Free Marketing Consultation

Over at the Diva Promotions website you’ll find a new service just started. A free 1/2 hour phone consultation that will show you some new marketing ideas for your business, see if you are heading in the right direction to meet your marketing goals or whatever else you want to talk about!

Small business marketing – Free Consultation over at Diva Promotions.

Get yours now!

Technorati Tags: free marketing, marketing, marketing ideas, marketing mix, small business marketing

You Tube releases PPC!

You Tube has just released it’s pay per click marketing.

A fantastic way of explaining how it all works comes from Michelle McPherson.

Read how it works here -  http://www.michellemacphearson.com/youtube-sponsored-video-how-to/

Technorati Tags: marketing ideas, marketing mix, ppc, you tube

Marketing Ideas

I’ve been reading quite a few articles lately and have come across some information about starting a blog, starting your own newsletter and doing some article marketing. All of these are great marketing ideas to use, but are they for you?

Tracey Lawson outlines the pros and cons of each:

Create a Blog

Pros

• You can really show off your expertise by posting on a regular basis.
• Blog posts don’t need to be very long – approx. 200-350 words.
• If you have some important information to share, you can instantly create a post – no waiting for your next newsletter to make your announcement!
• If you use a blogging platform such as WordPress, this is hosted on your website. Each time you post to your blog you are creating fresh content for your website, which the search engines love!

Cons

• You need to post regularly – at least once a week – in order for this to be an effective marketing strategy.
• You need to feel confident that you will be able to write fresh content regularly.
• It can be difficult to build a direct relationship with your reader.

Publish an Ezine

Pros

• Unlike a blog, readers sign up to receive your newsletter so you already have a connection with them.
• You can build a relationship with your newsletter reader and encourage one-on-one communication.
• You can go into more depth in your newsletter article than you can with your blog posts.
• Your clients/target audience can get to know you through your newsletter.

Cons

• You have to make a commitment to publish on a regular basis, otherwise your subscribers will see you as unreliable, and may even forget about you!
• There is more work involved in putting together a newsletter than writing a simple blog post.
• You will need to subscribe to one of the ezine distribution services – I strongly recommend you do this and not send your ezine via your email client!

Article Marketing

Pros

• If you are already blogging or publishing a newsletter, you have your articles written.
• It is highly likely that once you submit your article to one of the article submission sites, it will be picked up and published on other article submission sites.
• Regularly submitting your articles will elevate you to ‘expert’ status within your field/niche.

Cons

• You have to write the articles if you’re not publishing a newsletter or posting to a blog.
• It takes time to manually research suitable article submission sites and submit articles.
• In order for this strategy to be effective, you have to submit your articles regularly – at least once a month.

Conclusion: You can just pick one strategy to focus on, or you can do all three! Whichever one you choose make sure it’s the right one for you. The key is to be consistent in your approach. If you decide to go with a blog make sure you have the time and motivation to add new posts regularly – at least once a week. Don’t start a newsletter if you know you won’t be able to keep to a regular publishing schedule! And for article marketing to be effective you need to submit articles on a regular basis.

Technorati Tags: marketing ideas, marketing mix

Creative Marketing Ideas With Group Brainstorming Exercises

I found this article whilst browsing Ezine Articles, and it’s written by Katie Marcus.

 

Whether you are designing an expensive television commercial or full color business cards, one of the best ways to find a winning marketing plan is with a team brainstorming exercise. When handled correctly, brainstorming as a group is one of the best ways to come up with creative ideas. When you work as a group to brainstorm new ideas, you get a fresh approach to your product, service, or business model, resulting in a successful marketing plan.

Planning Your Brainstorming Session

So how can you successfully brainstorm with a group of people? First, you need to understand that brainstorming sessions should be relatively short. Get your team’s best ideas on the table, and then stop brainstorming so you can analyze the responses.

When brainstorming, remember that all ideas are accepted. Have a white board or poster where you write the ideas, and do not judge them when they are presented. You will have plenty of time to decide, after your brainstorming on which ideas you like and which ones you would rather ignore. The brainstorming session is the time to collect ideas.

Some of the best marketing plans were developed from marketing ideas that seemed silly when they were first presented, so avoid making quick judgments. Write down any idea or word that is offered by the members of your team.

Your brainstorming session should have a specific goal. You may not want to tell your team members the end goal, but you need to know what it is. This goal can be something simple, such as developing a slogan to use on your next business card printing, or it can be something a little more complex, such as developing a new logo to define your business.

Once you know where you are going with the brainstorming session, decide how you are going to elicit responses from your team members. You can pose a question to them or do a word association exercise. You could also present them with a challenge to work through during the session. By starting the brainstorming session with an open-ended task or question, you give your team members the chance to build on each other’s ideas as they begin sharing.

Other Points to Remember

The members of your brainstorming group should have an interest in your company. Whether you choose members of your management team or the people working the business at its lowest level, they do need to be members of your business. Also, brainstorming works best if the team members are comfortable with one another. Groups can be as large or small as you like, but the smaller the group is, the better your chances at receiving good participation from its members.

Once you are done brainstorming, take the ideas you received and evaluate them. Compare the ideas to the original goal you had, and choose the plan that best fits your company and your goals. You will quickly find that this sort of group effort breeds excellent creativity, and the ideas you will receive from these collective thinking sessions will be better than anything you could have come up with on your own!

Katie Marcus writes about the business card printing industry and technologies and how full color business cards assist in the marketing plans of different businesses.

Technorati Tags: marketing ideas, marketing mix

Marketing Ideas

So this blog has been created to share with you any new and exciting marketing ideas that are being used all around the world. One concept that has come up though and that is talked about in this great article by Tino Buntic, is “Is it ok to steal another companies marketing ideas?”

Tino talks about that there are laws for patents, and copyright laws etc, but there are no laws for using your competitors or other businesses marketing ideas and techniques.

But, Tino goes on to ask “Is it ethical?” “Would do it?” Maybe you don’t feel right doing it, but legally, there is nothing against the law to copy some of their marketing ideas.

Have you used any of someone elses’ marketing ideas before? If so, share some of your ideas.

Technorati Tags: marketing ideas, marketing mix