 Educate Your Customers: Educate them about what, you may be thinking. Well, consider
this, many businesses focus solely on attracting new customers,
but you NEED to spend a good chunk of your time retaining current
and former customers. These are people you already know to be a
good sales potential... they've already bought from you! Read more...
Internet Marketing - Why 2010 Will Be A White Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers: This year may just prove to be one of the most challenging times
for pursuing online or Internet marketing on the web. It may just
be a watershed moment for many marketers struggling to keep
abreast of all the different factors which have come into play in
recent months. Most of these changes will stem from two main
sources for potential upheaval: the first being the New FTC
(Federal Trade Commission) Guidelines regarding Testimonials and
Endorsements and the second being "ALL" the recent changes
within Google. Read more...
Obama Tells the Banks to Lend!: Any kind of real recovery and job creation is impossible without
access to credit by small to mid-sized businesses.
A newsletter from the Small Business Administration dated
September 2008 provides the following interesting figures about
U.S. small businesses. Read more...
Social Media Management - Setting Your Sights on the Right Sites: One of the most amazing features about the Web is that it allows
many people to take advantage of features they did not originate.
Livejournal, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and each of the many other
Social Media sites were proposed and implemented with a
relatively small cadre of people, yet thousands of businesses are
finding ways to use these sites for promotion and improvement
every day. These sites allow for communication with the nearly
captive audience that is any business' dream. Read more...
A Company Catchphrase: Creating a Motto or Slogan That Promotes Your Business: "Reach out and touch someone."
"The ultimate driving machine."
"Finger lickin' good."
Chances are, you not only know immediately that those slogans
come from AT&T, BMW and KFC, in that order. Those catchphrases
may also very well have persuaded someone you know to place more
long-distance calls, purchase a particular brand of car and
decide where to stop for supper.
Such slogans truly influence customers, and that's why you want
one for your own company. Read more...
Why Most Business Owners Aren't Productive: "One of the secrets of life is making stepping stones out of
stumbling blocks" And a number of people liked it, so I want to
talk about that now.
Recently, I lost my assistant for a few months over the festive
season due to personal and health reasons.
And that means I have been handed several hours of administration
tasks a week I wouldn't normally have to do.
That's painful because there are so many other areas of my
business that I want to focus on. Read more...
Use SEO Strategies to Increase Web Traffic: Every new technology adopted widely by society brings about a
number of new opportunities. The movable type printing press
created affordable print information, the telephone and radio
created the concept of instantaneous communication over great
distances. Today, the Internet has unified both of these concepts
into the information explosion that is the digital age. Read more...
Starting a Business? Should You Choose a Full-Time or Part-Time Startup: Many potential entrepreneurs have a hard time deciding whether
starting a business part-time or full-time makes the most sense
for them. On the one hand, dedicating yourself full-time to a
startup seems like it would give your idea the best chance of
success. On the other hand, starting out part-time allows you to
keep your regular job while testing your business idea. The best
option for you depends on a number of factors and the weight you
give the advantages and disadvantages of starting out full-time
or part-time. Read more...
How to Persuade Without Really Trying: Recently, the owner of a consulting practice contacted me. In the
email, she said that she needed an easier, more predictable way to
find ideal prospects.
She had already tried a lot of different things but nothing worked.
So we set up a meeting so I could learn more about her situation and
whether I could help.
As we spoke during the meeting, it became clear to me that, yes, I
could help this business owner. I felt quite certain of this. Read more...
Solo Vacations: The Ultimate in Self Indulgence: According to a July 2009 report by Travelhorizons, 11% of all
U.S. adult leisure travelers are vacationing without a companion.
Solo holidays are increasingly the trend and it's easy to see
why. There's no one to answer, and you can concentrate on
enjoying your holiday to the fullest on your own terms. You've
worked hard at the office and at home. Your vacation is the time
to get away from it all and do your own thing. Read more...
Can Acquisitions Work?: With annual merger and acquisition activity in the United States
averaging about 1.5 trillion dollars that may seem to be
uninformed strange question. Yet according to a number of recent
academic studies, between 55 percent and 83 percent of mergers
and acquisitions fail to add value to the acquirers.
Companies look to mergers and acquisitions for a number of sound
business reasons. Read more...
Getting a Web Presence - Six Reasons to Go Cyber: Saying that the Web is complicated is like saying that football
is aggressive. Web trends come and go, with success stories and
disasters wrestling for attention in the public eye. Sometimes
people get it, and you have an amazing case like the advent of
Twitter. Others miss the point spectacularly, such as CNN's
short-lived series where newscasters read excerpts from blogs.
With so much coming so quickly, it's no surprise that some
people are hesitant to expand their business into the online
marketplace. Read more...
Why Closing The Sale Doesn't Work: I was training a lady the other day on telemarketing skills for a
service based industry.
And she had all of the skills... great rapport building...
awesome approach to guiding people through the phone call and she
was a real people's person.
But there was one problem: when it came to the close she
flustered it and the customers disappeared from sight.
There's no doubt about it: this sort of thing can cost a company
big money and in some instances, closing is critical to the sales
process.artists – to get into the news.
Read more...
Media Publicity Tips for Artists: Top 10 Ways for Artists to Get into the News: If you’re uncomfortable tooting your own horn to the public, media coverage is a perfect alternative for you. Understand that journalists, editors and producers need stories to perform their job and fill up space on the air, in print or on their sites. Hand them a promising story idea and they do the rest of the work singing your praises to the world!
Here now are the easiest, most relevant 10 ways for artists – sculptors, painters, photographers, craftspeople, cartoonists and performance artists – to get into the news.
Read more...
Video Surveillance in 2010 - New Frontiers in an Economic Recovery: As we move into the second decade of the 21st century, technology
developments are foremost on people's minds when they think of
video surveillance. What the future holds for video surveillance
in 2010 may be a mixed bag, however, as sundry economic forces
jostle for position in a recovering economy. Read more...
Every Business Startup is a Series of Unexpected Events - Will You Be Ready?: No matter how seasoned an entrepreneur, every business startup
has its share of surprises. Whether the entire business idea
changes radically during the early stages or an unconsidered
market segment emerges as the top consumers, expect the
unexpected. How a business owner deals with surprises is a major
factor that determines who finds great success and who muddles
through. Read more...
Are You Paying Too Much For Traffic? Increase Clicks 40-Fold With This PPC Strategy: In any business, if you can reduce your effective advertising
expenses, you will increase your profits. Many business owners
will opt to push the additional savings into more advertising,
and if you are utilizing the information described in this
article, you could feasibly increase your paid traffic by
40-times, with the exact same advertising budget.
But before I can show you how to reduce your advertising expenses
and increase your traffic, it is important for you to learn about
proper keyword research.
Read more...
How Numbers Matter in Marketing: I typically write a lot more about the "human side of
marketing," because I think topics like trust, sincerity, and
emotions get overlooked in most marketing advice discussions.
And no matter how clever your copy and fail safe your system,
neglect trust building and you will have to work twice as hard at
your marketing for half the results.
But that doesn't mean you can ignore the numbers side of
marketing. Read more...
Lessons I Learned From Paris Hilton: Today I'm going to chat about shameless self-promotion. That's
right, I said it! Shameless! After all, we are learning from
Paris Hilton here.
It's all about self-promotion! Self-promotion comes in many
forms and you can use different tactics to get your name out
there. Look at politicians! Talk about self-promotion and in some
not so discreet ways, at that. But, seriously, consider some of
the major superstars we all know. Madonna, Donald Trump, Howard
Stern and Bill Clinton, just to name a few. Read more...
ACH Processing: Chargeback Protection: Any merchant that accepts credit cards or electronic checks
for payment faces the risk of chargebacks. A chargeback
happens when the consumer disputes the ACH debit (ACH
Processing allows a business to debit a consumer or
business checking or savings account-many businesses use
ACH Processing to streamline payment collection and enjoy
the benefits of reliable cash flow). Read more...
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