Direct marketting

Marketing to a mailing list is easier than it has ever been with the availability of email. Email marketing is after all one of the most cost-effective ways to blast your advertising message out to thousands of people. Compared to mailing a direct mailing piece to thousands of people, email is ridiculously cheap and often provides a much better return on investment. However, what if email ended tomorrow?

Of course, email will probably not end tomorrow. It will probably not even end next year. Email may be around for decades. Or it may not. And if and when it is replaced, what happens? What will happen to list building?

There are numerous threats to email marketing. On top of the list is the proliferation of spam. Another is increasing information overload. People are spending more time on social networking sites than on email these days. And many marketers know that social networking sites, while fun to use, are not exactly the first places buyers would go to. Another is the rise of instant messaging services. People are becoming increasingly connected and many feel that email is past it. Then there is the emergence of Google Wave, which will become increasingly popular in the future. The likes of Twitter, Google Wave and social networking sites signal a change towards instant, real-time communication.

So how do marketers counter this? Well, in the future, email may be more advanced and more expensive. Marketers may have to start coughing up more money to do an email blast. The barriers to entry will increase. The entire email medium may be something else entirely. But we must understand one thing.The idea of building a mailing list (on any channel) and marketing products and services to subscribers will always remain. As long as marketers keep a database of prospects and customers (no matter where that may be) and provide solutions to problems, they will never go hungry. The medium may change, but the principles remain the same.

Reference;www.ezinearticles.com

Five ways to grow your business

Following are five ways to grow any business and business owners, as a minimum, should create Key Performance Indicators around these five components. The fabulous five are:

• Number of Leads - Get more customers coming through the doors
• Conversion Rate - Convert more enquiries into sales
• Transactions - Increase the frequency a customer purchases
• Average Sale Per Customer - Increase the average sale per customer
• Margin - Increase the profit margin per sale

Number of Leads.

The total number of potential buyers you contacted or that contacted you last year. Also known as prospects, enquiries or "potentials". Most business people confuse responses, or the number of potential buyers, with results. Just because the phone is ringing doesn't mean the cash register is.

Conversion Rate.

The percentage of people who did buy, versus those who could have bought. For example, if you had 10 people walk through your store today and you sold to only three of them you'd have a conversion rate of 3/10, or 30%. Guessing your conversion rate is not acceptable, only the numbers will tell you the truth.

When you ask the average business owner about their conversion rate, they take a stab in the dark, and tell you it is between 60 and 70%. By actually measuring it you will find it is more like 20 or 30%.

Number of Transactions.

Another of the five main variables. Some of your customers will buy from you weekly, others monthly, others on the odd occasion and others, just once in a lifetime. What you want to know is the average. Not your best not your worst, but the average number of times a customer buys from you in one year. This is a goldmine, as most businesses never collect a database of their past customers, let alone write to them, or call them and ask them to come back.

Your Average Dollars Per Sale.

Here's one variable at least some business owners do measure. Once again, some customers might spend $1000, some just $25, but the average is what you're after. Just a few dollars on each and every sale could be all it takes. Add up your total sales and divide by the number of sales to give you a rough guide.

So, customers x transactions x average dollars per sale = turnover......

Your Margins.

Margin equals profit divided by the sell price.....

This is the percentage of each and every sale profit. In other words, if you sold something for $100 and $25 was profit, then you've got a 25% margin. Remember, this is after all costs are taken out so, your turnover x margins = profit.

Profit: another result that every business owner wants more of, not realizing that you can't get more profit; but what you can do is get greater margins on the revenue that you've got. And that's it. This business skeleton is the basic model that dictates the profit levels of every business on earth.

Reference;www.ezinearticles.com

Retail marketting

In today's CRM landscape the old analogy comparing the rifle and shotgun approaches to message and / or offer delivery is perhaps more appropriate than ever, as more retail organizations struggle to achieve one-to-one marketing-communications with customers and prospects.

Targeting allows a retail enterprise to channel its marketing budget where there is the greatest (and fastest) possibility of Return On Investment (ROI).

In terms of overall business strategy, your ability to identify and understand consumers helps you make accurate estimates about the potential for your products and services in a given market, as well as support and direct merchandise development strategies to both new and existing customers.

Whether your target is current customers or new prospects, in markets known or unknown, an effective targeting model reduces the risk of any new venture.

Blending Demographic, Behavioral, Expenditure and Media Preference data with retailer-specific data and applying data mining technologies produces Zip+4 and postal code level data assets that consistently outperform all other direct marketing techniques.

In addition, methodology that should be used must be dynamic to allow the sights to be reset frequently to keep targets in focus consistently.

Today's retail marketing managers must:

Understand the connections between the lifestyle and expenditure characteristics of customers, their propensity to purchase one product or brand over another, and leverage this understanding for competitive advantage.

Improve direct marketing response by ensuring they are targeting the right households at the right time, using the right media with the right message.

Leverage current consumer data to make better strategic decisions about products, marketing and locations.

Increase customer loyalty and retention with a scientific, data driven approach to analytical CRM.

Customer and Market Profiles

Some useful points of customer profile are following.

• Develop more effective communication strategies through a better understanding of who your customers are

• Learn more about your customers (their age, income, family structure, media usage, life-styles, and more) and use this information in your branding, advertising and direct marketing strategies

• Identify your market potential through a better understanding of your targets.

Reference;www.ezinearticles.com

Trade Area Analysis

Following are the points of trade area analysis about the product.

• Use the information on the store performance and the socio-demographic characteristics of the trading area to estimate market potential by individual stores

• Use trade area characteristics to customize your product offerings, store displays, store size, etc. to be more relevant to your customers and to better penetrate your market

• Evaluate performance of your stores based on their trade area characteristics

Reference;Ezinearticles.com

Biggest product launch

The biggest product launch is a dream of all the companies. But you can realize this dream only if you carry out proper preparations. If your product launch is perfect and the biggest then get ready for soaring sales figures as soon as your product gets in the market. Following you want to do before launch.

Research

The research refers to market research. Market research is recognizing the prospective consumer or the target base. But what does this have to do with the planning of your product? This starts with recognizing the target consumer and recognizing their problems and how can you help in solving these issues. The first rule here is not to provide the solution at the outset but telling your consumers that you know their problems and you have a solution. Your research will be about the product they use.

Pre-Planning

This is the phase to warm yourself up and build your contacts or get the e-mail list of your consumers. To build contacts you will have to get into partnership with some search engine websites like Google AdWords etc. or you can also get into joint agreements with the e-mail websites, for making an e-mail promotion for you. Open-ended questions are great for these kinds of surveys, as you would want their specific answers. After you have the answers, you need to make a report and send it across to all these e-mail ids. This report will be compiled from all the surveys that you made, address the troubles they are facing and the research.

Pre-Launch

Here you will have to work up big time. Utilize all the media tools that you can for following up with the trouble & solutions. Here you will have to answer all the objections that the consumers and press will be making. Pre-launch is to make your product social proof that is the product cannot be copied. And make the scarcity mental triggers for your product that is a limited quantity available. At the end of the pre-launch you would have to talk about your product. That gets you in the launch phase.

Launch

Launching is making your product public and making your sales page go live. This must make the consumers go out and buy it. You will want to amplify the social proof and the scarcity. The launch bonuses will have to be finalized. Notify the consumers 1 day and an hour before you start the sales. When you do this, you will note a strong buzz surround the product and this will sure increase the sales and make you launch the biggest product launch ever.

Reference;www.ezinearticles.com

Product development

A market development product launch needs to be very carefully planned. It is a very important event and how it takes shape can determine the success of a campaign by a lot. Every sprint needs a solid balanced start. It must be neither weak nor overdone. The product launch is the backbone of every marketing campaign.
The first impression is always the best impression. It is very important to gain market approval and win hearts at the very onset upon the introduction of new products to the market. This is also very essential for creating a handsome first round of sales. Good early sales helps a company mop up the costs quickly and a quick recovery of cost is a big factor in success of the product in the long run and its sustainability.
It is very important for the team to work in sync. Responsibilities need to be properly delegated. The budget is one very important part of the event. A budget needs to be properly decided on. While things must fit into the budget decided, it is also very important not to be uptight about the budget. The product launch is the single most important media event in the marketing campaign of the product. A slip ir embarrassment can spell trouble as it gives out wrong signals which may symbolize lack of enthusiasm on the part of the company regarding he product. There needs to be substitution plans and crisis and risk management programs in place to handle any emergency and goof ups.
A high profile event like this requires the presence of celebrities. Brand ambassadors and other high profile people go a long way into promoting the product. As a result security is of utmost concern. It is very important to have security well in place to handle situations and to prevent any untoward event from happening. However this must be done in an unobtrusive way so that it leads to no feelings of irritation among the attendees.
Concept launches and pre launches go a long way in ensuring a successful product launch. They help in building a curiosity and anticipation in the mind of the consumers and also allay fears. By cleverly utilizing concept launches and pre launches a company can study the reactions of the market well in advance to correct any flaws before the product launch. A market development product launch needs to be construed well and tactfully and with much effort.

Reference;www.ezinearticles.com

Product launching

Excitement and stress both are a part of product launch, and that too after spending infinite hours introducing the product, answering the queries, making a research and doing all these things properly to ensure that the day at product launch remains golden, secure and smooth. There are five tips that you must keep in mind to ensure a comfortable day at product launch.

Identify the target consumer

One of the first things you must do, before you even begin developing your product, is to identify your target market. To identify your target market, ask yourself the following questions:

Before developing the product, you must know your target consumers and market. There are several questions that will help you in identifying the target.

• The age group of the target consumers
• The requirements of the target market
• The education level of the target consumers
• The average earning of the target consumers
• Is the product gender specific?

After answering these questions you will be able to create your products according the needs and requirements of the consumers. This will also help you later in the promotion of your product.

Select a proper day for launching your product

There are particular days that are supposed to be better than the other days for the purpose of your launch. For instance, launching your product on a Monday morning might not get that much accolades and sales that you could by launching your product on a Friday or a Saturday. When you select a day for product launch do consider your target consumers too.

Make an offer that is just enticing

The first step before you make an enticing offer is to recognize the advantages that the consumers will get in using your product. After you get to the benefits of your product to the target consumers, make an offer that they just cannot refuse. This will boom and bang up your sales.

Declare your product launch date

The best method to declare the product launch is by sending e-mails to all the media, employees at the company and the target market. Make this e-mail very crafty so that it gets the due attention of the reader.

A pre-launch and post launch noise is necessary

The promotion of your product must begin weeks before the launch of the product. And this advertisement has to be carried on after the launch of the product too. There are a lot ways that you can promote your product with.

• Make a press kit and send it to all the newspapers, magazines and websites for a release.

• You can begin a blog about it, or an application on facebook. These are just some ways to attract your consumer on the web.

• When you make a blog or start writing articles, start by defining your product, its benefits etc. Post messages on online forums with your signature.

• Send flyers, brochures etc to the prospective customers. You can also do banner advertisement in your city and TV ads are also very popular.

These are some of the essential tips that will help you at product launch and promote your product in such a way that it gets maximum sales and appreciation.

Where Should You Begin Your Market Research?

First Resource: Secondary Research

The best place to start looking for secondary research is online. Visit association web sites that are aligned with your industry. If you are in the consumer industry, visit the government agencies because you will find all kinds of consumer information on their sites. A great resource that you won't want to miss is the U.S. Census Bureau. Keep in mind that secondary research is not done for you, so some of the information and answers may not be applicable to you. Whoever it was that commissioned the study had their own questions that they wanted to get answered. The information you will find might be in the ballpark but not on first base.

Second Resource: Your Customers

Put together a questionnaire and have your employees ask prospects, customers, vendors, and suppliers to complete it. A couple of questions you could ask are:

· Do you like our products or services?

· What are we doing right?

· What could we improve?

This method of research also works very well when visiting trade shows. Take a walk around the hall and spend time listening to people's conversations and ask questions. Spending time doing this helps you gain insight to what your competitors are doing.

You can also conduct:

1. Open-ended interviews with your customers.

2. Surveys

3. Focus Groups

Third Resource: Comparable Markets

Look for other comparable markets and share the expense of a study. Remember you want to do this with comparable markets but not competitors. For example, if you are a copywriter, find a company that does print advertising. Once you find someone, sit down and decide what information would be beneficial to the both of you and hire someone to do the study.

CUSTOMER STRATEGY

An important thing in marketing is to develop your thinking about your customer. "Who are your customers? Who will buy your product?" I am often surprised that otherwise savvy small business people either have no idea who will buy from them, or they assume that 'everyone' will.

Assumptions like this can lead to wrong decisions, wrong pricing, wrong marketing strategy – and ultimately, business failure.

The most successful small businesses understand that only a limited number of people will buy their product or service. The task then becomes determining, as closely as possible, exactly who those people are, and 'targeting' the business's marketing efforts and dollars toward them.

You, too, can build a better, stronger business, by identifying and serving a particular customer group – your target market.

One of the first things you need to do is to refine your product or service so that you are NOT trying to sell every thing to everyone.

Niche market

A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market.

By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. You can think of a niche market as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.

For instance, instead of offering cleaning services, a business might establish a niche market by specializing in blind cleaning services.

Why should you bother to establish a niche market? Because of the great advantage of being alone there; other small businesses may not be aware of your particular niche market, and large businesses won't want to bother with it.

The trick to capitalizing on a niche market is to find or develop a market niche that has customers who are accessible, that is growing fast enough, and that is not owned by one established vendor already.It is also known as market niche,niche marketing and niche business.

Establishing a niche market give you the opportunity to provide products and services to a group that other businesses have overlooked.

Print Ads Have High Retention Rates

Magazine and newspaper ads can be viewed in a single glance and don't require scrolling or clicking through. When people read offline, they tend to have longer attention spans. Web reading is useful for gathering quick blurbs of information, but people pay more attention to what they are reading in print. For this reason, consumers tend to remember more of what they read (and see) in print.

Print readers are also very loyal readers. People who read magazines or newspapers do so regularly. This loyalty, combined with the high retention rates, make print a very important medium for branding.

Reference;About.com

Micheal Jackson And Internet Marketing

Listening to Michael Jackson brings back a lot of fond memories for me. But, today I was listening to Michael Jackson and it actually made me think of internet marketing. You may be asking, “What in the world could Michael Jackson have had to say about internet marketing?” The answer is absolutely nothing.

Michael Jackson wasn’t talking about internet marketing, but the song that I was listening to of Michael Jackson made me think about internet marketing and what you can do to take control of your business and your own destiny to make your life better.

Michael Jackson has a song called Man in the Mirror. In the Man in the Mirror song Michael Jackson talks about how he finally wakes up to the world around him and how things aren’t so great, and if he wants to change the world, he’s got to start with the man in the mirror. If he wants to make the world a better place, he’s got to do something about it himself starting today.

Feedback an essential element in business

In many types of business, and especially major accounts selling, the sale is never actually finally concluded - that is to say, the relationship and support continues, and largely customers appreciate and need this enormously. Good sales people build entire careers on this principle.

Arranging regular reviews are vital for all service-type arrangements. Customers become disillusioned very quickly when sales people and selling organizations ceased to be interested, communicative and proactive after the sale is concluded or the contract has been set up.

Even for one-off outright sale transactions, with no ongoing service element, it's essential for the sales person to stay in touch with the customer, or future opportunities will be hard to identify, and the customer will likely go elsewhere.

These days, most business is on-going, so it needs looking after and protecting. Problems need to be anticipated and prevented. Opportunities to amend, refine, develop and improve the supply arrangement need to be reviewed and acted upon. This must always ultimately be the sales person's responsibility - and it should have been part of the original product offer after all. Even if a whole team of customer service people are responsible for after sales implementation and customer care, the sales person must keep a strategic 'weather eye' on the situation - not to manage day to day issues, but to ensure that the supply arrangement and relationship remain high quality, better than the potential competition and relevant to the customer's needs.

Reference;www.businessballs.com

Porter's five forces model

Michael Porter's famous Five Forces of Competitive Position model provides a simple perspective for assessing and analysing the competitive strength and position of a corporation or business organization. Following are the great forces of porters model.

Porter's five forces

1. Existing competitive rivalry between suppliers

2. Threat of new market entrants

3. Bargaining power of buyers

4. Power of suppliers

5. Threat of substitute products (including technology change)

Typically this five forces model is shown as a series of five boxes in a cross formation .Porter's Five Forces model provides suggested points under each main heading, by which you can develop a broad and sophisticated analysis of competitive position, as might be used when creating strategy, plans, or making investment decisions about a business or organization.

Sales cycle

The Sales Cycle term generally describes the time and/or process between first contact with the customer to when the sale is made. Sales Cycle times and processes vary enormously depending on the company, type of business (product/service), the effectiveness of the sales process, the market and the particular situation applying to the customer at the time of the enquiry. The Sales Cycle time is also referred to as the Sale Gestation Period (ie from conception to birth - enquiry to sale). The Sales Cycle in a sweet shop is less than a minute; in the international aviation sector or civil construction market the Sales Cycle can be many months or even a few years. A typical Sales Cycle for a moderately complex product might be:

1. receive enquiry

2. qualify details

3. arrange appointment

4. customer appointment

5. arrange survey

6. conduct survey

7. presentation of proposal and close sale

Reference;www.xcslides.com

Customer relationship management (CRM)

CRM is now a commonly used term to describe the process of managing the entire selling process within a department or organisation. Computerised CRM systems enable management of prospect and customer details, contacts, sales history and account development. Well known examples of CRM computerised systems are Sage's ACT!, which claims (as at 2006) to be the world's most popular CRM system, and Front Range's Goldmine. Chief elements of a CRM system (or strategy, since the term is used to describe the process and methodology as well as the system) are:

· compilation and organisation of data (prospects, customers, product, sales, history, etc)

· planning, scheduling and integrating customer development activities and communications

· analysis and reporting of all sales related activities and data

Good CRM strategy and systems are generally considered necessary for modern organisations of any scale to enable effective planning and implementation of sales (and to an extent marketing) activities.

Seven Tips for Managing Price Increases

In this world of high competition customers are paying more attention to increase in prices. Consumers everywhere are more price aware. People who've been indifferent to price increases for years are suddenly amazed at what things now cost. How can marketers cope not just with inflation but with consumer sticker shock?

1. Understand Your Customers. Let suppose by increase in price of gas a customer can response by following ways: downgrade from premium to regular; take fewer trips by car, consolidate errands, switch to public transportation; take the same number of trips but reduce the miles driven per trip by, for example, vacationing closer to home; drive more economically and less aggressively to improve miles per gallon; and buy a specific dollar amount of gas rather than filling up every time, even though this may mean more visits to the pump. Some consumers may even trade in (at a loss) the SUV for a hybrid, an example of how price inflation on one product can cause demand shifts in a second.

2. Invest in Market Research. You must discard your existing customer segmentation assumptions and segment consumers around product usage behavior and price sensitivity. You must get out into the marketplace yourself and talk to consumers directly to understand their pain points and how they are changing attitudes and behaviors in response to price inflation. You must then quantify these shifts and develop product and pricing strategies that balance the need to maintain both profitability and market share.

3. Redefine Value. Customers buying soft drinks can think about price in three ways: the absolute cost per can or bottle, the cost per ounce, and, less common in this category, the monthly consumption cost. Customers short on cash will focus much more on the absolute price. They'll go for the 99 cent soft drink rather than the $1.29 container with 50 percent more volume. To motivate cash-poor consumers, marketers must reverse engineer products and packaging to hit key retail price points. This may mean downsizing package sizes, something the candy industry always does in response to inflation.

4. Use Promotions. If you've always passed through raw material price increases to the end consumer, you don't necessarily need to change that policy. More customers than usual will be looking out for price promotions,. For cash poor consumers, these promotions should hit the key price points on small pack sizes. For cash rich consumers, encourage multi-unit purchases ahead of the inevitable next price increase.

Strong brands can hold consumer loyalty while increasing retail price points.*

5. Unbundle. Customers who previously welcomed the convenience of buying product, options, and services rolled into one may now ask for a detailed price breakdown. Make it easy for your more price-sensitive customers to better cherry-pick the options and services that they truly need by giving them an unbundled menu of options.

6. Monitor Trade Terms. Beware of powerful distributors paying you more slowly than they turn the inventory they buy from you. In an inflationary environment, they're making money on the float by stretching their payables. Manage your inventory on a last-in, first-out basis to insure that increases in your realized selling prices do not trail the increases in your input costs.

7. Increase Relevance. You need to persuade customers to cut back their expenditures on other products, not on yours. In tough times, consumers more than ever need and deserve the occasional treat. So, if you are Haagen Dazs, tell the consumer to substitute private label peas for the name brand but to not forego the comfort of curling up on the sofa with a tub of her favorite ice cream. Strong brands can hold consumer loyalty while increasing retail price points. Weaker brands risk private label and generic substitution.

Reference: hbswk.hbs.edu

Telemarketing

Using telemarketing staff or a telemarketing agency is a proven method of marketing. If well-managed, telemarketing can be an extremely good and cost-effective method for generating sales enquiries, selling products and services and making appointments for sales staff. It is important to identify a good telemarketing agency, and to that ensure your aims, outline script, and communications process for enquiry generation follow-up, are all clearly established and understood, by the agency and your own staff. A good CRM computer system to manage lists, data, follow-up and outcomes, is normally essential for telemarketing is to be successful on any reasonable scale, and good telemarketing agencies will already be using such systems which hopefully will interface with your own systems.

Considerable care needs to be taken when defining and agreeing the telemarketing 'brief' with the telemarketing staff, department or agency. Good experienced telemarketing staff and managers understand what works and what doesn't for given markets, types of propositions and products and services. Listen to their advice.

Generally telemarketing 'scripts' are not a good idea for high quality propositions, nor for professional business-to-business campaigns. A good telemarketing agency will work best by developing their own approach to meet the broad requirements of a project 'brief' and an outline of what you want to achieve, and how you want to achieve it.

Rigid scripts have the effect of limiting the natural style and capabilities of telemarketing staff, moreover customers generally find scripts, which quickly become robotic and characterless, very impersonal and insulting.

Consumers and businesses are protected by certain rights relating to direct marketing techniques such as telemarketing, and you must ensure that your activities adhere to these rules.

Targeting

Targeting is the second stage of the SEGMENT "Target" POSITION (STP) process. After the

market has been separated into its segments, the marketer will select a segment or series of segments and 'target' it/them.

The first is the single segment with a single product. In other word, the marketer targets a single product offering at a single segment in a market with many segments. For example, British Airway's Concorde is a high value product aimed specifically at business people and tourists willing to pay more for speed.

Secondly the marketer could ignore the differences in the segments, and choose to aim a single product at all segments i.e. the whole market. This is typical in 'mass marketing' or where differentiation is less important than cost.

Finally there is a multi-segment approach. Here a marketer will target a variety of different segments with a series of differentiated products. This is typical in the motor industry. Here there are a variety of products such as diesel, four-wheel-drive, sports saloons, and so on.