As I picked up my usual brand of shampoo, I noticed that it was, in fact, Shampoo 4.0. This must be the latest upgrade!

This little shampoo bottle got me thinking about our new business culture. Traditional business helped develop the online world. Then an interesting shift took place. The online world took on a whole new business culture, which now influences our offline world. So how can we take advantage of this cultural shift and get the best out of both worlds?

If you are a consultant in the offline world, you can offer free ebooks or reports to your clients and prospects, online. This persuades your market to visit your website to pick up their free ebook or report. If your site is designed well, maybe they will find other services that they need as well. This can be a great way to increase sales.

If your business is online, try promoting offline for a change. Flyers, postcards, and newspaper advertising are effective ways to reach a whole new sector of the market.

Offline promotions work very well for affiliate programs. The vast majority of all online affiliate programs are promoted online. When you take your promotions offline, you may be pleasantly surprised. I’ve personally seen 5% sign-up ratios to offline marketing campaigns.

Think about your business. How can you get the maximum use out of cross promoting? The bottom line is the more prospects you reach, the more sales you will make and the more profit you enjoy.

Written by: Susan Dunn

1. Resting on your laurels. Just because you have what you think is a good marketing plan in place today doesn’t mean it’ll be right tomorrow. The pace today is so accelerated, you must stay ahead of the game. Constantly research what your competition is doing. Surf the Internet to see what’s new out there.

2. Hype. Sooner or later hype will catch up with you. Being superficial and underestimating the consumer is first of all poor taste, and second of all, it’s bad business. Avoid the jargon and the pat phrases and give substance.

3. Not having an R&D team, focus group or feedback source. Test your ideas on others. There are some absolutely wonderful ads out there that people remember, but they don’t remember the name of the product/company. For example, there was a great ad out a while ago that talked about the Bank of the Northern Hemisphere. Very clever; everyone remembered it. The problem was they didn’t remember the name of the bank you were supposed to use instead.

4. Not trusting your marketing person. If you hire someone to do your marketing, hire someone you trust and then let them do their job. With 20 years marketing experience, I had many interesting job interviews. One corporation asked me, “Can you stick with a plan once it’s in place?” Red flag. Any marketing campaign must be constantly monitored and you need to be able to switch on a dime. An experienced marketing person can see what’s working and what isn’t. It becomes almost a sixth sense. Why would you throw away good money after bad just because changing it is an inconvenience?

5. Not giving it time to work. It’s an adage in marketing that if you’re going to say it, say it at least 3 times. I’ve consulted with individuals, particularly, who send out a brochure, no one bites, they want to abandon it. Generally it takes 3 “hits.” People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadn’t. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is — when you’re sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.

6. Being timid. There really is no such thing as bad publicity, and things will happen. You have to have been through this to know. Several years ago I was marketing an apartment complex and the manager miscommunicated an “early bird special.” The whole unfortunate event made the front page of the local newspaper with stories about parents not being able to buy school clothes for their children, because ….. 6 months later the apartment complex was filled to capacity. People remembered the name of the apartment and nothing else. Carry on!

7. Not being curious. If you have an ezine edition that had a large number of click-throughs, don’t just pat yourself on the back, ask yourself why. Figure out what was different about it — was it on a special day? Was there something different — more graphics, no graphics? A catchy subject line? A new layout? Don’t forget, you can always ask someone who clicked through!

8. Thinking you have to pay for marketing. Use the free options liberally. Establish yourself as an expert on a subject and let the press know you’re willing to be interviewed. When a national news event breaks, make it local. For instance, I’m a coach, and when 9/11 happened, I contacted the press to let them know what coaches had to offer at such a time.

9. Leaving it at home. Prosaic, but we all do it. Your business cards and brochures do absolutely no good sitting in the office. Take them with you!

10. Following the rules. Be as thorough as you need to be. The rule is “be brief,” but say what you need to say. One of the most effective mailers USAA ever did was a 5-page letter. Know the rules. Then break them.

To thrive, you need to live and breathe marketing. Look around you all the time to see what’s out there that’s working and keep your own marketing strategy fresh and vibrant.

When done properly, Information Marketing is the lowest-overhead, highest-revenue-generating business you can possibly run. You don’t ever have to sell face-to-face – this process is entirely automated. You don’t need a single employee – the minimal human resource needs can be completely outsourced.

Examine It!

Have you heard the stories and thought they were crazy?

• A housewife with no Internet marketing experience starts making almost $15,000 a month online within six months
• An “average” guy creates an online business selling birdcages…and sells the business for $173,000 a year later
• A frustrated young father makes six figures within 12 months selling other people’s products

Stories like that are all over the place. They’re real. Examine It!

Mini-sites are one of the most effective marketing tools online. Not only are they effective, but they’re also very inexpensive and easy to create.

The concept is simple. Create a one or two page website that completely focuses on one specific topic. Everything within this page should have one purpose — getting your visitors to take action.

This page should be neatly designed in standard HTML with no Flash or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. There should be no banners or outside links of any kind — nothing that will distract your visitors’ attention.

The sole purpose of a mini-site is to attract highly targeted traffic. The more targeted the better. For example, if you have a website that sells a number of products, a good mini-site will focus on one specific product instead of all of the products. You can create a mini-site for each product you offer.

Designing Your Mini-Site

Each mini-site you create should be optimized for that one specific product. Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases, as this will help you to tighten your targeting. Remember… the tighter the targeting the better.

Title: Your “title” should contain your most important keywords. You’ve probably heard that before, but I’ve found a slightly different method for optimizing the title. Since mini-sites focus on just one product, place the most important keyword phrase first. Not just your most important phrase, but the keyword phrase that you think people will use when they do a search. Instead of capitalizing the first letter, type it in lowercase, as most people type in all lowercase letters when searching. This will assist you in ranking higher in the search engines for your targeted audience.

Description: Your description should focus on one specific product and not generalize. Make sure you include your most important keywords towards the beginning of your description. In addition, make sure your description describes your site in detail. You want your potential visitors to know exactly what you’re offering. Your description should be less than 200 characters.

Keywords: Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases.

Heading tags: Search engines pay close attention to the text displayed within the “heading” tags. Place your most important keyword phrase within a “heading” tag.

Graphic alt tags: Place a readable keyword phrase within your graphic “alt” tags.

Text: All of your text should focus on your product. There should be no filler text whatsoever. It should have one specific purpose — getting your visitor to take action. Make sure you include your keyword phrases throughout your text.

If you’d like to set you your mini-site using tables, try to place your “heading” text above your “table” code. If this isn’t possible, make sure you include your keyword phrases within your top left “table cell” to assist you in ranking higher in the search engines.

Mini-sites are not limited to just your products. They can also be used with any affiliate programs you may be promoting. You can include extra incentives such as a free bonus for purchasing the product or even your personal recommendation. This is a great way to presell the product.

Hosting Your Mini-Site

Although it is much better to have your own domain name, these sites can be hosted on a free server and still rank high in the search engines. Keep in mind free sites do not build trust and credibility. No matter which option you choose, make sure you place your most important keyword phrase (the keyword phrase that you think people will use when searching) within your web address.

DriveTargeted Traffic to Your Site

Once you have tested the effectiveness of your site and have a good conversion rate, (the number of visitors compared to the number of sales) you can buy targeted traffic. Google is the number one pay-per-click search engine and will most likely produce the best results.

The key to using this technique effectively is to bid on “very” targeted keywords. This will weed out the casual visitors and only attract your target audience. There’s no sense in paying for visitors who really weren’t interested to begin with.

In addition to bidding on keywords, you can also advertise in targeted ezines and even purchase some targeted banner advertising. Be creative and take the time to test all of your promotions prior to spending a lot of money.

If you really want to increase your sales, create some mini-sites. They are one of the cheapest and easiest to create profit generators online.

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Examine It!

Online, image is everything. If your website looks homemade, takes ages to load and doesn’t display properly in almost everyone’s browser, you’re in trouble. Your sales will be slow or non-existent.

On the other hand, if you design a clean site, make it easy to navigate, display your products in an organized manner, and use professional graphics, your site will make you more sales and more profit.

But don’t forget content. Content will bring your visitors back again. If your site doesn’t offer something that your target market needs or wants, your image won’t help you. Right now we are assuming that you have a site that offers valuable content. Now let’s spice up your image.

Take a look at these simple techniques to improve the image of your website.

1. Consistency. Make sure that each of your pages has a red thread that ties them together. Your red thread can be as simple as using the same template for each page. If each page looks the same, you develop continuity throughout your site.

2. Font Style. Choose a font or fonts that are easy to read. There are some pretty fancy fonts on the market, which may look appealing, but are almost impossible to read. The majority of the surfing population won’t stick around to decipher your message if it isn’t easy to read.

3. Font Size. On screen, a comfortable font size is 12 pt. If you choose a smaller font size, you risk alienating the segment of your market that requires a bit larger print.

4. Graphic Style. This is the easiest way to create your image. An old-fashioned map and globe in a library setting creates a completely different image than a bikini clad surfer girl on a beach. Your choice of graphics must mirror your content.

5. Layout. A portal style site is an ordered chaos. A lot of information is presented in a minimum amount of space. An ebook sales site, on the other hand, has become a single page mini site that concentrates on one product. You image can be at either end of the spectrum, but most likely somewhere in between.

6. Color. Your color choices are important to your image. A deep blue gives you a business feel, deep green gives you an executive, money feeling, red gives you a good stop effect, but is irritating to look at for long periods of time. Make sure you put some thought into your color choices before you just pick a random color.

These are just the basics, but they will get you started on your image check. Second only to content, your image is your greatest asset. A clean, clear image that mirrors your content will make you more sales.

So you already have a fantastic website? Make some extra money automatically by finding a sponsor for your web site. Get paid for your great content.

Examine it!

The Internet also offers us new tools to succeed. Email makes communications instant whether across the street or across the globe. Websites act as virtual storefronts, allowing us to stay open 24/7. Newsletters inform, educate and even give us an occasional smile.

Yet time has taught us that there is much more to success than simply having a website or using these tools. Recent experience has taught us that the fundamentals of selling haven’t changed, even if the new selling tools are state of the art.

While these new tools may change the function of buying, they haven’t really changed HOW and WHY people buy. Here are several factors that will help you approach people in a way that will persuade them to buy from YOU.

1. People aren’t ON the Internet. They ARE the Internet. The same rules that apply at any retail store should apply to your online “store.” Is your site courteous and inviting? Does your site say in clear terms that you know your stuff and that people will get smart answers? Does your site offer to fulfill a clearly defined need or desire? Give your site a checkup today.

2. People buy online just like they buy offline. If they are buying an impulse item, they’ll click through and spend a buck. If it’s a bigger ticket item, they’ll shop around. Which are you selling? Is the look of your site appropriate to what you are selling? I don’t want to buy designer chewing gum and I won’t buy at a site that looks like it should be selling gum. Would you?

3. People buy what they need, when they need it and can afford it. The key is to give people information that connects with what they need. The good news is that people need the same things they have always needed. Which of us doesn’t long for more time, more money, better relationships with family and friends? The more your message is aligned with these needs, the better you will do.

WHY people make “Buying Decisions”

There are only SIX basic motivators that will trigger any buying decision in the mind of a potential customer. All six are actually deeply rooted in the human psyche, akin to our most common needs and desires.

1. Desire for gain – usually financial, but also to gain in love, power, respect from other people.

2. Fear of loss – usually financial, but also emotional. This trigger may tie to the loss of something already gained, or to the fear of not gaining something that is perceived as a need.

3. Comfort and convenience – convince me that your product or service will make my life easier, simpler, more productive, more worthwhile.

4. Security – will your product or service protect me, my loved ones, my assets, and reduce my fear of loss?

5. Prestige and pride of ownership – although it may not be a psychologically healthy frame of mind, most people do attach self-worth to the ownership of exclusive material items (ie. Rolex watches, designer clothing, limited editions of anything.) Will I be proud to tell my friends that I own or use your product or service?

6. Satisfaction of emotion - will your product or service make me “feel good” about myself, my life, and the world I live in?

The world is a big place and it doesn’t turn on a dime. People will still buy cars just before vacation time and do most of their Christmas shopping about 10 minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve. Don’t buck the trend. Understand and USE people’s existing buying habits and motivations to your advantage, and kick your online efforts into high gear.

Putting your business online is an exciting step whether it’s a new business, or a long established brick and mortar business. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the technical mumbo jumbo. Check out our Hosting Reviews to help take the guess work out of choosing a hosting company.

Examine it!