As an expert in customer relationship marketing, I can tell you that it is much more difficult than most people think. Customer marketing, in most people's opinions, is a pretty simple matter. As a consumer, you assume that a company sends out either a flyer, postcard, or a broadsheet almost indiscriminately. They may use radio marketing, television marketing, or anything else. From the consumer's perspective, it may be all the same, but from a business prospective, all of these are radically different approaches. Consumer marketing must be carefully targeted towards the image that the company wants to portray and the clientele that it wishes to attract.
For example, there is a good reason why Auto service centers, doctors offices, and even clothing stores often send out postcards for customer marketing. When you send out a business postcard, you play off of the perception of an intimate relationship between you and the customer. This type of customer marketing is extremely effective because it encourages brand loyalty. Although the consumers, of course, know that it is not a custom-made postcard, it still seems thoughtful. Some companies take customer marketing so far that they send out happy holiday cards to many of their loyal consumers around Christmas.
One of my favorite customer service marketing strategies is to send out targeted advertisements to consumers. This is such an effective form of customer marketing because consumers always appreciate it when you are in tune with their own interests. You can even try to educate about the products while you advertise them, speaking about the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. Usually, people assume that you do not want to ever speak badly of your own products, but sometimes it has its advantages. A few negative details thrown into a customer marketing report can give the customer the perception that you are unusually honest and concerned with the welfare of the consumer.
Of course, this is not the only type of custom marketing that companies routinely engage in. As a matter of fact, the job of a marketing consultants is to come up with new and more innovative strategies to market products. Techniques such as guerrilla marketing and word-of-mouth have revolutionized the marketing industry in the last decade, and customer marketing continues to evolve because of that kind of bright thinking. Not only does it help companies to make more money, but it also helps consumers to receive a product more carefully tailored to their own interests.
Friday, March 28, 2008
E-mail Marketing
E-mail Marketing
My husband has a very unique nickname. Sadly for him, that nickname is also associated with junk e-mail. Many of his friends call him Spam. He got this nickname when we were in college, and that was a long time before e-mail marketing got out of hand, and junk e-mails were dubbed spam. Sadly, everyone still calls him Spam. I quit calling him that a long time ago, but it seems I’m the only one that has let the nickname go.
When the Internet first became popular, e-mail marketing was just in other thing online. If you have an e-mail address now, you know how frustrating this is. There are many different types of e-mail marketing, and the one you probably do not like is the unsolicited form. You probably have a program on your e-mail to get rid of spam, or you have a junk folder so that your e-mail server can filter away the unwanted e-mails before you have to open them.
There are still some companies who use e-mail marketing the correct way. They have mailing lists, and they only send mail out to those who have signed up. It saddens me that many reputable companies have resorted to e-mail marketing that borders on spam. For some reason I am getting e-mails from Avon, and I have never signed up for a mailing list through them. While I hate to click the spam button when I see an e-mail from them in my inbox, I think I’m going to have to do it. I don’t care who the company is they should not be sending me e-mails without my permission. I understand the e-mail marketing is effective, but a good company should never go over to the dark side.
Because the unsolicited e-mail marketing is continuing, I would assume that there are many out there who still click on these e-mails. I am not one of those people. Even if one of them looks interesting to me, I will not click on it to open it. I have been dealing with spam e-mails for long enough to know that clicking on them encourages those were sending you spam to send you more. If I want to get e-mail marketing in my inbox I will sign up for a mailing list. Other than that, I am at least one person in this world who still refuses to click on any unsolicited e-mail no matter what it is trying to sell me. If this type of e-mail marketing were not so successful, it might just go away.
My husband has a very unique nickname. Sadly for him, that nickname is also associated with junk e-mail. Many of his friends call him Spam. He got this nickname when we were in college, and that was a long time before e-mail marketing got out of hand, and junk e-mails were dubbed spam. Sadly, everyone still calls him Spam. I quit calling him that a long time ago, but it seems I’m the only one that has let the nickname go.
When the Internet first became popular, e-mail marketing was just in other thing online. If you have an e-mail address now, you know how frustrating this is. There are many different types of e-mail marketing, and the one you probably do not like is the unsolicited form. You probably have a program on your e-mail to get rid of spam, or you have a junk folder so that your e-mail server can filter away the unwanted e-mails before you have to open them.
There are still some companies who use e-mail marketing the correct way. They have mailing lists, and they only send mail out to those who have signed up. It saddens me that many reputable companies have resorted to e-mail marketing that borders on spam. For some reason I am getting e-mails from Avon, and I have never signed up for a mailing list through them. While I hate to click the spam button when I see an e-mail from them in my inbox, I think I’m going to have to do it. I don’t care who the company is they should not be sending me e-mails without my permission. I understand the e-mail marketing is effective, but a good company should never go over to the dark side.
Because the unsolicited e-mail marketing is continuing, I would assume that there are many out there who still click on these e-mails. I am not one of those people. Even if one of them looks interesting to me, I will not click on it to open it. I have been dealing with spam e-mails for long enough to know that clicking on them encourages those were sending you spam to send you more. If I want to get e-mail marketing in my inbox I will sign up for a mailing list. Other than that, I am at least one person in this world who still refuses to click on any unsolicited e-mail no matter what it is trying to sell me. If this type of e-mail marketing were not so successful, it might just go away.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Prospects And Terms For Beginner Online Marketing
When I started the whole internet marketing thing I had a hard time understanding all the different acronyms for the different terms and I had a hard time understanding some of the terms that places like clickbank and other affiliate programs used. I also had a hard time understanding what some of the people in the forums where talking about. So for the people that are in the same boat that I was in this is for you.
EPC-your EPC is your earnings per click. You take the amount you have earned from a program and you divide it by the number of clicks you have received. Say you made $50 in sales and you had 100 clicks. That would mean you are earning about .50 cents a click. This can really help you determine what is selling and what is not.
PPC- Is paid per click. This usually is used for things like ad sense, Yahoo Marketing, Microsoft ad center, and others. It is a way to put ads on search engines, and anywhere they may advertise. The thing is you only pay when someone clicks on your link. With most of the programs you have to bid on key words to get into a targeted market.
CTR-This is the Click through rate. The CTR is the number of times your ad has impressions divided by the clicks. So if your ad had 100 impressions and 2 clicks you would have a CTR of 2%.
EPM- This is your estimated earnings per thousand impressions.
CLICKS- This one is pretty simple it is the number of clicks you have received on your ads, banners, ect.
LEADS- Some advertisers will pay you for leads. A lead is gained usually when someone fills out a survey, or on a dating site for example they sing up for the free service. The company does this because they know once they get the person too sign up for free it will be easier for them to get them to buy and upgrades like a premium membership. Most of the time if the person you referred upgrades you will also get the commission from that.
COMMISION-Simply put this is the amount of money you earn for the sale or lead.
MONETIZING- This is when you add the ads, adsense and whatever else will make you money to your website this is very important to internet marketing.
SEO- Search engine optimization another important part of internet marketing. This involves doing things like article marketing, adding key words and phrases to your site, social bookmaking, back linking, and whatever else you can do to get the word out about your site. You can also blog about your site with a link too it. This will ultimately give you a better ranking on sites like Google which leads to more people coming to your site which also equals more sales.
BACKLINK- Is an incoming link to a website from another website. The number of backlinks you have can help you get a better ranking on search engines such as Google. They will also drive more traffic to your web page when people come across them. To get back links you can write articles about your webpage put a link back to the site at the bottom of the article and submit them to article directories such as www.Ezinearticles.com, you can post a link to your website in your signature in forums, you can post your link for your site to relevant topics in forums, you can also use social book marking to get more backlinks, you can email webmasters of websites relevant to your topic asking if they will put your link on there site. You can create blogs about the topic of your site and put a link in the blog, you can trade links with people and finally you can buy back links to your site.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING- Is a system where people save bookmarks that they like and want to share. Most social book marking site such as digg.com allow people to have friends that they share links with. You can submit your links to your sites and people can vote on them or rate them which in turn gets you more backlinks and more traffic to your site. You can also use recourses like socialmarker.com which will submit your site to a bunch of social book marking sites with ease.
BLOG- A blog is a site where you can post entries articles and videos about whatever your site is about. It is almost like a journal. You can use blogs to get many more people to your website by making sure people keep coming back to your blog. To do this you should add things like videos, an RSS feed, surveys, other fun things you can think of, and constantly update the content. I would use sites like www.squidoo.com and www.blogger.com as they are free and they are very user friendly.
RSS- Really simple syndication is a system that is used in consistently updated blogs or sites. The RSS allows the fans of your blog to know when it has been updated. All they have to do is subscribe to the feed.
META TAGS- Usually keywords written in HTML in the header or the footer of a page. They can not be seen by visitors but they are seen by search engine crawlers and can improve you search engine rank.
NICHE- is a targeted section of the market. Most marketers who make allot of money focus on finding a niche that not many people are selling in. The problem is allot of niches are saturated with sellers. Such as the acne niche. However a niche such as say ornamental garden stones may not be as saturated and you now have a better chance of making a highly ranked site about the stones and you have a better chance of selling them.
EPC-your EPC is your earnings per click. You take the amount you have earned from a program and you divide it by the number of clicks you have received. Say you made $50 in sales and you had 100 clicks. That would mean you are earning about .50 cents a click. This can really help you determine what is selling and what is not.
PPC- Is paid per click. This usually is used for things like ad sense, Yahoo Marketing, Microsoft ad center, and others. It is a way to put ads on search engines, and anywhere they may advertise. The thing is you only pay when someone clicks on your link. With most of the programs you have to bid on key words to get into a targeted market.
CTR-This is the Click through rate. The CTR is the number of times your ad has impressions divided by the clicks. So if your ad had 100 impressions and 2 clicks you would have a CTR of 2%.
EPM- This is your estimated earnings per thousand impressions.
CLICKS- This one is pretty simple it is the number of clicks you have received on your ads, banners, ect.
LEADS- Some advertisers will pay you for leads. A lead is gained usually when someone fills out a survey, or on a dating site for example they sing up for the free service. The company does this because they know once they get the person too sign up for free it will be easier for them to get them to buy and upgrades like a premium membership. Most of the time if the person you referred upgrades you will also get the commission from that.
COMMISION-Simply put this is the amount of money you earn for the sale or lead.
MONETIZING- This is when you add the ads, adsense and whatever else will make you money to your website this is very important to internet marketing.
SEO- Search engine optimization another important part of internet marketing. This involves doing things like article marketing, adding key words and phrases to your site, social bookmaking, back linking, and whatever else you can do to get the word out about your site. You can also blog about your site with a link too it. This will ultimately give you a better ranking on sites like Google which leads to more people coming to your site which also equals more sales.
BACKLINK- Is an incoming link to a website from another website. The number of backlinks you have can help you get a better ranking on search engines such as Google. They will also drive more traffic to your web page when people come across them. To get back links you can write articles about your webpage put a link back to the site at the bottom of the article and submit them to article directories such as www.Ezinearticles.com, you can post a link to your website in your signature in forums, you can post your link for your site to relevant topics in forums, you can also use social book marking to get more backlinks, you can email webmasters of websites relevant to your topic asking if they will put your link on there site. You can create blogs about the topic of your site and put a link in the blog, you can trade links with people and finally you can buy back links to your site.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING- Is a system where people save bookmarks that they like and want to share. Most social book marking site such as digg.com allow people to have friends that they share links with. You can submit your links to your sites and people can vote on them or rate them which in turn gets you more backlinks and more traffic to your site. You can also use recourses like socialmarker.com which will submit your site to a bunch of social book marking sites with ease.
BLOG- A blog is a site where you can post entries articles and videos about whatever your site is about. It is almost like a journal. You can use blogs to get many more people to your website by making sure people keep coming back to your blog. To do this you should add things like videos, an RSS feed, surveys, other fun things you can think of, and constantly update the content. I would use sites like www.squidoo.com and www.blogger.com as they are free and they are very user friendly.
RSS- Really simple syndication is a system that is used in consistently updated blogs or sites. The RSS allows the fans of your blog to know when it has been updated. All they have to do is subscribe to the feed.
META TAGS- Usually keywords written in HTML in the header or the footer of a page. They can not be seen by visitors but they are seen by search engine crawlers and can improve you search engine rank.
NICHE- is a targeted section of the market. Most marketers who make allot of money focus on finding a niche that not many people are selling in. The problem is allot of niches are saturated with sellers. Such as the acne niche. However a niche such as say ornamental garden stones may not be as saturated and you now have a better chance of making a highly ranked site about the stones and you have a better chance of selling them.
Success Factors For Beginner Online Marketing
As an internet marketing beginner, there a number of things that you need to master just to really break into internet marketing, let alone start to make money, regardless of what all the get rich quick artists might try to tell you.
These days, more and more people are starting online businesses. That is both good news and bad for you as you gear up to wade into the online business fray. The good news is, the popularity of online businesses is a testament to the way people do business these days – an increasing number of people are becoming web savvy, and the are turning to online sources for doing business. The bad news is, with the proliferation of online businesses of all stripes, it can be difficult to both get the word out about your business. Further, it can be difficult to set your business apart from the competition. Just as with planning to launch a “real-world” business, gearing up to start an online business requires a good deal of planning and forethought. But, with a few strategies in your arsenal, you should soon be doing business!
The first thing you need to decide is your domain name. While there are a host of reasons for carefully considering this choice, they all boil down to one thing: marketability. Choose a domain name that is catchy, easy to remember, and relevant to your business. Don’t use hyphens in your domain name, and don’t be generic. Flowers.com isn’t specific enough for someone looking to purchase flowers in a certain region (unless you deliver worldwide, in which case geography isn’t a factor).
Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘
These days, more and more people are starting online businesses. That is both good news and bad for you as you gear up to wade into the online business fray. The good news is, the popularity of online businesses is a testament to the way people do business these days – an increasing number of people are becoming web savvy, and the are turning to online sources for doing business. The bad news is, with the proliferation of online businesses of all stripes, it can be difficult to both get the word out about your business. Further, it can be difficult to set your business apart from the competition. Just as with planning to launch a “real-world” business, gearing up to start an online business requires a good deal of planning and forethought. But, with a few strategies in your arsenal, you should soon be doing business!
The first thing you need to decide is your domain name. While there are a host of reasons for carefully considering this choice, they all boil down to one thing: marketability. Choose a domain name that is catchy, easy to remember, and relevant to your business. Don’t use hyphens in your domain name, and don’t be generic. Flowers.com isn’t specific enough for someone looking to purchase flowers in a certain region (unless you deliver worldwide, in which case geography isn’t a factor).
Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘
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