Redefine marketing terminologies with Behavioral marketing

Redefine marketing terminologies with Behavioral marketing

by RAJESH KUMAR

Increase in sale is that factor what drives businesses to invent newer effective marketing tactics. This question might have pestered you many times that, if consumer satisfaction is the key to the success of any publicity campaign, then why do not businesses understand the need of their opinion before making any marketing strategy. It is true that consumer’s opinion should also be a part of any company’s marketing strategy and now businesses are also realizing it. That is the reason, which fortified the need of behavioral marketing in business world. Now every marketing expert considers the customer opinion and performance of previous product while making any new marketing strategy. Behavioral marketing is becoming very popular among businesses as it is rising as conventional marketing approach.
Behavioral marketing is redefining the terms of marketing; it keeps consumers in heart of every marketing project. After all consumers are that power that can build or ruin any business. A perfect marketing approach is nothing but a way to read consumer’s mind and to provide them with what they expect. Therefore we can say the behavioral marketing possess the perfect marketing approach as it knows how to read consumer’s mind to satisfy their exact requirements. It targets consumers based on their behavior or reaction for any product or service. Customer feedback is its equation for success as ay product is launched only after knowing what people think about it. It really helps in deciding whether the proposed product or service is worth launching or will it just increase the crowd of products and get vanished very soon. Every step under behavioral marketing is data driven as an effective marketing plan can be made only after analysis of market data.

Such campaigns are planed with the help of data compiled from various mediums such as surveys, feedback forms, hits on site and customer blogs. These all mediums help in getting the exact idea about what enhancement consumers want in new product or service. Today online businesses are growing with rapid pace and they also require something that may be beneficial in strengthening their position in online market therefore online marketing is also becoming consumer oriented. Many behavioral marketers are working to improve the efficiency of online marketing campaigns.

They are collecting the data that indicates number of hits, blogs position and position of the website in online world. These marketers serve advertisement to a particular section of society so that the advertisement may grab the attention of authentic and prolific consumers only. These data can be collected through IP information. Many behavioral marketing service providers are offering online and offline business a great opportunity to get the most out of their marketing campaigns.

Behavioral marketing is such a marketing strategy that believes in keeping consumers at the midst of every marketing campaign, so that consumers may realize how you take care of their advice and requirements. That will be really a delighting experience for you and you consumer that you both are contributing in development of a better market environment.


Rajesh Kumar is an Internet marketing specialist and has extensive knowledge about behavioral marketing and targeting. To know more about behavioral marketing and Behavioral marketing ,Behavioral Marketing Integration visit http://www.audiencemp.com.

Which promotional gifts are right for my company?

Which promotional gifts are right for my company?

by PAUL FEATHERSTONE

As anybody who has ever purchased promotional gifts will tell you, one of the hardest parts of the process is deciding which items are right for your business and which are going to give your prospective customers a puzzled look or even worse end up in the bin!
A good place to start is with the customer, thought must be given to what they would actually find useful. For example, logo bugs are not going to be much use on a building site, however personalised tape measures will be much in demand. Although there are new promotional gifts launching onto the market every week it is not always best to choose these products in place of older and more established items such as pens and mugs. Just because something is new does not necessarily mean that an item will be more useful to your customer. However, it is true that every once in a while a product comes along that really fills a requirement like no other previous product, for example USB memory sticks.

The questions of “where” and “who will I target” still apply to the choice of promotional merchandise a company buys as they do to any form of marketing.

The “who” question can be answered by looking at whether you want to target customers or prospects and if so whether you want to target them all or just a small segment. By segmenting your target market and choosing different gifts for groups with similar characteristics you will find your promotional gifts much better received.

The “where” question involves establishing how you intend to get your promotional gifts to your intended target market. If you are buying personalised items for distribution by a sales team then this will have implications on the sort of item you can give away in that you can choose heavier or more bulky items. If, however, you mainly communicate with your target market via the post then a smaller light-weight item such as a pen is often ideal.

Quantity is not always better than quality, you must ask yourself whether your target market would prefer a high value item which they can keep or a lower value item which may not have as long a life. By varying the size of the intended market you need not raise your budget, it’s just a question of which type of item is right for your market.

Another important consideration is the design you intend to use on your chosen promotional items – how will your marketing message look when printed? For example, if your company has a large or very detailed logo then it may be difficult to fit on certain smaller promotional products. In order to help with this important decision a number of promotional merchandise suppliers now offer a virtual sample facility so that you can check how our logo, message or design will look when printed on a range of different items.

If you can answer all of the above questions then you are ready to place your order for promotional gifts today!

Author Biography: Paul Featherstone is Marketing Manager for EMC Advertising gifts in Whetstone, North London. Paul joined EMC to spearhead the growth of their online business building on the company's 40 years of experience in the promotional gift market.

For more information on promotional gifts and the author Paul Featherstone, please visit: http://www.emcadgifts.co.uk

Behavioral marketing: make your mark with it

Behavioral marketing: make your mark with it

by RAJESH KUMAR

To be successful in today’s world is a difficult task, so a person needs to make all efforts to ensure that he is successful in whatever he does. To do this it is very important that he is fully aware about all the latest happenings that are taking place in his field of operation. This is the perfect way through which one can work towards reaching the business goals that they have set out on achieving. There is no shortage of any goods or services of any kind in the market. You will see that after a new product is launched in the market within a few days many similar looking products also become available in the market. In such a scenario it becomes very difficult to retain consumers to continue using your product instead of the others that are available in the market. Behavioral marketing is one process through which this can be done without any hassles.
Behavioral marketing is nothing but a marketing method that is implemented only after understanding consumer behavior. Any promotional or marketing campaign will not work out successfully till a target group of audience is identified. A product is designed and intended to be used by a certain section of people and behavioral marketing is the method that helps a business owner in identifying those people. Often it has been seen that a product which was very good could not see the light of the day or sometimes they simply go down the drain, just because the promotional and marketing campaign was targeted towards the wrong people. The effectiveness of any promotional campaign depends on the kind of background research work that has been done.

In behavioral marketing, the background research is done many days prior to the release of the product or good in the market. The research work involves finding out and observing customer behavior while they are buying things in the market. It is very important to identify what factors motivates then in buying certain goods and based on this you can actually find out what things you need to do to appeal to their tastes and sensibilities. Understandably it will be a blunder on the part of an advertiser or the marketer if they target college going kids for selling goods meant for small kids. And when any campaign is done without considering customers behavior and choice this is the kind of blunder that business owners end up doing.

For studying consumer behavior you can make use of different methods like observation methods, questionnaire method and research method besides several other methods. You need to zero in on the group of people you want to target and then use all these methods to study their behavior and how they buy things. Behavioral marketing makes use of all these methods before bringing out any products, good or service in the market. So to be on the safer side and to make a success out of your business, you must make sure that you implement behavioral marketing for your business.


Rajesh Kumar is an Internet marketing specialist and has extensive knowledge about behavioral marketing and targeting. To know more about behavioral marketing and Behavioral marketing ,Behavioral Marketing Integration visit http://www.audiencemp.com.

How the Courage of One Man Sparked the Greatest Revolution in Direct Response Marketing History

How the Courage of One Man Sparked the Greatest Revolution in Direct Response Marketing History

by CLAYTON MAKEPEACE

Dear Business Builder,
I just made a new friend; his name is Drayton Bird.

In case you just moved here from another universe and have no idea who I’m talking about, consider this quotation:

“Drayton Bird knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world.” – David Ogilvy

As Ogilvy Mather’s International Vice Chairman and Creative Director, Drayton and his team created brilliant direct response promotions for household-name companies like American Express, Bank of America, Ford, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, Philips Electronics, Unilever and Visa credit cards.

He’s also the author of Commonsense Direct Marketing (5th edition available now), Salesletters That Sell, and Marketing Insights and Outrages – and has written more than 1,000 columns for international magazines.

If you don’t read Drayton’s stuff, you ain’t no kind of direct marketer. Besides being one of the two or three most delightful and engaging personalities I have met in my 55 years on this planet, Drayton has a wonderful clarity of vision when it comes to direct response copywriting and marketing.

When I talk to Drayton or read his pearls of wisdom, I feel like I’m communing with Hopkins, Caples, Schwab, Ogilvy and Schwartz all rolled into one. He is one of the seven or eight true giants in the history of this industry – a genuine living treasure.

His knack for expressing profound, response-rocketing truths in the simplest of terms will make you money.

Anyway, when I was talking to Drayton the other day (I love saying that!), he mentioned that he’s working with Virgin’s legendary Richard Branson on some stuff …

… And that got me to thinking about how far we’ve come and where we’re going as an industry – and where the greatest opportunities are most likely to be awaiting us up ahead.

SO WITH THAT, LET’S JUMP INTO OUR TRUSTY TIME MACHINES AND HEAD BACK IN TIME TO JUST AFTER THE U.S. CIVIL WAR …

The time was 1872. The place: The Breadbasket of America – the Midwest. And Aaron Ward’s blood was boiling …

The 28-year-old traveling dry goods salesman fumed over the obscene prices local shopkeepers charged for the clothing, tools, lanterns and other general merchandise on their shelves. And he was even more livid that they were actually getting away with it. In those days, most small-town general stores enjoyed virtual monopolies. Few hamlets boasted more than one of these establishments and the next-closest shop could be a full day’s round trip away – often more.

That meant shopkeepers could demand any price they liked. And although consumers hated these greedy shopkeepers for fleecing them, they had little choice but to grumble and fork over their money.

That didn’t sit well with the idealistic Mr. Ward and, being a man of action, he decided to do something about it.

Investing $1,600 of his own money (about $26,000 in today’s dollars), he printed a simple flyer offering 163 items at bedrock prices, then mailed his one-sheet catalog to families throughout the Midwestern states.

For Mr. Ward, it was a daring deed, founded on moral principle and fueled by righteous indignation.

It also proved to be a red-letter day in American entrepreneurship.

Because with that one mailing, Aaron Montgomery Ward lit the fuse on a marketing revolution that continues even now …

MR. WARD DOES WELL BY DOING GOOD

And so on a brisk Midwestern morning more than 135 years ago, thousands of Americans opened their mailboxes to discover Mr. Ward’s one-page catalog – a solicitation sent to them precisely because they were believed to be excellent prospects for the products advertised.

It was, as far as we can tell, the first direct marketing promotion they’d ever seen.

And Mr. Ward’s innovation didn’t end there: He also invited customers to respond to his catalog by placing their orders through the mail and invented “Direct Response Marketing” in the process.

Consumers loved the idea of saving a bundle. They also relished the idea of doing their shopping without leaving home.

Most of all, they loved the fact that Mr. Ward had given them a way to hit greedy shopkeepers where it hurt them the most: Right smack-dab in their bulging wallets.

Mr. Ward had harnessed the awesome power of his prospects’ most dominant resident emotion – their hatred of the merchants who had been abusing them.

And they ordered in droves.

In fact, the response to Aaron Montgomery Ward’s little catalog was so explosive, his next few catalogs quickly ballooned from the one-sheeter weighing less than an ounce to a massive book weighing a hefty four pounds.

By 1904, with only 17 million households in the U.S., Mr. Ward could be found mailing a staggering three million of his catalogs to eager consumers every year.

THE TRIUMPH OF SCIENCE OVER HOPE

Mr. Ward loved his innovation even more than his customers did. Because now for the first time, he could know – to the penny – how much money his advertising produced.

He could count the number of orders, the sales revenues and the profit produced by each mailing of his catalog – and by each product in his catalog.

This meant that for the first time, business owners and marketing people using Mr. Ward’s direct response marketing model could view the money they spent to attract customers as an investment.

And they could calculate a return on investment for every product in their inventories and every dollar in their advertising budget.

Mr. Ward had, in short, transformed advertising from an expense that businesses could only hope would make money into an exact science that told them not only whether their advertising was working, but also how well it was working.

And that knowledge allowed marketers to cut losing promotions short while ramping up the size of their successful campaigns.

Mr. Ward’s innovation also meant that, by mailing more than one version of their solicitations at a time, they could learn which kinds of headlines garnered the greatest readership of their ad copy.

Another huge breakthrough: For the first time ever, businesses could discover which sales copy techniques and offers produced the greatest response, revenues and profits. And that meant they had a way to consistently boost response, average sale and return on investment with each mailing.

Unsurprisingly, others soon followed in Mr. Ward’s footsteps – most notably, Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck.

From its founding in 1895 until its first brick and mortar store opened in 1925, Sears, Roebuck and Co. – which now boasts more than 350,000 employees and annual revenues of more than $53 billion – offered its products exclusively in catalogs delivered through the mail and received its orders and payments exclusively through return mail.

Throughout the 20th Century, Mr. Ward’s direct response marketing revolution expanded far beyond catalogs and even the sale of products – to fundraising for countless charities, causes and political organizations, to producing leads for Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer salespeople and, as we direct response copywriters are fond of saying, much much more.

Nor has Mr. Ward’s direct response marketing revolution been confined to direct mail. Throughout the last century, enterprising marketers pioneered and perfected the use of magazine and newspaper ads, television and radio commercials and many other media to solicit a direct response –a request for more information or an immediate purchase – from prospects and customers.

THE INTERACTIVE MARKETING REVOLUTION

As recently as the 1990s, the world’s companies could pretty much be divided into two groups: Those who primarily relied upon Interactive Marketing to attract new customers and to sell products to established customers – and those who did not.

Banks and credit card companies, insurance companies, publishers, fundraisers and, of course, catalogue companies spent billions on promotions that targeted their best prospects and solicited a direct response from them.

But for the most part, manufacturers, retail chains and others focused on non-interactive advertising they hoped would emblazon their brands on consumers’ minds.

All that changed radically with the explosive growth of the Internet in the 1990s.

Today, with more than 1.1 billion people using this miracle of modern technology worldwide – and with the cost of interacting with prospects and customers via the ‘net infinitesimally small compared to other media – Aaron Ward’s direct response marketing revolution is being adopted by every conceivable kind of company to attract customers and multiply sales:

>>Direct marketing companies were among the first to see the potential of the Internet. Montgomery Ward, Sears, Nordstrom’s, Victoria’s Secret, Lillian Vernon – pretty much every catalog retailer you can name – now has a prominent storefront online. Amazon.com – the online book, music, video and electronics “catalog” – will earn net revenues of more than $12 billion in 2007, making it the largest online retailer on the planet.

>>Many businesses that were once confined to storefronts and left trusting their fortunes to the vagaries of image advertising now use the Internet to produce measurable sales results for every advertising dollar they spend.

Travel agencies like Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, Orbitz.com and Hotels.com drive business travelers and vacationers to their sites and earn a king’s ransom booking flights, hotels and auto rentals online. Office Depot and Staples each sells billions of dollars-worth of products online each year.

Grocery giants Winn-Dixie, Safeway and other chains invite you to download coupons and even order groceries online. Real estate giants like Century 21.com, Remax.com, Realtor.com and others drive prospects to their sites to browse properties for sale, to find a realtor near them and even book appointments.

>>Even manufacturers, wholesalers and other non-retail companies have gotten into the Interactive Marketing act. Auto manufacturers invite you to build your car online, then arrange to have a local salesperson contact you to close the deal.

Sites maintained by Harley-Davidson, Nike and countless others invite you to learn about their products, to find virtual or brick and mortar establishments where their products may be purchased and even to schedule appointments with salespeople.

Of course, these massive companies are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg: Millions of mid-sized companies and even local mom and pop stores are now using the Internet to attract new customers and make sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

In fact, one of the most fascinating of these smaller entrepreneurial animals to emerge on the ‘net is the “Solopreneur:” Men and women who, simply by establishing a store on eBay or setting up a one-page website attached to a shopping cart, now have the power to bank thousands of dollars from online sales – and to grab his or her share of the estimated half-trillion dollars that online retailers will earn on the web this year.

DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING COMES FULL CIRCLE

Thanks to the Internet, millions of companies and entrepreneurs around the world have discovered the tremendous advantages direct response marketing – or in today’s parlance, “Interactive Marketing” – offers them; of being able to precisely measure the sales and profits produced by every advertising dollar they spend.

It was only a matter of time before smart marketers at these Internet companies began looking beyond the virtual world; to begin wondering what would happen if they converted their online sales copy into full-page ads and plastered them across newspaper and magazine pages from coast to coast.

… Or, mailed their online catalogs to qualified prospects just like Aaron Ward did more than a century ago.

And so, armies of companies that would never have considered mounting direct response campaigns a couple of decades ago are now taking their successful online businesses into the offline world.

The moral of the story …

Today, the Internet has made direct marketing indispensable to every kind of business.

To compete effectively, every business on Earth must now be a direct response business.

And that means every business on the planet needs YOU.

Remember how I said Drayton is working with Richard Branson at Virgin?

Now, I didn’t ask – but I’m betting that The Great Mr. Bird isn’t writing sales copy for Virgin Airlines or Virgin Records or Virgin Vacations or Virgin Games or Virgin Comics or Virgin Books or Virgin Wines or Virgin Media or Virgin Mobile – or any of the other Virgins with whom the spectacularly prolific Mr. Branson has surrounded himself.

I’m betting he’s working on something entirely different; most likely something that requires more than a copywriter – something that requires an expert with a world-class working knowledge of the nuts and bolts of direct response marketing.

Yeah – I’m talking about the monotonous, humdrum, tedious stuff like database structure and management. Retrogression analysis. Psychographic and demographic number crunching. Customer acquisition strategy. Customer lifetime value optimization.

That’s right: The dull, boring stuff that makes companies billions – the stuff that requires expertise that companies are eager to pay through the nose for.

So here’s your assignment for this week:

Head on over to Amazon.com … search for books on direct marketing … buy some … and then actually read them.

I love Bob Stone’s Successful Direct Marketing Methods. It formed my foundational understanding of this business and gave me the basics I needed to become more than “just a copywriter.”

I also just ordered Chet Meisner’s The Complete Guide to Direct Marketing … Direct Marketing: Strategy, Planning, Execution by Edward L. Nash … and The New Direct Marketing: How to Implement a Profit-Driven Database Marketing Strategy by David Shepard Associates.

And then, in what I’m certain will prove a failed attempt to become at least half as adept as Drayton is – or at least be able to hold up my end of a conversation with him – I also ordered Mr. Bird’s Commonsense Direct & Digital Marketing … How to Write Sales Letters That Sell … Marketing Insights and Outrages … The Master Marketer … and Open for Business!

Hope this helps …

Clayton Makepeace is a working direct response marketing consultant and copywriter who has helped his clients attract more than 3 million new customers … quadruple their profits … and rake in more than $1 billion in direct mail and internet sales. His daily e-letter, The Total Package, shares his proven response-boosting techniques with younger writers, business owners, and marketing pros. Find out more at http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

WordTracker Reveals the Top 500 Search Engine Keywords of the Week!

WordTracker Reveals the Top 500 Search Engine Keywords of the Week!

by CLAY SINCLAIR

WordTracker Reveals the Top 500 Search Engine Keywords of the Week!

Our friends at Wordtracker and Search Engine Guide released September 4, 2007 - the top 500 Search Engine
Keywords queried from the Largest Meta Crawlers on the Web over the past 48 hours.

Search Engine Keywords and Pay Per Click Management:
While this keyword list is interesting and revealing, most of these keywords would be too expensive to bid on
and would drive a lot of non relevant traffic to your site. While this is obvious to most - we say this because we've
had to remove many of these keywords from our clients keyword lists in both Google Adwords and Yahoo SMS.

Below is a snippet (50) of that keyword list. For the full list visit Search Engine Watch!

The top 300 surge report


These are the top 300 queries from the last 48 hours, which
represents the complete queries from the largest Metacrawlers
on the web (Metacrawler/Dogpile etc..) for the last 48 hours.


Nos. Count Keyword
===========================================


1 5233 play games
2 4773 myspace
3 3542 yahoo
4 3409 google
5 3230 ebay
6 3165 play game
7 2781 myspace.com
8 2556 music lyrics
9 2461 baby boy names
10 2353 yahoo.com
11 2353 proxy https
12 2303 lauren caitlin upton
13 2300 youtube
14 2225 mapquest
15 1966 lunar eclipse
16 1746 nick hogan
17 1596 free english course
18 1593 youporn
19 1573 craigslist
20 1563 you tube
21 1536 game cheats for ps2
22 1534 facebook
23 1398 madden 08 cheats
24 1342 gospel music lyrics
25 1331 carpet skates
26 1318 local newspaper
27 1303 girls
28 1292 triple h
29 1258 hotmail.com
30 1249 meaning of names
31 1181 owen wilson
32 1161 hotmail
33 1121 nick bollea
34 1106 dictionary
35 1084 newspaper obituaries
36 1082 jessica alba
37 1056 paris hilton
38 1039 catnip video
39 1011 sperm shack movies
40 1010 jenna jameson
41 1005 jobs in nigeria
42 1001 yahoo mail
43 987 free radio stations
44 964 aol.com
45 948 wikipedia
46 940 george hotz
47 923 msn
48 897 soulja boy
49 887 fergie
50 875 gonzales resigns


Plan Today and be Happy Tomorrow:
Those who act today and get their businesses included in Google Local Search Results and Yahoo Local Search Results will be the ones that will greatly benefit from these searches tomorrow. Those who don't act today won't be left behind tomorrow, forcing them to scramble and pay expensive fee's (just like SEO Campaigns today) to get listed in this valuable new tool.

Pay Per Click Edge
For an impressive look at PPCE and their capabilities, review their PPC Management Proven Success page.
And don’t forget the PPC Case Study linked in the footer of the site!

Contact PPCE today at 888.451.6063 or email us at info@ppce.net

The 50 Plus Generation, An Untapped Home Based Business Niche...

The 50 Plus Generation, An Untapped Home Based Business Niche...

by MICHAEL J KOHN

Are You Looking For A Growth Market?
The number of U.S. adults over the age of 50 will soar over the next ten years. In fact, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that 50+ adults will be the only growth demographic - measured by age - between now and 2015. The Baby Boomer generation will enter its 50s and 60s and is set to be prime candidates for a work at home business opportunity.

Some marketers think the biggest opportunity to add people to their home based business opportunity lies in the young consumer. Nothing could be further from the truth. Boomers are actively searching for new income opportunities; where as the young consumer can easily become overwhelmed in today’s dynamic marketplace.

Many companies hesitate when it comes to marketing new ideas to the Boomer generation, especially ideas that have a focus on technology. Often they say older consumers are resistant to change and don’t adapt well to new technology.

Baby Boomers are just as open to new ideas as younger consumers. The Boomer generation broke the mold during every stage of life, middle age is no different. As Boomers hit midlife, they’re open to a wide range of new home business ideas and experiences.

Baby Boomers have always been at the forefront when it comes to embracing new ideas and technologies. During the course of their adult lives, Boomers have embraced PC's, cell phones, PDAs, e-mail, and voicemail, all new ideas that can be used in a work from home environment or an internet home based business opportunity.

When it comes to the Internet, the story is no different. Boomers are using the web at nearly the same rates as other age groups, and in just about the same way. The fact is 70% of adults age 50 to 64 are online today. This is only about 12% less than younger age groups. While fewer 50+ Internet users have access to a broadband Internet connection than the general online population, their overall usage patterns mirror other age segments. They’re more likely than GenX’ers to use the web to gather information, nearly as likely to shop online, and they’re avid consumers of business and health related information.

If todays trends continue, even more Baby Boomers will be online in the years ahead as the overall U.S. population ages. Over the next ten years the 50+ web audience will include more of today’s younger Boomers and we will see many use those skills to develop an internet home based business in provide extra income. Social networking, multimedia and blog sites will also continue to gain popularity among the Boomer generation.

The opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to tap into the ever growing 50+ market in the years ahead will be enormous. It's not hard to imagine small or even large web-based businesses succeeding in this virtually untapped market. The key will be to provide a highly rated online business opportunity for the Baby Boomer generation. One that is easy to follow, appeals to a broad range of individuals and is not outrageously expensive.

God Bless and Always Remember To Make It A Great Day!!

Michael J Kohn New Image Marketing Group, Inc.

Please Visit Us At: http://www.PassiveMillions.com

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

by TERRY H HILL

Competition is a natural and integral part of doing business. How successful you become at competing depends on how you position your business relative to your competitors.
Differentiating your business means defining your company in relationship to the competition. It means that you understand and are able to communicate your point or points of difference and why you’re better, or different, than your competitors. It means continuously making improvements to sustain a leadership position.

If you want to differentiate your business, you need to look at your business from your current and your prospective customers’ perspective. Then, do a competitive analysis, and determine where your business fits in the mix. Identify and communicate specifically how you meet your customer’s needs in a way that no one else can—in a way that is different or better than the competition.

Common points of differentiation include: cost, quality, performance, product availability, technology, leadership, timely delivery, superior service, durability and customer support. Creating a differentiation strategy is referred to as developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

The Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is your biggest marketing weapon and is the key to differentiating your business from your competitor. What is a USP? In essence, it is a simple statement that sums up the unique features, benefits, and value that you provide that no other competitor can.

A competitive analysis lists your leading competitors; summarizes their products/services, promotional strategies, distribution methods, strengths /weaknesses, locations, offerings, prices, branding; and determines whether the business is growing, stabilizing or declining. These are the important questions:

• Who are your competitors?

• What customer needs/preferences are your competitors trying to fulfill?

• How are their products/services similar to, or different from, your company?

• How do their prices compare with yours?

• Are your competitors able to offer superior quality products/services at a competitive or lower price? • What is their competitive strategy?

A competitive analysis also outlines strategies for gaining a competitive advantage, keeping competitors out of your market, exploiting the competitors’ weaknesses, and exposing their areas of vulnerability. With this information, you can craft competitive and marketing strategies, thus fine tuning your brand and your message.

To find out more about your competition, you can:

• Personally visit their offices.

• Call them to request products/services information and pricing.

• If possible, purchase their products/services.

• Attend trade shows and view competitors’ exhibits.

• If possible, talk to their customers to find out what they like or dislike about the competitors’ products/services.

• Collect advertising, marketing and promotional materials.

• Visit your competitors’ websites.

• Some online resources: Dow Jones Interactive www.djinactive.com, D&B Million Dollar Database www.dnb.com, Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys www.standardandpoors.com, One source Corp Tech Company Profiles www.corptech.com, Hoover’s www.hoovers.com, U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov, and U.S. Securities and Exchange filings www.freeedgar.com

• If possible, make arrangements through a third party to interview competitors’ employees.

To identify the distinguishing characteristics that set you apart from the competition, start by analyzing your company. Then, compare your company’s processes, products, workforce, and promotional activities with those of your competitors by pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of your company and those of your competitors.

Delivering value and benefits that no one else can deliver in the marketplace is the foundation of your Unique Selling Proposition. Your USP becomes the cornerstone of your sales and marketing message. It is this message that builds and reinforces your brand, attracts new customers, and sustains your competitive edge.

An author, speaker, and consultant, Terry H. Hill is the founder and managing partner of Legacy Associates, Inc., a business consulting and advisory services firm based in Sarasota, Florida. A veteran chief executive, Terry works directly with business owners of privately held companies on the issues and challenges that they face in each stage of their business life cycle. Terry is the author of the business desk-reference book, How to Jump Start Your Business. He hosts the Business Insights from Legacy Blog at http://blog.legacyai.com and writes a bi-monthly eNewsletter, "Business Insights from Legacy eZine."

By signing up for Business Insights from Legacy eZine at http://tinyurl.com/2t4fxs you can keep abreast of the latest tips, tactics, and best business practices. You will, also, receive the free eBook, Jump Start Your Knowledge of Business.

Contact Terry by email at http://www.legacyai.com or telephone him at 941-556-1299

How to Attract Search Engine Spiders to Increase WebSite Traffic

How to Attract Search Engine Spiders to Increase WebSite Traffic

by JOCELYN GOMEZ

I’m going to start this amazing tactic out with an example to give you the feel of how this works. Think of a spider. When a spider (Search Engine Spider) makes a web, it does it in hopes of catching a tasty insect (Your Website). When the spider catches the insect, it sucks it of all Its’ juices (Your Website Content) then leaves it hanging on the web (The Search Engine).The thing is, spiders don’t eat every insect they see, so you need a good insect. In this case, your website is the insect and if you want it to get caught by the spider and be put on the web you need to attract the spider to your website. Fact is, if you’re not in the top 10 Search engine rankings it’s almost impossible to get targeted traffic to your site.
Creating Good Bait - What The Search Engine Spiders Look For.

When Google sends out it’s spiders to crawl the web, the #1 thing they are looking for is Good Quality Content. Good content is content that gives people that visit your site great information on whatever it is that they are looking for. Having lots of good quality information on your website attracts visitors and search engine spiders. Why is good content important to Google? Because Google wants to provide everyone that searches the web using their search engine with websites that provide good quality content. If they accomplish this, there’s a better chance that people will use Google over the other search engines to find what they want.

Good Content - The content you provide should match the topic of your website and contain well planned keywords that will help improve search engine rankings for your site. Make sure to use your chosen keywords in the title, sub heading and content of your website for maximum exposure. You should do research on you keywords to help you choose the words that bring in more traffic.

Another very important thing that the search engine spiders look for is how many one way links you have throughout the web to your site. The more links you have to your site, the better your chances will be to increase web site traffic and get higher rankings. You get one way links by writing articles and press releases. Keep reading.

Setting The Bait - How To Make Search Engine Spiders Find and crawl Your Website.

A lot of people pay to get their websites’ in the search results of search engines, but why pay when you can make it happen for free. If you want to maximize your chances of the search spiders crawling your site you need to follow three simple steps.

Step 1: Submit your website manually to all the major search engines. You can do this by going to Google and typing “submit site to (Search engine name)” this will give you the proper search results to submit to that specific search engine. Only submit your site once in a month.

Step 2: The most important step, this is how you get valuable quality one way links to your site. Write an article on a topic that matches your website topic and submit it to article directories that are ranked high in the search engines. You can find them by going to Google and typing in whatever your niche/subject is + articles. Example: “Microwave oven articles”. Make sure to put it in quotations like I did, this will bring back the results that contain the exact words you typed in. Submit to as many article directories as you can. Also, submit at least two or three different articles every week, make sure to contain a link to your site in the author information box.

Step 3: Create a press release to a press release service. You can do this by typing “Submit Press releases” into Google search. This also provides you with valuable links.

Tip for Your Success

This is something not many people pay attention to. There are a lot of affiliates that provide good information, software and services that help new internet marketers get free targeted traffic and higher search engine rankings. It’s a good idea to look into it to jump ahead of the competition.

About The Author

Jocelyn Gomez is dedicated to helping and showing New Internet Marketers up to date strategies on how to get FREE targeted traffic for no cost and low cost. If you would like to learn more on the subject of this article, Visit http://TrafficHotSpot.bravehost.com to increase website traffic today.

Related Articles - increase website traffic, targeted advertising, increase search engine traffic, free, improve search engine rankings,

What is marketing? A quick look.

What is marketing? A quick look.

by PETER VAN ZIJL

What is marketing?
What does marketing mean? Most of us think of marketing just as selling and advertising. This is no surprise - every day our live are flooded with TV commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, sales calls, junk mail and of course email ads. All day someone is trying to sell us something. It is as inevitable as taxes and death.

You may be surprised to learn that advertising and selling is just the tip of the marketing iceberg. They are very important, but they are only two of many marketing functions that have developed over time. Marketing functions developed as marketing's influence infiltrated different business sectors.

Different companies became interested in marketing at different times. Companies like Coca Cola saw the unbelievable potential of marketing almost immediately. Marketing then spread rapidly through consumer packaged good companies. In recent times, more consumer service orientated businesses such as airlines and retailers have adopted a more modern approach to marketing. The latest groups to adopt marketing approaches are service providers such as engineers, lawyers, doctors and accountants. Until recently, professionals like this were not allowed to engage in price competition. Legislation changes have enabled professionals to advertise and engage in competitive pricing.

Now in the 21st century marketing has changed. In the old days it was the old "telling and selling" approach. Now we are more customer orientated, satisfying our customers needs by interacting and working with the customer. We are living in the age of online marketing - tailoring products and services for a more one-on-one approach thus encouraging customer feedback.

A marketing organization now understands their customers needs and tailor makes these products for their customers. Different challenges arise now. Borders are no longer a hurdle to trade. This is what brings up different challenges to marketers, whether to standardize products or tailor make them to a certain geographical market. The challenge of marketing is to retain customers by satisfying their needs, wants and demands. Marketing is a social and managerial process by which people obtain what they want and what they need thru creating and exchanging products and value with others.

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