Marketing/Advertising

A 30-Second Marketing Plan

Are you planning a new website?
Do you already have a site up and running?

If so, you need to know this “30-second marketing plan”.

Web surfing is a fast-paced activity. Some surfers (including myself) surf through an average of 10 websites in a five minute span. Yikes! That leaves each site about 30 seconds to reach the three objectives EVERY business website should be after…

1. Immediately instill confidence in each visitor
2. Give an irresistible reason to stay BEYOND 30 seconds
3. Start a lasting relationship

Accomplishing all three of those objectives in that tiny time frame is essential to your success online. Here’s exactly how your website can reach all three objectives in less than 30 seconds…

#1: How to immediately instill confidence in each visitor…

The very first thing a visitor to your site does is form an opinion based on what they see. This means you MUST imprint a unique and positive image in your visitors’ minds immediately. You do that by showing off an “attractive” home page.

C’mon, “attractive?” What is this a beauty contest?

Well, sort of. You see, a HUGE percentage of visitors judge your entire business within the first 10 seconds of visiting your site. If they are presented with a handsome page that loads quickly and looks professional, they may be compelled to stick around. (At least long enough to see what’s in it for them.)

Think about it like this… How many times have YOU clicked away from a site even before it finished loading? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Me too. Web surfers looking for something in particular not only want the right info, they want it from the right source. If your site looks like it was designed by a 12 year old, you’re in big trouble.

And no, you do not need fancy graphics, java and the like. Just make sure your home page is a place that YOU would be instantly impressed by. You do this with a professional logo, a crisp, fresh look and simple navigation links.

Unfortunately, most new webmasters cannot design a website that is professional and attractive. So instead of putting up a lackluster website, their best solution may be to be buy a business site template. Here’s a site that offers low-cost and attractive templates…

http://www.templatemonster.com

Oh yeah, and if you are hosting on one of those free sites, GET OFF and get your own domain name. Free hosting will kill a website before it even has a fighting chance.

If your company won’t spring for it’s own domain name at just a few bucks a year, your potential customers will think twice before they buy from you. Scratch that – most wouldn’t even consider buying from you. Plain and simple.

If you are serious about doing business online, get a domain and a professional web hosting package. If you need help deciding on a domain name, click the domain button at that link. You’ll find a free tool to help you locate a keyword based domain that fits your business.

#2: How to give your visitors an irresistible reason to stay past 30 seconds…

Once you have pleased them with your professional look, get right to the point — give them a reason to stick around.

You do this by making it glaringly obvious how your site can help them. Remember, they probably came looking for something in particular. If they are forced to “search” for how your site may help them, it’s too late, they’re gone.

You can pull this off by displaying a few lines of text prominently, where your visitors will see it right away.

Here are a few examples…

“This site has helped thousands of webmasters design a professional website. Come inside and learn how to design your own site now.”

“Do you need advice selecting stocks? Put our 10 years of experience to work for you. Browse our past picks and current recommendations.”

And my own text which appears in the first two seconds my bizweb2000.com site loads…

“I’ve been making a living online since 1996. I’ll help you do it too…”

Sit down and think about how your site will help your visitors — then make sure you tell them right away.

#3: How to start a lasting relationship with your site visitors.

The single most effective way to hang onto your visitors is to give them a gift and get their email address in exchange.

Hey, getting traffic is tough, so you are crazy if you let them get away without at least trying to stay in touch with them. And no, you don’t have to publish a full newsletter, but offer something! Here’s a great example…

A few years ago I visited a retail site which offered a “monthly specials” email list. Sign-up was free so I took a few seconds and joined. Every month for three years I received their monthly email. Out of 35 or so I received, I probably deleted 30 without even reading them. Yet one month I noticed a product I had been looking for, and at the right price, right in the subject line. Guess what? I opened the message, clicked to the site and bought it. While I was there, I also spent $300 on a digital camera.

As you can clearly see from that example, regular email contact pays off. If not today, maybe next week – or next year. The cost of staying in touch is tiny compared to the long-term rewards.

Just offer something of value in exchange for your visitor’s contact information. And don’t ask a million questions in your sign-up form. Visitors may be interested in what you’re offering, but may shy away if they have to reveal too much information about themselves. A lead is a lead. Ask for their first name and email address only. If you scare them away, they may never be back.

As far as the logistics, use a simple follow-up autoresponder to save their name and email address. Web based autoresponders can automatically follow up with your prospects at regularly scheduled intervals. If you need an autoresponder service, this hosting package as well as many others come with autoresponders built right in.

Once your list starts to grow, you can send newsletters like the one you are reading right now, specials offers, joint venture notices and anything else directly related to what they asked for. Just don’t overdo it. Your subscribers can be your lifeline to your business if you treat them right.

One last note on opt-in lists – I understand they take time to build. But it is time well-spent. Of course, there are legitimate ways to jump-start your list building. If you don’t want to wait the standard list building time curve, consider my friend Gary Baker’s unique package. He offers fresh lists of 5,000 opt-in subscribers at just four cents each – a jump-start package that is ideal for new and established business alike.

OK, that’s it for today’s tip. You now know exactly what your site needs to do the first 30 seconds every time a new visitor arrives… Impress, inform and retain. It’s as simple as that!

See ya in a few weeks…
Jim Daniels

* Article used with permission from Jim Daniels. Jim’s free guide to website marketing and his website promotion help site show you how to get low-cost website traffic and make money online.

#3: How to start a lasting relationship with your site visitors.

The single most effective way to hang onto your visitors is to give them a gift and get their email address in exchange.

Hey, getting traffic is tough, so you are crazy if you let them get away without at least trying to stay in touch with them. And no, you don’t have to publish a full newsletter, but offer something! Here’s a great example…

A few years ago I visited a retail site which offered a “monthly specials” email list. Sign-up was free so I took a few seconds and joined. Every month for three years I received their monthly email. Out of 35 or so I received, I probably deleted 30 without even reading them. Yet one month I noticed a product I had been looking for, and at the right price, right in the subject line. Guess what? I opened the message, clicked to the site and bought it. While I was there, I also spent $300 on a digital camera.

As you can clearly see from that example, regular email contact pays off. If not today, maybe next week – or next year. The cost of staying in touch is tiny compared to the long-term rewards.

Just offer something of value in exchange for your visitor’s contact information. And don’t ask a million questions in your sign-up form. Visitors may be interested in what you’re offering, but may shy away if they have to reveal too much information about themselves. A lead is a lead. Ask for their first name and email address only. If you scare them away, they may never be back.

As far as the logistics, use a simple follow-up autoresponder to save their name and email address. Web based autoresponders can automatically follow up with your prospects at regularly scheduled intervals. If you need an autoresponder service, this hosting package as well as many others come with autoresponders built right in.

Once your list starts to grow, you can send newsletters like the one you are reading right now, specials offers, joint venture notices and anything else directly related to what they asked for. Just don’t overdo it. Your subscribers can be your lifeline to your business if you treat them right.

One last note on opt-in lists – I understand they take time to build. But it is time well-spent. Of course, there are legitimate ways to jump-start your list building. If you don’t want to wait the standard list building time curve, consider my friend Gary Baker’s unique package. He offers fresh lists of 5,000 opt-in subscribers at just four cents each – a jump-start package that is ideal for new and established business alike.

OK, that’s it for today’s tip. You now know exactly what your site needs to do the first 30 seconds every time a new visitor arrives… Impress, inform and retain. It’s as simple as that!

See ya in a few weeks…
Jim Daniels

* Article used with permission from Jim Daniels. Jim’s free guide to website marketing and his website promotion help site show you how to get low-cost website traffic and make money online.

Who Loves Networking????
 by: Dorene Lehavi

Many professionals who don’t enjoy networking equate it with selling. I have heard many say, I’m a professional. I didn’t go to school to learn to sell and they didn’t teach it. It is a common belief that in order to get new clients professionals need to make cold calls and do other activities they find distasteful and uncomfortable. It would be helpful and probably a relief to understand that networking is a different story.

The purpose of a good network is much more than a basis for getting new clients. A network of connections, which has been built over time, is a source for many things, such as career management in general, a resource for information and even valuable friendships. It is not an overnight way to get new clients. It is a support system for the long run.

The main feature of a good network is that it is mutually beneficial.

Did you ever put two people in touch for something helpful to both of them? Did you ever recommend a restaurant to someone? Those are examples of networking.

Despite the way it is commonly done, networking is not about elevator speeches, nor an exchange of business cards in the hope the recipient will become or refer a client. Networking is a sincere interest in learning and understanding the needs of someone else with the purpose of you being able to help them now or in the future with a referral, some information or other helpful gesture. Obviously you hope for reciprocity.

Effective networking assumes you have good communication skills that enable you to listen well and to articulate clearly both what you do and how you can be of service. The ability to describe the client you best serve is basic. However, a conversation which includes talk about hobbies can be much more engaging than one limited to business.

When you get the hang of networking, you will note that it takes place everywhere, not solely in professional and business settings. How surprised I was to find that the owner of the gift store where I was making a purchase was a formerly practicing lawyer who gave me two referrals on the spot when our conversation led us both to reveal our career paths.

The maintenance and nurturing of networking contacts is as vital as making it in the first place. Renewing them through follow-up emails, holiday greetings, sending articles of interest, periodic check-ins, coffee meetings, invitations to play golf, referrals, etc. are all important parts of the picture.

Trade in your negative ideas that networking is a hard sell of you and your services in exchange for the idea that it is the practice of showing genuine interest and generosity to those you meet. Hopefully you will find the process enjoyable and enriching. 

About The Author

Dorene Lehavi, Ph.D. is principal of Next Level Business and Professional Coaching. She coaches Professionals and Business Partners. You can get a free sample of her ebook, Stop Doing What You Hate…Start Doing What You Love at http://www.StartDoingWhatYouLove.com. Contact Dr. Lehavi at Dorene@CoachingforYourNextLevel.com or on the web at http://www.CoachingforYourNextLevel.com

dorene@nextlevelpartnership.com

7 Creative Ways to do Marketing

There are plenty of ways to let customers know about your products. Why not use things that are already in place for communication with clients?

1.Invoices: Fill your invoice statements with special offers or information about new products and services. Either add small brochures or flyers to the invoice letter or print your marketing message on the invoice itself. Remember – you are already paying for postage. So, why not fully utilizing this part of the business?!

2. Cash register receipts: If you generate receipts for your customers, they should include more than just a transaction record. If your cash register allows it – print a small marketing message at the bottom of each receipt. Or have it print out a second receipt that you hand the customer, too. Target as an example always prints out two receipts for the client. The first one is a regular receipt. The second one is for the case the customer has bought a present and does not want to hand the real receipt to the person receiving the present – but still allowing to return an item. It actually reminds the customer about buying presents at Target. You could use the same option to make customers aware of current specials that you are offering.

3. Occasion cards: Send birthday cards, Thanksgiving cards, congratulations cards—they’re great ways to let customers know you care. This builds up a much higher level of customer loyalty.

4. Partner up. By partnering with other businesses in your marketing efforts, you can dramatically expand your results. Example: A web hosting business can team up with a local ISP (Internet Service Provider) or with a local web designer. The web designer uses your services for web hosting, while you refer any client to him who needs a website build.

5. Run a contest. People love contests. Just witness the huge success of game shows on television. People even love to see other people win! Why don’t you run your own contest? If you choose to develop a promotional contest, make sure it is not a plain boring contest. Make it fun, make it silly, and don’t forget to really hype it up. If your contest is wacky and crazy enough, you will be able to even get some good media coverage (mainly local radio stations / maybe local newspapers). That is free advertising for your business.

6. Giveaways
You will probably wondering how you can make money if you give away your products free of charge?! Well, it’s a lot easier and less expensive than paying for a real advertising campaign. In fact, giveaways have their place in just about any type of business.

For consumer retail businesses, you may want to offer your product for free trial periods, or offer free estimates if you are in a service-oriented business. Let’s assume your selling computer peripherals. Give away that nice, cool looking printer for free – and make the money on selling paper and extra ink cartridges. Once a customer is in your store, he might be buying something.

Limit the giveaways to the first 10 customers per hour or for a time period during the day. Many people will come, not everyone gets something for free, but maybe some will buy something from you anyway.

Giveaways work very well on the Internet, too. If you have a nice online store – spread the word through websites like Fatwallet.com or techbargains.com (and many others).

7. Packaging is king
”Don’t judge a book by its cover,” they old saying states -but as a book publisher I can tell you that the cover is exactly how most people judge books. If you walk around in a retail store, it’s the odd-looking packages stand out and get the attention of the shopper. Use the same principle for your products – no matter if it is online or offline retailing.

Turning customer complaints into Sales

Complaints offer companies an amazing insight and the chance to improve their services. However, many companies do not at all value them as much as they really should, and many try to avoid receiving them. Complaints shed light on where your company might fall short and where you could excel. Negative feedback can be used as a driving force behind product and service enhancements, new offerings, and outbound sales and marketing campaigns. Analyze each situation carefully.

You can never eliminate customer complaint. If you are running a business – no matter of what size – you will have at one point customers complaining. Some mistakes will happen regardless of how carefully you try to prevent them. Expect to get a few complaints periodically. It’s part of operating a business. But – you can and should plan for complaints. Proper planing will help you to make the best out of customer complaints. Always handle customer complaints with a positive attitude. Smile while talking to the customer on the phone or when you write an email. It does not matter if you are responsible for what happened or if the customer made a mistake and blames it on you. Make your customer happy now and he will reward you with more sales later on.

Surprise your customer with a fast response to his/her complaint. If you can’t solve the problem right away, make sure that you keep a good level of communication alive. Nothing bothers people more than the feeling of being ignored – especially in touchy situations like this. The longer a customer has to worry about getting the problem solved, the less likely he will accept a solution and remain your customer.

Grade the level of the complaint. If you did screw up – fix it. Don’t have the customer be responsible for your mistakes. Let the customer know that you made a mistake and what your plan is. Let him know what you learned from the situation and what you will do to prevent future situations from happening. If it is the customers fault, decide if it is worth keeping this customer. If the customer has never represented a problem and does not seem to be a troublemaker, it is well worth to keep him and to make him happy – if the price is reasonable. Don’t just only look at the short-term, but also consider the mid to long term.

You have decided to solve the issue and to take the blame. Congratulations. Take responsibility for resolving your customer’s complaint even if the problem was not your fault. Apologize for the inconvenience to the customer. Briefly summarize the situation and explain the cause of the problem. Don’t lie. But – good wording can help you here. Explaining your mistake in proper wording can still describe you as a person who knows what happened and still is in control. Don’t be blaming someone else for the problem. It sounds like a cheap excuse.

Now it is time to make the winning move and to turn this customer into a person creating referals for your business. Surprise him by solving the problem AND by giving the customer something extra to compensate him for the inconvenience. This will put the customer in the situation of having something received for free. He feels obligated and honored. He will feel he came out of the situation with a great deal at his hand. This helps the customer a) to forget about the initial problem he had and b) instead, he will remember the special attention you gave him when being asked about your services.

Follow-up with the client after a few days and again after a month. Make sure that the client is happy. Of course – make sure that if you caused the problem, that it won’t happen again. You might not have a second chance and the market out there is brutal. Your competitors are just waiting for your mistakes.

While others just move on after get a complaint out of the way, you should take the time write everything down. It could be just some sort of a journal or a professional complaint database software that you purchased. Keep track of every complaint and come back frequently to revisit each item. Make sure that you are not falling short of avoiding similar situations. Proper handling of a touchy situation, can result in increasing sales and higher customer satisfaction.

Confessions and Tips from a Top Web Hosting Salesman
 by: Jamie Chantiles

Have you ever gone car shopping with a former car salesperson? Their industry and sales knowledge is powerful information vital to the average buyer. Gaining their street smarts and savvy gives the buyer an edge. This “edge” can be the difference between getting good value and being taken advantage of.

As a former top web hosting salesman, I have decided to come forward and shed some light on the industry. The rapidly growing world of web hosting, domain names, and basic web design is still a mystery to many interested people. My intent is to help you understand basic “do’s and don’ts” in order to help you make a better more-informed decision.

When I got into this business several years ago a close friend if mine had paid $35 for a domain name and had monthly expenses of $20 for simple hosting. By quickly checking the domain name I discovered it was in the hosting company’s name and not the actual owner of the website! I also quickly realized that this $275 annual expense was available at less than $100.

Not controlling your domain name can become a huge problem to website owners even though it is the smallest annual expense. You can be “held hostage” by hosting companies who control your domain name. This is how they keep you paying more than you should monthly, because you cannot leave! Make sure you are dealing with a reputable reseller or actual Registrar when you buy your domain name. Also consider buying the name for 5 or 10 years for $40-$80. If your email address changes or the credit card expiration changes, you can accidentally lose the name and have fines of $200 to get it back. Be wary of free domains and free web hosting, as you still get what you pay for. For more info on the subject refer to DomainInformer.

Not having the username and passwords to access the web hosting accounts is another huge mistake many buyers make. If your web designer turns up missing, and you cannot gain access to the files you bought and paid for, then you cannot leave that web host. This is the most common problem I encountered in my selling names, sites, and design! By the time you realize you are over-paying, you are frustrated because you are powerless. Do not trust anyone to keep this information for you. The relationship may change and you will be glad you are independent, informed, and in control of the situation.

Finally you also need to keep a copy of the files on your hard drive and/or backed up on a CD. This way if the web host loses the files or your designer is MIA you have a backup plan. Be sure the domain name is registered with you as the administrative contact, and that you have all username/password combinations for names and hosting accounts.

When you are a prospect everyone acts professionally, but what about after you are a customer? To be really comfortable with your web host make sure they give a 30-day money back guarantee. Load the files and see what kind of performance and customer service you get for a few weeks. If they promised 24/7 customer care on the 3rd ring and you are getting voice mail or being on hold for 15 minutes… you will be free to leave!

Web hosting is simply space in a computer where your html documents and jpeg. images are stored. Good web design allows for easy navigation through the written words and the pictures you want the world to view. What you need to be concerned with is the speed with which your website loads and the amount of uptime your host claims to give. When traffic is a heavy a slow loading website will frustrate interested viewers, and cause them to leave. In addition the host needs a backup plan for power and Internet connectivity. Many top hosts claim 99+% uptime year round. Get details about top hosts at HostReview.com.

Things to consider when buying web space are as follows: Will you utilize a database for a dynamic searchable site? Are you going to have a store, selling products online in a shopping cart? Are you going to have Unix or Windows based hosting? Do you need a secure site (static IP) needed to enter sensitive information like social security or credit card numbers safely? How much space do you need for large audio and video files, versus pictures and text only? And what is the difference between shared and dedicated hosting?

To answer all the above simply I will paint some broad stokes below. More knowledge about technical info can be found at WebKnowHow.net http://www.webknowhow.net. People are unclear on the differences between shared and dedicated hosting. Most everyone starts with shared hosting as it is more affordable and works fine. In a shared hosting environment, the computer space is sliced up and “shared” among many small sites. Shared hosting ranges from a few dollars a month for a simple site to as much as $30-50/mo if you are selling online. Dedicated hosting usually begins at $59 and can easily reach $200/mo. and more.

If your site ever gets really popular and/or you have many transactions happening you to will move to a dedicated server. Dedicated meaning that all of that computer’s resources are allocated to you alone. If you do not know how to configure the server then you will need technical assistance in the form of an IT employee.

This technical expert will monitor the data center operations; of your hosting company to make sure data is backed up and protected by firewalls. Firewalls protect your computer from being “hacked” into unauthorized people. Another option you may consider is an emerging trend known as “managed dedicated servers”. The host helps to manage the servers daily operation, in order to help the novice operator.

Both shared and dedicated hosting requires a decision between Unix and Windows. This has been compared with people’s preference to Ford or Chevrolet. Some people grow up and get used to one and prefer it for some reason. Others know both and utilize what will be best in each situation.

From the viewer’s perspective, both Unix and Windows look the same. If you are going to use ASP (Active Server Pages) you will need Windows. Unix utilizes PHP instead of ASP, and is generally more stable and affordable. This is because the license fees paid to Microsoft increase the hosting company’s overhead and they pass that on to the consumer.

Many PC users have Front Page design software from Microsoft included as a gift in their original purchase. Unix hosting now includes front-page support for well under $10/mo. So you can utilize design software you already have, and host for under $100 per year.

Dreamweaver is the other popular design software program you should investigate if you are thinking about doing website design. Be wary of friends or relatives who will do the design for free. If they are gainfully employed, the tasks that they are paid for will take priority, which places unnecessary strains on the relationship. More info on web design and search engine optimization can be found at PromotionWorld.com http://www.promotionworld.com/.

We also need to understand the relationship between the static IP address, using a database, and using eCommerce features to sell products online. IP addresses help identify where the actual end user is located physically. This is important if we need to locate to the original sender of a message or a live user creating havoc on the Internet.

Many of us have bought an airline ticket online by now. You may have noticed the screen that alerts you to the fact your connection is secure. This secure certificate assures a computer user that it is safe to enter credit card info and buy without fear of someone intercepting your sensitive data.

The static IP allows authorities and credit card processors to track storeowners and their computers to insure 100% honesty. Most shared web hosting sites share IP addresses as well. This is fine for a simple informational website with just pictures and text.

Dynamic sites are capable of storing your name and user profiles at an initial visit. This allows the site to “recognize” you on a subsequent visit and quickly load the profile for instant access. Dynamic sites also search for products or names in the company’s stored database. Searching for different items quickly and the site saving all your personal information, is a direct benefit of a database.

Most initial sites will not use static IPs or databases unless you are going to be selling online. These stores are referred to as eCommerce web hosting and are the most expensive of all. Monthly charges can easily exceed $50/mo when you consider all expenses of the static IP, payment gateway, merchant account, and shopping cart.

Buyers add items to their “shopping cart”; it totals shipping and taxes and charges your card. Merchant account banks process your buyer’s online purchase, charging 2-3% fee total to send money to your bank. You are then free to ship the product they bought.

My personal website has lots of pictures and text, yet is barely over 50 MB in size. 1 GB (1000MB) of storage, now is available for $10/mo, and has 20 times the storage I need. Large video files such as streaming video and audio are the largest users of space. 200MB and 10 email addresses are going to be as much as many small sites will ever need. Often of you prepay the year you can get a free month or the setup fees waived. Also find a host who pays you to refer friends, and you can get free months that way.

I hope this information helps you better understand the power of the Internet. We are all connected through this World Wide Web, and it is your right to benefit in every way possible. Come on, jump in, the water’s fine… 

About The Author

Jamie Chantiles is Director of Sales for DevStart. He has been featured in magazines and on TV as an expert in peak performance. His speciality is in increasing productivity and attaining peak performance by harnessing the power of your own brain. Jamie has worked in the web hosting industry, selling and training for the last 2 years. Read more stimulating, probing and revealing articles on HostReview (www.hostreview.com).

jamie@devstart.com

Business Cards

Business Cards can be an important marketing tool – if done and used right. Put them to use wherever you can. A business card can be a very effective marketing tool when doing offline marketing. But there some “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” to keep in mind when working with business cards to promote your business.

Design: White business cards with just black printing on it, are completely out. They look boring and are not a good tool to have somebody really look at it. When you design your business cards, make sure that there is something on it that will have the person you give it to look at the card. Exciting scenerys/landscapes or something related to your business or industry are options for use on the background of a business card. You could also have your own photo printed onto the business card. It’ll be different from what most people have seen in the past and therefore might stick to their mind = remembering you and your business. Only when people look at the card, you eventually get the message delivered.

Content: Do not overload the business card with information. The business card needs to have your basic business information and some sort of hint of what your business has to offer. If you’re a web host, you can have your business name printed on the card + “Web Hosting” or “Web Hosting Provider”. The business card should also show your company slogan/marketing message printed on it – if you have one. If you have a good 1-line slogan/marketing message that is sticky and worth to remember – put it on your business card. The same is true for your logo. If your business logo catches attention – put it on your business card. If it is not sticky or you don’t have one – use something else that catches the attention. A great, exciting looking background on a business card is an effective way to catch the attention of the person you give it to.

Add value to a business card, so that people keep them in their wallet or somewhere else where they will take it into their hands quite often. If your town or city has a well-liked sports-team – get the game schedule printed onto the business card back-side. Fans will keep them handy and therefore your business name will be around and visible. Another option is to print a coupon onto the backside of your business card. People who are interested in your services or products, will keep them around until they decide to use the coupon. Make sure the coupon is not limited in time to use it – imagine you still have 500 business cards left – with an expired coupon printed on the backside.

When to use business cards? Give them to customers whenever you can. If you send out letters, invoices or estimates – attach your business card to the letter. Give them out at church, seminars, meetings. Post them at bulletin boards at supermarkets or community related places. Leave 2 or 3 in the locker room at the gym everytime you go there.

Keep them handy so that you can give them out at any time. Keep a stack of business cards in your car or truck, your briefcase, your wallet, in your planner, at home, anywhere you can think of and where you eventually have a chance to hand one to somebody. Another good thing you can do with your business card is not only carry it around with you, but have other people (friends, family) carry it around and pass them around for you. If you have employees, don’t be cheap – get business cards for them, too. In most cases employees will get more self-esteem of having business cards (makes them feel valuable and accepted) and they will use them. This will get your business name out to even more people. If you attend seminars, or tradeshows, make sure to drop your card in a “fish bowl” or card collection box. The same is true for restaurants who offer a free lunch for one of their customers from the pool of business cards dropped into a bowl. When you put your card into the bowl – place it manually on the outside – eventually visible for other folks.

If you print them yourself – make sure they do look professional. If they make the impression that they are home-made and cheap – don’t do it. Having them printed at a professional printshop, will give you the piece of mind that they will look good and professional. In most cases it will be cheaper, too. Make sure the quality is good – no matter if you print them yourself or have them printed. A non-durable business card will make a bad impression. Make sure the readability of the business card is given. If it is too hard to read your card because of small font size, nobody will really read it.

The old myth of “Place some on the table when you leave a restaurant. ” is a waste of your resources. First of all – in every restaurant the tables will be cleaned before the next guest will be seated. The person who usually cleans the table is probably not your target group at all. Those are low wage jobs and these poor souls have different concerns. Rather check with the restaurant manager to see if you can leave a couple near the cash register.

“The Web Hosting Resource Kit” recommends http://www.vistaprint.com and http://gotprint.net for business cards.

Elements of a successful Advertising Campaign 

A successful marketing campaign needs certain elements to be successful. The following information will help you to develop a successful marketing campaign.

1) Establish a feeling of urgency for the buyer. Basically tell your customers, “You need to sign up today because it will make you reach your goals.” Don’t tell your customer the offer will still be as good tomorrow; they must buy today! Urgency! Study how successful ads make the customer act now. Remember the X10 Spy Cam advertising campaign? They always had their website set up with a deadline for a special deal. Something like that is easy to program and will eventually urge the customer to sign up today. Don’t over do it – use this tactic for a week – then switch to something else. Rotate these marketing tools. Start looking more closely at the marketing vehicles (email, letters, postcards,) you receive yourself every day, and you’ll begin to see that effective marketing always gives you a reason to act now.

2) Show a list of benefits if the customer signs up with you. There must be a list of benefits to make him sign up. Will you be smarter using your services? Will he get more visitors? Will your server be better than the competitions hardware? Will your business help to make the site more successful? Or make him richer, or healthier, or faster? Focus on the client, not the advertiser. Most benefits need to be skillfully integrated into the ad. It is a waste of time and money in an ad or on your website if you don‘t work in benefits and present them properly.

3) Call to Action: Tell them what they must do to get it. Don’t assume that your prospects and customers will figure out how to get what you are offering. They won’t do your work for you. So, go ahead and tell them what to do. If they have to call you to get it, then tell them to call (to call you now!). If they have to write or drop a post card in the mail, or fax something to you, then tell them clearly and in words easy to understand. The point is to make it as easy as possible for your target customer to do what you want them to do. People don’t like to do anything that is going to take work on their part. Make it as easy for them to respond as possible, or they won’t = no good results for you.

3a) Do it again: You have to (must) tell customer what to do (to sign up with you). Tell your customer to order now (this moment). So many ads assume that the customer will guess to fill out the contact us form, email you, or telephone for the information, or product. Tell the customer what to do. Provide the customer on how to respond today in several ways. As more options you can offer, the better will be the results.

4) Plan your advertising calendar and campaign several months in advance. Failure to plan advertising in advance will waste a lot of your money. Rush charges, poor design, rate increases, poor creative and poor copy are common results of failing to plan in advance. “I didn’t have enough time”, “I was under the gun to get this placed”, are common phrases heard under rushed circumstances. Take a blank calendar and fill in the days, months, or quarters to advertise to your target markets. Figure out the number of ad insertions that will make sense and negotiate a contract with the various media suppliers (e.g. local newspapers). Book banner web space on the important website early in advance. Prepare your website with a special landing page for the expected visitors.

5) Test your banners and your ads. Only by trial and error will you be able to set a baseline as to the best response rates for your ads and banners. It is very important to maximize response for the amount of dollars spent. Sometimes re-phrasing text or adjusting the ad layout can make the difference between a low or just average response and a great success and high ROI (Return on Investment). You will need to find out what works best for your business. After you find this out, you’ll want to stay on course and base future advertising campaigns on the success of the old one.

6) Avoid misleading or dishonest advertising in hopes of converting duped readers/website visitors into using your products or services. Honesty and integrity are the primary key to repeat sales and repeat business. If you have to trick your audience to get their attention, you will have a very hard time keeping their attention and their business if they sign up at all.

7) Running On-(Web)Site Events. Running events on your website is an excellent way to encourage repeat traffic and repeat visitors. You’ll want to begin running events once traffic from your site launch begins to fade. Examples include contests, games, on-line interviews, chat sessions and maybe even audio broadcasts. Do the things your competitors don’t do.

More Marketing Strategies

In marketing your business it’s easy to find a way that produces many leads or potential clients for you, but is it wise to only use that one avenue? It is important to diversify and find several outlets to market your business. It’s important to use many ways to market your products and services, both online and offline. Achieving a good balance should be the key.

Create synergy, find others that serve the same audience but are not your competitors, hook up with them and promote each other. Two are always better than one! In the case of web hosting – this could be local web designers or even computer repair shops.

Today’s society is bombarded with advertising and marketing messages. Email (SPAM), Telemarketing, regular mail, solicitation at your front door. Out of this flood of marketing messages – How can you make your marketing and advertising stand out and be effective to your target market? Take the time to listen and relating to the pain of your clients. Keep in mind that it is much easier to sell a good solution to a problem than to sell just a positive benefit or specific features. What problems are your potential clients really facing? What can you offer to make those problems go away? A great way to find out is to spend more time networking and doing market research by contacting potential clients. Find out what their real needs are by spending time asking questions and listening to their answers taking mental note of their needs, problems, and pain points. If one or two clients have certain pain points, you can safely assume that there are more clients with similar problems.

Once you see a (recurring) problem that your product or service can solve, study that problem, and adjust your marketing so that it is offering THE benefit and THE solution to that problem. If you properly identify a problem and make the necessary adjustments, the success will be yours. When drafting your new marketing plan be sure to describe the problem and the solution. This will assist your marketing efforts from heading into the wrong direction.

After implementing a new marketing program, entrepreneurs must evaluate its performance – or they risk to waste money. Every program should have performance standards to compare with actual results. Researching industry norms and past performance will help you to develop appropriate standards and therefore will help you to find out if your new marketing campaign is really successful.

It is very difficult to get your potential customers to notice your ads, let alone to even respond to them. Because advertising is so expensive, you should use a clear strategy to concentrate your advertising impact in the most effective manner for your business. The only exception to this advertising rule might be for advertising in the Yellow Pages or other yearly publications (e.g. business directories).

Especially when starting out it is critical to reach the masses and to gain a solid customer base. In a situation like this – one strategy could be spending a big chunk of your advertising money for one big campaign. A concentrated campaign on some very busy websites can do the trick. Imagine advertising on Sitepoint and WebHostingTalk at the same time for one week. Using a highly visible spot and your sign-up web page could become very busy.

Quarterly recurring advertising campaigns are quite common and a very good tool. They will allow you to concentrate your advertising dollars heavily during specific times, while also affording you a better chance of maintaining a place in your targeted audience’s minds throughout the whole year.

Many small businesses completely spend away their advertising money throughout the year by placing a continuous stream of small ads all over the place. This kind of approach never creates enough impact to deliver significant results. What do you think will be noticed better? A large advertisement placed in a highly visible spot for one week per month or per quarter or a small, hidden ad at the bottom of a newspaper page every day? If you operate this way, stop it – now. Drop all advertising for a while and see if the number of new sign-ups really falls off. It probably won’t, and you can then feel confident in adopting a new advertising schedule.