Promotion Strategies

Archive for the ‘Promotion Strategies’ Category

Here is a very basic sample marketing strategy for a product which does not have an associate web site. Let us use Pottery as an example.

Marketing Objective
* Increase sales by 10% per year
* Create loyal customer base
* Increase the customer base by 10% per year
* Create demand that exceeds supply to be forced to bring in an employee.

Finance Objective
Decrease operating costs by 5% per year * Reach profitablility in 6 months

Target Market
* People who buy pottery
* People who give pottery as gifts.

Positioning
We are the premier custom pottery store. If you want any type of custom pottery with features of your choice, we are the pottery company you want!

Strategies
Build loyalty and a great customer base by offering a custom service catering to the customer and what they want done with pottery. We will be using a break even analysis. This means for the first 5 months we will only spend money that will be equal to or less than $0 at the end of each month. That means we have a specific amount to work with and no matter what, we will NOT go past that amount.

Sales Forecast
The first two months the business is running, the market will be increasing as word of mouth spreads, marketing campaigns become effective, and other forms of advertising are set in motion. Sales should steadily rise to the desired amount by the end of month 4-5.

Expense Budget
Advertising budget, employee budget, material budget.

Contingency Plans
If after 6 months, business stays in the red, seriously reconsider what you are doing. Maybe the product or service just isn’t needed at this time.

This is a very rudimentary sample marketing strategy. When doing it yourself, you should have weekly graphs printed out and neatly organized so you know exactly how much you are spending, making, and plan to spend. Also, if the product had an associated website, the plan would be very different. If anything, this strategy leaves out most of the small details that  are needed. Just remember to start small with 1 or 2 realistic goals that can be achieved very quickly. This will boost morale and make you feel great about your business.

Now that you have your perfect website, you need to get people to see it and increase traffic to your site. Enter the new specialized service called Web Marketing Search Engine Optimization. There are tons of ways to do this but you want to remain credible while gaining website traffic. If you trick people into visiting your site, odds are they won’t come back and might post an article somewhere about it. Here are some easy ways to get out there.

Use traffic analyzing software. If your website is hosted by a server somewhere, it probably already has this tool with it. There are tons available, just look some up and see what most fits what you are looking for.

For the ultimate in Web Marketing Search Engine Optimization, submit your website to search engines. This is how most people find websites so you want to be on popular ones. Before this step however, you need to do some SEO.

Here are some basics:

In the TITLE tag of your website, you need to write something good. Make it appealing to the customers you plan on targeting and give a good description. In the META tag area you will want your particular keywords or phrases. Many search engines will NOT rank you highly unless this is done properly – and the traffic to your site will be effected. This should also be done with header tags like H1 as these are scanned by search engines also.

Get other websites to link to you. You can list your site in many open directories and ask similar websites to exchange links. This is a great way to increase your page ranking.

Advertise! This costs money but you will get good results in a relatively short time. The 3 main types of advertising to do are Cost-per-thousand, Cost-per-click, and Cost-per-action. These terms are based on the pricing that the advertising companies and websites charge to show your ads. They all will show a banner or other ad that points to and promotes your website.

E-mails and newsletters. This Web Marketing Search Engine Optimization technique involves getting customers sign up to receive information about your company, products, and regular updates. This way is much more effective than sending out thousands of spam e-mails that most people would just delete on sight. If you have the time, you can set up a newsletter subscription service to keep people informed after they sign up. This works best at getting traffic if you have interesting and changing content that people might want to see and makes for a very loyal customer base.

There are literally thousands of Search Engine Optimization Companies out there that will be more than happy to help you with the SEO aspect of your business. They all vary in price and actual services offered but if you don’t have the time or confidence to do it yourself, an actual company handling all this for you is a great investment. White Hat SEO is when you use legitimate techniques to promote your website.

Most SEO companies will help you with everything from improving your website design to finding directories that you should submit your site to. No matter what the company says, there is really no possible way that they can guarantee you a #1 spot on Google or any other search engine. Look for a company that will guarantee a top 10 spot.

When evaluating White Hat Search Engine Optimization Companies, make sure you research them, get testimonials, and have them explain exactly what they are going to do for the money you pay them. If they don’t tell you every single step taken, it might be a good idea to look elsewhere. Unfortunately, the internet can be a con-artist’s playground. Don’t let any SEO company talk you into having your customers install anything, ever. Nobody will ever do it anyway so again it’s a big waste of time and money.

Find out how long that company has been in business, the number of employees, and get references. For your safety, always insist on a full money back guarantee. Any honest company would be glad to offer it to you. Make sure it is in writing with the price of the service.

It is very, very important that you choose an ethical Search Engine Optimization Company. Some companies that practice shady ways of optimizing your site might end up getting your domain name banned from many search engines at once. That will annihilate your website and force you to start all over with a new name, losing everything you worked so hard for. This is also known as “Black Hat” SEO methods. This includes anything that goes against a particular search engines guidelines. On the other end, “White hat” SEO methods conform to all of the search engines guidelines and is completely honest.

When it comes to advertising, you have to know what method is inexpensive but is so effective that it will yield maximum results. One of the more effective methods that every company should think is viral marketing or word-of-mouth advertising. It is one of the most effective advertising tools, whether it is used by an online company or not. It is also one of the more inexpensive advertising tools.

Viral marketing strategies consist of people spreading the news about a company, a certain product released in the market or the efficiency of a product. It creates awareness and it automatically makes the product or the company visible. The magnitude of viral marketing strategies is so wide that one can never fully determine up to what extent it can spread. The word “viral” means that every person that it can come into contact with can be a carrier. Just think of the common cold and how it can spread from one person to the next until it becomes an epidemic.

There are different viral marketing strategies that you and your company can make use of. It aims to inform as many people as possible about the company’s products and services. It can range from link building, article writing, affiliate programs; RSS feeds to something as simple as an e-mail signature. Take advantage of these strategies so you can boost company and product awareness which will ultimately boost your company’s profits. So why not use them to one’s advantage especially in the business world? They exist to promote your business. They are effective, simple and inexpensive.

There is much more to online promotion than your typical Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, approach. Many techniques are more effective and also help your visibility with search engines. There are tons of ways online to promote your business from forums, blogs, RSS feeds, and more. Here are a few simple ways to promote your business online.

PRESS RELEASE WRITING AND DISTRIBUTION Publicity helps give your business credibility and is a great marketing tool. People like press releases because they aren’t as in your face as a typical advertisement and for the most part, people trust independent media and columnists. A press release that is developed properly and well written can greatly increase your sales while giving a good boost to your business or product image. Generally, a press release should never be more than 500 words including title, contact info, and main body of writing.

AUTOMATED MARKETING WITH RSS RSS sounds like something scary and foreign to many businesses – but it is vital for online promotion. It is, in fact, just a fancy way of delivering media to your customers. Whether audio streams or video podcasts, RSS feeds can be used for many things. You can send a personal video from your company to the consumer thanking them for using your product and service, give demonstrations on how to use your service or product, and deliver product news and updates. These can even go straight to someones mobile phone or device if they desire constant monitoring of what your company has to say.

HIGH PROFILE ARTICLE PROMOTION Article promotion is great for promoting your website because most of the time the submission sites are completely free. Good article sites can get many thousands of visitors daily and your specific article might be exactly what someone is looking for. Some article sites will let you link directly to your website. The more links floating around the web that link to your website, the more people will look to see what you have to offer.

BUSINESS BLOGGING Business blogging consists of a web page that has short post that are updated often and arranged by date. This is typically found on the home page or the “What’s New” section. This allows the business to reach new customers and build a nice little web following. There is plenty of blogging software that is available to businesses of all shapes and sizes, many of which are free. This software allows you to create, manage, share and publish communications to new and existing consumers.

To optimize your search engine marketing, you will want to review your current site ranking, make sure the keywords your website uses are relevant and research their performance, and make changes as needed for optimization.

You can view your website ranking any time at http://www.submitawebsite.com/siteranker.html. These sites specialize in search engine marketing and will show you how your site is doing compared to other sites on the major search engines. It is a good idea to check this often so you know what areas you should be improving in.

If you are currently using keywords, you need to be aware of the keywords meta-tag. The keywords need to be relevant to your website, and should be what you think your customers will type into a search engine when looking for your product or service. You can use easy online sites to determine what keywords are doing well and what people are looking for. You need to be specific too. If you go online do you type in “shoe” when you want a pair of Nike running shoes? No, you type in “Nike running shoes”. This is very, very important for optimization of your website. You will want to stay with 2-4 words at maximum. A good tool to suggest keywords would be http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ This will show you the results of the keyword you type in and show you how often people are searching for it.

Meta-tags are information that is in the “Head” area of your web pages. This is not seen by viewers but controls how the page is described by search engines. These are very useful when submitting your site to a search engine.

Bold face words or linked words are preferred by most search engines as is a sitemap. The sitemap usually has a few areas like Home, About us, Contact us, Links, and Articles. Search engines really like sites with tons of information so if you have links to 20 or so pages of your website, the search engine is less likely to refuse you service.

For effective search engine marketing, make sure you read the guidelines that each search engine has before you submit your website. Also decide if free or paid submissions are what you are looking for. Paid submissions usually have better and faster results but only if your website has undergone an optimization process.

No website or ecommerce business will just start making money on its own. It’s like getting a brand new phone number and not telling people what your number is. You need to have a Web Site Marketing Strategy to make yourself known and to be available to the customers you want to reach. Here are some basic ways of marketing your website.

1. Put your website address on everything you have related to business. Even if you haven’t an ecommerce presense, you can still put your address on offline medai sich as business cards, pens, stationary, etc.. Pens are a cheap and effective way because you can leave them all over town for next to nothing.

2. Ensure your Web Site Marketing Strategy includes a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) component.

3. Add various sections to your website that contain media. Let people contribute their articles and/or videos to your site as long as it significantly relates to your business and you think it might make your site more interesting.

4. Advertise your website in local and free papers/magazines. College towns usually have a couple standard papers, a college paper, and some free papers. The fees for listing a small advertisement is usually very small. Keep your add simple and exciting.

5. Offer discounts, drawings, and sales fairly regularly. People are cheap and the expectation that they might get something discounted or win a free gift will make them check your site out and sign up their information with you.

6. Don’t forget about the importance of keyword. Thet aye loke the food on which search engines feast! This is overlooked quite often but plays an integral role in your websites hit count. Make it as specific as possible.

7. Promote your site online everywhere! On-line groups, forums, e-mail signatures, Online games, anywhere and everywhere you can have a link to your website, put it in.

These are just the basics and freebies when it comes to a web site marketing strategy. There are tons of programs out there you can pay to generate traffic and increase interest in your site. Again, be wary and only use ones that have a proven track record.

Search Engine Marketing Optimization, commonly called SEO, uses the most relevant keyword phrases to your site to make sure you get high ranks in search engines. The goal of SEO is to try to get your site at the top of the list when those keywords are typed in to a search engine. The HTML and the Meta-tags of your website need to have enough density of your desired keyword or phrase.

Most of the best search engines have an innovative secret formula for rankings which search engine marketing optimization specialists try to discover. Search engines use many factors to rank websites and they change often. Just because your site ranks #1 on Yahoo!, it could be #500 on Ask. You don’t need to submit your website to these search engines as it will be listed anyway, but to ensure visiblity you really need to pay to get it listed. If you are already connected with other websites on the web, your visiblity should increase drastically if you spread links to your sites to many websites. It can take between a few days and a few weeks for the search engines to notice your site if you choose to do it passively by linking.

You should be very specific about your keywords to optimize using search engines. Instead of “shirts” make it “blue cotton shirts” or something innovative that increases the focus and becomes less of a general term. There are many different sites on the web that will show you how many times a keyword is searched for each month so you can experiment on the phrase  until you get something that is acceptable for your business.

Website code is also important when it comes to search engine marketing optimization. The website should have a good density of your keywords and you should also utilize the HTML or XHTML to your advantage. By using alt image or bold title tags that incorporate your keyword, you can greatly increase your SEO factor.

Forums, blogs, other websites, and directories are great innovative ways to attract links to your website as well. Join a few of them and add a link in your signature. The trick with these is, if you aren’t a respected member of that forum, you will be labeled a spammer and possibly kicked out.

You can think of business marketing strategy as your plan of action to win the war. You will need to use many different tactics to help you achieve your strategic marketing plan. This is especially true for internet businesses which are online.

A business marketing strategy is an overall plan of marketing the actions you intend to take in order to accomplish a specific goal for your company.

Start with a simple goal such as doubling your daily customer count then make a simple plan of the major marketing steps you need to do.

Your business marketing campaign should consist of:

• Targeting your Market. Know who you are selling to.
• Online Presence
• Creating a USP or “Unique Selling Proposition”. Make your product recognizable and memorable
• Always make a good offer. Keep prices reasonable for the product being offered
• Keep a thorough database of the customers. Know who your customers are and see if they have anything in common
• Remove doubt the customers may have. Offering refunds is a great way to prove the customer has nothing to lose.
• Expand the product. If it does well, add to it.
• Try out your promotions. An easy way to increase sales is to have a promotion like buy one get one 1/2 off, etc.

You can change your offer, when it is offered, your price, etc.. Make sure you are getting the best return possible for your internet investment. These few steps are a great way to begin your business marketing strategy.

The limits of business promotion in the area of marketing is only hampered by your imagination. You probably see hundreds and hundreds of business promotions every day. Odds are if you are reading this, you can see a few right now! See the brand name on your keyboard and mouse? That’s a very simple type of business promotion in that it is marketing the brand. If you use nothing but a HP mouse every single day at the office, when it is time for you to buy a new computer, your brain might automatically and subconsciously tell you “Hey! You like HP!” unless you have had a bad experience with that brand.

Business promotion is usually one of the first steps any business will take to get their name out in the world. This can be done online or offline, in print, radio, television, and on just about any type of object you can think of. How many objects just laying around your house have a business on them? Pens, refrigerators magnets, and coffee cups are excellent for spreading your companies name around at a relatively low cost. Keep 1000 pens with your business information on them in your glove box. Every gas station you go to, put a couple near the pay phone and in the ”spare penny” caddy.

As you can see, business promotion is everywhere and it is very easy to become a part of it. Here are some very simple ways for marketing your business efficiently.

DOCUMENTS Every document you have that is outgoing has potential to promote your business. There is business stationary that can carry your logo and contact information. E-mail is very easy to add a simple signature line to that has all the information to represent your business. Envelopes can also contain your URL, a logo, etc..

ARTICLES Write articles about your business and put them everywhere available to you. E-zines, newspapers, blogs, and anywhere online that will accept an article. Epinions.com is a review site you can join and immediately pump out articles about your business and hope people read them. This isn’t the best example but is a great place to start.

FREE STUFF I can’t emphasize the importance of free stuff. Whether it’s free stickers with addresses on them for peoples checks, pens, mousepads, everyone loves to get free stuff. A great way to do this is by limiting the amount. “The first 50 people who join my website will get a sample of (Product X) is a good way for the beginner to generate some interest. Experienced and large businesses can expand into CD’s, cash, or bigger things.

LEISURELY PROMOTION Feel like going golfing this weekend? Wear a hat with your companies logo on it. Even better, forget to take it home and leave it in the clubhouse where many people will see it. Get some T-shirts made up and wear them when you go to high visibility places. OF course you don’t want to overdo it so a little goes a long way.

ONLINE PROMOTION There are tons of ways to promote any business online from search engines, paid ads, etc.