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Archive for the ‘Advertising Ideas’ Category

Yesterday afternoon I got a very strange phone call from a number I did not recognize but yet…I still decided to take the call. I got on the phone and there was this woman named Amber on the other end who immediately started telling me about her business opportunity, hostess program and candle products.

After listening to this woman for 5 minutes I finally asked her how she got my phone number? She replies back “The Phone Book”. What?

She proceeds to tell me that her team manager challenged the entire team to open up their phone books and to randomly cold-call 20 people that day. Holy Cows! Are you kidding me?

I then explained to Amber that she happened to cold-call someone who is very experienced in Direct Sales and that what she was doing was unprofessional and plain WRONG. Furthermore, I told her that I am on the “Do Not Call List” and that also applies to Direct Sellers that I don’t know just randomly calling me up to sell me their products. Telemarketing is Telemarketing!

I gave Amber some information on a few online websites where she could learn the proper way to market and advertise her business (including my own site). She thanked me for my time and hung up. I am not sure if she will take the information to heart and not do this again or not.

With that said, If you are a team leader…please do NOT instruct your team members to just randomly cold-call people out of a phone book! That type of marketing tactic does not work and could land people into some hot water if they cold-call someone who is on a “Do Not Call List”.

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Those who are in a Direct Sales business tend to really work their butts off when it comes to advertising their home business. For those of us in this line of work…we have to work “much” harder than those in big corporation to get the word out about our business.

With that said, we don’t have the advertising budgets that the big guys have so we need to get creative with our advertising campaigns. Today I thought I would share a few “creative” ways I have successfully marketed my business over the years and all of these ideas are super affordable.

T-Shirts: I went to VistaPrint.com and had a dozen T-shirts printed up with my business information on them. I got a variety of sizes and did it when Vista Print was having a deal on them. I then handed these shirts out to friends & family members and had them wear them while running errands in our community. Cost was less than $8.00 a shirt and it’s an advertising campaign that keeps on giving since the shirts can be worn many, many, many times!

Cook Books: Since I was selling products for a kitchen company I would actively seek out print ads in charity cook books in our community. The PTA, local Animal Rescue Groups, Health Groups, Scouting Groups, School Groups, etc. have cook books printed on a yearly basis and then sell them to raise funds. For around $25.00 you can get a 1/2 page print ad with your business info printed in the back of their fundraising cook books.

High School Year Books: Every year I would spend $50 to $75 to have my business ad printed in the back of our local high school year books! These ads are a ‘worthy’ and ‘affordable’ investment and your ad will be seen for many years by hundreds of people.

School Art & Athletic Programs: You can get affordable print ads in your local school’s arts and athletic programs that they hand out at their functions. (plays, sport’s games, etc.) and you can usually get these ads for $25 and up.

Magnetic Car Signs: Many Direct Sellers do invest in magnetic car signs for their vehicles to advertise their home businesses. However, you should purchase several of them and let your family and friends slap them onto their cars when they are out and about doing their errands. You could give them a free gift or a continual discount on their purchases to help you out by keeping it on their cars.

These 5 creative advertising and marketing ideas are all relatively affordable and make for a worthy investment in your business. When it comes to advertising your home business it is time to think “outside” the box and get creative with your marketing campaign.

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When it comes to running a home based business, you look for as many avenues as possible to market that business to others. One successful marketing tool is to write and publish your own newsletter. This can be published in print and mailed out to customers and clients, or it can be formatted and sent via email.

When it comes to writing the newsletter to promote your home business, you need to write and publish quality content that your readers will want to read. This content should be informative and engaging…along with a call to action sprinkled in.

Including graphics is a good way to go because it will grab the reader’s attention and give them immediate satisfaction of what you are talking about. I recommend publishing it in a normal black text that is easy on the eyes. You don’t want to get too fancy with fonts and colors.

Your newsletter should always contain your business’s contact information in a prominent place. I recommend you place it at the very top and at the very bottom with your important content in the center.

When it comes to the type of content you want to include, here are some great ideas on that.

1. In depth Product or Services Information: Let readers know in great detail about the products you are marketing, how they can use them, how they will benefit from them, how they can fit into their lives along with pricing and purchasing information.

2. Customer Testimonials: A great way to attract new sales is by including customer testimonials in your newsletters. Readers love to know how others are using your products or business services.

3. Company Events: If you participate in or sponsor company events, you will want to include that information if they will be of interest to your readers.

4. Questions and Answers: Ask your readers to submit questions to you and you publish those questions along with your answers.

5. Preview Of The Next Issue: You could include a little preview of what is coming up in your next issue.

When it comes to writing and publishing your newsletter, it is important to publish informative content that others will want to read. You want it to be viewed as a valuable piece of information and not as a spam advertisement that offers no real added value to the reader.

You will want to take your time writing it, formatting it and publishing it so that it comes out looking professional…after all, your goal is to gain readership and to represent your home business in a professional manner.

Written By: Shelly Hill ~ This article can not be reprinted unless Shelly’s official Author’s Bio is attached. Please email/contact Shelly to obtain her bio before reprinting this article. Thanks!

A couple of weeks ago I emailed a Direct Sales consultant with one of the beauty companies a particular question that I had about the company’s mascara line and she did promptly respond with the answer to my question.

About 2 weeks after that I started getting spammed by her once a week with her weekly customer email newsletter. Wow…I was shocked! I immediately clicked the unsubscribe link in the newsletter and realized it was disabled and not working! I then emailed her (nicely I might add) and asked her to unsubscribe me from her customer newsletter as I did not sign up for it nor did I tell her to add me to it.

The following week…I got another newsletter in my email box from her! ugh! I then fired off a second request for her to remove me. This entire back and forth process took a month or so before I was finally removed from her list!

When it comes to email marketing, customer newsletters and building your email subscriber’s list it is VERY IMPORTANT to never…ever…add a subscriber to your newsletter subscription list without asking their permission first! Better yet, don’t add anyone at all…have an online sign-up box so folks can sign-up for it themselves if they are interested!

Not only does this unprofessional behavior “irk” off customers and potential customers but it is also WRONG and ILLEGAL. You can not fire off emails and sign up folks to your newsletter just because you want to market your business to them. It is considered to be “SPAM” if that person did not sign up for it or request it.

You have a new online business, now what?

You need to advertise your online business both online and offline so this article will give you some online advertising ideas that you can start using today.

1. Write some short articles and donate them to online websites, ezines and newsletters.

These articles can be on family life, raising children, hobbies, cooking, pets, shopping, weddings, just about any thing!

Make sure your article has an attached signature tag with your name, business name and your website address. Some people call these signature tags, Author Resource Boxes.

2. Attach an email signature tag to every outgoing email that you send. Make sure it includes your business name and website address.

3. Publish an online blog! Blogging is very hot these days! A blog is an online journal (Web Log = Blog) and you can write one on a variety of topics including topics that relate to your online business. Do a keyword search through a major search engine to learn about blogging.

4. Get yourself listed in some of the online yellow page phone books under your business name for your local area.

5. Get yourself listed in online business directories.

6. Get yourself listed in online shopping and gift directories.

7. If you offer a contest through your online website, make sure you get yourself listed in online Contest and Sweepstakes directories for some free business exposure.

8. Online talk radio is big these days! Contact those sites and inquire about being a guest on one of their online talk radio programs.

9. If you can afford it, get some online advertising on a online radio station.

10. Do a online web search for your local city radio stations. A lot of your radio stations also offer online contests to their listeners. Offer to sponsor one of their online contests or inquire about advertising on their website.

11. Do a online web search for your local city tv news station websites. A lot of them offer online contests on their websites. Offer to sponsor one or inquire about advertising on their website.

12. Start a online newsletter for your business. I recommend doing a monthly newsletter. You will get more subscribers to your newsletter if you add informational content along with 2-3 specials that you are running. A newsletter subscriber contest is also helpful in promoting a online newsletter.

Newsletter subscribers don’t want to read just sales ads so its important to also offer informational content, tips, product reviews etc.

13. Online gift certificates are big business these days. Make sure your website offers online gift certificates for your business products or business service.

14. Get yourself listed in online search engines. You can start out with the free lesser known search engines and then work your way up to the pay-per click type of search engines.

15. Do a web search for message boards for your local city or town. Get on those local area message boards and start networking! Get to know others who live around you. This is a great way to get local customers and local leads. A lot of times you can get a text ad or a banner ad on those local message board sites to help promote your business locally.

16. Ask your online friends and family to attach your email signature tag to all of their outgoing emails.

17. There are alot of free online classified ad sites. I recommend that you place ads ONLY on the most popular of these types of sites. The best ones are sites that cater to your local area. You will want to stay away from link farms (sites that are nothing but weblinks as search engines frown upon those).

18. Link Exchange. Contact other websites and offer to exchange web links with them. You add their web link to your website page and they add your website link to theirs. When exchaning website links, make sure you are only exchanging links with sites that have similar content to yours.

19. If your business offers a bridal gift registry to new brides to be, make sure you get yourself list in some of the popular online bridal gift registry directories. Alot of them also offer contests to their readers so consider sponsoring a contest too.

20. Join some of the free online social networking websites such as myspace, face book, linkedin, yahoo groups, ryze and twitter. Once you join these social networking sites, make sure you fill out your profile page completely and make sure you put your business information in your profile. Once you have that completed, its time to join some of the sub-networking groups and make some new online friends.

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Marketing Strategies for the Holiday Season by Terri Seymour

If you have been in business long you know that the bulk of your sales will come from the months leading up to and going through the holiday season. The time to start your marketing for this season is July or even earlier!

Online sales are expected to reach 12 billion dollars this year so be sure you get a piece of that huge pie! This is a 1.5 to 2 times increase over 1999 as more people adjust to online shopping.

Here are some ideas that could help you get a slice of that holiday shopping pie:

1. You could offer a free holiday gift with every order over $25 or any set amount.

2. Offer free or discounted shipping with every order.

3. Send Christmas cards to your mailing list offering them a special discount or deal.

4. Offer a gift wrapping service for your customers. Make their shopping as easy and hassle free as possible.

5. If you do home parties, have a Christmas shopping party to split the shipping costs and/or wrapping costs. Have a holiday themed party with gift certificates and free samples.

6. Start a gift referral club with other businesses. If a customer is looking for something you do not offer, give them a place they can get it and other businesses will do the same for you.

7. Have a holiday themed contest on your site to draw in more customers.

8. Work with charity. Offer so many dollars off for everyone who brings in a old toy for kids’ charity. For online shoppers have a donation button. This will attract customers as well as provide good publicity for your company.

9. Give a free holiday tips report out with every purchase. Provide tips on saving money, holiday decorating, etc.

10. Make sure everything on your site is working and up to date. Build a special holiday section for your holiday customers.

11. Have a gift ideas section for your shoppers who have trouble picking out gifts. Be sure and have gift certificates or cards available as well.

12. Mail out gift idea cards to your customers/mailing list.

13. Send out coupons with a chance at a free gift with every coupon returned.

14. Do not forget customer service. Provide a little extra for your customers so they come back for more.

15. Become the company with the most Christmas spirit. Donate a portion of all sales to a popular children’s charity.

16. Provide a quality product at a good price along with good customer service and your customers are bound to remain loyal to your company.

Take these ideas and add to them. Once you start trying new ideas you will be able to think of more and more. Don’t be afraid to try new and creative ideas. Test the results and keep track of what works and what doesn’t. What might not work in spring might be very effective during the holiday season.

The holiday marketing season is a chance for you to expand your business and gain more customers, but you must give them a reason to come to you and then to come back to you!
Terri Seymour has several years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site at http://www.seymourproducts.com for resources, $1 resell ebooks, wholesale gift business opp, free affiliate programs & a free ezine with bonus report: 77 Ways to Get Traffic! mailto:subscribe@seymourproducts.com .

Article Source: WAHM Articles