Business and Finance

Fortune 500 Companies know the importance of market research. That’s why they conduct something called a concept test before launching any new product or service.

Don’t you wish you could do the same thing? Well, here’s the good news: you can.

First of all, you’ll need to sit down and clearly delineate exactly what your product or service is, including what features and benefits it will offer and how much it will cost. Typically, you’ll write 2-3 paragraphs describing your idea, making sure to clearly explain the benefits to the consumer. This is your concept statement.

Next, develop a survey to gauge the reaction of your target market, covering the basics:

- Purchase interest (i.e., How likely are you to buy this product, if it were available to you? A) Definitely will buy, B) Probably will, C) I might, D) Probably will not, E) Definitely will not buy.)

- Overall Likes and Dislikes

- Value

- Uniqueness

Make sure you include a range of possible responses for each question.

From here, you’ll need to determine exactly what the target market is for your new product or service – if your product is a new all-natural diet soda, for example, your target market might be health-conscious women, ages 20-45.

Talk with friends, family, and friends-of-friends, as well as those of your employees. Anywhere from 50-200 people will work. Giving respondents an anonymous way to return your survey will help to ensure unbiased feedback.  Read more...

A. Lead Management Module:

1. Ability to import clients and leads from excel into the system (we shall need a sample format)

2. With Lead Management Module you can try and convert your every lead into customer. The Module is used to manage all the sales leads online.

3. You can send automated reminders to your leads. You can send SMS as well as customized & personalized email reminders.

4. You can keep track of your each and every sales leads online.

5. Lead Management Module is the best way to pull your leads without making call or following up personally.

6. You can promote all your products/ services on a regular basis to your leads and customers.

7. Create multi-step nurturing sequences that automatically warm your leads so they buy from you when the time is right and not from your competitors

8. Follow up with every single lead without fail to ensure you don’t waste your advertising expenditure

9. Automate your work flow so you and your employees can do a lot more in less time

10. Track where every single lead and customer comes from and report on conversion rates and ROI so you can make informed decisions

B. Customer Management Module:

1. Ability to import clients and leads from excel into the system (we shall need a sample format)

2. You can store contact details of all your customers online.  Read more...

All marketing resources will eventually talk about your marketing mix, but what do they mean exactly? Marketing mix is a term that the marketing world tries to hold as a private term that only the industry knows about, but as a small business owner, you need to understand how to plan and implement your marketing mix.

The marketing mix is defined as the four P’s of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. These four areas make up the complete outline for product or service marketing. Once you have defined the variables for each P, you have a basis for proper marketing.

Market research will play a major role in each area of your marketing mix. You must understand what you are competing with in regards to products and pricing. Although you may have a new and unique item with an innovative type of distribution, you still must compare your product or service to existing ones.

Here are the four P’s of your marketing mix for small business marketing.

P #1: Product

The product or service or selling must be defined first. What are you selling? How will it be packaged? Determine your product’s features, and then build the benefits from them. At this point, you will make all of the decisions relating to your product or service: style, quality, packaging, warranty, etc.

P#2: Price  Read more...

Using these Internet Marketing Strategies to market your small business online will get the best return on investment and allow you to dominate your competitors plus you will be paying less for your clicks than your competition.

You don’t have to be afraid of the Google slap when you apply these basic rules when using Google Adwords.

When you are using Google adwords for an affiliate campaign your job will be to pre-sell the prospect before they go to the company sales page. There are several ways to do this.

When you are writing copy for your pre-sale landing page keep in mind you are helping someone find a solution to their problem or pain. People will always move away from pain into pleasure, you just have to show them how.

If you always keep solving the person’s problem your focus you will never have to sell them, they will want the solution you are offering them.

Google is doing the same thing. Their concern is on the millions of eyes that read their search results and ads. These are the people they are trying to please by giving them what they are searching for. So if you always keep your solution as relevant and targeted to the problem of your prospect the easier it will be to sell the product.

When you do this Google will reward you by charging you less for your clicks. The people in the number 1 spot of the Google sponsored links are paying less than the people below them. It is all about relevancy.  Read more...

When considering different forms of advertising, always think about postcards. When I refer to postcards I mean 4 inch by 6 inch (4″x6″) flyers. I have many reasons to use them, especially in small business marketing, and I have found them to be very effective. Here are five good reasons why postcards should be included in your marketing campaign.

Reason #1: Low cost to print.

4″x6″ postcards are pretty inexpensive to print in comparison to most other printed items. I can have a box of 5,000 cards designed, printed, and delivered for under $500. Brochures can cost that much for 500. When dealing with small business marketing, these flyers can save a huge amount on marketing and printing costs.

Reason #2: Size.

I’m sure everyone has seen a 4″x6″ flyer at some point. Many times they are placed on your car or left in your door. These flyers are easy to handle, distribute, and save. If someone receives a 4″x6″ flyer with coupons on it, they are more willing to save it than if they receive the same coupons on an 8.5″x11″ sheet of paper. Obviously, everyone will have different reasons for using flyers, but 4″x6″ postcard-size flyers are effective in just about every situation.

Reason #3: Postage Costs.  Read more...