Entries Tagged 'Marketing' ↓

What every small business operator always lacks is time. Sometimes lack of time leads to inefficiency, what in its turn, leads to business failure even if you have plenty of financial resources.That is why there are so many programs designed to automate every business step starting from sign up process and ending with processing online payments.

Autoresponders play a special part. At the dawn of their usage they greatly assist in solving the most time-consuming business task that is customer support. Nowadays there are other ways of how autoresponder can help with your everyday routine tasks. Below are the most common tasks where autoresponder fully reveal its potential:

1. Customer support;
2. Singup/unsubscription procedures;
3. Timely delivered emails;
4. Electronic materials on request;
5. Response tracking.

The usage of autoresponder as a customer support is based on the topic your customer interests in. Whether it is problems with program installation, billing or general question, it will reply with pre-written answers the same moment email was received from customer.

In very basic way autoresponder can simply notify customer/visitor that his/her inquiry was received and will be answered within 24 hours.

Subscription/unsubscription is also usually required instant notification. The majority of existed mailing scripts have an automatic notification feature, still in its basis it is the same old autoresponder.

Ezine or newsletter subscription is not the only process where autoresponder can give you a hand. They help in many cases with all sorts of email notifications of successful sale, accepted inquiry, thanking for completing the survey and many other cases.

Next way of autoresponder usage proved to earn huge income to many online entrepreneurs. Timely delivered follow up emails that are based on autoresponder are widely recognized as a must-have marketing strategy. The theory behind claims that biggest customer response is gained at 8th contact only. That is why business owners setup a follow up autoresponder sequence that, when signup for, starts emailing pre-written messages on specified time basis - daily, every other day, weekly, biweekly etc, generating the biggest possible response rate on complete autopilot, without any need of owner interference.

Email courses are small variation of previous strategy. They were designed to educate interested people, work the same way as product follow-ups do, still serving as a perfect marketing tool for generating subscribers, customers without any hassle.

Publications on request play another important role. It may be articles, reports, brochures, schemes, ebooks, audio, video files, any electronic media may be emailed in the body of the email message or as an attachment to every person immediately on their request and to an email box they considered to be the fastest to download from, presumably, ISP’s.

As strange as it may seem, autoresponder may be used for tracking response rate as well. For instance, by putting slightly different autoresponder email addresses on different web-pages you can easily count how many requests came from each page, testing which web-page generates the biggest interest.

Autoresponder can help in tracking ezine advertisement response. To do so you will also have to setup a different autoresponders for each ezine you plan to run your advert in. At the end you will see how many people each ezine has sent you and generated the biggest income.

Dominating majority of web-hosting plans, offered today on the Internet market, come with simple, usually unlimited, email autoresponders. That means they can help in 4 main cases that we have discussed above, except for timely delivered emails. That is because they imply one-time reply email, so you can setup (1) customer support emails, (2) subscription notifications to both your subscriber and yourself, (4) publications on request, (5) response tracking, but (3) timely delivered emails like email follow-ups or courses.

In order to offer automatic, say, weekly, email courses you will have to look for:

1. custom autoresponder internet application (script);
2. 3rd party autoresponder providers.

The rule of thumb is to know your needs and resources. First choice is preferable if you know what FTP and CGI mean or have someone with basic knowledge of how scripts are setup, want to install it once and forever, have time and money to make one-time investment. You can even try to find free script that in some cases may be even quicker to setup than sign up for some 3rd party service.

Autoresponder service, provided by independent Internet company, is easier for new comers as all technical stuff will be hidden, leaving simple web-interface to manage your autoresponders. For such convenience Internet companies will charge you on monthly or yearly basis, although there are free so-called adware autoresponders available.

In general you can find discounted all-in-one services, hosting offers or mailing lists coming with follow-up autoreponders and allowing you to save money.

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Pavel Lenshin is an Internet entrepreneur, web-developer and marketer. Learn how you can maximize your online profits and get a free access to special profit opportunities and thousands of dollars of ebooks, reports, software, email courses, audio interviews, exclusive programs, resources and enjoy advanced Internet services. Register now free at http://anesbo.com

Product or service pricing on the Net is not as critical as many of you have heard, yet these pricing techniques are important marketing components and should not be underestimated.Right pricing management accompanied with proper marketing strategy could raise your profits sky high or bring about lost opportunities and substantially hamper further development. Here I would like to share the pricing techniques with you in order to maximize cash inflow and minimize happiness outflow.

Competition makes the business world go round. Any product or service you desire to market should be market-checked and compared to those, which are most similar to yours.
The main three parameters that should be defined and analyzed include market niche, demand and competition. The direction of your analysis and result should be:

• The developing of the virtual picture of your “usual” customer;
• The estimated number of monthly sales;
• The exact prices of your closest competitors’ products.

Pricing Policy based on Marketing Considerations.

The days, when product price was calculated by summarizing the total cost of business running per product item with specified profit markup are gone and almost forgotten. This tactics is totally defective in our highly competitive world. Those, who continue to define everyday prices by that method, are stagnating with several exceptions that only prove the rule.

The most progressive pricing policy is dictated by Market. The job of online business is to listen and implement the most beneficial pricing techniques. Listen to online market or be squashed. Given your Market analysis is ready, it is assumed that you have already heard the market out.

The pricing strategy usually could be two types: short-term “cream skimming” or long-term market penetration:

1. “Cream skimming” implies high price on newly invented and promoted product. The market is fresh, the product is innovative and “hot”. The online business cycle for that strategy is usually from 3 months to 1 year.
2. Market penetration is more appealing to the majority of start-up ebusinesses. The graduate growth, business credibility building, long term prospective are the main components of this pricing strategy. As a standard it implies the same or lower price level that exists on the market.

As it comes out from the online product nature, the overheads are what should be looked after closely. The total running expenditures should be summed up and known prior to the stage of pricing planning.

Once you have been equipped with market research and calculated expenses it is time to define the customer or retail price. You may also define the discounted reseller price, client discounts and so on.

The general rule here is to have the result price to be at least twice as higher than your brake even price. If your total fixed costs are 100 and your estimated monthly sales are 20 then to make your business break even you need your price to be at least 5 dollars per item. In that case your price should be not less than $10 in order to have some “price space”.

In order to maximize your profit potential your price should reflect the value, not the costs. Want to raise the price? Increase the perceived value first. If it is still not enough to cover the costs - you are not competitive in that market.

Know the “fears&joys” of your targeted niche. In two words there is a substantial difference of price acceptance in offering video course on financial trading to institutional investors and video course on conducting an interview to the unemployed.

Decreasing price levels proved to generate more high-priced sales in comparison with increasing price levels. That is the reason why many marketers using the following tactics of persuasion: “I was asked to sell it for $995, I decided to sell for $489, but especially for You I will cut the price to $79 only for the next three hours”. Imagine if s/he decided to tell the truth like: “It cost me $9 per item to create, I will be happy to sell it for $39, but I’m so greedy, that I decided to sell it for $79″. In that case s/he would probably close much less sales.

Another technique is price discount, widely used by almost everyone involved in off or online sales. With the help of discounts the seller could achieve two main tasks: create the feeling of emergency and increase the perceived value of the product and what is more important - without lifting a finger.

Just try not to overdo it as your substantial price drop could play a trick by being interpreted as bad quality of the product.

Price diversification, as the next technique, is absolute must if you want to cover more people with different financial capabilities. It is a mutually beneficial pricing policy for its ability to satisfy much wider demand then “bold” asking for $99.

This tactics may be implemented by offering the “core” of the product for the lowest price possible. Second price level is the standard version of the product for nominal price and one or even two “extended” high-priced versions for those who don’t mind spending additional several hundred bucks for more colorful package.

Other way to go is to offer popular resell rights on digital products that, in its nature, play the same role of price divider and help to cover wider market, without much hassle, although, sometimes it is not the best tactics to use, because master resell rights add benefits and perceived value to a small number of resell rights seekers and have zero effect on “luxury” seekers, who look for “gold trim” at every product they buy, so create a “Deluxe” version for them as well.

Other well-known fact is that psychologists suggest using .95, .97 or .99 price endings as more favorable prices for our subconscious perception rather then round numbers.

You can come up with other specific pricing techniques to suit your business needs, just try to think them over.

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Pavel Lenshin is an Internet entrepreneur, web-developer and marketer. Learn how you can maximize your online profits and get a free access to special profit opportunities and thousands of dollars of ebooks, reports, software, email courses, audio interviews, exclusive programs, resources and enjoy advanced Internet services. Register now free at http://anesbo.com

You must be asking what does RP mean? I won’t tear your curiosity apart until the end of the publication as hypnotic marketing teaches. It is Recurring Passive promotion and let me ask you, do you want to get outstanding promotion results, while sipping favorite Cocktail on the couch? You betcha!

Now let me put a little cloud of disappointment in the blue sky of your promotional pleasure. We will have to spend some time on creating our “salesteam” first to make it work for us afterwards, so you will be able to do whatever you want knowing that your business/product is consistently being promoted for you.

I don’t speak about hiring marketing or advertising department to promote your online business, it would be expensive enough. Better leave that practice to those Dot.coms that report each year about internet collapse.

What we will do is cheap, yet ten times more effective. It is a market dream come true, although for it is time consuming efforts at the beginning, 80% of small home based operators didn’t, don’t and won’t do it. That is another reason, why the effect of that “salesteam” will be tremendous in comparison with other “easy to achieve” marketing methods, like 5 bucks classified ezine ad.

The more self-discipline in “salesteam creating” process you put, the faster your desired result will be achieved. That rule is so obvious, yet not carried out by a lot of people, including me. One fellow marketer will have perfect “salesman” in a week, while for another one it will become a never-ending tale.

Now I’m literally feeling the second bursting question you want to ask me. What is the “salesteam”? Do you really want to know the most guarded secret of all marketing gurus? The hidden truth of their million dollar profits? Ok, that is Viral Marketing! I know you’ve heard that 100 and 1 time, but don’t blame me, the most guarded marketing secret of all times and nations is that there is No Marketing Secret.

Before going any further let me point to two main features that determine PR Promotion strategy, very close, but a little bit broader than the “classic” viral marketing meaning. They are characterized by:

• one-time action to create and set up;
• non-stop ongoing promotion results.

If, for instance, you paid money for ezine solo ad and get 3 sales, in order to produce 30 sales you will have to order that solo ad for 10 times (in practice much more, because of marketing “depletion” effect). This is everything, but astute promotion, which is based on one-time deed with never ending results.

In the above case, you should order solo ad to promote your free valuable, say, traffic report or sales letter with a compulsory URL to your web-site, positioning you as a traffic or sales letter expert. Your info product will thus rapidly spread over the net, generating you much more than 3 sales. It is hard to imagine what will happen if you offer 30-50% commission for publishers to give your product away for free.

You have also probably heard hundred times about recurring passive income. The example above describes Recurring Passive Promotion that means that your company, product/service is going to be automatically promoted by a “salesteam”, consisting of:

1. Info products: eBooks, Reports, Brochures, Email courses, Audio, Video files, Web-site template and so forth.
2. Auto or semiauto software applications and programs.
3. Partners, clients or subscribers.

In fact, RP Promotion is a foundation of RP Income that is the main desired target to any online marketer to achieve financial freedom. Below we will look a little bit closely on each promotional instrument. Note that they are perfect instruments or tools if you wish, but it is the craftsman who creates art, not the tools themselves.

Info products

Do you follow number #1 rule of all marketing gurus that is “Money is in the list”? If you do, you can use your list, i.e. ezine, newsletter to easily compile an info product from the materials, mainly articles or tips that previously were written for your issues. That means that not only do you constantly profit from the list, but expanding your profits by promoting your list. In practice it will look like subscribe sign up box on one of the welcome pages of your free ebook, report etc.

As I have already shown in the example above, it may be any kind of beneficial for target market template with permission to use it for free, remaining your small URL at the end intact. It may be audio file coming with the electronic brochure. There are really unlimited variants of creating powerful and valuable, yet totally free RP “promoters” or “salesmen”.

Stage two is to make your “salesteam” of info products work. That task may only be accomplished under the total absence of such artificial barrier as seller’s money thirst. Don’t be tempted by quick earning potential. Your main task is to launch a word of mouth tornado that will bring much more long-term profits. So start giving away your report, ebook, everything you can to interested web-site visitors or subscribers. Avoid including numerous banners or affiliate links also, nothing can irritate more than such stuff, especially the feeling of understanding that the only reason I got that, say, report was to make me buy something. It is hard to give away for free what you’ve spent several weeks to create, but it will repay ten times. Remember RP Promotion is a fundamental long-term development strategy, there is no place for “quick bucks”.

Your main focus should be not the Money, but sharing Valuable Information and providing Specific Solution, related to the sphere of your expertise. The more value you give away, the more people will read it, the more subscribers, clients and partners you will have.

Auto or semiauto software applications and programs

Software! Efficient small info business is impossible to run without software programs. They are our “angels” that help in our difficult everyday routine business life, but not only that. They are also capable of automatically promoting our business with no or very little effort for our part, so it is a crime not to include them into our “promotion team” review.
Once set up they could:

• Submit/resubmit your web-site, pages to Search engines and directories;
• Submit/resubmit your adverts to FFA and classified ads pages and boards;
• Check SE rankings and adjust your pages accordingly;
• Submit/resubmit your info products, including ezines and articles, to respective directories, announcement lists, groups, forums, boards etc;
• Automatically send promotional emails to Safe Lists or subscribers;
• Follow up with your prospects and customers, etc.

Take note that we are speaking about Recurring Passive Promotion methods only. Software programs can do 1 million things more, but we point to what tasks they can passively accomplish to start rolling your viral marketing ball. Software is also the only part of the “salesteam” you should and have to spend your money on. Other promotion “staff” will be totally free in terms of money.

Now let me explain why RP Promotion is slightly broader in its meaning than viral promotion. As you know, products announcement or Safelist emailing cannot be called to be viral methods as their produced effect are short term and lack exponential results growth. The classic examples of viral marketing strategy were ebooks giveaways or free web-based email services.

RP Promotion goes further. Software announcements and submissions, taking into account, their completely non-stop automatic working “nature”, still generate recurring and passive results. Once set up, we start getting short-term, but permanent and never-ending effect, until our software programs are working at the background, although, let me repeat, that promotion is not considered as viral marketing.

Partners, clients or subscribers

Being the prime source of some product or service allows you to establish mutually for you and your partners beneficial business relations. That is the best of the best tactics you should pursue in the long haul.

Here is a tip-of-the-iceberg example. It is clear that two (approximately equal) promoters are better than one. That is why huge potential of a sole promoter, who gives away several ebooks, email courses with a number of working submission software, becomes a drop in the bucket in comparison with what kind of perspective that promoter could get if there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sub-promoters working for him by giving away his free ebooks, courses etc. Even 30% or 50% commission paying will mean for the program owner one thing only - his/her profits have grown on the remaining 50%-70% of the retail price.

I’ve presented an example of RP Promotion, when you should order a solo ad to promote your free ebook, which, in its turn, will spread the word about your main product. Actually that was a bad tactic as well.

Astute RP Promotional strategy should comprise, ordering a solo or top sponsor ad that will promote your 1st valuable “salesman” like ebook or video file that in turn will popularize your beneficial partner/affiliate program, through which you will gain tremendous market exposure!

No, I was wrong. No need to spend money for manually ordering one-time ads. Write a salesman assistant! I mean article that will offer general public to download your free audio file! When your article is submitted to a lot of directories it will be published many times in different ezines, generating you temporal, but recurring, with each new publication, response. The more “assistants” you will have the easier it will be for your salesman - audio file - to work. “He” will be in demand, reassuring listeners in the undisputable benefits of your partner program. What is next stage? Those who don’t want to become partners, but like your product, would buy it - that is one-time benefit if you stop corresponding with your clients. Those who become your partners will generate true streams of recurring passive income. That’s what I call Recurring Passive Promotion strategy.

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Pavel Lenshin is an Internet entrepreneur, web-developer and marketer. Learn how you can maximize your online profits and get a free access to special profit opportunities and thousands of dollars of ebooks, reports, software, email courses, audio interviews, exclusive programs, resources and enjoy advanced Internet services. Register now free at http://anesbo.com