Attributes of a Salesperson

Sales as been seen as the life line of every company dealing with products and services. Management of these company now draw more emphases on how to increase sales in other to generate the company profit.

Therefore it’s the only thing that pays," according to Grant Cardone, sales expert and author of Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life. "If you're not going to be great in sales, go get another career, because it's too hard to do if you're not going to succeed," Cardone adds. "Great salespeople are literally the engine of every economy in the world." Questions are asked why are some salespeople unable to hook a buyer as masterfully as they seal a deal?. And why do many salespeople struggle to do both?

Basically this fall into two words: “Personal constraints” Personal constraints are those things that limit us as individuals – that hold us back. So what does a great salesperson looks like? While this varies across industries and even across salespeople in the same organization, the following are the most common traits: Below are some of the attributes of a Great Salesperson

 1.A good salesperson don't think in terms of sales but rather in terms of building a business. Great sales people are building a business, not just trying to make a sale. When you think beyond a sale, you're going to get other people's attention much more easily. They're going to be more interested in what you have to say. You want something that's going to survive beyond one sale.

2.A good salesperson are disciplined – Procrastination is non-existent for successful salespeople, who possess tremendous follow-through and are not easily swayed from their tasks or goals. They are good at organizing, planning, and prioritizing, and have a “do it now” mentality.

 3.A good salesperson don't rush--A study was done about physical demonstrations of confidence and power some time ago. The external view of two people moving was observed by a cross-section of people and questions were asked about which one had greater confidence, was paid more, and had a position of greater authority. They both wore similar attire, and were of the same body shape and age. The only distinguishing characteristic was the speed in which they performed their actions. The one who looked rushed always scored lower. An appearance of confidence in part comes from an appearance of control.

 4.A good salesperson is always positive – Successful salespeople see the glass as half full. They have positive attitudes and are able to turn negatives into positives in any sales situation. They learn from defeat to better improve their chances of success.

 5.A good salesperson don't see failed sales attempts as failures but as investments in the process. If you don't close a business deal, don't think of it as a failed attempt. You should know that some attempts pay while others don't, but they're all investments in the business.

6.A good salesperson invest in his/her education, development and personal motivation, knowing that these are the tools of a sales professional. You need to continue to invest in your game, much like a professional ballplayer is always practicing.

7.A good salesperson is always confident – Rejection is commonplace in sales. Salespeople hear the word "no" all the time. Successful salespeople have the confidence to take "no" as a challenge, not as personal rejection.

 8.A good salesperson adapt to situation – Successful salespeople understand that change is sometimes necessary and are able to quickly adapt and to change what doesn't work.

 9.A good salesperson ask great questions--This has been written about by me and many others. The data confirms that the higher-performing sales representatives ask more questions--often more than twice as many--and their questions are more focused on implications than on data. Put another way, they ask questions about what something means rather than just what it is.

 10.A good salesperson surround himself with overachievers and have little time for those who don't create opportunities. These people are sometimes viewed as being uninterested in others, but the truth is that they're just not interested in low production. They don't want to waste time with people who can't get anything done.

11.A good salesperson is hardworking – Successful salespeople have a good work ethic and do what it takes to get the job done. They also are willing to roll up their sleeves and work long hours to reach and surpass their goals.

12.A good salesperson is willing to invest in networking, building community and relationships, knowing for sure that the difference between a contact and a contract is the "R" that stands for "Relationship." Invest in your community.
Don't look at it as an expense since you need to develop these relationships. So, go ahead and join the country club, participate in community development and give money to people that needs it. In other words, be involved as much as you can.

The Concept and Component of Marketing Information System (MKIS)

A marketing information system (MKIS) is defined a set of procedures and methods designed to generate, analyze, disseminate, and store anticipated marketing decision information on a regular, continuous basis. An information system can be used operationally, managerially, and strategically for several aspects of marketing.

A Marketing Information System can also be defined as 'a system in which marketing data is formally gathered, stored, analysed and distributed to managers in accordance with their informational needs on a regular basis'
A marketing information system can be used operationally, managerially, and strategically for several aspects of marketing.

As we all know that no marketing activity can be carried out in isolation, know when we say it doesn’t work in isolation that means there are various forces could be external or internal, controllable or uncontrollable which are working on it. Thus to know which forces are acting on it and its impact the marketer needs to gathering the data through its own resources which in terms of marketing we can say he is trying to gather the market information or form a marketing information system. This collection of information is a continuous process that gathers data from a variety of sources synthesizes it and sends it to those responsible for meeting the market places needs. The effectiveness of marketing decision is proved if it has a strong information system offering the firm a Competitive advantage.

Locating data and developing information
The information needed by marketing managers comes from various sources which includes: - internal company records, marketing intelligence and marketing research. The information analysis system then processes this information to make it more useful for managers.

Internal Records
These are information gathered from sources within the company to evaluate marketing performances and to detect marketing problems and opportunities. Most marketing managers use internal records and reports regularly, especially for making day-to-day planning, implementation and control decisions. Internal records information consists of information gathered from sources within the company to evaluate marketing performance and to detect marketing problems and opportunities.
Information from internal records is usually quicker and cheaper to get than information from other sources, but it also presents some problems. Because internal information was for other purposes, it may be incomplete or in the wrong form for making marketing decisions. For example, accounting department sales and cost data used for preparing financial statements need adapting for use in evaluating product, sales force or channel performance.

Marketing Intelligence
The total information needs of the marketing department can be specified and satisfied via a marketing intelligence network. The marketing intelligence system determines the intelligence needed, collects it by searching the environment and delivers it to marketing managers who need it. Marketing intelligence comes from many sources. Much intelligence is from the company's personnel - executives, engineers and scientists, purchasing agents and the sales force. But company people are often busy and fail to pass on important information. The company must 'sell' its people on their importance as intelligence gatherers, train them to spot new developments and urge them to report intelligence hack to the company.

The company must also persuade suppliers, resellers and customers to pass along important intelligence. Some information on competitor’s conies from what they say about themselves in annual reports, speeches, press releases and advertisements. The company can also learn about competitors from what others say about them in business publications and at trade shows. Or the company can watch what competitors do - buying and analyzing competitors' products, monitoring their sales and checking for new patents. Companies also buy intelligence information from outside suppliers.

Marketing research systems
Marketing research is a proactive search for information. That is, the enterprise which commissions these studies does so to solve a perceived marketing problem. In many cases, data is collected in a purposeful way to address a well-defined problem (or a problem which can be defined and solved within the course of the study). The other form of marketing research centers not on a specific marketing problem but is an attempt to continuously monitor the marketing environment. These monitoring or tracking exercises are continuous marketing research studies, often involving panels of farmers, consumers or distributors from which the same data is collected at regular intervals. Whilst the ad hoc study and continuous marketing research differs in the orientation, yet they are both proactive.

Marketing Information should not be approached in an infrequent manner. If research is done this way, a firm could face these risks:
1.Opportunities may be missed.
2.There may be a lack of awareness of environmental changes and competitors’ actions.
3.Data collection may be difficult to analyze over several time periods.
4.Marketing plans and decisions may not be properly reviewed.
5.Data collection may be disjointed.
6.Previous studies may not be stored in an easy to use format.
7.Time lags may result if a new study is required.
8.Actions may be reactionary rather than anticipatory.

Advantages of Marketing Information System
1. Organized data collection.
2. A broad perspective.
3. The storage of important data.
4. An avoidance of crises.
5. Coordinated marketing plans.
6. Speed in obtaining sufficient information to make decisions.
7. Data amassed and kept over several time periods.
8. The ability to do a cost-benefit analysis.

The disadvantages of a Marketing information system are high initial time and labor costs and the complexity of setting up an information system. Marketers often complain that they lack enough marketing information or the right kind, or have too much of the wrong kind. The solution is an effective marketing information system.

The marketing information systems and its subsystems

Marketing information systems are intended to support management decision making. Management has five distinct functions and each requires support from an MIS. These are: planning, organising, coordinating, decisions and controlling
Information systems have to be designed to meet the way in which managers tend to work. Research suggests that a manager continually addresses a large variety of tasks and is able to spend relatively brief periods on each of these. Given the nature of the work, managers tend to rely upon information that is timely and verbal even if this is likely to be less accurate then more formal and complex information systems.

Managers play at least three separate roles: interpersonal, informational and decisional. MIS, in electronic form or otherwise, can support these roles in varying degrees. MIS has less to contribute in the case of a manager's informational role than for the other two.
Three levels of decision making can be distinguished from one another: strategic, control (or tactical) and operational. Again, MIS has to support each level. Strategic decisions are characteristically one-off situations. Strategic decisions have implications for changing the structure of an organisation and therefore the MIS must provide information which is precise and accurate. Control decisions deal with broad policy issues and operational decisions concern the management of the organisation's marketing mix.

A marketing information system has four components: the internal reporting system, the marketing research systems, the marketing intelligence system and marketing models. Internal reports include orders received, inventory records and sales invoices. Marketing research takes the form of purposeful studies either ad hoc or continuous. By contrast, marketing intelligence is less specific in its purposes, is chiefly carried out in an informal manner and by managers themselves rather than by professional marketing researchers

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing as it sometimes refer as “SEM” is often used to describe acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a Web site within search engines to achieve maximum exposure of a particular web site. SEM includes things such as search engine optimization, paid listings and other search-engine related services and functions that will increase exposure and traffic to your Web site.

Search Engine Marketing Guide

There is a lot involved when it comes to search engine marketing. Sometimes, it can be a bit overwhelming, even for those with a great deal of experience. But never the less by taking it one step at a time, it is not hard to learn. And once learned, search engine marketing can provide an effective method of driving highly targeted visitors to your web site

Below are the following steps to search engine marketing

•Keywords & Search Terms: - The first step is to learn about the search terms that your target audience is using when using search engines. These search terms are the keywords and key phrase that will be used to market your web site.

Search terms refer to the words and phrases that people type into the search forms of search engines, eg digital camera, Keywords and key phrases on the other hand are the words on you have on your site that match these search terms.

Search engines spiders and search engines users look at the keywords and key phrases on your website in order to index it. Therefore you keywords and key phrase should be well structured to really reflect the information you are sending to your audience, Before you do any type of search engine marketing, you have to understand your target audience and know the search terms they are using. Once you know the search terms being used, these can be included in the content of your Web site as keywords and key phrases. This would be a very terrible mistake if it is otherwise.
•Search engine optimization: - in a simple word, SEO is the process of optimizing one's website to get better results in search engines.

Having a good search engine optimization is very basic. The design and content of a good search engine has to be optimized because the parameters that make a web page or web site friendly for search-engine and for viewers may be different. Therefore, an optimized solution has to be obtained for best results. SEO is more of a process than a single action and it takes time and an intelligent to achieve best result.
A successful search engine optimization campaign will usually contain these essential components:

Content: - This is what drives search engine rankings, content is what brings users to your site, and content, when sprinkled appropriately with keyword phrases, will feed search engine spiders. Rinse, repeat. This is very important search engine optimization.

Simple Site Design. Sites that are successful in the search engine results have this in common-they are all simply designed, with a minimum of bandwidth hogging graphics, slowly loading animations or other such frippery, and are easy to navigate. Simple, clean designs are what search engine spiders and search engine users like, because it enables them to get to what they're looking for; which is - you guessed it - content.

Well-written Meta tags. Meta tags-keyword, description, and title- are important, but they won't make or break your site. Meta tags are merely part of the overall success strategy. They need to be written with compelling, keyword phrase-heavy content that will make the user click through from the search results page.

•Search engine submission: -“SES” is the act of submitting specific URLs to popular search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! to ensure the web page gets spidered and indexed. While Search Engine Submission is often seen as a way to promote a web site, it generally is not necessary. Because the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN use crawlers, bots, and spiders that eventually would find all by themselves most web sites on the Internet.

Ways to submit a website

There are basically three ways to get your site listed in a search engine:
Submit your site directly to the search engine using a free submit form.
Let the search engine find your site through links to your site from other sites such as directories.
Pay the search engine to index your site.

•Link popularity: - refer to the number of incoming links that you have to your site from other sites. These links can be from directories, articles, or web sites. The more links you have pointing to your site, the better.
The number and quality of links that you have pointing to your site are a factor that many search engines consider when determining the rank or your site and individual pages of your site. Also, the more incoming links you have, the greater the traffic to your site

How to get a link popularity

Submit your site to web directories; directory links are great. They'll have your keywords in the link text & description, on a page with a topic relevant to yours. People browsing through the directory can find your site as well.
Sites in your field; when you find a website similar to yours (even a competitor!), or on a related topic, consider asking them for a link. Don't forget informational sites, professional organizations, & forums.
Forums & Emails; put a link to your website in your signature if you participate in online discussions (if it's permitted). Every post you make will give you a link (albeit one that may not carry a lot of weight).
It will happen naturally; Once your site offers something of value, people will begin to link to it because they want to. And, some of these links will be from relevant sites and one other ways is by asking your visitors to link to you by including a "link to us" page that provides link code & some graphics.

Checking Your Link Popularity
After creating link popularity, it is advisable to check your link popularity. This can be done through Marketleap, they provide a tool called the Link Popularity Check. It is a great way to periodically check the number of incoming links to your site.

•Paid inclusion: -A search engine marketing model in which a Web site pays a fee to a search engine that then guarantees that the Web site will be displayed in the returned search results for specifically named search terms. It is also often called PFI (Pay for Inclusion) or PPI (Pay Per Inclusion).

Paid inclusion, for some search engines, also means that the search engine’s spiders will crawl their sites more often than non-paid sites. Different search engines treat paid inclusion results differently; some indicate the paid inclusion results as advertisements while others display them as results alongside non-paid search results. This option is becoming more popular with both site owners and search engines. Site owners that want to get indexed quickly like it because they don't have to wait for the search engines to find their sites naturally through incoming links and listings in directories. Search engines like it because it is a way to increase revenue by charging the site owners for this service. If you have the budget and you don't want to wait, this is a good option.

•Pay Per Click Search Engines: -Pay Per Click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked

Guide to Affiliate marketing

Definition of Affiliate marketing:
Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing partnership between a web merchant and one or more affiliates. The affiliate is paid a commission for referring clicks, leads or most often sales to the merchant.

Affiliate Marketing is a revenue sharing venture between a website owner and an online merchant. The website owner will place advertisements on his websites to either help sell the merchant's products or to send potential customers to the merchant's website, all in exchange for a share of the profits.

Affiliated companies are companies which are related to each other in some way. There are a number of ways in which companies can be related, ranging from formal arrangements, like interlocking directorates, to simply working in the same industry. Affiliated companies may work together on projects, provide special services for customers of their affiliates, and engage in other business activities in association with the companies they are related to
Being an affiliate marketer you won’t have to worry about creating your own product, e-commerce, product delivery, or even customer support since it is the merchant’s responsibility.

Qualities to possess to succeed in affiliate marketing
1. Affiliate Marketing Needs You To Be Patient
Too many Internet marketers lose out because they become impatient. You need to have a strong desire to succeed in affiliate marketing.

2. Affiliate Marketing Requires Hard Work
Starting out in affiliate marketing requires your time, dedication and hard work. I remember my sleepless nights, working shifts at my workplace and coming back home to continue on my sites. If you're just starting out, forget what the gurus tell you about working 2 hours per day the watching the money flow in.

3. Affiliate Marketing Needs You To Be Creative
The real key to being successful with affiliate marketing is to develop a good content based website and weave your affiliate links into all your content. You have to provide your prospects with good, quality content to keep them coming back to your site.

Ways to earn money through affiliate marketing
Pay Per Click — Every time a potential customer leaves the affiliate website by "clicking" on the link leading to the merchant's website, a certain amount of money is deposited in the affiliate's account. This amount can be pennies or dollars depending on the product and amount of the commission.

Pay Per Sale — Every time a sale is made as a result of advertising on the affiliate's website, a percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate's account.

Pay Per Lead — Every time a potential client registers at the merchant's website as a result of the advertisement on the affiliate's account, a previously determined amount is deposited into the affiliate's account.

For many website owners, this is a great way to earn some extra money without actually having to "do" anything. All it involves is placing an ad on the affiliate's website. There's no selling or promotion of any kind. The affiliate can just sit back and wait for the profits to roll in.
The affiliate has to do thorough research on the merchant before agreeing to affiliation. To not do so can mean ending up with a merchant who refuses to pay commission fees or packs up his business and moves on without informing any of his affiliates. This is rare, however, and most merchants and affiliates have a pleasant and profitable business arrangement.

It's important to choose wisely. In some cases, an ad can be placed on an affiliate's website for months before a potential customer "clicks" or purchases something. If the commission is only pennies, this can lead to a frustrating relationship. Both the affiliate and the merchant are well advised to ensure the relationship will be mutually beneficial.

Becoming an Affiliate Marketer

As an affiliate marketer first thing you need to do is to go to a site like Commission Junction and sign up. Once you sign up, you can browse what kind of products they offer that you can promote, this is very important. Once you find something there to promote, you can add the code to your site. Try as much as possible to pick something that will be compatible with your website. Like, if your website is about early childhood education, you find an affiliate program that has do with things related to early childhood programm.
Your main goal as an affiliate marketer is to bring traffic to your partner merchant. By "traffic", we mean a number of people visiting a certain website.

There is no standard in traffic counts. Each merchant has their own desired traffic figures. As an affiliate marketer, always remember to pattern your strategies to your partner's objectives.
To generate your merchant's aspired number of traffic, develop contents in your website based on your market's interests and your merchant's profile. To do this, understand how your partner's business operates and understand what your consumers' behaviour are when online.

Get an affiliate program you want to promote, make a free website, write an article about what you are promoting and submit it. Back link your site on forums that are on the same subject as your website.

You need to make sure your affiliate link or banner is somewhere that will get people to notice it and make them want to click on it. This up to you/ try different location until you find one that works for you.

Once you have that set up the code on your website, you will have to promote the page to get people on the site. That is somewhat easy to do. The best and easy way to do it is to post in forums that is similar to your site and have you site in the signature. You can also write articles on sites with your link in the resource portion of the article.

Now you might be saying, "what if I don't have a website?" Well, that's fine also, just make a blog about a subject that you know about and go to Commission Junction to find an affiliate product to promote it.

Also if you don't want to start a blog, you can also use a signature in a forum if you post in the right forums. But that's sometimes is frowned upon. I have seen people do that before though. I'm not sure how much money you can make doing it this way, but you can always try it if that is what you want to do and you should start seeing some kind of money coming in. It will not make you rich but it will put smiles on your face.

While affiliate marketing can be incredibly lucrative it is important to know that affiliate marketing is not easy money. Most people who try it make very little as it relies upon numerous factors including:

traffic (high traffic helps a lot)
finding relevant products
finding quality products
building trust with your readers
having a readership who is in a ‘buying mood’
you being able to write good sales copy (and more)

However, as they always say there are two sides to a coin, the affiliate marketing program also has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Affiliate Marketing

•Affiliate marketing boosts sales and opens up new marketing channels.
•Merchants only have to pay their affiliates when a lead has been generated or there has been a sale, which is cost effective marketing.
•An affiliate marketer can still maintain his present work or business and have the affiliate marketing income to supplement his financial position. With a laptop and an internet connection, anybody can work almost anywhere even while enjoying a vacation.
•For clients, they do not have to drive all the way to the merchant's store or retailer to physically buy the product or engage the services of a service provider.
•Marketing allows smaller companies the chance to expose their products on websites that already have a great number of people looking at them. Affiliate sites also benefit from this type of marketing because they receive a commission for every sale they make for their website.
•It does not require a sizeable investment on the part of the affiliate.

Disadvantages of Affiliate Marketing
Having gone through the advantages of affiliate marketing, it also comes with a few disadvantages.
•The greatest one of all is that a lot of people get into this game with completely wrong expectations, unfortunately, it's not like you can simply create a small website and start earning raking in huge commissions over night. Even though affiliates generally have to deal with fewer issues than product creators, it's still a complex business that requires many different skills.
•There are link hijackers that hijack the affiliate link and then get paid the commission that the affiliate is suppose to be getting paid.
•Dishonest merchants can close down their program without telling the affiliate and without paying them their commission.
•Affiliates may mislead or falsify advertising in order to get the sales commission. The affiliate may make promises regarding the product which are completely wrong or exaggerated. If this happens the merchant will usually receive complaints and potentially lose customers
•Merchants could promise high commissions to get new affiliates and then lower the commission rate a couple of weeks after getting the new affiliates.

Lastly, No matter what the disadvantages of affiliate marketing are, it still one of the best forms of marketing available online today and is a great way for you to make money. As a vendor, you should definitely have an affiliate program for your products, as it really is the best risk-free marketing to be had. As an affiliate, you simply need to have realistic expectations and be willing to put in the work necessary to really see good results. If you are looking for a way to make extra money and help others market their business, affiliate marketing is right for you.

Digital Marketing In Today’s Challenging Market

Before digital marketing came along, professionals had to rely on print, radio and television advertising to reach customers. All of these channels are essentially one-directional modes of communication, requiring clever thinking to generate a response and ensure customer engagement. With the advent of mobile telephones, the Internet and other forms of interactive communication; professional marketers can today enter into a two way dialogue with the customer.

When it comes to marketing, digital marketing is one of the most effective and cost into account in comparison to all other media. Digital marketing includes advertising or marketing strategy to use in advertising on mobile, Internet and other electronic media or digital. His importance to the advertising community is growing day by day, led many people to take their digital marketing profession.

What is Digital Marketing?

“The use of digital technology and processes in the development, distribution, and promotion of products and services”.

“Is the practice of promoting products and services using database-driven online distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner”.


What are Digital Marketing Media?

The digital marketing sector uses many different digital marketing media channels, such as:
Cell phone Short Message Service (SMS) – text messages
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds
Podcasts
Voice Broadcast
Video E-mails
Banner ads on affiliate websites
Outdoor digital displays
Websites
Blogs


Strategies for Digital Marketing
There are two basic digital marketing strategies used by current and potential customers. These two types of digital marketing are called the “Push” and the “Pull.” Their methodology for providing information to customers works as follows:

Pull digital marketing – the customer seeks information about products and/or services by visiting the company’s sources of information searching for the specific product or service information. They are basically requesting to view this specific content. These are typically located in websites, blogs, streaming audio and video sources. Customers have found related information on other websites or been directed to the company’s sources by a referring website to find the information.

Push digital marketing – customers are provided information by receiving or viewing advertisements digitally, such as: SMS, RSS, cell phone calls, etc., as subscribers of the latest product and service information provided by the company.

Advantage of Pull

Pull has no restrictions on file size, no opt-in requirements, and low technology requirements for the company.
Since requests are inherently opt-in, the size of content is generally unlimited.
No advanced technology required to send static content, only to store/display it.

Disadvantage of Pull

Marketing required, little tracking of visitors and no personalization to keep the visitors coming back.
Considerable marketing effort required for users to find the message/content.
Some types of marketing content may be blocked in mixed content scenarios (i.e.: Flash blockers)


Advantages of Push

Personalization of messages, high conversation rate, and detailed tracking of customer choices.
Faster delivery - push technologies can deliver content immediately as it becomes available.
Consistent delivery - some push platforms have single content types, making it difficult for the user to block content by type.
Better targeting - since push technology usually justifies subscription, more specific marketing data may be collected during registration, which allows for better targeting and more personalization.
Better data - marketing data can be correlated to each request for content, allowing marketers to see information such as user name as well as demographic and psychographic data.


Disadvantages of Push

Requires Can Spam Act 2003 compliance, most customers must opt-in, can be blocked, simply opt-out, and requires delivery technology.
Smaller audience - push technology not implemented on common platforms generally need client and/or server software before content can be created, distributed, and/or viewed.
Higher cost - less popular platforms may have higher implementation costs.
Lesser discoverability - smaller audiences mean fewer views mean less visibility in search engines.


Important of Digital Marketing

In today’s business world, businesses have numerous opportunities to reach their potential customers through 3G-enabled mobile phones and DTH connectivity. With large groups of consumers hooked up to the internet or other digital mediums, digital marketing solutions have an edge over conventional marketing techniques.

If a business is to participate in a digital marketing campaign it is important to figure out the right campaign that will appeal to the target audience.

When it comes to the selection of the right digital marketing medium, the internet stands out as the cheapest and most effective option. Online video advertising, blog and forum postings, e-mail and RSS feeds are just a selection of advertising tools that have stemmed from the internet and its ability to reach to a wide, global customer base with speed and minimal cost compared to traditional marketing techniques.

The internet and mobile telephone technologies have revolutionized the marketing industry; providing the means to track consumer interests and obtain an inexpensive link direct to the customer.
A click on a website can capture customer details and ask key questions to assist with market profiling. The voluntary provision of email or mobile telephone contact details allows the marketing professionals to 'get in front of' the customer without breaching privacy regulations. The more closely consumers become connected to digital technologies, the greater the power of the information channel for marketing professionals. With mobile telephones and other electronic devices kept on the person, the rate of 'hits' is likely to be far higher than the scattergun approach of traditional media.
Digital marketing helps your company increase its exposure to consumers who are actively seeking your product or service, making it much more effective than other forms of advertising.


Marketing Solutions

Digital marketing solutions include the use of multiple channels of delivery, along with the use of both Push and Pull digital marketing techniques. Both of these are used to deliver messages and information about products and services to customers, along with any others who submit inquiries.


Conclusion

With many companies going into social networking now as a form of marketing strategies; Social networking media do not necessarily increase leads, nor do they populate a company's prospect database. But they do give organizations the opportunity to share information in a one-to-many format authenticated by consumer and peer reports. It give customers the ability to research companies more thoroughly, read peer reviews, and develop a comprehensive business profile before they ever make a purchase.

Digital marketing campaigns have yielded greater conversion rates for affiliates than e-marketing strategy alone, because it is not restricted to the Internet. It may seem to be hard to believe, however, there are many people in world today who do not have access to a computer or have access to the Internet. Although almost everyone has a cell phone, MP3 player, iPod, and views outdoor digital displays.

Developing Your Brand Strategy

Developing a brand strategy can be one of the most difficult steps in the marketing plan process. It's often the element that causes most businesses the biggest challenge, but it's a vital step in creating the company identity.

Your brand identity will be repeatedly communicated, in multiple ways with frequency and consistency throughout the life of your business. To begin the development of your brands strategy you must have an understanding of these four marketing components: -

Primary Target Customer and/or Client Competition Product and Service Mix Unique Selling Proposition By identifying these components of your marketing plan you have created the basis for crafting your brand strategy. An effective branding process will create a unique identity that differentiates you from the competition. That is why it's often deemed as the heart of a competitive strategy. Determining Your Brand’s Objectives your brand should be comprised of the company personality, image, core competencies and characteristics. The impressions that you make as well as the words people will use to describe your company to others, are the basic framework of your brand. With a strong brand you build credibility, have more influence on your market, and motivate customers and clients to purchase from you. If done correctly your company will be looked at as a leader not a follower.

Some of the questions to ask yourself when determine your brand objectives are as follows.
•What do you want others to know and say about your products or services?
•What is it that you want your brand to do for your company?
Your objectives may include the following:-
•Being recognized by receiving a specific award
•Picking up a certain number of choice projects
•Gaining a specific number of new clients in the next year

Positioning your company as an industry leader in the next couple of months by defining your objectives you are able to draw up a plan on how to achieve these objectives. For instance your objective is to position your company as the best in the industry. In doing these here are some of the things you could do:
Have members of your team speak at Trade Shows •
Write and publish articles magazine, newspapers e.t.c
Schedule lectures at professional gatherings within the industry Once you’ve determined your objectives the next stage is to build and develop your brand strategy by listing out how, when and what you are going to do to accomplish and meet these brand objectives. Use the questions above to determine your brand objectives. List each objective and map out how you plan to accomplish and succeed in meeting those objectives. Don’t stop there! Once you’ve finished take the time to list out what you can do at every point in time to meet that objective. Be specific and schedule those action items in your business agenda.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:
Delivers the message clearly
Confirms your credibility
 Connects your target prospects emotionally
Motivates the buyer

Concretes User Loyalty Important of Branding to Marketing Strategies To succeed in branding you must understand that needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company at every point of public contact. Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence and some that you cannot. A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining and building your brand.

your entire brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

The Elements of your Brand
Branding your business is very much like a game. There are important elements of your brand that translate into the world of competition. You have an objective – to make sales; a playing field - your marketplace; opponents - competitors in your market; strategies –your marketing approach; specific plays - your marketing tactics; and a winner - the company that makes the most sales. This game is constantly being played at every market for every product or service. Just think of the titanic battles you see everyday --- Coke vs. Pepsi, Microsoft vs. Apple, or Google vs. Yahoo, GM vs. Toyota. Each of these companies is competing with variety of strategies and tactics in hopes of defeating their rivals and dominates the market. They battle each other using offensive and defensive plays in hopes gaining the best position in the mind of the prospects. They aggressively execute their brand marketing plans and seek to advance their influence on the market until they score by reaching the coveted sale. Scoring a sale is the ultimate objective in the branding game. As a small business this must be the focus of all of your branding efforts.

Your cannot afford the time and money that is required to do the glamorous, image advertising like buying the naming rights for a stadium or airing a thirty second Super Bowl ad. Your branding must achieve results and sales are the only desirable outcome. The brand game consists of several necessary key elements that define the character of your brand. It’s important to use these elements in combination to appeal to your target market.

Pricing – this represents value; a higher price may imply higher quality, and lower prices may suggest decreased value.
Distribution – how available your offering is; limited distribution of a product or service may imply exclusivity and consumers may be willing to pay more.
Quality – this influences satisfaction; higher quality translates into more satisfied customers who return again to purchase your offerings.
Presence – how prominent you are in the marketplace; a high-profile market presence will lead to brand awareness and opportunities to sell.
Reputation – the market’s opinion of your brand character; this is built over time and difficult to alter once established.
Image – the perceptions of your brand by buyers; this is closely related to your quality and reputation in the marketplace. Like reputation, image is difficult to change once established.
Benefits – the affect your product or service has on the consumer; positive benefits are crucial to the product offering and to brand image and reputation.
Positioning – your differentiation from the competition, this is established by the sum total of all of your branding strategy.
Preference – the consumers predisposition to buy your product or service; this is the foundation for building customer loyalty.
Customer commitment – the ultimate result of your branding strategy; loyalty is built through relationships and close consumer contact.
The 22 Immutable Laws of BrandingKellogg on Branding: The Marketing Faculty of The Kellogg School of ManagementDesigning Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding TeamBranding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don'tBest Practice Cases in Branding (3rd Edition)
In conclusion, these entire element costs no dime. They are attitudes and approaches that convey who you are. Yet, unlike image advertising, they are substantial, solid core values you must project in everything that you do.

E- Marketing in 21st Century

Email marketing has become important in today’s business world. Its undeniable benefits continue to gain adepts in every level of commerce, industry and service.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the advertisement of a product, service, or brand through electronic mail. Email marketing can be used to improve the relationship between a business and its customers or to gain new customers. In order to gain the email addresses of potential customers, businesses must either pay a fee to an email broker, use a subscription service, or rely on referrals from existing customers. Many companies, of course, use a combination of these methods.

What is Bulk Email Marketing?

Bulk email marketing refers to a form of marketing that involves sending the same, or nearly identical, message to multiple email recipients. This type of campaign requires special software that takes each individual email address from a pre-existing list, and distributes a single message to each one. The number of recipients can range from hundreds to thousands, depending on campaign objectives.
Email marketing is easy to setup, affordable, vigorous and highly effective and targeted. Email is faster, by far less expensive and more compelling than the standard marketing tools, such as direct mail or print advertising. Email marketing is available to all. It is direct, it demands less time and resources and the results are instantly manifested.

It is well known now in the business world that selling to existing customers is several times less expensive than getting a new one, and that profitability us hinged upon loyal customers and repeat business.

Human beings have not changed much at their core, despite all the new resources that pile up to make our daily lives and businesses more productive, effective, fun and relaxed. When we find a good merchant or a good service provider that offer what we need, we like to establish and carry a personal relationship with them. And when we are satisfied with the performance of a product or service and we do have a good relationship with the merchant, we keep going back to that particular source every time we have the need to. We also refer our acquaintances to their care and call them my butcher, my lawyer, my child’s day care, my accountant, my doctor…

So, at the end of the day, creating and sustaining good business is nothing but creating and sustaining good relationships. And good relationships are nourished via frequent, positive communication.
Email is the best tool available for this in our busy times.

Studies show that it takes several contacts –six to seven, on average– before you actually turn a prospect into a customer, and that the more personal the contact, the better. But standard business communication tools –direct mail, telemarketing and print, radio and television advertisements– are not only expensive and time-consuming, but also often perceived by the public as invasive nuisances.

Who doesn’t dread going to the mailbox on ‘junk-mail day’? Or picking up the phone when the caller ID shows a 1-800 number or ‘unknown caller’? Or even picking up the newspaper from the doorstep on Sundays, for heaven’s sake? How long did it take for you to figure out –and fume over– the fact that the young, perky voice on the other end of the line talking to you so casually was some satellite dish company’s computer?

If doing good business is mostly about earning the good will of the public in the first place, standard marketing communication doesn’t do business a much lasting service in today’s world.

Let try to remember how small business dealt with their customers in the past, we will easily grasp the value of permission-based email marketing. In the past, small business owners would build relationships with their customers in the neighborhood through personal interaction. In the course of this interaction, they learned their customer’s names, their birth dates and anniversaries, their place of origin, the names of their spouses and children, their individual preferences and interests. They would remember this information and bring it up opportunely, always keeping in touch with their customers –appropriately called ‘patrons’ then– in an intimate, familial way.

The greater mobility, the more busy lifestyles of our time and new technologies have rendered a more expanded and impersonal world. The way we do business, the way we communicate and the way we socialize may have changed, but our core need to be individualized, to be recognized in the crowd, to be valued for ourselves, remains the same.

It is in this world that permission-based email marketing can provide you with a larger, more loyal, more intimate circle of patrons –and do so in a faster, more direct and less expensive way than is possible with more traditional and impersonal marketing tools.

Permission-based email marketing is affordable, renders a response rate up to five times greater than standard marketing and has a positive impact on the receivers’ perception of a company. A fraction of a cent per email takes a tight marketing budget a long ways into attaining your goals of winning new customers, boosting customer loyalty and fostering repeat business. But even if you favor a mix of flyers, print ads, newsletter sponsorship and Web banners in your strategy to obtain new business and retain customers, throwing the fast, affordable, direct and highly effective permission-based email marketing into that mix will only maximize the power of your investment.

One of the advantages of email marketing is that it is expeditious. As soon as you have time-sensitive information to communicate to your client list, for example, or the minute you are ready to launch a particular campaign, you can wrap it up in an email message and immediately send it out directly to everyone on your list. And you will be able to see results right away –because with permission-based email marketing your patrons are actually looking forward to your messages.

Email can be used to distribute newsletters, create brand awareness, promote preferred customer specials, advertise sales, announce new services and/or products, send/birthday/anniversary/holiday greetings, invite to events, educate your customers, and more… really fast. And what is best: it allows for that instant, consistent, one-on-one, two-way communication that will certainly benefit your business

With email marketing, you can easily assess the number of emails sent, the number of emails opened and who opened them; the number of unsubscribers; the number of bounce-backs (both hard and soft), and the click through rates (including which links were more effective and who clicked through).

This information is invaluable to gauge the overall effectiveness of your campaigns and to design and launch future campaigns that are highly effective and targeted to very specific individuals and/or groups of individuals.
One of the disadvantages to email marketing is something called spam. Spam is the word for both a tinned meat and email that is sent out to a huge number of people with little discretion. Spam is the email marketing version of carpet bombing. In fact, most email services include spam filters that weed out such emails from the general inboxes of their customers.
However, there is still concern in regards to SPAM (unsolicited commercial email) filters that are in use by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). These tools are being developed and used to protect the privacy and security of recipients from unlawful ‘marketers’ and other Internet crooks. The filters, however, are yet imperfect and sometimes weed out perfectly legitimate, permission-based messages (‘false positives’), which are then not delivered to the recipient, are usually ‘bounced’ back to the sender or simply deleted by the ISP –and can render a perfectly legitimate sender ‘blacklisted’.

Different Types of Email Marketing Campaign?
An email marketing campaign is one of the oldest forms of Internet marketing. While more advanced methods have come along, it can still be very effective provided the right approach and tools are utilized. There are many different types of email marketing campaigns that be launched by those who want to use the electronic mail system to reach their audience.

An opt-in email marketing campaign involves distributing mail to a list of subscribers that have agreed to receive it from a particular company. Though mainly leveraged by ecommerce stores, it can prove beneficial to almost any online business. With opt-in email marketing, a business can keep its customers up to date on the latest products or services, as well as special offers and discounts. Several marketers attest that the most difficult aspect of such a campaign is composing a quality list of subscribers.

Bulk email also represents a type of email marketing campaign commonly used to promote online businesses. Often facilitated through an email blast service or specialize software, bulk email typically involves simultaneously sending messages to a large mailing list of subscribers. This is generally an affordable way to reach a vast number of potential customers, but there are some notable disadvantages. There is a very fine line between a legitimate bulk email campaign and spam. Identifying this, and staying on the right side of it, is what usually enables marketers to achieve positive results.

Newsletter marketing is often viewed as one of the most effective of all email marketing campaigns. This is primarily because someone who subscribed for a newsletter is more likely to read it, whereas a message distributed through another type of email marketing may get deleted without the recipient even opening it. Newsletters offer the ability to combine various techniques into a single package, allowing a business to drive its marketing message home, whether it involves promoting products and services, or simply keeping customers updated on the latest company news.
An email marketing campaign can make a great first step for the business that wishes to encourage dialogue with its audience, or deliver a message to the market. All campaigns, however, must obtain the maximum email delivery and high open rates, which basically means that the intended recipients are both receiving and reading the mail. Many successful email marketers agree that this best way to ensure a successful campaign.


In conclusion, one of the great things of the Internet is that whether we are big or small, whether we have a huge marketing budget or a very tight one, what will determine our success is our ability to reach out to our existing and potential customers; our ability to establish and nurture a trusting and close relationship with them; our ability to single out our individual customers from the crowd; our ability to pinpoint and satisfy their most particular needs and wants; and the quality of the products and services we provide.

Important of Email Marketing to Every Business

Email marketing has become important in today’s business world. Its undeniable benefits continue to gain adepts in every level of commerce, industry and service. Email marketing is easy to setup, affordable, vigorous and highly effective and targeted. Email is faster, by far less expensive and more compelling than the standard marketing tools, such as direct mail or print advertising. Email marketing is available to all. It is direct, it demands less time and resources and the results are instantly manifested.

It is well known now in the business world that selling to existing customers is several times less expensive than getting a new one, and that profitability us hinged upon loyal customers and repeat business.
Human beings have not changed much at their core, despite all the new resources that pile up to make our daily lives and businesses more productive, effective, fun and relaxed. When we find a good merchant or a good service provider that offer what we need, we like to establish and carry a personal relationship with them. And when we are satisfied with the performance of a product or service and we do have a good relationship with the merchant, we keep going back to that particular source every time we have the need to. We also refer our acquaintances to their care and call them my butcher, my lawyer, my child’s day care, my accountant, my doctor…

So, at the end of the day, creating and sustaining good business is nothing but creating and sustaining good relationships. And good relationships are nourished via frequent, positive communication.
Email is the best tool available for this in our busy times.

Studies show that it takes several contacts –six to seven, on average– before you actually turn a prospect into a customer, and that the more personal the contact, the better. But standard business communication tools –direct mail, telemarketing and print, radio and television advertisements– are not only expensive and time-consuming, but also often perceived by the public as invasive nuisances.

Who doesn’t dread going to the mailbox on ‘junk-mail day’? Or picking up the phone when the caller ID shows a 1-800 number or ‘unknown caller’? Or even picking up the newspaper from the doorstep on Sundays, for heaven’s sake? How long did it take for you to figure out –and fume over– the fact that the young, perky voice on the other end of the line talking to you so casually was some satellite dish company’s computer?

If doing good business is mostly about earning the good will of the public in the first place, standard marketing communication doesn’t do business a much lasting service in today’s world.

Let try to remember how small business dealt with their customers in the past, we will easily grasp the value of permission-based email marketing. In the past, small business owners would build relationships with their customers in the neighborhood through personal interaction. In the course of this interaction, they learned their customer’s names, their birth dates and anniversaries, their place of origin, the names of their spouses and children, their individual preferences and interests. They would remember this information and bring it up opportunely, always keeping in touch with their customers –appropriately called ‘patrons’ then– in an intimate, familial way.

The greater mobility, the more busy lifestyles of our time and new technologies have rendered a more expanded and impersonal world. The way we do business, the way we communicate and the way we socialize may have changed, but our core need to be individualized, to be recognized in the crowd, to be valued for ourselves, remains the same.

It is in this world that permission-based email marketing can provide you with a larger, more loyal, more intimate circle of patrons –and do so in a faster, more direct and less expensive way than is possible with more traditional and impersonal marketing tools. For a pinch of a cent.

Permission-based email marketing is affordable, renders a response rate up to five times greater than standard marketing and has a positive impact on the receivers’ perception of a company. A fraction of a cent per email takes a tight marketing budget a long ways into attaining your goals of winning new customers, boosting customer loyalty and fostering repeat business. But even if you favor a mix of flyers, print ads, newsletter sponsorship and Web banners in your strategy to obtain new business and retain customers, throwing the fast, affordable, direct and highly effective permission-based email marketing into that mix will only maximize the power of your investment.

One of the advantages of email marketing is that it is expeditious. As soon as you have time-sensitive information to communicate to your client list, for example, or the minute you are ready to launch a particular campaign, you can wrap it up in an email message and immediately send it out directly to everyone on your list. And you will be able to see results right away –because with permission-based email marketing your patrons are actually looking forward to your messages.

Email can be used to distribute newsletters, create brand awareness, promote preferred customer specials, advertise sales, announce new services and/or products, send/birthday/anniversary/holiday greetings, invite to events, educate your customers, and more… really fast. And what is best: it allows for that instant, consistent, one-on-one, two-way communication that will certainly benefit your business

With email marketing, you can easily assess the number of emails sent, the number of emails opened and who opened them; the number of unsubscribers; the number of bounce-backs (both hard and soft), and the click through rates (including which links were more effective and who clicked through).
This information is invaluable to gauge the overall effectiveness of your campaigns and to design and launch future campaigns that are highly effective and targeted to very specific individuals and/or groups of individuals.
Is it all good?

Basically, yes. However, there is still concern in regards to SPAM (unsolicited commercial email) filters
that are in use by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). These tools are being developed and used to protect the privacy and security of recipients from unlawful ‘marketers’ and other Internet crooks. The filters, however, are yet imperfect and sometimes weed out perfectly legitimate, permission-based messages (‘false positives’), which are then not delivered to the recipient, are usually ‘bounced’ back to the sender or simply deleted by the ISP –and can render a perfectly legitimate sender ‘blacklisted’.

Legitimate email marketers are ‘CAN-SPAM compliant’, a certification that the merchant is doing legitimate business with legal products or services and in a permission-based mode.

One of the great things of the Internet is that whether we are big or small, whether we have a huge marketing budget or a very tight one, what will determine our success is our ability to reach out to our existing and potential customers; our ability to establish and nurture a trusting and close relationship with them; our ability to single out our individual customers from the crowd; our ability to pinpoint and satisfy their most particular needs and wants; and the quality of the products and services we provide.

See you next time!!!

Pricing Strategy an important tool for your internet business

Buying a product from your mini mart, you will easily come across so many divest products with similarities from different brand, Yet each has a different price, and each product has a different price strategy. These are marketing decisions, pure and simple. The 4 Ps of Marketing are elements of the marketing mix that you can control. Price is one of the key elements in a winning marketing mix.
Doing business on the internet without having a pricing strategy is a doom, sometime, it may seem pretty simple on the surface; your company's pricing strategy can easily mean the difference between thriving and going bankrupt. A lot of factors are involved.
One of the first questions you need to answer are as follows: -
1.What are your site visitors like?
2.Are they bargain hunters?
3.Or do they look for excellence in customer service?
4.Or shop for products based on their prestige value?
5.Another important question is what does it cost you to purchase (or produce) and market this product or service?
Your price will have to be above your costs -- most of the time. Here are the various pricing objectives you'll want to consider.

Pricing Objectives
Two main pricing objectives stand out:

•To maximize short-term profits. Here you try to squeeze as much money out of sales of the product as possible, even though fewer customers may make a purchase. Your strategy may be to charge premium prices for website design services. You end up with less customers, but then dealing with a lot of customers multiplies your problems. And you can make more profit off each customer. Or you may need to maximize profits in order to satisfy an impatient boss or investor.
•To gain marketshare. The other main strategy is to price your service lower to gain marketshare. You may want to maximize the number of subscribers to your online Internet access business, even though you don't make as much on each customer. But you know that later you'll be able to sell these subscribers other services such as web hosting, e-commerce, website design, DSL, and a host of others once they get comfortable with you. You don't make as much early, but you plan to make money later with "back end" sales.

Most importantly are these two above listed objectives, although two others objectives may be considered which includes: -
•To survive. Survival is a worthy goal. Sometimes companies lower prices so they can generate enough revenue to survive short term. But this isn't a very good long-term strategy. There's an old joke about the businessman who said he was losing money on every sale, but he expected to make it up in volume. Good luck. Sometimes it's better to call it quits before you lose even more.
•To help society. You might keep the price lower than "what the market will bear" in order to make essential products available to the consumers who would otherwise be priced out of the market. Altruism has its place. You don't have to make as much money as possible, unless making money is your only goal. For example, I really want to keep my consulting services priced within reach of small businesses. I long to see small businesses thrive; that's part of what makes me tick. But I also want to charge better-funded companies a more appropriate fee for the more extensive services I render them. The way I do this is to offer a standard product or service, and an economy service at a lower price, but with clear limitations.

Customer Demand
Consumer Demand is a crucial factor. Demand is driven by consumer tastes, consumer income, and the availability of other products at a different price. For example, if a competitor begins to sell 10 packs of iris chocolates at a lower price than yours, the demand for yours will decrease. Professional pricing consultants construct demand curves to determine absolute demand. An Educational center recently reduced the fees for admitting a new student into the school, for a duration of the first week, it was discovered just how much lowering the fees by 20 dollars, increments would increase the total number of registration by plotting registration figures on a demand curve.
Of course, commodities, well known products that are pretty much the same as every other similar product, are strongly affected by demand as well as supply. Take crude oil, for example. If it's abundant, prices drop. If it's in short supply, though, and customer demand remains constant, the price goes up. You could always sell beans or corn or pork bellies on your website. But the price would be constantly changing. You need a great product that you have more control over. Producing your own product, or getting exclusive marketing rights, of course, is best if you can do it.

But having a great and exclusive product is only half the battle. Making the customer aware of its existence and its value is the other, and that's the role of marketing. You can increase demand by advertising and careful pricing.

Estimating Revenue
Once you've established consumer demand, you need to estimate revenue. It'll help to master a few technical terms:
Total Revenue is the unit price multiplied by the quantity sold.
Average revenue is the average price the product sold for. This is still pretty simple. Now buckle your seat belts.
Price elasticity of demand is another concept. Think how much stretch a rubber band has in it. "Elastic demand" is when a small decrease in the price of Styrofoam cups produces a big increase in sales. "Inelastic demand" is when a small decrease in the price of cups makes only a tiny difference in sales.
Fixed cost comprises the fairly stable overhead costs of running the company, such as lease on the building, management salaries, insurance, and a Picasso print on the wall of your office.
Variable cost is the direct cost of production and marketing. This will vary with the number of goods produced and sold, such as labor and materials used in manufacturing. It costs you more for widget makers and widget glue when you produce more widgets.
Total cost is the sum of the fixed cost and the variable cost.
Break-even analysis is pretty straightforward. You determine the level of sales needed to cover the total costs and break even. Any sales after that start to accrue profits.
Determining the maximum profit point is a vital goal in pricing. This takes some research and then some mathematical analysis and graphing.

Pricing Approaches
Of course, pricing isn't just scientific. It has a lot to do with your particular niche on the Internet, and how you've determined you can best succeed. Below are some demand-oriented approaches to pricing:
1.Skimming pricing: - When you are offering a new or innovative product you can initially charge a high price, since the "early adopters" aren't very price sensitive. Then you lower prices to "skim" off the next layer of buyers, etc. Eventually, the price will drop as the product matures and competitors offer lower prices.
2.Penetration pricing: - You set a low initial price in order to penetrate quickly into the mass market. A low initial price discourages competitors from entering the market, and is the best approach when many segments of the market are price sensitive. Amazon.com, for example, offers a discount price and may lose money on the first sale, but this way they gain more customers who will purchase products later at a lower marketing cost (since it costs much less to attract them back for the second or third sale if they are happy with their first purchase experience).
3.Prestige pricing: - Cheap products are not taken seriously by some buyers unless they are priced at a particular level. For example, you can sometimes find clothing of the same quality brand at Nordstrom as you do at the Men's Warehouse. But because it is priced higher, Nordstrom's clientele believes it to be of higher quality.
4.Odd-even pricing takes advantage of human psychology that feels like $499.95 is less than $500. Studies of price points by direct marketers have found that products sell best at certain price points, such as $197, $297, $397, compared to other prices slightly higher or lower. Strange, we humans!
5.Demand-backward pricing is sometimes used by manufacturers. First, they determine the price consumers are willing to pay for a product using an approach such as Make Your Price Sell! (http://sales.sitesell.com/myps) automates. Then they work backward through the standard markups taken by retailers and wholesalers to come up with the price they can charge wholesalers for the product.
6.Bundle pricing is offering two or more products together in a single package price. This can offer savings to both the buyer and to the seller, who saves the cost of marketing both products separately. And the customer is willing to pay more because he perceives that he is getting a lot more, even though the cost to the seller may not really be that much more.

There are other cost-oriented approaches to pricing, this includes;
•Standard mark-up pricing: - Typically a manufacturer marks his price up 15% over his costs, a wholesaler 20% over his costs, and a retailer 40% over his costs. The retailer gets a larger markup based on the idea that, since he is closest to the end user, he is required to spend more services and individual attention meeting the buyer's needs.
•Cost-plus pricing adds a small percentage to the retailer's costs -- and "cost plus 5%" sounds so modest in ads for new cars! Ah! If only it were that simple.
•Experience curve pricing assumes that it costs a company less to produce a product or provide a service over time, since learning will make them more efficient.

Then there are competition-oriented approaches to pricing that you'll recognize:
•Customary pricing is where the product "traditionally" sells for a certain price. Candy bars of a certain weight all cost a predictable amount -- unless you purchase them in an airport shop.
•Above-, at-, or below-market pricing. Certain stores advertise "low cost" or "discount" pricing. Others price at the market, while others deliberately price above-the-market at premium prices to attract prestige buyers.
•Loss-leader pricing works on the basis of losing money on certain very low priced advertised products to get customers in the door who will buy other products at the same time.
•Flexible-price policies offer the same product to customers at different negotiated prices. Cars, for example, are typically sold at negotiated prices. Many B2B sales depend on negotiated contracts.

Once you have determined the list or quoted price you can make some special adjustments which includes;
Quantity discounts; encourage customers to buy larger quantities, and thus cut marketing costs.
Seasonal discounts; encourage buyers to stock inventory earlier than their normal demand would require. This enables the manufacturer to smooth out manufacturing peaks and troughs for more efficient production.
Rebates, such as $40 off Microsoft FrontPage 2000, are usually offered by the manufacturer, but sometimes a retail store will offer its own rebate. Rebates make marketing sense, since they strongly motivate sales, but often less than 50% of the buyers will remember to collect the receipt, proof-of-purchase, and rebate form, fill it out, and mail it prior to the expiration date. And, of course, the rebate is often subtracted from the list price of the item, which still has considerable profit built in. Rebate marketing is less than half as expensive to the marketer as the price cut would seem to indicate.
Trade discounts are offered by manufacturers to distributors or resellers in their distribution chain. For example, a manufacturer may quote list price of $1000 less 30/10/5, meaning 30% off the list price to the retailer, an additional 10% off the $1000 to the wholesaler, and an additional 5% off the $1000 to the jobber. This pricing will be expected if you have an online B2B store.
Cash discounts are sometimes offered for the costs saved from not having to extend credit and bill the buyer on an open account. This mainly affects B2B sales rather than retail.
Allowances may be permitted for trade-ins (not too many trade-in cars shipped by modem though) or by a manufacturer for promotional advertising that a retailer undertakes.
Geographic adjustments involve FOB (freight on board) pricing at the point of shipping.

Regulations on pricing
We need to note that there are various governmental regulations on pricing. If you sell outside your own country (and having a global marketplace is the beauty of the Internet!), you'll need to familiarize yourself with laws in other countries in other to get going. In most countries for example, conspiring with other firms to set prices for a product is called price fixing and is illegal. Price discrimination -- different prices to different buyers of the same goods or services is tricky. For instant in the US deceptive pricing is outlawed by the Federal Trade Commission. Predatory pricing that is, charging a very low price with the purpose of driving competitors out of business, is also illegal in the US under the Sherman Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act, but is hard to prove.

Lastly, you need to think through and then adopt a very deliberate price strategy for your business; will you sell what are essentially commodities and be the low price leader? Or the service leader? Will you deliberately price low in order to penetrate the market quickly and establish first-mover advantage? Or will you price high to skim off the early adopters at a premium profit? Will you bundle several products in order to make a greater profit? Will you round off to the nearest dollar or use an odd price approach? Do you have a new or exclusive product that you can study scientifically for the best price?

Most online businesses only guess at prices -- and most will be out of business in a few years as a direct result. The best online businesses are very deliberate about pricing, do their homework, and make changes quickly when necessary. Do your very best with pricing, After all, pricing is the only one of the 4 Ps of Marketing that brings revenue in rather than sending it out.

See you next time!!!!

THINGS TO NOTE WHEN CHOOSING THE RIGHT MERCHANT ACCOUNT PROVIDER

Every business owner aim to succeed in their respective businesses, they want to increase their sales and make more money.
The best way to do this is to offer your customers the ability to pay for merchandise with their credit cards or debit cards. Whether you operate your business in a physical location or online-only, allowing customers the option of credit card payment is logical. You will increase sales because of the convenience of the payment options you offer. The vast majority of shoppers, online and in person, prefer to pay with their credit cards. Opening a merchant account is the way to give your customers more payment options. But it is important that you find out as much as you can about merchant accounts and merchant account providers.

First and foremost let look at the word “Merchant”
What is a merchant account?
A merchant account is an account that enables merchants to accept credit card payments. Any merchant who wants to take credit card orders must establish a merchant account. A merchant account can be obtained through a bank, credit card Company, or the direct payment processor. Keep in mind that banks are not merchant providers; they use third parties to set up merchant accounts. Once you are set up with a merchant account you will have the ability to
accept all forms of payments including credit cards, debit cards and electronic checks.

A merchant account is set up through a bank or an online merchant account provider for a retail or online organization in order to accept credit cards as payment from customers. A merchant account is not a bank account. The merchant account provider's job is to place the money you earn from credit card sales into your bank account. It used to be that merchant accounts were only offered by banks and providers to retail businesses that were located in a physical location. But with online shopping gaining popularity over the past several years, merchant account providers have started providing accounts to online business owners as well. Even though most banks still do not provide online merchant accounts due to the constant concern over credit card fraud, there are an increasing amount of online merchant account providers that offer services especially to those merchants that market their products online. Because of the high number of merchant account providers out there, it is important that you research all aspects of them, what services they provide, and especially the costs they impose, so that you don’t lose precious profits.

When looking into merchant accounts and providers, be aware that there are two types payment processing that they will offer. These are manual and real-time processing. Manual processing requires that the credit card number be delivered through a phone transaction, fax transaction, or an online order form. The order is processed manually by contacting the payment processing company (through an Internet connection) to verify the credit card number, or by using a point of sale machine to swipe the card at the time of purchase. This type of processing is more secure, less costly, and ideal for a low-volume merchant in a physical store location. Real-time processing is perfect for web-based merchants because the credit card is immediately processed at the time an order is placed. Pending verification and approval of the credit card, the customer receives notification (via e-mail) that his or her order is accepted and fund transfer is approved. This is the less secure of the two processing options.

5 Essential Factors
Starting to accept credit cards and debits cards at your business can be a challenging task. The Card Processing Industry is highly competitive, with many companies offering a broad range of services it is important for any business considering Merchant Services to understand these important factors; Benefits, Equipment Costs, Rates, Types of Processing and Terms of the Agreement e.t.c.

1. The many ways a merchant account will benefit your business.
•Boost Sales
Most everyone pays with credit or debit cards. Our society is all about convenience. If you make it easy for your customers to pay they will appreciate it. Most all businesses find an immediate increase in sales after they start accepting credit cards.
•Receive Immediate Payment
Rather than waiting for weeks or months to receive payment, funds will be deposited directly into your account in a matter of days. Money goes directly into the checking account of your choice.
•Reduce Staff Overhead
In receiving payment via credit card your business forgoes excessive time spent in sending overdue notices and making awkward phone calls to request payment.
•Avoid Non‐Payment
Many business owners are reluctant to pay a small percentage of profits to credit card processing companies, however, most find that the service quickly pays for itself in avoiding loss from non‐payment.
•Expanded Customer Base
The modern consumer expects to be able to pay via credit card and is often without cash, check, or other means of payment. Credit Card processing is a convenience for your customers and a professional foot forward for your company
•Go Virtual
Business has moved online. With the Internet, small and large businesses alike can have a global customer base. However, credit card processing is a requirement for effective ecommerce.
•Auto Charge Your Clients
For customers or clients on a revolving payment schedule it is usually easier for them and for your business to simply auto charges their credit cards each cycle.

2. Equipment Costs
•Buy
When you buy equipment you have complete control over the machine, but you are stuck with equipment that you have to maintain and update yourself. This also raises the start up costs tremendously.
Expensive Start Up
Buying equipment can be expensive. Terminals can cost up to $1,000. If you are looking for low start up costs this will not be the right option for you.
Training
You want to make sure that training of some form is included with your purchase. A quick introduction to using the advanced features of your terminal can help you get your money's worth.
Keeping Up With Technology
You don’t want to get stuck with an out‐dated machine. Technology is constantly changing and you want to keep up‐to‐date with the changes. You want to make sure the machine is compliant and can be used with the processor of your choice.

•Lease
A lease payment will often cost you far more than purchasing your equipment outright. You could be paying more than the machine is worth and usually you have to enter into some sort of contract. Make sure to read the entire contract.
No Replace or Repair
Most leasing companies specifically state that they have no responsibility to replace or repair your equipment should something go wrong. Many merchants enter into lease agreements thinking that they can get a warranty or service from the leasing company, and this is rarely true.
Hidden Fees
You should be especially aware of agreements that give the lease company authority to debit your account for additional fees for insurance at their discretion.
Know the Agreement
Many merchants lose track of their agreements over time and continue to pay monthly lease installments long after the lease term has expired. Don’t assume that your sales person will notify you at the end of your lease term. The lease company will continue to charge you, or even worse, renew your lease for another 48 to 60 month term. Be sure and send notice of intent to cancel or buyout at least 60 days prior to your lease expiration.
Locked In
Can I use this equipment with any processor? Some terminals are proprietary to a specific processor or network. You could end up paying thousands of dollars for a terminal that you cannot use with any other processor should you choose to change providers. Remember, changing processors has nothing to do with that third party lease. Even if you buy new equipment, you will still be responsible for the lease terms in your agreement. Be sure and ask
lots of questions when considering leasing options.
•Free
This is probably the best option for you and your business. If a company is offering free equipment you can take advantage of the low start up fees, new equipment and training that is often offered with a high quality merchant account processor.
Low start up
This can be a great option if you are looking to get set up to accept cards with no expensive upfront cost. You won’t have to worry about a chunk of money that is associated with buying a machine and you won’t have a monthly fee for leasing the machine.
You don’t own the machine
This is similar to the cell phone industry if you sign up for the service you receive a new phone at no extra cost. Usually the company will still own the machine if you want to cancel your contract. Even with a termination fee you will still save money by taking advantage of the free use of the machine.
New Equipment
With a quality processor you will have the most up‐to‐date equipment and they will make sure that it is compliant with of the latest upgrades. This can save time and money in the long run.

3. Rates & Common Fees
There are many different rates to consider when you are talking about credit card processing. If a processor offers you one flat rate you should look deeper into the actual contract to make sure you fully understand what the processor is charging. Make sure you have clear communication with your merchant account processor about fees and ongoing costs. Some typical fees include the following.
•Set up Fee: A onetime fee for starting a merchant account.
•Statement Fee: A fixed monthly fee that virtually all processors charge for your monthly statement
Provided to show how much processing you did in the previous month.
•Transaction Fees: Fee the merchant has to pay per transaction.
•Discount Rate: Flat percentage charged for every transaction
•Pin Based Debit: PIN Debit is a transaction in which the customer uses a debit card and enters in their PIN
Number. This functions essentially as an ATM transaction and the merchant pays a per item fee and PIN Network Fees for each transaction.
•Qualified Rate: The rate a merchant pays on a swiped transaction conducted face‐to‐face with a signature where the full contents of the magnetic stripe were read. Usually includes all consumer credit cards (and debit cards if a separate category for swiped Debit is not set up in the billing). These are the lowest risk transactions so they carry the lowest discount rates.
•Mid Qualified Rate: A higher rate than Qualified which is charged to merchants for processing a hand‐keyed transaction from consumers (and sometime rewards cards also cleared as a midqualified).
There can be a mid‐qualified rate for credit, debit, rewards cards, and more.
Primarily these are consumer cards which are hand‐keyed and meet all other requirements of Interchange.
•Non‐Qualified Rate: The highest rates charged to merchants. The transactions are typically swiped or keyed for business or corporate cards. Additionally, Visa transactions where a consumer cards are hand‐keyed without AVS will Downgrade to Non‐Qualified.
•Termination Fees: If you terminate your contract early this is the fee you are charged to get out of your contract.
•Monthly Minimum: The minimum amount the processor needs to have in fees. As long as your credit card processing meets or exceeds the minimum amount then you will not be charged. If your monthly fees are less than the minimum then you will be charged the difference.
Get it documented.

All of the above fees should be disclosed in writing at your request. Once you have a basic understanding of all the associated fees, you will have the knowledge necessary to obtain the best deal possible. Unfortunately, business owners often research only the difference in percentage rates. This is meaningless if the savings disappear in higher fees hidden elsewhere.
Every account is different and you need to speak with a knowledgeable sales person who can set your business up with the proper processing solution.

4. Find the Right Processing Solution for Your Business
Getting set up with the proper processing solution is very important. This alone can save you money by having the best rates for the types of cards your business accepts and through how you will be accepting the card.
Retail Solutions
For most retail businesses, including stores, hotels, restaurants, etc., the most suitable option for credit card processing is a simple landline terminal. This traditional point of sale system is set up phone line or IP. For face to face transactions, this is the best option for your business.
Wireless Solutions
If your business is mobile, and being tied to a storefront or landline is not an option, then wireless solutions may be what you need. The wireless terminal can process credit and debit cards wherever there is an available cell phone signal.
Internet Solutions
The fastest growing segment within the credit card processing industry is in online transactions. There are many different types of online gateways that will help your business begin accepting credit cards via the internet. Through web access and a secure website, you will be able to manually process credit card transactions from orders received offline, issue credits, void transactions, and view your online list of transactions, from any internet connection in the
world.

5. Terms of Agreement
Every merchant account provider is going to require some type of contract. This is going to be a very important factor in choosing a merchant account provider. You want to make sure you read the entire contract including all of the fine print to make sure you understand the entire offer.
Ask for the offer in writing
You need to have a copy of the agreement before you start a merchant. If you speak to someone on the phone ask them to email or fax you the application to make sure you have all the information.
Rate Disclosure
Make sure all of the rates are disclosed in the contract. Be very cautious when the rates are not listed, because you may run into some hidden fees.
Termination Policy
How long does the contract last? How much is the termination fee? Some companies offer a trial period and most all companies have a termination fee, similar to cell phone contracts.
Sales Representative
Can your sales representative explain the contract? You want to make sure you are dealing with an experienced representative; this alone can save you money. Ask relevant questions to make sure they are helpful and can set your account up properly.

Lastly
When you are ready to accept credit and debit cards and you are researching merchant account providers, make sure you keep all of the following factors in mind.
More than likely, you will have a long relationship with your merchant account provider. Therefore, you should have the utmost trust and confidence in them. Your provider should offer various services that will give you options in making your business transactions run smoothly. They should be able to accommodate several brands of credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, etc.), in addition to providing other payment alternatives, such as PayPal. They should have a record of impeccable service and reliability. They should also be first-rate customer service providers. Any problems should be handled discreetly and quickly. Despite the seeming necessity of having a merchant account provider, it can make or break your business with its fees and service. That is why it is important to know the ins and outs of a merchant account provider, and to choose one carefully