What can be a very positive marketing technique for many businesses can be made to resemble the presence of the proverbial ‘snake oil salesman’. Consumers know something is wrong even if they can’t always immediately identify what the problem might be.

This process is a bit like attempting to draw a caricature. You blow certain aspects out of proportion and the end result can seem a little cartoonish.

I suppose the one internal regulator for overdoing your marketing strategies would be the rudimentary idea of the Golden Rule. When you treat people the way you want to be treated it can change the way you do business.

Some may contend that adopting a customer first perspective is antithetical to capitalism, but I think it can actually enhance your bottom line long-term.

When you develop a business with the focus on what you can get from other people you will likely need to keep recruiting new people to feed your personal need for capital. However, when you focus your time and energy on defining and meeting the needs of customers you are likely to discover those customers come back. In essence you can concentrate on building relationships and less on finding people who have never heard of you before.

In an online environment there seems to be a strategy of finding a new name and developing a new site with new products when a business has exhausted the goodwill of people who recognize their business by sight and rejects the heavy handed and less than reputable mode of marketing.

The feeling is if they can represent themselves as something altogether new then old customers might come back oblivious to the ruse.

The problem with this mindset is that the business owner always has to try to be one step ahead of total disaster. Big promises may be made, but the truth is often less acceptable than the fictional account of customer satisfaction.

I think one of the most interesting marketing techniques I’ve encountered is when an existing, but less than reputable site develops secondary sites to help bring customers in. This isn’t some strange affiliate revenue idea it is building sites that represent themselves as consumer research or medical sites. The content focuses on the primary products the business owner is selling and will rank the business as number one. This is supplemented by testimonials and expert analysis.

The problem is the consumer research site is biased because the consumer research site is owned and developed by the very business it ranked at number one. Essentially the business site becomes their own personal relations firm by creating sites that are designed to pat them on the back. Most of the time buyers are unaware of the link.

Many times I have run across a product and I want to know more about it. I do a quick online search and ultimately find a site that is endorsing the product and often reads like a press release for the company. This is typically a red flag for me and should be a caution for consumers as well. This concept remains a primary example of obsessive marketing practices.

My menu ranged from an 8" sub for $4.99 to a 14 oz Strip Sirloin for $18.99. I had something to satisfy every one's taste and wallet.

These 10 steps may not work for everyone; however, if you own a small mom and pop pizzeria, café, deli, etc, these are great ideas to bring in the bodies and boost sales.

1. Make your menu affordable to everyone. Don't leave anybody out

   Lunch time is usually a time for customers to get in and out. You'll always want specials on the board that are quick and easy; and cheap. You need to produce efficiently to get the customers in and out as quickly as possible.
   Dinner time is a more relaxed experience for customers. They will take their time when choosing menu options and they will look at a wider range of choices. It is always a great idea to offer options that range anywhere from $7.99 for a Spaghetti &Meatballs to a Heavy NY Strip for $18.99. You are, therefore, opening the menu to different customers and wallet sizes.

2. Advertisement on a Local Radio Station

   If you can find a local radio station, usually it ends up being an AM station to advertise for you, it will significantly boost your sales. I did this with an AM station every Monday morning. The disc jockey would ask me questions about specials, my background, location, menu items, do we serve alcohol, etc. I was allotted a time slot for every week. I would often mention specials for the listeners and as soon as I hung up the phone, my phone lines would blow up before I was even open for business. The cost to me was around $170.00 a month. That's a fraction of funds compared to advertisements in local newspapers or magazines. I had drones of people coming in to meet me that heard me on the radio.

3. Lucky Rock Bags

   This was about the most powerful forms of advertisement for me. Take a box of sandwich bags, put a river rock in the bag to weigh it down, and include your menu, a coupon, upcoming specials, and locations. You throw these out on people driveways. The typical reaction when people call is that they received a bag in their driveway and this was the first time they were trying the restaurant or heard of you. Unfortunately, you will have a choice few that will be upset that the bag that actually landed in their driveway was purposively thrown in a bush or on their perfectly manicured lawn. I usually shrug these people off since they have never worked a day in their life in a restaurant. After all, we have free speech and this is a way for you to get your name out. That's all I tell them.

4. Participate in Food Competitions to increase customer base

   I have participated in these for a couple of years now and the feedback you get is incredible. There are hundreds of people that are walking around trying local fare. You can meet and greet the locals, tell them about yourself, and hand out menus. It's also a great way for potential customers to sample your items before they visit your location.

5. Write a blog to gain customers

   There are so many resources available on the web for you to write about your restaurant. Most of the time these websites are free and they will get the word out about specials you're running, location, menu items, and other pertinent information about your particular restaurant. Some of the best websites for blogging on restaurants is chowhound, cooks, and pizza.com.

6. Have a Newspaper write an Article

   I had one of the most popular newspapers from the area do an article about the restaurant in January 2007. They interviewed some of my best customers from my base and asked them to put their two cents in. They took a picture of me cooking in my chef jacket. The article was a lovely rendition of my life as a chef, my background, and my favorite items to cook. Trust me, it worked. I was still busy 6 months after the article came out. This was due to the fact that I retained a new customer base and customers were traveling for 2 hours to get to my restaurant.

7. Make a club and Email List

   I formed a pizza of the month club. I would provide the customers with an XLarge specialty pizza, 6 garlic rolls, 2 desserts, 2 salads, and one appetizer for $39.95 twice a month. It's your club, so you can do what you want to. Be creative. You can create an email list within this club to let your customer base know the monthly specialty pizza or upcoming events.

8. Wine Tastings

   Depending on your clientele, this is an extremely lucrative way to have other streams of income coming in. This is, of course, is dependent on if you have a Beer and Wine License. You can combine your food with the type of wine the wine guy has brought for tasting. This does take some more extensive planning but, on many occasions, I have taken in $75.00 a head for a night of food and spirits.

9. Cooking Classes

   Provide classes to your customers each week about a particular aspect of cooking, a technique, a type of cuisine, etc. This can be worked around your restaurant hours. This is a great way to develop relationships with your customers.

10. Catering

    This is a lot work and often times you need a lot of employees to help. You need a form of transportation that will safely transport the food without diminishing the quality. This requires planning and knowledge. Knowing the portions sizes for a certain amount of people; remembering every item to take with you for service. I have worked with one of the top Catering Executive in the Country. I have extensive experience in this field of expertise.

 

 

With the current laws regarding spam, marketers now utilizing the power of email, are now forced to use the safelists or suffer the legal consequences in turn.

What are safelists? Safelists are email services, where a user in particular agrees to receive email, at the email address they use to opt in with. This can be done in many ways. Simply be signing up for something free on the Internet, or intentionally joining a safelist, one thing is for sure... If you put an email address into a form on the Internet, it is likely that one way or another, your name may be sold, and/or used in a safelist somewhere along the lines.

Therefore, if you sign up for something with a particular email address, do not be surprised to find your inbox overloaded with junk mail!

More often than not, when a marketer joins a safelist, they are likely to be advertising to other advertisers' alike, and at times will end up sending an email advertisement for a product or service to a person selling the exact same thing!

Now, the upside is that this will not happen all of the time, and in fact, some of your fellow advertisers that may get your email, may very well be looking for your particular product or service, which can very well result in a sale for you.

At this time, let me use a particular, standard, free safelist as an example here…

Let's just say that you have joined a free safelist that has 10,000 members, and allows you to email every 48 hours, which is a fairly typical standard these days.

Here is what my experience is on such an example

First, in my opinion, there are probably going to be around 1,000 of those people that either will never check their email, or no longer even have the email associated with that particular safelist anymore.

9,000 left to receive your email

Now, out of the 9,000 people left, I would say about 4,000 or more have a particular “list address” that they only use for the purpose of receiving email in turn, so they can continue their advertising campaigns, and login about once a week to blindly delete all email, just to keep a clean inbox, and never opening one single email at all.

5,000 left to receive your email

Ok, at this point I will figure that about 5,000 will now at least login at some point, and perhaps glance over the initial page of emails. I figure that about 2,500 of those people take a quick glance, then delete, with the remaining 2,500 staying to perhaps check out a few adds before clearing out their inbox.

2,500 left to receive your email

Now, I estimate that the 2,500 left are going to do a few different things here. They are going to look at the adds somewhat quickly, and the subject title that catches their attention may actually get them to click and open that particular email. Out of all the emails, in their overloaded inbox, yours is in there somewhere.

Again, in my personal estimates, I am saying that 1% will actually find your particular email, and actually click on it!

I am estimating that about 25 people will actually click, and see your add!

Out of those 25 people, I am going to say that 15 take a glance, and leave forever.

The remaining 10 will stay and read a little longer, and a few people will actually draw interest, and start clicking on some of your offers.

Let's just say, that this particular add blast worked and you actually got one sale!

You know what? That would be very, very, very good!

Personally, I utilize 3 paid listers, and about 25 free ones just with the email advertising alone.

Past this, I have a website that I submit to search engines, and free online article submissions as well. You can find these by doing a search in your favorite search engine(s) and it definitely adds a boost in your campaign(s)…

At any rate, just don't give up on the safelists so soon.

Do not look at it like, “Well, I sent to over a million people and nobody bought, so I guess I will just give up…”

Look at some of the variables first. You may think that you mailed to 10,000 or even 1 million, but the fact is, only a small amount of those numbers will actually see your add. That is why you need to be creative, and write up one of the best, catchy subject lines you can think of, without violating ethics, law, etrc…Essentially, do not put such things in your subject line as, “Account terminated”, “Notification of payment”, etrc…Not only is this a dirty tactic, but often in violation of the safelist, and only looking to get you into a lot of trouble.

Oh yes, I almost forgot…”The time of day to send your add!”…Well, you may already know this but many of these email servers vary greatly! Some send your add right away, others' are delayed, and some put you on a “first come, first served” basis. I have no problem sharing some of my personal stats with you here as well. My sales for some reason take place between 9:00am - 1:00pm Mountain time, and what is even stranger is that, this seems to occur mostly on Wednesdays and Saturdays for me. I hope that helps you out with your email campaigns.

Most importantly, never, ever spam! If you send an email to someone with a particular offer, that the recipient never agreed specifically to receive, you are spamming. It is also considered spam to answer an add with your own add. Very bad idea!

Good luck, and happy sales!

When planning on building a network think about the places and the people that you already know and use what and whom you know to build the foundation of your new network.

Consider the places that you visit; the nightclub, the bowling alley, your college or the office, just for example, and use these opportunities to make new friends and invite them into your network. Don't forget to get their full name, email address and/or phone number, because this information will become part of the value of your network of friends and potential business partnerships.

Now, consider you friends and family and family friends, because these are people that you know on a personal basis and you know who they really are and what they really do. If you were building a network to exchange information about skilled trades such as; plumbing, painting, roofing, etc., then if you already know the person that you are dealing with, then you would automatically know where this person would fit in best in your network. The same would be true no matter what kind of network that you start.

Some people believe that any good network really needs is the person's name and a way to reach them and that pretty much sums it up. Whether your communication method is dialing a cell phone or sending an email or airmailing a message on the leg of a carrier pigeon, the object is still the same - make contact at all costs.

On the Internet, there are hundreds of ways to meet new people and make new friends, but when setting up a network you really need to fill it with people that will bring the results that you are expecting. You can always build more than one network with each focused on your other interests.

To setup a network using the Internet, all one really needs is a working email address (it is suggested that you use a secondary email address and avoid using your primary email address for networking purposes). Once you have established an email address to use for your network, then you need to join a forum, social network “MySpace or Facebook” (for example) or start playing live action games, where there are other players that you can communicate with while playing the games together.

You need to locate places where you will be able to meet the type of people that your network needs to have a solid foundation and yield the results that meets or exceeds you're marketing expectation.

Networking is all about people and any successful Networker will tell you the importance to be where people are and if you are not where people are, then move yourself to the places that they are at. Do not expect people to seek you out to join your network. It's your network, so you should be the “Seeker”.

If you ever meet a person that you feel uncomfortable being around and no matter how important you think the person, just pass on adding those types of people to any network that you might start. It is always more important that you put your safety first and move yourself to a safe well-lit place. If the person is on the Internet, just change your email or avoid the places where this person knows who you are.

There are a number of reasons to automate these tasks. Email autoresponder marketing is simply free advertising to current and potential customers. This automation can be used to advertise your current services and products, an upcoming promotion or new price lists. Also, for businesses that repeatedly receive the same questions asked in emails, this is a perfect way to personalize and respond to those questions. Perhaps you want to offer your visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as recommendations. All of this can be handled by autoresponder scripts. Additionally, this becomes a free commercial of your business and provides a way to build constant relationships with your customers.

Personalize Your Messages

Attach a signature line. Your signatures act as your business cards. Include your name, company website, your contact numbers, and a brief tag line.

Always attach a signature line and tag line to every email you send out. This acts as a repeated reminder of your business. It creates your identity every time a potential and current customer sees it. The more they look at that signature, the more likely your company will leap to mind. Additionally, a great tag line will create an instant identity in the customer's head. When the customer needs your particular service or product, that tag line will be their first thought.

If you employ other staff, have them create a uniform signature line that everyone can use, or let each employee personalize their own signature with a different spin on the company. And for the home based entrepreneur with no additional staff, you can also utilize this concept by adopting several creative tag lines that influence a new campaign. This is a great marketing ploy that will bring exposure to you company. Certainly, like everything in the business world, there are rules and guidelines to creating your personal signature.

Pay attention to the length of your signature and keep your text between four to six lines. Ensure your email program doesn't cut off your text! Plan your content, but make sure you include your name, the company name, email address, phone number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Finally, don't forget a short personal message or tagline about your company. It should be memorable and a understated sell of your services or products.

High Quality Autoresponders

Many companies place a lot of time and effort into their autoresponders. They understand the affect and potential outcome on current and would-be customers. Developing a high quality autoresponder can help pull in another 10% of sales. And while overlooked by many, your best competitors understand the game and know which marketing tools to enlist. This is just another instrument to utilize; an additional voice to get the word out about the greatness of your products and services.

Conclusion

Autoresponders are an effective and authoritative email marketing tool, thrusting your message in front of thousands of potential customers. This is a priceless asset considering how many potential customers are on the internet searching for your particular product and service. Essentially, an autoresponder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.

The first step is to register your business. How this is done varies depended on the Province or State that you live in. It usually doesn't cost a lot. At least not enough to break the bank! After that, you have a decision to make. Do you want to charge sales tax when offering goods and/or services? It may seem like a disadvantage to have to charge tax, but there are advantages as well. For example, a business looks more professional if tax is charged. Another reason is that many people are eligible to claim the sales tax that they have generated on their income tax at the end of each year.

If you don't know what it's like to be the administrator of a website, you will find out, because most businesses should have websites. Websites give your potential customers the information that you would otherwise have to explain over the phone or through email. Many people think, "Oh my god, that's going to be expensive!" when they hear about creating a website. The truth is, there are companies that offer website hosting services for free. Doodlekit is a great one. Doodlekit allows you to register a domain name, and then all you do is add the content into your website. Anyone can do it, because it's really easy. Best of all, it's free!

What about email? Having a business email is extremely important if you are to be successful. Getting a business email is free, and as simple as one, two, three! Many people have told me over the years that while Hotmail is convenient, it isn't professional enough to be a business email server. I use mail.com. With mail .com you can choose whatever name you want to be recognized by. For example. If your business is called "The Cool Cleaners," then you might want to make your business email address coolcleaners@mail.com. This makes your customers see your profession, instead of your desperation for business when you want them to email you at thechickmagnet@hotmail.com!

It may seem like a lot to take in, but there's more, so you might want to make a cup of tea! There is a line between making a professional business, and going to far. Going to far can be defined as buying a shop or office building for your business, or buying some supplies in bulk before your business even opens. To start, your home should be the headquarters of your business. You have to remember that if your business doesn't succeed, and you have already purchased a shop for it, then you will be stuck making payments on a building you don't even use. And think, if you want to start a knickknack store that doesn't succeed, what are you going to do with a hundred porcelain dogs that know one will buy!

There's no need to panic if your business doesn't take of immediately. It can be a very sad thing to wake up on the first day that your business is open, only to check you email and see, "No new messages." The trick is to advertise, spread the word. Make business cards. My family owns a business and at first, it looked like a total failure, until it started to pick up gradually. It will take time, but if you set your mind to it, soon, you to, will have a successful business started.

Its important for you, to answer email within 24 hours minimum. Avoid having your response delayed for over 48 hours. To accomplish this you will want to set aside time each day just to respond to emails. Some say three times a day, morning, mid afternoon, and evening is because it may take up a good span of time for a good response.

Be sure to respond in a courteous and professional manner. There will be times that you just don't feel like answering a question that has an answer plainly on your website or sales letter, or some question you feel is irrelevant or foolish. You will need to hold back on the urge to send a response in reaction to the way you feel and if you do not feel you can politely and professionally answer, take a break. Come back after taking some time to cool down. To the customer who asked this could be an important part of their decision on whether they will do business with you or not. Do not push away a customer or potential customer with a hasty emotional response.

If you dislike answering email or it becomes overwhelming for you to keep up with. Hire someone to do this task for you. You will want to choose this person carefully. Get someone who has the ability to respond in a friendly manner. Someone who knows your business. This person will need to have the time to commit to this task and will also need the English skill necessary to get a prompt and understandable reply back to the customer.

Some questions will be repetitive. It's a good idea to set up a standard response and file it away, so that you can cut and paste it into your email and then tailor the rest of this to that particular customer.

It is inevitable that our lives will sometimes demand that we make adjustment to our regular routine. We may be set back in our schedules. Making use of an auto responder, by posting it on your website, or by sending out a newsletter quick if something comes up will help you to keep in touch even through challenging times. All people are aware of the fact that things can happen and we understand, just make sure to keep everyone informed on when they can expect a response.

By corresponding on a regular basis to your customers, comments, questions, or concerns, your developing a relationship with them that will make them a happy and loyal group who will help your sales. The bottom line is that if you ignore your customers, they will simply go somewhere else which really defeats the purpose behind your growing business.

Here are some tips for writing emails at work:

1. Keep your message to the point. If your content can't be viewed without scrolling, consider revising your email or including additional content as an attachment. Your co-workers will think more highly of you if you are concise.
2. Although you may be used to writing informally in emails outside of work, treat office emails like all of your professional communications. Pay appropriate attention to politeness and tone as well as punctuation and grammar. Because someone reading your email cannot see your expression or body language, he or she may take something you say in the wrong way, even though you don't intend any offense. Consider cultural differences when communicating with overseas colleagues.
3. Ask specific questions to trigger the feedback you want, but don't ask bog the reader down with too many. Set questions apart from other text through bolding, highlighting, or bullet points.
4. Remember that people generally perceive capitalization as shouting, so avoid this and don't use strange fonts and colors that might seem less than professional
5. Draft a subject line that immediately conveys the topic you want your reader to consider. Your email will more likely be opened and responded to. Include actions required and due dates. People often search emails by their subject lines so include easily searchable keywords in your subject lines.
6. Consider when signature lines and confidentiality statements are appropriate. Internal communications may or may not require these.
7. For god's sake, don't hit “reply all” to say “thanks.” Consider what sort of information should be shared in a group email response and use discretion.
8. Always ask yourself if the topic of the email should be expressed in a phone call or a face-to-face conversation. There is always the danger that a private email will be seen by more than just its recipient. A phone call or personal conversation provides more opportunity for immediate discussion, which may be invaluable in a given situation.
9. Ok, for the obvious tip, avoid sending personal emails at work and keep them very short (like, “call me”) if you do. You don't have an expectation of privacy in emails you send from a company computer.
10. Really annoyed at a co-worker? Take a deep breath and don't send that email response right away - the worst time to be firing off an email is when you're angry. You'll read it later and will probably be embarrassed and even if you're justified, odds are you won't come out looking good. Respond to any emailed questions concisely and without emotion and if you need action, engage your co-worker in a way that considers his or her motivations. The win-win strategy, where you try to get what you need while allowing your co-worker to get what he or she needs usually works out better in the long run.

If you have, then good on you! But is your emails converting? Remember, the focus is to sell your product/service, not to tell your customers that your boss just gave birth to twins...

Email marketing is not like sending a 1,500 word essay to your customer. Remember internet users do not have patience. Therefore, your design should be:

• Straight to the point: Bullet pointed features would be useful.
• Use thumbnails: If you have products for sale, put a pretty thumbnail of the product to attract them.
• Upselling: Try to offer some more things. Let?s say if you have received an order, why don?t you send a thank you email and offer some related/extension products?

Happy emailing!

As such, it is important to learn email marketing strategies that have a high CTR (click through rate) on the emails that are sent out - to maximize income and not waste the time of uninterested parties. Finally, marketers can attract people who submit emails or purchase products in a number of ways, though the best strategies will depend upon what a person is marketing.

Context and History: The current email marketing industry has been largely shaped by FTC and CANSPAM regulations, which stipulate that people are not legally allowed to just go out on the web, find a person's email address and send them unsolicited mail. This came in response to spammers who would simply create programs that automatically searched for and copied down email addresses from all over the web. In light of that fact, email marketers need to find other ways of getting emails of people who may be interested in purchasing the market's or in using their affiliate merchants (which give a marketer a commission for referring customers or clients).

Getting Email Addresses: The best way to get e-mail addresses is with what is called a "rapid conversion" page, that quickly gets people interested enough to voluntarily submit an email address to a system or website. For example, someone might want to promote or sell X-Box games. They can make a nice-looking but simple site that talks about how neat the X-Box and mentions a company that has great discounts on (or a vast selection of) games. One that person inputs their email address to find out more, a marketer is allowed to contact them. The advantage of this from the marketer's standpoint (and ethically) is that they are not sending out emails about X-Box games to just anyone. Instead, they are targeting only interested people.

Sending Emails: Next the marketer must decide the content of the emails they plan to send. Typically diversification is the key to this. They might have their own game-selling site (using the above example again) but it might not be the best for everyone's needs. For example, the marketer might only sell games, but what if the person they send the e-mail to wants to rent games? This dilemma has a simple solution: a marketer can add affiliate links to their emails as well as product descriptions. Affiliate links work as follows: a person who clicks them gets taken to a page (e.g. Netflix for games).

Then, if they make a purchase (or in some cases if they even fill out an informational form or sign up for a free trial) the marketer gets a commission or other reward for just bringing the person there. By splitting targets like this, an email marketer can maximize their revenue and do the most good for their clients. On the one hand, the marketer makes money either way - by selling a product or referring a person. On the other hand, a client has more choices and is more likely to find what they are looking for.

Maximizing Traffic: Email marketers can use PPC advertising (such as Google Adwords or MSN Adcenter) to bring people to their landing page, but these services cost money (from a few cents to a few dollars per click). They can also promote their landing page for free through SEO (search engine optimization) or other techniques, including blogs or forums.

What approach an email markter takes to getting people to a selected page depends upon (1) how much they are willing to initially invest in the project and (2) how much they think they will earn, on average, from each person who visits their landing page or referred site. If they are experienced and quite sure they make an average of $5 per visitor then it is clearly well worth the investment to pay Adwords $.50 to get people to a page in the first place.

If they are not as sure about their page's potential success, they should try getting free traffic as mentioned above and see how well it does. If it performs well, they can up the ante and start paying to market the page.