The Maverick Marketeer asked:


Master these four fundamental steps to network marketing and be all but guaranteed both incredible wealth and great success. Fail to understand the importance of but one, and condemn your business to flounder and ultimately follow the path of so many eager, yet unprepared network marketing hopefuls.

You may be thinking at this point, only four secrets to making millions and millions of dollars? Let’s hear it then. Actually, there is really only one. Time and time again, success story after success story; all have this one truth in common. So, this particular gem I’ll save for last.

If network marketing is all about networking and of course marketing, why do so many network marketers continue to struggle to realize the infinite networking and lead generating potential of the internet? Simply put, it’s being done all wrong. How’s that?

Network marketing (also known as “Multi-Level-Marketing” or MLM) depends most heavily on…

- recruiting / lead generation / relationship-building

- sales conversion

- ongoing consumption

- replicating yourself through down line motivation and training

If your network marketing business fails to recognize the importance and any one of these fundamental elements then quite simply, you won’t have much of a business at all.

Everything starts with recruiting and lead generation. No leads means no sales. No sales means no down line. No down line means… I’m sure you get the idea here. The entire process is built upon the foundation of recruiting and relationship-building with the express intent of maximizing product consumption and the success of your down line. Your bottom line is this. If you can’t replicate your success within your down line you ultimately fail to realize the true income generating potential of network marketing.

That being said, I’ll take this opportunity to summarize my own cautionary tale for those who are new to network marketing or who are just now thinking of taking the plunge. For those who have been around the block a time or two please bear with me. Much of my story may undoubtedly sound very much like your own.

When I first made the decision to start my network marketing business, I believed that with a great product and an effective marketing system, enough hard work would guarantee me success. I had the right attitude, but the wrong impression of what made this business tick. I expected to have a great deal to learn and I was eager to do so. I attended trainings, bought books, studied sales copy, purchased leads, ran ad campaigns, the whole routine.

I managed to generate a fair number of leads, and only a few conversions. For me that was fine. I assumed that if x amount of traffic equaled y amount of conversions, all I needed to do was… You guessed it, drive more traffic. So, here I am grinding like a mad man at driving traffic, and losing all but my shirt in the process. That’s when it dawned on me. Sure things are a bit slow going, but if my real return on my investment comes with creating a successful down line… How many members of my down line can I honestly say would be willing to put in this much time, effort, and yes money, for the same results. Not a single one…

I’ll say this once more just to be absolutely clear. If you can’t easily and effectively replicate a reasonable measure of success in your network marketing down line, then you are in effect spinning your wheels without going much of anywhere. If you assume that replicated content and replicated sites are the same thing as replicated success, you may want to think again.

Think of your business like a car and the content you provide your potential prospects as the wheels. If you expect to move your business you need the content you provide about your business to stand out. You need wheels that give your business traction. That traction comes in the form of having a unique voice and providing your prospects unique content about your business.

Well that about says it… Once you do your pre-selling and your marketing to generate your leads make sure you can provide good quality content to convert those leads into sales. Create an effective method to transfer some form of ownership to your down line so that they can achieve their own unique voice and replicate your success for themselves.

Oh and as for my million dollar secret… So, what is the secret that creates truly successful businesses, not to mention truly wealthy people? Here it is…

Do what you love… If you can find a way to turn your passion, your interest, even your favorite hobby into your business, then you will be in a much better position to achieve true success. Turning an opportunity to make money into something you love is infinitely more difficult that turning something you love into an opportunity to make money.

If this information helps even one person out there find a bit of the success that we all seem to be searching for, then I’d say that this article has served it’s purpose very well. For any questions or further information, feel free to contact me.



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Stock Market Basics asked:


By.-  http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com

In the stock market its always possible to watch certain stocks rise beyond 50% within a days. And even when you can learn about stock traders that make $3000 on a single trade, it is also not unusual to watch beginner investors lose a great deal of money because of a series of unwise decisions. The problem is that if you don’t know how to pick among stocks & how to properly approach them you could end up wasting a good amount of cash. You can’t just trade stocks like if you where gambling in Vegas or Atlantic City.

The first step to becoming a profitable trader is to learn from REALISTIC trading strategies that can show You how to pick and trade stocks. Bogus trading software programs and complicated day trading systems that rely on a “boat load” of technical analysis indicators can confuse you and froze you up right when a good opportunity shows up.

Also, don’t think that just because a trading system or stock market program promises that you can come up with 8 winning trades for every 10 that you place you will end up making money. To become a profitable day trader your winning trades have to overcome your loser ones in terms of dollars and cents.

In the end, stock trading is all about buying and selling according to your specific knowledge FILTER. Once you master and follow your proven filter parameters like a clock, you can expect to start making serious amounts of cash on a consistent basis.



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Marketing Answers asked:


 

How much should I spend on marketing?

This is a common question that marketing consultants gets asked on a regular basis.

The simple answer is that there is no hard a fast rule – it depends on the competitive environment, the stage of business development, the product or service category and the balance of advertising designed to promote the brand vs advertising designed to generate a specific response.

As a result of these factors, marketing budgets are best set based on careful analysis of a number of factors as part of a Marketing Strategy not via the often used % of sales method.

If you are looking to develop a deeper understanding of your marketing budget then there are two good places to start.



Brand Awareness- Analysing the level of advertising that is appropriate to reach your target markets with appropriate levels of frequency and credibility





Specific Response – Analysing the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising



Brand awareness is a direct product of the  Marketing Strategy – by identifying the key target markets and having an understanding of the competitive environment it is possible to establish a picture of the level and types of “brand” advertising required to generate awareness of the brand for new customers and reinforce the message with existing consumers.

Planning the elements of the campaign designed to generate a specific response is more closely aligned with the sales budgets and requires analysis of the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising.

Using response and conversion rates as a starting point allows MJH Group to determine the expected result for a particular level of spend in a particular area and plan the marketing strategy accordingly. This is correlated to the sales budget to help plan the necessary mix of advertising required to drive the response to deliver the sales result.



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Wildfire Marketing Group asked:

Before you rush out to have 50,000 brochures printed and all of your company vehicles wrapped in vinyl, you need to take a minute to ensure that your marketing materials are going to deliver the results you are looking for. While achieving maximum results is probably something that you won’t be able to do without the help of an experienced marketing professional, there are several things that you can to improve your own results.

Have your marketing materials professionally designed. Even though you and your family and friends may love the new brochure that you designed in Microsoft Word, chances are that it is not going to be as effective as a brochure from a professional graphic designer . As a result your return on investment will be lower.

Have your printed marketing materials produced in full color. Full color printing has been shown to significantly increase response rates compared to any other combination of colors and can be surprisingly affordable for even the smallest of businesses. Another benefit is that it makes your company appear larger and more established while improving your credibility.

Include a call to action in all of your marketing materials. The most beautifully designed brochure will deliver poor results if it doesn’t clearly tell your prospect what they need to do. Do you want them to call you? To visit your web site? To send you something? Tell them exactly what you want and when you want it and your results will improve dramatically.

Include your URL on all of your marketing materials. From your business cards to your vehicles and everything in between, your URL needs to be easily accessible in order to open up another opportunity to expose your company to your prospects and clients.

Ensure that your company’s image stands out from your competitors. No matter how much you love your biggest competitor’s color scheme or style of advertising, copying it will not work for you. Small businesses often try to emulate other companies with the mindset of ” if it works for them it will work for me ” which is not true and will hurt your business in the long run.

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Assassin Marketing asked:

Several methods of promoting businesses have been created and developed in recent years. Traditionally, article marketing is published in paper-print form but as the marketing world is evolving, as well as technology, article marketing is now available online through the internet. Article marketing is considered as one of the most effective and fastest ways to promote products, companies or businesses in the world through write-ups. You can’t just set aside the benefits your company can achieve by using article marketing. Here are the top ten reasons to use article marketing as part of your business plan.

REASON #1: INCREASED ONLINE PRESENCE WITH ARTICLE MARKETING

Most businesses nowadays desire to make their presence known to the online world in order to have increased exposure with their target audience and one of the best ways to achieve this is by using article marketing. Making your products or services more visible in the market is one good reason to use article marketing as a marketing tool. All you have to do is write quality articles related to your business that include useful links leading back to your website and submit them to the article directories available on the web. By this, you influence people in your particular niche to become your customers and persuade them to buy your products on a regular basis.

REASON #2: ARTICLE MARKETING IS INEXPENSIVE AND COST-EFFICIENT

You don’t even need to spend a single cent to have online exposure for your business. Several free article directories can publish your articles on the web or you may also consider your own site or blog to promote your company. With article marketing you are earning but not spending…that’s a pretty good return on in investment, don’t you think?

REASON #3: ARTICLE MARKETING OFFERS A GREATER BRAND AWARENESS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Article marketing is not intended just for exposure but to improve your company’s visibility on the web and increase the awareness of your products or services to target consumers. Websites with new and updated content are more preferred by search engines. So, your article must be of high quality and with a bulk of information that will catch the attention of many prospects. Well written articles will be re-distributed to other web pages and will further promote your own web site. Also, if you publish a good quality article with high ranking article directories you can attract millions of visitors each and every month. Article marketing creates great exposure for your company’s brand by including your business’ signature, information and most importantly links leading to your website.

REASON #4: GENERATION OF BACK LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE WITH ARTICLE MARKETING

Page rank in Google and other search engines are often based on the number of inbound links and also the page rank of the provider of the links. The higher the page rank, the higher the importance of the content of such a particular website. Article marketing is a highly effective technique to increase the number of back links to your company’s web site. Whenever your article is published and re-distributed it will benefit your business by receiving a link back to your website, increase traffic and attract more visitors. Article marketing will be more beneficial if you publish a high quality article in a high ranking page of article directories.

REASON #5: ARTICLE MARKETING IMPROVES YOUR COMPANY’S REPUTATION AND PROMOTES YOUR EXPERT STATUS.

If you write more than a couple of high quality articles concerning your business it will enable you to establish a degree of authority and improves your reputation from other authors and companies on the web. Publishing many articles with good quality will prove your expertise in the field and thereby improves your article’s visibility and business’ exposure.

REASON #6: ARTICLE MARKETING WILL PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Millions of people are surfing the internet so it is a great opportunity to promote your products or services compared to what traditional advertising can give you. Expanding your reach to people all over the world to promote your business is possible with article marketing. Provide your readers with useful information that they can use and share among other people and your business will spread to thousands of readers around the world.

REASON #7: ARTICLE MARKETING INCREASES YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKING

Article marketing is a known technique for making your page rank higher with search engines. Your website will also benefit with additional traffic from the directories where your article was published if their web pages are also high in ranking.

REASON #8: ARTICLE MARKETING ATTRACTS MORE CUSTOMERS

Making your articles place on high ranking pages from search optimization will attract more actual and potential customers, especially if you provide the information they are looking for. The possibility of referring your articles to others is clear if you meet the criteria and publish high quality articles.

REASON #9: INCREASE YOUR SALES WITH ARTICLE MARKETING

Letting the world know about your and your products or services though article marketing will increase the awareness of your target customer and they may consider your company the one who can satisfy their needs, hence they will become your regular customer and your business will generate higher sales.

REASON #10: USE ARTICLE MARKETING TO PROVE YOUR BUSINESS CAPABILITIES

By utilizing article marketing, your business will be well known for its expertise not only in your particular niche but also in any associated fields, which will help to develop trust from potential customers. You can prove your business’ capabilities by lending your audiences useful information by which your company can provide.

With the increased tension of competition in the marketplace, article marketing can make your products or services stand out among the others. You will not appreciate the benefits article marketing can give you unless you try it and see the unexpected success it has on your business throughout the world. You must be practical in this time of global recession and make the right move! Start achieving your success through article marketing now!

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The Maverick Marketeer asked:

To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is.

According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as “a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action”. This marketing discipline can include and medium that allows you to communicate directly with customers. Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet.

The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or “response rate” while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Increasing customer response to your advertising will accomplish two very important things. One, increase the number of sales leads generated by advertising, and two, further establish business name recognition.

The ability to properly communicate with your business’s target audience is an extremely important factor in your overall business success. As you learn about direct marketing; keep in mind that persistence really does pay.

One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer’s wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.

Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:

* Who..? Who are you targeting with your particular business message? Who are the people who would be most interested in hearing what you have to say?

* Why..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?

* What…? What specific benefits are you offering through your message?

* When…? Are you looking for a more immediate response from your reader…or are you providing food for thought and building your relationship?

* Last but not least…How? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?

Your study of direct marketing will be an on going process. It’s important to understand what works for you and your business, what doesn’t, and why that is. The key to success will be in continuing to try different strategies and techniques in order to perfect a particular combination of things that work well for you.

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Marketing Answers asked:

The return on investment for the engagement of MJH Group for Small business marketing is based on the following;

Business Growth

• Increased sales and profit from effective strategy and campaign outcomes

Marketing Strategy

• The insight and direction provided by our strategic recommendations

• Provision of a documented strategic marketing plan which acts as the blue print for the successful marketing of your business

• Allowing you to proceed with confidence

• A planned and structured approach to marketing success

Campaign Outcomes

• Effective communication of your brand and offer

• Generate awareness in the market to achieve

• New customer acquisition

• A greater share of wallet from existing customers

• Increased sales and business growth

Commercialisation

• Assess the viability of new products or services

• Develop and implement strategies for the introduction or relaunch of products and services to provide commercial success

Direct Bottom Line Savings

• Direct Bottom Line Savings due to effective marketing management

• Measuring the ROI of promotions and campaigns to determine effectiveness

• Customer focus reducing the risk of ineffective promotion or campaigns

• Redirection of marketing investment into areas with the greatest return

Effective Brand Management

• Long term business growth through the ongoing and positive development of your brand in the marketplace

Effective Positioning

• Identifying the positioning strategy and building a strong market position to insulate against competition and the threat of new entrants

• Maintaining the desired position of your business in the market place

Communication

• Effective communication via regular meetings and easy to follow project plans to ensure you are kept informed and up to date on the progress of activities throughout the life of the program

Peace of Mind

• Experienced marketing professionals providing peace of mind that the marketing program is taken care of: you have one less thing to worry about

• MJH Group is transparent in our selection of clients to ensure no conflict of interest during engagements

• A marketing resource dedicated to the growth and development of your business.

For more details visit our site:

http://www.marketinganswers.com.au/

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Bard Marketing asked:

With the uncertainty of the economy, legal marketing agency Beyond All Reasonable Doubt Marketing is advising law firms to take a serious look at their budgets. While marketing, advertising and public relations dollars frequently are cut to reduce expenses, marketing experts agree that a down economy is actually the time when marketing efforts should remain in place, and if anything, be enhanced.

“When other law firms reduce their spending and cut their marketing, they have less presence in the marketplace,” explains BARD Marketing founder and president, John Sailer. “This means the time is ripe for a savvy law firm to grab market share – to reach the audience that is still there but who is hearing from fewer of your competitors.”

When planning your law firm’s budget, you should start by identifying how much you want to spend. While there are no hard and fast rules across the different types and sizes of law firms, it makes sense to budget your marketing as a percentage of expected revenue. Several studies have pegged overall law firm marketing budgets to be between 2 percent and 3 percent, with leading firms spending 5 percent or more.

Second, prioritize your initiatives by looking at both costs and expected benefits. This is easy if you tracked your efforts in past years. Remember that some of the lower cost initiatives may bring strong value while some of the higher cost initiatives may bring very little value. With this said, it is imperative to track outcome of every initiative.

BARD Marketing is experienced in budgeting and planning for short- and long-term marketing and advertising plans, and enables law firms to achieve and track ROI for their marketing activities. For more information or to request a report on Yellow Page Advertising Costs and Effectiveness, please visit www.bardmarketing.

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Celica Marketing asked:

It’s event marketing at its best, at Celica Marketing. Seen as one of the fastest growing sales and marketing companies based in Glasgow, the company has already gained a reputation for itself in the direct marketing sector in UK.

With several high profile, long running campaigns in the portfolio, Celica Marketing goes on, catering to its many clients and helping them achieve the desired kind of impact in the market. At the same time, the customers too have been giving the company immense support because they have come to realise that the company represents them and their interests too and endeavours to give them the best of brands that are available in the international market.  The company, which  is constantly evolving and expanding, tailors individual and comprehensive marketing campaigns to each of the companies that it represents and organises the suitable events which will help clients get the results they expect and deserve.

Celica, with its well-knit network of well-trained and well-informed sales and marketing professionals, helps the client companies go in for face-to-face interactions with customers via live events, trade shows etc and make the most of the same, in terms of customer acquisition volumes. The clients are also helped in dynamically increasing awareness about their brands and also in increasing exposure amongst the public. At the same time the company provides exciting opportunities to those who enjoy taking up challenges as part of their jobs and are always on the go, coming up with brilliant strategies and making use of the most novel and revolutionary of marketing techniques. Such sales-marketing professionals are taken in and given training under a  a comprehensive Sales and Marketing Programme, which educates them and coaches them in the basics of business. The kind of practical exposure they get working with the company eventually transforms them into the best of marketing professionals in the fray.

Celica Marketing, as the majority of the people in Glasgow would love to say, is the best thing that has happened to event marketing.

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Healthcare Marketing asked:

If there has ever been a medical specialty that is in need of competent marketing consultation, a cohesive and long-term strategy, and effective practice growing tools, it is dermatology.

We have seen so many good dermatologists go down the same road to ruins… it is called “Playing the Commodity Game” and it is a good way to harm your business, your reputation, and your referrals.

How often do we see coupons offering a special lower price on common services, such as Botox? It seems every dermatologist and Medi-Spa is in a race to see who can lower their prices faster!

But here are some basic principals that should guide you, should you want to play this game;

* Price shoppers are not loyal. They will go to your competitor when their prices are better than yours.

* You need to give your patients and potential patients a reason to choose you, other than price. Are you the best in your area? Do you have some special training or expertise? Do you have a new piece of equipment that is the latest and greatest? Even if your competitors may have the same qualifications and services, if they are not promoting them, then the field is open for you to claim those “points of distinction.”

There are many ways to determine how best to position your practice so that patients have a clear and compelling reason to choose you. However, use caution if you use price as your main method to attract patients… it is a recipe for long-term failure.

If you would like more information on our marketing strategies and proven methods of success for dermatologists, plastic surgeons, medi-spas, or any medical and healthcare specialty, please feel free to contact us. It never costs a cent to talk to us, and the advice is priceless.

Please visit our website at: www.healthcaremarketingpartners.com

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