Advertising @ Home

Introduction:

This is a series of articles about marketing and advertising. There are different ways you can reach an audience of millions of individuals all around the world. I show you on this series how to implement profitable strategies in your marketing career.

It has been said that “what matters is not what you sell but how you promote it.” So, the secret to success lays within your marketing techniques. That’s why it is very important for business owners to develop skills which allow them to increase the sales of their products.

One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to reach a lot of people quickly. To do this you need to realize how powerful media is an how it can drastically increase your revenues.

- Classified ads -

Free classified ads are another way you can advertise online at no cost to you. They represent on the Internet what a newspaper ad represents on the streets. You can post ads to thousands of web sites and reach millions of internet users.

The drawback of this strategy is that it is time consuming, but once you get used to it you will realize which are the easier ad sections to post to and the most effective ones. It may take some time though before you discover those that fit you well.
You can post your ads to the following websites:

http://classifieds.excite.com/

http://finditclassifieds.com

http://washingtonpost.com

Among others.

- E-zine promotion -

You can post an add to a vast amount of individuals by submitting it to many different e-zines at once. This is simple and free. Just go to http://www.subscribeme.net/ read the information they provide for you there and complete their form.

Your ad will be displayed in hundreds of e-zines all over the Internet. There is a combined amount of more than 1,000,000 subscribers at those web sites, so you will gain a lot of exposure from them.

I think it is better if you use an alternate e-mail address for this purpose. You can get a free email address from Yahoo. When I joined the list I received many messages every day.

This technique could bring you additional traffic. The only problem I see is that most other individuals also join the list to advertise to other people as you do. So, the goal of most subscribers is to sell products, not to buy them.

I think though it is a good way to diversify your trading strategies. You could give it a try and see if it works for you. Remember to use an alternate email address and read their terms and conditions first.

- Safe lists -

Safe lists are lists of e-mail addresses from people who have requested to receive messages and information about a specific topic. As you probably already know to deliver comments or advertisement via e-mail to others without their consent or authorization is called spamming and is illegal.

Also if you spam others do not expect to receive a reasonable response rate from them. What do I mean? I mean that you can send a message to millions of individuals, but if they are not interested in what you are selling and they didn’t requested that information from you, then you will probably make very few sales, plus you will receive a lot of complaints from hundreds of them.

Then what is the smart way to advertise using e-mail addresses? The answer is safe lists. Think about it. This people are looking for information related to the products or services you are selling. Many of them are even getting paid to read your messages. This technique is also called advertising to targeted opt-in mailing lists. You can create your own list of subscribers.

You can join Yahoo groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ or Google groups http://groups.google.com/ and start your own newsletter. The way you get subscribers is by posting valuable information there that your visitors would like to read. You can also join any of the companies bellow:

Bravenet
http://www.bravenet.com/

Topica
http://www.topica.com/

Zinester
http://www.zinester.com/

Your mailing list provider
http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/

Coollist
http://www.coollist.com/

Now, keep in mind that building your own list of subscribers takes time. Some people prefer to pay others for the privilege of advertising on their lists. For example, www.e-mailpaysu.com offer you the opportunity to advertise to their subscribers for a fee. This is just an example. There are many other companies like these on the Internet today and their prices vary.

As you can see, this techniques can increase your exposure and help you get more clients. You can read about other effective marketing techniques from my other articles on this series.

EasyWebRiches © 2006

By Nathaniel Tabares – Visit his website at
http://www.easywebriches.com for more details.

Tags: Advertise, advertisement, advertising

Have you ever met with, or talked to a prospect that wasn’t ready to buy what you had to offer? What did you do with that prospects? Most sales gurus of the 1980’s and 90’s wrote books that told you to move on to the next prospect who is ready to buy now, and not waste your time on those that aren’t ready yet.

Here’s the wrong assumption to make in that situation. You took the time and educated the prospect; they walked out, and you automatically think that they either bought from someone else, or they were just tire kicking. Wrong!!!

Why Prospect Shop Price Alone

Did you know that your prospects were conditioned by your industry to make price the overriding issue when looking for products and services? Whose fault is this? In my opinion, I would have to say that in most cases, it’s the fault of the vendors that are selling your product or service.

Why do I say this? Think about it…most prospects that call you have done most of their research regarding the type of product or service that you offer and are now ready to buy. The typical prospect makes 3 to 5 phone calls asking who can provide the best price, because they’ve already done the research and know what their needs are. What might you tell them? You might jump at the opportunity to gain a new client and say, “I’ll give you the best price, what did the other guy offer you?”

Have you ever wondered how to sell your products and services more on value than simply on the price?

Understanding The Educational Spectrum

Think of the Educational Spectrum as a horizontal line from left to right, with the letter “A” representing the far left hand side
of the spectrum and “Z” being the far right. Prospects jump on
the educational spectrum somewhere from A to Z. A is when the prospect first gets the idea that they have a need for what you have to offer. We call these “Future Buyers”. Z is when money changes hands and they acquire the goods. We call these “Now Buyers”.

Here’s a simple illustration of the Educational Spectrum. The key is to determine where your prospects are on this spectrum and help them move comfortably and consistently towards the right of the spectrum where they then become the “Now Buyers”.

“The Educational Spectrum”

A====D=========G=====J=======M=======P========S=======V======Z

A- Prospect firsts gets the idea to buy what you sell

D- Starts gathering information on an informal basis

G- Asks friend & associates for recommendations

J- Heavy-duty fact finding

M- Narrows choices by process of elimination

P- Narrows in on favorites; decision is coming soon

S- Makes decision to buy but not necessarily who to buy from

V- Waiting for the right time

Z- Money changes hands

A====D=========G=====J=======M=======P========S=======V======Z

Just like we know that having a baby takes 9 months, you have a good idea what the selling cycle is for your products. Whatever it is, you know it is fairly constant. So why rush the future buyers to buy when they are not ready? Why not use the selling cycle to your advantage?

Become The Logical Choice To Do Business With

Understanding the job of effective marketing will allow you to assist your prospects when you know that they are not ready to buy what you have to offer by providing marketing materials that are hit their hot-buttons and educate them in a systematic way until they are ready to buy.

This process should be systematic and automated, so that they receive industry significant information that helps them to make a quality decision. In other words, you can become the advocate for your industry that prospects look to for advice. When they become “Now Buyers”, where do you think they will go for their purchase? Good chance, it will be you!

Think of yourself as the fountain from whence all information flows when it comes to buying what you have sell.

It should not be important who your prospect buys from as long as you are committed to providing the best information and knowledge so they can make the best buying decision for themselves and their situation.

In the end, no one wants to feel like they made a bad decision to purchase your product or service, so it is important that you assist your prospects every step of the way as they are gaining confidence in doing business with you.

Tags: ads, advertiser, advertising, business, Marketing, sales, strategic marketing, tactical marketing

Publishing an email newsletter or ezine regularly is a lot of work. And if you think that you’ll never make a mistake, think again. Even experienced publishers can make mistakes because of technology or human error. It’s all too easy to press the wrong button and have a disastrous “oops moment.”

When the mouse is quicker than the brain or you pull a really bonehead maneuver, here are five simple tips for making amends to your readership:

1. Apologize. A little old fashioned groveling never hurts anything but your pride. In today’s spam-phobic world, just a few irate readers can cause an entire ISP ban your newsletter or land your ezine on one of the many spam-blocking lists. So before anyone can accuse you of doing something wrong, beat them to the punch. Suck up your pride and send an “I’m sorry” email to your entire list. Make it humble, human, and heartfelt.

2. Hurry! Alert your entire mailing list about the mistake as soon as you can. This advice is especially important if you’re struggling with a crisis, like a hacked list server that’s cramming inboxes with multiple repeat messages. Showing readers and advertisers that you’re paying attention and really working on the problem reestablishes their confidence in you (and keeps them on your list).

3. Get Personal. Customize the subject line of your apology so it demands attention. For example, an informative subject line like “Apology For Mistake In MyEzine” works better than “Read Immediately” (which sounds like spam).

4. Explain. Tell your readers and advertisers the reasons “why” the mistake happened. Whether it was human error, a bug in your mailing software, or bad luck, give your readers a few details. Just make sure you don’t over do it trying to explain really technical problems or ramble on about your personal stress level.

5. Bribe. If your ezine blooper is threatening to send readers and advertisers packing, offer enticing perks to make up for the mistake. Maybe a free report, a coupon, some nice templates, or software can save your list and your reputation. Just make sure the freebie is good quality and original that people can’t just pick up anywhere.

An ezine publishing mistake can threaten your list. So remember that prevention is the best medicine. Be sure to test every single mailing. Also invest in a quality list server and secure hosting, and always monitor everything that’s automated.

Just in case, you also might want to use the tips above to develop your own ezine “disaster plan checklist.” That way, when the Ezine Gods get cranky, you’ll be one step ahead of them!

Susan Daffron is the President of Logical Expressions, Inc. (http://www.logicalexpressions.com) and is the author of more than 70 national magazine articles, 200 newspaper articles, two books, and online training courses. With hundreds of online articles to her credit, she regularly publishes ezines on computer tips (Logical Tips), pet care (Pet Tails), and other topics.

Tags: advertiser, apologize, blooper, ezine, mistake, problem, publisher, reader, subject, writer