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Email List as Online Marketing

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:01:34 +0000

One very important form of marketing is the creation of an email list.

It’s very interesting but many business owners ignore this when they put together their marketing program. When it comes to online marketing list creation is the mainstay and the main push by many online vendors. You should seriously consider email marketing as at least one tier of your Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners shy away from email marketing because they believe all email marketing campaigns are purely spam. However, nothing could be further from the truth and not doing this type of marketing can cause your business to lose out on a great deal of business. By not appealing to potential customers via email, your business may lose a great deal of business to competitors who are using email marketing campaigns to reach customers around the world. However, the first step of an email marketing campaign should be creating an email distribution list. We will discuss some popular options for doing this and we’ll help you learn more about what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to email marketing.

Email Marketing

Once you have made the decision to start using email marketing to promote your business your next task will likely be compiling an email distribution list. This is essentially a list of email addresses to which you will email your advertising and promotional materials. One common way to gain a list of email addresses is to purchase a list from distributors. However, this may be a waste of money. Stay away from it. The problem with purchasing an email list is that you have no way of knowing whether or not the members of the list would have any interest in your products or services. This is very important because while you want to reach a large audience with your email marketing you also want this audience to be members of your overall target audience.

Purchasing Email List

When you purchase an email list you may be sending your email messages to some users who might be interested but this is largely coincidental and is not likely to be well received because the message was not solicited. This would be what I call SPAM! Not worth it.

Online users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails. In fact some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex programs on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam. Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if your message doesn’t get read.

Creating an Email List: A far better Way

A far better way to create an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign is to ask current customers as well as interested potential customers to register with your website to receive additional information and periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them. This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.

Offer something that will entice your visitors to subscribe with you:

Content is still king!

Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers you can send them emails or create and send them newsletters. These documents should contain a wealth of valuable information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services. This information will be valued by the readers and may help even persuade them to buy your products and services.

PostScript:

You might also want to include useful links to either your website as well as other websites which may be of interest to your readers. Each contact whether it is an email with information or newsletter should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating your website offerings further.

Best wishes in your ventures

Are You Already Marketing Online?

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:04:07 +0000

When considering marketing online the business owner wonders about the cost, process, and what it involves, but may not realize that whether or not they intentionally organized an Internet marketing campaign, they may already be marketing their products and services on the Internet. This article will examine some subtle ways business owners may already be marketing their business on the Internet.

Does your business already have a website online?

If your business is already marketing your products or services online just by virtue of the fact that you have a website online means that you are marketing online. Having a live website means there is the potential for curious Internet users to access your website. You may not be actively promoting your website but you may still find that your website generates interest in your products despite the lack of promotional endeavors; this is a form of passive marketing.

Forum, Message Board participation, and Signature notation with link back to your website.

If you regularly participate in forums, message boards, and use signature notations on your messages, you are already marketing your website online. Savvy business owners should realize the importance of participation in industry related message boards to create an interest in their products and services. Combine that with a signature notation linking the post to their website and they will be establishing themselves as knowledgeable about the industry and products they offer. However, even business owners who do not realize this may already be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of Internet marketing which result from message board participation just by doing something they enjoy such as message board participation which they may be doing as a pasttime.

On the technical side, do you research and include keywords relevant to your business or website content?

Business owners who do are already marketing on the Internet by optimizing their website for these keywords. These search engine optimization (SEO) affects the websites whether or not they were even aware of the concept of keyword density and how it can help to SEO a website. Business owners will likely use certain words often depending on the type of products and services they offer just because it is natural and logical to do so. This behind-the-scenes work, can result in search engines boosting your website rankings for these particular keywords whether or not you realize it. The concept of SEO is much more involved and complex than simply using keywords frequently (keyword density) but business owners can gain some benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website.

Do you solicit feedback from your customers online?

This is yet another example of how business owners may be marketing their business online and not realize it. Most business owners realize the importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes and business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys. Although the business owners may be doing this simply for a business purpose, it is another form of online marketing.

Increase your online marketing impact.

This covered several ways in which business owners may already be marketing online but what about business owners who want to have an increased online presence? Business owners who may already be marketing online accidentally may wish to launch a full scale Internet marketing campaign. There are a number of ways to do this, one is to hire a consultant who is already an expert on this area; another is through self-training; another maybe to simply work with mentors. Irrespective of which way you decide to work on, remember, one size does not fit all in online marketing. You must make sure that your marketing fits your target market. Anything else will be a waste of resources, money, and time.

Home Affordability, Myth, Possibility?

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:02:28 +0000

Home affordability, is it possible?

Retirements down the drain, housing prices at rock bottom, gas prices still too high!

With headlines such as those, it is a wonder that many individuals and families think twice about being able to afford a home. This may be just the right time to change your mind.

For many young couples, the idea of owning their own home or one just like their parents is an attractive idea, but do not think it very realistic. A recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and America On Line Real Estate showed that 80 percent of respondents believed that it is hard for first-time buyers to afford a home. A majority of those polled – 59 percent – also said that they believe it is harder to buy a home now than it was five years ago.

Taking a closer look at the poll reveals that young adults and those that classify themselves as minorities consider the affordability of homes a bigger problem now than five years ago, compared to those over the age of 50 and those that identify themselves as white.

Broken down by region, almost 70 percent of those living in the western United States and almost 65 percent of those living in the Northeastern US say that it’s harder to buy now than five years ago, compared to only 54 percent of those living in the South and 51 percent of those living in the Midwest.

The poll also found that almost half of those surveyed thought that the real estate market in their home area was overpriced.

A recent report by the census bureau seems to back up the findings of the AP/AOL survey. The census report found that approximately one third of all homeowners in the US that have mortgages spent at least 30 percent of their income on housing and housing related costs. It’s widely considered excessive if your housing costs make up more than one third of your income. The census took things like mortgage payments, insurance and utilities and taxes into account.

The biggest reason for this lack of faith in new home ownership can be directly attributed to the recent housing boom over the last five years. Also, a recent increase in mortgage rates has also dampened optimism. And while incomes are up, as well, most don’t even keep up with inflation.

Another recent trend that has kept optimism for first time home buyers down is the 32 percent jump in median home value from 2000 to the end of 2005. The current median price is around $167,500.

Whatever you may be thinking, the time is right for you to buy a home. The home prices are coming down and if you don’t find the right kind of home, or the palace you want, don’t give up altogether and instead consider buying something that you can spring from later on. Mortgage rates aren’t all that high either which is another misconception. With interest rates hovering around 6% your would be crazy to think that that is a bad option. Don’t listen to the doomsayers instead invest in your first home.

If you are looking to start a business, owning your home gives you a lot of perks that you wouldn’t have as a renter and when all is said and done, the tax rebates you will benefit from will be almost the same as having another deduction on your tax return.

Don’t look back. Go ahead and research the area and find a good real estate agent and mortgage banker and take the plunge. It is well worth it.

Share your thoughts on this and let us know what you think.

If you are still unsure of what your next option is, try renting to own.

Wishing you all the very best.

You, Inc!

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:54:32 +0000

This message today is slightly different but still on-topic.

If you are going to look for financing for your small business, you need to look inwardly first before letting others see your outward presentation.

Charm and Looks First!

Not really, being charming and having great looks will work for the short term but when the chips are down, you will be facing some hard realities, just loot at what happened with Hefner’s bunnies when the economic reality hit the mansion! Fire the girls or there will be worse trouble! Sex doesn’t sell as it used to, I guess.

Back to the story, when you are in the marketplace you have to face the reality of the marketplace, the financial requirements or standards of the marketplace and you need to be able to present the right picture or you face much greater rejection, specially now when the financial market is facing such a high turmoil.

Here’s what I’m talking about, what does your credit report show when a financier looks at it? Does it show a responsible individual who takes care of business on time all the time? Does it show someone who is responsible for a large balance? Does it show someone who manages his financial assets and liabilities well?

If you know that your answer is going to be anything but yes to any of these items, the thing you have to keep in mind is that the financier is not going to be very interested in doing business with you. This person isn’t a financier for charitable causes but for profit. That is the bottom line, pure and simple.

Think about it, if you have money to invest in a business and were presented with a credit report that was shaky would you feel comfortable parting with your money to prop the business up? If you answered yes, then go for it, otherwise, work on changing the picture so that you will get a yes.

What does it take to change the picture, because that is usually why you are reading information such as this?

First, how do you respond to money?

Do you spend it faster than you get it? Do you borrow above your ability to either pay it or your maximum balances? Are you over-extended everywhere and living on edge?

Your response may be just the opposite, you may be someone who hoards money but not very wisely. You may be what’s known as a tightwad, or simply tight-fisted with your money.

Whichever way you respond to money, bear in mind that it is going to come across in your conversation and in your financial information. This will also impact the response you will get from investors whether they are bankers, or private institutions.

How do you resolve this if you don’t have a good financial picture?

First off, rather than waste your time fighting the bankers, find more friendly venues, such as buyers and vendor loan options. These are a lot easier to work with and you may be able to get your business handled with just those.

Next, work with a financial counselor that is not out to rip you off to find a way to clear up your credit history. This may take a while. Be patient, the rewards will be worth it.

If you are serious about your business, create an image of a serious business. This includes generating a business credit history which you may be able to use to find the financing you need and may be a lot easier to explain away. Again, this is not going to happen overnight, not even if you pay an arm and a leg to get it setup. Remember that stability can be seen in history a lot more easily than you think.

Finally, look into your own heart and answer the questions about your relationship with money. If this is an area that you should work on, there’s a real good program here that I would thoroughly recommend. Definitely worth it if you want to change the way you behave towards money.

I look forward to sharing with you some more thoughts on money and how we relate to it for the next few days and welcome your comments or thoughts on what has worked for you and what you are struggling with as well.

Until the next time, all the best on your venture

Character, more than Collateral, Counts!

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:52:54 +0000

Character still counts today!

More so in financing than any other area. Why is that, you ask?

The reason this is so, is because lenders want to know how well you meet your obligations to them. To do this they go back and look at your borrowing history.

The Credit Report

The credit report is still the best indicator of your history as far as your character goes. Here lenders will be able to find out how well you paid off other previous debts, how you are doing with current debts, and how many debts are you carrying currently.

How did you pay off your previous debts tells lenders that you were either prompt or not; fulfilled your obligations or not. And so on.

How you are doing with your current debts also tells the lenders what your ethics are in maintaining a good character. Are the payments a reflection of your honesty in meeting your obligations or do they reflect your unconcern in this area?

How many debts, and how clean they are, will be the most critical factor in showing good character. This will indicate to lenders that you have a good income, or sources of income, to meet your debt well. The higher the amount of debt that you have the more will you be able to score high for character to financing lenders. This is also known as capacity and it is a story for another day.

There are somethings you can do to help you increase your character if it is a little shady now. And, although not exhaustive, the following will go a long way to help you become a good character.

First, make sure you check your credit reports from all three major credit reporting agencies. You should be able to get a free report once a year from those agencies. But, there are a number of web sites that will allow you to get a free report provided you are willing to subscribe to the site.

Once you have the credit report, verify as much as you can, that all the debts and information listed in it is yours and not someone else’s. It does happen.

Go through the debts and check for late payments and all anomalies you aren’t sure about or can’t explain. Do research on them to make sure they are valid, they can be removed, or disputed.

Second, work on getting your loan to balance reduced as much as you can. Pay off debts faster than you are asked to pay them, in other words, don’t pay just the minimum balance but as much as you can to pay it down quickly. Once your loan to balance is such that you have a real nice cushion there, you will notice that your credit rating will go higher.

Watch out that you pay anything that’s current. Any debts that are longer than 3 years, on average, should be left alone as this will not help you in the short term. There are exceptions. So, be careful and do your homework before you attempt this.

Lastly, Cleaning your credit is just one part of the puzzle in gaining a very high character rating.

It doesn’t stop there. You also need to increase your visibility in the marketplace. This has to do with your ability to bring others into the mix. Have you joined organizations that are in line with your business interests and goals? Are you a published expert? Do you have name-recognition in any other area, as well? Can you “drop any famous personalities” into your resume?

All of these will help improve your character to the point where the lenders will show an interest in doing business with you, or at the very least, consider doing business with you.

What do you think?

Do you have the character others would appreciate enough to want to do business with you?

Does it matter?

Let me know what you think.

Also, make sure you read the rest of the options that will make you attractive to lenders (click on that link) or for that matter, to the marketplace. Don’t forget that your most important item in the marketplace won’t be the lenders you impress but the customer, the buyers, that will do business with you.

Best wishes on your endeavors.

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