It really hit home to me how lucky I was to be sitting at that table.

Joe Vitale is one of the fathers of the internet marketing business, and just keeps growing from amazing success to amazing success. His goal is to be the world’s first trillionaire. I wouldn’t bet against him.

Craig Perrine is one of the up-and-coming gurus. The gurus all know him, and respect him. He’s one promotion away from being a guru himself. He’s also got a dangerously skewed sense of humor.

Bill Hibbler is one of my oldest friends. He’s the one that got me into internet marketing, and introduced me to Joe. He’s quietly built up a very impressive internet empire. He also used to manage rock stars- so we share the music biz connection.

To get these guys together for a consultation would cost thousands of dollars an hour.

Let me share the wealth with you, by letting you listen in to a conversation we had about joint ventures.

There is a temptation for new internet marketers to use the “shotgun” approach when they try to set up Joint Venture deals. In the shotgun approach, you send a form letter to everybody you can think of, asking them to promote your product.

We were unanimous on this. The shotgun approach NEVER WORKS.

There. That’s all you need to know about the shotgun approach. Don’t waste your time

Bill reminded me of a time, 8-10 years ago, when I tried the shotgun approach in the music business. I put together a promo kit, with pictures, press clippings, and my latest CD and mailed it to record companies. Wasted several hundred dollars. I got no response.

Later, I got a record deal, publishing deal, and a couple of great agents- but I didn’t get them by using the shotgun approach.

Well, what does work?

We all agreed that building a relationship was important.

So, I asked Joe, Bill, and Craig to imagine they were sitting in… Cleveland, Texas, or some other backwater spot, and they wanted to establish a relationship with a potential JV partner. What would they do?

I want to make it very clear that the first step is to identify who you want to establish the relationship with. You need to focus on each potential JV partner one-at-a-time.

Here are the steps they would take:

1. get on their list.

2. subscribe to all of their newsletters and read them. You want to know what their niche is, what their interests are, and- this is very important- what they like. More on this in a minute.

3. send them an occasional email telling them that you like their ezine, and telling them exactly what you liked. quote the ezine or newsletter.

4. once they’ve responded to an email, and acknowledge you, offer them a free article or ebook to use as a bonus for their promotion. It’s important that your bonus has some relation to their promotion.

5. politely ask if they’d be interested in promoting your product. Do NOT send attachments. Do NOT send a long email with your biography. Do send a polite request stressing what’s in it for them.

6. repeat step five politely but persistently.

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I’ve seen this work with Joe, and I believe that it will work with most gurus IF… and this is a big IF… the product you want to promote is actually a great product and it is the sort of thing his customers will actually buy.

For example, Craig’s customers are savvy, experienced internet marketers who are interested in the nuts and bolts techniques of list building. My ebook, The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Internet Wealth, would be totally inappropriate for his list.

Joe, on the other hand, has a list of people who will find that book very useful. He’ll be promoting it soon.

Now, look at step two- where it talks about finding out what they like.

Now, close the door. Make sure you’re alone. I’m about to tell you a secret…

You can get a guru’s attention by bribing them.

This is a secret. Don’t tell anybody. You didn’t hear it from me.

It’s true.

Here are some of the bribes that have worked:

- single malt scotch

- italian leather coat(s)

- a case of oreos

- vintage books

- steak dinner

- gourmet coffee

- official baseball-team cap (worked wonders with a Japanese record exec.)

- twenty-dollar bill

- maduro churchill cigars (I live in hope.)

note- clever works better than expensive. You can’t buy these guys. You can amuse them. If their passion is coffee, and you send them a pound of blue kona grown on a small coffee plantation, dried and roasted by loving hands- they’ll think of you as they drink the coffee, and they will read your proposal. The point is that you cared enough to learn about them, and learn what they like- and send it to them. Don’t go buy a hundred pounds of coffee and send it to a hundred gurus. Find the one who is passionate about coffee and concentrate on him.

Or find the one who has a sweet tooth for oreos, and send him a case.

(disclaimer: this is word of mouth. Hearsay. I have no evidence of anyone ever receiving or responding to a bribe. If I did, it was years ago and the statute of limitations has run on it. If it ever happened. In the case of the case of oreos, the evidence is long gone- his son ate ‘em.)

A bribe will not guarantee that the guru will promote your product.

However, some of these guys get dozens of offers a day. It’s a full time job just reading the emails.

If you send your proposal FEDEX, with a memorable bribe (remember, you’ve researched them to find out what they like), you greatly increase the chances of your proposal actually getting read.

It’s still up to you to create a great product, and offer it to marketers who actually have access to the people who will buy it. Be sure to stress the benefits to the list-owner and his list. This is not the place to give your life history, or beg for help. Desperation does not sell.

A quick and easy way to build a relationship, and create a product, is to interview or co-write with your potential JV partner. The less work they actually have to do, the more likely they are to agree to your proposal.

Why would you do this?

1. When people see your name associated with a guru’s name, there is a perception that you are worth listening to.

2. It gets the guru emotionally involved in the project, and he’ll do what it takes to make it successful.

3. The first one is the hardest. Once you’ve successfully worked with one guru, it’s much easier to connect with, and work with, others.

4. You get to “cream” the guru’s list. You can build your own list by capturing the names of people who show interest in the product you create with the guru.

This led to a discussion of other problems beginning internet marketers have.

Craig said it best, “If you are currently broke, you have no business creating or marketing success products.”

The funniest JV proposal any of us have ever received said, “I’ve got a great marketing course, I just don’t know how to market it.” It’s actually become famous in guru circles as the ultimate bad example.

Bill followed up, “The internet marketing niche is full. Not only is there no room for anyone else to market products in that niche, if you do compete in that niche you’re competing against the best marketers on the planet. You don’t stand a chance.”

I can tell this to my coaching clients until I’m blue in the face, and they’ll still try it. I don’t understand.

Your chance of success is higher in just about any other niche.

The trick is to discover what you’re actually good at, and sell that.

What are your skills? Be honest about where you are now.

Craig, again: “Do you like being lied to? If you’re marketing success products, and you’re not successful- you’re lying.”

Craig had the solution- “There are two kinds of people in internet marketing: marketers and product developers. You’re probably a product developer. Find what you’re good at, and make a product out of that.”

This led to a discussion about product development.

It’s easy.

If you like to write, and you write well, it’s even easier.

If you don’t like to write, or don’t write well, get an audio recorder and record interviews. You can record interviews over the phone. You can make camtasia videos and sell those. A cheap video recorder is good enough to make professional videos- the bar isn’t very high, because you need to compress the videos so they can be downloaded.

Somebody brought up the story of Joe Kumar, who was a broke student who lived in Singapore. He emailed a bunch of gurus and asked them a simple question about marketing. He knew that getting an answer to an email was easier than any other form of gathering information.

He also figured out that the gurus he interviewed would be emotionally involved with the product, and would be motivated to see it succeed. When the product was ready to market, his interview subjects became his joint-venture partners.

He made a pile of money. His story after that is kind of sad, but is worth learning about. Do a google search-

This is a great business model. Joe and I used it when we created “The Myth of Passive Income.”

We bounced this around- that’s the beauty of mastermind meetings. The energy just swirls around the room.

One of the ideas that came out of this swirling energy- what if an overweight person interviewed a group of weight-loss experts, and created a product from the interviews? Then he could write an ezine to document his/her progress using the advice the weight-loss experts gave him. You could sell a lot of these.

What kinds of synergy can you create between Joint Ventures and products?

What is niche product marketing? It involved marketing products to niches that are “under the radar.” This includes esoteric niches such as “underwater basket weaving” and “underwater kickboxing” as hypothetical examples. Niche product marketing in these markets do not require massive outlay of cash to get started and, since competition is minimal, there’s no need to have laser-sharp marketing strategies to trounce your competition.

In other words, niche product marketing is way easier than jumping into a niche rife with competition. How to choose a market to exploit via niche product marketing? Think about your own interests and interests of other people you know. Niche product marketing needn’t be tough if you can think of a viable niche that you can market products to.

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To gauge your competition to see if your marketing can be exploited via niche product marketing, type your niche phrase into Google and take a look at the left hand side. These are called Adwords ads and are indicative of whether or not customers in that niche are willing to spend money. Are there existing products being sold in the Adwords space via niche product marketing?

If so, you can guarantee that the market is full of buyers and the chances of making money via niche product marketing are high. If you don’t see any competing ads, you can guarantee that the niche is not a “money niche” and that you won’t have any luck making money via niche product marketing.

So, once you find a niche, what to do to find great key phrases to utilize niche product marketing on? Of you plan to advertise via Adwords, it is a good idea to find a keyword with 3-20 ads. Anything more and the competition is too rife with niche product marketing. Anything less, and there isn’t enough competition. Remember, in niche product marketing, competition is good. This flies in the face of inexperienced niche product marketers, but competition is a sign that money is to be made. Otherwise, the advertisers wouldn’t be shelling out a lot of money to advertise via niche product marketing.

Niche product marketing is the perfect strategy for inexperienced marketers to get their feet wet and test the (sometimes turbulent) waters of online marketing. Of course, once you mastered the art of niche product marketing, you can graduate to more challenging internet marketing ventures and remember niche product marketing as the strategy that let you “whet your beak” at internet marketing.

To find out how you can take niche product marketing to another level then head on over conquer Your Niche to discover niche product marketing secrets nobody knows about.

INFORMATION – Information products are arguably the easiest to market and sell online. Electronic infoproducts do not require actual space to store and you can produce infinite copies of it in a short period of time. Regardless of of the types of format used, infoproducts are easy to market because you can provide the prospects with sample of the product without giving away the entire content.

PRODUCTS WITH SAMPLES – Speaking of samples, products which you can provide immediate samples for prospects to see are easier to market on the Internet. Web designs and layouts, photographs, artworks, and other similar products can be marketed effectively since its makers will be able to provide samples of their work. These will readily give customers an idea of what to expect from the sellers.

EASY DELIVERY – Products that can provide instant gratificationare definitely better to market online. Again, digital information products satisfy this criterion: they do not have expiry dates and may be therefore delivered easily. Flowers can wilt so there’s a duration date as to when they can be delivered or not. This is the same for food and similar perishable products. Unless you have the means to store them safely and for an indefinite period of time, guaranteeing fresh delivery for your customers, these products will take more time, care and efforts in your part.

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SOFTWARE PRODUCTS – Software products can help solve problems faced by many Internet users. As such, it will be much easier to promote software products to them because they’re more likely to understand the descriptions you provide than prospective customers you meet elsewhere. With Internet users, it’s easier to determine the advantages and features of these software products.

And because word-of-mouth marketing is extremely powerful in the Internet, you only need satisfy one customer and they’ll surely refer other customers to your website!

RARE AND UNIQUE ITEMS – The Internet is a great tool for reaching others worldwide. Emails are unconcerned with geographical destinations. As long as there is Internet connection provided, they are sure to reach the targeted prospects and at no extra cost. Consequently, the Internet allow people anywhere to market products that may be considered rare or unique in other parts of the world.

The local market for strawberry wine may, not have that much demand here but this is not the case if you’re targeting African communities on the Internet.

Ultimately, however, an experienced and knowledgeable Internet marketer will find it not a problem to market just about any type of product as long as he does the following:

PROVIDE PROOF – Internet users are more likely to purchase your products and services if you provide plenty of evidence of your claims. These can take the form of photographs, testimonials, or any other trustworthy material.

BE CONVINCING – Marketing content outline clearly the features and more importantly the benefits of the products or services you’re marketing. If there are other indirect benefits offered together with the decision to purchase them, these must be stated as well. And marketing articles or descriptions must always include a call to action!

EXPOSURE – Last but not the least, your website must obtain as much traffic as possible. The more traffic you get to your web site the more chances you have for promoting them and making sales!

Incoming search terms:

• best product to market on web

While the selection of products to sell at the flea market is virtually endless, there are some hot choices that stand the test of time.

Products to Sell at a Flea Market – Sunglasses

Flea markets take place outdoors, and the most people shop on sunny days. Not only are sunglasses popular products to sell at a flea market, they are great impulse buys for people who forgot their shades at home. If you want to profit with sunglasses, you should offer both expensive designer styles and inexpensive generic ones.

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Products to Sell at a Flea Market – Dollar Toys

Many parents give their kids a dollar or two to spend on whatever they want at the flea market. Dollar toys, or those under five dollars at the very most, are good products to sell at a flea market. Kids are the ultimate impulse shoppers.

Products to Sell at a Flea Market – Pet Products

People in the United States spend billions of dollars on their pets each year. This includes everything from food and medicines to toys, beds, clothing, and leashes and collars. Selling pet products at the flea market makes good business sense. Not only are they popular products to sell at a flea market, competition is usually low.

Products to Sell at a Flea Market – Used Clothing

When searching for products to sell at the flea market, you should consider used goods. While some people shy away from buying used clothing, the average flea market shopper is looking for a bargain. If you have good quality, clean and undamaged used clothing to sell, you can earn a lot at the flea market. Products to sell at the flea market should be readily available and cheap to attain. Used clothing fills both requirements.

These products to sell at the flea market are eye-catching, useful, and inexpensive enough to entice many shoppers. While competition may be steep, getting a good wholesale price and concentrating on quantity sales over high profits will lead to success.

The marketing mix is defined as the four P’s of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. These four areas make up the complete outline for product or service marketing. Once you have defined the variables for each P, you have a basis for proper marketing.

Market research will play a major role in each area of your marketing mix. You must understand what you are competing with in regards to products and pricing. Although you may have a new and unique item with an innovative type of distribution, you still must compare your product or service to existing ones.

Here are the four P’s of your marketing mix for small business marketing.

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P #1: Product

The product or service or selling must be defined first. What are you selling? How will it be packaged? Determine your product’s features, and then build the benefits from them. At this point, you will make all of the decisions relating to your product or service: style, quality, packaging, warranty, etc.

P#2: Price

Pricing actually plays a vital role in the branding and image of your product. Determining your price can be difficult, especially if you product is in a widely-variable industry. You must determine pricing strategy, retail and wholesale pricing, possible bundling, and any type of discounts.

P#3: Place

Place refers to how you will distribute the product. Will you sell to retail stores, or will you sell directly to customers? Is your product a wholesale item? The decisions made about distribution will affect your marketing mix in terms of how you will warehouse your products, how you will process orders, what types of channels will you use, and how will you cover the market.

P#4: Promotion

Promotion is the area where you will make decisions on how people will learn about your product. What types of sales strategies and promotions will you use? What kind of sales force will you need to sell your product? How will you use public relations and publicity to support your product? There are many aspects of the promotion element of your marketing mix. In fact, the other three P’s will affect your promotion strategy.

Decide on the first three P’s before you tackle Promotion, but ultimately, each P will coordinate with the others. Once you complete your marketing mix decisions, review the entire plan to make sure you have a consistent and precise marketing mix plan in order to properly sell, distribute, and promote your product.

This article considers a detailed explanation concerning one very successful method of enticing targeted traffic – important to understand the meaning of targeted traffic in relation to any website, targeted visitors are visitors who are interested in purchasing your type of product – the visitors the website must receive to have any chance of earning money, maybe the targeted visitor is visiting your website to compare prices of the product, or looking for any free bonuses you have to offer, or even how professional the look and feel of the website – a professional looking website instils confidence that the website is honest and trustworthy, not likely to steal their money. Visit one of the large company’s websites – microsoft.com, as an example, and see for yourself the professional features which can inspire confidence to targeted visitors to purchase the downloadable products available.

It must be stressed at this timely point that its alright for your website to be attracted to targeted visitors – preferably like a magnet, but ultimately, unless the landing webpage on your website – usually means the webpage – usually one, that you spent hours embedding the relevant keywords into the informational text of the webpage, entices the targeted visitor to become a purchaser, then the website can receive millions of targeted visitors and still create a money draining venture, but an extremely important advice you must accept for a profitable website, is the landing webpage must have a compelling reason for the targeted visitor to purchase your product – can I go another day without me purchasing your product.

This popular question must be answered in the information in your Sales Copy – your argument must be so compelling so to entice the targeted visitor to purchase now or forever regret the decision not to purchase the product, the Sales Copy must be compelling – I suggest avoid purchasing, buying software to accomplish the task of creating a Sales Copy, the resultant artificially created Sale Copy is unlikely to fool the targeted visitor, who probably consider the artificially created Sales Copy as cheap and nasty, unfortunately, the search engines will not be fooled, and your website is likely to be banned by them, and you will not be aware of the ban – my opinion from 30+ years expertise in basic programming started on the Sinclair Computer, website creation, Search Engine Optimisation and Internet marketing.

In todays fiercely competitive race for targeted visitors to the billions of websites on the Internet being favourably positioned in the six major search engines – without doubt Google is the search engine to target with marketing strategies, is just not enough. As most of the visitors from major search engines are only internet browsers, who’s only intention is to browse the internet with no intention to purchase products, the purchasing opportunities from these constant visitors can be rated as miniscule, and not necessarily welcome visitors.

Why? Every visitor to a website becomes a drain on your bandwidth resources, in particular, a burden, as it increases the servers bandwidth, which may ultimately result in the web hosting provider insisting on moving from current bandwidth package to a more expensive package, remember the internet browser has no intention to purchase your products, so you are being financially penalised with miniscule opportunity of earning from the visitors. So, what is the answer?

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Easy, make your website attractive to visitors who are only interested in purchasing your products – attract targeted visitors, with research proving that a percentage of highly targeted visitors will, if giving the opportunity – compelling Sales Copy, will purchase your product – assuming you have targeted your visitors to your products by market research if necessary, and if the targeted visitors purchase has been enjoyable, the visitors will return in the future and encourage friends, family and colleagues to purchase from your website.

A live website must be set up to attract visitors to the website – avoid buying cheap templates as the Internet will contain millions of the exact same cheap template design websites sold by hundreds of thousands of sellers and without tremendous effort, the cheap template website will not even be indexed by the major search engines – search engines will not index when the exact same websites exist in their hundreds of thousands – don’t buy as they may be cheap but the website needs web hosting subscriptions – a financial burden you can do without, then with the high quality of the website making the website attractive to the targeted visitor, and a compelling Sales Copy, which will compel a high percentage of targeted visitors to purchase your product. The next and some may argue, most important step, will be to attract with laser accuracy visitors determined to purchase your product. With expertise accumulated over 30+ years of marketing products, creating websites and search engine optimisation, the only technique I consider extremely effective for attracting targeted visitors is by email communication – there are a massive increase in browsing visitors on the internet, which can devalue the influence and usefulness of the six major search engines attracting targeted traffic to the website.

Fortunately, the system I use on a regular basis for my websites has gained massive expertise at laser targeting with pin point precision your compelling sales message to the exact consumers which will be most likely to purchase your product and importantly, revisit time after time – repeat purchasers. Marketing research agrees that approximately one percentage of targeted visitors will purchase products from an individual website – remember there are billions of websites on the Internet, which makes attracting targeted visitors to your website a challenge, and that statement is an understatement.

So what is the solution? I regularly use the extremely low cost and attractively affordable services of a Bulk Email Marketing Club, which for a one off payment, in this case just $29.95, for a one time fee, will be a lifetime membership b- this website have been selling on the internet for the previous four years plus, and provides a high quality product and excellent customer service – although customer service is not an issue as the system is simple and straight forward, and a large database of satisfied returning customers. There is an opportunity to receive monthly newsletters containing the highest quality articles and tips relating to search engine optimisation (SEO) related to effective Marketing through Bulk Emailing Club, the information in the newsletter articles is unique to the Bulk Email Marketing Club – MaximizeTraffic dot net, your will find the articles any where else on the Internet – I know because I am a subscribed author – Desmo Boss, the articles I write for MaximizeTraffic dot net, is exclusive to the website and through is not released to any Internet article websites.

For the cost of $29,95, you will have 24/7 access to a total of 200+ million emails database, every email address is opt-in subscribers, so never be accused of spamming, in addition, the bulk email club database is regularly updated so all emails are fresh. The bulk email addresses is contained in relevant categories, so you only send out bulk emails to email addresses relevant to the products sold on you website – laser accuracy and pinpointed advertising and marketing, no saturating the Internet with unwanted and annoying emails – Spamming.

The lifetime membership to MaximizeTraffic dot net isn’t restricted in just providing 200+ million email addresses, there are other bonuses available, Bulk Email Extractors – most bulk email websites demand payment for this item, not MaximizeTraffic.net – free download, email management software, unique and up to dated marketing e-books – free downloads to paid up members, e-book mailing tutorials – makes customer support obsolete, thousands of items with full master resell rights – sell the full master resell rights software on eBay, or create a unique selling machine website from a cheap template that sells software downloads – free with membership, your will find over 6000+ software products – including website utilities to download free with membership – all for just an initial price of $29.99, the best marketing and promotion deal on the internet today. Visit and Buy!

As I already explained, the website being high in major search engines index ratings is not necessarily enough to draw in targeted visitors, as it can be expected that the majority of visitor leads from the six major search engines will undoubtedly be only interested in browsing the internet with no intention to buy products.

It is most important that your marketing and promotional efforts must be targeted at potential purchasers with an unique interest in purchasing your products, otherwise your money and efforts will be meaningless and at best increase the financial costs of owning a website or websites. Subscribe to a method which is known to be effective and have proved its effective capabilities over many years – to market and promote any website does come at a price and that price must be paid, although base all marketing and promotional decisions on what is the maximum benefits for the minimum cost and marketing and promotional methods which target a mass consumer market could offer the most financial benefit.

Do a little maths – not my favourite subject in my schooling days, current research confirms – search Google, that visitors to a website, even targeted visitors with intention to purchase your type of product, expect only 1% of targeted visitors to purchase from a (your) website – remember the Internet contains millions of websites which sells exactly the same products as your website – it must be a buyers market. Something for you to think about, send 200+million bulk emails from MaximizeTraffic dot net, every month if you so desire, included in your bulk marketing emails your Sales Copy message – compelling and enticing, with a click through to your own website or websites, if only 1% of the 200+ million recipients to the bulk marketing emails responds, then you will receive 2 million visitors.

Websites receiving two million visitors each and every months – one lifetime payment to MaximizeTraffic dot net, means you not only have access to 200+million fresh, spam free – opt-in, regularly updated bulk email addresses, but you don’t need to visit MaximizeTraffic.net every time you wish to send bulk emails, as the 200+ million email addresses are contained in numerous zip files, and with available bandwidth, visit the MaximizeTraffic dot net bulk email marketing membership website and download the zipped files on a regular basis. Then the bulk emails can be sent from your own computer with no reliance on MaximizeTraffic dot net.

In addition, to gain access to the bulk email marketing website MaximizeTraffic dot net, you are only required to pay one lifetime membership fee of $29.95, with a 90 day full money back guarantee – I have reliably informed no purchaser have requested their membership fees back to date, the main reason being MaximizeTraffic, dot net’s membership offer its members instant access 6000+ software, e-books and utilities etc, an absolute must have software which is a necessity to all webmasters whatever their experience and expertise. Buy Now! And sky rocket your targeted website visitors into the next millennium.

New Product Surveys: Design, Test, Design

Savvy business owners know that marketing should begin long before their products hit the stores. Marketing should begin with the product itself, and with an in-depth understanding customer’s needs and preferences.

Powerful new questionnaire software gives businesses a revealing glimpse into the minds of potential customers. Market research surveys can help a business rethink product design, or maybe just fine tune it a bit. In simple terms, these surveys can help a business give people what they want.

New product surveys try to get at the perceived needs of customers. They ask questions like:

“How much cargo space do you need in your truck?”
“How many watts does your backup power supply need to generate?”
“How often do your drive on icy roads?”

Questions like these can help a business decide if its product line meets the needs of potential customers, or if there are gaps in the line that need to be filled. Questionnaire software allows a business to sort responses by age, gender, location, income and many other variables. This enables a business to target products to the needs of specific market segments.

New product surveys also try to determine the benefits that are most important to customers. Take vitamins as an example. Are customers mainly interested in vitamins that will help them feel better or boost their memory or improve their heart health? Questionnaire software uses sophisticated ranking questions to help isolate the benefits that people care about most.

New product surveys also help a business learn what features are important to customers. If customers show little interest in a particular feature, a business may decide to offer it as an option rather than a standard part of its products. On the other hand, if a feature shows up on a survey as being very popular, a business might decide to include it in all of its products, and emphasize it in its marketing campaign.

Conjoint Analysis: Examine the trade-offs that customers make when purchasing a product

Conjoint analysis serves many purposes in market research, but it is especially useful in making decisions about price. Here’s how it works. Suppose a traveler is thinking about booking a hotel room. Two hotels next to each other offer rooms at the same price, but one hotel has an indoor pool and the other does not. If the traveler enjoys swimming, he will probably pick the hotel with the pool, since there is no difference in price.

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Our traveler does a little more research and finds that the hotel that does not have a pool offers room service, which sounds wonderfully self-indulgent. Now our traveler has to make a decision. What does he value more, a pool or room service? Suppose our traveler then learns that the hotel with the pool is offering a ten percent discount. Now things are really getting complicated.

Conjoint analysis enables a marketer to examine the trade-offs that customers make in buying a product. It allows a marketer to see which features of a product are most valuable to customers and how much extra they are willing to pay for a particular feature or combination of features. The purpose of conjoint analysis is to determine what combination of variables is most influential in a customer’s decision to buy.

Conjoint analysis also helps a marketer set an optimal price for a product. It allows the marketer to see the point at which price outweighs benefits in the consumer’s mind. Although this type of analysis sounds complicated, internet survey software makes it simple. The most sophisticated systems enable marketers to create online surveys using an intuitive wizard interface. They present the results of the analysis in a variety of formats that help marketing professionals make informed decisions.

Placement and the Purchase Process

Market research surveys can also provide valuable information about how people prefer to shop. Do they typically buy certain types of products online, or do they prefer to visit a store? If they like to shop in person, do they prefer no-frills discount stores or stores that offer advice and greater customer service? Do they buy from catalogs? If they do, do they mail in their orders or use the catalog to shop online?

The purpose of all these questions is to discover how people feel about the purchasing experience. Sometimes two companies might offer virtually identical products, but one company is much more successful because it provides customers the kind of purchasing experience they find comfortable. For example, some car dealers advertise that they do not haggle over price. They know that some people are uncomfortable with the sort of price negotiations that are common in the car business.

Purchase process surveys need to focus on specific types of products. For example, some people routinely buy DVDs in discount stores, but they would go to an electronics store to buy a DVD player. A well-designed online survey can isolate customers’ purchasing preferences for different types of products.

Purchase process surveys can also help businesses improve customer service. For example, a survey might reveal that customers find a business’s website difficult to navigate. Businesses can use this type of data to make the purchasing experience more pleasant and convenient for customers.

Promotion: Advertising Effectiveness Surveys

Advertising effectiveness surveys help a business make the most of its advertising budget.

Advertising decisions have become extremely complicated. Many people — especially young people — spend more time online than watching television. But are online ads as effective as TV ads? And if a business decides to use TV ads, which of the hundreds of cable channels should it focus on? And what about the print media and outdoor advertising? What place do they have in a well-planned marketing campaign?

The answers to all these questions are different for different products and for different segments of the market. Marketers need reliable data to make informed decisions about their advertising budgets. Fortunately, online surveys provide an economical way to gather and analyze this information.

An advertising effectiveness survey can determine how consumers react to an ad, what they remember, how they felt afterwards, how the ad can be improved, and if the ad’s intention was served. A sequence of surveys can measure brand awareness before, during, and after a campaign. As with other types of online surveys, the results can be analyzed by age, gender, income, and other variables to ensure that ads are reaching the correct demographic group.

Some businesses rely on sales performance to gauge the effectiveness of their advertising. They assume that if they are doing better than their competitors, their ads must be working. This approach ignores the fact that sales are determined by a multitude of factors, including price, quality, and competition. A business may be doing well, but more effective ads could make its performance even better.

Boosting the Bottom Line

Online market research surveys are an inexpensive, economical way to improve every phase of marketing: product design, placement, positioning and promotion. Surveys can tell a business what it is doing wrong or right and how it can do better. An investment in a well-planned online survey can pay for itself many times over in increased sales and a healthier bottom line.

I have been helping clients,’ (lets refer to them as “experts” in their field)  design and market information products for over 10 years. For the most part, they are confused and unsure of how to build a successful, marketable product. Along the way, I guide them through the process and help them avoid making mistakes however, depending on where they are in the process here are the most common mistakes I see:

1) “Experts” worry too much about incomplete content.

If you refuse to start building the product look and components before every  “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed, you’ll never get your product to the marketplace. As an expert, you may be constantly tweaking and updating your system or information. Remember “Good is good enough”, Bill Glazer of GKIC will tell you.

The content is indeed the most important thing because that is what is being purchased, but there are also other parts of the project that need to be addressed. As you develop more and more product content, you can continue to add-on to your product and provide it to your clients in the form of updates or continuity. In the beginning, put together as many of your most valuable points so that you are providing the best information to the customer. As time goes on, you can add to it. Remember customer is getting value.

2) Experts don’t put enough energy into marketing because they are too wrapped up in the product.

If a potential customer doesn’t know your information product exists, how can they possibly buy it? Your product may have great information enclosed, but no one will know that if you don’t diligently market it. Your marketing plan need to include a compelling sales letter, a webpage and blog. In addition, you can try marketing techniques from article marketing to internet marketing – just make sure you’re marketing the product!

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Tony Robbins, who sells information products related to personal growth development, is a great example of how to build a strong marketing campaign. His website is clean, respectable, and well made. The overall impression presented is of trustworthiness in he way he displays himself and his products.

3) Experts worry too much about the inside and try to perfect the appearance.

Buyers of information are more interested in the content contained inside the product than the appearance – they aren’t paying for pretty graphics or syntax. You could be spending this time increasing awareness about the existence of your product or adding even more useful information. Certainly, make sure the product is readable and organized nicely, but it is not necessary to struggle over the font or other visual elements.

An important note about the appearance of the product is that you must match the cover image or logo with the title name. If the image you use to represent your product and the title of the product don’t match, there will be a huge disconnect and your product will immediately lose validity (and sales).

If you take a look at Paul Meyers’ products including 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success and A Fortune to Share, you’ll notice that both attached images are simple but also reflect what is inside. 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success’s cover has a person holding a key with a label attached that says “Complete Success”. The cover is clever yet easy too look at.

4) No additional marketing and sales information is included within the information product.

If the customer gained a lot of useful knowledge, likes the style of your information product, or wants to know more, make it easy for them. Include a pamphlet or some sort of marketing/sales information for your other information products inside all of the packages. You might miss out on a quality sale if you don’t let the customer know that you have other guidance to offer them.

Say you have as many products as Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy – if you didn’t include additional marketing information, you could be missing out on a few thousand dollars in sales just through that one buyer!

5) No free sample/free report (with real & true information!) is offered for potential buyers.

Most people don’t like to buy products blind; they like to know what they are purchasing. On your sales letter or other marketing materials, be sure you offer a free sample of your information product. For example, you could always give chapter one away free or offer a free report. If the customer likes chapter one, they will be much more willing to come back and purchase the rest of your information. Think about it – if you hadn’t given away the free sample, they probably wouldn’t have purchased it anyway so you’re not losing a sale.

No matter what kind of freebie you decide to offer interested customers, make sure it is reflective of what they will get when they purchase the product. For example, on Zig Ziglar’s website, he offers free MP3’s and other downloads of books he has written as a free preview of his work. He also writes a newsletter with free information that he then sends out to people who sign up.

I’ve mentioned many famous and highly successful information marketers. They’ve made their money this way for a reason; most likely because they’re good at what they do and have information marketing down to a science. To make your knowledge profitable, all you have to do is follow their recipes for success and you’ll certainly, with time, reach their level of notoriety as well.

It seems that everyone wants to be on the Internet and for good reason. It is safe to say it is the most important new method for conducting business in the last 50 years if not longer. Unfortunately, many marketers jumped in with little knowledge of how to do it right. Internet marketing experts agree that anyone who is interested in doing business on the Internet should take time to learn about what it is they are getting into. Well before you take the leap you may want to take a look here.

Internet marketing can also be seen in various formats. One version is name-your-price (e.g. Priceline.com). With this format, customers are able to state what price range they wish to spend and then select from items at that price range. With find-the-best-price websites (e.g. Hotwire.com), Internet users can search for the lowest prices on items. A final format is online auctions (e.g. Ebay.com) where buyers bid on listed items.

The Internet has become part of our lives, utilizing the Web becomes a business decision critical to all businesses. Small businesses are moving online with Web sites, e-mail marketing, and in some cases, e-commerce transaction sites. Yet, many businesses are unsure how to use the Internet to effectively market and grow their businesses. Costs, resource allocation, and return on investment can seem daunting when dealing with a business Web site, e-mail, and e-commerce in addition to the daily pressures of managing a business.

According to eMarketer, a leading Internet research firm, 78% or 5.9 million of all small businesses are connected to the Internet and nearly half have active Web sites.

With each passing season, the Internet continues to change and evolve. Who would have guessed that nearly half of all e-mail would be SPAM? Most of us attempting to do business online not only send out a great deal of e-mail to other people, but we are also receiving a lot of it. And, you do not want your email confused with SPAM. In order for your email message to stand out from the ever maddening crowd of e-mail messages, it must be different, unique, and interesting. If not, it will wind up getting deleted before it is even read. What you need to email is the, “Perfect E-mail Ad”.

The focus of this paper is to present a brief survey of Internet marketing through the E-mail the marketing online. Section I deal with the importance of E-mail, while section II discuses the ways to track websites visitors. Section III presents the key to any site’s success.

I-Make the Most of E-mail

E-mail is the single most effective electronic tool for strengthening customer relationships, reports Forrester Research, a leading technology research firm.

Forrester estimates that by 2007, more than two-thirds of the e-mails sent to customers will be geared towards keeping present customers, rather than acquiring new customers.

As a unique communications and marketing tool, e-mail can be used to address customer relationship management needs, such as responding to a request for warranty information or confirming when a shipment will arrive. Some e-mail responses may be as simple as directing a customer to a particular page on your Web site, while other e-mails will lead to a phone conversation between customer and service rep to answer complicated questions.

1. E-mail provides immediate access, anywhere.

E-mail is so popular because it can be used by anyone, anywhere. Business travelers can log on at hotels and airport business centers; people without computers can use free e-mail services like Hotmail and Yahoo and log on at public libraries, community centers, and cyber-cafes.

Universal access to e-mail is a double-edged sword. When customers see that you are available via e-mail, they assume that you are checking your e-mail frequently. They’ll expect you to respond promptly. Companies that deliver on their promise to respond to e-mail queries within an appropriate timeframe are at a distinct advantage over those that do not. Prompt responses capture a customer’s attention, loyalty, and orders.

2. Utilize key e-mail functions.

Some of the most common Internet browsers used for e-mail are Netscape, Microsoft’s Outlook and AOL.

E-mail functions are also being added to sales support software programs that let you screen, file, and organize e-mail. If your company is small, or if you have relatively few clients, you may not need much more than the simple database functions embedded in these e-mail programs to manage your customer contacts. The most common functions include:

-Multiple personalities. Set up different e-mail accounts for specific brands, locations, or projects. This enables you to automatically forward e-mails to a specific person in your company assigned to answer them. The specific e-mail addresses can be posted at the appropriate places on your Web site.

-In-boxes. Even if you don’t use filters, you can still build archives of e-mails on particular topics, or projects, or from certain people, by creating internal in-boxes. These are useful for keeping track of “conversations” you have with clients, and ensures that you can refer back to requests and your responses. If you want to broadcast an e-mail to everyone who has corresponded with you on a particular topic, you can use the topic-specific in-box as a de facto e-mail list.

-Templates. Called “stationery” by some, this function lets you create boilerplate messages and simply plug in the recipient’s e-mail address.

This is excellent for answering standard questions, such as driving directions to your office. However, if you find that certain questions are asked often, you may want to post the answers on a frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) list on your Web site.

-Auto-respond. This function bounces back a canned answer to an e-mail. Most basic browser e-mail functions will only let you send out an “I’m not here” message that explains why you’re not going to respond to the e-mail. More sophisticated programs let you craft different auto-responds that are tailored to the customer’s request or order history.

-Embedded links. Use the “link” function to connect customers with a Web page within your site or at another site. The e-mail will be sent in HTML format and the customer can click on the highlighted link to be transported immediately to that page. This is an easy way to direct customers to a particular page on your site that they may not have been able to find.

No matter how you organize the e-mail that flows into your business, consider what type of response customers are likely to expect. If they’re making a routine inquiry, such as asking if you carry a certain brand or item, short and snappy is fine. But if you’re staking your reputation on customized, high-ticket products or services, be sure to give a “you’re special” tone to your responses.

3. Make “rich text” e-mail an option.

Most Internet users are accustomed to receiving e-mail in plain text format. But as Web sites have become more sophisticated, so has e-mail. Options such as graphics, embedded video and audio that are enacted with a click and the ability to respond without going back to the original Web site have become the cutting-edge in Internet marketing.

Enhanced, or “rich,” e-mail is most useful to customers with fast Internet connections. “Rich” e-mail may be rich text or HTML e-mail. If many of your customers don’t have fast connections, offer the option of receiving either a text or rich format e-mail when they initially sign up.

Trip.com, a travel Web site, has a simple, easy-to-understand format for helping visitors choose which format they prefer text or rich e-mail for its newsletters. Most people are more impressed by an e-mail message that specifically addresses their needs than with fancy technology, unless that technology makes their communication with you significantly easier.

4. Give customers opt in/opt out options.

People will become increasingly selective about which e-mails they will read. Response rates will drop dramatically for e-mails that are considered irrelevant, too pushy, or too intrusive.

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When customers find your messages genuinely useful, they eagerly anticipate, open, and act on your e-mails. But don’t take advantage of customer goodwill. Even if you already have a database of e-mail addresses, you want to elicit the permission of those customers before automatically putting them on your e-mail list. It’s fine to send out an introductory e-mail, but go no further unless you have a recipient’s buy-in.

Marketing consultant Seth Godin champions the concept of eliciting a “yes!” from consumers before signing them up for any follow-up.

“Opt-in” is the term for requesting customers to specifically ask to be put on your list. “Opt-out” is the term for requiring that customers specifically instruct you not to use their information for marketing purposes. Some e-mail marketers adopt the opt-out tactic that customers are assumed to be signing up for future e-mails unless they specifically “opt out.”

The trouble is that many customers won’t scroll far enough down the e-mail to see how to get off the regular mailing list. If they can’t figure out how to get off the list, they will automatically delete any e-mail you send.

A more painstaking, but more productive, tactic is opt-in. Briefly outline the benefits that customers will get by actively choosing to be on your e-mail list (e.g., advance notice of sales, first to receive breaking news, etc.) and then provide a response mechanism for them to put themselves on your list. Usually that mechanism is to simply hit “reply” and put in the message line “subscribe.”

Customers are much more likely to say “yes!” if they know exactly what they are signing up for.

II-Track Visitors and Your ROI (region of interest)

While    browsing your site, users may buy something. If there is no sale, how do you know that anyone has stopped by? Web site operators can collect more information on customers than brick and mortar store owners can.

1. Methods of measurement

There are several ways to track visitors. One method is based on number of “visitors,” which refers to the number of users who visit the site.

Another method is based on the number of “page views.” A person visiting a site clicks on a page, enlarges a graphic, listens to an audio recording, or moves within the site.

Each activity makes a request of the site’s host computer to send the visitor’s computer some electronic information. Those requests are tracked as “page views.” A page view registers each time a visitor clicks on part of the site. Companies monitoring visitors and page views can get a general idea of a site’s traffic and trends by relying on their own server software or by paying an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to track the information.

Some companies have adapted visitor tracking software that offers even more information. In addition to the number of visitors and page views, they can determine what browser software visitors are using, what site the user just came from (so a company can judge how many visitors come from a link from another site), what modem speed the visitors are using (so the company can put fewer graphics on the site, if most visitors are using slow modems, for example), and what type of Internet access accounts visitors have.

With either type of traffic tracking, the names and e-mail addresses of visitors usually remain anonymous unless they voluntarily provide it. If visitors provide that, they might also be willing to provide demographic information, such as where they live, their income level, and a few details about their purchasing decisions. Gathering this data online has become more common. With such information, companies can tailor their sites to visitors’ demographic profiles. The tracking data can also become a valuable tool for driving your product research and marketing decisions.

It’s important to precisely track the results you get from Internet-based marketing so that you can quickly modify the online tools that aren’t capturing leads or creating customer loyalty. The simplest formula for measuring the ROI is to first create a baseline for comparison the percent of customers who respond to e-mailed special offers, for example. Then, track the expenses associated with adding in a particular customer support technology, such as instant chat. After the customers have used the new technology for a month, review the number of sales per site visitor, compared to the number of sales per site visitor prior to the addition of the technology. Divide the incremental increase in the number of sales by the cost of the new technology to determine if the technology is beginning to pay off (taking into account, of course, other factors that may affect sales, such as discounted prices, addition of new products, and special advertising campaigns).

2. Try a trial run

Consider setting up a customer advisory board to test new site features, offers, customer service technologies, and changes in your fulfillment operation.

Customers genuinely appreciate the chance to offer feedback about what does and does not work with your online efforts. eLoan, a company that provides online applications for consumer and business loans, has set a company policy that a human must answer the customer service phone within six seconds. Its goal is for 90% of its e-mails to be answered within two hours, and 100% within 24 hours.

Follow-up surveys with eLoan customers about the quality of service indicate that 95% of customers report that they’d use eLoan again an extremely high repeat rate by any standard.

The quality of customer service directly impacts your company’s reputation. You may want to assign an employee to regularly check chat sessions, message boards, and listservs outside your Web site that are frequented by your regular customers to see what kinds of comments are made about your products and level of service.

III-Drive Traffic to Your Site

The key to any site’s success is traffic. No company can advertise, generate sales, or offer customer service online unless people visit its Web site. Your site must be promoted so Web users can find it among the vast number of sites. But this doesn’t mean launching an expensive ad campaign. One of the great advantages of the Web for small businesses is that it’s inexpensive to let people know about a site. E-mail is one of the best ways to get the word out.

E-mail ads invite visitors. Most e-mail programs allow users to create small files of text that automatically append to the bottom of every e-mail message they send. For example, at the end of each e-mail message, you can say something like, “Pike’s Peat, meeting your landscaping needs since 1962.” The file is called a “signature file,” and any company with a Web site should include the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a brief description of the site in employees’ signature files. Thus, every e-mail sent could also include a brief ad like, “Visit our Web site at www.pikespeat.com to play Land in Clover!”

The key to an effective signature file is to keep it short, ideally four lines or fewer. Elaborate signature files just take up space and are not read more than once. A short file usually gets at least a glance every time, prompting visitors to remember the message.

Adopt direct e-mail, too. Begin by setting up your site to collect e-mail addresses of visitors. Add a question next to that section asking if they would like to receive e-mail notifying them of changes to your site and updates on key information.

Once armed with a list of users willing to receive e-mail, start sending it to them. Don’t abuse their trust by overwhelming them with press releases every time a minor change is made to the site, but do create a regular mailer, perhaps once a month, pointing out a few new products available on the site or key issues discussed there. The mailer shouldn’t steal the site’s thunder. It should be more of a teaser designed to make readers want to visit the site. Keep it very short and current.

1. Think rich and informative “passive content”

Enhanced passive content is information that provides general customer support for access any time of day or night. Such content might include:

- Company backgrounders

- How to contact service reps

- Directions to your facility, and business hours

- Instructions for using your products

- Technical specifications

- Schedules for maintenance and upgrades

- Product catalogs

Much of this information can be reorganized and placed on your site a task that can be accomplished relatively quickly, if you already have digital files of text, graphics, and other elements. Standard HTML (Hyper Text Mark-Up Language) can be used to make your existing information Web-ready simply and quickly. Beware, however, that the organization and layout of most printed pieces are not Web-friendly. If you simply download a brochure, for example, online visitors may have difficulty navigating through it especially if it includes four-color pictures. Break it into simpler graphic and textual elements and place them separately on your site where people will look for them.

The “About Us” category is nearly universal on all business sites, so most people visiting your site will expect to see this internal link. It’s the place to put basic information about your company its history, mission, and short profiles of key managers. Because it’s important to have a consistent graphic style on your site and in your printed materials, have a designer simplify the graphics from existing materials so that they’ll fit the Web format and, more importantly, download quickly.

2. Define key pages of your Web site

Beyond basic “who’s who” information, what other content should you post? Start by posting information about items that drive the top 20% of your sales. This enables customers to find information on the products they frequently want. Then you can measure requests for additional information and add Web pages as demand dictates.

Because it costs so little to post each additional page of information, you should post the routine material that you provide customers.

Here are some examples of content that will enrich your site:

- Directions to your physical location.

There are three ways to make it easy for people to find you. First, MapQuest

(www.mapquest.com) offers a free link to an interactive map of your location on its site. Second, license the map software from companies such as MapQuest (www.mapquest.com), Rand McNally (www.randmcnally.com) and MapPoint (www.mappoint.net) The MapPoint Web Service is a programmable web service hosted by Microsoft and used by enterprises and independent software developers to integrate location-based services such as maps, driving directions and proximity searches into software applications and business processes. By using the MapPoint Web Service, companies can improve business results through better discoverability of store locations and business assets. . A third option is to compose and post driving directions to your business from two or three local landmarks (i.e. airport, downtown), and include a self-created map.

- Company directory.

Customers can feel disconnected if their only option for sending e-mail is to an impersonal address such as “Webmaster,” or, even worse, “customer support.” Include a “real person” address for generic customer support, so that customers don’t feel that they are sending their e-mail into a void.

Better yet, include pop-up e-mail forms with manager profiles so customers can connect to them directly.

- Product and service background information.

It may seem logical to group product descriptions together in one spot, but it’s actually more helpful to customers to position it throughout your site with marketing copy.

- Assembly directions and replacement parts.

Online replicas of the type of printed material usually packed with a product e.g., warranties, product registration, a form for ordering replacement parts are a time and labor saver for your customer service reps and consumers who have lost or tossed the originals.

3. Include FAQs within your site

The popular question-and-answer format was one of the first customer service tools adapted to Web sites. This format is easily understood and reflects the actual questions that customers ask. This gives customers a sense that you’re listening to them and responding.

It is easily updated and expanded as your service reps track the questions that are asked often and then work with your Webmaster to post the answers. You can leverage the friendly FAQ format even more by adding links to other parts of your Web site and useful links to other sites.

When marketing products that elicit many questions, it’s important to include in-depth product descriptions, e-mail contacts, and your toll-free number to supplement the generic site-wide “Help” button.

This is an inexpensive way to aid customers and maximize the impact of your content.

For example, Vitamins.com covers an extensive list of subjects under its “Help” button that appears at the top of every page. Every product description is also accompanied by buttons that introduce the site’s nutritional experts, including pop-up e-mail forms that can be used to ask those questions.

Conclusion

Marketing is the primary reason most small and medium-sized businesses are embracing the Internet. But in addition to enhancing marketing and sales efforts, an Internet presence can also be used to:

Give customer 24-by-7 access to information about your business, products and services. Answer common customer questions. Communicate with employees. Publish content to demonstrate industry leadership. Support additional sales channels if your products or services are sold by others. Collect market research data.

However, the first reason most small businesses build a Web presence is because the Internet is an affordable way to compete for customers, whether in your neighborhood or globally.

Effective marketing is a key method to increase the number of customers, get your existing customers to buy more and increase both revenue and profit. A Web site does a lot to level the playing field between large and small businesses. A Web site can provide product or service details, contact information, ordering instructions and information about your business. There is no limit to the size of a Web site. A Web site can contain information in many formats because it is fairly easy to add photographs, audio, video, animated illustrations and maps.

Limitations of Internet marketing create problems for both companies and consumers. Slow Internet connections can cause difficulties. If companies build overly large or complicated web pages, Internet users may struggle to download the information. Internet marketing does not allow shoppers to touch, smell, taste or try-on tangible goods before making an online purchase. Some e-commerce vendors have implemented liberal return policies to reassure customers. Another limiting factor, particularly with respect to actual buying and selling, is the adequate development (or lack thereof) of electronic payment methods like e-checks, credit cards, etc. Additionally, there is the need to drive people to the site. Without other collateral such as print, television or radio (with print being the most effective due to the longevity of the piece compared to an ad on the radio or TV) it can often be difficult for the consumer or other businesses to find any specific address without prior knowledge.

 References

- www.mappoint.net

- Internet Learning Tutor :www.superpages.com/ilt

- Bjerg, K., Borreby, K. (ads.). Home Informatics and Telematics At Automation, Proceedings of the

Home Informatics Conference, Copenhagen, June-July 1994

- Blattberg, R. C.. Glazer, R., Little, 1. D. C., The Marketing- Information Revolution, Harvard Business School Press, 1994

- Kristin Anderson, Carol Kerr: Customer Relationship Management: Tata McGraw Hill Pub. Co., New Delhi, 2002

- Omekwu, C. O. (2002) Challenges of information systems in Modern Library in Madu, E. C. and Dirisu M.B. (eds) Information Science and Technology for Library Schools in Africa. Ibadan Evi-Coleman Publications, 100 – 114

- Marketing Trends Survey summary of results. Ipsos MORI (2006)

Marketing trends survey. The Chartered Institute of Marketing, April, p17.

All you need to remember – if you cannot promote and advertise your product effectively, you’re almost certainly stuffed (so to speak).

What is Product Marketing?

Product marketing is a wide subject that covers a lot of things. It can include advertising, sales, and promotions. Although sales, and product marketing (or advertising) are two are very different things, a lot of people seem to mistake sales with marketing.

Product marketing is the preliminary task and it requires getting a product into the market, promoting it and encouraging the sale of it. Whereas sales, is actually selling your product or service to the customer. Can you differentiate the difference?

Product Marketing Sounds Easy. Can I do it Myself?

Some people have a misconception about the term ‘marketing’ and they think that it is an easy job that anyone can do. While it can be financially beneficial for you to do all of your marketing in-house, it might pay off in the long run to hire the services of a professional marketing consultant.

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Your product marketing professional will be able to concentrate on all of your business’ marketing strategies without being bothered by the office politics etc. Sometimes it can be good to get a fresh set of eyes within your business, find someone who can think outside the square.

A good product marketing professional will know which are the best marketing strategies that will work for you and the strategies that won’t work as well. This saving you much time and resources, now and later down the track!

What are the Business Costs Involved in Product Marketing?

Some experts recommend that a business serious about its product marketing should invest around 20% of their time and money into product marketing.

If you persist and continue to reinvest into marketing on an ongoing basis, you should see improved results. You may then find that some experts suggest (when your business continues to grow) that it is ok to decrease the amount invested in marketing. Less money spent and more money in. – It may sound nice, but unfortunately, it’s rarely the case.

Think of the most famous soft drink company in the world. Coca Cola. Now they spend a LOT of money and resources on advertising even though they are number one. They want to stay there! And they will if they continue to market their product the way they do.

There is no way to give you a set dollar amount of how much marketing business costs.

To get a rough indication, you will need to find the best marketing strategies that will work best for you to attract your target market. These days’ the internet should always be utilised, but what about the local newspaper? How about the radio or even television? You should consider all avenues that you think may be effective.

The internet is definitely one of the most cost effective marketing strategies available to you. A lot of business owners are cutting down their marketing costs by marketing online.

Think about this. If it costs you $100 to manufacture something, how much can you then sell it for to make a decent profit? Now you don’t need a degree in Mathematics or Business to work this out. It’s simple. If you’re thinking about taxes, marketing, manufacturing costs and overheads etc, you are thinking all wrong… Well not entirely.

Remember, you can sell your product at the price your customers willing to pay for it and that is why it is so important to market your product effectively!