There’s no doubt about it though – if you want to get ahead in business you are going to have to keep your marketing and advertising up to date. What is the point of offering an amazing product or service if you aren’t going to stand up and shout about it? People need to know what you are offering. If you don’t have the budget for a marketing consultant then you are just going to have to do it yourself! Here is what you need to know:

Brand is the New Brand New!

You may have heard the term ‘brand’ being spoken of. All that this means is a common theme across your web presence, your stationery and your logo. If you have a great logo already then use this as your inspiration – pick one or two colours to be your colour scheme and make sure that everything matches it. You should stick to one font too. Whatever you decide should appear across the board for continuity.

Strap Lines and Slogans

Brand also extends to your reputation. What do you want your name to be synonymous with? Do some brainstorming – what do you offer? Where are you based? What is your USP (unique selling point)? Come up with a strap line (it should be no more than ten words) as a slogan for your company and plaster it all over your communications. The more you tell people who and what you are, the more they will believe it.

Get With Technology

Your website needs to be fresh and easy to use. Is yours? If you spend money on any area of your business let it be the website – an expert can do a great job for you and raise your online profile considerably. Some companies see reason to have an app developed for use on a smartphone – would this benefit your business? If you really don’t have the money for a web designer then teach yourself the basics or use a member of staff who has some existing knowledge.

Word of Mouth

Marketing is all about raising awareness. If you are proud of your business then you need to start telling people about it! Reward your customers who recommend you to other people and get out and about networking. After all, people buy from people, so don’t hide behind your desk! You need to be in the real world speaking to people and letting them know what you can do for them.

Marketing is simple – you just need to think really carefully about what message you want to send out. Get a big blank sheet of paper and write all the things about your business that you are proud of. That will help you narrow down your thinking. Marketing yourself is an essential part of modern business so make sure you are up to speed with it!

Attached Images:

• Image: Solution

James Carter is a branding consultant with Liquid Creativity. James is an interior designing graduate and brings a designer’s eye to marketing and brand consulting.

Definition

Product placement is a form of advertising. Goods with name brands are meticulously placed in movies, television shows and the internet where, typically, advertising won’t interrupt the format. When the product is featured, it usually isn’t explicitly mentioned.

However, future product placement will not only include subconscious marketing. Television through the internet will make product placement more aggressive. Since more people have the ability to fast forward past the 30-second spots that interrupt their television shows, product placement may become a more integrated part of television marketing. Products will increasingly become included in what viewers actually want to watch, especially as more people use the marketing cloud.

Nearly 75 percent of smartphone owners use their phones while watching television. Several television shows have created ways to encourage audiences to use their phones by taking polls about the plot or prompting a discussion with other viewers. While theaters discourage using smart phones during a movie, some phone companies have offered “rewards” when viewers turn on their phones after the movie.

History

Brand names appeared in movies in the early history of cinema. According to film scholar Tom Gunning, a variety of industries funded the making of “cinematic attractions,” which were films no longer than two minutes. In the first decade of film history (1895-1907), audiences did not go to films as art forms in a movie house. Instead, the short films were presented primarily at fairgrounds. These cinematic attractions were the origins of today’s television advertisement.

How It Works – Measuring Product Placement

Three ways to measure product placement are listed here:

• Implicit memory. Measuring implicit memory involves observing whether viewers choose a certain product over its competitor. For example, consider beverages featured in a movie. Surveyors can observe which beverages viewers chose with reference to the movie the viewers saw.
• Explicit memory. This is where a surveyor asks participants what brands they can recall from a television show or film. Often, surveyors ask participants to choose brands from a list.
• Accuracy.Another way to measure product placement is to observe how accurately the strategy targets an audience. Marketing experts look at specific demographics of an audience in relation to the products being advertised.

Effectiveness

Product placement has been proven effective in persuading consumers to buy products. The marketing strategy caters to the need of consumers and viewers to attain an ideal in addition to indulging themselves. With this approach, product placement can be more effective than traditional advertisements.

According to some scientists, product placement can more strongly alter memory or even target false memories. These memories can affect shopping patterns. If a product placement can get you to imagine yourself using a certain product, then your mind can replace the imagined situation with a false memory of an actual situation. While this marketing method is more expensive than commercials, it has the potential to generate more income.

Conclusion

Product placement is a very powerful marketing tool that is becoming increasingly popular. Companies have created ways to incorporate their products in a wide range of media, from television and movies to short video clips on YouTube and other online entertainment. As companies explore the marketing cloud, they may find better ways to advertise their products without interrupting their consumers’ entertainment.

Jared Jaureguy is an independent technology consultant. He writes for many of the top tech blogs, follow him on twitter @jaredjaureguy

Image Credit: 1.

You should probably know that it’s technically right. You can start a business without spending anything. One of the biggest things you need when you’re getting started is a hosting account. There are plenty of places you can host your website for free, but it’s a very bad idea and you’re setting yourself up for failure. I want to make it clear to you how dangerous it is, so we’re going to look at some of the reasons why you should never choose free hosting.

Do you own your business?

When you host your website on a free platform it’s like building a shop on quicksand. Everything might be fine for a little while, but without warning your store will sink into the ground. We can use Blogger as an example because it’s owned by Google and most people have heard of it. If someone sets up their website on Blogger it can be deleted by Google whenever they feel like it.

Too much downtime

What is the easiest way to lose money? If it’s impossible for people to get onto your website they will definitely not be able to buy anything. With free hosting you will never have the same amount of uptime. It’s always going to be flaky and you can’t afford to take the risk. Even if you don’t make thousands of dollars per day, I think you’ll be disappointed if you miss out on a few sales.

Don’t become popular

Everyone dreams of building a website that becomes wildly popular. They want the kind of website that will make looking at your analytic account the most exciting task of the day. When you keep working hard your website will get a lot of visitors, but you better hope it doesn’t get too many because the free server you are using will crash.

A business sells things

If you want to be in business you have to sell a product. If you don’t sell anything you have a hobby website. The reason I say this is because you might not be able to sell anything from certain free hosting accounts. They want people who are trying to build a website for fun, and what they don’t want is a company making money without paying anything.

A waste of time

You are just making it harder on yourself because eventually you will have to get your own hosting. Do you know how difficult it is to take all the content and swap it over? It’s harder than you think and if you can’t do it yourself you will need to pay someone. It will also mess up your links if you don’t have your own domain name, which will take time to sort out.

Lack of security

How much money do you think some of the free hosting providers have lying around? You definitely won’t have top-notch security if you decide to go down the free route. Do you want someone to hack into your site? Of course you don’t, but that is what might happen if you take any chances with your business.

What will you do?

You know how dangerous it can be to run a business without hosting it yourself. Do you think a real business is scared to invest some initial funds into the company? I hope you choose wisely because your business deserves it.

Attached Images:

• Image: Puzzle elements
• License: Creative Commons image source
• License: Creative Commons image source

Evan Carter is a self-professed techie working in a IT firm. According to him, a managed server allows for not only more productivity, but eases one’s mind about a multitude of issues. An avid blogger, he keeps himself updated about the latest happenings in the ever-evolving field of technology.

There is one major social network that doesn’t really fit with the others, however, and this means it often gets overlooked by people who could actually get a lot of benefit from including it in their marketing approaches. That social network is LinkedIn.

What is the Deal with LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is touted as the professional social network. What this basically means is that it is designed to be used only for professional and business connections and interactions, and this means that rather than putting up profiles that tell you their favourite movies and bands, people put up profiles that read like a generic version of their resume.

There are no jokes and cat videos, or banter about sports teams, and people tend to connect with people they know in a working capacity rather than their mother and the guys they hang out with at the bar. Rather than following celebrities they look up to, people aim for connections with the biggest names in their industry and avidly follow what the top entrepreneurs have to say.

Where LinkedIn Can Help Your Business

The biggest area in which LinkedIn can help is when it comes to recruitment. If you are looking to expand your team, or you work in recruitment yourself, the expanded networks on LinkedIn (which allow you to get introductions to people your own connections know) give you a huge pool of talent to look at, as well as a chance to get a measure of the standards and requirements of the kind of people you’d like to hire.

LinkedIn is also great for helping you establish yourself and your business as true authorities on what you do. By joining professional groups on LinkedIn, you can show that you play an active part in discussions on your industry and the topics affecting it, as well as help other people find answers. This can really boost your reputation, as well as helping you meet a lot of useful new people!

Introducing LinkedIn to Your Social Strategy

It is easy and free to set up a new profile on LinkedIn. You may want to take a little longer with it than you would with a Facebook or Twitter account, because people will be looking at your profile as a summary of your skills and professional history. You can set up a page for your company, but most interactions are between individuals, so it is a good idea to have everyone on your team set up a profile which they then link to the business. You are then ready to begin looking for people you know, seeking out talent, and using LinkedIn to bolster your professional credibility!

Attached Images:

• Post image: Strategy puzzle
• License: Creative Commons image source
• License: Creative Commons image source
• License: Creative Commons image source

Debroah Rodriguez, the writer of this article, works for a leading legal recruitment company and she is quite enthusiastic about her work. Her hobbies include cooking and reading.

Just don’t get too excited because you still can’t build anything if you only have a few dollars in the bank. People like to build up your expectations by talking about how little money you need to get started. Those people are usually trying to sell you something. You still need to spend some money in the beginning if you want your business to grow. Let’s take a look at some of the things you’ll be expected to buy, so you know what I’m talking about.

Hire a designer

If you look around all of the top websites you will notice they have one thing in common. They all have a great looking design. These people with successful companies will be able to hire expensive designers and nobody is saying you need to do the same at the moment, but your website still needs to be a little attractive. It needs to be good enough to make your potential customers think you are professional otherwise they won’t trust you with their money.

Outsource the helpdesk

It’s your job to run the business and you can’t deal with all the problems that arrive in your inbox every day. You would never have time to work on money making activities. If you do decide to do everything on your own you will end up working a hundred hours per week and you will burn out. If you have money available you can hire someone to deal with everything for you. They will only seek your advice if there is a problem they can’t handle on their own.

Great sales copy

When you try to write a sales page yourself you won’t be able to entice enough people to buy your product. Writing sales copy is a skill that takes years to practice and it’s one of those things you must spend money on. The alternative is to sell fewer products and make less money. You will have to spend a little in the beginning, but when you’re eating dinner while dozens of sales are being made you’ll be happy you didn’t decide to try your luck at something you’re not an expert in.

Security is important

What would you do if there was keylogging software on your machine right now? What would you do if a hacker got into the backend of your website? What would you do if all of your great ideas were stolen because someone guessed your passwords? You must make sure that you spend money on securing your website and your computer because it’s the same as having surveillance cameras in your offline store. You could lose everything and it’s not worth it.

Your own server

There are a lot of problems that come with running your website from a shared server. If someone hacks into a website you don’t own there is still a chance your website will be taken offline. That means you won’t be able to make sales and it will cost you money. You won’t be able to receive a lot of traffic or your server will crash. Do yourself a favor and get yourself a private server as soon as possible.

Attached Images:

• Post image: Wall Street Bull
• License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source

James Kirby is a keen blogger and he likes to write on a wide range of topics that may interest him. By day, he works for Web Watcher which offers clients some of the most powerful computer monitoring software.

And for many small business owners, recognising such signs in advance could easily mean the difference between continued success and seemingly sudden failure.

Should you find yourself at the helm of a small business and you’re not entirely confident about your companies future prospects, here are eight signs that, unfortunately, you might be right to be concerned.

Your Competitors Are Going Out of Business

For most small business owners, the demise of their closest competitors would appear to be a welcome development. Unfortunately, it can also be a sign that the market has shifted. If your competitors are suddenly struggling to keep their doors open, it could mean that the demand for the product or service that you are both providing is beginning to wane. And in the long term, that can only spell trouble.

You Know All of Your Customers By Name

Knowing all of your customers by name might seem like a good thing but it can also be a sign that you’re failing to attract anybody new. Small business owners can and should try to go above and beyond in terms of customer service, but wowing the same names again and again is not how you make progress. If you’re not attracting new customers, you’re essentially gambling your entire business on the loyalty of those that you already have.

Loyal Customers are Starting to Look Elsewhere

Speaking of loyal customers, should you find that long time customers are suddenly beginning to look elsewhere, this could be a sign that you need to take a long, hard look at your business. The disappearance of loyal customers can only mean one of two things; your product/service is getting worse, or that of your competitors is getting better. Either way, you’re facing a problem that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

Coupon Use is at an All Time High

Coupons and discount cards have long been an important component of an effective marketing strategy. But should you find that the rate at which they are being used is unexpectedly increasing, this might be a sign that your business is heading for trouble. Excessive coupon use is often an indicator that a companies target market is no longer able to afford their products.

You’ve Recently Cut Your Marketing Budget

While cutting costs during a recession is undoubtedly a wise move, a small businesses marketing budget should always be the last to go. Without marketing, you don’t have growth and without growth, a business can become stagnant surprisingly fast. Marketing isn’t cheap but try not to look at it as an expense. A well designed marketing campaign is one of the best investments that you can make in your companies future.

Key Staff are Leaving

Losing the occasional employee is to be expected but if you’ve recently lost a number of key employees in quick succession, it might be time that you stand up and take notice. Your best employees are your businesses most important asset and if that asset is losing value, it might be a sign that your business is doing likewise. There’s also the cost of recruitment, training and picking up the slack in their absence to consider.

Your Profit Margins are Dwindling

While there are times when a little bit of price cutting can help a small business, if you’ve been cutting your prices repeatedly to spur on demand, it’s only a matter of time before your dwindling profit margins catch up with you. Cutting your profit margins doesn’t just hamper your businesses ability to turn a profit in the future, it makes your business significantly more sensitive to fluctuating levels of demand in the present.

You’re Experiencing Cash Flow Problems

Finally, there’s the small matter of cash flow problems, they are not something that any small business owner can afford to take lightly. It doesn’t matter if your sales are increasing or decreasing, cash flow problems can lead to your business going under either way. If you’ve been noticing that your cash supply has been getting a little shaky of late, it’s something that you desperately need to look at now, not in the future.

Attached Images:

• Post image: Red pill
• License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/04/01/17/43/computer-23713_150.png
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/04/12/20/59/symbol-30629_150.png
•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/03/01/01/03/background-19939_150.jpg
•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/03/01/01/03/background-19939_150.jpg

Author of this post, Greg Fisher; carries out overseas manufacturing. He is the founder of Berkeley Sourcing Group. Although he had started of as a small timer, he has expanded his business considerably. An avid blogger, he has talked about the dangers a small business faces in this article.

• Undertake copies of your work
• Distribute any copies
• Display them anywhere publicly or privately
• Utilize it for creating any work with that as the basis

The copyright law prevents anyone else from taking your work, without your permission, and using them in any of their work.

Writing skill

Many of you have over the years honed your writing skill, researched your topic, and spent a considerable effort in creating your work. However, if it’s plagiarised all your hard work, loses its credibility. Also your writing style is identifiable very clearly, which resonates with your reader. By plagiarising it, the writing style is compromised and, it can also result in data taken out of context.

So what exactly is copyright infringement?

Copyright infringement is when one party misuses the sole rights of the works original owner without taking their consent. If a copyright owner can prove such a misuse, then the infringer would have to pay them, the all the profits made from it. In cases, where no profit has been made as of yet, the fine will be based on expected income. In the U.S., there is an added fine they would have to pay, which is the statutory damages. This is decided by the judge and criminal penalties may also apply.

The fair use policy

However, what you need to be careful about is that copyright rights are not infinite. It does set some constraints on the copyright held by the owner. The most important constraint it applies is, that of the ‘Fair Use’. For research and educational reasons this constraint allows the restricted duplication of the material. The duplication of the work is allows for teaching, news etc. for classroom use you can make multiple use.

Is there need to take permission to copy?

I would say 100% yes, inspite of the ‘fair use’ clause I would say you should ask (unless you are using it for class). For on there are no definitive rules that define what is fair or not. Secondly it’s a good practice to ask permission before usage – courteous.

How do I find out whom to ask?

Well that in most instances is fairly easy. In all published books, the copyright owner’s details are provided in the first few pages. If you can’t figure it out from there, call the publishers, they will always have the information. Last but not the least, the copy right office will have the information you seek. Inform the owner, your intended use, and the format in which it will be utilised. In case of commercial use, you may have to pay a fees to the owner which is negotiable. However for an academic usage, generally as long you mention the source, the permission is provided free of charge.

Remember, it’s always best to copyright your work, and if you are using someone else’s work then ask permission.

Luke Casey has authored this post and is also a professional essay writer. He likes to helo students achieve better writing results and improve their grammatical skills.

Image source: closed road

Mobile Marketing

As more people use mobile phones, so are the chances of advertising on these units. It has been estimated that in the year 2013, there is already a 400% growth of revenue by companies that utilizes mobile advertising. That sums up to $11.4 billion.

Social Media

In the year 2013, marketers who are utilizing social media to distribute and advertise content has grown from 74% to a whopping 87%. So advertising through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn is a very great way to boost sales.

Content Marketing

Another marketing trend that will see a boost in 2013 would be Content Management. More than 80% of B2B and B2C marketers are using eNewsletters, case studies, white papers and infographics to deliver their message to the public.

Author Rank

When you have great writers advertising and promoting on your behalf, you can make sure that you’ll end up on the first page of everyone’s search list. Now with the power of online sharing, you’ll be able to reach customers that were once far beyond your reach.

Dot Com Infoway – Internet Marketing Solutions

What is Gift Marketing?

Many companies give gifts to their clients. This can be a great way to show them how much you appreciate your relationship with them. Giving gifts can also be a great way to help build your business’s brand image. It can be almost as effective as using promotional giveaways to build a rapport with your customers throughout the year.

Gift marketing can be a very valuable promotional strategy. You may want to consider giving gifts to your clients during major holidays or anytime that you want to recognize your clients for something that they have done for you.

Choosing the Right Gifts for Your Clients

You will need to think carefully before choosing a gift to give to your clients. Here are some criteria that you may want to consider to help you choose the right gift for them.

Form a Connection

The purpose of gift marketing is to improve your relationship with your client. Make sure that the gift has some personal significance to your client. Consider personalizing the gift by putting their name or company logo on it.

Something Fun or Social

Many people are always receiving gifts that they are supposed to use in their business. These can be great ideas, but you should also remember that your clients are individuals as well. You may want to buy a gift that will help them in their personal lives instead.

Did your client tell you that they are a fan of the New York Knicks? You may want to buy them a couple of tickets to the next game if you know that they are planning a trip to New York in a couple of weeks.

Make Sure the Gift Serves a Purpose

Many people like to receive humorous or fun gifts. However, many clients will appreciate your gifts a lot more if they can use them in some way. Resist the temptation to buy a generic gift like a new calendar or fountain pen. Think about what the gift recipient really need and try to find something appropriate.

Know Your Client

Gift marketing can be a great way to build relationships with your clients, but it will only be effective if you know what your clients will like. Make sure that you have an established relationship with your client and buy them something that will resonate with them. You don’t want to end up in an awkward situation by purchasing something that offends them. You should stick to buying simple gifts that you know will work unless you have a very close personal relationship with the client.

Attached Images:

• License: MBG Stock Photo credit: My Blog Guest community

About the Author: Kalen is a marketing consultant and an entrepreneur. He shares tips on building relationships with clients through the Internet and traditional channels.

It must load fast

Speed is a big killer and if your website takes a long time to load there will be a huge amount of people who refuse to wait. They will just head back to Google and find your competitor’s site. You should invest in good hosting because shared hosting is not fast. Cloud hosting is great and it will ensure your website loads within a split-second. Nobody will have time to click away.

Completely secure

Do you really want your website to be a security hazard? It will mean anyone who knows how to hack will be able to come in through a backdoor and cause a lot of damage. You need to make sure you’re with a proper hosting provider and it will increase the chances of nothing bad happening. If your website is built on WordPress there are also plenty of security plugins you can use.

Optimized for the search engines

Wouldn’t it be great if you could sit back and do nothing while thousands of visitors kept landing on your website every day? Think of the money you could make while you played with the kids. This is only possible if your website is optimized for the search engines. There are so many on-page SEO techniques you need to learn, so look around and get studying.

Amazing content

Don’t rely on Google to send you the majority of your traffic every month. You need to make sure the people who visit your site come back because it’s the only way your total number of visitors will keep snowballing. The only way to make sure someone doesn’t forget you is by publishing absolutely amazing content on a regular basis. They will feel compelled to come back.

Great navigation

You have the breathtaking content, but it’s going to be hard for someone to find anything if you don’t spend time making sure people can easily navigate their way around your site. This is a lot easier than you think, yet so much people get it wrong. Just decide what content is really important, take a step back and think very carefully about how people will find the page the content is on.

Easy on the eyes

How can we not talk about the design of the website? Some people might say this is more important than anything else. Those people are probably designers, but they do have a point. If your website doesn’t look good it won’t just hurt people’s eyes. You will look unprofessional and nobody will trust you with their credit card details. Would you risk everything on a dodgy looking site?

Do you have what it takes?

There are quite a lot of things there and I hope you can see how each one of them is important. If you forget about one thing it could bring down the whole deck of cards. Running a successful business is hard enough, but you have got to get the basics right or you won’t get anywhere. Do you think you have what it takes? If you think you do I suppose you should now go and do it.

Attached Images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
• Image source: Small puzzle

Aaron James, is a tech expert working in a web hosting firm. In his opinion, there are many companies providing backup solutions and therefore one should do adequate research before choosing one. An avid blogger, he writes about the latest in the field of technology in his blogs.