Posts Tagged ‘Promoting Your Business’

Facebook Games: A Social Marketing Tool

April 26th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Article Marketing

If you are a regular visitor of Facebook and you just cant stop from playing the so many different kinds of Facebook games, then why not make it a point that you earn some money while having the best of your time playing? Yes, there exists the possibility that you can earn additional income should you happen to be a Facebook gamer. The only thing you need to do is to make sure that you are not merely playing Facebook games in the site but marketing whatever product or service you may have by networking while connected to the other players.

Connecting With Fellow Gamers

The main thing here is to use the Facebook game not solely for the purpose of having fun but more especially so for connecting with the other players in Facebook. Because by doing so, it would already mean that you are bent on building a network with your fellow Facebook game players, and of course, a perfect venue for promoting your business or products. And when you have already established a relationship with such colleagues in Facebook games, you are able to create a certain kind of trust and familiarity with them.

Never Hard Sell, Please

It would be wise to remember though that despite the familiarity and the affability you have started with them, to never make hard core selling as an option to promote your product or service. Most of the time, other business owners playing these social games have the intention to become acquainted with fellow gamers and therefore be able to market their products or services.

However, in the course of playing, they become too comfortable with their fellow gamers that sometimes, they become oblivious to the fact that maintaining a professional credibility is still valuable in making a deal. Never attempt to sell them your product or service just because your co-players have bought a fruit from your farm in Farmville!

Opportunity To Link Your Business

In fact, you will always find an opportunity to use any of the Facebook games to linking them with your business marketing. Do not just build personal associations through these Facebook games; make them deeper, up to that point of reaching a business affiliation with the gamers. That would mean a lot to your business.

Gaming Pushing Their Way To Social Networks

Truly, if you put business and Facebook games together, it will make perfect sense because more and more gaming companies are now gearing their strategies towards getting involved in these social networks. There are so many gaming accounts intended for social networks like Facebook because these business owners have already realized the value of this link between social networking and gaming.

Years from now, there will be clubs and associations put up to pool all these avid game players of Facebook or perhaps, gamers of any other social networks visible in the Internet. And when that happens, the more business owners and gamers will realize that there is something much more than just playing online with these social networks. In the same manner that the industry will anticipate and look forward to posting of accomplishments of top scorers; especially those playing Facebook games or other network site games online. And when these are posted to the social networks where you play, and of course, connect you with all the other players.

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Creating Your Own Internet Marketing Plan

December 21st, 2009 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Affiliate Marketing

If you have a small business that you are attempting to promote and are having trouble, it may be because you have not first created an internet marketing plan. Internet marketing is extremely complicated and is much more difficult than simply putting some keywords in the text of your site. An internet marketing plan consists of 8 basic steps: strategic planning, situation analysis, customer analysis, market and product focus, product positioning, pricing strategy, product distribution, and internet promotion.

Step Number 1: Strategic Planning
When promoting your business online, you need to keep some things in mind. Ask yourself the question, what am I good at? You need to discover how your business is different from the rest by discovering the advantages that you have over your competitors.

Step Number 2: Situation Analysis
This is basically learning about the market that you are in. This can be achieved though various studies such as SWOT analysis, conducting an industry analysis, and analyzing your competition. The more you know about the industry you are in and how you can succeed in it, the better.

Step Number 3: Customer Analysis
Simply put, this step involves learning about your customers. How you are going to effectively market to someone that you know nothing about? You need to know their likes, dislikes, hobbies, jobs, family life, etc if you are going to market to them effectively. In fact, some businesses do invent personalities that act as the target customer and develop a plan of marketing to them.

Step Number 4: Market and Product focus
This step involves segmenting your market and making your company different from your competitors. This is often times referred to as the Unique Selling Point or USP.

Step Number 5: Product positioning
Simply put, when a person hears a company name, certain thoughts come to mind. When somebody says your company name, what thoughts should come to mind? This is something you need to think about. You need to know how to position your business in your customers mind. If you havent learned about them yet, acquaint yourself with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, position, promotion, and price.

Step Number 6: Pricing Strategy
This is also one of the 4 Ps of marketing. You need to know how to effectively price your goods or services. A good way is to take a look at what the competition is charging. If you are new to the business, you will need to undercut their prices.

Step number 7: Product Distribution
This is the second P in the 4 Ps of marketing, also known as position. This is the physical location where your product or service is offered. And yes, if you have an internet business then you position is the internet.

Step Number 8: Internet Promotion
This is how you are going to advertise your business on the internet. There are plenty of different methods at your disposal including newsletters, search engines, article marketing and pay per click advertising. Experiment with each of them and try to find what best suits your business.

Hopefully, you can make use of this information to create your own internet marketing plan.

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When Email Marketing Is Not Enough

March 5th, 2009 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Email Marketing

If you have already entered the world of email marketing you likely already realize the potential this type of marketing has to offer. However, you also likely realize it is not reasonable to expect your business to thrive if email marketing is the only marketing strategy you choose to utilize. This is not unusual as most businesses do not typically have a great deal of success unless they make the decision to incorporate more than one type of marketing into their overall marketing strategy. This article will examine a few other types of Internet marketing which may be used in conjunction with email marketing.

Email marketing in itself can be multi faceted. It may include sending out mass emails, distributing e-newsletters and even offering correspondence courses via email. Implementing only one of these email marketing strategies may resulting a small increase in either website traffic or sales but implementing more than one strategy at a time can create a more pronounced effect.

Similarly it is definitely worthwhile to incorporate other types of Internet marketing into promoting your business online if you are not already doing so. This can help you to enjoy a greater degree of success if you apply the strategies correctly. Some of the other types of marketing strategies you may wish to employ include placing banner ads, participating in industry related message boards and starting an affiliate program.

Of the other types of Internet marketing available, placing banner ads may be the most expensive option. In many cases your business will have to pay another website for the privilege of placing your banner ad on their website. Choosing a website which sells products which complement, without competing, for your business is worthwhile. However, there are some free options for banner ads including exchanges. However, you may be required to place more than one banner ad on your website for each time your banner ad appears on another lineup. Additionally, with this type of agreement you may not be able to control the type of website which displays your banner ad. For this reason it is worthwhile to pay for ad space so you can have more control over where your banner ads are displayed.

Participating in industry related forums can be another way to promote your business online. Message boards are online meeting places where individuals who share an interest can get together to discuss their interests as well as pertinent issues. They can also ask and answer questions. Most message boards allow users to place a link to their website in their signature line. If you regularly participate on an industry related message board and include a signature line with a link to your website you can reach a high concentration of members of your target audience. When using message boards to promote your business it is important to follow all message board guidelines and to avoid techniques which may be deemed as spam such as posting your link when it is not appropriate.

Affiliate marketing programs are another type of online marketing which can be used in conjunction with email marketing. Affiliate marketing involves allowing website owners to place advertisements for your business on their website. These website owners are known as affiliates. Each time one of their advertisements causes an Internet user to click through the advertisement or purchase an item the affiliate is compensated. This compensation schedule makes affiliate marketing incredibly cost effective. Essentially you do not pay your affiliates unless the advertising generates a specific reaction form Internet users such as making a purchase or generating website traffic. The amount of compensation should be determined beforehand and may be based on a flat fee or a percentage of the sale. Business owners have to embed code into the affiliate ads to determine which ads are generating profit or traffic so they know which affiliates to compensate but this information is also useful for determining which advertisments are most effective. This information can be used to fine tune the marketing effort.

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