Creating Software To Advertise And Build Value: What You Need To Know

As we all get more Internet and mobile phone-centric, you see more and more software built to either promote or add value to a service or product. For example: Nationwide Insurance created an iPhone app for their customers to help them make the task of filing a claim easier. There is Revver who created an official plugin WordPress to make it easier for their users to display videos and earn money. Pizza Hut has an iPhone app that includes a game, ability to order food and receive coupons. And there are countless Facebook apps created by big name companies. I love it. On every project I have, I try to figure ways to build in an app or plugin to make people utilize the product more or spread the word about my web site but there are some issues which I’d like to highlight if you have been considering the same thing yourself

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Creating Software To Advertise And Build Value: What You Need To Know

Common Linking Methods of Affiliate Programs Explained

If you’re a small business owner, an affiliate marketing program is a fantastic opportunity to make a lot of money without having to have a lot of capital or overhead costs.  And if you have a web page, affiliate marketing is a great way to make quick cash without adding a lot of extra work. But just because you find a popular webpage to promote your product or the right product to promote on your page, doesn’t mean it’s going to work.  In affiliate marketing, it’s all about the link.  The kind of link you use and what you link to are going to make all the difference. Here are the most common methods of linking for affiliate programs: Photo Courtesy of Paul O’Connell – Text links These are a good way to put links on your site because they stand out, but at the same time, still look natural and don’t have the appearance of an ad.  When you have a related word in your text, just embed a link in the word to a product or website.  But if you overload your text with links, it will become unreadable or just annoying. – Banner Links These are ads that are usually at the top or side of the page.  They can be plain, but are often catchy to try to get the attention of the reader. Just remember that people who surf the internet a lot see hundreds of banners in a day and ignore pretty much all of them.  If you’re going to make advertisement banners, make something that’s going to stand out and get you noticed.  The more clever and unique, the better. – Search Box Most people are familiar with search boxes embedded in a website that will do a Google or Yahoo search of the web.  You can embed search boxes that will do this type of search, but search a marketer’s webpage instead of the whole internet.  That way people can search an affiliate marketer’s website, sometimes without even knowing it.  And they can find exactly what they’re looking for, even if the marketer has thousands of products

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Common Linking Methods of Affiliate Programs Explained

Perpetuate Your Brand Through Content

One of the easiest and cost-effective ways to market your business online is through the publication and distribution of content. We’re talking blog posts, articles, reports, email content…and even audio recordings and video. Help people solve their problems, entertain them and you can win a loyal audience. Couple that with strong calls to action in your content and you can quickly grow your website visitors, subscriber list and sales. Thousands of businesses use content marketing every single day…but most attempt to do so using so-so, generic content that does little to build true relationships and perpetuate their brand.

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Perpetuate Your Brand Through Content

10 Things I Hate About Branding

ONE: Frankly it takes a lot of work to stay on top of my brand. If only I could just push a button like the Staples “Easy Button” ( which I have on my desk). I hate that I can’t!

TWO: I hate having to remind businesses that their brand is more than their logo. I have every design shop and ad specialty shop to blame for the mis-information I guess. (I could be painting with big a brush too)

THREE: I hate companies who don’t realize that branding is a top down initiative. Without the captain on board, who’s piloting the brand?

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10 Things I Hate About Branding

How To Police Your Brand!

Your brand is probably your company’s most valuable asset. It is what provides you the opportunity to make money based on strong relationships. Your brand makes advocates out of customers which means that they in effect become salespeople for you. Being an advocate for a brand, makes it a pleasure to recommend that company to your network of contacts. Paying close attention to the environment in which your brand exists will reward you at times when you find your brand in a bad place or subject to sloppy practices

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How To Police Your Brand!

How To Develop A Mini eMail Trade Show!

No matter where you look on the web, the key to making any money online is wrapped up in the list. Without one, you’ve got a major hurdle to clear. The following concept, may be your answer to fast-tracking exposure! At some point in time, you have probably visited a trade show within your industry. You saw legions of companies within your industry, selling goods from booths and visitors looking to buy or develop leads for themselves. Using this model, why not create your own mini trade show with friends or colleagues who compliment each other’s businesses? By combining the lists from say five to ten companies, who share the same target audience, put together a promotion to present a series of services to this body of contacts and feed off of each other. Here is how you could approach it:

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How To Develop A Mini eMail Trade Show!

The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 2

This one will be short and sweet… Most of my clients know that I’m not a big ‘fan’ of advertising – NOT because it doesn’t work – but because of the fact that I feel there are far BETTER ways to invest your marketing dollars. And here’s a quick piece of advice – for EVERY dollar you spend, please please please have a way to track your ROI (return on investment). If you spend $5000 on a magazine ad….how much business did it bring you? If you’re a small business owner, and you can’t answer this question, you’re wasting your money. Here’s an example from one of my clients… A fitness club was spending $1000/month on newspaper advertising. When I asked about the ROI on these ads, they had no idea. So I asked them to let me spend the following month’s $1000 budget on something different. The Result? $14,000 in new membership sales. (When was the last time you invested $1000 and got $14,000 in return, within 30 days?) Want to know what I did? Contact me!! : )

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The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 2

What’s Twitter and why should I care?

Twitter is a cross between a social networking platform and a micro blogging platform. You create a simple profile, you start following people, some follow you and you have 140 characters to say something about what you’re doing, thinking or planning.  People who talk about interesting, meaningful stuff and include links to blogs and articles have a positive affect on their brand. There has been lots of press coverage on Twitter including a Wall Street Journal article titled: “ Twitter Goes Mainstream .” In December 2008 HubSpot published the Q4 report on the State of the Twittersphere . Some interesting stats from this report: Twitter is dominated by new users – 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008. 5,000 to 10,000 new accounts are opened every day!

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Twitter in Business: It’s for Real!

Feel The Love!

You’ve heard the old adage, “if it weren’t for customers, running a business would be a lot of fun”. While this line brings a smirk to our face, it really is the wrong attitude to take if you want your customers to bring you more business. Businesses who truly have a dislike for their customers, no doubt also have a large turn over of customers. If you are in the professional industry like myself, you have to take an active interest in your customer’s businesses.

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Feel The Love!

The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 1

So let’s start with some definitions. For me, ‘marketing’ is all of the things you do to get a cheque in your hand or to get the cash register to ring. ‘Advertising’ is when you pay for media, whether its a newspaper, TV commercial, or direct mail flyer. I often hear from business owners about their experiences with different forms of advertising media. For example, I’ll hear something like “I tried newspaper advertising, and it didn’t work for me.” Here’s the problem… Its NOT that the specific type of medium doesn’t ‘work’….there are a few variables in play. FIRST – who is the target audience? If your demographic is teenagers, and you advertise in a publication targeting seniors, you have a problem (I know, this example seems obvious, but you can’t imagine how many people get this wrong) SECOND – Is the timing right? Are people expecting to see your message? THIRD – This is what I consider the most important….WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE? It costs you the same amount to advertise in that newspaper…whether you get zero sales or 100. So the important factor is to have the right MESSAGE in the right MEDIUM. I’ll explain how to craft a great message in a future post, but if you have a specific ad you’re working on and need my help please contact me at marsicomarketing@gmail.com

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The Problem With Advertising: Lesson 1