If you plan to do some Internet marketing to promote your business endeavor, you should seriously consider email marketing as at least one tier of your Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners shy away from email marketing because they believe all email marketing campaigns are purely spam. However, this is not true and not partaking in this type of marketing can cause your business to lose out on a great deal of business. By not appealing to potential customers via email, your business may lose a great deal of business to competitors who are using email marketing campaigns to reach customers around the world. However, the first step of an email marketing campaign should be creating an email distribution list. This article will discuss some popular options for doing this and should help to the reader to learn more about what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to email marketing.

Once you have made the decision to start using email marketing to promote your business you are likely facing the dilemma of compiling an email distribution list. This is essentially a list of email addresses to which you will email your advertising and promotional materials. One common way to gain a list of email addresses is to purchase a list from distributors. However, this method is not very effective at all and we do not recommend it. The problem with purchasing an email list if you have no way of knowing whether or not the members of the list would have any interest at all in your products or services. This is very important because while you want to reach a large audience with your email marketing you also want this audience to be members of your overall target audience.

When you purchase an email list you may be sending your email messages to some users who might be interested but this is largely coincidental and is not likely to be well received because the message was not solicited.

Internet users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails. In fact some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex algorithms on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam. Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if the majority of recipients never even read or receive the message.

A far better way to create an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign is to ask current customers as well as interested potential customers to register with your website to receive additional information and periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them. This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.

Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers you can send emails or create e-newsletter for distribution to the members of your email list. These documents should contain a wealth of valuable information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services. This information will be valued by the readers and may help to persuade them to try your products and services.

You might also want to include useful links to either your website as well as other websites which may be of interest to your readers. Your content should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating a product further.

It is a well known axiom of doing business in any industry that those who do not stay in step with the times will be those companies that eventually die out.  There is no place where that truism is more evident than in the way that companies in virtually every business sector are finding to integrate an internet marketing strategy with their traditional communications and to provide the public with an internet “presence” to supplement their public profiles in other venues.

Of course, the value of the internet for sales and promotions has been well known in the industries that service the youth markets and for the companies dealing with entertainment and the arts.  Because the internet is in virtually every home and even now on hand held devices of every description, the access it gives to reach a target market are phenomenal.

This explosion of an entirely new marketing model has introduced the world of business to entirely new paradigms of marketing and new ways to achieve greater market penetration and sales.  And so any business who has had to get out on cyberspace to keep up with the competition has already had to learn a whole new vocabulary that has grown up around the internet marketing phenomenon.  Now terms like “Search Engine Optimisation”, “Auto responders” and “Viral Marketing” become important and powerful tools to any business that wants to tap the power of the internet to increase sales.

The second wave of businesses that, perhaps reluctantly, ventured out into cyberspace were traditional retail business that you would not associate with cyberspace at all.  This includes sport teams, restaurants and even retail giants such as Tesco and Border’s Book Stores.  In fact, the wave of change in how products and services are sold has been so rapid that entire market niches have been virtually revolutionalised by internet sales techniques.  Book and music outlets have been virtually hard hit as a large percentage of their customers have abandoned the “brick and mortar” sales outlets entirely to use the more convenient tools of internet shopping. 

This has made it tough on some retailers to keep up.  For the “mum and dad” business, the change has been particularly devastating.  Already small, home grown businesses were struggling to compete with the giant mega-stores like Tesco to keep their loyal clientele coming back.  Add to that the migration of customers to the internet and the need for change just to stay in business became even more urgent.

But even businesses who do not depend on marketing at all have seen the need to build and maintain a well functioning business web site so they will have a “face” in cyberspace.  In the modern marketplace, the consumer will go to the internet first to find out about a company and it’s goods and services.  This has turned traditional ways of connecting with existing and new customers upside down entirely. 

The good news is that these rapid changes in how modern markets work have made the business world more diverse, more able to adjust to changing business dynamics and more open to the creative and innovative minds that have always been the real life blood of the business world.  And, ironically, it is often the small business that is most capable of making rapid changes to its online presence and ways to doing things. 

In that the internet is a phenomenally dynamic place, new ways of reaching our customers change almost annually.  Where one year a simple web page may have been sufficient, soon we had to have chat rooms, MySpace pages and YouTube compatibility.  Any business that sees these changes as chances to do something new and exciting with their business will be the companies that thrive in this modern world.  And, as always, those who do not thrive with change will be destined to be made obsolete by it.

Advertising for free seems like an impossible thing when heard. But there are several ways by which the cost of advertisement can be conserved, with the help of some imagination and creativity.

A business wanting to advertise, can write articles related to their field of expertise that can be submitted to media and publications having interest in that particular field. The advertising article can have information about the company and dealership opportunity. Due to the rise in Internet users and websites, new websites have sprung up which offer free services. Articles can be written for these websites and they can be broadcasted for free, which will be viewed by hundreds of people everyday.

Once the business has gained some recognition, within no time it will gain popularity also among the crowds. This popularity can lead to them being invited on radio and television talk shows and even to interviews. Such kind of opportunities shouldn’t be missed as they provide a chance for free promotion. If it is taking a long time to get a break, the producer can be addressed with a letter that can be followed up by a telephone call or in-person visit. During the visit, the nature of expertise can be discussed about the business, which will be of interest to the viewers of the particular channel. Once a businessperson gains the status of being public-friendly, more offers start pouring in.

Free bulletin boards located in the neighborhood, like in supermarkets, libraries, and salons, are another good idea. Advertising circulars can be posted on such boards for free. Circulars for mass distribution can be handed out at the shopping centre, bus stops, particularly on weekends when there is a big rush. Students can be hired on part time basis for this purpose.

Promotional advertisement can be printed on the envelopes used by the business firms. Both the sender and the receiver can view this advertisement. Promotional offers can be sent to customers by postcards, which should be utilised to its full, leaving only place left for writing the address.

Some of the new mail order publications offer free first time and seasonal deductions for advertisers. Other publications offer pay per enquiry space. Enquiries can be made about stand-by space, which means that the publication holds the submission of advertisement until the space is not sold and in that case, a thirty three percent saving can be achieved. Usually local newspapers provide these kinds of offers.

If the business is involved in ad sheet or catalog publishing, other publishers can be contacted for the purpose of bartering an advertising exchange. They can place an advertisement in their publication, in return for placing their advertisement in the business’s publication.

Free offers can be provided to the customer. This can be done by emailing or printing newsletters about information regarding the area of interest of the targeted customers and can be made popular by using tag lines. Attach a free coupon with it, which the customers can use it for shopping, if a criterion is met like minimum purchase of £25. By this the response will be huge and most of them will purchase something or the other to avail the free offer. The basic ingredient for advertising for free is imagination and research. Opportunities should be searched and a strong working force should be applied to increase the sales.

We’re already half way through the year - how have you done on achieving the goals you set in January? I’ve found that it’s a good idea to go back and review them on a regular basis. In fact, they should be in your mind constantly. It can be very easy to get side-tracked. I think the key is to focus on less, not more, and to pursue that with an obsessive determination. It’s not easy and, of course, you learn a lot from not achieving straight away what you had planned. Having said that, you only really fail if you stop trying - there’s always a way you just have to believe it’s possible and change what you do until you reach your goal. So, what were your goals for this year, and how close are you to achieving them?

Millions of business owners rely on affiliate programs to help increase their sales and in turn their profits. If are the owner of an online business, especially one that sells a particular product or service, you may be able to benefit from the use of an affiliate program. If properly implemented, they are a great way to increase your business’s revenue without having to do a large amount of extra work  The first step in getting started is to find an affiliate tracking software.

An affiliate tracking software?  If you have never heard of this product before, you may be wondering exactly what it is.  Affiliate tracking software is the actual program behind your own affiliate program. If you start your own affiliate program, you will be relying on your banners and links to help increase your websites traffic and its sales.  These banners will be placed on the websites of your affiliates. With affiliate programs, each time that one of those links is used to generate a sale, the website owner, webmaster, or website publisher, whoever you are partnering with, will receive compensation for their part in the sale. 

To be able to compensate your affiliates, you will need to have a way to determine if, when, and who helped you generate a sale. This can only be done with affiliate tracking software. Therefore, if you are interested in starting your own affiliate program, you must have affiliate tracking software. When it comes to affiliate tracking software, you will have a number of different options.  Two of those options include purchasing your own affiliate tracking software program or using someone else’s.

If you use someone else’s affiliate tracking software program, you will most likely end up doing business with an affiliate networking company. These companies not only provide you with tracking software, but they also help to track the sales of your affiliates, and even pay them. The payment feature is unique because it is not offered on most software programs that you have to buy on your own. With software programs that you buy on your own, the software should calculate how much you owe each of your affiliates, but you are required to take care of the rest.  Depending on what your business is and how busy you are, you may not have time for this.

Having to pay your own affiliates may seem like a disadvantage to buying your own affiliate tracking software; however, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Even though you are still required to send out your own payments, you will generally find that this process is easy to do. That is because most affiliate tracking software programs are designed to automatically calculate the amount of money each of your affiliates make. Whether you choose to pay your affiliates on a weekly or monthly basis, you should be able to find out, right away, how much money you have to pay them.  If you are paying them with a check, you can simply write the check and move on to something else.

A potential disadvantage to purchasing your own software can actually turn into an advantage. That disadvantage is customer service support.  A large number of affiliate tracking software programs do not come with customer support.  Almost all will come with a detailed user guide, but customer service support is not guaranteed.  Despite the fact not all software programs offer customer support, there are even more that do. This means that if you want to have access to customer service support, you just need to find affiliate tracking software that has the support included.  If free customer service support is included, it should be outlined in the software description or software features section.

The above mentioned advantages and disadvantages are important when determining whether or not you should purchase your own affiliate tracking software or do business with an affiliate networking company. Whichever decision you make, you should be well on your way to seeing an increase in profits. The affiliate tracking software program you choose will not have a direct impact on how much money you make, but it will have an impact on how easily your affiliate program flows.

A recent report from the The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals warned that UK pet owners could be responsible for a worrying epidemic of over-sized animals, ranging from dogs and cats to hamsters, gerbils, rats, rabbits and budgies. Much of the problem is down to over feeding and lack of exercise, with one in four dog owners admitting that they never exercise their pets. This has led Richard Branson’s Virgin Active to launch the UK’s first pet only gym.

Virgin Active has given five tips to help you check your pet’s obesity rating:

1.    Check with your vet what your pet’s weight should be.

2.    If your animal won’t stay on the scales, weigh yourself holding your pet and then deduct your own weight.

3.    If you can’t feel your pet’s ribs then it is likely to be overweight.

4.    A reluctance to exercise and breathlessness are signs that your pet may be too fat.

5.    Look at your dog from above. You should be able to see some indentation behind the rib cage, depicting an hourglass shape. If you can’t your pet is overweight.

Need to plan a journey in Great Britain? Do you need to find the quickest, easiest or cheapest route? Or perhaps you want the green option, comparing CO2 emissions for different types of transport?

If you do, then try the Journey Planner on the Directgov website. This will provide you with:

·         various routes and modes of transport, with respective journey times

·         a joined-up travel plan, e.g. with connections between trains and buses

·         ticket prices - with links to websites where you can buy them

·         CO2 estimates for your journey

·         live travel information

·         park and ride information.

The Journey Planner can be found here

Those of you who wish to take control of your business on the Internet with automated tasks need a functional and easy to use automatic email response system. An automatic email response system will take care of any emails you receive, and automatically deliver a response to potential clients 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

You can set up your autoresponder program on your own computer or server without any problems. Using your own program is the way to go, especially if you want to avoid paying a monthly fee to companies that charge for the same services. There are several companies out there that offer autoresponder services, although they can get expensive over time.

If you decide to use your own email autoresponder program, you can save a lot of money and a lot of time. These programs will streamline your business, freeing up your (more…)

Throughout the Internet, autoresponders make for an excellent promotional tool. Although the technical name is an autoresponder, other known names include auto email, mailbot, and email responder. An autoresponder is a great way to save time, as it responds to any message with an automatic response.

Autoresponders can vary from messages that go through email to scripts that are programed to run on servers. All types of autoresponders work the same, as they will automatically send a message out when a message is received. Depending on the message they receive, they will send out the correct return message. This can be determined by the script or the email address.

Although they are great for promotional reasons, they are also widely abused all across the Internet. Autoresponders are great to use for your daily tasks, as they will basically do all of the work for you. On (more…)

Consultants come in every field, and there are often so many, how do you choose? Also – what about that arm and a leg they charge?? Well, in spite of the expense and confusion, I happen to think consultants are an excellent asset, in general. I know they can be very expensive, but when you get a good one, they can add astronomical value to your business. That’s part of the reason I train people how to start up their own business – it’s an invaluable tool to have someone there to bring in advice and wisdom. This week I had my first mentoring session with Fraser Hay (if you’ll remember, I won his coaching package at a networking event), and let me tell you – it was great!! I’ve been in my industry for 20 years, and running my own company for a few of those years now, and it’s amazing the things a fresh perspective will add to your business. Right now I’ve got homework to do before our next session, which is great. Homework means I am growing and improving as a business owner, manager and person. But I’m interested in hearing some other perspectives, for better or for worse – care to share any stories??