I just attended an internet marketing seminar based upon the principles of e-mail marketing. I came away with a bunch of great information that I will be able to implement immediately. I was surprised to hear about things I was doing wrong and how many other businesses were in the same boat. I am not going to lay the details of what I learned out here but I will recommend that you do some research about the best strategies for email marketing. Here are some links to get you started. Good luck!

http://www.brightwavemarketing.com/

http://www.silverpop.com/index.html

Imagine only paying advertising dollars for people specifically looking for the product or service your business offers. The days of mass advertising using TV, radio even newspapers for your small business are dwindling away.

Think about it. With radio and TV, your commercial message is targeting people who may or may not have an interest in your company. The power of pay-per-click (PPC)advertising on the Internet using 2 of the main PPC powerhouses, Google and Overture (Yahoo) allows businesses to only pay for people who click on the ad they are running, hence the term "pay-per-click". This ensures businesses are receiving targeted traffic from people who have searched for their specific products or services.

The Internet allows businesses to compete on a level playing field with competition of all sizes. In addition, Google and Overture give you the power to test your message and landing page without spending BIG bucks. Start with Google. Its easy to setup and has a complete tutorial. Trust me, you can do it and the results are instantaneous. Don't spend BIG bucks on a website until you test a couple of different 1-page websites to see if you can even generate traffic! Whats the point of having a 12 page website if you can't get nobody to visit?

Now you can test new business ideas or new ad ideas at a low cost without a ton of leg work.

Good Luck!

Most businesses spend little time thinking about marketing, let alone planning an entire event around it. Marketing should be a huge part of your business and not something considered when everything else is done. It is important to spend some time each month brainstorming marketing ideas. Here is a quick list to help you get started.

1. Gather 1 or 2 of your closest associates in the area being brainstormed for a period of no less than 4 hours.

2. DO NOT meet in anyones office. Instead use someones home, backyard, or a quiet bar.

3. Set the 2 most important rules - no straying from topic and no ideas are bad ideas.

4. Layout all the facts you know, and those you would like to know on a big white board.

5. Identify 3 overall goals for your brainstorming session.

6. Set a reasonable amount of time to discuss each goal. (minimum of 1-hr each)

7. Allow people to relax - some may want a beer, others like music in the background....allow people to be relaxed and comfortable.

8. Don't treat this like an official business meeting - do not allow position or rank within company to control or dominate any discussion or topic.

9. Have the Internet and other related materials readily available and research what your competitors and similar business models are doing.

10. Have fun - brainstorming should be fun, low stress, and most importantly PRODUCTIVE.

Hope these help! Stay tuned for much more in the area of Marketing!

Chris Bache - Founder - Marquis Advertising, Inc.

Don't get sold on frequency or branding. Radio stations sales people will tell you this because it will get a longer contract and will let you think results may not appear until weeks have passed. But your not Pepsi or McDonald's and branding and frequency campaigns are sure to do one thing...break you.

The fact is you need immediate response and revenue from your campaign. Welcome to the world of Direct Marketing.

Here is a worthwhile piece of advice from Sierra Management Solutions on the potentially devastating impact of discounting on your company's bottom line:

Problem: The CFO was worried. For the past six months the company's margins had been dropping and now they were at the point where something had to be done. Finance had researched the situation thoroughly and the finger was pointing directly at sales.

I subscribe to a great little online newsletter called Monday Morning Sales CoachR, which is filled with great tips and reminders on hitting sales goals, handling client objections, etc.  I forward it each week to my sales staff, as a regular help and reminder to them on good sales practices.  Here is some of this week's newsletter:

Problem: Bert, VP Sales for ABC Company, was explaining to the CEO why they were 50% short of goal. "Our prospects tell my salespeople our pricing is 25% higher than our closest competitor, business is terrific so why risk change, and they (the prospects) don't understand Web-based e-commerce yet." Bert continued, "I can relate. We are pretty new. Maybe our goals are too ambitious."  Ms. CEO replied, "Those are all probably good reasons, but it's your job to make goal, so deal with it." (The CEO presented similar reasons to the Board of Directors for being off target.)  Bert accepted that these were serious issues that had to be dealt with and worked with his people to make more effective calls. However, the environment didn't change. Customers continued to have challenges around ABC's solutions.  ABC ended the year 50% off projection, Bert was gone and the new Sales VP took a new approach.

Diagnosis:   The sales culture of this company was severely debilitated by a tendency to blame external factors for their lack of results. We call that not taking responsibility or making excuses.  The problem's severity was compounded because ABC did not recognize this as a major problem. Each time the folks at ABC accepted external-factor excuses as valid reasons for lack of performance, this problem became more habitual and rooted in the sales culture.  The CEO, the sales manager and the salespeople blamed the product, the pricing, the marketplace, new concept, etc. Many of the excuses were cloaked in shreds of validity and were easy to accept as factual and as real reasons for lack of success. ABC did not consider excuse making unacceptable. No one coached the salespeople on how to recognize and deal with their own excuse making.

Prescription:   The company must immediately make a cultural change. It must stop accepting excuses and start coaching their sales professionals to recognize when it is happening and what to do about it.  Awareness must precede change. The new sales manager should search for "excuses" when debriefing sales calls. When presented with reasons a customer will not move to the next step or is stalling, she might ask the salesperson, "If there was another reason why the prospect is not going forward, what would that be?" Or, "Aside from that reason, what are some of the other reasons you think the prospect doesn't like our solutions?"  Then the sales manager could follow with, "If you had surfaced that in the sales call, how would you have dealt with it?"  Then, "What do you think would have happened? Would that have changed anything?"  This type of coaching empowers salespeople to hang in there and work harder and smarter.   If everyone recognizes when folks are blaming external factors for lack of sales success, change happens and people start taking responsibility for outcomes. From the CEO down, everyone should listen for excuses, look for excuses and point out excuses. When excuse making is not acceptable in a company, there is a positive supportive growth-oriented environment. The comment, "Are we making excuses?" is welcomed as a barometer that guides us toward increased earnings and shorter selling cycles.

Monday Morning Sales Coach condenses powerful sales technique tips and information into one brief charge to start each new week. They know your time is valuable, so they keep it short, actionable, and simple. If you are interested in subscribing to this weekly newsletter, go to http://www.whetstonegroup.com/res_mmsc_signup.html
- Derek Rowley