You’ve decided to take on an email or cold calling marketing campaign, but you’re not sure how to pitch your products and services. You can always pay a marketing service to do this for you, but if you’d like to take a stab at it, you can craft sales pitches by following these tips: First impressions are everything in sales; you’ve probably got about three seconds to convince your potential client that you are worth their time and consideration. If you’re calling potential clients on the phone, make sure you have had a drink of water, that your voice is clear, and that you are prepared. If you are preparing a written sales pitch, check your spelling and punctuation and use a professional sales copy template.
Make your sales pitch personal. You need to tune into your potential customer’s needs right away. Don’t use automated phone sales services; the pause gives the customer the feeling that he or she is just one more sales call, which makes most people hang up before you even get to speak. Use a sincere tone and ask questions regarding what the customer needs. Offer solutions that will truly benefit that specific customer. Don’t waste a second of your customer’s time. Respect the value of your customer’s time. Cut any extra fat out of your sales script such that you have only words of value to offer, othing superfluous. Be concise and clear. Don’t get bogged down in details until after you’ve hooked the customer. Soften hard sales pitches. If you keep the tone sincere and the focus on what will benefit the customer, you’ll leave the call with a better long term relationship, which increases the chances for more sales in the future. Do anything you can to avoid sounding like a schmaltzy used car salesman. Make sure order and contact information is clear. Make your order and contact information as user friendly as possible. When on the phone, ask for contact information and permission to send sales information via multiple forms of media so as to catch both electronically savvy and traditional markets. If you follow these simple guidelines, you can craft an effective sales pitch that you will deliver results time and again. @@OPTIN@@.Is Branding Important?
April 15, 2011 By 14 Comments
You’ve heard marketing experts talk about branding, but aren’t really sure what that means? Have you ever shopped at an impressive store, but later received a lame advertisement from the same establishment and thought to yourself that you never would have checked it out if you’d gone off the impression the ad gave out? Branding is the match up of advertising and product and service delivery, making it possible to give customers a taste of your business before they even see your products or experience your services.
It’s important to figure out what your unique selling points are, and to adequately portray them in all your advertising. Each ad – whether it’s a flyer announcing a special event or a coupon in a coupon book – should boldly display your logo, concept, and depict your business flavor so prospective customers will be enticed to check it out. A dull advertisement or listing does not inspire mouths to water or people to get into the car to drive to a new establishment. However, a lovely photo of a delectable dish, an elegant flyer portraying a romantic meal, or a funny coupon inviting you to have a good time watching the Super Bowl with a platter of wings and potatoes skins – all those advertisements will make someone get up and go. You might protest, think marketing materials are so expensive! Or perhaps you’re a practical person who thinks simple ads pushing good deals will be enough. But if you don’t spend time branding and getting current with internet advertising strategies, you’ll look dull in comparison, and you’ll lose out to exciting, interactive online advertisers. The most current branding plans involve customizing websites, enticing customers through online entertainment, and making use of social media tools. People expect to experience your business before they even encounter your salespeople, product, or services. They want to feel it when they read your banner ad. They want to be inspired by the photos on your website. They want to feel they chose your company for a specific reason, such as the fact that you are earth-friendly, or funny, or extraordinary. The way to do this is through branding, the surefire way to establish yourself in the market space. @@OPTIN@@.
The Seven Pieces Of Your Business Plan
April 14, 2011 By 11 Comments
It might be time for you to write a business plan for your company, and if this is the case you might not know exactly what the next step is. Not only is a business plan important for a startup, or for a business that needs to procure a loan, but a business plan should be part of every business. A business plan provides you with a tidy, organized document that can give you direction and a definition of purpose. These are the seven elements you will need in your business plan.
1) Executive Summary: The executive summary will sum up everything you said in the entire business plan, which means that it will be the last part you write, even though it comes first in the document. 2) Company Description: This part will detail your history up to the present if you are an established business, while it will detail your startup plans if your business is new. 3) Product or Service: Keep the focus on the customer in this section, as you desribe in detail what you plan to sell or perform 4) Market Analysis: Especially if you need a loan, this is a very important section. This section proves that you understand the market, what your customers need, and how you will reach them. 5) Strategy and Implementation: Concreteness is important in this section; make sure that you aim to avoid vagueness. Explain your company’s structure and all of its strategies. 6) Management Team: As you dig into the backgrounds and histories of your key team members, this section can become an excellent selling point. 7) Financial Strategy: Especially if you are a startup company, you have to make sure you understand what you are doing in this section, providing detailed analysis and projections. If you are trying to get your feet under your business, a good business plan can help; if your feet are already under you, you can gain even more traction with a solid business plan. On the other hand, you can miss out on money and on a brighter future if your business plan is sloppy; don’t make this mistake! @@ADSENSE@@.Five Tips for Enhancing Your Website
April 13, 2011 By 12 Comments
You might think it’s enough to have a website, but the truth is you’ve got to make your site shine in comparison to the competition. The following suggestions will enhance your web presence.
Make ample use of color. Your color choice is far more important than you may know. Research color association and then use colors that best communicate who you are and what you will deliver. Do whatever it takes to shine instead of bore your visitors. Take the time to ensure your website is user-friendly and simple to navigate. For example, visitors should always be able to return to your hoempage and your order pages easily, and from each and every page. Highlight and make available on every page your essential information: contact, location, and order form. Use visual effects to your advantage. Use photographs of actual products, your establishment, and your satisifed clientelle. Make sure you choose attractive models and use high quality photos (you may even wish to hire a professional photographer and photo stylist to make sure the job is done right.) You can even use photos as backdrops on pages, if done carefully so as to not obscure the writing. Make generous use of visual prompts that will entice the visitor to commit. Give website visitors a reason to explore your site. Provide some interesting and useful information on your site – whether it’s the history of the business, or how-to guides, or practical advice on your products or services – make sure there is a reason to check out your site besides just finding your business. Use SEO best practices and use articles–both on your site and on other sites, pointing to your site – to maximize traffic. Keep abreast of current SEO practices, and make use of keywords and meta tags to improve sreach engine rankings. Post on forums and article base sites and provide back-links to your website. @@OPTIN@@.
A Rarely Considered Way to Gather New Customers
April 12, 2011 By 12 Comments
Building a customer base for your small business is very difficult. Gathering new clients is very difficult to do no matter what kinds of methods are employed. An array of different marketing methods can be one method. Another one would be cold calling your target client. Potential customer’s homes can also be mailed to directly if you like. However there is an untapped resource that small businesses don’t take advantage of. Failing to take advantage of current client referrals is a huge mistake often made.
The back bone of your business development plan can be customer referrals if you use them in the right way. Current customers who are pleased with your business can be your best form of advertising. Finding a way to generate referrals out of your customer base can allow you to grow your new customer base drastically more than you have in the past. The difficulty is in finding a efficient method for you to do so. @@ADSENSE@@. You can efficiently generate current customer referrals in a few different ways if you think of them. If a current customer of yours refers a new customer, you can offer a bonus or special offer to them as a reward. The perk can be given to the referrer and the referred. You can offer your existing customer a $10 bonus, for example, while offering the same bonus to the person they are referring. This method invokes some added costs, which is really the only draw back. The normal cost of a new customer is something you must weight though. How much time did you spend gathering this new customer? Marketing you used also cost how much to develop? Both the time you spend and the marketing you develop cost you money. Often times this money will add up to be equal or greater than that of offering a referral bonus. Do not forget that this referral bonus is mean to bring in a new customer, but also makes your current customer base more pleased with you.Hiring a Professional to Run Your Social Media Page
April 11, 2011 By 14 Comments
Using in depth social media sites like Face book and LinkedIn are great ways to market your business online. They can take up a lot of time however and this is a problem for business owners. If you want these sites to do all that they can for your business you will need to invest the time needed to take full advantage of them. This time investment is the main driving force behind businesses hiring professionals in this area to run their pages.
When a business decides to market in a traditional way, they almost always use another company to help them. They won’t create their own logo, their own print ads, or their own commercials. Professional skills and ideas are needed to do these things. The same type of view needs to be given to social network sites for businesses. Traditional marketing and social networks both are the face of your business. Your business must have a social network page in today’s world. Traditional marketing methods are often viewed as an intrusion on people’s time, but people actually like viewing social network pages. So why would you put half an effort into one? One wouldn’t release a commercial or print ad that looked like it was done by an amateur. Your social network page should be given the same amount of money and care as other methods of marketing. Social network pages and their success focus on being involved in all the different ways. You want potential customers to have access to you and you want to provide them with fresh relevant information. These are two main reasons that it is a great idea for a professional to handle your pages. A professional makes it their sole purpose to interact with your customers and provide them with information that they will value. @@ADSENSE@@. Social networks now give businesses ways to reach their clients that didn’t exist in the past. These new opportunities require some responsibility too though. Remember that anything and everything your business is associated with will reflect on your business. Take care when dealing with anything that is associated with your business.How To Keep Conversations Short
April 10, 2011 By 15 Comments
It is often said that time is money; even if you disagree with this, you surely feel that time is an important asset. Time can be money, or time can be leisure, or time can be fun; whatever the case, time is important for many of us. And even though it might seem funny to figure out how to “keep conversations short,” you will also acknowledge that you often end up in conversations you would rather end quickly. Regardless of whether these conversations occur with a coworker, a neighbor, or a stranger, you will have more of your “time” if you know how to keep these conversations short.
@@ADSENSE@@. Be polite: When aiming to end a conversation quickly, the best thing you can do is to summon every ounce of politeness you can muster. If you are rude to someone when trying to end a conversation quickly, you may find that the conversation actually ends up dragging on longer. If, on the other hand, you are polite and friendly, it becomes much easier to graciously end the conversation, as your counterpart can leave the conversation feeling fulfilled. Recognize what most people want to talk about: Even though a conversation is supposed to be an exchange between two people, most poeple would much rather be engaged in a “conversation” that focuses on nothing but their own self. Allow the other person to tell you all the things they want to tell you as quickly as possible by turning every question they ask back to them, and in this way they will feel fulfilled with the conversation much more quickly. Know how to graciously finish: Closing out a conversation is often the toughest part of keeping conversations short, as lots of people try to exit a conversation by making excuses. Instead, you should always end a conversation the same way when you are trying to keep things short: simply tell the person that it was great talking to them, and that you look forward to catching up again! @@ADSENSE@@. If you follow these tips, you will not only be able to keep conversations short when you need to, but you will also do so in a manner that leaves your counterpart feeling fulfilled!How To Convince Prospective Employees To Work For You
April 9, 2011 By 7 Comments
There will always be times – as a business owner or manager – when you are looking to hire for a job and tons of applications come in. When this happens, you can make sure you find the right person for the job just by sifting through all the applicants and picking the right one. At other times, however, you will be looking to hire for a more specialized sort of position, and this will require you to find a more specialized employee. And when this happens, you just might end up competing against a number of other companies for the employee that you so desperately want to hire. If you ever find yourself ending up in this position, you can land the prize employee you want by following these tips.
Of course, offering incentives that your competition might not be offering is one of the best ways to try to win the battle for this employee. These incentives can be any one of a number of things, such as bonuses based on performance, a premium office or parking space, and on-the-job perks. Of course, you may need to do something even further than this, as your competitors will likely be trying to offer incentives as well. And of course, this ‘something more’ will often be knowing how to convince this prospective employee that the place they truly want to be is at your company or business. The best way to convince them that your company is where they want to be is to show an interest in them as an individual. After all, a job is more than just a way to make money – it is also the place where someone will be spending most of their time! You need to sell them on this “new life” by showing them that you care about them as an individual, and not just as an employee. @@CBTEXT;HHHS1234;Check out Headhunting Hiring Secrets@@! As you begin to add more and more “coveted” employees, your company or business will begin to grow stronger and stronger. And this will build upon itself, as it will continue to become easier to convince these premium employees to join up with you and with the others like them!Tips For Writing Good Copy
April 8, 2011 By 13 Comments
One of the big aspects of any business that will contribute to its success is its ability to write good copy. Copywriting is so important because it covers almost all the writing your business will do – everything from the writing on your website to your billboards to your ads in magazines. When it comes down to it, copywriting drives a business forward, and because of this, it is important that you know how to write good copy.
Of course, hiring someone who is a professional copywriter will be the best and easiest way to make sure you are getting good copy for your company. You can hire someone full-time if you tend to have full-time copywriting needs, and even if you only need a bit of copy here and there, you can hire a professional freelance copywriter for this. But a lot of companies decide that they want to go it alone when it comes to copywriting; if this is the way you are, make sure you know the tricks! @@CBTEXT;SBRLLNT;Get inside the brains of the best copywriters in the world@@! One of the big tricks of making sure you are writing copy that will be successful is to make sure the language you use in your copy is appealing. When people write copy, they often have a tendency to write in too formal a manner, which dilutes the effectiveness of their message. You want to make sure the words you use are always easy to grasp and understand – trying to say things in the simplest manner possible. Of course, when it comes to “stating things in a simple manner,” you need to make sure you know what it is you want to state! Too many people leave their readers having no idea what the message is in a piece of copy, because they themselves had no idea what the message was when they wrote it! @@CBTEXT;TORPEDO100;The Best Copywriting System On The Internet@@! And of course, the most important thing of all will be learning how to write in such a manner that the words seem to “pop” and “fizz” to the reader. Once you put all these elements together, you will be able to write copy that effectively grabs the reader, and that subsequently moves your company forward.Branding Strategies
April 7, 2011 By 7 Comments
Have you decided to work on clarifying your business brand, but aren’t sure where to start? The following tips will get you started on a visual depiction of your business concept.
Make good use of color. What colors you use will determine what image you project. Does that surprise you? Marketing experts say approximately half of a person;s response to your ads will be triggered by use of color. Colors are associated with specific emotional reactions. You’ll notice restaurants often advertise (and paint interiors of their establishments) in reds, golds, and yellows because these are the colors that stimulate our appetities. If you use green in your marketing materials, you’ll come across as eco-friendly or fresh, and as calming if you use blues. You’ll have to determine what emotional reaction you want to evoke in people. Colors are also associated with specific products and well-established brands. You don’t have to think twice to know pink is linked to breast cancer awareness. A lot of banks use blues. The second you see golden arches, you think “McDonalds”. Make sure you choose colors that will represent your business without linking you to an established business that is not desirable or compatible. Create a unique image or logo. What kind of look fits your business best: modern and sleek, or traditional and trusted? Get exposure to a variety of images and logos so you can get a good feel for what will best brand your business. Make sure the logo or mascot you choose will portray your company tone. Do you want to make customers laugh, like the cheetach on Cheetohs ads? Or are you looking for a formal, elegant tone? Consider hiring an artist to design your logo and mascot/images for you. You can get good logos inexpensively by using art students or freelance marketing specialists. Take your time to ensure you choose a logo that really promotes your brand. @@OPTIN@@.