Marketing, that big bold and scary word. Most people who are scared of networking don’t fully understand it. And those who do understand the importance of their marketing often are confused about which routes to take to gain exposure, produce leads, drive new members and even build an email list.
With so many ways to market, it can all be so completely confusing to a new entrepreneur. But one must break through all the confusion so that they can make headway in networking and get their product on the move. So how does that work? Let’s look at a few ways.
Google Adwords
Google Adwords will allow you to buy exposure, impressions, and clicks directly from the Google Search, as well as from website owners who promote Google Ads. The ads are relative to your product, in other words, if you are selling Vacuum cleaners and you run an Adwords campaign, Google will advertise your product around keywords you choose, such as Vacuums or Sweepers. When that happens, your ad runs on related search terms and related sites.
It’s a great way to advertise but it can also be really costly. You should read up on the best practices so that you don’t waste a lot of money needlessly before you begin a campaign. In addition, Adwords often does a promotion for $50 for Adwords campaigns. Maybe call them up and ask about it.
Social Media
Unlike Adsense, social media starts out free. If you are good at cultivating a crowd, coming up with cool campaigns and being the almighty viral, this could do well for you. Many people start out just inviting friends to like their pages, then grow from there. But you can also, like Adsense, pay to promote your website directly or the Facebook page associated with your product. Which you do really depends on your own personal goals.
Thought not spoken of much anymore, this is still something to consider. The production cost is a lot higher, typically the returns a lot lower, but since print’s decline, many advertising deals have come to fruition. It’s something to consider if you can get a good deal.
Before spending a boatload of money on media buying it never hurts to do your market research first.
Check Fulfillment Process Does Not Have To Be A Hassle
Employees in any company are always looking forward to their next paycheck. This is not to say that every one of them dislikes the work that they do. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of employees who do enjoy what they do. However, the check fulfillment process is necessary regardless of are our bank printing and mailing services.
Who Could Knew Payroll Be So Expensive?
Employee payments are just the first cost that businesses incur when they go about getting those checks out. They must also tackle the cost of processing all of that money in the first place. This means possessing equipment to send out all of those checks must be available. Plus it means having a payroll department that is fully staffed by people who must also be paid. In short, just getting employees paid is a hefty expense for companies. However, those that outsource the process do not have as much to worry about.
Benefits To Outsourcing Payroll Checks
For most companies, the benefits of outsourcing payroll checks far exceed the costs. For one thing, the actual monetary costs are far lower for those who outsource. The outsourcing company hires a full staff of people to work on many accounts and can, therefore, handle your company’s along with all of the others just fine. They reduce the overhead costs that you otherwise would be paying if you were handling the payroll internally.
Another critical factor for a lot of employers is that outsourced providers have a record of reducing errors. They accept the responsibility of getting payroll done correctly, and they, therefore, take their jobs very seriously. The error rate of most outsourced providers is far lower than what one finds when they handle the payroll process themselves.
These along with other variables are a great reason to select an outsourced provider for payroll services and your accounts payables outsourcing also.
When And How To Protect Your Company Brand
Your company brand is your masthead, whether it is online or out in the real-life world. People will remember a consistent brand. People will associate a brand with feelings. People will hopefully always remember your brand even when you change it, they should always know who you are. But many companies don’t understand how to protect their brand and keep that brand in good standing. We don’t want people to look at our Check Issuing logo and think “horses are cool,” we want them to think “that’s an amazing third party check distribution company.” See how that works? I know nothing about horses, so the former would be terrible. But what are some good things to do to make sure your brand is protected?
Don’t say stupid things on social media
This is the number one thing you need to pay attention to. We live in a culture where daily someone ruins their brand on social media. Whether its a Tweet interpreted as insensitive to a tragedy or someone tweeting something that seems racially insensitive. Set strict guidelines for content posted on social media about your company and make sure you have someone competent in charge of it. Too many companies just hire the cheapest person they can find, but if those people know nothing about PR, it might be a bad idea. Social Media is your PR, it is a direct voice of your brand. It needs to be in check and it needs to leave your followers feeling good about your brand.
File a trademark with Google
Google Adsense, pending you use them for brand promotions, has a way to allow you to file a trademark. If you have a trademark on your company, this is a great step to protect your brand and stop people from bidding on your company name. Its not an incredibly easy process, but it can help. There are lots of strings attached, but definitely worth looking into.
Get a color pallet and work from it
I see this mistake all the time. Always make sure you have a color pallet for your logo and site design. This way, when you update that logo, you can pull from the same colors so as your brand name, while changed, remains identifiable and familiar to all who know you. If you look at the big brands out there, that’s what they do and it is why even when they change a logo, you still know who they are.
The Best Marketing Ways To Sell A Product
When some people hear the word “sales,” they clamor up into an elastic and sweaty skin wrapped another person. Sales are, or at least can be, pretty intimidating, particularly if you are someone who has never really done them. But sales is the essence of moving products and services, if no one sells them, no matter how great they may be, they never get used. Some companies hire professional sales reps who sell for a living, while others take a more relaxed approach to it all. No matter, these sales tips should help anyone who is either nervous about sales, or just plain new.
1) Know your product. Know your product inside and out. If possible, use the product daily. If you work for a company or a vendor, request that they send you the product. Many salespeople go badly wrong by not actually knowing the product all that well. You need to have an intimate relationship with the product so that you can encourage others to use it.
2) Learn to talk slower. Ever hear the President speak? There is a reason for that. Nervousness causes us to talk faster because our heart is beating faster, we often don’t even realize we are doing it. The key to selling anything is for the person to be able to understand the pitch. Speak clearly, speak slowly and get your pitch across.
3) Be meeting oriented. Instead of “call you tomorrow,” you want “which of the following times work for you?” Being vague on a time to speak means further delays in capturing the business.
4) Your method of communications should reflect the potential buyer’s culture. This is a very strange thing to say, but let me explain. If you are going to pitch a technology company, well you might offer up a Skype conference call. They probably use Skype, you look more modern in terms of communications when you suggest it, and it works well. But forcing a company that doesn’t understand Skype to install it, or suggesting it and having them feel that they don’t understand, will not work favorably for you.
5) Be grateful for people’s time. Send thank you notes, emails, or whatever. You can even send cookies. Just be thankful.
Promote Your Product With Email Campaigns (How To)
Remember when email died? I believe that was around 2008. And it stayed dead for a couple of years. The articles professing emails desperate future were rampant online. I used to spit on my email when I’d open it just for sake of consistency. It made me feel better.
But then something miraculous happened: Email came roaring back. It was, as Phil Collins has professed in his famous ballad, “Against All Odds.” When snail mail died it just died. It hasn’t returned unless you could use all those crappy, useless Chinese restaurant ads.
Part of the reason email came back so strong is that Gmail figured out how to apply to the label to inboxes and inherently (and intelligently) deal with massive spam. Spam, in some respects, became legitimate offers for people looking for unique offers and discounts. Now you can create your best email campaigns by using these tips for email marketing.
Tips for Email Marketing
The point is, your business most likely should be running email campaigns.
To start, you need to collect emails. Without emails, you are emailing no one. And “no one” isn’t super profitable. Collecting emails isn’t difficult, but it does take a little time and effort. One should always consider giving something free away in exchange for an email address. It could be as easy as a short, free ebook regarding your business sector or as complex as a free shirt (that’s gonna cost). You can also just ask for the email and promise the consumer lots of amazing updates.
When you email, you want to make sure you use a great subject line. You don’t want to keep pounding out unoriginal template sounding mailers.
“Checkissuing’s Weekly Articles” sounds a lot better as “This week, learn to email customers better.” I mean, which is more enticing to you? This works well for email marketing for small businesses.
Don’t over mail them, but, don’t let the list go cold. You don’t want to collect emails for a year and then email them for the first time. Many people may not even know why they signed up, in these cases, they will just mark you as spam and delete you.
Don’t be overly aggressive with images. The text is still our best way of communication. It doesn’t mean don’t use images at all, it just means consider the user’s load times and the fact that many people have image loading shut off in their email.
Emailing is back. Join the party. And hey, if you liked this article, give us a call today and let’s see about doing a little business.
Quick Tips To Grow Your Email List
Email marketing has been making a huge comeback as of late. It never really went away, but people were not focusing on it as much. Welcome back the email! First and foremost, do yourself a favor and if your company does not market through emails, then get started. If you do email marketing, then great! Either way, let’s take a run through some quick tips to not only grow your list of emails but to keep subscribers happy as well. This is very important! You want to have a lively list of people who actually open and click through emails.
An Easy To Find Email Subscription
Without being totally annoying, place email subscriptions on your business website. Make them easy to find. Most likely if somebody is surfing around on your site and eager to learn more, they will sign up. Again make it easy to find and please try to make it a simple sign up. Don’t ask people for too much information. Nobody wants to give out their phone number and address.
Special Offers & Free Stuff
Try to occasionally toss in a handout. We all love to get stuff…especially at cheaper rates and even more so when it is free! What you really need to know is who is your audience? What do they want more of? This is what is going to define your email marketing as a whole and help to produce some really fantastic email campaigns.
Social Comments
People tend to be scared of this one because it can go either way. Your audience can love you but they can be very angry with you as well. But the more people are talking about you, the more people are seeing you in their eye line. The point here is to allow social comments and social shares in your emails. If people see something great they will very likely talk about it and share it all over their social media. What does this do? It creates a much bigger audience and reaches for you. Hey, if the random person says something not so great, you at least can solve the problem by replying to their comment. Social media is huge and can strengthen your list greatly.
With these quick tips, you will see some results. With a healthier sized list comes more ways to market…which soon leads to higher revenue. You can only win!
