Im sure many of you are familiar with the original ice cream shop that offers you a taste of any flavor ice cream you want before you make your decision on which scoop you are going to enjoy.
Giving you a taste (or as many tastes of different flavors as youd like) is a brilliant way to ensure that you not only order a cone at that moment, but its also a way to bring you back to try more flavors on another day.
You can use this brilliant marketing strategy in building your business, too. Offering your prospects a taste of what it is that you provide is a proven and easy way to get people to become part of your community, and part of your marketing/product funnel (the funnel is the journey (that builds a relationship over time) that your clients follow from the first visit to your website, where they enter by giving you their contact information, down through each level as they make their way through each purchasing step in the funnel). By offering them a sample, youre giving them an opportunity to get to know you without risking anything more than perhaps a bit of time.
In your marketing/product funnel, the taste you are giving your potential clients is at the top of the funnel, the widest part. The taste is your freebie/complimentary/gift offering and is your first (and usually only!) opportunity to engage your prospect. Your taste needs to be something of value that you offer for free to people who visit your website in exchange for their contact information, usually their name and email address.
This is often one of the most overlooked steps in building an online business. A prospect needs to see your message many times (it ranges anywhere from 5-10) before they will feel confident enough to risk handing over their money to you. In order to build a relationship with people you need to be able to contact them again, which means your goal is to capture their email address before they click away from your website.
If they leave, its unlikely that they will come back, so dont lose the opportunity to welcome them into your community, your funnel. They landed at your website because they were looking for something (usually a solution to a problem they are having, right :)). Give them a taste of the solution you offer. And remember to make it easy for them: make your sign-up form or email so obvious that theyd have to trip over it not to notice it (yes, that includes pop-ups and the like, because even if they annoy you as much as they do me, they work!).
So, what can you offer of value in exchange for their email address A newsletter, an ecourse, an audio clip, or a special report, are all good options. Personally, I like the offer of an ecourse AND an ezine. You give them a taste of what your services are like with the ecourse, and then you keep in touch with them on a regular basis with the ezine. The ezine allows you to build a bond with your readers in a uniquely personal way, letting them get to know, like and trust you over time, with you having to build that bond one-on-one.
So, one caution is to not offer any one-on-one interaction with you at this level. You want to leverage your time, and offering free consultations or one-time meetings with you is not a good use of your time. Let them get to know you over the course of your freebie offering. When and if they become serious about you and your products or services, they will move further down the funnel (from free to fee) without you having to sell them on what you provide during a complimentary session (how nice is that).
So what is your taste going to be Here are some other ideas:
> write a Top Ten article about the benefits of your products and services, convert it to a PDF file, and offer it as a special report.> record a short audio about the three key things your niche needs to know about X.> create a mini ecourse that encompasses the five steps to getting started for your market.> or create a quick-start guide that helps your market focus on how to get started.
Once youve given them a taste, they will likely come back for more, eventually turning from a prospect to a client. Creating a taste of what you provide is easy and its fun. Try it and watch what happens!
Copyright 2005 Alicia Forest
Alicia Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Licensed Coach, & Founder of , helps coaches and other solo service professionals to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately make more money.For FREE tips on how to create your own Client Abundance, visit
Internet Marketing
The continuous and rapid revolution in the advancement of modern era has made every thing so comfortable for everyone and that is the reason why most of the people are fancy to use Internet because of its reliability, speed & performance. Along with message delivering through e-mail, seeking information through searching and browsing, a lot of people are using Internet for online shopping or ecommerce, which have evolved the field of Internet marketing and internet marketing exporters have found an proficient way to find their potential customers.
The dot.com world was about coming up with an interesting idea and finding unknowledgeable investors to throw at them. But we are now back to live in the practical world, where technology can provide business with an edge over their competition (Richard Greenwood)
Marketing is actually the craft of connecting different producers (or potential producers) of product or service with prospects, both existing and potential. Marketers basically use four variables while writing marketing plans and making market strategies. They are sometimes referred to as the four Ps (which are Project, process, people & product). The combination of these variables is referred as Marketing Mix. A marketing mix is the combination of these four variables in a way that will meet or improve organizational objectives. A separate marketing mix is usually crafted for each product offering. Whenever a strategies or plans are build it engages a blend of these four combinations. A strategy of selling expensive beneficial products in discount stores has poor coherency between distribution and product offering.
Drawbacks of Internet Marketing The actual size of the market is usually not available Difficult to get demography and penetration figures Coverage is not consistent There can be lack of authority There is no certain control, which causes lack or reliability
Benefits of Internet marketing Easy, less expensive and comfortable access to the information Most of the information is free There are numerous web sites available through which the required subject can be covered efficiently. Contains a lot of background information Information can be found in a very short time Has a broad geographic scope Briskly improving and increasing Many companies are interested to add their own web pages
Non-stopping development of business online has also augmented the field of online marketing. Before starting any business the most important element, which have the most considerable influence of the success or failure of the business is the initial business idea. For the success of any business there must be a proper business idea along with appropriate techniques to run the business accordingly.
The precise approach towards the Business The business plan for any organization consist of three main parts which are
1. Product 2. Targeted Market 3. Unique Selling proposition (USP)
Product The product is any thing for which you are going to charge your customers. These are the things which you are selling and it can be any thing like books, e-books, electronic items, software to download, it can also be a membership of any online community, a professional service, or any thing else which you are interested to sale. The value of the product is its most valuable feature. The product you are selling should have the following characteristics It should be beneficial for the customers It should be good enough to solve the customers problems Full fill their requirements The product should satisfy the customers
Targeted Market The Targeted market for any business is the audience and the customers to whom the product is being sold.
Even if their analytics provider doesnt partner with a search or e-mail provider, many marketers are now using their Web analytics package to make decisions about their overall marketing plan-and their business in general. (Karen J. Bannan)
Following are some essential points to keep in mind while selecting the targeted audience The targeted market should have an appropriate size It should be large enough to generate a good profit It should be small enough to fit in the total resources of the business If the business is small then it should avoid contending with comparatively large business The targeted audience should be easily reachable on the internet through the particular websites.
USP (Unique Selling Proposition) The USP is basically the market strategy or the motive of the business through which the corporation is connected with the targeted market. It is the most important part of the business idea in which the corporation decides how to persuade the customers and letting them know that how our product is different from any other item on the shelf waiting to be sold. It should influence the customers and provide them with the reasons that why our product is the best solution for their requirements. When we talk about the profit margin, then it may not necessarily be the financial profit only; there can also be many side advantages, which are essential for running the business smoothly.
Establishing your business on Internet Nowadays Internet is not just a source to get information but it is also a very effective place to run you business. Many people are doing their business on internet and even more people are willing to join them. But unfortunately all of them do not get success and there are also many dot-bombs or fail e-commerce startups. This is because of the lack of awareness about the self-education before starting the business.
The best thing about establishing an internet business is that, there is no big investment required to start an e-business, so if the business is dont in a proper way so you can get a good profit without investing too much.
Understanding of Customers For the progress of any business, it is essential to have a good understanding of the customers. This issue becomes even more vital when we talk about the online business, where we mostly have no idea about the customers.
Due to this fact, large corporations are spending millions of dollars on marketing research to get as many information as possible about their customers, which allows them to improve their product and make them according to the appropriate requirement of the customers. Although this research is help full but if the business is so this expense can be avoided. They will try to replicate the in-store experience on many levels, developing applications that enable users to see how something will look on someone. The challenge is to develop applications that simulate the in-store experience while still maintaining the speed, convenience and efficiency of the Internet (Speicher, GCI) It is important to have a sound knowledge of different ways by which customers buy their products. Few points are important in this regard
Vendors should design their offerings to meet the appropriate needs of their customers. Venders can persuade buyers at decisive steps during the buying process. Venders can provide the additional offers for further business.
Trends & Strategies to boost sale in Internet Marketing
Vivid Word Pictures When developing the advertisement of your product, web pages or other or other sales tools, some vivid word pictures should be used to give a pleasant feeling to the customers. It exaggerates their desire to have it and prompt them to buy the product.
Use of appropriate advertising and marketing methods There should be a continuous observation to the advertising and marketing method of the business which ensure the use of latest advertising methods and some old methods which have not been tried.
eBay says it reaches 56.1 million active users. The obvious drawback: A vast majority of those users arent in the real estate market. But to reach those who are, eBay is a tool--like direct mail or news-paper advertising--that some practitioners are using to market listings, drive traffic to their Web sites, and attract new prospects.
Cost of the ads If there are some ads allied with any business then it should be carefully examined that if the size of the ads is bigger then it should be reduced to run more ads for the same cost.
Some times the short ads can provide even more response then longer ads and can provide with a bigger return of the cost.
Postcards advertisements There can also be another effective way of advertising by printing a good small ad on a postcard and then send it to the targeted market. People often read postcards if the message is nice and short. This small ad on a postcard can be very effective at times and can make a very rapid change on the sale of the products.
Inspiring words & phrases Lively words and phrases in the advertisements and sales copies make people interested in the product. Try to find some dull sentences and replace them with some active and lively words to obtain the involvement of the prospects.
Eradicate the fear of lost In the manner of revealing the benefits of your product to the customers the other important aspect is to tell them what they lose if they do not buy that specific product. Consumers want any product because of the benefits it offers and on the other hand if they have been told the downside of not buying the product so it will persuade them even more for purchasing that product.
Use of surprise strategies To remove the last minute hesitation, any surprise or pleasant announcements regarding the product also helps influencing the customers to buy the product. The surprise can be any unexpected bonus or additional benefits just before the completion of concluding action of the sale.
Use of special packages For getting a boost in any business the vendors can also introduce some special packages, which combines two or more related items and set a lower prize as compare to each item. These sorts of packages leave a good impact on discount hunters and procrastinators.
Promoting the business sales to new prospects and existing customers Every business always hunts for new customers for intend of improving their sales. But the auction from the existing customers of the business should not be overlooked. It is much easier to get further business from them rather then depending on new prospects. Additional benefits, products and services should be offered to the current customers to get more sales from them.
As a result of our exposure on eBay, we can attribute two sales, one listing, approximately three good prospects per month, and about 700 visitors per day to our Web site, (Christopher Walker)
Receiving appreciation from the customers is always good for the motivation of any business. The same sort of respond should be provided for such customers, which induce them to do more business.
Hype the product by the help of customers Often the existing customers of your business can be an important asset for capturing a better market of your product. Incentives can be provided to the customers to let them introduce your products to their friends. Assistance from them can increase the sale of the business in a great deal with out wasting much of the money in ads.
Internet Marketing Through E-mails Email marketing is one of the most influential marketing tools accessible to businesses of all sorts and sizes. No matter how you define success, you can achieve outstanding results with Email marketing while investing only a small amount of time and an even smaller amount of money.
54% of small businesses surveyed rated Email as the top online promotion to drive site visitors and customers to their web sites and storefronts. (Experts of small business) Following are the key benefits of Email marketing
1. Economical Email marketing is a reasonable & affordable way to stretch a limited marketing budget. Unlike direct mail, there is virtually no production, materials or postage expense.
This information has been only available to big businesses who had research and marketing departments, companies like American Express, Now any business can have it. (Bill Chasse)
2. Effectiveness Email marketing allows active communication with existing customers and prospects instead of passively waiting for them to return to your web site or storefront. Emails can easily be targeted by source, interest, or list. In general, Email communications sent to the prospect and customer lists, and it improves the ROI of all lead generation and customer relation programs, single-handedly.
3. Instantaneous response Email marketing has two great advantages over other marketing vehicles. First, with the existing and easily obtainable self-service tools, anyone can generate and send compelling Email newsletters, promotions, announcements or more in hours or days. No agency or production time is necessary to create and send professional communications. Second, Email marketing generates an instantaneous response. The call to action is apparent: Click here to take advantage of this offer, or to learn more about this service, or to attend this event.
4. Quantifiable results Unlike other vehicles for marketing, results from Email campaigns are easily measured. Results are reported in terms of opens, which report the number of people saw your offer or newsletters, Click Through Rates (CTRs), which measure how many people actually clicked on the links in your Email, and in a many cases, who actually clicked on those links.
5. Uncomplicated For small and medium business there are web-based Email marketing products. Most of them include professional HTML templates, list segmentation and targeting capabilities, as well as, automatic tracking and reporting. So, you are free to concentrate on your unique message while the rest has already been done.
Conclusion and Evaluation Internet marketing is no doubt the most effective and efficient mode of communication with the customers and prospects. But unfortunately in some of the developing countries the scope of Internet marketing is not so wide because organizations still relay a lot on advertising through the other channels, as a result spending a lot on conventional marketing.
Apart from some of the developing countries most organizations around the world have found the Internet marketing as the most easy, cost effective and efficient way of marketing.
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