Creating Successful Entrepreneurs Through Knowledge

Professional Writers Get You Results -Anybody can write. But not everyone should

2009-12-27T11:06:00.014-05:00

How much do you charge for writing content?

I do more than just content writing. All my work is custom researched and keyword specific based on your needs. For this reason, it is very hard to post specific prices. I also provide promotion for the material I write, via ezine articling and other venues. My freelance web-content writing service, aka “ghost-writing”—allows you to retain copyright, and to promote the content with your own embedded links, leading back to your Web Site. For a free, personalized quote Contact Edina.

What can I expect from you?

“Dedication: I give everything to the task at hand”

Why is hiring a professional cost effective?

Tailor made articles and blog posts, are essential to the success of driving targeted audiences to your Website. You may have seen “article farms” that offer 300-500 word articles from as low as ten dollars. While it may seem like a good deal, it is NOT. The same article you are paying ten dollars for, will be sold to many other clients. Why should you care?

Identical content is penalized by search engines as spam, and can get you black listed.

....”but I know how to write, I don’t need to pay for it”

You would be surprised at how many of my professional clients, who are awesome at writing, still retain me despite this fact. It’s simply not cost effective to do it yourself. With an annual income of $60,000.....a low example for professionals, your time is worth $250 per day. With your busy schedule, finding time to do background and keyword research is not easy. What a professional writer can do in one day, would likely take you several late nights. It makes more sense to spend your time doing what you are good at, making money.

Hire me instead, for a fraction of the cost!

When you hire me for a writing job, you can expect to receive unique, original content, which does NOT appear anywhere else on the internet. Here is how I personalize each client’s article, according to their unique needs.

1) A Free Consultation- we look at what you hope to accomplish and how.

2) Background Research: Once we have a strategy in place, and I know the topic you wish me to write about, I do the background research for the article. Let us assume your product is home made soaps. I would than research: What kinds of home made soaps are sold online? Who buys home made soaps? What other websites do these buyers visit regularly? Where is a person most likely to search for information about home made soaps?

3) Keyword Research: This is one of the most critical steps in writing for the internet. During the background research, I will draft up a long list of keywords that is specific to your topic. While all the keywords are relevant, not all are competitive. Based on keyword popularity results, I look for general niche keyword phrases-with less than 500,000 competitors and the highest search volume. This critical process is what gets you noticed in search engine listings, and increases your chances of ranking high.

If your web-pages are not ranked in the top ten, you will get little traffic from search engines.

To find out how articles can help you get noticed by targeted audiences, Contact Edina

Edina Hodos is a Professional Web Content Writer and Researcher. Her online publication as Volunteer Expert, appears on Allexperts.com , in the category of >>Internet Technologies>>Internet Media. Contact Edina for a quote. Professional Profile on LinkedIn

Effective Web Content Writing

2009-12-26T13:13:00.001-05:00

GET NOTICED by Highly Targeted, Profitable Traffic

Keyword Optimized, Web-Content Writing in Toronto

FREE-Writer Consultation/Promotional Needs Analysis

Ezine, Evergreen Article Writing

Custom Background and Keyword Research

Product/Service Review Writing

Homepage Editing and Correcting

User Agreements/FAQs

Press Release Writing

Newsletter Writing

Social Group Administration and Promotion

All work is delivered on time, with proper sourcing, keyword relevant content, and embedded natural links. A Free Consultation is required to determine your exact needs and business strategies.

For an individualized, cost-effective quote contact Edina.

Toronto Business Development Centre Blog: Thoughtful Thursdays - Increasing Sales Part 1

2009-06-18T21:18:00.000-04:00

Toronto Business Development Centre Blog: Thoughtful Thursdays - Increasing Sales Part 1

Edina Hodos is a freelance Web-Content Writer and Researcher. Her online publications appear in AllExperts.com and on EzineArticles.com. For a fee personalized quote,Contact Edina

Toronto Business Development Centre Blog: Wise Wednesdays - Are you making it easy to do business with?

2009-06-18T21:16:00.000-04:00

Toronto Business Development Centre Blog: Wise Wednesdays - Are you making it easy to do business with?

Edina Hodos is a freelance Web-Content Writer and Researcher. Her online publications appear in AllExperts.com and on EzineArticles.com. For a fee personalized quote,Contact Edina

Understanding Content Optimization

2009-04-21T12:04:00.001-04:00

Search engines are much like the geeks from algebra class. If you can speak their language, they can help you. Try telling them a joke, and watch the blank reaction. Writing content that gets you noticed by targeted audiences, is known as the fine art of content optimization. Content optimization simply means-writing in a language search engines notice. Remember, search engines are programs that work based on text, relevance and context. They have no understanding of abstract ideas, humor or word associations.

To understand content optimization, imagine you are at a party. You could chose one of two options. You can stand in a corner talking to yourself, or you can listen in on conversations, understand what is going on and get involved in the exchange. Lets look at how to keep this exchange going, with our good friend, the search engine.

Understanding Keyword Density

Keyword density is the number of times a word or phrase appears in a written text. Repeating your keywords gets you noticed. Overusing it gets you blacklisted as spam. The key to good keyword density, is to use the proper ratio of one, two, and three word phrases. To demonstrate this simple but crucial step, lets look at a Google content page as an example. Google content pages are designed with specific keywords, to attract viewers to click through to Google Ads, hence creating income for the web administrator. While this may not be your business niche, these pages are the best optimized, and offer an insight we can all benefit form.

Case Study of www.[3 keyword url].ca

First step, is to check the word density of a website. The main keywords for this site are:

3 Word phrase: Economic Action Plan, Global Economic Crisis,

2 word phrase: Action Plan, Economic Action, Tax Relief, Government Programs,

1 word keywords: Economic, Plan, Action, Government, Programs,

Website’s header categories: Banking, Families, Housing, Debt Assistance, Employment, Business,

Second step, is to note how these keywords are used.

Word	Count	Density
economic	10	6.21%
plan	8	4.97%
action	7	4.35%
canadians	4	2.48%
government	4	2.48%
programs	3	1.86%
Phrase	Count	Density
action plan	6	3.73%
economic action	5	3.11%
tax relief	3	1.86%
government programs	2	1.24%
stimulus	2	1.24%
economic crisis	2	1.24%
Canadian economy	2	1.24%
global economic	2	1.24%

Phrase	Count	Density
economic action plan	5	3.11%
global economic crisis	2	1.24%

Case Study Observations

Keyword concentration is focused on single words being repeated 7-8 times. Three word phrases are only repeated 2-5 times. The reason? Repeating two and three word phrases too much is considered keyword stuffing by search engines. What that means for you? Your keyword stuffed article will not rank high in Google Search.
The top 3 single words are derived from the three word phrases. Why? This way you target your readers specifically, without getting blacklisted for spamming. Single word reoccurrences are not considered spam.
The URL address contains keywords. For a specific page of this website the complete url is www.[3keywords].ca/EconomicActionPlanforDebt.html
Each page has its own unique, relevant keywords.
SIDENOTE: I came across this site via an e-mail . The subject line was personalized to read

“ Your government funds are available Edina” How did they know I am interested in this topic at all? My own blog keywords contain “government funding”.

In Conclusion

In order to rank high in Google Search, know the language of search engines. Pick your keywords wisely, and use them in the right ratio to prevent being blacklisted for publishing spam content. Use single words to create your word density around the top 4 single keywords, while using 2-3 word phrases sparingly. A good rule of thumb is to repeat single words with 4-6 percent density, and phrases with only 1-3 percent density.

Edina Hodos is a Professional Web Content Writer and Researcher. Her online publication as Volunteer Expert, appears on Allexperts.com , in the category of >>Internet Technologies>>Internet Media. Contact Edina for a quote. Professional Profile on LinkedIn.

Blogs are Essential, Interactive Tools of Online Promotions

2009-04-20T16:00:00.001-04:00

News Flash!

Did You Know That Business Blogs are the Most Cost-Effective Way

to Promote Your Business?

Internet use is changing drastically. The days of intrusive marketing have been replaced by, value added web content, as a way to attract potential customers. Internet savvy, knowledgeable viewers, respond better to a softer sell and a more interactive approach. A Business Blog is the perfect interactive platform, to share expertise, and connect with potential clients.

What Can a Business Blog Do for You?

1. Promotion With Business Blogs Creates More Page Views,

More Potential Customers

2. Blog Posts are Keyword Heavy to Reach Targeted Audiences, & Improve

Your Conversion Rates Tenfold

3. The Most Cost Effective Way To Get Customer Surveys and Other

FeedbackVia UserInteraction

4. Blogging is a Low-Cost Alternative to Having a Web Presence

What is a Blog Exactly?

Web-log, or blog in its original conception was a form of online diary. People wishing to share their personal lives, could easily publish online blogs with free softwares and a few clicks. What many predicted to be a mere trend, has evolved into a powerful business application, the Business Blog. Read on to find out how Business Blogs can help you reach more potential customers.

What is the Difference Between a Website and a Blog?

A lot! It’s the difference between people “window shopping” on your site, vs. making a purchase, and giving you feedback about your offerings. I am a strong advocate of using blogs as a means of business promotion. Not only because I make my living by writing blog content, but also because 80 percent of my own promotion is through the successful use of a blog. Simply put, it works...when you know how to do it right!

In technical terms, Websites use static pages, that are updated when you make a change in your webmaster account. Blogs use real-time syndication, and update themselves automatically once you post a new entry. This is important, because search engine robots use most recent dates, as one of the criterias to determine your page relevance, hence your website’s ranking when people do a Google search. Blogs are also interactive, allowing your readers to instantly comment on your post, e-mail it to others, or bookmark it in any social bookmarker like Delicious. The potential to reach viewers becomes endless, with the many tools and plug-ins blogs offer.

How a Blog Can Be a Promotional Tool

Frequently Asked Questions

If you get a lot of mail to your webmaster account, you can post the common questions up on a blog. This will provide your customers a place to go to see questions and answers, and as new questions come in, you can post them to help more people.

Promotions

If you do promotions every week, you can use a blog to highlight them.

Contests

Daily contests and games are a great promo in a blog. They are fun, and bring your customers back.

What's New Pages

If you add lots of new articles, information, or products regularly, sometimes it can be difficult for your customers to find out what's new. A quick blog entry can show them what's updated on your site.

What's Coming

Test the waters before you jump into any new product development, with the use of comment features. You can use a blog to peak interest in future products or projects. It's also a great way to keep notes about what you're doing in the community, new event your company is participating in.

Photo Blog

Rather than writing, you could put up a daily photo for your customers. A photo and a short description can be very compelling. Search engines will adore you.

News

The most common use for business blogs is news, usually about the specific topic relevant to the company.

Tips for Getting Funding- Little-Known Ways to Find an Angel

2009-04-20T15:02:00.009-04:00

Economic downturn is the mother of all opportunities. The playing field is leveled, giving new exciting opportunities for even the common man. Perhaps you are amongst the many, who has a great new business idea, but little cash to realize your golden opportunity. Find out how to take advantage of dealing with angels and adventurists–non-professional investors who might be known to you already. The more angels you can get onside, for small amounts, the better your chances of reaching your funding goal for your entire project. Here's how to seek them out.

Before you go looking for angels, you should know what they're looking for from you. Here are three elements you should have in a place or be prepared to seek.

1.They want to feel confident in your ability to make the business run.
2.They want you to be accessible, so they can check with you and have you keep them up to date on developments.
3.And in a perfect world, they'd like to see a 20 percent return on their investment.

To find investors like these, you should look to people who fit the profile. By talking to potential angels and adventurists, you can get a sense of their expectations. But where to look?

Friends and Relatives
Think first about those closest to you. You might already have some sense of whether they fit the profile, and you've likely shared some details of your business with them in the past, or they're at least aware of what you do, and might be interested in getting involved.

Professional Acquaintances
Dentists, doctors, lawyers and accountants often make prime prospects. They have good incomes, and they might be looking for an investment opportunity beyond the usual, "boring" alternatives. Turn the small talk to your business, and feel them out.

Business Acquaintances
Suppliers, customers and other business people you deal with on a regular basis will be more familiar with your business, and may have an actual stake in seeing it grow.

Outside Your Circle
Beyond your immediate contacts and acquaintances, look to other professionals, middle managers and entrepreneurs. Since you don't already have an opportunity to introduce the subject during the course of a conversation, you'll need to look to more active prospecting techniques.

Telemarketing
Learn some techniques of telephone sales, if you're not already familiar with them, and begin going through the phone book or a directory of professionals. The first few rejections you receive will help you fine-tune your approach.

Middlemen
Look to financial consultants, venture capital clubs and matching services which can put you in touch with adventurists. Or talk to a business broker. Only in this case, ask him to sell part of your business.

Advertising
Take out ads in investing magazines or use classified ads in the business opportunities section of the local newspaper.

Develop a pitch and be prepared to use it as the opportunity arises. Remember, if the person you're talking to isn't looking for an investing opportunity himself, he may know of someone who is.

[SIDEBAR]

This may be the most powerful method of reaching angels.
According to experts, you can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars using a technique that costs maybe $150.

The secret? Classified ads.
If you're looking for less than $100,000 from any one investor, it's cheap, fast and effective. Check out the Business Opportunity section of a Sunday paper. Learn the techniques of good classified ads, consider hiring a copywriter to pack a compelling sales message into a few words, and make sure a lawyer reviews your ads.

What is the Cost of a Professional Writer

2009-03-26T12:01:00.007-04:00

Professional Writing Fee Guidelines

Hiring a professional writer can be a daunting task. If you have it narrowed down to the one you would like to hire, you are one step closer to getting that perfectly targeted article to boost your online traffic.

What is the right price to pay for the services of a professional writer?

Prices for professional writing services range greatly, depending on the skill and experience of the writer you are dealing with. The right price to pay, is one that fits your budget and accomplishes your goals. Here is a general guideline to give you some ideas.

Advertising Material
Copy/Scripts/News Releases
$350 to $500 per page
$750 to $1,000 per project for brochures
$75 to $150 per hour

Advertorials
(articles commissioned by advertisers)
$0.40 to $2 per word
$100 to $3,000 per article
$40 to $100 per hour

Corporate/Business Writing
Reports/ Marketing Plans/ Technical Writing
$1 to $2 per word
$300 to $12,000 per project
$50 to $125 per hour

Editing
Varies according to publication/project
$30 to $60 per hour
$500 to $20,000 per project

Ghost Writing
Articles
Generally 2-3 times the usual rate
Books
$10,000 to $50,000 flat fee
Entire advance + 50% of royalties

Newsletters
Writing only; layout extra
$0.30 to $1.50 per word
$400 to $6,000 per issue
$50 to $80 per hour

Smaller Community Newspapers
$0.10 to $0.50 per word
$75 to $1,000 per article
$75 to $500 per column

Online/Web Site Writing
Varies widely; "business" sites pay higher
$1 to $3 per word
$60 to $100 per hour

Trade/Special Interest Magazines
$0.30 to $2 per word
$500 to $4,000 per article
$300 to $1,000 per column

Scripts
Radio (highly variable)
$40 to $80 per minute of script

Television (highly variable)
$60 to $130 per minute of script

Speech Writing
$500 to $8,000 per speech
$60 to $130 per hour

Edina Hodos is a Professional Web Content Writer and Researcher. Her online publication as Volunteer Expert, appears on Allexperts.com , in the category of >>Internet Technologies>>Internet Media. Contact Edina for a quote. Professional Profile on LinkedIn.

Developing New Media Campaigns by Target Audience and Industry

2009-03-17T12:21:00.002-04:00

Defining Your Target Audience LinkedIn Professional Profile

When you are stuck on how to drive more customers to your site, the first thing you should do is make a list of characteristics of your ideal customer.
You can figure out what type of customers you are trying to target by answering the following questions:

*What age group are you targeting?
*Is your audience primarily male or female?
*What is your target audience’s average household income.
*How computer literate are they?*Will they be more likely to access your website from home or work?
*Are they likely to have a high-speed or dial up Internet connection?
*What are their hobbies?
*What part of the country are they most likely to live in?
*Are they single or married?
*Do they have children?
*What is their education level?
*__________________________________
*__________________________________
*__________________________________

The clearer the picture in your head, the better the appeal of your offering will be to your customers. I would go as far as to say, that imagining your audience’s day from their perspective gives you the best insight. From the time the person wakes up what kind of things does he read, see and listen to on the way to work. Does he have routines he follows? Ex: same coffee shop every morning, the people he talks to through out the day. At work how does he spend his time? What are his needs in terms of the stage of life he is at right now? How does he spend his free time? How much free time does he have? Thinking of your potential customers what else do you know about them that would help you fine tune what they need? The goal is to define the need first. ONLY than can you see where your product or service fits within that scale. Following through with this exercise of brainstorming will dramatically increase your success in delivering a clear, innovative message to a highly targeted audience.

Pause for a moment here, and take some notes on ideas that come to you no matter how trivial it may be. I would suggest getting a sticky notepad and assigning each idea on a separate page. We are all visual and such seeing things on a larger surface will allow you to clarify and group your ideas in a more streamlined manner as you proceed with making a marketing plan for your website.

What women look for on the Web

According to Women Trend, a Washington consulting firm, 80 percent of all household purchases are made by women, and since the year 2000 more than 52 percent of online shoppers are women. Women account for more than 50 percent of all stock ownership in American and Canada alike and control $7 trillion in consumer and business spending. The “because I’m worth it” slogan started in the cosmetics industry has spread well into other more affluent items like cars, home ownership and investments: advertisements that are geared specifically to women. The number of women who own their own businesses is on the rise, and they are now the primary purchasers of electronic equipment online (Wegert, May 2006).

Large corporations have realized this long ago. McDonald added healthy salads and wraps which far outsold their Big Mac combo, purchased usually by men. Home Depot added a design center to all its locations to meet the need of home decorators across the country. This is not to say that the male segment of any market should be ignored. But when you are thinking of where to focus your marketing efforts, thinking from a woman’s perspective could come handy in improving your bottom line.

There are some common trends confirmed by multiple studies about how women in general use the Internet. Women of all ages primarily use the internet to save time and money. They see the value in 24Hr availability and speed in comparing prices in the absence of sales pressure. Which could be, the reason why car and financial sites are now thriving!

Women also enjoy a sense of community. There is a reason that community-centered sites such as BabyCenter.com and iVillage.com are so successful. These sites not only give women a sense of community and comfort, they also help women with everyday life problems. The number of women who visit education, health and family sites is dramatically higher than the number of male visitors.

Pause for a moment and list 10 sites that you think a woman would visit, keeping your specific target audience in mind.

Using “Life Stages” to Find New Customers

We’ve all gone through major events in life that move us from one demographic to the next. During these major shifts in life stages, consumers are most open to trying and accepting new brands, which makes putting your brand or product in their viewing field critical for finding new, loyal customers. Think about the life stages that your target audience may go through and than put your product/service in their pathway at the appropriate time. Offering a free sample or other incentive to get this audience to try your product at this crucial time is key. Combine that with customer reviews and testimonials they can trust, and you are on your way to building a long-term relationship with a new customer. Once they have considered giving you a try, look for ways to get them to talk about it, in an honest way, to influence new customers. After all, chances are they are surrounding themselves with other people who are going through the same life stage.

Local Marketing Strategies with Search Engines

The Search Engines That Matter: Submitting your site for free to these four search engines will cover about 90% of the natural search market.

Google: www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
Yahoo!: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2
dmoz :(Open Directory Project) www.dmoz.org/add.html

Studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of online buying happens locally. The transaction may be made online, but the product or service is actually attained or originates from a nearby location. Typically, an online shopper will use a search engine and type in the specific product or service along with his or her city. This also signifies that he or she has sufficiently researched the product and is now close to making a final buying decision. Therefore ensuring that your local business shows up on the search engines when a consumer is ready to buy is essential.

As with the local technology itself, a majority of the available listing options and ad buys are also still in beta-testing phase. A “city”+”service” search one day on Yahoo! Or MSN can provide completely different results a week later. Local search markets are still in a flux. If you don’t have first hand experience in search engine optimization, get an expert who can help you keep up with the trends in the local search market. Hire that someone NOW! Getting on local search engines is likely to get more expensive and more competitive as more businesses realize the importance of these targeted searches. Consumers have a way of getting used to things, and since buying happens locally: Local search features are an extremely valuable gateway to a larger, more targeted audience.

Online Coupons-Preference for Receiving Coupons Electronically is Compelling

2009-03-05T10:32:00.012-05:00

As Seen on www.Allexperts.com

Rating:

Knowledge	Helpfulness	Timeliness	Politeness	Nomination?
9	9	10	10	Yes

Comment:

None

Questioner:	Y.E
Category:	Internet Media-Success of Electronic Coupons
Private:	No
Subject:	Online coupons
Question:	Hello, I am the VP of marketing of a new and exciting product and I wonder regarding the effectiveness of online coupons, do think it is an effective tool, if not , what other methods do you recommend ? Thank you!
Answer:	By Edina, Allexperts Professional Profile. Free Webwriting/ Webmarketing Solutions. Feel free to ask a question! The data analytics solutions firm , Perspective found that 95.5 percent of respondents clip or print coupons, while 62.2 percent clip coupons, as often as once a week making electronic coupons effective tool , to reach consumers with a brand message. Leveraging online coupons, can be one of the most effective methods for making that important connection, that helps marketers attract the right customers and keep them coming back. Currently, 58.4 percent of respondents find coupons in newspapers and magazines, 5.7 percent hunt for coupons online, and 4.4 percent receive them via email. The preference for receiving coupons electronically is compelling. Nearly 22 percent of respondents want to receive coupons via email, and 9.7 percent want to find money-saving printables online. Online Coupons Can Translate to Offline Activity The key to coupons is targeting. The combined 32 percent of those who prefer to receive coupons on the Internet and via email jumps to 55 percent, provided the coupons are specifically tailored to the interests of the consumer. Targeting your audience properly will allow you to deliver greater value, and in turn a higher open rate of your e-mails. Hope this was helpful. Edina Edina Hodos is a Professional Web Content Writer and Researcher. Her online publication as Volunteer Expert appears on Allexperts.com , in the category of >>Internet Technologies>>Internet Media. Contact Edina for a quote. Professional Profile on LinkedIn.

Online Casino-How to Segment and Find Your Customers.

2009-03-03T13:20:00.008-05:00

Category: Internet Media

Private: No
Subject: Online Casino-How to segment and find your customers.

Question: My company is in the process of revamping our website. We wish to cater to a new demographics of males, who play online casino. Can you give us some suggestion on:
1. How to segment this kind of market to more specifics
2. How to reach these people
3. Which method is best in your opinion?

Thanks for your time

Answer: by Edina, LinkedIn-Professional Profile

Research I have come across seems to suggest that online casinos have a slightly higher than half, female users. A segment that should not be ignored.

Segmenting can be done in various ways. Benchmarking yourself to industry leaders is a good way to start your segmenting. Here are a few numbers to show you what kind of customers InterCasino.com has, your direct competition.

*Source: www.alexa.com

•Intercasino.com has a traffic rank of: 54,431 ( 6,127)
•Speed: Fast (75% of sites are slower), Avg Load Time: 1.3 Seconds
•Other sites that link to this site: 1,724

Intercasino.com users come from these countries:
France 34.0%
Germany 15.4%
Canada 11.2%
United States 7.2%
Denmark 4.4%

42% Male,
58% Female

Age of Users:
16% 12-17 year olds
25% 18-34
38% 35-49
29% 50 +

Family Size
66% No kids 12-17
9% Has Kids 0-2
18% Has Kids 12-17

Income Levels (this may supprise you!)
23% $0-30K
29% $30-60K
26% $60-100K
22% $100K +

Education Levels
52% No College
12% Graduate School

I would recommend finding at least another 3 competitors to get a more rounded picture.

Segmenting by markets is another way to zero in on your audience.

Understanding Market Segmentation
Market Segmentation : dividing your prospects into smaller sets of prospects who share certain characteristics, takes many different forms. Select the one that best fits your business. For your online marketing plan you need to locate the various sites on the web where your target audiences hang out. You need to know who they are!

Here are a few forms of market segmentation:

1-Demographic Segmentation: Sorts by age, gender, socioeconomic status, or education for B2C companies.

2-Lifecycle Segmentation: Acknowledges that consumers need different products at different stages of their life (teens, young singles, married couples, families with kids, empty nesters, active retirees, frail elderly)

3-Geographic Segmentation: Targets areas. Postal Code >City>Province> National>International

4-Vertical Industry Segmentation: Targets all elements within a defined industry as a B2B strategy.

5-Job Segmentation: Identifies different decision makers (such as engineers, purchasing agents, and managers) at specific point of the B2B sales cycle.

6-Specialty Segmentation: Targets a narrowly defined market ( such as 16-35 year old male owners of classic Mustangs)

Your online target audience may differ slightly from your offline audience. It might be more geographically diverse, wealthier, older, younger, more educated, more motivated by price than features or vice versa. The only way to discover these variations is from experience. Use the guerrilla tactic (one aim, or segment at a time).

Two reasons you should focus on one segment at a time,
1. It is cheaper and more manageable to take on one segment at a time
2. It allows for controlled evaluation, and as you add new segments each will be measurable individually.

Once you have a specific idea of who you are trying to reach, think of the places they would visit on the net. That is where you should develop a stronger presence. Lets look at the case of Intercasino. Their main audience is women with ages 35-50, with less than college education with kids in the teen years or out of the home, and an income of 30-40K. Chances are you may find these people on sites like hobby pages, shopping sites (if they have disposable income to play online casino,they will likely be shoppers as well)

If you are still stuck for ideas try using www.linkpopularity.com which will show you all the incoming links to your competitor's website. Take a look at who they are linked to and visit these sites. Do these sites have the same audience as your target market? If they do, consider advertising with them.

Banner ads are limited only by our creativity. Offer free play in return for e-mail sign up and build your future data base. If you do a good job at designing a landing page tied to each advertisement, your marketing efforts will translate into dollar figures when people sign-up to play with their own money.

I trust this was helpful.
I do not promote any product or service through this site. An honest review is always welcome and appreciated to assist in building my writing portfolio.
Thank you :)
Edina

Finding Clients in the Travel Industry

2009-03-01T22:20:00.014-05:00

As seen on AllExperts.com

Rating:

Knowledge	Helpfulness	Timeliness	Politeness	Nomination?
10	10	10	10	No

Comment:

your answer was very helpful thank you

Questioner:	ishmell
Category:	Internet Media
Private:	No
Subject:	internet marketing Question:
	Hello, im a travel organzier and im currently in the process looking for clients for my travel organizer business. Right now im in the process of constructing a website. I have explored many options on marketing, Im looking for clients locally, across america and abroad,I was wondering if you had any different ideas on how to reach travelers via internet and ideas on creative marketing techniques. What about blogging? How can BLOGGING be as a benefit to my website and or profit? Can email marketing be effective at seeing results? Do you have any ideas for advertising/marketing that could be effective?
Answer:	Hello Ishmell On the topic of Blogging. I am a strong advocate of blogging for business websites. It allows you to reach a larger targeted audience at a considerably lower cost per customer. Conversion rates are arguably higher, since you are reaching very targeted viewers that are more likely to be interested in your offering. On the downside, blogging is very labor intensive and even with professional help has a development cycle of at least 6 months. With a static website, your aim is to make a direct sale. In contrast to that blogging is interactive where you aim to develop an ongoing relationship with your readership. First a community of readers has to be built through valuable content. Only than can you attempt to tie it to your product in hopes of making a sale. In a nutshell for a travel organizer such as yourself, your home page may offer travel deals and your blog may cover topics like: Top 10 Budget Trips, Top 10 Places to Visit Before You Die, Trip Diaries of John Doe ect. Use applications like Flicker to enhance visuals on your site. "How can BLOGGING be as a benefit to my website and or profit?" Topics you write about in your blog should reflect what you sell. If you sell packages to Cancun, Mexico....you blog about, once again...Top 10 Places in Cancun. Reason: Search Engines index by keywords, which simply means: the more often Cancun, Mexico appears on your blog, the higher it is in google search hence the more visits you get to your blog. Where it becomes profitable is when your visitors click through to your website and purchase your travel package. On the Topic of E-mail Marketing: It is beyond the scope of a page to answer you on that. One thing worth considering is that the open rate of bulk e-mail is about 2 percent at best. Unless you use your own contacts, rented e-mail lists are available but have a lower open rate of 0.7 percent. E-mail marketing is more effective if you have time and money to invest. On the subject of effective marketing ideas: What marketing tool you use depends on what suits your business strategy and goals. For the first phase of a website or blog I would suggest concentrating on online and offline marketing. Online examples are, Adsense, AdWord, Craigslist.org, Kijiji.com, paid ads on other sites, free directories, manually submitting your URL to search engines. Offline may be local paper, sponsoring community events, contests to win a trip (great for building e-mail lists). I trust this gives you some useful ideas. Edina

SmileBox Rocks-New Media to Enrich Your Ideas

2009-02-20T13:22:00.003-05:00

Rating : COOL

Create animated scrapbooks and announcements with an easy to navigate application. Free Demo is handy, but limited to a one page creation, like the one above.

Best Features

Highly Interactive - over 10 platforms you can post your creation to
Affordable - $1.99 per design for ad free, full screen preview, or $5.99/month
Intuitive - automatically retrieves pictures from your computer
Customizable- category specific templates that can be customized

Best Application for

Scrapbooking
Family Albums
Announcements
Showcasing Travel Pictures
Creating Slide Shows for Presentations

Planning for Web Marketing

2009-01-06T12:54:00.009-05:00

In this section of Entrepreneur's Blog

· Business Plans at a Glance
· Establishing Goals for Your Site
· Specifying Objectives for Your Web Site
· Understanding Market Segmentation
· Understanding Why People Buy
· Reaching Your Market Online

BUSINESS PLANS AT A GLANCE

If you own an existing storefront you already have a business plan, which puts you ahead of the game. Creating a business plan is just as crucial for online presence as it provides a focus, combined with strategy, tactics, a marketing plan and financial forecasts, to mention just a few. Most business plans include some variation of the following sections:

1. Summary

2. Description of Business (type of business and goals)

3. Description of Product or Service

4. Competition (online and offline)

5. Marketing ( target market, needs, objectives, methods, promotion)

6. Sales Plan/Source of Income: (pricing, distribution channels, networks, associations)

7. Operations ( Facilities, staffing inventory) – if you are selling products

8. Operations (Advertising costs, membership/association fees) – if you provide a service

9. Management ( key players and board)

10. Financial Data (financing, financial projection, legal issues)

For more detailed information and sample business plans visit

www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm

To locate your area’s small business support office visit
www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html
http://sba.gov/
www.score.org/findscore/index.html

ESTABLISHING GOALS FOR YOUR SITE

Before you state the goals of your website, you must be clear about the goals of your business. Your website is the tail and your business is the dog. Let business needs drive your Web plans, not the other way around.

Your answers to a few basic questions establish the marketing framework for your site. Answer the questions is Website Planning Form here. www.dummies.com/go/webmarketing

These questions apply to any type of business and is a great way to give you clarity on what you are trying to achieve.

After all, only through clarity can you gain FOCUS!

Here are some examples of questions:

(A)General Profile:

>>Is the website for new or established business?
>>Does the company have an existing website/brick & mortar

operation?
>>What type of business is the website for?

(retail, service provider, professional)
>>What does the company sell (goods/services)? Describe it.
>>What type of range does the company have? (Local, regional,

national, international)

(B)Web Site goals: Ranked in order of importance to you.

__Information
__Branding
__Lead Generation/ qualifying prospects
__Sales Revenue
__Ad Revenue
__Internal Needs
__Transformation

***Unless you have a large enough budget and staff to handle the demands of marketing to multiple audiences, select only one or two of these goals. You can add others later after benefits from your site start flowing to your bottom line.***

(C)Financial Profile:

Break Even Point................$________Within: ________
Return on Investment........._______% Within:________
Website Budget for First Year
Outside Development: $ __________
Special Elements (video) $ __________
Marketing: $ ___________
In-house labour $ ___________
Other Materials $ ___________
TOTAL $ ___________

(D)Sample Objectives:

Repeat for each goal within timeframe specified

(for example 1 year)
Traffic objective (#of viewers per month) ____ within _____
Conversion objective: __________ within ______
Sales Objectives: __________ within _____
Average $ per sale $_________ within ____
$ Revenue per month $ ________ within ____
Other objectives specific to your site $ ___ within _______

(E)Marketing Profile:

1.Describe your target markets. Give specific demographic or segment information. For B2B, segment by industry or job title.

2.What is your marketing tag? Imagine your slogan and business purpose combined in one sentence. If it helps, think of your tag as the essence of what your business is about. Here are some famous ones you will recognize, to jog your brain storming for your own TAG. Note how major brands do not combine their business purpose, as it is assumed people know what they are about. As a start up business, your tag will be your future branding pillar, so choose wisely. No pressure eh?!

I will give you the brand tag first, followed by ( >>) a Start -Up business version. Put your thinking cap on, and jot down any random ideas you have as you read the list. Don’t worry about repetition and off beat ideas. Keep writing. You can pick and chose the ones that are good later!

*Fido: The Home of Low Prices.
>>Mike’s Body Shop: Reliable Service at Affordable Prices. (show benefits not features to your audience)

*Bell: The Future is Friendly
>>C-Mart: Your Neighbourhood One Stop Shop

*Home Depot: The Know How People
>>Sparkle Window Cleaners: Enjoy your view.

*Maytag: The Blue Team. My personal favourite. I think 80% of people would figure out that it represents (Company) –washing machines, (Team) customer service of some type. Repair/installation to be exact.
>>Geek Squad: At Your Call Tech Support.

*Pentene: Salon Look Everyday
>>Cleopatra Salon: Beauty at Your Fingertips.

*Loreal: Beauty doesn’t have to hurt.

(targeted to a line of anti-wrinkle skin creams for females 50+)
>>Lee’s Nail Salon: When you want to look your best.

*Loreal: Because I’m worth it!

(hair color for females 30-40)
>>Healthy Living Outlet: Shine from within.

* Swifer: The Quicker Picker Upper.

( A disposable duster for all ya men !)
>>Laundry bags: We do it faster!

* Chivas: Live with Chivalry !

( if you have ever seen the commercial for this drink it is amazingly targeted not only to males 30+, but it appeals to the pride of men and the desires of women) I would love to shake the hand of the person that came up with this one!

*Desorono: Spread the pleasure! ( in the commercial, a 30 ish female is sipping a drink sensually with seductive eyes) again: Branding-positioning the product as pleasurable. It may not fit your taste pallet, but I bet if you saw the bottle at a bar...8/10 you will recognize and pick it, just to try. With a very specifically targeted message you got your audience hook-line-and sinker!

>>Luna Spa: The Home of Relaxation and Pleasure. If your business name already entails what you do, (spa) you will have an edge on maximizing your marketing tag. It is more functional when it comes to recognition and allows you to focus on your message. If Luna Spa was called Luna Retreat, your tag would change to...Luna Retreat: Total Body Care. Can you guess why? ..... Retreat can mean a vacation spot, time-share options, or an old folks home for all we know at first glance. So instead of focusing on my message (Relaxation and Pleasure) I now have to define what I do first. The devil hides in the details ladies and gentlemen. Remember the golden rule of 7? Marketing tags must be on the money within max 7 words!

*ING: Your Money Does Matter
>>Cornerstone Investments: Certainty in uncertain times.

*Ferrero Roche: Made by the Gods ...Pretty bold statement for wafers and chocolate. But in the grand scheme of things its where you position yourself that really counts.
>>Aunt Edna’s Cookies: For Life’s Little Temptations.

Learn from the pros! They already put the brain power and the huge amounts of money into research.

Keep your marketing tag focused and simple with a message that is universally understood. Once your company rises in the ranks and becomes a house hold name, than your tag will change to that of positioning in the market.

Worth noting when you write your own tag.

*Use action words that are descriptive.

*Keep it to max 5 words. This is important for many reasons. Average human recollection is 7 words. Your aim is to “imbed it” into people’s minds. In later stages of your business development this tag will act as your branding: it will appear in publications, you should consistently add it to your logo, business correspondence, the first page of your website, and any other place your customers see you at regularly. In short it has to be memorable and reproducible for publication.

*Get a very clear focus on what message you want it to convey. With major brands, they are merely positioning themselves according to market demand. Low prices, better service provider, no contracts, basically any aspect that reflects their edge over the competition. No one can please everybody, hence the importance of segmenting your offering to a niche market.

* Even if your business plans don’t include name recognition (though it should at any level of operation) tags help you define your exact business goal, which in turn feed further plans for marketing plans, sales plans, future developments, positioning in your specific industry and so on. I call my tag my holy grail. It reminds me every day what my focus is. (MyIdeaFactory: One Stop Solution to Business Growth) Your tag should do the same for you!

3. Value Proposition: Why should someone buy from your

company rather than another?

4. Name at least 4 competitors and their Web sites.

Now that you have outlined your business goals, you need to decide what your Web site must accomplish from a marketing perspective. The goals you set for your site plus the definition of your target market should drive both your Web design and marketing.

SPECIFYING OBJECTIVES FOR YOUR WEB SITE

This is the part where the rubber hits the road. Your well defined goals come to life through specifying the criteria that satisfy them. That means establishing measurable objectives. First, plug in your numbers from your Financial Profile. (Break Even Point, Return on Investment, and Budget). Your budget and ROI expectations might constrain how much you can spend on marketing, hence how much traffic your Web site will receive. Take this into consideration as you specify numeric targets and time-frames to accomplish them. Don’t doom your site to failure from the get go by setting unrealistic objectives.

Tracking your data for a 13 month period so you can compare same date results. Almost all businesses experience some cyclical variation tied to the calendar. Here are some examples of goals and their measurable counterparts to help you get started.

SITE GOALS: POSSIBLE OBJECTIVES TO MEASURE

*Managing Customer Service Number of phone calls/e-mails, amount of traffic to various pages, hours of site use, cost savings, time savings

*Branding Onsite traffic, time onsite, activities performed, coupons/offers downloaded, gross revenues

*Generating Qualified Leads Number of phone calls and e-mails. Conversion rate (CR) of visits to leads, CR of leads to sales as compared to other lead sources, traffic to various pages, number of e-mail addresses acquired, cost of customer acquision

*Generating Online Sales CR of visitors to buyers, sales revenue, average dollar value of sale, number of repeat buyers, profit from online sales, promo code use, sales closed offline that are generated form Web

*Generating Ad Revenue Ad revenue, click through rate, page views per ad, traffic to various pages, visitor demographics

*Measuring Internal Goals CR for various actions, site traffic, other measurements specific to your own goals

*Transforming the business Site revenue, costs, profits, time savings, costs savings, , other measurements specific to your own goals

UNDERSTANDING MARKET SEGMENTATION

Market Segmentation : dividing your prospects into smaller sets of prospects who share certain characteristics, takes many different forms. Select the one that best fits your business. For your online marketing plan you need to locate the various sites on the web where your target audiences hang out. You need to know who they are!

Here are a few forms of marketing segmentation:

1-Demographic Segmentation: Sorts by age, gender,

socioeconomic status, or education for B2C companies.

2-Lifecycle Segmentation: Acknowledges that consumers need different products at different stages of their life (teens, young singles, married couples, families with kids, empty nesters, active retirees, frail elderly)

3-Geographic Segmentation: Targets areas. Postal Code >City>Province> National>International

4-Vertical Industry Segmentation: Targets all elements within a defined industry as a B2B strategy.

5-Job Segmentation: Identifies different decision makers (such as engineers, purchasing agents, and managers) at specific point of the B2B sales cycle.

6-Specialty Segmentation: Targets a narrowly defined market ( such as 16-35 year old male owners of classic Mustangs)

Your online target audience may differ slightly from your offline audience. It might be more geographically diverse, wealthier, older, younger, more educated, more motivated by price than features or vice versa. The only way to discover these variations is from experience. Use the guerrilla tactic (one aim, or segment at a time).

Two reasons for this:

1. It is cheaper and more manageable to take on one segment at a time

2. It allows for true evaluation, and as you add new segments each will be measurable individually.

To give you an example of how to measure different segment successes, in terms of your marketing efforts, here are two scenarios.

1)Segment is Vertical industry: Web Marketing & New Media Websites with an aim of B2B strategy.

As part of my efforts to build readership I create online presence for my blog (MIF) on various Web sites. I do this through leaving comments with my blog link on industry specific pages. In my Website administration, I set up a system to track all incoming clicks from the sites I left the comments on. Also called “trackbacks”. But I prefer to call it “my little bread crumbs” that leads people to me. Let’s call these incoming trackbacks my : B2B-List. I further break it down to categories that suite me such as B2B List>Online service providers, B2B List>Resource & Content providers and so on. Since trackback gives me the page address it was generated from, I file it in each subcategory of my B2B List. In time this is what the results are.

B2B List:
Online service providers:

Website #1 52 hits
Website#2 35 hits
Website#3 63 hits

Resource & Content providers:

Website #1 85 hits
Website#2 64 hits
Website#3 98 hits

I can than conclude that leaving comments on Resource and Content providers’ Web sites—dealing with Web Marketing & New Media, will generate more incoming traffic for me. Which makes sense, because my Blog is geared towards providing content-not selling online services. I now have an audience of like minds and a specifically selected segment based on facts, not predictions!

2)Segment is Demographic: Online,paid advertising on special interest pages aimed at B2Cstrategy.

You are probably familiar with this method of tracking advertising responses. The CODE! Yup! It is your best friend. It comes in various forms: get a discount if you enter the code, have access to all my posts with the code, but in the end you have one aim. KNOW where you were seen! Each advertisement gets its own id tag. For example: Investmentgroup.com – Code: IG-128. Fishermansjournal.com –Code: FJ-128

Notice that its a good idea to make your codes logical, because in 1 year’s time you may not remember your campaign details. -128 is my version of hiding date reminders, 12- (December), 8 -(2008).

This may seem tedious at first, but if you keep your records updated consistently it gives you amazing leverage over picking the right segments, strategies, and tactics to work with. As the carpenters like to say, “measure twice, cut once”. It is the same for online business. Measure your results and ONLY than make a strategic decision!

Like in the first example, based on my best category responses I focus my efforts more on the specific Web Sites that bring me more traffic.

Understanding Why People Buy

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, everyone has to satisfy certain needs before they can achieve their maximum potential. In order of importance the needs are:

Physiological Needs > Safety Needs > Social Needs > Esteem Needs > Self-Actualization.

In marketing terms, people buy certain products or seek certain types of information to satisfy one or more of their needs. Of the five levels in Maslow’s Theory, the first two are basic needs, the last three are growing needs. At this point, people can find Web sites to satisfy every need in the five categories.

To increase your conversion rate ( the percent of site visitors who buy), match your message to the needs your products fulfill. If you identify the specific benefits that people are looking for, you are more likely to close the sale. For instance, an esteem message would talk about the exclusivity of owning jewellery from Tiffany’s, not about saving money.

Reaching Your Market Online

If you are sure how to define your market segments, check some of the online market research sites listed below. These sites offer a wealth of statistical data about the demographics of online users, what type of products sell well, and the growth of internet use by demographic segments.

If your target audience is not online, the Web should not be a part of your marketing mix for end user sales! It can still fulfill other functions .

ClickZ http://www.clickz.com/ Marketing, Stats, resources, articles and more
Internet System Consortium www.isc.org/index.pl?/ops/ds Internet domain survey host count
Internet.com http://www.internet.com/ Marketing Newsletter and Resource providers list
Marketing Sherpa http://www.marketingsherpa.com/ Case studies & free articles, fee based marketing library
Harris Interactive Report http://harrisinteractive.com/ Online market information

Taking Your Marketing to the Web

2009-01-06T12:25:00.004-05:00

In this section:
*Absorbing the web into your overall business plans
*Rethink your marketing
*Basic web numbers everyone should know (on a constant basis)

Absorbing the web into your overall business plans

Just as in off-site businesses, on-line business requires an awareness of business fundamentals, a combination of marketing techniques and an indelible focus on your customer. Good, stable businesses that continue to grow over time, start with slowly building a customer list, experimenting with a variety of techniques until word -of -mouth marketing kicks in. A couple of things to keep in mind at this point.

You must have the business fundamentals right before you can have a truly successful Web site. Don’t confuse revenues with profit. Manage your cost, merchandising, and customer service to keep your bottom line a true profit!

Successful web marketing requires a combination of methods. Divide your web marketing budget wisely! As mentioned in previous articles, the key is to combine traditional media with online marketing efforts. Having said that, decide what portion you will devote to each, then break it down even further to what type of off-line advertising: (newspaper, radio, newsletter ect.)and Online advertising: (pay-per click, banner adds ect.) you want to do. Limit your list to 10 tools in each category for now, and pick the top 3 in each on/off line categories. These will be the first you will concentrate on if you are just starting out. Of the top 6 tools you picked assign a percentage value of your budget. Numbers do not have to be in equal proportions. As a general rule of thumb when you are launching a site assign a 70-30 ratio for offline-online respectively as your goal is to get the word out that your web site exists. Once you develop more unique visitors and build a community, it will make sense to change your budget to 70% online 30% offline advertising. The best marketing plans are actively revised as your marketing needs change. It should also be a live document that allows you to clearly see and forecast your profits at the close of each quarter. Yes! Ladies and gentlemen I did say quarterly NOT annual!

Take a moment to make your own list of marketing tools that would work for your business.
The customer is the measure of all things Web, from site design to marketing. It has been said many times, I am not reinventing the wheel here. But do you really think about your customer in everything you do? It is easy to get carried away with what technology can do for a website. It would be wiser however to consider some simple statistics on human behaviour. The number 7 is your best friend! General retention is: 7 words, that we can actually recall when reading. It takes 7 seconds to look at a billboard to remember details fully. 7 visits or more is the number of times a customer returns to your web site before they make a final decision to purchase or act on your offer. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Take the free lessons learned from some very expensive studies the big marketers already paid for. Customer retention will be discussed further in the next articles.

Rethink your marketing

If you are already in business, you know you have to spend money to make money. You may need to redistribute your marketing budget to free up funds for marketing online. Here’s a method to elevate your marketing analysis from guesswork to grand plan. First make a 4 column list organized as follows:

C.R. = Conversion Rate

PLAN A:

Marketing Tool >>>Offline-Toronto Star

Target Market it Reaches>>> Busines Professionals 30-50 in TO
How many new cust. it brings >>>100 leads/campaign @5% C.R. is : 5 cust. x 56weeks = 280ppl
Cost Per Year>>> $2,500.- or $8.90/ customer

PLAN B:

Marketing Tool>>> Online- Banner Ads

Target Market it reaches>>> Business Professionals 30-40 in TO, who make 50+ per year, read fishing magazines* and follow UFC online. *

How many new cust. it brings>>> 500 leads/adv @5% C.R. is : 25 cust x 56weeks=1400 ppl
Cost Per Year >>>$2,500.- or $1.78/ customer

* Online marketing tools allow for a much more targeted audience with a significantly lower acquisition cost per customer.

If you’ve been in business for a while, you might have forgotten some of your recurring marketing investments. Here are a few examples to spark your memory: A Yellow Pages listing, Canada411 is a must for any business, signs, business cards and letterhead, logo design, a listing in local business club directory, soccer team, newspapers or other print ads, direct mail, local fliers, word of mouth, radio spots, billboards, and so on. If you don’t have extra money to invest in developing and promoting a Web presence, decide which existing methods you can cut in favour of more cost effective online marketing. If you can duplicate your reach at lower cost online, you can put the difference into your Web site.

Reaching your current audience online

Using the brainstorming exercise in part 3, you now have your target audience defined in great detail. You know who they are, what they do and when. Its time to brainstorm once again, this time keeping this one question in mind. “ Where would I be, if I was my target market?” Knowing what you know about your audiences’ habits and likes make a list of specific places or websites a person visits. I am a big fan of the little sticky pads. One idea per page in any order it comes to you. When you run out of ideas arrange them in logical groupings that makes most sense to you. BAM ! You have your specifics on where to advertise to get the most out of your dollar. You may be a bit overwhelmed by ideas at this point. One good rule of thumb is – USE A RIFLE NOT A SHOTGUN- when you want to acquire new customers. You may have heard of guerrilla marketing, which is just a fancy term for take it one step at a time. Once your list of ideas is complete, you start one by one with “rifle” precision and work your way to the bottom of the list.

Its worth changing your mind !

Traditionally, brick and mortar stores offer a few products to many people. In contrast to this web marketing/sales provide many products to few people, at a lower per head cost and far greater return on investment. To prove this , consider the Long-tail theory of opportunities: a marketing model used by successful Websites.

The long tail, shown in the graph describes a situation in which a lot of low-frequency events (think sales for various products) add up to more than a few, high-frequency events. The low-frequency events tail off, but added together they make up more than half the total. This theory suggests that the reach of the Web is so vast that you can have a profitable business selling many items to a few people rather than spending a humongous marketing budget to sell a few items to many people. It works for Amazon.com and e-Bay. Why not for you? The trick is that those few people need to find your product in the vastness of cyberspace, or you have to find them! Hence the importance of a well defined target audience.

Basic web numbers everyone should know

There are three overarching points you should keep in mind when marketing your product/service. If you measure everything against these 3 criterias you will be fine!

Do you plans fit with the needs and interests of your target audience?
Do your plans make financial sense?
Are your plans within your capabilities to execute?

Rid yourself of the notion that marketing on the Web is free. You can spend a lot of money, a lot of time, or some combination of the two, but you can not get away without an investment of some sort. Before you go online, think hard about the numbers. As a good business person, consider these 3 benchmarks, which are described bellow.

The cost of customer acquisition

The more expensive your product or service, the more you must spend to acquire a new customer. The average cost of acquiring a new customer approximately equals the profit derived from an average customer’s purchase in the first year. In other words, you might not make a profit on your customers unless they spend more than average OR you retain them for more than one year.

To calculate your bottom line: cost of lead acquisition = marketing cost / # of leads.

Break even point

Break even is the number of sales at which revenues equal total cost. Anything over that is profit.

To calculate your bottom line: revenues – cost of goods = gross margin
Now, total your fixed costs (same charges you have every month: hosting, phone) for your Web site. Finally divide your fixed costs by your gross margin. That tells you how many sales you must make to pay for your basic Web expenses.

Return on investment

Return on investment (ROI) looks at the rate at which you recover your investment in site development or marketing. To calculate your ROI, simply divide profits (not revenue) by the amount of money invested to get a percentage rate of return:
Profit / investment = rate of return

Consumer Expectations has Forced Advertisers to Rethink Their Entire Marketing Strategy

2009-01-06T12:09:00.004-05:00

An Overview of New Media Marketing

Today’s’ new media technology is allowing for more consumer control than ever before, giving the public complete control over what content they see and when they see it. As a result, this change in consumer expectations and media use has forced advertisers to rethink their entire marketing strategy. Big business can no longer depend on interruptive marketing tactics such as placing commercials in the middle of your favourite television show. Instead, advertisers have to think strategically about how to incorporate their marketing messages into the content that potential customers are actively seeking.

Today, more than 400 million people worldwide spend an average of 30 hours online per month. (Nielsen/NetRatings, April 2007) According to a March 2006 study by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research, 78 percent of 133 national advertisers surveyed believe traditional advertising methods have become less effective in the past two years. As a result, overall network spending has declined, while advertisers invest significantly more in Internet advertising opportunities.

Truly effective Internet Marketing is a fresh new playing field where almost anything can be tested and implemented – at often a fraction of the cost of traditional media campaigns. This new media opens up exciting new options to reach consumers on a more effective and personal level than ever before. These new forms of marketing are much more accountable, and thus cost-effective, than any other form of advertising.

Here are just a few examples of how you can market your own site.

1.Make your Web Site the Center of All Your Marketing
2.Combine Traditional Ads with Keyword buys for Maximum Impact
3.Maximize the Effectiveness of Keyword Phrases
4.Use Every Opportunity to Create a Buzz
5.Effectively Combine Traditional and New Media
6.Take Advantage of Co-branding for maximum exposure
7.Use Message Boards and Blogs to Generate New Content
8.Encourage Audience Participation
9.Don’t Let Visitors Ignore Your Advertisers
10. Use Mobile Marketing

Digital Lifestyle: How Does It Impact Your Business?

2008-03-17T12:13:00.001-04:00

The Digital Lifestyle

The idea of power in consumers’ hands is a key component to marketing in the new media and the basis behind the continued growth and evolution of the digital lifestyle. Successful new media marketing has two primary goals: to reach a very targeted audience at the right time, when they are most likely to take an intended action and to encourage the growing trend towards consumer control of media and content.

Internet Usage by Age, Education, and Income Level

Media marketing strategies target almost everyone. According to Pew Internet & American Life Project in the US alone, more than 172 million people (77 percent of the adult population) are regular internet users. There is also a direct correlation between higher education/higher income and using the internet more frequently. For example research shows that 91 percent of college graduates regularly go online while only 40 percent of adults with less than a high school education do so. As income level rises, so does the likelihood of having an internet connection at home and using it frequently. Households with an annual income of less than $30,000 are only 53 percent likely to be online while households with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 are 80 percent likely to be online. That percentage continues to increase as income level rises.

Breaking down the internet usage numbers even further, by age group, shows that nearly everyone is an active part of the digital lifestyle. (Madden, April 2006)

*12-17-year olds: 87 percent online
*18-29-year olds: 88 percent online
*30-49-year olds: 84 percent online
*50-64-year olds: 71 percent online
*65+ year olds: 32 percent online

What are people doing online?

So what are all these people doing online? Based on a 143 million Americans Pew/Internet survey found that 91 percent of online time is spent reading and sending e-mails, followed by using search engines or map sites. 79 percent of users are looking up health and medical information, followed by 78 percent of people researching products, services, weather, hobby information, or travel information. 68 percent of users are getting news online. Shopping is another primary activity for internet users, whether directly purchasing a product over the internet or researching a product before they buy offline. A study for Shop.org conducted by Forrester Research, projects that online sales will exceed $200 billion in 2006. (eMarketer, May 2006)

Using the Internet at work

During the workday, the average employee spends about 13 hours per week accessing the internet, 24 percent of which is spent visiting non- work related sites. Top sites visited include map sites, news, and weather. These finding are consistently reported by both employees and IT managers who monitored staff internet usage: however as you get further down the list of non-work related sites, the numbers start to conflict. For example, 3 percent of employees admit visiting dating sites, while IT managers found the numbers is actually closer to 18 percent. Gambling and sex sites were reported at 1 percent but actually measured at 10 percent.

When looking at upper-level executives and decision makers, 77 percent believe that the internet is the absolute best place to find out about new products. 66 percent recommend online advertising as the best way to reach target audiences. 90 percent of executives who use the internet regularly at work log on from home as well. This makes the internet use during the evening and late hours second only to television viewing.

The Importance of Social Networking Channels

Think of social networking websites as the reality TV of the Internet. Although often guided and monitored by the website’s creator, the majority of the content and growth of the site is created directly by the users. Think of these sites as the ultimate consumer generated media (CGM) model.

The social networking sites are growing so fast that as of April 2007 they have captured the attention of more than 45 percent of active web users. The top 10 social networking sites have grown 47 percent in one year, with MySpace showing a one-year growth of 367 percent and more than 38.4 million unique visitors. The very nature of social network sites makes them attractive for marketers because they create very loyal users and account for some of the highest retention rates among regular Internet users. On average, even the most successful banner ad campaigns generate a less than 2 percent conversion rate. Advertisers quickly find that these highly experienced consumer eyes simply skip over blatant advertising altogether. Any effective marketing message today must have relevant, useful and/or interesting content that will encourage users to take action and get involved.

As with all things there are risks associated with social networking sites. Here are a few tips to reduce your risks and make this tool successful for your business.

1-Define your brand and ensure that your character profile accurately and consistently reflects that brand.
2-Be ready to address any feedback or posts, particularly if they are negative
3-Remember that the most successful social networks are those with he most collected “friends”
4-Develop a thick skin and remember to use the comments you get as feedback to possibly help you better refine your message or product
5-Show benefits to people who visit your space and reward the loyal friends you collect

The growth of Blogs

Most famous people have a blog, and so do many executives and companies. So how does that help your business? Why post non-technical information in a diary format?
Since 2003, the growth rate of blogs has doubled about every six months, reaching close to 40 million in 2007. According to Techno-rati (http://technorati.com/) , a blog tracking site, the Internet world sees an average of 1.6 million legitimate blog posts every day.

Blogs are an important marketing tool for your business for many reasons. First, they allow you to develop a closer connection with customers, to generate feedback, and to provide customer support. The second reason blogs are important piece of marketing is because it is a great way to help increase search engine ranking for your site. Because blogs are largely text based, they are easy for search engines to index. And since every entry includes a date and search engines look to post most recently updated sited first, your blog has a good chance of ranking high. If your blog entry contains relevant key words , a recent date and links to more pages of your website, you have a good chance of increasing your rankings.

Promotion through RSS Advertising

RSS technology has been in the traditionally used by news professionals to syndicate content online primarily by organizations such as Reuters, CNN, PR Newswire, Business Wire, and the BBC. These providers allowed other websites to incorporate their headlines or headline-and-short-summary feeds under various usage agreements. Today anyone with a website, blog, press release, product announcement, or other marketing promotion can benefit from RSS technology, and because there are so many niche content sources now available, using RSS feeds to send out targeted content is an excellent way to get results. RSS feeds are providing more effective to advertisers than e-mail marketing because it is such a new and uncrowded medium.

To help ensure that your RSS feed gets picked up by the right sources remember these tips:

1-Spark interest with an attention grabbing title
2-Use keywords in your title and your feed description
3-Show benefit to the consumer
4-Using the RSS feed image option to help strengthen your brand

Engage Consumers in Your Brand

New media marketing is less interruptive, more targeted, and relies on a person’s genuine need to socialize and to seek and share information. Compared to letting content of television come to them, Internet users are actively engaged and more likely to take direct action when they see your marketing message. This is not to say that traditional media are ineffective; in fact the opposite is true. In order to create a successful campaign, you can no longer choose new media or traditional advertising campaigns – you must work to incorporate both.

Here is an interesting example: a March 2006 survey by Burst Media found that nearly half of consumers said television most effectively captures their attention, but those same consumers admitted that when it comes to actually making a decision to purchase a product or service, the internet ranked first. They went as far as to say that the internet was their primary source for this information (eMarketer, April 2006).

Being Edina!

2008-01-06T12:00:00.005-05:00

Edina Hodos is a Professional Web Content Writer and Researcher. Her writing is keyword specific , tailored to your business needs. Search engine friendly, and focused on your bottom line. Articles will engage your readers with original, evergreen topics.

Economic turmoil and online competition for viewers’ attention, demands well researched, good content strategy and creative promotion. With the use of Evergreen Web content your website can not be outdated easily and is suited to many demographics. Evergreen content will keep your web writing costs low, as it does not require any pruning or editing.

Edina’s education is in International Business Management. In the last decade she has worked in the export industry and freelanced as a small business development consultant. She assisted clients in obtaining European Union Funding, and successfully executed market research studies for business expansion planning.

Writing portfolio and research specialty of Edina includes :

· Planning for Web Marketing
· Understanding Why People Buy
· Understanding Market Segmentation
· Reaching Your Market Online
· Developing New Media Campaigns by Target Audience and Industry
· Benefits of a Professional Copywriter
· Finding Customers in the Travel Industry
· Online Casino- How to Segment and Find Your Customers

Professional References and Publications:

Professional Profile and Client References http://www.linkedin.com/in/myideafactory

My Free Resource Blog for Entrepreneurs http://myideafactory-edina.blogspot.com/

My Expert Column http://www.allexperts.com/ep/2495-108011/Internet-Media/Edina-Hodos.htm

Get Connected with Edina:

E-Mail, Facebook ,Tagged, Twitter, LinkedIn