Jagraj Singh Gill asked:


Copyright © Jagraj Gill

http://www.payitforward4profits.com/jaggiegill

Business to business marketing – internet style – is not a new concept. As a matter of fact, the idea of having two or more businesses help to promote one another is a tried and true idea that has resulted in numerous profits for those involved. Savvy business owners and operators understand the inherent value brought to their establishment by business to business marketing; internet sites offer another dimension that will permit these business owners to continue their networking efforts in the virtual world that the ‘Net provides.

For example, a brick and mortar company – such as a dog grooming business – will be able to benefit from displaying advertisements at the local veterinarian offices. Dog owners are most likely to consider taking their animals for a professional grooming to such an establishment, especially if it comes recommended by their local vet. Conversely, the clients of the dog grooming business will be most likely those who need a veterinarian for their pets, and they may trust the vet recommended by the dog groomer who already has an established relationship with them. The same concept applies to business to business marketing; internet simply adds a new dimension to

the transaction.

For example, the local dog groomer as well as the veterinarian may both have websites. This will permit for further business to business marketing, internet style. Since the services provided by the dog groomer and veterinarian only tangentially overlap, they are not in competition with one another, but instead will be able to market business to business in the truest sense of the term. Yet if the dog groomer wants to take the business further on the ‘Net, the business to business marketing internet connection will need to be made with other entities such as dog fancy magazines, animal shelters, and other groups that are not in competition with one another.

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John Coates asked:


Marketing is critical to the success of any business, whether it is a one-person operation, a medium sized company or a multinational corporation. When running your home based business, it is even more important that marketing your business is done right, as you cannot afford to get it wrong. Remember that everything you do, and the way that you do it, is all marketing. Doing something well is usually as easy as doing it badly, but wins you a good reputation.

 

The UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing definition of marketing is, “The management process that identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably.” So we can see that marketing is not just about advertising and selling products or services. It is about: finding out what potential customers want; creating the products and services that satisfy those needs; selling those products and services at the right price; making those products and services available in the right place.

 

To check if you are doing all of these we can look at the four elements of marketing that are known as the four Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Let us look closer at the first, your product.

 

Does your product meet the needs of your customers? If it is not perfectly suited to customers then you may want to make some changes. Ideally, your response to this question should be that no changes are required. How do your products compare with your competitors? If they are better or compare reasonably well, then you pass this criteria. But if they do not compare very well or you do not know, you need to urgently review this particular aspect.

 

Every product or service can be said to have a four-stage life cycle. Birth is when a new product is launched and introduced to prospective customers. Growth occurs when the product becomes popular and starts to sell well. Maturity is when the product is selling so well that you are unable to keep up with demand. The final stage is decline, when demand and sales fall. Customers have turned their attention elsewhere. Take a good look at your product or service and decide which of these stages are applicable.

 

The second element of the four Ps is price. The price should be thought to be fair by the customer. It does not necessarily have to be the cheapest, but value for money. It should be competitive so that when your customers compare your prices to those of your competitors, they think yours are within the price range they would expect to pay. The price you set for your product or service must be profitable. If you are not trading at a profit you will not be running your home based business for very long. Remember that the price you set has to cover the cost of your overheads: light, heating, telephone, advertising, etc, and still provide a profit. When costing you product, you should also include your time.

 

The third element of marketing is that of promotion. Promotion is how a product or service is brought to the attention of your potential customers. This can be done in a number of ways and can be paid promotion or free. The former includes advertising in newspapers, magazines, radio or television. Depending on your budget you may want to consider what could be classed as “free” promotion. This could include competitions, e.g. create a winning slogan and win a holiday for two. (Remember that competitions do not have to cost you anything if you consider joint ventures!). You may want to make special offers such as: buy one get one free; buy now and pay next year; 0% interest, etc.

 

The final element to marketing your business is place. This covers where the goods or services are offered for sale and then the way these goods or services are distributed and delivered to the customer. In running your business from home, you need to look at how you distribute and deliver to your customer. Running your home based business does not mean you can forget this element of marketing your business.

 

Marketing your business well, you must get the four Ps right; product, price, promotion and place. Analyze these areas, monitor your results and be prepared to change your marketing strategy. Be willing to ask your customers or clients what they think, and be prepared to act on the results.

Tammi Metzler asked:


If you haven’t been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you’ve probably heard people talking about blogging for both business and pleasure. But you may have no idea what blogging is or how to get started. Well, I’m here to tell you.

Keeping a business marketing blog can do wonders for your business, both by driving traffic to your web site and by establishing you as an expert in your field.

I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s start at the beginning. What is a blog, you ask? According to Wikipedia.com:

A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

What does this mean for you, the small business owner?  Blogging isn’t typically a method to get clients now; it’s more of a branding practice to get your name out there. Search engines love blogs because of the fresh content. With that being the case, a blog can bring new visitors to your site, and your regularly updated blog content can keep interested visitors coming back to your site to check out what’s new. Eventually, those interested prospects will start to see you as an expert, and the next time they need what you’re selling, they’ll remember you. 

The hardest part is coming up with fresh content for your blog. You can’t write a blog post once every two months and expect to have any favorable results. There’s nothing worse than a silent blog, so if you think you lack the time to maintain one, you’re better off exploring other options, whether that be looking into other internet marketing methods or hiring a copywriter to take care of the dirty work of actual getting your thoughts down into writing (yes, we do exist, and we can transform your knowledge and experience into interesting content that will attract the attention of your potential customers). If you can commit just a few hours a week to posting at least two blogs (or if you’re ready to hire a copywriter to take on this task for you), read on for more information about this increasingly popular marketing method.

Quite frankly, a small time commitment each week leads to the possibility of greater exposure for your business. Which means more interested customers are stumbling onto your web site, which means a higher chance of sales. It’s really very simple!

But maybe you’re not a writer, so it’s not that simple after all. If you find yourself staring at a blank page when it’s time to write your posts, take a moment to think about the questions your customers regularly ask you. For instance, let’s say you’re a financial consultant and people constantly ask you the easiest way to create a budget so they can pay their bills and still have fun money left over. Jot down the top ten tips that you would give your customers and describe each one in detail in its own blog posts. Just like that, you’ve got your first ten blog posts. If you post twice per week, you’re covered for five weeks!

Don’t let that stop your creative wheels from turning, though, because those five weeks will be gone before you know it. Keep looking for new ideas, and be sure to write them down as they come to you. You don’t want to be stuck scrambling for new material on a moment’s notice – you can bet your creative muse will be on vacation just when you need it the most!

I know what you’re thinking…”Sounds interesting, but how much is this gonna cost me?” Nothing more than your time, my friend. You can set up a new blog in mere moments with no out-of-pocket expense. Check out www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com for a few free blog options. Yep, that’s right – FREE. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Or maybe you’re concerned about the technological aspect. Have no fear; you don’t have to know HTML code (or even know what that is) to create your own blog. The programs mentioned above do all the behind-the-scenes work for you, so all you have to do is start typing. What are you waiting for?

The next time you find yourself with the desire (or the need) to grow your business, consider the increasingly popular world of blogging to get your name in front of potential clients.

Happy blogging!

George Dodge asked:


Let me ask you a question. The answer is to the question is critical to your business success.

Do you fully understand the real nature of the business you are in?

Your instant response is of course, I’m in the [put your industry name here] business. For example, you probably said, of course, I’m in the real estate business, or the plumbing business, or the printing business, etc.

But that is only partly correct if you are the owner of the business. As the business owner, the real nature of your business is marketing the business you are in.

You may have the greatest service or the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, you will soon be out of business.

One method of increasing the exposure of your business to your potential customers, is to conduct a marketing crusade.

You can compare this marketing approach to a missionary’s work or the launching of a crusade because only the fervor and the determination of a missionary or crusader will assure your marketing success.

Missionaries are driven by more than just their desire to sell someone on buying their product or service. Rather, a missionary’s goal is to convert the world to their way of thinking, their mission and their crusade. Only through such a conversion process can you expect to receive not just a customer, but customers for life.

When your business launches a marketing mission, it takes a different approach than traditional marketing.

Traditional approaches are taken and set aside in favor of our missionary or crusader’s goal. In a traditional marketing effort, the real motivation for most marketing activity is just to make money. That’s nice to do, but that’s not all we need.

Every marketing effort, at this point, is tied directly back to its contribution to money coming in.

Now, as a missionary, your business goal becomes an effort to win your customer’s lifetime business and loyalty. If your business’ marketing activity is successful in changing the way your customers think about your business or products or services in such a way that the customer sees you as a vehicle to accomplish their goal and growth, then your goals and your growth will be a natural result.

As your business manages its sales growth properly, increased profit is going to follow. Immediate profits are nowhere near as important as long-term profits. To insure that you’re going to continue to profit for the long-term, your real objective is to convert your prospect into a customer who shares your vision of what you’re trying to accomplish and is a true believer.

Vision is a problem with the normal sales approach. There is no vision other than the short-term, which is to make the immediate sale. There is little or no real focus on back-end selling and the life time value of a customer, which we’ll talk more about later on.

What is your vision?

Is your business focused on an area of interest to your customers, prospects or clients?

Are you driven fervently by the need to help them or yourself?

Why should others patronize your business rather than any other business? Or not do anything at all?

What can you do that will not only cause your customers to return again and again, but cause them to tell others to buy your products and services as well?

Can you take that vision and incorporate it with a main sales and marketing thrust, advantage or Unique Selling Proposition and use that for an advantage over your competitors?

A good marketing crusade will integrate all this together and soon have customers coming to you as a result of what Dan Kennedy calls a Magnetic Marketing System. If you were Jiffy Lube, you might call it a well oiled marketing machine.

Jeffrey Houdyschell asked:


Business to business marketing online Internet style. This is not a new marketing technique. In fact, the design of having two or even more businesses help to endorse one another products and services is a tried and true method that has provided profitable results for most entities involved. Knowledgeable business owners and webmasters recognize the enormous value brought to their company by business-to-business marketing. Marketing online offers another dimension with enormous reach that will allow businesses to continue their networking efforts in the virtual and viral world that the Internet provides.

Lets say for example that a brick and mortar company like a dog grooming business will benefit and gain customers from displaying advertisements at the local veterinarian offices. Dog owners, who trust these veterinarians are more likely to take their pets for a professional grooming to a business recommended by an already trusted establishment, like their local vet. On the other hand, the clients of the dog grooming business will be most likely those who need a veterinarian for their pets, and they will most likely trust the vet suggested by the professional grooming business who already has an reputable relationship with them. The same concept applies to business-to-business marketing; The Internet simply adds a new aspect to this method.

If the local pet grooming business and the veterinarian both have a website it will permit for further business-to-business marketing, Internet style. Since the services provided by the pet grooming business and veterinarian only tangentially overlap, they are not in direct competition with one another, but instead will be able to do business-to-business marketing online in the truest sense of the term.

These businesses could then continue with this business-to-business marketing method with other related businesses. For example the Pet grooming business could establish a relationship with pet magazines, animal shelters and other groups that are not in direct competition with each other.

This form of business-to-business marketing has become commonplace online and savvy webmasters and business owners have been taking advantage of this viral marketing method in many different forms. Website owners will cross promote each other’s products, services and business opportunities to each others subscribers lists in an email marketing campaign. Or just place ads on each other’s websites.

Finding these business-to-business marketing opportunities are not as hard as you would think. Perhaps you are starting a new website promoting your own type of network marketing opportunity and need a professionally designed website. The design company you hire to design your website could benefit from new people you recruit into your new business. Just as you could benefit from people looking for website design that need a business to promote on their new website.

So now you have your new network marketing website designed and need to add content to it. You then hire a ghost writer, establish a relationship and before you know it they are sending you prospects and you in turn send them back to first the website design company and then to the ghost writer. All of related but non-competing businesses start benefiting from the viral nature of business-to-business marketing online. Next you need your site optimized for the search engines, OK, OK, I’ll stop now, but you get the picture right?

These are highly viral and lucrative methods that all involved can benefit from. The next time that you do business with another business remember to look for the business-to-business marketing opportunity.

Henal Patel asked:


A business marketing adviser is in reality, a friend who gives creative ideas to attract new customers. You may have thought and thought about how you could grow your business and add new customers to your database. But you may feel that you cannot come up with any new ideas for grabbing new clients. If that’s the case, turn to a marketing advisor. Select one, who will listen to you, will offer suggestions, and who is reasonably priced. For small business SEOs, only those well-versed in the business world can fully understand the needs of your business. To evolve a suitable strategy, it’s important that the marketing suggestions and advice of the advisor will attract new customers. After all, isn’t that why you planned to hire him or her in the first place?

A small business owner or a person in professional practice should always be concerned about new prospective customers and cash flow. Sure, your seasoned clients are tried and true, but you must always look for and obtain new customers for continuous growth potential. But how to find these new customers? A good marketing adviser will tell you that a unique method of incurring residual income involves marketing affiliate programs that create vertical avenues of profit. In other words, let others find new customers for you by using their own contacts.

There is no doubt that local merchant success depends on the development of contacts within the local community. The better the social contacts between the potential customers, the faster words will spread. Word of mouth is still the best marketing your business can get. Small businesses have many challenges such as growth in sales, development of customer relationships, and accounting. And think of it this way – growing your business clientele also builds other opportunities within the community. And if other businesses within your locality are doing well, you in your turn will have a greater likelihood of seeing success in your company. It all works hand in hand. Business for you may mean growth for other, complementary companies and vice versa. If the potential for growth is in your community, jump on it. You should obtain business opportunities and see new clients while helping to build your community.

Online companies provide business listings by category for easy consumer access. Look for portals that supplement the gap of traditional marketing techniques. Online marketing is much simpler than the traditional marketing of years ago and much more cost-effective. Because everything is available on the Internet and right at your fingertips, and because computers are accessible by people of all ages, you have a great potential to build new relationships and service new clients through the Internet. The Internet is not just for finding and contacting customers far away, but is also a great tool to expand your client database in your own community. In the past, there was less opportunity to meet clients of different ages and different background. But now, your business opportunities are numerous. Isn’t it great to be living in the Internet Age?

Nate Stockard asked:


What is marketing?

Marketing is defined in many different ways according to who you ask, but all responses usually are part of the same answer: marketing is a combination of all of the activities you implement or participate in which help promote, brand, and sell you product, service, or business.

Why is marketing important?

Many small business owners feel sales is the most vital part of their business. Sales are very important, but your brand, image, and, ultimately, marketing determines your customer loyalty and growth of your business. Marketing establishes the basis for your sales strategy and how you will close sales.

What does marketing cost?

Small business owners are confronted ever day with sales pitches for various costly marketing activities. Most small business owners see marketing as an expensive business component they just can’t afford. This is not true. In fact, small businesses can’t afford to overlook marketing, and it doesn’t have to drain the bank account either. One of the best forms of marketing that is very affordable is a consistent and professional image. Elegant business cards, matching letterhead, and an informative and effective website are just a few pieces of a small business’ tool box that can do much more than a high-dollar advertising campaign.

How do small business owners create a consistent and professional image?

The first thing a company will create is a name. There are many steps before this point, but this is the first product. Next, comes a unique logo that conveys the right image. Once the marketing package has these two pieces, consistency becomes the primary focus. Small business owners usually put off the rest of the basic building blocks until they can put it off no more. At that point, professionalism and consistency goes out the window in favor of a quick answer.

The right way to approach this issue is to prepare on the front end. Following the name and logo stage, the small business owner must push on. Create the right business card, elegant letterhead, useful brochure, and quality website. By creating all of these things at the point in the start-up process, all of the basic components of your marketing become consistent, professional, and effective from the start.

Henal Patel asked:


You have a brilliant idea for a new business. You go ahead and open your business, ready to offer a wonderful new service to happily awaiting clients. But how can you drive those clients to you? How can you ensure that your business will succeed? What is the most important thing for your business – besides the customer? The answer is marketing. Marketing is the backbone of any business establishment. This is true especially when the targeted business focuses on a local community through local ads. Customized planning procedures are available online to suit each and every business in implementing an excellent marketing strategy.

Small businesses can benefit from the useful tips that are available on the Internet to target local search traffic. Tips are the best shortcut to use. The crucial objective of a marketing strategy is to cost-effectively increase traffic without resorting to banner advertising which is often ineffective. With the advent of the Internet, you will use sophisticated, cutting edge technology that reaches the maximum number of people. You do not have to resort to old, outdated, expensive marketing techniques that are no longer effective for your business, or any business.

Marketing your business on the internet help you to target at the specific group of consumers who are looking for your service or product more effectively. Everybody have internet services or is easily available. Most people simply do a search on the internet for a service or product they are looking for with a few keywords. Your business will be available to them with the necessary information even some description of your service or products. This is what a consumer is looking for.

The best local advertising tips also save considerable time and money when creating a marketing plan. These tips serve as a guide for the beginners in a field who wish to enhance and establish their small businesses. You get to utilize the secrets and tips that have worked for others. Isn’t it great that the work has already been done for you? The Internet is a great source for pioneering pragmatic ideas. It’s been proven through the numerous companies who have achieved success online.

Utilization of marketing resources often grabs the attention of local customers. Effective marketing procedures include perspective planning, conception and formulation of a business strategy, selection of appropriate marketing materials, and local search strategies. The ultimate aim of any business is to grab the attention of a potential local customer so that he or she will utilize their product or service. It is a given that a customer is more likely to use a service or buy from a business when that company is local. Why? Maybe it is because the customer feels ties to the community and feels better about putting money into a local business. Maybe it is because there is a better potential for improved customer service. Whatever the reason, you will want to attract customers who are right there in your community, and this will give you the opportunity to cultivate new business relationships and ensure word-of-mouth marketing.

Jason Swanson asked:


Throughout these sets of articles we have looked at many different ways that one can create online business ideas. This is very important but it is equally important that you know how to market your business ideas so that people know what you have to offer.  Within this article today we are going to look at what you can do in creating online business marketing that will sell your product.  We will look at two different methods that you can use but, to truly become successful at online marketing, you are going to have to make sure to learn about the subject as much as possible.  Without a certain number of hits to your website every day, you can be guaranteed that you will not have great sales figures.  The only way to get the hits that you want is through marketing and this is where this article comes in.

The first thing they can do in creating online business marketing is to make sure that your website is properly created.  This article isn’t long enough to go into everything that you need for your website but you should make sure that your site is properly indexed by all of the major search engines so that you’re getting the maximum amount of natural search engine traffic you can.  If you need more information about this, look in your library for books on search engine optimization.  This can help you redesign some pages on your website to make sure that you are getting maximum exposure.  If you want to get more people to your website, you may also want to look into Adwords. Where this can benefit you is that you can bid on certain keywords so when people search on these keywords, your ads will come up.  You will paya certain amount per click that you receive from your ads being displayed. This is very good for you because you can target the audience that you want to bring to your website.  By bidding on this, you are able to control your marketing costs and still receive leads.

Another way to get traffic coming to your site and help in creating online business marketing is to offer some free giveaways.  There are a great deal of free forums out there where you can post about free giveaways at your website and this is an additional way to bring traffic to your website.  The word free is one of the major hot buttons for most people so by offering something for free if they visit your website, you will be guaranteed to get a great deal of traffic.  The way to run giveaways would be to have someone sign up for your newsletter in exchange for the free gift. This will help build your newsletter and create more online business marketing because you have a larger responsive list who is potentially interested in the products that you sell.  The way to do this in a newsletter is to make sure you do not push products but rather soft sell them while pushing information your target audience can use. 

Hopefully these two different methods of creating online business marketing can help you out.  What we have told you about today only scratches the surface of the possible things you can do but these are two of the more popular methods and they are very low-cost methods so that you do not have to use a great deal of money that you may need to run the business.

Joy Gendusa asked:


What is it and who needs one?

The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is esoteric or stratospheric, so let’s take the mystery out of it so you can devise and implement your own business marketing strategy that fits in to your small business plan.

Strategy comes from a Greek word “stratagein” meaning “to be a general”. Think of a strategy as an overall plan of action needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called tactics. You can have tactical plans which help you achieve your strategic marketing plan or overall business marketing strategy. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?

A business marketing strategy or strategic marketing plan is an overall plan of marketing actions you intend to take in order to accomplish a specific goal for your company.

Start with a goal: $2 million in sales this year; expand into new premises by a certain date; double the size of the company in 2 years… whatever the goal may be. Something realistic but challenging. That’s the “war” you want to win. Guess who the general is.

Then work out a simple, overall plan of the major marketing steps needed to accomplish that (for example):

Publish a newsletter for all existing customers and mail out quarterly. Work out 4 special offers in the year and promote them to all our customers. Set up on-line shopping and expand the web site. Direct mail campaign promoting the web site to all customers. Get mailing lists of (target markets) and do a series of 3 mailings of postcards to them and follow up on and close all leads. Etc.

You get the idea. Don’t rush this. Do your homework. What worked in the past? Read up on successful marketing campaigns.

Your business marketing strategy needs to be laid out in the right sequence and you should have some idea of budget when you write it. “Run a series of 30 second TV ads during the Superbowl” might sound like a good thing to do but can you afford it? On the other hand, when you build your business marketing strategy you mustn’t try and cut corners. If you don’t promote heavily, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, no one will know about it and you will go broke.

What really works when it comes to marketing?

Many business owners don’t have a good enough answer to this important question. I learned by a combination of study and trial and error.

From my own hard won experience I have discovered that a real marketing campaign will take into consideration at least the seven points which are outlined below:

1. Target Your Market

Your marketing will produce the best results for the lowest cost when you target prospects with the greatest need for what you offer.

Identify the best people to send your postcards to. Design your postcards to appeal to their greatest need.

If you are able to break down your target market into sub markets you can then write postcards that specifically speak to the needs of those people (an example is breaking down your own customer list into customers who buy most often, customers who spend the most money with you, customers who have been your customers the longest and then making them special offers based on the category they fit into).

2. Create A USP For Your Business

USP stands for “Unique Selling Proposition”.

It is a statement of what is different about your company and its products. Your USP gives the reason people should do business with you. It amplifies the benefit of doing business with you and your company. My USP is POSTCARD MARKETING EXPERTS.

Create your own USP and put it on all your promotional materials, invoices, shipping labels etc.

Use your USP to communicate the benefit of doing business with you and why you are better than any of your competitors.

3. Always Make an Offer

Make sure you ask your prospects and customers to do something when they receive your postcard. By offering them something you know they are likely to want and giving them a smooth path to respond on, you are making it easy and desirable for them to respond.

4. Create and Maintain a Database of The Customer Information You Collect From The Responses To Your Mailings

Most people who receive a postcard from you won’t contact you the first time they receive one.

But once they contact you, you must create and maintain a database which allows you to repeatedly contact them with offers to respond to.

Fifty percent or more of many businesses’ sales come as a result of following up with people who were previously contacted, but didn’t buy right away.

No kidding, repeat contact does drive sales. One-time mailings can get response, but are bound to leave sales on the table. Those sales can be picked up with repeated mailings.

5. Take Away the Fear of Loss

People don’t want to be fooled, plain and simple. Unfortunately trust does not run high today between customers and businesses in general. People have been disappointed too many times by being sold one thing and getting another.

A guarantee or warranty is a good way to reduce or eliminate the customers’ risk of getting something other than what they bargained for.

Guarantees and warranties increase response and sales by reducing customer risk

.

6. Expand Your Product Line

Getting new customers is more expensive than selling to existing ones. By regularly developing new products and services to sell to your customers and offering these new products and services to them, you can expand your business efficiently and easily.

7. Test Your Postcard Promotions

Track the effectiveness of your postcard mailings. How many people responded to your mailing? What dollar amount of sales resulted from those responses?

Is the money you are spending to attract new business giving you a good return? What can you do to make your marketing more effective? Change your offer, headline, price, the timing of your offer. When you do track the results and improve your response.

These are the points to follow when designing your own marketing strategy. When you are done, you will have laid out the steps needed to accomplish your goal using existing resources to achieve a great marketing ROI (return on investment).

After that, you simply have to get those steps executed and that might require further planning but it is all in the context of your main business marketing strategy.