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Author: Ryan Kristopher

There is a very common mistake that I see IT service providers making when it comes to marketing their business. It’s unfortunate for any IT company, because in doing so he or she is actually REPELLING business rather than attracting it.

I am talking about IT business owners who cannot answer the question “What Do You Do?” It sounds silly, but take a look in your local yellow page book and glance over the IT ads. You’ll find a wonderful array of vague, boring ads that list out general facts, offer all kinds of “off topic” services, and lack any ounce of uniqueness, intrigue, or emotional response.

You see, marketing is the art of motivating people to buy your product or service. To effectively motivate someone, you have to communicate to them in terms that he or she will relate and RESPOND to. This involves knowing WHO you are taking to and WHAT they actually care about.

Nobody cares how about boring facts about your company. What they care about is specifically what results or benefits they will get if they buy your technology product or service. Period! To do this, you have to properly plan and craft your marketing message in specific language that will hit home with your targeted prospects.

The problem that I am seeing, and it’s wasting a countless number of marketing dollars, is that too many IT guys are in business for themselves without doing any real work researching their target market, developing a USP, and crafting their marketing message. They ‘fly by the seat of their pants,’ and when someone puts them on the hot seat and asks “what do you do?” they can’t deliver an answer that’s memorable, sparks some interest, and generates word of mouth.

Instead of having a few powerful responses handy, the average IT guy is unprepared and begins to spit out boring facts about the services they offer, how long they’ve been in business, and what certifications they have, etc, etc. The problem with this type of answer is it doesn’t answer the question “What’s in it for me?” That’s really all anyone cares about when they ask “What do you do?”

When you resort to using boring facts as the centerpiece to your marketing, you are effectively making your company appear to be no different than your competitors. When you can’t differentiate yourself from your competition, prospects will assume that since your marketing is the same your SERVICES must be the same, and they will lose interest.

This is also how you get shopped on price. If you market your company exactly like your competition, than the only thing different WILL be your price. Your services become simple commodities and you give buyers no other option but to base their buying decision off of the price.

The key to preventing this from happening to your IT consulting company is to:

1. Focus your marketing around the results that your services provide.
2. Make a list of 4 or 5 specific benefits your clients can expect to gain after you perform your service.
3. Make a list of 7 or 8 specific aspects about your company that are unique and set you a part from your competition (e.g. – 24/7 service, free support hotline, 2 hour response time, remote desktop service work, etc.)
4. Be specific in your ads and avoid using any vague or clique terminology.

As soon as you start being specific in your ads, avoiding vague/clique terminology, focusing on results, and listing out unique aspects about your company, you will notice that your clients will immediately stop focusing on price. You will also appear to be different and SUPERIOR to your competitors. You will have instant credibility and prospects will view you as competent guru in your field.

So the next time someone asks you “what do you do” make sure you have a good answer.

About the Author:

Ryan Kristopher is an independent marketing consultant, sales trainer, and author of the Computer Consulting Marketing Brief who specializes in inexpensive and highly effective marketing strategies for computer service specialists, VARs, Systems Integrators, MSPs and IT consulting firms.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – The #1 Mistake That Will Sabotage Your IT Marketing Plan

Author: maddy.dec2008

Article marketing has produced great success for many affiliate marketers, with the ever increasing numbers of article directory websites; this has increased article marketing greatly for affiliates and their websites.

Affiliate marketers are everywhere within the internet world. It is not unusual for an affiliate to gain six figure commission checks on a monthly basis. Article marketing is free so there is no outlay needed, but the benefits are extreme.

But one problem some affiliates are faced with is the lack of knowledge in article marketing. And this is how the top affiliates produce enough leads to their various programs. To be successful in any online business an affiliate needs various leads, for more details visit to www.article-submitters.com this can be achieved by free article marketing and including a link to their particular program, that way the leads they will receive would lead to having a great chance of turning them into actual sales.

To be successful in article marketing one must produce keyword rich articles, content must be well written and unique. 500-750 words are an ideal length for an article. Also submit to numerous free article directories, for more details visit to www.writing-fast-cash.com there are thousands out there. There is also semi-automatic article submission software’s out there you can purchase to help you with your submissions; these can be great time savers!

Article marketing isn’t just for affiliates; you may have a website selling products or even an eBay shop. Article marketing is ideal for the new business to get their name out there. One of the most important items in your article is your title; make sure your keywords are all within your title, but at the same time making it catchy to the user.

One sure way of getting your article rejected by the article directories is to have spelling mistakes and poor grammar. It’s just common sense to run your article though a spell checking program before submitting to the article directories. I personally use Microsoft word which incorporates a spell checking facility. Your article should be informative to the reader and offer something of interest.

Your article should be easy to read with the correct formatting, it’s better to have lots of paragraphs than to have a huge paragraph with no breaks. The ideal paragraph would consist of two – four sentences; just like this one

The most important part of your completed article is the author’s bio. This is where you’ll place your name, link to your website and description of your website. Make sure your anchor text includes your main keywords, so when the search engines crawls your article in the article directory it picks up your link with all your main keywords. It’s also advisable to include some keywords with your description.

It’s always ideal for some other person to proof read the article before submitting to the various article directories. If time is an issue, you might want to consider hiring a writer to publish some articles for you. Elance.com is a great place to hire writers but remember you get what you pay for. If you hire a writer check they have recommendations from previous article writing projects.

I hope you’ve found this article informative and helpful. Free article marketing is definitely a great way to promote an affiliate program or website.

About the Author:

www.article-writing-secret.com

www.ezines-success.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – To be Successful in Article Marketing One Must Produce Keyword Rich Articles!

Author: Naeem AHmd

Whether you are marketing on-line or off-line, your potential customers are scared, scarred, and skeptical. Consumers, today, are quite resistant to sales messages.

In the mid 70’s, a store could run a “10% off” sale and people would flock in. Then the big stores got into the discounting mentality. Now it is common to see “70% off” sales – especially in jewelry. The consumer is not too long a fool. These promotions do not produce the wanted response anymore.

Repeated, high powered sales events create a downward spiral. Eventually you cannot offer a big enough “deal” to get the public excited. The big three car makers played this game for three years. By January 2006 they found themselves in deep financial trouble. They had borrowed customers from the future by offering a bigger, better sale every couple months. It is a deep grave from which to crawl out.

Successful businesses, now and in the future, will be practicing “soft marketing”. To make sales today, marketing efforts have to come in under the consumer’s sales-pitch radar.

Many of the big companies have known this for some time because of their on-going marketing analysis. You can take advantage of their research for free.

Look at Coca-Cola for example.

Coke was famous for their flashy, high-powered TV ads. Today you seldom see such ads. Have they cut back on their marketing expenditure? No. In fact, they are now spending more using soft marketing techniques. Most people do not even realize they are being advertised to. That is the beauty and power of soft marketing.

Here are two ways Coke is using a soft marketing approach to build profits and market share.

1. You may have seen Coke products displayed on TV shows and movies. “American Idol” is a popular TV show, with about 35 million viewers. The three judges are a big part of the success of the show. In front of each judge is a tall Coke cup. These characters, in effect, are recommending Coke to their viewers. Coke pays a lot of money for this and sells a lot of product based on this endorsement type advertising.

2. Coke brings new loyal customers in the “back door” using nostalgia products. Coke collectibles are a huge market today. And once caught up in the hobby of Coke collectibles, a person, and the whole family, become avid Coke drinkers. And Coke is being advertised to everyone who enters that home.

Coke’s soft marketing techniques have made them almost bullet-proof in the soft drink market. They have built an image of being the most popular soda. Since it is human nature to want to be on the winning team, swarms of new customers are joining the group every day.

Here are three powerful soft marketing tactics you can start using today.

1. Become known as an expert. Credibility and trust are the two most important ways to succeed in any business. Write and submit articles and press releases. If you cannot write, hire someone to do it for you. There are several good writing service web sites on the internet. Internet Marketing is very cheap. Also, you should join a “Private Label Rights” content site. They provide already written articles that you can put your name on as your own. This is pure gold for on-line or off-line marketing.

If you have a business on Main Street, your local newspaper should be your best friend. Do whatever you can to develop a relationship with them. You may or may not be able to get your news articles and releases printed for free, but even buying the space will return big dividends.

2. Give away a free report on the topic of your product or service. Your local newspaper will probably give you some free editorial space in the beginning if the report is of interest and free to their subscribers. A real life example is a realtor in this area that offers a free report – “10 Ways To Get Top Dollar For Your Home”. It reveals what is valuable, and what is not, when getting your home ready for sale. Internet Marketing With this he becomes the expert in the consumer’s mind and a person who cares about them.

You can get a book or report written for you for a few hundred dollars by the same on-line companies that ghost-write articles and press releases or from your “Private Label Rights” membership site. This realtor has been using the same report for over ten years now. It is estimated this report has generated about $1.6 million in profits.

3. Partner with related, non-competing businesses. One dry cleaning operation partnered with clothing stores in the community. The store, when selling a garment, would give a gift certificate to the customer. The gift certificate was good for a free first-time cleaning and pressing of that new garment.

The customer thought the store was paying for the dry cleaning. The fact is the dry cleaner was giving the service for free. The customer saw the store as being a “hero” and the store saw the dry cleaner as being a “hero”. Both stores gained a load of new and repeat customers.

Use these Internet Marketing strategies or think up your own to fit your product or service. Have some brainstorming sessions with other energetic, savvy business people, like you. The resulting ideas will amaze you, and your traffic and profits will increase as if by magic.

About the Author:

I am running and Internet Business and has been working on affiliate Programs for the last few years.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – What is Soft Marketing

Author: Aaron Lee

Do you have previous marketing experience where you didn’t get the results you expected? Marketing is a very important aspect of any business. Whether your business is offline or online, effective marketing as a result of decent market research is the key to your success.

Mistake #1: Most entrepreneurs just don’t know who their customers are, not knowing who they are marketing to, and not understanding the demand and the need of their customers.

Many people that I’ve talked to, who have previous failure marketing experiences, simply didn’t understand their audiences. Some tried to put advertisements on websites that have audiences around the age of 50, when their products are for people around the age of 20. Obviously you won’t get positive results when you do that and you are just putting up “blind” advertisements – advertisements that are of no interest to the targeted audiences.

Mistake #2: Not willing to invest in marketing

There are still a lot of people who simply don’t get the importance of marketing, and how quality marketing can significantly increase the growth of their business(s). Some are willing to invest effort and cash in marketing, but they go for the cheapest marketing services. The results you receive are directly related to how much you put in. There are a lot of marketing services and opportunities out there but quality marketing will result in exponential increase in sales / leads over time.

Things to look into when managing your marketing campaign:

Understanding the age of the audiences that are suitable for your products

Understanding the marketing medium (channel) that is suitable for your marketing campaign

Understanding the variety (different types of people around the age of your audiences) of your audiences and make your marketing campaign targeted for the majority of your audiences for most effective results

Put little investment on your marketing campaign in many marketing mediums to see which ones performs the better results. Then invest more on your marketing campaign in the marketing mediums that produced the best results.

About the Author:
Aaron Lee

Business Growth Strategist

The Entrepreneur Journey of a Business Minder

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Market Research and Marketing

Author: Scott Brooks

It’s no secret that the economy is bad. People are losing jobs and the high costs of fuel and food are resulting in people spending less money on non-essentials. This affects everyone. Most businesses are seeing a decrease in sales and profits. This holds true for Internet marketers as well. Fortunately, there are some things that can be done to move products even in a bad economy.

One of the first things that Internet marketers should consider is to create their own products. This gives them greater power and flexibility. They will be able to decrease prices, offer specials and discounts or even give their product away for free. When you are an affiliate marketer, beyond adding bonuses, there really isn’t a lot that you can do to make customers more likely to purchase your product if they don’t have the money. Creating your product gives you more leeway in this area.

For example, you can sell your product for any amount that you want because it’s yours. Instead of promoting a product that costs $55, you can create a similar product that cost $25 and perhaps sell it by promoting it on social networking websites, free classifieds sires or press releases. Because you are using free or cheap ways to advertise, you’ll still make money because you get to keep all of the profits. If you were to promote the more expensive products in the same ways as an affiliate, because the product is more expensive individuals may be less apt to buy because the amount of discretionary income that people have has decreased significantly.

When you own your products, you can also lower your product prices and offer sales for a certain amount of time. You can not do this as an affiliate marketer. Your hands are tied when it comes to price and presentation.

Another benefit of owning your own product is that you can create a more effective sales letter. You may find hot topic that is not very competitive but after doing some research discover that there are only one or two products in that niche and both sales letter sucks and thus doesn’t don’t covert very well. You realize that if they could only create a better sales letter, this would result in more sales for them and you. One option that you have is to create your own product, develop an awesome sales letter and take over the niche.

You can also give away products that you own for free and still make money. There are different companies such as Trial Pay that will pay you to give your product away for free in exchange for individuals signing up for free trials. Consequently, individuals who do not have actual cash can still “purchase” your product by signing up for a free trial. This allows you to move your products and enables the customer to receive what they want without actually having to spend any real money.

About the Author:
Get an effective solution for advertising your website at: Online Website Advertising.

Scott Brooks is a successful Internet marketer who has been working online since 2004. He has authored several popular eBooks and owns three membership sites.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How to Sell Online Products in a Bad Economy