Marketing information products is a way to get the word out about an E-book, online course, report or other piece of digital information. There are as many ways to market these items as there are items to be marketed, but a few ways have become more reliable for sellers than others. Some cost money and some are free, but all will work with enough time and effort invested.
Pay-per-click ads are one of the ways that people get their items out there for a mass audience. These ads cost the seller only when someone clicks on the ads. This can be an expensive way to market information products, but it has proven successful for many Internet marketers. Perhaps the most popular PPC method is to use Google AdWords. This allows the seller to create small text ads that are inserted onto search results and onto other people’s websites. The seller chooses keywords for each ad and the ads are then posted when people search for those terms or when a website has those keywords on it.
A less expensive way to market information products is to engage in article marketing. This is a way to get name recognition for the product out there and to entice people to click on a link to buy the item. It also builds links to the item and earns it better search engine placement. The articles can be submitted to article directories or they may be used on the seller’s blog or website. With this method, the more articles, the better. Having a large number of high-quality articles that inform the reader about how the product can help them with their problem means that there is a wide audience out there reading about it and clicking on the link that comes with the article.
Blogging is a way to market information products very inexpensively. Blogs are updated often, making them a favorite in search engine results. They may rank higher than websites that essentially have the same information because they are so often updated with new posts. Fresh content is well-ranked content, and a blog is one of the freshest ways to stay relevant online. Each post can offer information about the item and how well it works. And unlike with article directories, there is no limit to how many links you can include to the product when you use your own blog.
Social networking websites have been one of the fastest-growing online phenomena of the past few years. People use social networking websites for keeping up with friends and meeting new people, but they have also become much more than that. It is possible to use social networking websites for marketing any number of things, including information products. The network of friends that most people have on networking sites means that a lot of people will see your updates about the product, how it works for you and any new deals available for it. By continuing to add to the friend list, the network of potential customers also continues to grow.
About the Author:
Sign up for my newsletter and get the free report: “Information Products: Understanding How to Take an Online Prospect to the Buying Step” today! If you sign up you will also get regular updates from me about internet marketing… Click Here to Sign Up! http://www.onlineprofitscashsystem.com
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
A Case for Market Research: Do you Really Know What your Customers Think?.
Every quarter, Frank Lynn & Associates conducts a channel-marketing workshop for sales and marketing managers from many different types of companies. Many--even large Fortune 1000 companies--do not use formal customer research as a strategic marketing tool.
Some of their main excuses include:
> "Sales people talk to customers all the time. They bring a lot of customer insight."
> "Customer research is done for product development, and that isn't a constant need."
> "Internally, the discretionary annual marketing budget leans toward marketing communications, like new literature campaigns, mailings, etc. to drive growth."
Smart Business interviewed Jeanne Fec, Senior Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates Inc., to learn more about using formal customer research to optimize investments in new products and drive growth in sales and market share.
What about using the sales force for research? Aren't they the critical interface between a company and their customers?
The sales force is one of the biggest investments a company makes, and it can be used as a "conduit" to understanding customer sentiment. This is important. But there are two problematic issues in gathering customer insight from the company sales force.
How do typical sales people spend their time? If they are good account managers, it is with existing, high-value customers. Here is the gap. How do we learn from those outside the sales force's circle of presence? Companies that consistently maintain double-digit growth make it a point to learn and act upon perceptions, purchasing behaviors and expectations of prospective and low-profile customers.
Then there is focus and motivation. Sales people are trained and paid to sell. It is a challenge to get reliable and effective market research from salespeople. A formal customer research effort more effectively delivers unbiased data. Customers will also note the extra effort taken to understand their perspective.
Are there additional reasons to use consistent customer or non-customer research?
Research and development is another big investment that market research can optimize. Numerous companies fail to include external customer research in the product development process.
Engineering-driven organizations are especially vulnerable here. Great ideas are put into motion because they seem to solve problems or outstrip the competition on design and capabilities.
Successful marketing strategies must also take into account the size, sensitivity and buying behavior of target end-user segments. This is a step best filled with regular collection of insight from those customers. But we still have clients come to us regularly with great products, seeking a market to buy them.
End-user research can effectively and efficiently answer critical acceptance questions before a more significant investment is made. These basic questions can be incorporated into a research methodology that can be conducted in person, over the phone or via questionnaire.
Give us some examples of key research questions.
Certainly. Let's continue with our example of a new technology product being prepared for a launch.
Technology: Does the technology meet the customer's needs or solve the problem? Is it perceived to be robust enough? Or overkill for the existing situation?
Economics: Are the benefits greater than the cost? Developing an actual selling price is a challenge in any research methodology, but good research can define a value-based price range in the mind of the customer.
Timing: Are prospective customers capable and willing to make a purchase in the short term? Asking questions about purchase cycles, budgets, approval processes, centralized versus decentralized buying behaviors, and other timing questions will help gauge opportunity forecasts.
Environment: Research questions can assist in understanding behaviors that have a high impact on success. For example, you can test the customer's internal environment, which means the customer's level of sophistication and readiness to adopt the new technology. It is also critical to understand the customer's external environment, such as alliances with competitors or previous negative experiences. In the overall scheme of things, this type of research investment is small relative to the cost of R&D and product development.
We've talked about customer satisfaction research, new customer access and new product research. Are there other ways that research helps companies grow?
Good research has proven to help companies maintain current share, grow within their customer base, and strategically grow outside of it. There is one additional benefit research can deliver. Customer research can tell us how to raise the bar. It informs us about unmet needs, or identifies unique benefits that competitors do not deliver.
Article Source: http://marketing.article24h.com/category/marketing.html
Author: Jeanne Fec
Jeanne Fec, is a Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates, and the Managing Director of Insight Research, a market research division of the company. She has been with the firm for 24 years.
http://www.franklynn.com
Some of their main excuses include:
> "Sales people talk to customers all the time. They bring a lot of customer insight."
> "Customer research is done for product development, and that isn't a constant need."
> "Internally, the discretionary annual marketing budget leans toward marketing communications, like new literature campaigns, mailings, etc. to drive growth."
Smart Business interviewed Jeanne Fec, Senior Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates Inc., to learn more about using formal customer research to optimize investments in new products and drive growth in sales and market share.
What about using the sales force for research? Aren't they the critical interface between a company and their customers?
The sales force is one of the biggest investments a company makes, and it can be used as a "conduit" to understanding customer sentiment. This is important. But there are two problematic issues in gathering customer insight from the company sales force.
How do typical sales people spend their time? If they are good account managers, it is with existing, high-value customers. Here is the gap. How do we learn from those outside the sales force's circle of presence? Companies that consistently maintain double-digit growth make it a point to learn and act upon perceptions, purchasing behaviors and expectations of prospective and low-profile customers.
Then there is focus and motivation. Sales people are trained and paid to sell. It is a challenge to get reliable and effective market research from salespeople. A formal customer research effort more effectively delivers unbiased data. Customers will also note the extra effort taken to understand their perspective.
Are there additional reasons to use consistent customer or non-customer research?
Research and development is another big investment that market research can optimize. Numerous companies fail to include external customer research in the product development process.
Engineering-driven organizations are especially vulnerable here. Great ideas are put into motion because they seem to solve problems or outstrip the competition on design and capabilities.
Successful marketing strategies must also take into account the size, sensitivity and buying behavior of target end-user segments. This is a step best filled with regular collection of insight from those customers. But we still have clients come to us regularly with great products, seeking a market to buy them.
End-user research can effectively and efficiently answer critical acceptance questions before a more significant investment is made. These basic questions can be incorporated into a research methodology that can be conducted in person, over the phone or via questionnaire.
Give us some examples of key research questions.
Certainly. Let's continue with our example of a new technology product being prepared for a launch.
Technology: Does the technology meet the customer's needs or solve the problem? Is it perceived to be robust enough? Or overkill for the existing situation?
Economics: Are the benefits greater than the cost? Developing an actual selling price is a challenge in any research methodology, but good research can define a value-based price range in the mind of the customer.
Timing: Are prospective customers capable and willing to make a purchase in the short term? Asking questions about purchase cycles, budgets, approval processes, centralized versus decentralized buying behaviors, and other timing questions will help gauge opportunity forecasts.
Environment: Research questions can assist in understanding behaviors that have a high impact on success. For example, you can test the customer's internal environment, which means the customer's level of sophistication and readiness to adopt the new technology. It is also critical to understand the customer's external environment, such as alliances with competitors or previous negative experiences. In the overall scheme of things, this type of research investment is small relative to the cost of R&D and product development.
We've talked about customer satisfaction research, new customer access and new product research. Are there other ways that research helps companies grow?
Good research has proven to help companies maintain current share, grow within their customer base, and strategically grow outside of it. There is one additional benefit research can deliver. Customer research can tell us how to raise the bar. It informs us about unmet needs, or identifies unique benefits that competitors do not deliver.
Article Source: http://marketing.article24h.com/category/marketing.html
Author: Jeanne Fec
Jeanne Fec, is a Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates, and the Managing Director of Insight Research, a market research division of the company. She has been with the firm for 24 years.
http://www.franklynn.com
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Can I Get Rich on the Internet?
Making money on the internet is really a pretty easy thing to do... making a lot of money online on the other hand is no walk in the park.
When it comes to the idea of getting rich, I suppose you would need to figure out exactly what that means to you; how much money is enough to consider ones self rich?
To some, making $100 a day online would be pretty significant. To others it would not even come close to replacing the money they make at their current job, let alone make them rich.
Now, a hundred dollars a day online is a significant benchmark that a lot of Internet Marketers set their sites on because if you could achieve that consistently, then it is reasonable to think you could double it... and then double it again.
The thing about that though is it's like the 4 minute mile, it is touch to achieve and a lot of people give up before ever getting there.
So, can you get rich online? Absolutely! Can you make enough money each and every day to quit your day job, or course you can, people do it all the time.
But, you do need a solid plan to get there and then you must take decisive and consistent action. Taking action each and everyday is the key yo your success. Don't rest on what you did yesterday!
It is very reasonable to think that with enough work and consistent effort you can reach your financial goals and to me, that means you're rich!
About the Author:
Ashley Morgan
Making money online is what I do for a living and I can teach you to do it as well. If you want to make $200-$500 online each and everyday I ask that you give me just a minute of your time and go to: http://www.4-DayMoneyMakingBlueprint.com
When it comes to the idea of getting rich, I suppose you would need to figure out exactly what that means to you; how much money is enough to consider ones self rich?
To some, making $100 a day online would be pretty significant. To others it would not even come close to replacing the money they make at their current job, let alone make them rich.
Now, a hundred dollars a day online is a significant benchmark that a lot of Internet Marketers set their sites on because if you could achieve that consistently, then it is reasonable to think you could double it... and then double it again.
The thing about that though is it's like the 4 minute mile, it is touch to achieve and a lot of people give up before ever getting there.
So, can you get rich online? Absolutely! Can you make enough money each and every day to quit your day job, or course you can, people do it all the time.
But, you do need a solid plan to get there and then you must take decisive and consistent action. Taking action each and everyday is the key yo your success. Don't rest on what you did yesterday!
It is very reasonable to think that with enough work and consistent effort you can reach your financial goals and to me, that means you're rich!
About the Author:
Ashley Morgan
Making money online is what I do for a living and I can teach you to do it as well. If you want to make $200-$500 online each and everyday I ask that you give me just a minute of your time and go to: http://www.4-DayMoneyMakingBlueprint.com
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Six Sigma And Web Marketing
High-end services such as web marketing have acquired great significance in recent years due to the substantial increase in online trade. The overall value of online trade deals has become so large that every online company now wants to grab a piece of the pie. This is why more and more companies are opting for professional web marketing services that help in achieving the above stated objective.
Attracting Eyeballs Through Effective Web Marketing
Web marketing can be defined as a set of processes and procedures that not only help in attracting online visitors, but also motivate visitors to spend relatively more time on the website as compared to the time spend on other competitor websites. Web marketing is certainly beneficial but the problem is that most online companies are using it, making it quite difficult to offer a unique experience to online visitors.
This problem can, however, be resolved by deploying Six Sigma concepts and methodologies that help in defining the exact needs or expectations of online visitors, which in turn helps in designing and developing new websites or making modifications in existing websites. Increasing website traffic may not be the ultimate aim of web marketing initiatives, but is nonetheless helpful because mathematically, it increases the chances that sale volumes will rise. Additionally, it also helps in building a brand name for a website, something that will always be beneficial in the long run, irrespective of whether the website has been able to achieve its sales targets or not.
Converting Visits Into Actual Sales
With the help of advanced Six Sigma statistical tools, online companies can now analyze each and every aspect of their website's performance such as time spent on individual web pages, links clicked on by visitors, links virtually ignored by visitors, and the visit to sales ratio. Based on these records, online companies can then easily carry out the desired modifications and provide user-friendly tools, all of which will ultimately help the company to convert more of the casual visits into actual sales.
Increasing sales is necessary, especially for commercial websites because it is the only way they can hope to stay afloat in today's highly competitive online market. Increased sales translates into increased profits, which can then be used by the company to expand its operations by increasing the number of products or services being offered on a website.
Based on all the above stated facts, it can easily be inferred that just like in any other sector, Six Sigma has become quite inseparable in the area of web marketing. In addition, since it is quite certain that online trade volumes will continue to rise, it will not be wrong to assume that use of Six Sigma in the field of web marketing and allied sectors will continue to witness an increasing trend, year after year.
Article Source: http://marketing.article24h.com/category/marketing.html
Author: Tony Jacowski
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
http://www.sixsigmaonline.org
Attracting Eyeballs Through Effective Web Marketing
Web marketing can be defined as a set of processes and procedures that not only help in attracting online visitors, but also motivate visitors to spend relatively more time on the website as compared to the time spend on other competitor websites. Web marketing is certainly beneficial but the problem is that most online companies are using it, making it quite difficult to offer a unique experience to online visitors.
This problem can, however, be resolved by deploying Six Sigma concepts and methodologies that help in defining the exact needs or expectations of online visitors, which in turn helps in designing and developing new websites or making modifications in existing websites. Increasing website traffic may not be the ultimate aim of web marketing initiatives, but is nonetheless helpful because mathematically, it increases the chances that sale volumes will rise. Additionally, it also helps in building a brand name for a website, something that will always be beneficial in the long run, irrespective of whether the website has been able to achieve its sales targets or not.
Converting Visits Into Actual Sales
With the help of advanced Six Sigma statistical tools, online companies can now analyze each and every aspect of their website's performance such as time spent on individual web pages, links clicked on by visitors, links virtually ignored by visitors, and the visit to sales ratio. Based on these records, online companies can then easily carry out the desired modifications and provide user-friendly tools, all of which will ultimately help the company to convert more of the casual visits into actual sales.
Increasing sales is necessary, especially for commercial websites because it is the only way they can hope to stay afloat in today's highly competitive online market. Increased sales translates into increased profits, which can then be used by the company to expand its operations by increasing the number of products or services being offered on a website.
Based on all the above stated facts, it can easily be inferred that just like in any other sector, Six Sigma has become quite inseparable in the area of web marketing. In addition, since it is quite certain that online trade volumes will continue to rise, it will not be wrong to assume that use of Six Sigma in the field of web marketing and allied sectors will continue to witness an increasing trend, year after year.
Article Source: http://marketing.article24h.com/category/marketing.html
Author: Tony Jacowski
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
http://www.sixsigmaonline.org
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Article Marketing Basics and SEO Benefits
Article marketing is a great strategy for getting more exposure and one way back links to your website. In theory, it's simply witting an article related to your website and posting it on public article directories (like ezinearticles.com). Your hope is that other people will like your article and republish it on their website. Having your content and links on other websites can really help increase your page rank on search engines. Another likely outcome is more page view to your website since readers of the article will likely click on one of your links.
Now moving on I want to get into the technical side of this. When submitting your article to directories, you will need to pass strict grammar and content guidelines. Your article will get reviewed and may or may not be published. The size of the article should be 300 + words. I can't emphasize enough that your article should not be stuffed with links back to your website, this just looks like spam and it won't be approved by the editor. A maximum of two self serving links is the general limit for article directories. I recommend not writing articles on topics you don't know much about. People are searching for informative or interesting content that they have not seen before. If you are writing high quality articles that are actually useful and informative to readers then article marketing will work wonders for you because lots of people will want to re-publish your articles.
Before you sit down and start writing, I think it's important to take a look at several example articles to get a better idea of what is expected. Some directories you can look through are:
articleteller.com
goarticles.com
articlecircle.com
articlesbase.com
Article writers and those that repost them on their website form a circular SEO relationship. The writer gets back links from the reposter's website while the reposter gets SEO benefits from having good content on their website. This truly is a free but powerful SEO strategy that should not be overlooked.
About the Author:
For more information please go to http://theseofool.com We publish relevant SEO advice for business growth.
Now moving on I want to get into the technical side of this. When submitting your article to directories, you will need to pass strict grammar and content guidelines. Your article will get reviewed and may or may not be published. The size of the article should be 300 + words. I can't emphasize enough that your article should not be stuffed with links back to your website, this just looks like spam and it won't be approved by the editor. A maximum of two self serving links is the general limit for article directories. I recommend not writing articles on topics you don't know much about. People are searching for informative or interesting content that they have not seen before. If you are writing high quality articles that are actually useful and informative to readers then article marketing will work wonders for you because lots of people will want to re-publish your articles.
Before you sit down and start writing, I think it's important to take a look at several example articles to get a better idea of what is expected. Some directories you can look through are:
articleteller.com
goarticles.com
articlecircle.com
articlesbase.com
Article writers and those that repost them on their website form a circular SEO relationship. The writer gets back links from the reposter's website while the reposter gets SEO benefits from having good content on their website. This truly is a free but powerful SEO strategy that should not be overlooked.
About the Author:
For more information please go to http://theseofool.com We publish relevant SEO advice for business growth.
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