Business and Marketing News

The use of a business card is essential in modern transactions and networking. Yet many small businesses and professionals still don’t have this essential tool. Granted the internet and all it’s social marvels is revolutionizing good old fashioned networking. When it comes time to sign that new account or make that big sale it is still all about face to face networking. So that 3.5″x2″ piece of stock paper can still be the single most powerful marketing tool in your arsenal.

So why is the business card so important? Well, the card can be given to just about anyone you encounter. The card contains all your vitals in one small and handy 3.5″x2″ package. How embarrassing would it be to meet a potential client and have to scramble for a piece of paper to write down your info? Even worse, how about not having anything handy to provide your info? You can tell that potential client all about your website and give them your email but chances are it will be long forgotten by the time he gets to a computer. This very thing has actually happened to me. A couple of years ago while doing some volunteer computer work at a local non-profit, the Director had a Christmas party and invited the entire staff. She was a wealthy lady which did the non-profit thing as a hobby. The party seemed like it would be interesting so I attended. Truth be told I was interested to see where she lived. Anyhow, she had directors from other non-profits where she introduced me as her computer guy, she went on to say how great I was and how I fixed all their computing issues, etc. Some of the other directors expressed an interest in having such a skilled computer person which would have presented some good side job opportunities. I was still in school for Computer Science at the time so it could have lead to other opportunities as most of the people at the party were wealthy business owners.

To make a long story short, a couple of them asked me for a business card. Much to my dismay, I had to reply that I did not have one, they replied by saying, “oh, maybe we will get with your boss to get your info”. Needless to say, I never heard a thing about it and what could have been a good opportunity went down in flames. Granted this was not a major opportunity, it was an opportunity none the less.

In closing, don’t go down in flames like I did when presented with the chance to market yourself. Make sure you have a well stocked supply of business cards. you up to speed on proper business card exchange etiquette? Visit Ratingtheman.com for tips on making a smooth business card transaction.

Business VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, has completely changed business phone system technology. Businesses are reducing costs using VoIP, improving customer service while gaining access to features and applications that increase worker productivity. The best business phone systems can stand the test of time and grow with your business needs. A business VoIP phone system is a long term asset that should serve your business for many years.

Purchasing the wrong business phone system can be a costly mistake. It can mean high levels of maintenance, service calls, and hardware that becomes obsolete in a couple of years. Service interruption alone can cost a business that relies on customer phone calls a tremendous amount of money. Most businesses spend a lot of time and money trying to get people to call so it is very important that those calls are handled with the utmost care. If they’re not, prospective customers are lost, profits are lost, and the business will suffer. It is important to have a reliable business phone system, skilled receptionists, and a voicemail system that works.

When a business decides to make the change to VoIP, professional help is needed all along the way from purchase to installation and administration to ensure a seamless transition to a new phone system. Important features such as call recording, call monitoring, call transfer, conference, hold, and access to the voicemail system must be considered. The business VoIP phone system that you choose should be designed for many years of quality service.
With VoIP service, phone calls travel over the internet as data just like e-mail does. A VoIP Business phone system can dramatically lower your telecommunications costs while increasing worker productivity. A recent survey estimated that the increased productivity, enabled by business VoIP, added up to 3.9 hours per week, per employee.

VoIP technology also provides useful features and capabilities that a conventional phone system can’t offer. VoIP service makes your phone system highly flexible, you can use your VoIP phone system anywhere there is a broadband connection. Many business VoIP systems include telephony software that enables you to send and receive calls using a headphone/microphone unit connected to your laptop. Many VoIP services allow you to have voice mail and faxes automatically forwarded to your regular e-mail inbox. Your phone number can have any available area code, not just the one assigned to your region which is a plus if your business is located in one city and your customers are in another.

No matter what size your business is, VoIP is a surprisingly flexible, affordable technology. Nationally recognized as a leader in the field of business VoIP phone systems Cross Telecom www.crosstelecom.com is uniquely equipped to develop your communications plan from start to finish.

The talented team at Cross Telecom will work with you to meet your specific VoIP for business phone system needs efficiently, effectively and successfully - it’s what the Cross experience is all about.

Okay, rant time coming. I get on these every once in a while, so if you don’t want to hear me going on about this subject, you can click on the little X at the top right hand corner of your screen. Otherwise, you might want to read this article. You may very well be killing your home business without realizing it. So pay attention because I just may be saving you a ton of grief.

A lot of home business owner make the mistake of putting together crappy products and services because it’s quick and easy and they figure nobody will notice. After all, it’s just as easy to put together something that is substandard as it is to put together something of quality, right? And besides, who would notice anyway? Most people when they buy things wouldn’t know quality anyway. And even if they didn’t think the product was all that good, they wouldn’t return it and they wouldn’t go bad mouthing it to others, right?

The truth is, a bad product or service can pretty much kill your business right out of the gate. Believe it or not, people DO ask for refunds and people DO talk. Bad publicity, in spite of what many people think, can destroy your business. Think I’m kidding? Go look up some famous and infamous names of Internet business owners and you’ll find some pretty horrible stories of scams and people who were literally forced to retreat to the islands in order to avoid prosecution.

And the truth is, it doesn’t really take that much more effort to make a product of real quality. And if you do take pride in your work, it will show. People will talk about your product…in a good way. Refunds will be much lower. You’ll start to notice that there are blogs popping up about your products. And the best part is, affiliate marketers will want to promote your products. So you’ll make even more money because you have such a great reputation.

So please do yourself a favor. Don’t skimp. Don’t put out shoddy products. You’re only going to hurt yourself in the long run.

No pride, no profits. You can take that one to the bank.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of busting your behind for peanuts online? Go to my web site and find out how I earn a monthly income that exceeds 5 figures and how I can help YOU do the same. Get your free report at http://www.mysecretarticles.com/report.html

Advertising is very important to market or sell a product or a service. If the company or the organization does not advertise about the services provided by it or the products sold by it then people would never come to know about these products and services and hence they would not but these products. In today’s world advertising has become very important as this is the only medium through which you can reach people. Advertising is also important to build brand name of your company. The stronger or more popular the brand name the more people are attracted. Advertising has made a lot of progress, before this there were only newspaper ads, etc. Today there are a lot of ads, like TV commercials, radio ads, internet ads, etc.

Advertising as an industry has grown a lot and has become more commercial and money oriented. Companies and industries are slowly understating the importance of advertising and are investing money to publish or make god ads. Many companies are also hiring full time creative ad makers so that they do not have to spend extra money for ad making.

There are many different types of ads that can be made, or published. A few advertising ideas are:

- Getting brand ambassadors: Famous sport persons or movie stars or other celebrities can be signed up for your company. These people can then become your brand ambassadors. This will increase the value of your brand as well as will help you advertise it properly. Since these icons and stars are very famous among people, using them in your ads is a great advertising idea as people easily connect with them may buy your product just because their favorite start is using it. More often then not advertisements which have stars or celebrities in them are more popular than normal ads.

- Creative ads: Creative and uncommon ads are also a huge hit. Especially TV commercials which are made with some good ideas, concepts are bound to become more successful and more popular. One should always make an intelligent or comic ad, as the masses love such and do not get irritated even if they have to watch them over and over again, thereby increasing their recall value.

- Colorful ads: While printing ads in the news paper or making ad pamphlets, one should make colorful and attractive ads. The ads should have a perfect blend of colors that will look sober and catch the readers’ attention. Also one should not use extra bright and bold colors as this may make the ad look to tacky and instead of catching the readers’ attention it will irritate and distract them.

- Radio ads: As many people listen to radio, advertising on a radio is not a bad idea. The only problem is that the ads on radio can not be seen; hence the dialogues used in such ads should be witty, funny, and clear. Also the people presenting this ad should be able to speak in such a way that it will compel the listener to imagine and create a picture of whatever the speaker is selling.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.bigstrategies.co.uk/blog where you can find great advertising ideas

Creating and maintaining healthy professional relationships with media contacts are key components of promoting your clients and their products. Below are a number of simple tips for working with the media:

1. Most reporters, particularly those with daily morning shows or publications, prefer to get calls fairly early in the day. Their deadlines are typically in the afternoon or early evening.

2. Return all reporters’ calls within the hour, or as promptly as possible, even if you know the inquiry is about a negative topic.

3. If time permits, familiarize yourself with the reporter and the publication/station. Read past articles the reporter has written or tune in to the station’s broadcast.

4. Anticipate questions and practice your responses, especially regarding topics that may be negative or complicated.

5. Any media interview is an opportunity to appropriately advance the goals and activities of your business.

6. Begin the interview by spelling your full and last name twice, along with your title.

7. Make your major points or key messages early in the interview. This sets the tone for the session and will help ensure that your comments are reported in the proper context.

8. Do not overuse industry jargon.

9. Use anecdotes and examples more than weighty statistics to carry your key messages. Real life experiences give real life to your interview.

10. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t guess. Tell the reporter that you are unsure, but that you’ll find out and call him or her back.

11. Don’t speak “off the record.” It’s acceptable to give the reporter background information but never say anything that you wouldn’t want to see in print or broadcast later.

12. Avoid the temptation to “wing it.” Listen to the entire question before responding. Don’t be drawn outside your area of expertise.

13. If you discover you’ve provided inaccurate information during the interview, contact the reporter right away to correct your error — before the story is printed or broadcast.

14. Do not ask for an advance draft of a story before it appears. Many reporters will deny such a request and interpret it as an effort on your part to censor or control the news. However, you should offer your assistance, if needed, in verifying facts or figures contained in the story before it goes to print.

15. Don’t attempt to go “over a reporter’s head” to influence a story. Most likely, you will be unsuccessful and only create resentment. If you believe the reporter has treated you unfairly, contact your regional public relations manager for the proper strategy.

16. Don’t offer or send gifts to the news media. Even inexpensive items could be misinterpreted as an attempt to influence the news coverage. If you are pleased by the way a story turned out, a complimentary phone call or thank you letter will suffice.

17. For television interviews, arrive at the TV station at least 30 minutes before the program. Upon arrival, ask for the show’s producer or the designated contact. It is acceptable to ask the producer if you can discuss the upcoming interview with both the producer and the interviewer. This will make the question and answer session easier on both you and the host. Don’t be bothered, though, if the host is unavailable.

18. Do not wear the color white, stripes or any complicated patterns to an on-camera interview.

19. Remember that radio and television interviewers often develop a regular following and that the audience does not know you. Avoid alienating the interviewer. Be friendly, address the interviewer by his or her first name, but don’t “fake” familiarity.

20. Feel free to have brief notes in front of you (that don’t necessarily have to be discussed) for your easy reference.

21. Always provide your interviewer with your business card and thank them for their time.

22. Let reporters know you are available for future stories, to increase the likelihood that they will call you again. This will help you to develop ongoing relationships with the media.

23. Be proactive in developing relationships with reporters. If you see an article that is within your area of knowledge, call the reporter to introduce yourself.

For more tips and information, please feel free to contact Renee Miller at renee@millergroup.net or by calling 310-442-0101, or visit our website at http://www.millergroup.net

Would you like to boost your profits?

If you would then arguably one of the best ways of advertising is through Leaflets.

Leaflets are given to people and these people keep the leaflet for a little while therefore instant attention is important but not that important.

The main thing to use a leaflet for is basically business or even promotion intention. These can be distributed by hand or they can be distributed by leaving in Cafes, Hotels, restaurants or library depending on your needs.

It is important that leaflets have to be striking enough to impel readers to read it. To give leaflets a fine impression, it is equally important that some considerations have to be taken care during the leaflet printing.

A good design plays a key role in making a successful leaflet. Poor designing in a leaflet spoils the entire mood of the subject matter of the piece. To make the entire piece appealing, it is imperative to attach it with good designing elements, so that it catches the instant attention of readers. Some basic knowledge of designing along with some useful tips about how to make it look impressive can help you having a fine leaflet printing.

Always consider your target audience through this you can pick the correct words, color and U.S.P (a small system I work by it stands for Unique Selling Point).

Its important to be Informative however you must remember not to ‘go on’ too much as it were but in the same respect you need to make sure that you are not saying too less. Remember your most important points but you also could make slogans as they are most remembered.

Click Here to design your leaflet!

Are you wasting your advertising dollars? How can you tell? When you aren’t getting any sales at all, it’s easy to tell an ad isn’t working. If you are only running one ad, it’s easy to tell where sales come from.

But what about when you start running multiple ad campaigns? Placing ads is easy to do on the Internet with so many advertising resources available. It can be pretty easy to go on an advertising rampage and spend an entire day or evening posting ads all over the place. Going to Google and searching for “free classified ads” could keep you busy for the next few months!

So one night, you decide to go on that Internet advertising rampage. You seek out and find all the free classified ad sites you can locate. You post ads like crazy. You even decide to pay a little bit and upgrade some of those ads.

“Surely, somebody has to respond! I’ve got ads all over the place!”.

Does this sound familiar? I know I’ve sure done it. A LOT! When I first started out in Internet marketing, I would pull marathon sessions and advertise like a mad man. I was the copy and paste king! And sure enough…we start to see some activity, don’t we?

All those ads are flying around out there and by golly… we’re starting to see some action! People are emailing to ask about the offer. People are filling out your subscription forms to request more information and subscribing to your AutoResponder.

“Hooray! It’s working!” you say. “My ads are working!”

But which ads are working? You stayed up for 4 hours last night posting internet ads and now you’re finally seeing some results. Before you spend another 4 hours blindly posting ads and hoping for the best, it’s time to figure out which ads are worth renewing.

This is where the “Aim” from “Ready. Fire. Aim.” comes in. Instead of blindly posting ads all over the Internet, start tracking your ads to find out exactly which ads are producing your results.

How do you track your ads?

Tracking your ads online is as simple as using a unique AdTrack URL in place of your actual URL for all of your online ads.

Suppose you want to run multiple ad campaigns to bring people to your capture page. Your goal is to generate leads for your offer. You decide to run your ad with 2 different ad resources. For the sake of this example, let’s say you are going to advertise on:

1) ffa.trafficwave.net
2) Subscribeme.net

Note: These sites are given as examples only. They are actual ad sites. Because they are “free”, if you use these sites, I recommend using an alternate email address to avoid having your inbox flooded with confirmations and counter offers. The true cost of “free” ads is the return emails you receive. Some times the results can be worth it but ALWAYS use an alternate email address to avoid having your primary email swamped.

Normally, you would create your ad and then just put the actual URL directly in to the ads you run. But now you are going to create a unique AdTrack URL for each place that you want to advertise. So in this case, you will want to create an AdTrack URL for ffa.trafficwave.net and a separate AdTrack URL for subscribeme.net

When you run your ad in ffa.trafficwave.net, instead of using your actual URL, you would use the AdTrack URL you created for ffa.trafficwave.net. When you run your ad in subscribeme.net, instead of using your actual URL, you would use the AdTrack URL you created for subscribeme.net

In both cases, when someone responds to your ad by clicking your AdTrack URL, two things will happen:

1) Your AdTrack stats will go up by 1.
2) The prospect will be redirected to your actual URL.

Now, at any time, you can log in to your account and track the progress of each ad. Let’s suppose that after a week, you look at your stats and you see that ffa.trafficwave.net produced 25 clicks and subscribeme.net produced 3 clicks. Now you know exactly which ad resource is giving you the best return.

And now it is decision time. Do you renew both ads as they are? Do you drop the subscribeme.net resource altogether or do you modify that ad and try that resource again?

Now that you are tracking your ad results, you can fine tune, test, and tweak all of your ad copy. Knowing what is working and what is not working puts the power in your hands and lets you maximize your advertising effectiveness.

When you know you have an ad that is producing consistent results, you may want to start using that ad on more ad sites. If you use 10 ad sites, create 10 different AdTrack URL’s for the ad so that you can always know which ad resource is working for you.

How About Tracking AutoResponder Letters?

Another way to use AdTrack URL’s is to test the effectiveness of your AutoResponder messages. If you have ten follow-up messages set up in your AutoResponder, create 10 different AdTrack URL’s and use one in each letter. This will show you exactly which letters your prospects are responding to and which letters may need to be tweaked a bit to improve your response rate.

How About Testing Link Placement In Your Web Copy?

What if you have a web site with long ad copy that has multiple “order” links from top to bottom?

Wouldn’t it be great to know if your prospects are ordering from the top link, the middle link, or the bottom link? You could create a separate AdTrack URL for each “order” link on your web page. You may find that most prospects aren’t reading all the way down to the bottom. They could be clicking that top link right away. Or maybe they DO read all that copy and wait until they get to the bottom of the page before clicking your “order” link. This is valuable information and lets you know just how users are interacting with your web site.

Be Creative With Your AdTrack URL’s.

Be creative with tracking your ads. Just about any ad you are running online can be tracked with an AdTrack URL.

When you know what is working and what is not, you are able to make intelligent informed decisions about your advertising resources including your time and your money.

Brian Rooney is the Founder of TrafficWave.net LLC. TrafficWave provides powerful AutoResponder and AdTracking technology to the SOHO and small business markets. Brian Rooney can be reached at http://www.trafficwave.net

Make no mistake about it; getting free web traffic should be one of the goals of any online business. Getting tons of it means getting signups on a daily or even hourly rate, making hundreds of dollars in sales everyday and not to mention it allows you to live the lifestyle you desire.

Well, online classified advertising is one way to reel in free highly qualified traffic and I’m going to show you how to leverage them now:

Step 1 - Make A List Of Classified Ads Sites To Submit To

Step 2 - Craft A Concise, Killer Ad

Step 3 - Submit Your Ad In A Systematic Manner

Now let’s look over this free traffic system in greater detail!

Step 1 - Make A List Of Classified Ads Sites To Submit To

Create a master list of classified ads sites that you will be submitting to regularly. I’m going to save you all the trouble of research and testing by giving you the best sites. Here they are: Craigslist, US Free Ads and Yahoo Classifieds. These three sites will keep you busy for a while and flood your site with free traffic for some time!

Step 2 - Craft A Concise, Killer Ad

A classified ad is short. As such you need to compress your main benefits into one or two main sentences or in a few bullet points. I prefer the bullet points format. It’s easy to read and does work well in a marketing sense! Don’t forget to call your readers to action too. Get them to act now or they will never act on your offer.

Step 3 - Submit Your Ad In A Systematic Manner

Open up a few tabs in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and submit your ad to all the sites once you have registered. Your ads will lose exposure after a few days, so a proven method is to submit your ad once every week! Bear in mind though that Craigslist doesn’t accept the same ad if you already submitted one, so you might want to change your ad copy when you submit again the next time.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

“Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!”

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

Also, quickly download his FREE “Explosive Traffic System” report that shows you how to generate 10,000+ visitors per month at no cost! => http://www.ExplosiveTrafficSystem.com

The banners are the most widely used tool in advertising. The banners can be seen displayed across streets, shops, commercial establishments but wait, are they over the Internet too? Yes, they are an inseparable part of Internet advertising. Banner advertising is an effective tool for creating awareness through displaying banners across the premium ad spaces. On top of that, this type of advertising is informative and interactive for the users. The increased usage of Internet and advancement of high end graphics has made it a vital tool for online advertising.

The banner advertising is being widely used by the advertisers. There are a few premier Internet advertising agencies that offer quality banner ad solutions. When it comes to such advertising agencies, India is a base for few of them. It is good for the growing interest of marketers in performing online promotions. They are keen to use it for the extensiveness of the medium and intelligent targeting solutions provided.

There were over 40,000 advertisers who targeted Indian Internet users. As far as the market is concerned, the targeted market of India is composed of around 46 million users (IAMAI). Seeing this data, we get a clear indication about the expanding target base for marketers. The banner advertising is helpful in achieving response from these users. A large number of users search information over the Internet.

This information can be about travel and accommodation or related to products and services. The buyer behaviour has an inclination towards gathering information before entering the decision making process. Now, imagine a banner ad being delivered across to you, while you were searching about the SERP links. This is done by a central ad server that works efficiently to deliver banner ads. This makes the banner advertising an effective tool for reaching prospective customers.

Moreover, targeting is done in various ways that proves to be useful for witnessing a highly responsive form of advertising. The banner advertising can also be done according to the geographical locations preferred. A vast base of potential customer awaits to be identified by the marketers. It is all about exploiting the opportunities available. One must see that in what better way it can be done.

Meenakshi Wali is the co founder of Rupiz Media Ad Network, a leading online media buying agency. She is heading a team of experts, which is into banner advertising, internet banner advertising, online web site advertising, web banners.