Key Concepts Marketing Wisdom

MLM marketing is one of the most popular ways for making money. Several people indulge in MLM, because it offers good earning potential. Network marketing mainly requires effort, time, and focus. It is much about relationship building, so you need to recruit right kind of people as your down lines. Things to Know 1. In network marketing, payouts are formed at more than two levels. Network marketing concept is conventional and deals with building the down line in a genealogy form, which helps you gain benefit from various levels. 2. Though it is attractive, a network marketer needs to take various approaches compared to other forms of selling and promotion. The most important and crucial secret of MLM marketing is to create encouragement rather than selling for achieving success. This is the main reason why network marketing is viewed as a relationships business and not just a selling business. 3. Moreover, for becoming successful network marketer, it is important to make the right sort of contacts with the right kind of people. In fact, if you built a large network of distributor and associates, you can have more sales and thus the commission you earn will be higher. 4. The biggest secret of MLM marketing is that it is the most effective and lucrative marketing technique. Here, success is the outcome of consistent working and many people’s efforts. 5. Another secret is that after establishing motivated and dedicated affiliates, you ultimately reach to a level where your associates will do the required work for you. Thus, you will gain profit from the teamwork by having to invest minimum efforts. 6. However, to obtain the desired results, you need to invest time, make efforts, be skillful and knowledgeable. In short, establishing relationships and a profitable team requires lots of patience, monetary investment, and time. Some other secrets of MLM marketing are stated as follows: 1. Use failure as a key to improvement 2. Develop long-term objectives for your day-to-day activities 3. Master in self-discipline Network marketing is an effective model of marketing and usually becomes the main source of solid and steady earnings. Nevertheless, this is possible only if you take the concept seriously and be consistent in building an ideal team. However, there’s a typical failure rate of 95% for new network marketers if you don’t receive the right mlm training. So if you truly want to see success in your business, learn more and act even more. There’s no time left to be sitting around. Go to what you got to do to drive your business to the success temple. Many people in the United States of America are indulged in MLM marketing and sell huge amount of services and products. In fact, many of them even earn a decent seven-figure income from their homes.

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It’s the year 2009 and I speak about the “new” MLM age.  At last I can say, things are changing for the better!

Make no mistake, the properly set up MLM is completely legal and a marketing concept so powerful it can give the small business person the very real chance to earn at the level of so many multi-national executives, film, rock and film stars.

So why are so many of us small business people saying, the Network Marketing (MLM) Industry is undergoing a revolution… for the good?

What is happening?  What’s so different about these new developments?  How am I able to claim that the broken and tarnished reputation of the Marketing Giant  that is… MLM (Network Marketing) is on the mend and displaying an image that is a lot cleaner?

What is The Network Marketing Movement doing to bring about the changes that gives MLM its exciting new look and feel?

My Answer:

The Movement is changing the culture, ethos, professionalism, custom & practice, and etiquette of the Network Marketing (MLM), Industry… and in the process, generating growing trust in customers, current, and prospective small business owners.

As the Movement leaders say:

“If you’re going to sell something to someone, you’ve got to find a way to get invited into their world as a welcomed guest, instead of a pest”

So no more pestering friends, relatives, and those within three feet. No more hype and false claims. The new way marketer generously offers enquirers and potential customers the helpful first class information they seek. Hype and false claims are banished. Professional marketers follow-up, help, support and mentor as required.  Professional MLMers embrace the new way and not the old way which, over time, has brought ridicule to a marketing giant.

For sure, change is in the right hands. The Movement leaders are marketing professionals who have “been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, and sold it”

Some definitions might be useful at this point

Culture

A culture is a way of life of a group of people: the behaviour, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept… generally without thinking about them…  and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

Ethos

The disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture, or movement.

Etiquette

the customs or rules of behaviour regarded as correct in social life.

MLM Custom and Practice the habitual practice of MLM practitioners; the usual way they act in given circumstances.

Trust

Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.

Expert

a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field.

Professional

An expert following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain.

Professionalism

the expertness characteristic of a professional person.

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So How is the Movement revolutionizing the MLM Industry?

I too am a member of this growing 21st Century Movement, and I write more about it in other articles.

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I know all about the consequences of the current economic downturn – I guess you could consider me a casualty. After spending about 12 years of my life in the golf retail business, managing three stores and putting in the the 50-60 hours a week those in retail think nothing about, it came to a pretty sudden end in early 2008. The combination of the deteriorating economy, high fuel costs, three stores worth of overhead, costs of renting property in an area of the country where it certainly isn’t cheap, and increasing competition from online sources we were ill-prepared to compete against, cutting back on expenses became the owner’s primary concern. Being probably his largest day to day expense, eliminating my position seemed to be the most expedient way to start. I had begun to see the writing on the wall after a slow Christmas season in 2007, but the suddenness still blindsided me. 

Do I even need to say that all three stores were closed before 2008 had ended? 

At one time not too long ago, good job opportunities in the golf retail industry in privately owned shops were abundant, but those days are long over. Golf retail has gone the way of big box stores, like many industries, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy and Golfsmith, and unless I was interested in entering the corporate world I had managed to avoid for virtually my entire working life, my options were limited to say the least. 

It was decision time. 

Owning a business was always something I had in the back of my mind, but like so many, I was so busy making a living and taking care of my family it was put on the back burner. I was in no position to invest the amount of money required to start a brick-and-mortar business – between renting space, buildout, inventory, and hiring employees you could be looking at $50,000-$100,000 before the doors are ever opened. Then come the marketing expenses. 

Marketing was always something that interested me, and something I always felt was an area where most retailers were woefully inadequate, mainly because the majority of them offer absolutely no value. It is usually about nothing more than the sales pitch, which turns off most people, preventing them from ever becoming customers. I trained my staff to lead with value, and position our stores as the place to go for expert advice in all things golf-related, thereby eliminating price as the primary issue, and becoming consultants instead of salesmen. I always thought this was the only way to grow any specialty retail business. Unfortunately, the owner did not choose to market in this manner, employing instead the same tired “discount retailer” approach.

The network marketing industry had also engaged pretty much primarily in its own offline methods of marketing up to that time – cold calls, pitching family and friends, the dreaded “3-foot rule”, buying lead lists, and other unsavory activities. I had had my fill of that kind of selling in some (very) short stints with sales companies before I had entered retail. Ironically, one of the things that attracted me to retail was the idea of the potential customer coming to you, as opposed to chasing them down. 

Enter attraction marketing. 

Some very forward thinking people in the network marketing industry like Ann Seig and Mike Dillard saw the limitations the old model of offline marketing techniques presented in being able to recruit and maintain any kind of marketing team. They had become successful themselves, but prospects were hard to keep because not everyone has the single-mindedness and drive required to succeed using old school methods. On top of that, most people just did not enjoy it, and many times just could not afford to stay in business. 

Attraction marketing is built around the concept that people like to buy, but hate to be sold to. Think of online stores like Amazon.com – is there a more pleasurable shopping experience anywhere? You get personalized recommendations, the ability to create wish lists, and both positive and negative reviews on almost any product under the sun. This is all before you ever buy a single thing! When you’re ready to buy, it can be as simple as one click. Is it any wonder that they are one of the few companies that has held its own despite the awful economy? 

The key to attraction marketing success is offering value first. Instead of the tried and true marketing methods of chasing people down and selling them your product or opportunity, you are positioning yourself as someone who is a leader, and whose main concern is providing information. This information, usually free, educates the prospective customer, and helps to provide solutions. People are starved for this kind of information, and want to buy from someone who offers it. 

Another key component of the attraction marketing model is the ever-growing number of methods to market online for little to no cost, thus eliminating one of the obstacles for a lot of people to enter the industry. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Squidoo, known as social networking sites, are a handful of the places that network marketers use to position themselves in the marketplace for free. They’re also a heck of a lot more fun than the old school methods! 

Why are specialty retailers positioned better than most to take advantage of the new model of network marketing? 

1. Attraction marketing is second nature to us.  Any good retailer understands how vital it is to always lead with value. We have spent our careers building relationships by positioning ourselves as leaders so that we were never in the position of having to chase down customers. 

2. We are self-starters.  You can’t survive as a retail owner or manager being a clock-puncher. No one is going to build your business for you, so long, odd hours are the norm. It’s no different building a network marketing business, except for one powerful thing – you make your own hours. If you feel like working in the middle of the night, the internet is always open. That’s the reason a lot of people are doing this for a source of supplemental income – there are no set hours. It’s your business, but since you don’t have employees and store hours to worry about, you work when you choose to. 

3. Getting the proper education in internet network marketing is essential, but “sales training” is old hat to retailers.  The beauty is that by using the attraction marketing concept of monetization, or affiliate marketing, you can actually pay for your education, and in a lot of cases actually be profiting, while learning. Affiliate marketing is essentially a business relationship with a merchant who allows you to link to that business, usually at no cost to you. When a visitor clicks on the link at your site and subsequently makes a purchase from the merchant, you receive a commission. This can be done in the course of learning the business, and is a vital part of many attraction marketing systems, like Ann Seig’s Renegade System. 

4. The fact that we have spent our careers learning to deal with customers, both in person and on the phone, makes us uniquely qualified as leaders in this brave new world. The difference here is that using online methods allows us to reach far more people in far less time, and with far less expense. 

5. The tax savings that many retailers are already familiar with and accustomed to are also very much present in network marketing. Your office is your home, and that in itself provides a slew of deductions. 

Those are some excellent reasons for retailers to look at network marketing as a viable business opportunity, but the current economic situation may be the most important factor. The economy isn’t expected to turn around for quite some time, meaning more job losses and less discretionary spending money for Americans. Discretionary spending is the lifeblood of retail, so that fact doesn’t bode well for the industry, particularly for specialty stores. 

The network marketing industry is entering a boom period that will only grow in size as more and more unemployed and disgruntled workers look online for income-generating opportunities. This works to the advantage of those of us already established in network marketing. We will be uniquely positioned to be leaders in the right industry, at just the right time, to provide much needed information about those opportunities. The low cost of entry and running a business makes it an appealing alternative now, and with social networking growing more and more every day, that isn’t going to change for quite some time.

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Search engine marketing has become favourite for all the website holders who want to reach vast audience. It is convenient, easy, cheap and quick to reach the targeted group of consumers through search engines and is of much more value because you are pitching them on their own request. It is not like those compelling endorsements which get displayed in front of everybody, even for those who are not interested. But in search engine marketing people search for you on their own and give much better response to your deals and offers online.

In India search engine marketing concept came into light after successful implementation in North American countries. It started with a portal “Goto.com” in early 90’s which later changed to Overture and it became a part of Yahoo! in 2003. The major portals that define search engine marketing are Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and other many vertical specific search engines that help in promoting websites to reach their target consumers. There were very few search engine marketing companies in India which tried to follow SEM strategies and concepts through Google and Yahoo at its early stage. Most of work they use to do was offshore rather than for local clients because in India any new idea takes time to attract the followers.

After year 2007 SEM has found remarkable growth in India. SEM companies in India grown from countable numbers to so many small to large sized agencies and organizations. Now many big entrepreneurs have started with in-house search engine marketing divisions for marketing their products online. Along with conventional ad agencies, online marketing agencies have found their places in marketer’s heart. A trend of outsourcing online marketing work to individuals is germinating in India. Apart from online marketing companies and agencies there are lots of recognized freelancers who are marking their way towards being among the top desired marketing options.

The main parts of search engine marketing are pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO). PPC is a sponsored feature and advertisers need to pay some amount for getting place in top lists of search engines. Search engine optimization is a non paid way for getting place in organic listings of search engines. The most preferred way is search engine optimization because it involves fixed cost of services provided by the SEO specialists, and once the site is optimized for search engine listings it works for a long time ahead even if the optimization work stops for certain period. Pay per click is preferred by those who want instant results and are able to pay amount for each visit done by a targeted visitor.

Clickadtrix is a recently found group of freelancers who are experts in handling various online marketing campaigns. We have SEO experts, PPC professionals, SMM experts, Email marketing experts, banner advertising experts and more. To know more about us visit www.clickadtrix.com.

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You see them everywhere—magazines featuring emaciated teen models with brash, defiant looks that say “We express ourselves,” their arms and ankles glistening with fashion accessories. The definition of “cool chick” in another magazine is a glossy-lipped, half-woman, half-child peeking ambivalently behind a set of heavily mascaraed eyes. “I am confection,” she seems to say, her body eloquently displaying a padded push up bra. Such teen marketing tactics have succeeded in making their point. Girls, as young as ten, have made the word “diet” part of their vocabulary and the La Senza part of their identity.

Body image and weight control have occupied mainstream culture since the beginning of the 20th Century when film and media images created prototypes of ideal male and female bodies—men with swashbuckling muscles and women with slender waists and boyish hips. The effect of teen marketing and media images on our teenage population cannot be overstated. It is not surprising then that teenagers of both genders have distorted body images that often lead to unhealthy behaviors.

One study of adolescent girls shows that 53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This figure grows to 78% by the time the girls reach seventeen—a situation which accounts for the 5—10 million girls and women who are struggling with eating disorders.

In another study of over 10,000 teenagers, researchers noted that a large proportion of boys are unhealthily preoccupied with body building. Boys are preoccupied with defining muscles through weight gain, a goal that often leads to harmful use of supplements such as creatine, amino acids, growth hormone and steroids. This is not surprising considering the teen marketing of brawns and tight abs on Much Music videos which are broadcast on weekdays between 4:30—8pm when most teens and children are home from school.

What is even more disturbing is the number of cosmetic procedures that have been performed on teens. According to a report by Diane Zukerman published in MediaFamily, in 2003, more than 223,000 cosmetic procedures were performed on patients 18 years of age or younger and 39,000 of those were surgical procedures that were incidental in nature—nose-shaping, breast lifts, breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tuck. The author who reported on these procedures stated emphatically that media programs are responsible for distorted teen body image. Programs such as “extreme makeovers” have given our teenagers an unrealistic view of what constitutes “normal appearance.”

Ironically, however, children’s eating habits have run amok, even in the midst of a cultural obsession with thinness. According to one study, the average child watches 10,000 food advertisements per year on television, most of which are commercials for fast food and junk food. Recent statistics indicate that 14% of children are now seriously overweight and 60% of overweight children between ages 5 and 10 have shown at least one risk factor for heart disease.

Given the mixed messages and signals North American teens are getting about their bodies and food, what can we, as parents and professionals, do to help rectify the situation?

First and foremost, we need to challenge the teen marketing goal of thinness and foster a concept of fitness that goes beyond the parameters of weight. A fitness regimen that includes a wide variety of enjoyable activities such as dancing, yoga, pilates, swimming, walking would put the “fun” back into activity rather than isolating exercise as a workout to be endured for the “perfect body.”

Secondly, we need to challenge the whole concept of weight loss and weight gain. The real issue here is not weight, as Los Angeles psychologist, Keith Valone suggests, but body composition. By taking the focus away from body weight to body composition, we can perhaps promote a better understanding of what a healthy and fit body means.

Thirdly, we need to provide role models for our teens that go beyond body consciousness. We need to provide them with media images of strong, empowered men and women who eat well, exercise regularly and who are more concerned with living their truth than following the narrow market conceptions of beauty. It is encouraging to note as well that many publishers have already taken the initiative to profile heavier models in their magazines.

Fourthly, we need to lobby for more responsible and ethical teen marketing. It is not surprising that pedophiles and child molesters have become such a significant problem online considering the fact that teen marketing of “sexiness” to children and teens seems to be an accepted business strategy in our culture.

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There are several terms involved with multi level marketing (MLM) that you will need to learn. You will have to know about downlines, uplines, overrides, spillovers, compensation plans, commissionable volume (CV), level bonuses, etc.

All multilevel marketing companies have a Compensation Plan. This plan defines all the different ways in which the company is going to pay someone who invests in it or sells its products and services. While every company is going to have its own customized plan, there are certain key concepts that these plans follow.

Matrices

One of these concepts involves Matrices (or multiple matrix). A matrix can be thought of a series of points with each point having one parent point and many children points. This is valid for every point in the matrix. Every point is going to be the parent point for some matrices and the same point is going to be the child of one parent matrix. In the multi level marketing way of thinking, the points are people. When you first join such a multilevel marketing plan, you will be at the child level with one member above you. That member can have several more members above and this chain going upwards is your Upline.

People who are recruited by you are placed below you in the matrix and are referred to as your downline. Each member in your downline can start a new line and this cycle can go on indefinitely. Every member in the downline of every member who is in your downline automatically becomes a part of your downline. So if you recruit 12 people and they recruit 100 people, your total downline is 112 members.

The more people there are in your downline, the better your chances are of building a decent residual income. The reason for this is that, just like you receive a cut from the earnings of all members in your downline, the people in your upline are receiving a similar cut from your earnings.

Sideline Compression

If you read this term in a multilevel marketing plan, then you might wish to avoid it altogether. Unlike other multilevel marketing concepts, people with good marketing and networking skills are the only ones who can successfully avoid the dangers of sideline compression.

What sideline compression does is take a structure like the Matrix discussed above and studies it to determine which members are not generating “enough” sales. The definition of “enough” is usually very fuzzy. These members in the matrix are simply pushed downline and other downline members who are generating better sales are pulled up to take their place.

Needless to say, you do not want this to happen to you. Most multilevel marketing companies will provide training to help you stay where you are in the matrix. It is best to pay close attention to early training if you are new to the MLM way of generating income.

Spill over

Theoretically, there is no limit to the number of members you can have one level below you (the downline you recruit personally). However, most multi level marketing companies have a cap as to how many members you can have per level and how many levels deep your downline can go.

When your downline gets full, new members will be placed into the next free slot available in the downline of any other member already in your downline. This has three benefits. First: you do not lose new members as they are still going into your downline. Second: it helps to fill up the downline of your downline members, thereby decreasing the number of people they must recruit while generating more commission for you. Third: true income from MLM does not come from your personally recruited downline, it comes from how fast you fill up the grid below you.

Cycles

Apart from all the upline and downline matrix filling, each level in the matrix is also assigned a quota that it must meet. Once that quota is filled, payment in the entire line is made as per the applicable rate of the top level in that upline. The cycle is then considered complete.

Expandable Depth Commission

As stated earlier, theoretically, there is no limit as to how deep a downline can go, but due to economic and management reasons, most MLMs will have some kind of predefined limit. This limit can sometimes be overcome if the MLM employs the Expandable Depth Commission model. Basically, this model allows a limited MLM to operate as an infinite-depth MLM.

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I routinely use fishing analogies and anecdotes to communicate marketing concepts in my marketing training. Why? Because marketing and fishing are very similar in methods and intent.
If we assume your customers are the “fish” in your refrigerator, aquarium, or back in the ocean depending upon what you do with fish after you catch them , then the goal is to catch more bigger ones. And just like fishing, your marketing efforts track systemically to finding and catching those big fish.
You may or may not be aware of the fact that offshore from Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico lies thousands of oil production and drilling platforms. Each of these are huge man made reefs with all kinds of fish symbiotically using their structure for food and for protection.
Generally speaking, the deeper you go, the different kinds and size of fish that reside around the rig.
The easiest way to find fish in the gulf is to go to one of these structures and tie your boat up to the structure. You then start fishing at different depths with different baits, trying to see what the fish are biting on.
Sometimes you can go for hours without getting a single bite, yet you know the fish are there.
How? Well we have technology called sonar on our sport fishing boats that enables us to look down the water column and see “contacts” – fish. So it becomes a matter of what they want to eat. But actually, it’s more a matter of whether or not they are hungry in the first place.
You see, fish only eat when they are “hungry”. So many times you have to wait them out, in fact most of the time this is the case. There are many factors that influence when the fish get hungry and start eating, but the scope of that science is beyond this discussion.
Many times, after trying without catching fish, we change platforms, running another 5-10 miles to the next platform, in some cases more. Sometimes when you arrive the fish are biting there.
However, unless you are fishing in tandem with another boat, you really don’t know if they are now biting at the platform where you were just fishing. In most instances, this is the case because fish tend to feed at around the same time together, but not at the same time of day every day. They eat when they are “ready”.
So if you arrive at an oil production platform, and you see fish on the sonar, you know they are there. You don’t know what kind they are unless you are brave enough to dawn scuba gear and go see them (very dangerous sport that some people actually do).
So you fish and fish, and change baits until you either run out of time, or you get satisfied with your catch. But the most important concept here is that, at these structures, you “know” there are fish there, and depending upon how deep the water is and the time of year, you will “know” what kinds of fish are there, as many species are migratory.
Another way to catch fish, generally the very big ones, is to troll around in a wide area where you think they are. You spend hours and hours dragging 2 to 8 baits (artificial lures mostly) until that chance intersection … the whopper is hungry, and you are where that “Big Fish” is at that exact time.
Trolling is a long mostly boring way to fish, but it is the preference of many high end fishermen (and women) who have been at the sport a long time, and have caught all the other kinds of fish they want.
You see these anglers (marketers) are “targeting” a specific type or a very small portfolio of large fish, such as marlin, sailfish, mahi-mahi, tuna, wahoo, etc. These guys are simply willing to wait out the “Huge Catch”.
And yes along the way they catch a few of the smaller species to keep their freezers fresh, and provide a little action in between the big ones.
What does this have to do with marketing you may be thinking? It is just an easy way to frame the nature of marketing activity, the results of it, and how you will focus your marketing efforts. If you are just looking for lots of small fish, you generally don’t have to go too far, or get too complicated. The small ones are plentiful near shore.
If you want lots of more targeted action, you head out to oil platforms, going further out depending upon your goals for size and quality. By fishing next to a platform in 200 feet of water you may get snapper, and by fishing in 500 feet you get tuna. And when you want to catch the really big ones, you troll around. Sometimes around these structures, sometimes out in the open ocean.
You would not troll for marlin near the shore (at least not in Louisiana) because they aren’t there. You would not fish for speckled trout in 500 feet of water, because they are not there.
So when referring to marketing activity, and particularly Google Adwords or search engine marketing, you may hear me use these analogies to help you frame the idea. Because, just as in marketing there are many angles, the same angles exist in fishing.
But the most important angle is the overall trend. When you are a beginner, you tend to want to catch more smaller fish. As you get more experienced and have results with more smaller fish, you tend to want to step up your game to catching fewer bigger fish.
And ultimately, as a seasoned marketer with a history of results (or lots of experiences catching all different kinds of fish), you will be more willing to spend the day, or weekend just trolling around for the 1 “strike”, that huge fish; that huge very desirable targeted customer. It’s a natural progression.
There are more angles and analogies, but for now keep in mind the one last concept of targeting as we will explore you getting your business up and into profits with the smaller more plentiful fish, and then ultimately, take you down the path of very targeted high end customers, that produce bigger returns for your efforts and time.

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Email marketing is a wonderful way to reach large amounts of customers in a short amount of time. This is a very inexpensive, but very effective, marketing method. It will result in getting more traffic to your website thus generating more sales. Email marketing can be used by any type of business regardless of the products or services they have to offer.

One huge advantage of email marketing is that it can be effective for both large and small businesses. When it comes to regular commerce, the larger company can afford to print up colorful fliers and ads. This is much harder for smaller businesses due to the expense. Email marketing can be done using software, so that even small businesses can create effective and professional looking email marketing campaigns on a small budget. This will hopefully help them increase their sales.

Email marketing is an effective way to deliver the information you want to get to consumers in the method they enjoy using. Almost everyone has email these days and it is common to log on and check for messages several times each day. It also allows you the opportunity to reach consumers around the globe. There are no boundaries when it comes to location with this method of marketing.

On average email marketing costs 78% less than other types of marketing. This saving is after the cost of research, testing, and sending the emails. It also takes the cost of consulting into consideration. Email marketing consulting is often less expensive than other marketing consultants. This means you can choose to save money or maybe invest more, but reach more people. In addition to saving money, you save valuable time. Your emails can be scheduled to go out at times when you are out of the office or working on other projects.

To appeal to your consumers, email marketing allows you to use graphics, games, music, videos, and other types of materials to gain their interest. This is something most other marketing concepts don’t allow. Yes, they offer one or two choices, but with email marketing concepts your imagination is the limit. Since you have the name and purchasing history of the individual, you can personalize the email. This makes the customer feel more trusting towards you as well as more loyal to the company. It is much better than getting a piece of mail at home that says dear customer. You’ll be able to create marketing lists that allow you to send a marketing campaign just to your target market. This is a very effective way of sending different campaigns to different customers.

The process of email marketing gives you tools for measuring the success of your marketing campaign. You can measure the click through rate, conversion rate, find out how a person linked to your website, and many more ways of analyzing data.

Customers can choose to opt out by clicking the link in your email marketing campaign. This saves you money by knowing who isn’t interested in receiving your information. There is no way to know that with other types of marketing campaigns. For those who are interested in your email marketing campaign, you will see the responses quickly. This is a great way of knowing what is effective for future marketing endeavors.

Email marketing is one of the most common as well as most successful marketing methods available. With the volumes of consumers on the internet everyday it only makes sense to use it from a business point of view. Email marketing is a great way to reach a volume of people quickly and inexpensively. Email marketing is a great opportunity to communicate with your customers. This is an effective way to be able to analyze your marketing tools so you will know what is working and what areas you need to continue improving.

There are many tools out there to help you with your email campaigns. A lot of them are free. Just enter something like “Free email tools” into your favourite search engine and try a few out. It could be the best days work you ever did. Do you really need email marketing? I’ll leave you to answer that!

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Introduction
The marketplace, along with its customers, is ever changing. The trend has changed from simply selling available products to customers who do not have many options to selling products that the customers seek and have a need for. The marketplace has become customer-oriented with the customers in the seat of power.
As the marketplace changes, so is there a need for change in marketing strategies. With a new brand of customers businessmen and marketers have to find new ways of selling their products and enticing the customers to buy them. This is especially true for traditional companies who are finding that there is no longer such great demand for their products. In the business world, as in the real world, being unable to adapt will mean the demise of the company.
Traditional and New Marketing
For marketers to adapt to the changing game of marketing online they first have to understand about the differences between traditional marketing and new marketing approaches. In Meryl Evans and Hank Stroll’s article on Marketing Challenge: Traditional vs. New Marketing, they discussed two important differences between traditional and new marketing concepts; that is, the focus and the one in control. The two concepts are actually very much intertwined. According to Evans and Stroll “old marketing concept focuses on selling what is being produced, while new marketing concentrates on producing what can be sold or consumed.” This means that nowadays the demand dictates the supply and not the other way around. Old marketing has worked for such a long time because people had no choice and there was neither time nor the means to produce things beyond what was needed. And when the time came when the means was there to produce things beyond needs companies dictated the trends because they had the money, the power, and the tools. However, control began to shift to the people or consumers as information became commoditized and became harder to please. Consumers nowadays have clear opinions of what their wants and needs are and cannot be as easily dictated as before. Control has shifted from companies to the customers. According to Alison Fraser, president of The Better Idea Inc., companies’ focus should shift from trying to control consumers to trying to satisfy them.
With that in mind, companies need to create or supply new products and marketers need to find new ways to sell those products, always with the aim of pleasing the customer. It seems that the adage “The customer is always right.” is what’s new marketing is all about.
New Methods for Marketing Online
Although online marketing might still seem like a new strategy for some, the Internet and the Internet community is so vibrant that change is always around the corner. Since marketing first entered the Internet, online marketing has introduced new marketing methods and continues to do this in efforts to keep up with the fast evolving habits and needs of the Internet users.
Below are listed some of the relatively new techniques or methods, aside from the usual advertising techniques, used in Internet or online marketing.
1. Article marketing – Article marketing works by having business owners write a short article about an interesting facet of their business and having them submit their articles to free sites like eZine Article Authors and Search Warp. This “article sites” reads like a magazine and stores numerous articles in their database, which are categorized. Readers can then search for articles on different topics they want to read. The article, of course, contains the writer’s name, an author’s bio, and a link to the business’ website. The business model sells not products but you as a good source of information. It sells your expertise. Good articles will surely establish your reputation and send droves of traffic to your website as they seek to find out more about you and your work.
2. Blogs – Blogs were not originally intended to be a marketing tool. However, the blogosphere has grown to such proportions and has become an important source of information in the Internet that marketers and advertisers saw opportunities in blogging and soon jumped the band wagon. Blogs instead of being created for purely personal reasons or to simply write and educate other people about one’s passion are now being used as marketers as a promotional tool. Since anyone can maintain a blog marketers publish their own blogs with posts all related to the product or service they are pushing. Along with these promotional blogs, real bloggers are also cashing in on their blogs from advertisements they choose to carry like AdSense. Very popular blogs can make substantial amounts of cash by simply being an AdSense affiliate or by joining other affiliate programs and carrying ads for them.
3. Link Popularity and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engines has become a vital part in Internet users’ search for information. Internet users do not even memorize website URLs anymore, except for the really popular websites, but simply rely on search engines to get them where they want to go. Because of this the importance of ranking high and ending up in the front pages of search engine results pages (SERPs) have become vital for businesses. Being among the top results in Google or Yahoo’s SERPs surely means a great number of traffic to your site and being absent from their SERPs almost always guarantees obscurity for your site. Even eBay, who is already known as the World’s Online Marketplace still depends heavily on Google for their traffic with as much as 30% of their traffic coming from Google. Because of this SEO and link popularity has become very important since an optimized website and one that has high link popularity is going to help your website achieve a high rank and increase the chance of being on top of SERPs. SEO experts have therefore cropped up and responded to the need or demand giving a new service, which is very much in demand. New SEO directories have also started cropping up all over the Internet just when directories were about to become irrelevant. This is in response to the need for many sites to build their link popularity and since directories do help in that aspect they have gained popularity again as a part of most sites’ marketing strategy. Websites are warned though to stay away from link farms, free-for-all link sites, and directories that do not screen joining websites since they could hurt instead of help your site’s page rank.

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As we all know, Email marketing is an effective way to get your business In the forefront of your customers mind. In fact this is set to be the Most used method of marketing by 2008. The content of your marketing Campaign is very important. You are competing with many other Businesses for the attention of the customer. It has to appeal to them, and Also encourage them to go to your website and make a purchase. The concept is simple, but the process of course is much more difficult. It can be very time consumimg. If you are struggling with your email marketing, or simply don’t have the time to do the job properly, then you could consider hiring an email consultant.

What exactly is an email marketing consultant? This is generally a freelancer who has skills in the area of developing effective email marketing campaigns. There are businesses that employ several email marketing consultants as well. They will help you devise effective promotions, specials, and newsletters for your business. The amount of time you use an email marketing consultant will depend on how regularly you plan to send emails to your customers. These consultants are very familiar with the email marketing process as well as what consumers respond well to. They know the market trends, and many other aspects that are part of the formula.

Since email marketing is such an important part of the entire marketing concept today, take the time to investigate the consultant you plan to use. If they are part of a company then check them out with the Better Business Bureau. You will find out about any issues and complaints filed against the company by other consumers. Check the internet for reviews about the company or individual as well. It is important to ask the email marketing consultant exactly what they will be providing for you. It’s eay enough to find a consultant. Just go to your search engine and type in “Email marketing consultants”. Just do your research as mentioned before.

Cost obviously will vary, according to the type of campaign you want. However a decent consultant will go over all this with you and offer you various plans and costings. It does not need to break the bank, and done correctly will prove extremely cost effective.

Ask for references and information previous projects they have worked on. Most email marketing consultants have a portfolio. Putting the wrong person in charge of your email marketing can damage the relationship you currently have with your customers. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself changing email marketing consultants down the road once your business has grown and the objectives of the company have changed. Sometimes the relationship can continue long term but if your company heads in a different direction then some changes in marketing and creativity may be in order.

An email marketing consultant should be willing to listen to the goals of your business. They need to be aware of exactly what you want to accomplish. Keep in mind they may need to make changes to your plan based on the best marketing practices but they should be willing to discuss the changes with you as well as why they are needed. If the consultant isn’t willing to talk with you about the goals of your business or isn’t easily reached then don’t work with them. They may not be effective or they may have too many projects taking place to do yours justice. Any agreement with you and an email marketing consultant need to be clearly placed in writing for both parties to sign.

It may take a marketing campaign or two for you to start seeing the effects. You should see a small increase in traffic to your website as well as sells. Don’t expect to see a huge difference overnight regardless of the product or service you are offering. Your email marketing consultant should go over this information with you as well. A consultant knows the process and market trends enough to give you a realistic forecast of what to expect. They can also help you analyze data that can be used to make your next email marketing campaign more effective.

Email marketing is a valuable concept that allows you to reach volumes of customers quickly, effectively, and inexpensively. The process can be difficult and time consuming. An email marketing consultant can help you meet your email marketing campaign goals while allowing your to use your time to operate other aspects of your business.

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