in images. Search engine robots can only read text on your source code so if you present important words in Flash movies and images rather than textual form, your search engine ranking will be affected dramatically.

Use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots know at first glance what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, you are making the search engine robot's job easier so they will crawl and index your site more frequently.

Meta tags are: Title, Description and Keywords for each page. Make sure your keyword is in each and your page also is optimised for those keywords. Don't over stuff your pages with too many keywords as this can annoy the search engines. Bold, italicize and underline 1 keyword on each page so the search engines understand what each page is about.

All this takes time so if you need help doing this, go to http://www.simplewebsitedesign4you.com and view the packages.
Take Care
Arlene

Are You Already Marketing On The Internet?

Do you have a website for your business? Business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their products or services online just by virtue of the fact that they have a website online. Having a live website means there is the potential for curious internet users to access your website. You may not be actively promoting your website but you may still find that your website generates interest in your products despite the lack of promotional endeavors; this is a form of passive marketing.

Do you participate in message boards and include a link to your website in your signature? Again business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their website online. Savvy business owners realize the importance of participation in industry related message boards to create an interest in their products and services, establish themselves as knowledgeable about the industry and offer a link to their own website even if it is in the signature line of their posts. However, even business owners who do not realize this may already be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of internet marketing which result from message board participation just by doing something they enjoy and may be doing as a form of leisure activity.

Do you include keywords which are relevant to your business in the content of your website? Business owners who answer yes to this question are also already marketing on the internet by optimising their website for these keywords. These search engine optimisation (SEO) affects the websites whether or not they were even aware of the concept of keyword density and how it can help to SEO a website. Business owners will likely use certain words often depending on the type of products and services they offer just because it is natural and logical to do so. This tendency, however, can result in search engines boosting your website rankings for these particular keywords. The concept of SEO is much more involved and complex than simply using keywords frequently but business owners can gain some benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website.

Do you solicit feedback from your customers online? This is yet another example of how business owners may be accidentally marketing their business on the internet. Most business owners realise the importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes and business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys. Although the business owners may be doing this simply for a business purpose the fact that it is done online makes it fall into the category of internet marketing.

We have already discussed several ways in which business owners may already be marketing online but what about business owners who want to have an increased online presence? Business owners who may already be marketing online accidentally may wish to launch a full scale internet marketing campaign. The best way to do this is to hire a consultant with experience in internet marketing to assist you in creating a campaign which is effective for your target audience.

8 Step System To Increasing Your Profits

Now this sales pitch is free - If you're wanting to grow your business, then head on over to my website and register your details to receive your free info pack.

Follow this proven 8 step system to increasing the profits of your small business (each step is delivered weekly via email).

Grab your "Explosive Growth Pack" at http://www.successfulmarketingsolutions.co.nz

Over and out.
Arlene

Learning About Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is not overly complicated but it is also not a process in which anyone can excel without making attempts to learn more about the subject. Business owners who do not know a great deal about internet marketing but who wish to implement internet marketing into their overall marketing strategy should carefully study the basic principles of internet marketing before launching their online marketing campaign. Fortunately for these business owners there are a variety of options for learning about internet marketing. These options may include online research, reading published books and studying successful internet marketing campaigns.

Researching internet marketing online is one method which can be used for learning more about this topic. This type of research can be very informative and can provide the business owner with a great deal of advice and other information. However, it can also provide the business owner with a great deal of misinformation. When researching any subject online it is very important to note that not all of the information available online is accurate. This may be due to a variety of factors including content which is written by those who do not have a great deal of knowledge about the subject matter as well as content which was written years ago and is outdated. This can be frustrating but fortunately business owners can still learn from the internet. This just means they should be more cautious about accepting information as being accurate and may wish to verify the information they obtain before implementing an internet marketing strategy.

Published books are another valuable resource for learning more about internet marketing. There are a variety of books available which focus on this subject and provide a wealth of useful information. When selecting a book for use as research material it is important to seek out a book which received independent reviews which were positive and was published recently. This is important because the internet marketing industry is evolving continuously and a book that was published only a few years ago may be outdated and may lack information on some of the new developments in the industry. The appeal of using published books is you can keep the books on hand for easy reference when you launch your internet marketing campaign.

Finally business owners can learn a great deal about internet marketing simply by studying successful campaigns. Try the internet marketing blog at www.jeremyburns.com/blog for some great starter tips.

If your business offers products and services in a particular niche consider entering relevant terms in popular search engines and studying the websites of some of the highest ranking businesses. This can provide you with a great deal of insight into what these business owners are doing which may be contributing to their success. Examining everything from their website design to their search engine optimization strategies and even the content on their website can help you to determine why they are more successful than you.

You should also consider how they are marketing their website which may include banner ads, affiliate marketing programs or other types of advertising. Armed with this information you can take the opportunity to implement changes to your own website and marketing strategy which may help you to gain a greater degree of success. Care should be taken to not copy anything directly from your competitors but to rather try to emulate their degree of success in your own way.

For more information and free Internet Marketing downloads, go to http://tiny.cc/p95l2

Thoughts To Ponder

This email was sent to me and normally I just hit the delete button but this one caught my eye and I thought I would share these with you.

Ever wonder.....

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway nad put our useless junk in the garage?

Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why is abbreviated such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do practice?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavoured cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on planes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

I hope this makes you have a laugh and also wonder WHY???

Arlene

Marketing Tips For Your Business

After a long wet and windy weekend, here are a few marketing rules to increasing the turnover in your small business. 

• Direst response ads: All your ads from now on should be direct response ads. It could be cutting out a coupon, ringing a toll free no. (which would entice people outside your immediate area to phone you), it could be to ask the prospect to cut out the ad and bring it into your shop for a FREE…., or to merely mention this ad and receive… Whatever it is it must create an immediate response, and give you an opportunity to get the prospects   name, phone No, and address, as well as email, and birth date.

• 
  
  Your Business Name is Not a Headline: You must always use a compelling headline and put your name and details at the bottom right hand corner. Think of the Yellow Pages where every business puts their name up the top. The business that puts a compelling headline is the one that will do the best because they stand out from the crowd and most important they are giving the customer what they want. Remember you are the solution to their problems. You can give back their lifestyle.

• Compelling Headlines: All your advertising and marketing including your business card should begin with a compelling headline.

• Offers can Increase Your Advertising Profits: An offer of real value is the best way of getting qualified prospects.

• Free Offers: Free offers with no strings attached are the best form of offer. Even if it is simply…”FREE no obligation confidential first interview.”  On tv this morning I noticed a photocopier company advertising free trials of their machines and upon purchase you will also receive a smaller multifunction printer.  What can you offer?

• Testimonials: When you have them use them. Don’t forget to ask the person giving the testimonial if you can use them. Try and get people you have dealt with and helped to say something worthwhile such as… “Helen from The XXX Garden Centre showed us how to create the patio of our dreams that fitted perfectly into our home and gave us the lifestyle we wanted.”

• Guarantees: Think of a guarantee and keep using it. Place it on all your marketing and in your advertising.

• UBA. : Unique Business Advantage Everyone has a unique selling point. That is to say why do people come to you over and above others. For example you could say… “you have the largest display of water features including glass and copper features in XXX.
   
  
  
  When creating your next campaign, use these points in the process.  They work.  Have a great week.  Kind Regards   Arlene 

Would you like leaves with your tea?

I was at a cafe in Auckland city on the weekend during the World Internet Summit with a couple of friends and one of us ordered a cup of tea to take away. It was plonked down in front of her black (milk on the table) with what looked like tea leaves from the whole tea bush floating on the top.  We all took one look and simultaneously thought ...... well you can guess what we thought! 

Anyway a staff member appeared and then stated that the leaves had slipped into the cup when he was  pouring it.  We were astounded that he thought it would still be ok to drink. 

If you're a cafe owner, I hope this does not happen in your cafe! 

Have a great week.

Arlene

World Internet Summit

Hi there - gosh it's been a few weeks since I visited here.  Time flies and I have been spending my time meeting with business owners and completing marketing audits of their business.  I've met some lovely people in that time.

I am attending a 4 day World Internet Summit in Auckland this week and there is some great information being covered.  Over the 4 days we all learn how to create an information product and set up a site and sell it on line with the profits going to someone in the audience on the last night.  Imagine that!  Someone at the last one, won over $30,000US!
What could you do with that?

Having been to many seminars over the years, I find I always learn new shortcuts or information I didn't know and the speakers are brilliant. 

So if you would like to see what we've created and would like to learn how to do it for yourself, then check this out now.  Hurry cause they close it on Sunday night! (Also, if you buy any one of the programmes, it also helps me out so Thank you.)

Here's the link:   http://tiny.cc/3b969
Have a fantastic week!

Kind Regards
Arlene

Sunday Morning

I happened to have my camera with me when this was spotted on a Sunday morning.  Don't you hate it when road workers leave the cones on the road for ages after they've finished working on the road!  Pay back time!

April Newsletter Finally Done!

Hi there
Since I missed completing my March newsletter, I thought I had better get one off to you. And at last I've got it done and for the first time, I am using "Mail Chimp" to produce it. Wow so easy to put together though it does require a couple of hours to learn the basics. If you are sending out emails to your database, then I recommend you check out their website www.mailchimp.com and view their FREE package. Yes if you have under 500 on your database you can use their services for free. Anyway check it out for yourself.


Business Booster #1 Using Multi-Selling Channels To Get New Customers - even if you have little or no money!

This is the best kept secret in the mail order industry. If you are marketing products directly through TV infomercials, newspaper ads and mail order, you will sell 8 times more again if you also get the buyers into your retail store.

So before we can look at different ways to sell your product, we need to look at what most people in business are doing and that is, in most cases, they only sell their products through one "selling channel" - a retailer will only sell in a shop, a wholesaler will only sell to retailers using agents or sales reps, a mail order merchant will only sell using mail order and so on.

If you compare your business to a building that is only supported by one foundation pillar (the selling channel) and the building gets bigger and bigger, that's ok as long as that pillar remains strong. However, if for any reason the pillar weakens, your whole building comes crashing down.

If on the other hand, you build your business on many pillars (selling channels) and one of them weakens due to economy or whatever your business still stands.

To get the full newsletter which includes website tips - please subscribe by going to:  http://eepurl.com/rmmH and I'll send you the full copy.
Have a great month, and don't forget to test test test all your marketing strategies.

Kind Regards

Arlene Rayner

When Good Times Turn Bad

I'm currently reading Michael Hill Jewellers Biography "Toughen Up".  If you haven't read it yet it's about what he has learnt about surviving the tough times.  It's an interesting read and here's his ingredients of his philosophy that I thought I would share with you.

• Don't panic
• Hard times are good for you
• Never be afraid of change
• Hunt the right people and help them become better
• Get down to the coalface
• Embrace mistakes
• Work is the wrong word
• Keep an eye on the underdog
• Visualise
• Business and sentiment don't mix
• Start at the bottom
• Present yourself perfectly
• Keep your balance
• Give back and you shall receive
• Find your point of difference
• Money is just a yardstick                                                     (Michael Hill - Toughen Up 2009)

You'll have to grab a copy of his book as he explains each concept in detail but these are points I agree with totally but I am going to add "go back to the basics and keep it simple".

Go over these points for your business - have a brainstorming session with your staff. 
What are we doing well?
What can we do better?
Where are we heading?

Follow this up with a "Pest" and a "Swot" analysis and create a plan to move forward. 

Have a great week.
Arlene

If The CEO Of Google Told You To Do Something, Would You Do It?

Let me know what you are waiting for......

For more details and to find out how to claim your free dvd :  www.successfulmarketingsolutions.co.nz/Create-A-Profitable-Business

Arlene

5 Quick Tips To Get Website Traffic Fast!

Online, one of the most significant keys to success is getting website traffic. The more visitors you have, the better your sales and profits. Presumably you have a niche and you know your keywords, and regularly conduct keyword research to stay on top of what’s popular.

Based on those assumptions here are five quick and easy tips to get website traffic fast!

Tip #1 Make sure you’re actually tagging your keywords.

Do you spend a lot of time optimizing your content and then neglect to tag them on your webpage? Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tags they’ll pass right by your web pages.

Here’s a quick brief on tags.
There are a number of tag types including,
* Title tags. Title tags are quite possibly the most important place to situate your keywords. Here’s what they look like
Your title tag is where you place your primary keyword or keyword phrase. The sentence will describe your business in less than 90 characters.
* Header Tags. Header tags are next in order of importance to search engines. They’re ranked in order of importance and look like this -

Primary and/or Secondary keywords here

The “1” designates this header as the most important header on the page.
* Meta Tags. Meta tags provide the small descriptive text found underneath the title tag on the search engine results page. Like title tags these should be kept brief, informative and up to date.
* Alt Tags. Alt tags are used to provide a text description of a graphic. Each graphic on your site should have a description and an alt tag.

Tip #2 Add content to your site daily

Content is essential for traffic and a top search engine ranking. Content is what search engine spiders look for and index - without it there’s nothing to index or rank. Give visitors and search engines a reason to visit and index your site. Make a commitment to provide daily, optimized content and your traffic will soar.

Tip #3 Get valuable and relevant incoming links

The more websites which link to your webpages the more valuable search engines perceive you to be, though not all links are created equal. Search engines give more leverage to links from sites which are popular and credible and from sites which are relevant to your website topic.

There are different types of links.
- A direct link looks like a basic website address, for example, www.yourwebsite.com
- A text link occurs when the webpage address is embedded in the text. Readers simply click on the link and are redirected to a new website page.
- If the link is to an internal web page, for example an article published on a website, rather than the home page, it is called a “deep link.”
You can encourage linking to your website by:
* Adding content to your site.* Submitting to article directories.* Publishing press releases.* Blogging and participating in social networking forums, chat rooms and social networking sites.

Tip #4 Be Social!

Now more than ever before, internet marketing is about building a community. Whether you offer a forum on your website or you participate in social networking sites, social networking is a valuable traffic generating tactic. Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools for generating links and traffic to your site – create a profile and then post comments, links to your site and ideas which generate conversation.
Get involved - many chat rooms and forums are industry specific, find those which cater to your industry, and begin participating. Speak to and connect with a highly targeted audience.

Tip #5 Advertise for more exposure and traffic

Advertising, when handled strategically, can be used to promote your content and products or services. PPC advertising is often the tool of choice because you control the advertising budget on a daily basis and have the tools to test and track your advertising efforts. Once you’ve honed your PPC ads the return on investment can be phenomenal in terms of traffic and purchases.
For maximum results, create a traffic and SEO strategy. Outline your plan and your goals and then take the necessary action. Take advantage of these five traffic and search engine tips to boost your business.

Marketing Ideas

Hello again - I've been busy collecting junk mail - YES "junk mail"! I have a small cupboard with direct mail campaigns, flyers, newspaper articles, newspaper ads that I've had delivered to me or I've noticed.

"Am I crazy?" you ask. Not at all. Over the years, I keep the ones that stand out to me and file them for ideas for future promotions. It's the cheapest way of getting templates and why not follow them up with a phone call to see if the promotion was successful and build your own statistics of ads or strategies that worked.

Whenever I'm in a new town, I grab a copy of their local papers and anything I can get my hands on. It's simple and cheap.

Arlene

Business tips everywhere

Recently on a trip to Wellington, I noticed the signage of a building that stood out.

"LV Martin @ Son" "It's the putting right that counts"

A simple tag line which is their unique business advantage.

What is yours? How can you stand out from your competitors?

Arlene

Marketing Plan for 2010

Gosh time has flown and it's been a while since I scribbled here. Having completed my marketing plan for 2010, I have put a free template on my website for you. Just register and grab your free copy.

Thinking about your email marketing plan, your database is your goldmine so top priority is create a campaign to target them. Keep them up to date with what's happening - new products, services, offers, special events, vouchers even promotions with joint venture partners.

Go to www.successfulmarketingsolutions.co.nz/resources-log-in to register and grab your copy.

Kind Regards
Arlene