Marketing

Internet Marketing - Article Announcer

admin — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:32:16 +0000

Who said marketing on the internet was easy. All the successful marketers have worked long hours plugged into their computers. Total commitment has been give to the internet for the glory of being called a ‘Guru’. Of course, the financial successes aren’t bad either. Or so I hear.
There is no easy way. Work is involved. Time evaporates so much faster in front of a computer. I have given many hours to the school of internet marketing. I think I have bought every new piece of softway and ebook created by these ‘Gurus’.
I know I am not alone. I was a ‘newbie’ last year, starting July 2004. I managed to spend every penny I had and got into debt trying to make a go of it. Meaning, there is a price to pay - time and money. No guarantees either.
Just when you think you have this whole internet marketing business figured out, the rules change.
Creative methods by and for all the established marketers is always in demand. How to beat Google at their own business; get ranked high on the search engines. It looks to me that the weak will get fizzled out and the hard core marketers will always give it another go.
I like to think I have graduated into being an intermediate internet marketer. The dues have been paid. I am definately an internet junkie - just can’t seem to get enough of it.
Concerns I have about this marketing business, it is hard to build up residual income. Unlike ‘network marketing’ (especially the firmly established MLMs/MLMers), income can be generated for years to come. This business seems rather fly-by-night. Of course, if you create a website much like Ebay or Clickbank you should be pretty comfortable in the income area. There is more to being an internet marketer though then the financial rewards…. always looking for the next best program, software, ebook… they are out there and coming our way.
Speaking of which, Jason Potash, is releasing his latest product this week. The release date is June 28, 2005. He calls it the ArticleAnnouncer. All the excitment of its release has been strategically created, all the correct steps to the newest and greatest internet marketing procedures have been met.
I hope it turns out to be all it says it will be. I know I will be there to pick it up on June 28, 2005.
Stephanie Ross, BizOppPro from a Newbie to an Intermediate Marketer. For more information about the ArticleAnnouncer email to: bizopppro@gmail.com Place ‘more info’ in the subject line and I will provide you with more information.

All Along the Digital Watchtower

admin — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:30:09 +0000

It’s no secret interactive (web-based) marketing has arrived. The IDC research group just released a study in late June of this year indicating 99.9% of a survey of executives and entrepreneurs said they currently conduct online marketing activities, or, are in the process of implementing or initiating some form of interactive marketing. The problem or challenge that many of these executives (marketing, management, etc.) and entrepreneurs (marketing, principals, etc.) have is how do they measure their online presence?
Most interactive marketing types, whether they are agencies working for/with clients or in-house personnel, typically just measure a company’s return for a specific process or period of time. Many never think to actively monitor what a company’s competitive position is vis-à-vis Search Engines or Directory Listings, the number of links they have pointing back to their web site or what type of “net buzz” is being generated (positive or negative) via the Usenet/Newsgroup community. In short, its digital warfare and the fog of war is obscuring the battle lines.
Entrepreneurial competitive intelligence sounds like a real mouthful, or much more than it is. Basically it’s using off-the-shelf tools (software or ASP services) to understand what your page 1-3 keyword rankings are versus:

your direct competitors via the top tier Search Engines (Google, AltaVista, Excite, AOL/NetFind, HotBot, Netscape, Magellan, Lycos, Web Crawler)
how and where your company is listed via the blue chip Directories (Yahoo, LookSmart, Open Directory)
what’s your link popularity (number of links pointing back to a web site) and/or
how many Usenet/Newsgroup posts are being made about your company, products or services

Usenet/Newsgroups can in fact be an extremely valuable resource for unearthing competitive intelligence about a direct competitor’s products or services; “Usenet/Newsgroup mining” certainly works well for United, IBM, Microsoft and many other corporations.
These digital touch points fill in competitive intelligence gaps and you don’t need to have an advertising budget in the 4-6-figure range complemented with a large staff to consistently monitor your competitive position. You can do much of this by hand, and/or use free tools offered by many of the search engines or portals (small plug: we offer a free and low cost Competitive Intelligence service via our web site).
But, be forewarned, if you don’t use some technology to leverage yourself, it can take a great deal of time to assess these metrics, but well worth the effort. In the end, you will know what your online market presence is and be armed with actionable business intelligence that enables you to understand how to maximize your marketing dollars by knowing where you need more of an online presence. And, most importantly as Sun Tzu once said, “if you know your enemy and yourself, you will win every battle.” Sound advice from a master tactician who had no idea his pearls of wisdom would be shaping the digital age!
About The Author
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., www.intelective.com a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies.Lee@intelective.com

Internet Marketing: 10 Ingenious Secret Strategies To Explode Your Sales

admin — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:28:54 +0000

Marketing on the internet is getting harder and harder daily.
It is becoming like a rocket science.
You make so much efforts only to generate little orno sales.
Well, my friend, allow me to reveal to you a fewingenious internet marketing strategies that have helped me pump my sales:
1. Think of ways to get your site or business on thethe news. You could sponsor a fundraiser, break aworld record, hold a major event, etc.
2. Hold a contest on your web site. Give other websites the option of offering it to their visitors. This’llmultiply your advertising all over the internet.
3. Tell your potential customers that your orderingsystem is highly secure. Also, reassure them thatyou take every effort to protect them.
4. Carry business cards with you wherever you go.Have your web address printed on them. You canhand them out to anyone you meet.
5. Contact national radio stations to ask them if theyare looking for guest speakers. Tell them your areaof expertise; maybe they’ll book you for a show.
6. Join clubs related to your area of business. Youcould trade leads with other businesses. Learn newways to run your business and sell your products.
7. Think of a domain name for your web site that’seasy to remember. If you can’t find a good one left,use your actual birth name.
8. Position your web site at the top of pay-per-clicksearch engines. You will only pay your set amountfor each clickthrough you get to your web site.
9. Allow your visitors or customers to increase yourtraffic or sales. Ask them how you can improve yourbusiness, web site or product.
10. Team-up with other e-zines that have the sametarget audience. Combine subscriber bases and thenpublish one e-zine together to increase subscribers.
May these internet marketing secrets help you to make a lot of money.
Warmly,
I-key Benney, CEO
I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”,(online investing) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.
Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”.

Free Internet Secrets That Will Instantly Drive Up Your Traffic and Sales

admin — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:27:56 +0000

The following 3 secrets revolutionized my life. For yearsI had tried everything I knew with no success. It didn’tmatter that offline I was a very successful marketingexpert, online success remained elusive. The moment Idiscovered these three secrets things changed dramaticallyfor me.
So why am I revealing them to you?
Good question. The facts are that lots of people arealready using them and making lots of cash and keepingquiet about it. The thing about the net is that you can’tkeep a secret for very long. Besides I have plenty to gainif you remember me as the person who was most responsiblefor changing your online fortunes. It means I’ll be ableto sell you lots of stuff in future. The PR spin doctorswill tell you that I am trying to position myself in acertain way in the minds of the public. For profitablereasons of course.
So here are the 3 secrets.
1) Well written articles People on the net are alwaysignoring this one. Boring plain articles will do nothingfor you. But well written, useful articles with valuableinformation that solves problems will do everything foryou. Many times I’ve posted an article at one site andthen done a google search a few weeks later to realize ithas already been re-posted in dozens of other sites. Onesales enquiry I received today via email had a url link tothe site where the nice man had seen my article. I’d neverheard of it before and yet 1192 persons have alreadyviewed it.
2) It’s a numbers game When I first started usingarticles, I didn’t think of the numbers involved. And alot of people who may have posted one or two articles andforgotten all about it may be making exactly the samemistake I made. I wrote one article and sat back waitingfor a response. I still got it (after about 3 weeks) but Isoon got wiser.
You must have heard all those statistics about what kindof traffic a web site needs to be successful. All sorts ofcrazy numbers have been thrown around ranging from 500 toover 2,500 hits PER DAY. Now how does a site get numberslike those without spending the national deficit onadvertising?
With articles it’s no problem. Here is the math.
Supposing your article is viewed just twice every day at acertain web site. If you post the same article to only 20similar sites, you’ll have 40 hits per day. You need only20 articles to get 800 hits per day.
And don’t forget my point number one. If your article ishalf useful, they’ll be a viral effect. In a few shortweeks, one listing can yield dozens of other postings. Ifyou add 12 to the math above you get 9,600 hits PER DAY.
The lesson here is that you have to keep on producing newarticles and posting them all the time. I recommend aminimum of 3 new articles every month.
3) Ebay about me page When you add this secret to secretnumber one and two, you’ll break the bank - guaranteed.
Ebay has well over 1.5 billion page views per month. Thereare well over 40,000 people who sign up for Ebay every day- Sunday included.
Of course there’s serious money to be made from theauctions or by selling something with a fixed price. Butyou can profit on Ebay even if you are not sellinganything. You can use the About me page to put in allsorts of information including a link to your web site.Just by learning how to do this, you can dramaticallyincrease traffic to your web site or even to your postedarticles. This highly targeted traffic is bound to yieldsales for you, whatever it is you are selling.
I found Brian McGregor’s ebook, “The Ebay Formula,”extremely useful in helping me understand how to use Ebayto drive my traffic and profits. You can get the ebook byemailing me at the email address in the resource box.
In conclusion I would like to assure you that with these 3secrets, you can make lots of money online, even if you donot have a web site. I’ll let you into a fourth secret. Idon’t have a web site myself. Too much work and expense tomaintain. But I make money without one. But that is thesubject of another article. And besides, imagine what youcan do, you who has a web site.
Christopher Kyalo is a writer/marketing expert with over20 years experience. His free course on how to usearticles for free advertising on the net is available bysending a blank email to bizboom@freeautobot.com. He canbe reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com.

Reap Incredible Profit with This Simple Strategy

admin — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:44:59 +0000

Why is it some people are incredibly successful at utilizing the power of the Internet in their marketing while others can’t seem to figure out the winning formula?
How often do entrepreneurs and salespeople look for that next magic formula to build their business and increasing revenues, never quite making any of it work? Many people make it much more difficult to succeed than it need be while others know exactly what to do ? and they do it.
Ask anyone who has effectively integrated the use of the Internet into their overall marketing strategy and they will tell you success in building your business, both online and off, is about systems. Simple as that.
Developing and utilizing systems is nothing new. Yet, the great search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and getting rich quick continues.
The place you’ll find more gold than virtually anywhere else is in doing something many people just don’t find appealing. It is in developing and maintaining a solid database. Unfortunately, many people don’t find database management sexy enough. So they continually buy into that next secret formula.
Fact is, with a well-groomed database you can increase your revenues and decrease your marketing costs. You can build customer relations and keep your name fresh in the minds of your market by keeping in touch. This establishes excellent position within your market.
Most people would be amazed at how simple it is to build an incredibly profitable database by applying a few simple strategies. Remember, simple is not always easy. It will take time, commitment and focus.
Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to your database. Depending on your industry and what you sell you may be well served to focus on the few dozen or few hundred who want to buy from you rather than thousands who don’t care about what you offer.
On the other hand, there will be situations where building a massive list is exactly what you need to do. Especially if you have mass quantity products you are selling at a very low price. Then you may want to go for the numbers.
Driving traffic to your site is an ongoing process as is building and maintaining your database. If you are serious about using the Internet in your marketing you need to lay the groundwork to optimize your opportunities.
Develop a fully operational web site
Have a way to capture contact information such as a sign up form
Give people a reason for leaving their contact information such as an Ezine, free report or ebook, an article of interest to your target market or anything that is of benefit to the reader
Develop a series of content driven messages that address your customers’ needs
Keep your name in front of your market consistently without being annoying
Write and distribute articles to various online resources that are pertinent to your market
Create a byline that contains your web address
Do not make the articles a hard sell. Rather, provide information that positions you as a resource before you are a vendor
Develop a list of forums and discussion groups you can participate in
Commit to the long-term.
By focusing on developing a solid database and providing incredible value to your market you can and will achieve success in your business. Guaranteed!
Kathleen Gage is an award winning keynote speaker, author and business advisor specializing in marketing and promotions. She is the recipient of the Utah 2004 Giant Step Award for business creativity and success. Access Gage’s FREE eBook Street Smarts eMarketing Tips Guaranteed to Jump Start Your Internet Presence to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition at www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

Don’t Let Legitimate Email Marketing Campaigns Suffer A Junk Mail Fate

admin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:56:54 +0000

Volume-based filtering may be pre-sorting your marketing messages to the bulk folder or worse.
You’ve got a great product, fantastic customer service, and a loyal base of customers that opt-in to your email list. They’re interested in staying abreast of new products, special offers, and other news and relevant information you send them.
Unfortunately, customers don’t seem to be getting the message - literally. You are careful to avoid phrasing and formatting mistakes that might confuse your permission-based marketing message with the scourge of unwanted junk.
However, depending on the size of your email list, and how your email software service handles delivery, the volume-based filters that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use to sort the good from the bad may be frustrating your efforts.
In the audio book, “Sound Advice on Email Marketing,” author Peter McCormick explains that “since most spammers attempt to send hundreds or thousands of emails through a single ISP, volume filters attempt to detect incoming spam by monitoring the number of simultaneous connections a mailer is attempting to make.”
“If too many connections are made at the same time,” says McCormick, “the ISP will block the email or send it to the bulk folder,” and never reach the customer actually wanting to receive it. He also reminds marketers to practice good list management, saying that too many bad addresses - combined with volume management mistakes - can trigger the filter.
How does a marketer avoid volume filtering? “Marketers can ensure their mail is being delivered to its intended audience by selecting an email service or software that provides the ability to monitor and adjust volumes by ISP,” says McCormick.
Peter McCormick offers advice on email marketing strategies each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz, www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92
About The Author
Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.

Seven Marketing Questions You Should Ask Before You Get A 10 Year Old To Build Your Website

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:37:30 +0000

Google tells us there are 4 billion websites- almost one for everyone on the planet. And today you have decided to make it 4 billion and 1. So, do you think- “If I build it, they will come?” seriously? It ain’t going to happen, unless you stand out. So do you think your 10 year old nephew who can code html (which I believe they now learn in pre-school, just after they have done the alphabet) is going to make your site the next eBay? Let me give you a few questions to ask yourself before you double his pocket money.
1. What is the purpose of your website?In business, there are three main types of websites:? the brochure site? the lead generator site? the online shop
The brochure site is an online support to your offline marketing. You will refer to it in your ads, because you pay for ads by the square inch, and acres are cheap on the internet. You will refer to it in your Yellow Pages ads, your business cards and your brochures. An online presence will give you a credibility that your competitors without a website (getting fewer every day) don’t have. But in the end it is just an online version of a tri-fold a printer might do for you. There is nothing wrong with a brochure site, if this is all you want in your marketing plan.
The next step up is a lead generator site. Unlike a brochure site, you want it to generate business on its own. You want people to find your site while browsing on the internet, and having seen your site, feel compelled to call or email you. After that contact is made, hopefully a sale will follow.
The last option is that your website is a storefront where visitors to your site can actually purchase products and services. In other words, after finding your site, and viewing your content, they are compelled to “click here” to make a purchase.
There is a fourth type of website- the vanity site. But financial rewards are rarely connected to this type of site.
Of course a website may be a mixture of these three (or four) types, but unless you have defined your business model, the purpose of your site, it will be a waste of electrons.
2. How will people find your site?You already know there are 4 billion sites, so the likelihood that a buyer will find it by chance are somewhat remote. And if you calculated the cost per lead on that basis, you would never build such a site. Your business website exists only for one purpose, to make you money- irrespective of the business model. It must pay its way. So if no-one visited your site, why would you pay for it to exist?
Therefore, you must have a strategy to ensure people know your site exists and that there is a reason they should visit it. How can you do that? There are two basic strategies, offline and online.
An offline strategy is based on all your offline marketing- ie advertising, public relations, networking and cold calling. In every case you would refer leads to your website where they can find out more about what you can do for them, and why they should choose you. Your website would build on your offline promotions giving further details of your service, educating your customer and creating credibility for your business.
An online strategy will be built around visibility. The key elements of this are:? Search Engine Optimisation? A strategy to get links to your website? Online advertising
3. What are you going to do to make visitors linger at your site?The average website visit is 68 seconds. How many widgets do you expect to sell in that time? You must have a strategy to make people linger at your site, get to know you and see the value you can give them.
The three secrets for making people linger are CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT.
To get visitors to stay, you need to give them information that they want. This will not be information about you (at least not on the home page). Your goal should be to educate your visitor. Give them information they will not get elsewhere on how to solve the problem that caused them to search for you in the first place. If you website is just sales hype, your visitors will be gone in a lot less than 68 seconds.
4. What do you want visitors to do once they are at your site?Many would say- “Buy lots of stuff from me.” Well, in your dreams! Most people will not buy from you, or call you on the first visit to your site. They don’t know you (unless an offline relationship has been established). And unless you are selling a commodity, that is the same on every site- eg CD’s, and you are competing on price, you need to be able to establish a relationship. To do this, you need to give visitors a reason to give you a way to stay in contact. This could be by way of a newsletter, or through a free download of information requiring their email details. When you do this, it is essential you provide an unsubscribe option, because otherwise you will be spamming. And there are no rich spammers (although I believe there are rich people selling spam technology).
5. How are you going to get people to come back to your site?On average, four out of five website visitors will never come to a website. And if they only stay 68 seconds, it’s going to take you several lifetimes to become an internet millionaire. To get people to come back you need to do several things:? Have sufficient quantity and quality of content, that the visitor will bookmark your site to come back for more? Continually add to and change the content to make visitors want to come back? Provide special offers to your subscribers that will encourage them to revisit your website
If your website never changes, why would anyone want to come back?
6. How are you monitoring going to monitor the results of your website?No-one can guarantee what is going to work for you. Therefore you have to measure your statistics. A good webhost will provide you with a statistics package that will tell you how many visitors you have had, when they visited, how they found you and what they did at your site. When you make an offer, make a change to your site, or undertake some marketing campaign, whether online or offline, check the response on your statistics, and the conversions that you have achieved on your site. Do controlled experiments. Don’t change too many things at one time, because you will never know what caused the change. Find out what works, and what doesn’t. And when you find a good thing, stick to it!
7. Are you really going to trust your 10 year old nephew to do all this?You may not be using your 10 year old nephew, you may be using a graphics design company instead. But don’t confuse determining your website business model and marketing strategy with the colour and movement of your website graphics. As a general rule of thumb, the flashier the website, the worse it is commercially. (Check out eBay and Amazon- how flashy are their sites? But is there a clear business strategy?) You will need someone to do the html programming, but almost certainly, someone who is good at that will not be good at everything else. A website is just another marketing tool. Like a brochure. Would you get your printer to write your advertising copy?
I don’t suggest that you should not use a great website design company (or even your precocious nephew) to build your website, but don’t let them be in charge of your marketing!
Copyright 2005 Empower Business Solutions
Dr Greg Chapman assists small to medium sized businesses with business planning, business systems and marketing strategy. To find out how you can Multiply Your Profits & Make Your Business Run without You, and to find out How Good Your Business Really Is with a Free Online Business Medical, go to Empower Business Solutions website at:www.empowersolutions.com.au

Success in On-Line Business

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:36:45 +0000

Here is a story of four traders who each started with a website built by us, retailing the same products Australia-wide from different cities. It’s hard to compare businesses with different products in different markets, but these four businesses had all those factors in common.
Start-up:

Trader A started with a website and a spare room at home, and became so successful that he needed to open a shop.
Trader B (in another city) liked Trader A’s website, so he also started with a website and a spare room at home, and became so successful that he also needed to open a shop.
Trader C bought Trader A’s website, shop lease and business and employed someone to run it for him.
Trader D (in a third city) liked Trader C’s website so started with a website and a spare room at home.

Current status:

Trader A, after a break, started a new website and a shop with the same products (but a different part of the city). He now has two retail stores plus he is starting a wholesale division.
Trader B is very successful and happy with one shop.
Trader C has closed down.
Trader D is still struggling.

So, four businesses starting with similar websites designed by us, with the same products, in the same market, in the same country, have four different results.
Observations:
Service: - Traders A and B are always available to give personal service and advice by phone or email on their products. They each told us that this was as well as their having full information on their websites and FAQ pages answering most questions. Trader C’s employee was often out of the shop and left customer enquiries unanswered. Trader D was working elsewhere during the day, and relied on potential customers either placing orders on-line or leaving messages on an answering machine.
Range: - Traders A and B carried a full range of inventory. C advertised a full range but was often out of stock. D carried only a limited range.
Competition: - The same products were all stocked by large chain stores and other on-line traders, so the fact that Traders A and B prospered indicates that their personal service was able to attract customers away from the impersonal chain stores and other on-line traders.
In our own business of developing websites, even though large projects can and are carried out using email only, a number of clients have made contact with us by telephone in the early stages, even from 4,000 kilometres away. We have a lot of information on our website, but perhaps people need reassurance that there is another human, not a robot, at the other end. Different products have different issues. But the above story shows traders with a full range of products, who know their products and can offer personal service are ahead of others.
More information for small businesses is found at platypus websites - www.platywebs.com.au.
Ken McKay designed his first website in 1997 and, through Platypus Websites, has been building commercial websites since 1999.

Sending A Joint Venture Proposal

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:36:13 +0000

When forming a joint venture with another business, your most important step is the approach you use when contacting your potential business partner.
Participating in a joint venture with another prominent business can be extremely beneficial to ones business. The biggest reason why most webmasters do not get a reply back when sending a proposal, is the approach they use.
I cannot begin to tell you how many proposals I personally have received that get deleted almost instantly. There are some that address the proposal with “Dear Webmaster” or as simple as just “Hi”. Some do not tell me anything about themselves or their business (I guess I’m suppose to guess at this one). While others may be run-on, have misspellings, or just plainly unprofessional.
A joint venture is not as simple as lets say a link exchange. It requires a little more research and commitment by both parties.
Although you can send a joint venture through standard mail, consider sending your proposal by email in your first approach. If they have provided their phone number in their contact information, let them know that after a few days, you would like to follow up with a personal phone call to go over the details. Stipulate a time frame that you would like to call and asking them to reply back if the time frame is inappropriate.
Here are some guidelines when sending a proposal by email:
Be precise and clear with your proposal.
Make sure to personalize your email by using their name.
Write an email that shows professionalism and trust.
Complement the positive points you found on their website.
Include information about yourself, your website, your customer base and the services and products you offer.
Point out how you feel your customer base would have an interest in his/her products or services, as well as their customers having an interest in yours.
Highlight how both of you can benefit financially from this joint venture as well as gain added exposure.
Be sure that all spelling and grammar is correct.
When contacting a potential business owner on a joint venture, the key is to highlight the financial benefit to both parties.
If you are approaching a joint venture whereas the other party is just an endorser of your products, (such as an ezine publisher) a larger percentage of each sale should go to the publisher. In this case you have to keep in mind that they are doing all the work while endorsing your product to his/her established customer base.
Once you have found a party that is willing to form a joint venture with you, you may want to consider putting an agreement in writing and getting it signed by your new business partner. Just make sure you outline each of the terms in the agreement, such as precisely what you both agree to, terms, commission, time frame of the venture, how each of you are to get paid, etc.
John Kovacs is the CEO and founder of “A Home Business Opportunity”. His website mainly focuses on supplying free marketing tips, resources and support for home startup businesses and Internet marketing. To get a step-by-step guide in building an online business, visit www.ahomebusinessopportunity.net

Never Underestimate the Value of Giving Things Away

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:35:39 +0000

“Never underestimate the value of giving things away.” I remember as kid hearing these words on a regular basis. In fact this philosophy was re-enforced so much by my parents in my younger years that it has become a part of who I am today. But, I’m also a businessperson who enjoys earning a living, and in business, our primary goal is to maximize profits. So we have what appears to be an obvious conflict here. How does one remain profitable, let alone increase profit levels if they’re giving things away?
This really isn’t a new concept. In the traditional business world it’s been done for years. It usually comes in one of two forms or a combination of both. The first is giveaways that are used to lure customers into making a purchase or as thinly veiled advertisements. We’ve all seen these tactics. Contests you can win if you purchase a product, free Tupperware for applying for a department store credit card, a pen or a mug for every $20.00 of gasoline from a particular service center. You get the idea. We’ve also seen large companies and wealthy business owners throw a lot of money and/or resources at “good causes”. I’m sure that some genuinely do this for the betterment of society. The skeptic in me though suspects that often this philanthropy is nothing more than an attempt to buy credibility and respect as opposed to earning it.
So how does all of this apply to online business and how is a small online businessperson able to capitalize on it? Actually, when we look at the online world we don’t have to look very far to realize the potential value of giving things away. In fact much of the technology we use online was “given” to us by a few brilliant people who were more interested in sharing their inventions and ideas with the world than becoming millionaires. It should be noted that many of these people as a result of their efforts have in time done very well for themselves. They have earned a great deal of respect, a loyal following and incomes to match as a nice little bonus. Indeed on the Internet today there exists an entire culture of people with this mindset. Why do they do it? Why give it away for free? Are they crazy? The individual reasons are as abundant as the number of individuals but they all share one common thing. An understanding that by providing value to people, they will receive value in return. It may be money, fame, additional resources to continue with projects, respect or simply the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a job well done. Not so crazy…and there’s a reason why quite a few fortune 500 companies are embracing the philosophies of the open source software movement. The business world can learn a lot from these ideas.
However, there has to be a balance when it comes to business. If you are in a position where you don’t need to worry about profits and don’t have any expectation of future ROI, fine. Give everything away and someday you may very well be rewarded. Unfortunately there is realty to contend with! The reality is that we are here to make money. So what can you give that won’t hurt your profit margin? Lots of things! If you’re really smart about you will actually be able to boost your profit margin considerably.
Consider all of the things you have in your ‘inventory’ of assets. This includes tangible items like cash on hand, products, etc. It also includes such intangible items (those that are more difficult to assess a finite value to) as knowledge, skills, time and the like. Now think about which of those you can ‘afford’ to sacrifice a little of.
Some people will take the easy route and decide that they will give away a tangible item (a product sample, a huge discount or a cash reward for example) as a way of enticing customers to purchase more. Now this in itself is not a bad thing. It’s better than nothing. Remember the big department stores with their credit card applications? It must work. Right? Yes and no. It does have the desired affect in a limited way, but overall is a very short sighted approach. It provides an immediate payoff for both the business and the customer, but has no lasting value for either and therefore must be repeated over and over to achieve a lasting result. A much better option is to come up with something that will not only provide a payoff for both parties, but also build long-term value.
So what is value, why is it important, and how do you provide and receive it? The dictionary deals with the term as it applies to business and finance in several ways. The definition I like is “worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor”. In a typical business transaction this is easy. You provide goods or service (transfer possession) which your customers find useful or important and they in return provide you with a payment (usually money) which you find useful and important. But we’re talking about giving things away here so how do you receive your value? The answer is really simple. You build your value (that is the value you wish to receive) into your giveaway. Curiously, it’s the intangible assets that are best suited to this.
Let me give you an example. Ken Evoy is very well respected in the online marketing world and is also a master at maximizing profits by giving things away. His company, SiteSell.com specializes in selling books, courses and software aimed at teaching people about e-commerce and how to be successful with it. In addition to the products he sells online, his web sites are a virtual treasure trove of free information on the subject. Now this may sound counter productive. I mean, why invest all of these resources in developing top quality products to sell and then invest more in developing similar things to give away for free? To understand this we need to look at Ken’s business model. Most of his sales are generated though his 5 Pillar affiliate program (5PP). This free information acts as training material for his affiliates around the world. Given the quality of the material, (it genuinely has real value) it helps his affiliates become successful at what they do. This in turn drives sales to Ken’s business. Here’s the neat thing about it all. Access to this information is not restricted to just 5PP affiliates, but is available to anyone. Why would you give out information to just anyone, who could then take his or her new found knowledge to benefit the competition? It’s a risk you take I suppose. I suspect that Ken has calculated this risk and realized the insignificance of it. The truth is that after reading through some of the free courses offered, many people will end up becoming one of Ken’s affiliates. There are a few reasons for this. The material while being very neutral (not a sales pitch at all) in content is well branded throughout. This is a very subtle method of advertising. Ken writes this information himself and not only is he a respected expert, but he writes in a style that is very personable and genuine. One can’t help but leave with a certain level of respect and loyalty towards him. Further to that, I’m sure that some people choose to purchase additional products based on their experience with the free “samples”. So now, not only does Ken possibly acquire new customers, he also develops loyal affiliate partners for his business. As a bonus these new affiliates are already positioned to be successful having acquired much of the necessary knowledge. As you can see, Ken wins from every angle. And as for the other side (the customer)? None of this would work if the free ‘giveaway’ weren’t valuable in the first place. They’ve already gained “usefulness and importance” from the knowledge that was shared with them. They also have a real possibly of gaining more in the future in tangible ways by joining the Ken’s business as an affiliate. This is building value into the free offering at it’s finest.
Now that’s great for Ken with his expertise and years of experience, but what about the rest of us. I actually had an opportunity to test the theory of giving things away when I first started www.AtHomeBusinessNetwork.com. I had just put the web site up and was moving into the phase of actively marketing it. Anyone who has ever done this knows how tedious it can be and how long it can take to see any measurable results. I had come across www.emoneyreport.com recently and it had intrigued me. Firstly, because it was obvious that it was still a very new web site and secondly, at first appearance, it seemed that it was trying to accomplish much the same thing as I was. That would make us direct competitors, right?. After all we are both trying to generate revenue from the same sources and tap into the same traffic. I put all that aside, I came up with a list of complementary items that they offered that I didn’t and vice versa. I then composed a well thought out e-mail to the owners of the other web site outlining how I felt that we could complement each other’s services. I explained my belief that we could help each other’s web sites gain traffic and popularity by referring visitors to each other and thus capitalizing on each other’s marketing efforts. I further went on to let them know that I had a prominent banner placement on my web site which was currently under utilized. I informed them that I would be more than happy to place a banner for their web site in that location for a short time. All for free and with no strings attached of course. Was it a bit of a gamble? You bet, but I believe that people are usually pretty fair-minded and I wasn’t disappointed this time. Within hours, I received a reply to my e-mail which was way above anything I could have expected. Not only where the owners of the other web site thrilled with my proposal, they had already reciprocated the favor by giving me front-page prominence on their web site. Traffic although still small, tripled for me overnight! It also looks like we will have a prosperous relationship with each other in the coming months or years through mutual co-operation. Not bad considering many would consider us to be competitors. The value in this case was for both of us in the form of less competition, the sharing of ideas and information, added value for our respective visitors, increased traffic and consequently revenue… and this is just the beginning. All for being polite and offering something for free!
If you take the right approach, there can be real value for your business in giving things away. You only need to evaluate your needs, those of your customers and apply a little creativity and long term thinking towards your goals. Build your own value into your offering and go for it.
Now go out and give something away! You may be surprised at what can happen.
Colin Plant is the owner and administrator of athomebusinessnetwork.com which is an online resource and community site for people have an interest in developing and running successful online home based businesses. He is also the principal of Concept Dynamic.
www.AtHomeBusinessNetwork.com, www.conceptdynamics.ca