Marketing advice for monkeys

Ditching Marketing in a Recession

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:33:19 +0000

Over the last couple of years many businesses worldwide have been finding life very challenging and difficult. For those still in business saving on costs has been an important aspect of staying in business. Due to this situation businesses have cut down on, if not cut out, their marketing efforts. Sadly most business people see marketing as a waste of money and not very important to the survival of the business.

Luckily there are those business persons who see marketing not as a waste of time but something that is of utmost importance to the business and its present and future success.

Marketing is not simply about a number of particular tasks that must be done in a certain way. No, it is a dynamic process that is based on a number of elements including human behavior, the service or product being offered, and the value added aspect, and how to get people’s attention.

So if you are in Reigate and run a web design Reigate company then if you choose not to do any marketing especially during a recession then chances are your business will lose customers. The key reason for this is that people always need to be reminded and potential customers need to be told who you are and what you offer. Without any marketing this will not happen.

A recession usually means that money for the running of the business is tight. So your marketing efforts have to be niche specific and within a budget.

If you do not market your business then you will likely be lagging behind your competition because they are marketing and bringing in new business.

As long as your offer is good and the customer service is up to par, your marketing efforts will eventually pay off. So the bottom line is, keep marketing no matter what.

Writing Market Research Proposals

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:33:03 +0000

Like banner stands and ladder ads, market research has all the potential in the world to be a horrible waste of money. Well though out research proposals are vital in order to ensure that precious market research budget is not squandered. Using the SMART acronym we can identify that the strengths of the objectives in any market research proposal, are that they are specific as far as they are short, to the point and targeted. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

Furthermore any objectives need to be realistic, concise and clear, paving way for them to consequently be seen as achievable also. However, in analysing the objectives in a SMART context, it throws up the question of how measurable the objectives can be perceived. In particular the question arises as to how the objectives can be benchmarked to measure how well they have been. Proposal could perhaps to expand to encompass measurability for the objectives to strengthen them as a whole against the SMART acronym.

Careful thought should also be made to the methodology and the sample selection of any market research as this will certainly need to be considered well in the data analysis. The use of exploratory research will provides an insight in a problem, however it is important to not place the making of definitive decisions upon the findings, as the exploratory research, as its name implies, holds to explore an issue, rather than solve it.

The analysis of the data should begin with Interpretation, which needs to be based on what was trying to be achieved in the initial plan, .i.e. the proposals objectives. Following on from this will be the data analysis, the tabulation or processed form of the data, eventually the data is likely to be edited and coded before its presentation. With a confident analysis and well structured and concise report a sound market research project should yield some good solid findings to help move your business forward.

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Use Your WordPress Blog for Your Marketing Advantage

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:33:04 +0000

Wordpress is an open-source blogging application that has been recognized as one of the most popular blogging engines present today. One of the main reasons why Wordpress is so popular is that it supports SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of the blog. This aspect of Wordpress makes it possible for you to enhance the marketing effectiveness of your blog. Also, if your blog is linked with your company website, it can impact the effectiveness of the branding and marketing activities of your company on the Web.

You can use the following tips to ensure that you can use your Wordpress blog for enhancing the position of your blog in the search engine results:

Choose an appropriate theme from an SEO perspective

Even if the theme you use for your blog is a custom-designed one, it’s important to make sure that it meets the current W3C standards. In addition, in order to improve the possibility of search engines find your blog pages you should place the content area as close to the tag of the page as possible. This change should be made while the template for the blog theme is being developed.

Use Google Sitemap

Google Sitemap is a plugin that automatically generates a sitemap for your blog or website in form of an XML. Most of the search engines today understand this XML based sitemap and will crawl your site/blog as per the listings in the sitemap.

Post new content regularly to the blog

In order to keep your blog fresh in the search engine results, it is very important to upload new and fresh content onto your blog. A blog only with the stale content starts lagging behind the websites that are more recently updated after a while. It is quite simple to regularly update the website/blog and it doesn’t require any complex software like a data matching software. On the other hand, if you continue to update your content regularly, your web pages will be more frequently crawled by search engines.

Marketing for the socialite

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:03:04 +0000

If you are the kind of person that spends all day every day with your phone or laptop next to you with Twitter or Facebook open, then you are the type of person that is in an ideal position to benefit from some free interactive marketing. It is a relatively new idea in business, as the sites themselves have only been around for a few years, but it is something that has proven extremely effective for many businesses.

Being knowledgeable on the ins and outs of social networking sites is a big advantage in getting started, and you will be able to put your hours of using the site to good use to increase your businesses profits. The great advantage of this type of marketing is that it is absolutely free and it is not as complicated as learning about Islamic divorce laws so as long as you are able to put the time in, you cannot lose.

The basic reason that it is so advantageous for businesses is that if you are able to build up a following of a few thousand people, which is not too difficult to do, you will be able to instantly send your message out to all those people at no cost. People like to feel as if they have a more personal relationship with the companies that they are buying from, and if you keep your page up to date and are very active on it, people will respond positively. You could even make a marketing video and post it up to your page. As I’m sure you are aware, people love to watch a video whilst trawling through their Facebook news page. If this is something that you have not tried before for your business, it is worth learning more about it and getting started straight away.

Lost in translation…

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:33:10 +0000

Products, and therefore advertising, is global these days. If you have something great that you want to sell, it isn’t enough to make it a hit in the country where it was developed; companies will want you, as their marketing guru, to sell their stuff worldwide. Whether it’s something as simple as cleaning chemicals or the latest cutting edge Internet application marketers are finding that they’re required to be experts in local cultures and languages. But wait, I hear you say, the language bit is easy. Surely you just use Google Translate and send your perfect French/German/Spanish/Swahili advert out into the big wide world? Well, that’s where the expertise in local cultures can be very important!

Imagine that you’re a German producer of knapsacks and you use the internet to translate your new advert before mailing it to a US or UK magazine. Do you really think they’re going to be happy advertising a product called a “body bag” in their pages? And let’s not even get started on what us Brits think about “fanny packs”! In Germany (again) the ubiquitous morning coffee drink ’latte'is actually the world for something else that happens first thing in the day to most men, if you know what I mean, while one of my favourites was the refusal by British magazines in the 1970s to carry ads by the US computer firm Wang, complete with their slogan “Wang Cares….”

Cultural misunderstandings can be just as damaging – or as funny, depending on how you look at it. Everyone remembers the ad slogan ’The future’s bright. The future’s Orange.'Probably one of the most parodied ads in the whole of history used in everything from stand-up comedy routines to football commentary. In Northern Ireland, however, “orange” has very different connotations, as it is linked with ’Orange Order’, a Protestant organisation in a country where Protestants and Catholics are pretty much at war. Now re-read the Orange slogan and imagine you’re an Irish Catholic thinking about buying a new mobile phone….

Market your business: things not to do

admin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:03:05 +0000

We see a lot of articles on the web telling you just what you should do. While these are fine, there is definitely a gap in the market for articles telling you what NOT to do! If you associate with any of the following things, then take heed of the warning of what might happen as a result…

1) Bad copywriting: there is absolutely no excuse for bad copywriting. With literally thousands – if not millions – of freelance writers out there, many working for not much money at all, it should be fairly simple to get half-decent copy. The result of bad copy? This is the first thing people will see, and if they don’t like it this could really break your business…

if your name is Henry Rubble and you are a builder, don’t use your real name as your company name…

2) Bad names for websites: oh dear…just when you think you have seen all the awful names out there, you see one which is worse than all of them. For example, if your name is Henry Rubble and you are a builder, don’t use your real name as your company name…the result will be well, you won’t have a result. Want to see a fine example of a good website? Look no further than http://www.abromhead.co.uk/patient-handling-train-the-trainer.asp

3) Bad branding: what are you selling? Is your branding clear without being too obvious? This is something which many companies make, from fledgling cottage industries to large multi-nationals that should really know better. The fact of the matter is this: bad branding will literally snap your company and fold it in 6 months or under. If you have no idea what good branding is, please, consult a professional or at least read a few books on the subject before you start trying to create your own!

4) Awful flyers: awful flyers are, yep, you guessed it, the calling-card of every terrible business. And the really tragic thing here is that the business itself may not actually be terrible. But it makes no difference, really. If you are putting across that image then you are in the same boat and will be seen as such. The result is clear here, so we won’t harp on about that. What we will say as one last gesture is this: get the spelling right and get the colours and the design right. Hire someone who knows about design to do this and go with their judgement. Why? Because they know what they are doing better than you do!

For more on marketing, see the video below…

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Market your way out of trouble

admin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:03:10 +0000

Marketing…that terrifying monster that lurks everywhere and is just waiting to gobble you up.

Come on, now, wake up! Marketing doesn’t have to be so difficult. It can be quite easy when you put your mind to it. You just need to know how to do the basics, and the rest should come naturally. Here are some hints and tips. Follow these for success and big money! (OK, maybe not straight away, but hopefully after not too long because let’s face it, none of us want to bust ourselves for a living!):

If you have access to a mailing list then use it

For goodness sake, get a website or a blog: it doesn’t have to be an amazing all-singing-all-dancing website, but it does have to be good enough that it represents what you are doing in an appropriate way. Also, it simply MUST have a Contact Us section. Without that you’re making people lives very difficult.
Come to think of it, consider what impression you are putting across: Contact Us sounds far better than Contact Me. Surely it’s better to give the impression you are an organisation rather than a one-man-band, right?
If you are selling software which makes it easy for the consumer to buy a bespoke three piece suit online, then make it USER FRIENDLY. The last thing you want is a flood of emails saying that they didn’t know how to navigate the site and pay. It’s all an extra headache that you can do without and isn’t any fun.
Consider mass emailing: mass emails have a bad name for the obvious reasons that they are often considered to be SPAM. But that isn’t always the case. If you have access to a mailing list then use it. If you don’t then you’re missing a serious trick and that’s going to impact on your sales!
Blog frequently and blog about things which people often email you about. This is great because you can canvas a lot of emails at once. Then, people will hopefully see you at the expert on a subject, which can only be good for business.
Do dare to call people on the phone: calling people is essential if you want to sell anything. Don’t just rely on the power of the internet. A great tool it may be, but nothing beats a person’s voice.
Look at articles on marketing: Youtube is a fantastic resource for finding things out. Everything from marketing tutorials to how to build a website! Take full advantage of this information, because it’s completely free and easy to gain access to.

Successful Affiliate Marketing Tips and Ideas

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:03:30 +0000

Essentially the most annoying issues being an affiliate marketer would be to undergo the drought in which sales find their way to taper off. It’s much more annoying to never see any commissions whatsoever. Unfortunately, this happens in affiliate marketing and it can happen to both novice and experienced marketers. If perhaps that is your past experiences, then make use of a number of affiliate marketing online tips, and you should begin receiving all of the commissions consequently.

Tip 1 - Develop Specific Pages Pertaining to Each Product

This could seem like a great deal of work however it seriously isn’t. This kind of affiliate internet marketing tip is in fact just about as effective as it comes and can be easily incorporated within its overall concept.

It is appealing to want to invest in an “All-In-One Internet Marketing Website Package” this package would highlight an array of products. In the beginning this might appear to be your best option for the reason that if there are more products that you have available the more probabilities an individual will buy right? WRONG. This concept could work for a typical storefront, its suicide pertaining to internet marketers.

By utilizing this kind of affiliate internet marketing tip as a foundation, you opened many doors which you didn’t have available to a person before. Why don’t we take a look at A COUPLE OF these innovative opportunities?

Tip 2 - Developing Focused Traffic to help your own

By installing an internet site or landing page specializing in each individual product, you are able to better use this kind of affiliate marketing online idea as effectively as maximize on it. You’ll be able to focus on specific key phrases that you simply were not able to before, such as product name, the product designer and several many other product unique key phrases.

You could possibly supply unique product articles or reviews and publish them to article directories as well as review websites with a hyperlink back to your primary review page. On your own review venue you might like to offer your affiliate internet marketing strategies for obtaining optimum success of the product after investing in it, and incorporate a lead capture component in order to safeguard subscribers to your publication, securing potential purchases. The possibilities are usually endless since you concentrated your own traffic in addition to made it far more highly targeted for your particular offer.

Tip 3 - Developing Additional Products

This kind of affiliate internet marketing idea requires a bit of work, however it will set you apart from almost every other affiliate which already does the above two effectively. It can’t be accomplished without distinctive product offerings plus more highly focused sites. You can provide free reports to help those who purchase from your own online hyperlink which supplement the product in some manner. You could be selling digital products or tangible products such as Cotton Fabrics ; it doesn’t matter, a free report or incentive will help with your sales. You could possibly develop a brief video clip or perhaps audio course in which expands follow up principles as well as concepts in a product you would like to market. You will have to get resourceful here, however the majority of affiliates are not making use of this kind of affiliate internet marketing idea at all.

While you review these kinds of affiliate marketing online guidelines a second time, they will not appear this difficult to achieve. They need you to think outside the box along with utilize your own imaginative prospective. When you invest a tad bit more time and energy you’ll be witnessing a considerable increase in your earnings. Try using all of these affiliate marketing online strategies for a number of your own online programs. Should you choose, you’ll never see your own sales fall off.

Successful Affiliate Marketing Tips and Ideas

admin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:08:04 +0000

Tip 1 - Develop Specific Pages Pertaining to Each Product

Tip 2 - Developing Focused Traffic to help your own

Tip 3 - Developing Additional Products

Appreciating and Working with Diverse Market Cultures

admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:03:07 +0000

When looking at culture in a business context, Usunier & Lee (2009) contended that “International marketers often resort to using country or nation-states as primary segmentation bases, because borders are easily definable”, they go on to highlight that this method of grouping culture could potentially be detrimental as, “few nations hold homogenous ethnic, linguistic and religious group”. The aforementioned point has been further noted in a critical review of cultural dimension models, such as that proposed in the work of Hofstede (1980) where there is a supposition that within a country culture is homogeneous across the board. In a modern business world where international barriers are being knocked down by the explosion of social media especially, it is accepted that research in to the role culture plays within marketing is limited. The notion of culture is important when looking to ascertain how a new product or service may be responded to by consumers in a new market. Whether you are looking to expand your fashion clothing label across your neighbouring borders or perhaps are this HR software provider with global ambitions, you will need to firmly grasp the culture of your target market. Identifying and understanding embedded cultural dispositions is key to creating affective marketing campaigns when approaching a market. For example, in a cultural environment that is predisposed to reading newspapers and books, less importance is placed of visual stimulation through advertising, than it would be in a cultural environment that is akin to seeing high colour, glossy magazines and a plethora of TV stimuli. Take time to understand culture, don’t take it or granted that all markets of similar constructs will be same globally and most of all appreciate the differences they hold.

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