Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Dollars by Marketing Strategically.

It has been said that in tough economic times most companies choke. Instead of finding ways to innovate and create dynamic growth and change, most companies stick to what they have been doing even if it’s not working.

Most people build a business based upon the knowledge of the product or service that the company offers. Yet the business owners who become the MOST successful are those who learn the SKILLS necessary to MARKET their product or service better and more strategically.

When I ask business owners what they want their marketing to accomplish they often answer, “I want it to get the phone to ring or I want to get more leads for my sales people.” These answers are tactically.

When I ask them strategic questions like:
Would you like your marketing to reach your ideal qualified prospect?
Would you like to be seen as uniquely different than your competition?
Would you like them to trust you? Would you want them to respect you?
Would you like for them to think of you as the expert in your industry?
Would you like price not be the only factor?
How about influence?
How about brand loyalty?
What about an urgency to buy?

The answer almost always is, “Well of course or that would be great.”

So how about you? Is your marketing Tactical or Strategic? How much have you innovated lately?

Here are 10 innovative ways you can make your marketing more strategic and effective with limited resources, time or money.

1.) Find Your Ideal Prospect
To find your ideal prospect look at whom you are currently doing most of your profitable business with. The ones that like, trust and refer you. Figure out what it is about them that is unique and why they do business with you. Narrow your marketing to focus on getting more of these type clients.

2.) What Makes Your Business Different Than Your Competition
Figure out what your Ideal Client longs for and needs, then do that like no one else ever thought of and tell the world about it.

3.) Develop a Core Message that Addresses Your Ideal Prospects’ Need
Recreate your marketing materials, including your Ads and Website, so they speak only of your core message. Material that educates and informs your target market how your product or service will benefit them.

4.) Use the A.I.D.A Formula in Your Sales Letters and Direct Response Material
Get the readers ATTENTION(a great Headline is very effective). Deepen the readers INTEREST (stories). Increase the readers DESIRE (how will it benefit the prospect). Motivate the reader to ACTION (special offer).

5.) Total Internet Presence
Now more than ever you need a total internet presence other than just a website, such as; blogs, social media, podcast, online PR and videos. A strong online marketing approach that educates and provides information is a primary component needed in your overall marketing strategy.

6.) Referral Marketing
Develop a referral marketing system that automatically turns ideal clients and referral networks into a marketing powerhouse. This is of the easiest, most effective and least costly marketing methods to set up. It is amazing how few businesses have one.

7.) Connect with the Media
No one can position you as an expert more than the media. Write educational and informative business articles for local business papers, magazines and blogs online.

8.) Create a Sales System
Develop a sales system that accomplishes all of these potential strategic objectives every time any one in your company is in front of a buyer. A system that turns prospects into clients and raving fans.

9.) Schedule Your Marketing
Live by a calendar. Be patient, change takes time. Develop and schedule one or two marketing activities a month. Give the learning curve time to work to achieve the results you are looking for.

10.) Set the Stage So Your Employees Know What is Happening and Why
Let everyone in your organization know the reason for change. Change works best when it’s a collaborative, interactive process. Share as much as you can with your staff about your finances, the problems your organization is facing, and what’s likely to happen if you do nothing.

Bill Glass is the President/CEO of Mastermind Business Associates. He has built three very successful multi million dollar businesses. He is a professional business marketing consultant, coach, speaker and workshop facilitator. He can be reached at: [mailto:bill@consultbillglass.com]bill@consultbillglass.com. http://www.small-business-resource.com or http://www.mastermindbusinessassociates.com

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?10-Ways-To-Make-Your-Marketing-More-Effective-In-Tough-Economic-Times&id=5506875] 10 Ways To Make Your Marketing More Effective In Tough Economic Times

Is it newsworthy?

This should be your first consideration when thinking about using an online press release to promote your business. For example, if you’ve developed an innovative new product for the plumbing market and want national exposure then a press release would be a great idea. On the other hand if you’ve bought a new van or taken on another plumber, it’s not going to be newsworthy enough to be published anywhere other than your own website.

Hire a copywriter to write it for you

If you have the budget and haven’t written one before it’s wise to hire a professional copywriter. Someone with experience in crafting press releases will be able to portray your company in the best light and get the best results from your release.

Use quality images

Some online press release services such as PRWeb.com allow you to embed an image before it’s distributed. It’s very important to make sure you include a high quality image that portrays your business in a professional way.

How to choose anchor text links

With an online press release you’ll also usually be able to have clickable anchor text links from the release back to your own website. It’s crucial you choose the right keyword or phrase for this to get the most benefit in terms of SEO. For example, using click here isn’t descriptive and won’t deliver any benefit whereas if you’re a London Plumber and have plumber in London as your anchor text it will have more impact.

Think about your target market

In order to get the most from your release you’ll need to think carefully about who you want to send it to. For example if you’re a rel=nofollow [http://www.localremoval.co.uk/]removals company in Glasgow there’s little point in sending your press release internationally, you’d get much better results by focusing on the areas in and around your city by contacting local publications.

Check Google News for your industry

There are lots of online press release distribution services out there and it can be hard to decide which one to use. A good way to do this is search the news feed on Google for your industry and see what appears; these will have the name of the company that distributed them so you’ll be able to see instantly which sites get results.

Social media is a powerful outlet

Lots of online release distribution sites will automatically add your release to social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook which increases exposure and can lead to more coverage for your business.

How to check if your press release worked

Being able to track clickthroughs to your website is invaluable when it comes to measuring effectiveness. A good press release distribution service will provide this as part of their package so it’s quick and easy for you to measure your ROI.

Submit to one distribution site only

If you don’t want to bombard people with multiple copies of your press release it’s best to just submit yours via one online service as many will have the same contacts on their list of recipients.

Promote your release yourself too

By adding your latest press release to the news section of your website and including a link to it in your email signature, you can easily increase the number of people who’ll read it online.

Jamie Fairbairn is experienced in local search & online marketing and has worked with many small business owners to improve their search engine rankings over the past 10 years. Jamie’s blog can be found at http://www.searchblogger.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Online-Press-Releases—Top-10-Tips&id=5478420 Online Press Releases – Top 10 Tips

• The percentage of Americans who have ever watched or listened to a podcast is 45%, up from 43% one year ago. This equates to approximately 70 million Americans 12+.
• The podcast audience has migrated from being predominantly “early adopters” to more closely resembling mainstream media consumers.
• Podcast consumers index very highly for social networking behaviors.
• Two-thirds of podcast consumers have listened to digital audio files in their vehicles by connecting an iPod or other MP3 player to their car audio system.

Got a podcast? If you have a business and you have a website, then you must probably understand that you have to make every stay of your Internet visitor as welcoming and interactive as much as possible.

Here are 8 great steps for the most fantastic podcasting:

1. Choose your microphone properly. Remember, to get your message across, you need to have a microphone where you can speak. Thus, you have to choose one that will allow your voice to sound so crisp and very clear.

2. Choose an area that is peaceful. Unless you’re working in a studio, which is so unlikely, you have to work on your podcast in an area that doesn’t have any noise such as your bedroom or your basement.

3. Add entertainment. No matter how short your podcast will be, make sure that you can add the words “fun” and “entertainment” to it. It will take away the boredom and will create excitement to your visitors.

4. Start with one podcast. Especially if you or your Internet visitors are not used to a podcast, it may help if you begin with one each month. Once they can already get acquainted with the idea, then you can add one or two for every week.

5. Get familiar with the podcast. You can read some materials about podcast so you can be familiar with its technical aspect. It will become very much easier for you to work with your hardware as well as software.

6. Choose your server properly. Select the server that can host all your audio files without any future problem.

7. Practice. As they say, practice makes perfect. Thus, ensure that you have allocated a few minutes or hours practicing what you’re going to say before preparing your final podcast.

8. Create your draft. If you’re starting, it may be ideal to create a draft so you will not get lost when you are actually recording your podcast.

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Sean Mize is an internet marketing strategist who teaches internet marketers how to increase their income by creating high ticket classes and coaching programs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize http://EzineArticles.com/?8-Steps-to-Podcasting&id=822226