pWhat is a marketing niche b strategy/b? do you have one? If you are involved in any kind of affiliate marketing, then you should have one. Without a marketing niche b strategy/b you will definitely minimized your chances for success in Internet marketing./ppJust in case you are not familiar with the term niche, and niche markets, I will briefly explain. A niche market can simply be described as a small group of people that have a problem, and actively searching for a solution to that problem./ppHere is an example of a niche market within the market of computers, and how I would go about using a marketing niche b strategy/b to promote this niche./ppExample Niche/ppComputers – ( Market)
brLaptop Computers – (Smaller Niche Market)
brMicro Laptop Computer – (Even Smaller Niche Market)/ppIn my example above, a niche market would be computers. A smaller niche within computers might be persons searching for information on laptop computers. We can even further classify the smaller niche of laptop computers to and even smaller niche market, of people searching for micro laptop computers./ppA marketing niche b strategy/b for the niche market of computers, might be to focus our b advertising/b on the term micro laptop computers, instead of focusing on the top level niche term, computers./ppYou may be wondering why your marketing niche b strategy/b should be focused on the term micro laptop computers, instead of the top level niche term, computers. Studies have shown that top level niches are normally saturated with competition, from other advertisers./ppMy marketing niche b strategy/b would be to advertise to the people within the sub niches, rather than the larger niche market of computers. Let us now use our example niche market, micro laptop computers to go through the steps that I would take, to get my marketing niche b strategy/b started./ppOur niche market keyword would also be the same as the niche we have chosen. In this example, our long tailed keyword would be, micro laptop computers, instead of the broader term, computers. The broader the keyword chosen, the lesser the chances would be for success, within that niche./ppThe first step I would take would be to research my chosen keyword, to see how much competition I am up against. To do this I would go to Google, and type my chosen keyword micro laptop computers, within quotes, into the search space provided. I would then take note of how much other advertisers are using the same term. If our competition is less than five thousand, or even ten thousand quoted results, then it should be okay to focus our b advertising/b on this keyword./ppNext, I would research to see how many persons have searched for my long tailed keyword within the last month. To do this I would use the goggle keyword research tool. If the monthly estimated traffic is about one hundred, or more searches per month, then I would write my keyword rich article based on the keyword, micro laptop computers. I have chosen article marketing for this example only. There are many other b advertising/b b strategies/b available for use when b advertising/b niches./p p a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a /p
luni, 24 ianuarie 2011
Understanding a Marketing Niche Strategy
duminică, 16 ianuarie 2011
Door to Door Marketing – The Best Advertising Strategy in Local Markets
pDoor to door marketing is also known as a ‘field job’ for many marketing professionals. The door to door salesman’s job is one of the toughest in the world, and the one who is able to do it, is easily one of the best professionals in the world. Once a career that was looked down upon and restricted to vacuum cleaners and household appliances, it has now gained popularity as one of the most successful marketing initiatives. Now people who are involved in door to door marketing are given an enviable pay package as compensation and other perks. Of course, the person who undertakes this type of job gains a lot in experience and communication skills/ppWhat does it do for the company who employs this kind of ‘to the household’ marketing in its promotional b strategies/b? Now, more than just direct selling, door to door marketing is positioned as a ‘marketing b strategy/b’ in a bid to get loyal and permanent customers. Nowadays, in door marketing, the people who represent utility companies will show you ways to save money on subscription to these services by distributing coupons. For instance, if you regularly buy a certain magazine once a month, the marketing professional of that company will try to convert you into a loyal customer by giving a subscription offer to the particular magazine for 12 months at a discounted price. It will definitely be an offer that you wouldn’t be able to resist. Of course, the traditional door to door selling approach whereby things like home improvement products and cleaning products are sold, still do brisk business./ppThese marketing professionals also do flyer marketing in the form of leaflet distribution. Companies who want to make use of these b strategies/b contact a flyer distribution company and give them leaflets of their products and latest offers to people who distribute them to the households. Things are turning out to be brighter for door to door marketing for everyone involved in it-the consumer and the company who undertakes it./p p a href=http://htmlnewsletter.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Html NewsletterHtml Newsletter/a a href=http://marketing-automation.onblogme.com/ rel=dofollow title=Marketing AutomationMarketing Automation/a a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a /p
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 1st, 2011 at 12:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.miercuri, 12 ianuarie 2011
Door to Door Marketing – The Best Advertising Strategy in Local Markets
pDoor to door marketing is also known as a ‘field job’ for many marketing professionals. The door to door salesman’s job is one of the toughest in the world, and the one who is able to do it, is easily one of the best professionals in the world. Once a career that was looked down upon and restricted to vacuum cleaners and household appliances, it has now gained popularity as one of the most successful marketing initiatives. Now people who are involved in door to door marketing are given an enviable pay package as compensation and other perks. Of course, the person who undertakes this type of job gains a lot in experience and communication skills/ppWhat does it do for the company who employs this kind of ‘to the household’ marketing in its promotional b strategies/b? Now, more than just direct selling, door to door marketing is positioned as a ‘marketing b strategy/b’ in a bid to get loyal and permanent customers. Nowadays, in door marketing, the people who represent utility companies will show you ways to save money on subscription to these services by distributing coupons. For instance, if you regularly buy a certain magazine once a month, the marketing professional of that company will try to convert you into a loyal customer by giving a subscription offer to the particular magazine for 12 months at a discounted price. It will definitely be an offer that you wouldn’t be able to resist. Of course, the traditional door to door selling approach whereby things like home improvement products and cleaning products are sold, still do brisk business./ppThese marketing professionals also do flyer marketing in the form of leaflet distribution. Companies who want to make use of these b strategies/b contact a flyer distribution company and give them leaflets of their products and latest offers to people who distribute them to the households. Things are turning out to be brighter for door to door marketing for everyone involved in it-the consumer and the company who undertakes it./p p a href=http://htmlnewsletter.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Html NewsletterHtml Newsletter/a a href=http://marketing-automation.onblogme.com/ rel=dofollow title=Marketing AutomationMarketing Automation/a a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a /p
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 1st, 2011 at 12:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.vineri, 26 noiembrie 2010
Article: To Ramp Up Marketing Efforts, GM Puts Social in Front Seat
For the past few years, General Motors has managed its efforts on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, online video and other social media activities from within its communications group. In 2011, GM will be moving social media marketing into its brand groups. Christopher Barger, global director of social media, spoke with eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson about the challenges of this transition, how GM allots budget for social media within digital marketing, and what measurements the company needs to have in place to increase spending on social media marketing.
eMarketer: How are you budgeting for social media marketing in 2011?
Christopher Barger: Until now, social media has been led and budgeted out of communications rather than marketing. We are in the middle of social becoming part of marketing. That means there will be a bucket [of funds] for Chevrolet for the year. There’ll be a certain bucket for Volt; there’ll be a certain bucket for Cadillac. And so on.
The brand communication teams and the brand marketing teams have never budgeted their own line items [for social media marketing]. It’s all come out of [my budget]. What’s happening is that marketing rightfully is becoming more involved in the planning and the budgeting piece, and also the strategic side of it.
“The brands are now baking social into their overall marketing budget. It’s incorporated into all the programs.”That means the brands are now baking social into their overall marketing budget. It’s incorporated into all the programs. So, if you’re launching a vehicle, you just increase the amount of money that goes into the vehicle launch program in order to accommodate social tactics as well.
eMarketer: That’s going to happen with other marketers, and GM may be ahead of the curve in getting the social integrated into the marketing budget.
Barger: It’s been a long time in coming, so I know we finally have the right structure in place, and the right mix of skill sets and the disciplines that are involved.
But frankly, one of the things that I wish I could do over, if we were starting over again, is that we’ve been picking off [social media marketing] opportunities as they occurred to us. You know, South by Southwest is coming up, or ComiCon is going on, and gosh, wouldn’t it be great if we could get a Camaro down there? We’ve been ticking those off one by one as we see them. “We can start thinking about a social strategy that is more in line with the rest of the strategy for marketing, rather than picking off opportunities piecemeal and hoping that they fit.”
Now, by getting the marketing teams more involved, we can say, these are the vehicles that are specifically being launched. These are the specific things that we’re trying to accomplish with our audiences that we’re trying to reach. Now, we can start thinking about a social strategy that is more in line with the rest of the strategy for marketing, rather than picking off opportunities piecemeal and hoping that they fit.
eMarketer: How much of a marketer’s online marketing budget do you think should go toward social media?
Barger: Companies have begun to grasp the need to move a significant portion of their marketing budget to digital. But I don’t think that nuance between digital and social is fully comprehended by everyone yet.
It’s impossible to do one well without the other. I would argue that online advertising and online marketing have their place but can very well be supplemented by campaigns of engagement with social networks. If you’re doing nothing but talking within the social networks, and it’s not tying back to your other online marketing, it’s probably not as effective as it could be.
There are other people in the GM organization who will probably have different opinions than me, but I’d probably want to try to go as evenly split as possible: Half of the effort you put in, both from a financial resource and a time resource standpoint, ought to be spent engaging in the networks and then trying to figure out how to physically get people into your product or experiencing your product. The other half ought to be making them aware of your product, and continuing to go where the audience goes, to do standard digital marketing.
[But] up until this point, my standalone budget for social has been the only budget that’s been allotted. So, I’m sure the percentage is in the single digits.
eMarketer: And as companies really start integrating social into the rest of their marketing, as you’re doing, it might be even harder and harder to figure out what percentage is going toward social media.
“Whether you’re doing social, whether you’re doing marketing, whether you’re doing digital, whether you’re doing communication, at some point that all kind of blends.”Barger: At some point, it’s all indistinguishable. Whether you’re doing social, whether you’re doing marketing, whether you’re doing digital, whether you’re doing communication, at some point that all kind of blends.
So, as social gets further integrated and just becomes part of how you do standard marketing, I think it’s going to be a lot harder to define where those lines are and which percentage of budgets are going where.
eMarketer: Are you at the point where you’re able to measure and track that influence? And then say, yes, this is working; we need to shift more budget toward social.
Barger: Not as well as I would like. I can definitely measure levels of engagement, how often something is tracked, or how often a particular message or particular thing goes out into the social networks and carries through. We can measure tone and analysis of sentiment. What I wish we could do is say that because we did something in social we moved more vehicles than we would have, had we used traditional routes.
The measurement, frankly, for traditional forms of marketing, in advertising, even PR, is far better established, because they have had a longer chance to get it right. We’re not quite able, yet, to definitively prove our [results via social media].
eMarketer: What metrics, if you had them, would 100% make the case that GM needs to invest even more heavily in social media marketing?
Barger: There are two different angles to approach that. First is trying to determine the correlation between how often something is mentioned in Twitter or Facebook or on blogs, with intent to purchase, or purchase consideration. If something was put up on Twitter this many times, or we have this many followers, or we had 21 comments on our Facebook page, how does that translate? Does it mean anything or is it just online chatter?
Then, I’d love to be able to track that back to actual sales. How often does what you’re doing online translate to offline? For example, if we’re doing a tweet-up, and we’re scheduling something around a particular vehicle, we get 53 people to get in the car. And then as a result, six of those went to a dealership and actually bought one. If I could track that, that’d be fabulous.
Look, we’re selling cars here. Being able to demonstrably prove that social media actually sells cars would be great.
The full version of this interview is available here, to eMarketer Total Access clients only. Every day they have access to new interviews with digital marketing leaders and trendsetting entrepreneurs.
Check out today’s other article, “Does Social Media Marketing Make Sense for the Smallest Businesses?”
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marți, 23 noiembrie 2010
Importance of Marketing and Advertising
pThe person who is involved in any kind of business knows it very well that marketing is the most important part of the business. Possibly you are offering a very good product or service through your business but not getting enough revenue and your competitor is not having good quality product or service but getting good revenue. This is because of the marketing that your competitor is applying good marketing b strategy/b for his business and you did not. You can get great profit even if your product is not very good and if your product is good then the marketing will help you to get boost of profit./ppIf you are running a business or going to start any business then you must take the help of marketing. Before marketing you will have to decide the area which going to be covered by your business and then start marketing for the above. It will be more difficult and costly if you will cover big area. For marketing you can hire any good a marketing company which will suggest you ideas and will do marketing for your business./ppThe most beneficial and modern trend of marketing is internet marketing. If you are running a business or going to start a business then you should launch it on the web. Web is the vast area of business because through this you can get global visits and clients for your business. This will be the reason of great profit. For launching your business on the web you should start a website through which you can sell your product or service. First you should know about the free advertise./ppYour website also needed marketing so that people will visit here. For marketing of your website you can hire a SEO service or can make your links on other websites. This will not only attract others and increase traffic but will also make benefit for search engine results. You can find sites for submit website. There are many websites on the web which are providing the facility of b advertising/b marketing. The facility of submitting websites is just similar to bookmarking./ppSearch engine is the best way for getting traffic on the website. If your website is coming on first page list in a search engine result for related keyword then you definitely will get traffic on your website. For that you should try to increase the page rank of your website provided by the Google. If your will submit website on good sites then you can improve page rank. There are some websites which are providing facility of free advertise and these are having good page ranks and heavy traffic./p p a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a a href=http://marketing-automation.onblogme.com/ rel=dofollow title=Marketing AutomationMarketing Automation/a /p
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.sâmbătă, 20 noiembrie 2010
Article: Does Social Media Marketing Make Sense for the Smallest Businesses?
eMarketer estimates that 127 million people in the US, or 57.5% of internet users, will use social networks at least monthly this year. Facebook alone has over half a billion active users worldwide. Still, many of the smallest businesses don’t believe their customers can be marketed to on such sites, according to an August 2010 survey from customer review platform RatePoint.
Respondents, the majority of whom were business owners with just one to five employees, were split on whether social media was a quick way to connect with current or future customers, but sentiment was largely negative. When asked if they thought customers wanted to hear from them on social sites, only a quarter of businesses thought they did.
In addition, 20% of small businesses did not think their customers spent time on social networking sites; another 27% were undecided. And nearly a quarter did not believe their customers did research online before doing business with their company.
With a majority of US internet users on social networks, chances are the customers of even small local businesses are there. According to BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, 97% of US internet users used online media to look for local products and services in Q1 2010, and 90% used search engines. Research from comScore and TMP Directional Marketing shows that, looking for local businesses, searchers are much more likely to use a search engine than a social networking site as their primary resource, but both are used, especially among young people.
“Social media use is no longer limited to one demographic; everyone is adopting,” said Neal Creighton, CEO and co-founder of RatePoint, in a statement. “While many small-business owners are uncertain, big brands are investing heavily in social media. Social media can be a great equalizer for small businesses to compete alongside larger brands and SMBs are missing out if they are not involved.”
Keep your business ahead of the digital curve. Learn more about becoming an eMarketer Total Access client today.
Check out today’s other article, “To Ramp Up Marketing Efforts, GM Puts Social in Front Seat.”
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sâmbătă, 6 noiembrie 2010
Marketing Beyond Advertising: Save enough to pay for airfare and hotel!
I help small business owners...mostly main street people, the brick and mortar types with their marketing.
I'm also a 2-star Nebraska Admiral in case that means anything to you.
TweetRecent Posts3 Ways to Make the Caller's Experience Reflect Your CustomersDing Dong SEO Gone BadAvery's run at 3M: Differentiate. Demonstrate. Directed Humor.On Your Market: Open for BusinessCustomer Engagement: A Kinetic Word of Mouth TechniqueMarketing Beyond Advertising: Save enough to pay for airfare and hotel!Tom Wanek's Ad-Speak CalculatorContextual Linking: Your web site is NOT a strip mallThe Fabulous Price of Free...Square offers free credit card readerKey to Word of Mouth: Kinetic and Audio Delight
Follow this blog « Tom Wanek's Ad-Speak Calculator |Main| Customer Engagement: A Kinetic Word of Mouth Technique »Marketing Beyond Advertising: Save enough to pay for airfare and hotel! Wizard Academy just made an offer on Facebook that is so darn good, I just had to pass it along.
Marketing Beyond Advertising is listed on the Wizard Academy site as a $2,000 2-day course next week on the 15th and 16th of July. Trust me, it's worth every penny too.
Because they are trying to fill a few empty seats, they have announced a call-in price of just $500. With the money you save, you can book airfare, car rental and hotel, easily.
Check out the curriculum and pick up the phone. Call 512-295-5700 and ask for the discount. This is the best deal I've ever seen for a first time visit to Wizard Academy.
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Comments Marketing Beyond Advertising: Save enough to pay for airfare and hotel! Wizard Academy just made an offer on Facebook that is so darn good, I just had to pass it along.
Marketing Beyond Advertising is listed on the Wizard Academy site as a $2,000 2-day course next week on the 15th and 16th of July. Trust me, it's worth every penny too.
Because they are trying to fill a few empty seats, they have announced a call-in price of just $500. With the money you save, you can book airfare, car rental and hotel, easily.
Check out the curriculum and pick up the phone. Call 512-295-5700 and ask for the discount. This is the best deal I've ever seen for a first time visit to Wizard Academy.
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vineri, 29 octombrie 2010
Marketing Strategies 101
pInternet marketing is a fantastic idea that centers on simplicity. But it’s vital to fully understand the internet marketing b strategies/b that work, because simplicity simply doesn’t work without successful marketing tactics. Always keeping things simple keeps customers coming back time and time again because they know how and where to find you – and they also know they are able to count on you to have what they’re searching for even before they recognize what they need./ppSo, precisely what are b advertising/b and marketing tactics anyway?/ppThey’re marvelous secrets and techniques that are not typically understood or recognized by the common competitor in the business. They will begin with a clear picture and visual images of how you define success for your business. Understanding how to read the buyer’s mind and control how they think and what they decide to buy is an essential secret weapon to success in b advertising/b and marketing./ppb Advertising/b and marketing tactics always include a ‘hook’ for the customer. That’s something valuable to them. It’s a particular benefit the client recognizes as valuable and significant for whatever reason./ppBut first, you will need to securely grab their attention./ppWriting is different than face-to-face conversation or marketing the main advantages of a service or product with the client looking at you. But when you have learned to interject and intertwine emotional feelings and excitement in your written marketing materials, you’ll be able to easily grab a customer’s attention and maintain it./ppUnderstanding how to use a few of the following marketing b strategies/b will allow you to not only succeed, but catapult your business to higher elevations of success than you ever thought possible. b Strategies/b that include:/pp1. Gravity Pulling Copy
br2. Repetition
br3. Repetition (just to make sure you’re ‘listening’!)
br4. Power of Questions
br5. Mind Control
br6. Scarcity
br7. Reveal All Marketing/ppWith a clear understanding of how you can deploy these tactics, you’ll be able to become a marketing and b advertising/b success since you’ll anticipate and fill your customer’s requirements before the customer even knows what he or she wants themselves!/ppEven with the various marketing b strategies/b dissected and revealed, you will also figure out how to keep it simplistic. Keep in mind that simplicity is one of the most essential keys to effective marketing and b advertising/b and that has never been more vital than in the online marketing arena. Customers have a choice to keep reading past the first few words of your content, or simply click to another site.
brWith our proven b advertising/b and marketing b strategies/b, not only will they keep reading, but they’ll keep coming back for more. And even better, they’ll bring other clients with them./ppIf you’ve already spent too much effort doing exactly the same old marketing and b advertising/b things over and over, and getting the same old poor final results, it’s time for you to try something fresh and effective. It’s time for you to explore a world filled with possibilities and opportunities by including successful, proven marketing tactics into your marketing plan./ppThe time spent setting up a successful internet marketing plan today with tactics that actually sell, will result in dynamic results and more time to do what you like doing best in the future – counting your conversions and profits!/p p a href=http://marketing-automation.onblogme.com/ rel=dofollow title=Marketing AutomationMarketing Automation/a a href=http://htmlnewsletter.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Html NewsletterHtml Newsletter/a /p
miercuri, 27 octombrie 2010
Marketing Strategies and Brand Management – Tom and Jerry Tales
Business likes to build brands that last. But not all brands last the distance or the time to stand firm in the consumers’ minds. It takes more than mere advertising and promotion to establish brands that live on forever, being looked upon fondly by generations together. Successful brands outlive the normal product lifecycle expected of products in a similar category, while they continue to provide high quality consumer service.
There are brands that were founded decades ago and still continue to rock the market – but it’s not that these brands were conceived with the intention of making them last for generations. The idea behind such brand building originally is to produce quality products and give it a tag that appeals to the target market. Consider the example of two of the most famous cartoon characters in human history. As you would have probably guessed, they are Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry cartoons are so powerful and all-pervasive that they still resonate among young minds as their favourite pals.
Tom and Jerry cartoon first came to light, showcasing the animated characters as rivals trying to outwit each other, seventy years ago, in February 1940. Since then, Tom and Jerry tales have been part of every child’s dream, tickling them with their funny anecdotes and hilarious crusades. And having been around as the most sought after entertainment brands for seven decades, they still create the same magic that they are used to creating. There are people who have grown up watching the cat fights between Tom and Jerry and there are kids who are just being introduced to the famous characters. And they appeal to people of all ages and make them forget their problems for a brief while that they are on screen.
Coming to think of it, Tom and Jerry haven’t tried to reinvent themselves to match the changing times. The brands haven’t tried hard to stay in tune with the electronic age, apart from the way they have adapted to being seen on the DVD and YouTube channel. But their core value has been around entertaining children and making people laugh. They have stuck to their knitting and have not diversified into unrelated territory. Tom chases Jerry and Jerry hits back – and the Tom and Jerry tales have been simple, extremely hilarious and have stayed focussed on the central theme. And they have consistently delivered value to consumers.
The secret behind marketing success is just that – to be focussed on value delivery and in making sure the brand management is tightly knit around its core. If products can achieve that and appeal to their target market the way Tom and Jerry have done, they would outlive the conventional limits imposed by product lifecycles.
Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me. sâmbătă, 23 octombrie 2010
Customer Vs Consumer – Role of Distribution Channels in Marketing
Producers of goods and services have to be wary of one important aspect – their business success is dependent as much on consumer behavior as it is on customer satisfaction. This distinction between the customer and the consumer is an important variable that could have a bearing on business strategy in general, and marketing strategy, in particular. Business would have to satisfy both the customers, who would happen to be resellers of the goods and services of the company, as well as consumers, the end users. The point here is that ultimately, it is the business organization that is responsible for the way in which the product or service reaches the end consumer.
Traditionally, marketing has always been inclusive of intermediaries, the distribution channels of its products, which take the product to the consumer. Marketing channels deal with the consumers directly and have the opportunity to interact with them, know their likes and dislikes and stand a good chance of knowing the pulse of the consumer. Manufacturers, hence, should indulge in market research and develop the mechanisms to collect valuable market intelligence through the distribution channels, an important function in channel marketing.
However, with all systems up to gain information about consumption, there is no substitute for being in direct touch with the end consumer. While that is not always possible and marketing channels cannot be eliminated, business must make sure that they are not completely removed from its consumers. And that is what could be the prospects facing the publishing industry as they tend to become more and more dependent on their distribution channels.
Distribution channels, in the case of publishers, are the new age electronic gadgets, the ebook readers. The ebook reader has been around for a while now, but its dominance over publishing companies is only set to increase further, as tech companies are getting into the ebook business in droves. With Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader already present in the market, Apple iPad is all set to become the next big thing in the industry.
These ebook readers tend to remove the publishers further from the works that they own, with information about consumer trends and usage information becoming proprietary to ebook manufacturers. While the trend towards ebook is inevitable and digital information is a reality, the traditional publishing house has to gear up for the challenge that could be posed by the control that ebooks may soon come to exert over the book industry.
Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me. joi, 21 octombrie 2010
Marketing and Twitter – Social Media for Business Success
We all know the importance of networking for our career development and business success. Whether you are an entrepreneur who wants to bag contracts or a student stepping into work life, you need to be out there, networking with people who matter. And the networking phenomenon, which has been a differentiating factor between the “Have’s” and the “Have Not’s” over the years, has reached a different stage altogether, with the proliferation of internet and the prevalence of broadband over other forms of communication. With the onset of 3G communication, that lets people use their smart phones and now, iPads for browsing, social networking as a genre’ has become part of one’s career.
With so much importance being given to social networking sites, and with social media being such a prominent and compulsive means of staying in touch, it is surprising that a majority of the net-worthy people, who are addicted to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, still are not sure what to do with the new-age communication tools.
Consider Twitter, the new way of expression. People follow and are being followed in legions, with tweets sometimes growing so much in volume that Twitter goes down. Everyone from celebrities to CEO’s, businessmen and politicians are out there, tweeting real time about their lives. However, how many of them are really sure about what they are doing out there in Twitter?
It could be noticed that some Twitter celebrities have huge following, disproportionately more than an ordinary tweeting guy, a reflection of the strength and power associated with their celebrity status. However, in most cases, there are just as many people who “Un-follow” people on Twitter, as there are new Twitter followers. And sometimes, those who are relatively less known may command a lot more following on their Twitter account. In effect, real world popularity has less to do with success in Twitter.
Tweets are supposed to be interesting, engaging, informative and engrossing; even if not all of them, it has to be something of value to followers. If you can remember all those marketing lessons that spoke about value delivery and value added services, Twitter is no exception to that. Twitter following is for value. Period. Just as in the case of any business entity, advertising and promotion (in this case, the celebrity status gained in the real world) may be good enough to get people on-board your Twitter accounts, but customer retention demands value delivery. Do not use Twitter for making commonplace announcements like what you had for supper or how you suffered from a viral attack. Yes, you can include them once in a while, but people are not following you on Twitter to know these trite stuff.
Indulging in marketing yourself and doing some good deal of Twitter marketing, giving people what they want, would make sure Twitter pays you back for your marketing strategy.
Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me. miercuri, 20 octombrie 2010
Business, Competition and Pricing – Marketing Communication and Consumer Behavior
Business, in pursuit of business objectives, tends to falter on marketing communications, with an increasing focus on profitability and business goals. As is obvious, business, ultimately, is about profit maximization. A business organization is started and gets operational with the hope of making it good on profitability, on the return on investment, and to drive growth rates that would become benchmarks for the industry. And that’s what management is all about, in making it easy for business to make profits, increase sales and revenue, achieve financial goals and enhance one’s standing in a competitive market.
Competitive forces, on the other hand, work towards reducing the very profit margin that business tries to increase. Competition tends to work against large profit margins and an increase in competition would invariably mean falling profitability and margins under stress. And companies tend to offer more for less, free offers abound and the consumer rejoices, till business starts feeling the pinch of reduced profitability. At one point, business has to reduce its freebies and hike prices so as to sustain, especially when faced not just with competitive forces but also with industry dynamics that give less room for profitability.
That’s what seems to be happening in the media industry, with the internet revolution having brought all media and journal online. Electronic versions of famous news papers and journals have been free for all, in an attempt to capture market share and for customer retention. Then, Wall Street Journal announced it was going to charge not just for its contents but for contents of all publications of the News Corp Group. And then, New York Times has followed suit with a similar announcement, but has chosen to be less stringent in erecting walls around its sites, perhaps starting 2011.
It is tough to communicate this to the market, after having been favourable to the consumer. All the time, the consumer has been allowed to gain access to contents for free – and to make the consumer adapt to a new world of paid content is tough. However, there is a flaw in the marketing communication part of it that stress so much on paid content and walls, and much less on what the consumer would stand to gain in the new system.
Marketing communications should be aimed at emphasising much on value added services, the value that the consumer would derive out of paid content; communication should not focus on what the consumer would have to bear with in the coming days but should rather be on how much the consumer has to benefit in terms of improved services.
Negative actions would have minimal impact if positive communication is applied.
Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me.