Chris Burns asked:


There are probably more than one hundred principles of direct marketing, ferreted down from marketing gurus and internet marketing experts all over the world. Different sorts of experiences lead to different conclusions, and inevitably, different advice. This article is designed to tell you there is a difference between advice and principle, whereas advice may be applied to isolated incidents and regions, the latter can be transposed into almost any situation of direct marketing. I have siphoned away 3, not because they are the best, but because they can be universally applied – so wait no longer, read on land earn direct marketing principles that work.

I will start in reverse order of importance. The first (or the last one for those that have been paying attention), is the copy. Be it fax, mail, internet or offline marketing, what you write is essentially the difference that either helps you close a deal or remain wondering what happened. Compelling copy can be considered to be the life blood of your direct marketing efforts. If you are not talking to them on the phone or shaking their hand in real life, what they read from you must be good enough to influence a purchasing decision. Remember, you are already at a disadvantage – you can’t see their reactions or hear their worries first hand. A mailer or brochure can’t talk back so you have to seal the deal the minute they read the first few lines.

The copy must be simple – you may be marketing to the lowest common denominator, so Shakespearean prose has no place in sales copy. It must be from the heart and sincere, use real life experiences and testimonials to breathe life to the product. The copy must keep a single question in mind – the ‘what’s in it for the consumer?’ The offer must be IRRESISTABLE, so concentrate on how you word your offer, write and rewrite and read it to yourself, over and over again until it’s just right.

Secondly, whatever you do, ensure that what you put out there must have what marketers call ‘an action device’. This can be a reply cut-out, an order form or even a point of contact. Make it easy for them to initiate a response, don’t leave them to guess where and who. Look at sales copy for websites, there is always almost a link somewhere at the end of the website. Point them in the right direction – closer and closer to buying the product.

This is the last and most important point. You may have the best, most sellable copy in the world. You could be selling a fantastic product. Your carrier could be striking, a design fit for the Louvre. But sent to the wrong market, all this would be pointless. The contacts that you have built up or have acquired must be highly detailed and highly targeted. This means that each and every name will be much more likely to consider the product – ‘needs identification’ can only occur through a high quality list. It is of crucial importance to match the product to the prospect, eliminating as much doubt as possible from the purchasing decision.

So now that you have learn direct marketing principles that work, you can apply it to any situation, for any product and for any market you wish to enter!

Jon Harrison asked:

Companies have and are increasingly moving their marketing budgets to internet marketing and search engine optimisation. The main reason for this is natural progression due to people using the internet more and more every year.

Due to the large increase of broadband users last year and the predicted increase over the next 5-10 years people are taking search engine optimisation and internet marketing more seriously and spending more money on it. The main cause of this is the competition between the big broadband suppliers driving down the price. With more people having fast internet access it allows them to spend more time on the internet going from site to site in minutes seeing dozens of sites. It is also proven that most of the users go through search engines to find their results so it is important to have your site visible there.

Offline marketing is becoming less effective due to several reasons. One of the reasons is the over use of telesales, this has happened over years which has meant that they are less effective now as people are less willing to listen to what the sales person has to offer. People are also purchasing more online so are not going to stores and shops, which means that no matter how much you advertise for a store offline it is losing sales to online websites.

The older more traditional techniques like using leaflets, newspaper advertisements, billboards etc are becoming less affecting due to; people not reading them and reading online newspapers, people not seeing the billboards due to not going near the shops and purchasing online and putting the leaflets straight in the bin with out reading them due to so many irrelevant ones.

As more and more sites go online and the more complex the search engines get, it is harder and harder to rank on the big search engines which also means more time and money has to be put into getting high rankings. However, this pays off as there are more users so you should see more sales for your money. Companies are realising this and concentrating on gaining and not losing trade to online competition.

Search engine optimisation has developed over the years in line with the development of the search engines. This means more research has to be done by the search engine optimisation consultants to allow them to provide the best results for their clients. This can only be done by people investing more money into it and this would only be provided if their where customers to purchase goods and services to make it worth while. So this shows that people are moving their marketing priorities to online.

Some companies split their budget in different ways for their internet marketing and one way is to pay search engine optimisation consultants to deal with it for you. This is affective when using the correct company and you will see results but the problem is there are a lot of con artists also offering the service. The other option is to employ an in house search engine optimisation consultant which will run things from inside the company. A lot of companies have chosen to do this as this allows them to keep control. The problem with this is that the in house consultant may soon get out of date with their techniques if they don’t get enough time to do their research.

Assassin Marketing asked:


Before starting up any kind of business, one must set up a plan to earn more than we spend and avoid mistakes along the way. Here are a few internet marketing mistakes that you should watch out for and avoid:

1. Making viewers wait.

Don’t regret paying more for a hostile package that could bring you to people fast. If your website is constantly down, your server is slow, your graphics take two minutes load, you can say goodbye to your potential customers.

2. Technical arrogance.

Never assume that everyone has the latest version of a program to view your site. Always have plain HTML and text versions ready for these users who do not have Macromedia’s flash installed. Also, take notes from successful sites. Outsource to a pro for SEO writing, web design, and programming to invest in a good template for your site if you’re not that confident on your technical prowess.

3. Not marketing offline.

Complement online traffic to your site by marketing offline as well, because no one is online all the time.

4. Not remaining timely.

If you want to attract customers, you need to be updated on recent and upcoming events that are relevant to your site. If you’ve got marketing materials on your site about Memorial Day special and it’s June 15th, you’re losing customers.

5. Poor linkages.

Focus on building long-term passive traffic rather than bulk traffic packages or trying traffic gimmicks. However, be very careful with whom you align yourself. Some companies operate co-registration and affiliate programs that violate the CAN-SPAM act and other rules and regulations. Check out any company that offers you anything , especially those who offer you anything that’s quick and easy.

6. Giving users the third degree.

Signing up for newsletters or making purchases should be easy for your customers. Avoid making them go through a number of links or asking too many questions before complete tasks. You loose 10-15 percent of your potential customers for each question you ask them.

7. Not using viral marketing.

Let your customers create ‘buzzwords’ for you through simple ‘forward to a friend’ links or ‘two for one offers’ or offline marketing on t-shirts and other accessories that your customers can wear. Viral marketing or ‘word of mouth’ (in offline marketing lingo) could create an exponential growth of your site’s visibility by spreading from customer to customer and then business to business.

8. Resorting to cheap gimmicks.

Some marketers resort to goofy and even phony campaigns just to gain brand exposure. These could be entertaining and even viral but sometimes those could backfire because they are irrelevant to the customers and sometimes even to your product or service. Provide something that convert to sales and not just to generate shock or surprise. Connect with your buyers in a positive way by providing products and services that are worth talking about. Associate your site with quality rather than gimmicks and you’ll have customers coming back.

9. Not collecting email addresses.

This is not the same as spamming email addresses because unlike spamming, you ask for your customer’s permission to send them your newsletters and other updates to your site. Remember that spamming could cost you because fines could be very heavy when you are found to be in violation of CAN-SPAM laws. By collection email addresses, you maintain your target audience and your potential market.

10. Mistaking Traffic for Results.

Only because a lot of people seem to be clicking on your ad doesn’t mean that they are buying. Remember that some sites actually buy traffic just to maintain top-line business. But if these people aren’t buying, how do you expect to even earn off it? Continuously paying for this traffic can be expensive. On the other hand, just because you have enough traffic, it does not also mean that your income is guaranteed for the next months to come. What you should really focus on is, how much of this traffic actually converts to sales? Everyday is a challenge to offer something that your client really needs, to persuade them that they need what you’re offering and that you are offering the best of what they need. Online customers actually know what they want, so it is up to your to tell them that what they want is what you are offering.

TheEvilGenius asked:


In the Internet Marketing community, we are constantly exposed to strategies and tactics to market your product/service online and drive traffic to your web site. I don’t mean to dismiss the value of any of these methods.  In fact we use most of them ourselves.

But, it almost makes you wonder… “How did people ever market before the Internet?” 

That question served as my jumping off point in developing this list. You see, it seems everybody is talking about how to increase your online marketing, but nobody ever talks about what you can do to increase your offline marketing with little or no funds.

So here it is: 7 Tried and true tactics for marketing on the cheap. Online or Off

Tip 1: Make yourself newsworthy



Getting a mention of your company in the right medium can do wonders for your career and your business. How much better do you think a book does when Oprah adds it to her book club?  For that fact, would there even be a Dr. Phil? I can only hope not.

The trick to this one is to make yourself interesting in some way.  Gary Vanderchuck from winelibrary.tv is the perfect example. He’d be the first to tell you that selling wine is not the most newsworthy of topics.  So how did he do it? His over-the-top personality and antics. Selling wine is not entertaining.  Getting Conan Obrien to eat grass and **** rocks on national TV to “prepare his palette” is.

Tip 2: Leveraging other peoples work and money

The Best Story Ever: David pwn3s Goliath – A startup I worked at called eRoom Technology used this tactic against Lotus, a painfully well funded corporation at the time.  eRoom had the better product, but Lotus had the marketing bucks.

Lotus was having a press conference on their new virtual collaboration package at a big industry event in Vegas. They paid handsomely to have all the top reporters flown in and lavished them will luxury perks and gifts. They had slick presentations, great location… the whole nine. eRoom’s stroke of genius was to buy the 4 giant banners that were located directly behind the speakers head (remember this was a an industry conference where they accept advertising sponsors). The next step was to have 100 beanie babies, wearing a tiny eRoom t-shirts, placed on each reporters chair immediately before the conference was to start.

The take away: Every last reporter talked about the eRoom coup as part of their Lotus article. Lotus paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the press conference, eRoom spent less than $5k. Brilliant.

The concept of the Mall is another the perfect example of this tactic in action.  Smaller stores move into a space with bigger “anchor” stores in hopes of enticing walk-by traffic that are headed to the anchor store.  Ever see what happens to a strip-mall when all the anchors leave? Not pretty.

As you can see, this rule does not have to be limited to physical location.  Find a synergistic company (preferably outside your industry, but serving same market) and find a way to piggyback on what they are doing anyway. Could be their location, could be their advertising program, could be their branding, could be their research. Find that angle and work it.

Tip 3: The Identity Kit and Ruthless Branding

The marketing maxim that a person needs to see something 6-7 times before it registers still holds true after all these years. But remember, just because you are on the internet does not mean that it does not apply everywhere.

Create an identity kit including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, fax templates, email signatures, folders. Make sure everything includes your logo, business name, and tagline if you have one. A nifty trick is to also use your logo as your profile picture for message boards and social media sites. A crucially important step is to make sure you are consistent offline and online. Same logo, same fonts, same color palette. When this works well, it will look like your company is EVERYWHERE. Better yet, it’s dirt cheap.

Tip 4: Keep your Customers Happy

 

This should be a no-brainer, but I see it happen time and time again with web-based businesses.  All of the emphasis is put on generating traffic and new leads, while current customers are left to wither and rot.  The truth is that keeping a customer is 5-7 times cheaper (that’s 700% kids) than acquiring a new one. Moreover, the probably of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% whereas to a new prospect it is 5-10% at best. 

What you need to do is put in a customer retention program if one does not already exist.  Communicate with them just as often as new prospects, and give away as much to them as you would to entice a new prospect. Just because it is cheaper to obtain a customer on the internet, does not make that customer worth less. 

Tip 5: Maximize referrals

The IM community is actually starting to make some great progress on this front. However, the problem I am still seeing is that the referrals are still taking place on the prospect side, not the customer side.  Again this ties into rule #4 Keep your customer happy.  For example, you offer a free eBook download and encourage that person to refer 5 friends for an additional bonus.  Until that first person buys something from you they are not a customer, they are still a prospect. 

The critical difference is: When a prospect refers another prospect, you still have to start from square one with the new lead.  When a customer refers a prospect, you have a 50% (yes FIFTY) percent higher chance of making a new sale. 

The take away: Spend AT LEAST as much time creating a referral program for current customers as you do for new leads. 

Tip 6: Form a Joint Venture

The term JV and JV Deal get thrown around a lot on the internet.  In most cases it actually refers to an affiliate program and not a true joint venture. A true Joint Venture is when both you and a partner pony up something to reach a common goal.

For example, say you sell investment real estate. You find that 99% of your customers need to have their property managed after the purchase. What’s the JV no brainer? You guessed it, a property manager. In this case you could form a JV with a property manager to split costs on advertising, office space, technology, or anything else that helps you reach a shared goal. 

Tip 7: Donate your time or stuff

Chances are that you are interested in something outside the internet or business world.  Why not find a way to explore a hobby while helping others and creating some good will towards your business.  The key emphasis on this is subtlety. You don’t want to be doing this only to push your business. Hopefully you should get something out of helping people in-and-of itself.  The goodwill is just a bonus.  Albeit a very strong one. 

A great example I saw recently was a realtor who bought a large passenger van and posted a giant picture of his noggin complete with logo, name, and phone number. He had originally bought the van for his customers use when they bought or sold a house with him (Was perfect for moving locally or when new buyers needed to pick up big things like a fridge, dryer, etc)  . This was a great idea itself.  What made it brilliant is when he read a newspaper article that a free after school program was shutting down because they no longer had the budget to ferry the kids from the school to the rec. center.  So what did he do?  He donated his van between the hours of 3-5 to the center. They did the driving and paid for the gas. As you can imagine he became an instant Rockstar in the community. 

Follow up: I spoke to him a year later. His already successful business was up 400% and he was able to cancel all other lead generation marketing. Genius.

To Download a copy of this article in .pdf format, please visit Evil Genius TV.

Hendro Iskandar asked:

By: Hendro Iskandar

As small bisnis owner, before knowing internet marketing, my knowledge about marketing only limited to offline marketing. Where we limitted by area of activity which we can achieve. Advertise our products or service, in limited area, as far as i can manage.While in offline marketing, the work area limited. But in internet marketing,which can be done at home or office, are not limited in area, you can reach people in the worldwide.

Which The Principle of marketing, strong brand image, positioning on the product or service and the difference with another product or service, all things that will help increase our sales, can be done with both marketing. The principles of marketing, can be applied to internet marketing much better, easier, faster and cheaper then offline marketing.

Offline Marketing in example is ‘Microsoft’. With the brand name ‘windows’, and the position as computer operating system, at most used, and the differentiation is inside the windows, quite a lot and user friendly (my individual opinion). Can you imagine, how much money that Microsoft spend just for advertise the product ?

For Internet marketing example is Amazon.com. With the brandname ‘Amazon.com’, the position of greatest bookstore, very famous, and the difference with another bookstore that Amazon.com sell the book online. And i’m sure that Amazon.com spend less money then Microsoft for advertise.

The internet marketing with a strong branding, can attract millions of people come to your website every day, allowing the total purchase existence also quite big. And if you know how to do it, you can have it too. In internet marketing, you don’t need to have your own website. But it’s better if you own one, because your credibility will be better in your customers side.

Run an internet marketing with your own website, will give you opportunity to get income beside your product or service. The best one is, maybe you didn’t know, if in Internet marketing, even you didn’t have any product, you can still get income. That the other difference of internet marketing.

Get to know more deeply the Internet marketing and exploit all the opportunities in it, because I see internet marketing is future business. Why not try to start at right now. . .