Offline Marketing

Viral Promotion Opportunities from Twitter

By Daniel Offer, Daniel owns the Facebook IM Chit Chat for Facebook. Daniel writes regularly about social network for example, he recently wrote about Google Buzz & Facebook and reviewed Farmville.

Twitter recently announced that tweets will soon be embeddable. Embeddable tweets could bring a whole new viral promotion capability from Twitter and businesses, and marketers, should be getting very excited.

Embeddable Means Free Advertising

In case anyone is unclear about what embeddable tweets will mean – think about YouTube, or any other video media platform. People will often view videos on third-party sites and not directly from the source. A website can ‘embed’ a video from YouTube onto a webpage and visitors can view it there – without having to go via a link to YouTube itself.

This means that a website – embedding a tweet – introduces that tweet to people that may never have otherwise seen the post. In this scenario, it will be possible for a tweet to be viewed by readers that are not followers of the posters Twitter profile.

The exciting part is that many of the websites likely to embed tweets will be news sites and they normally have a massive readership. One quality post could end up being read by millions, not just the usual hundreds, or thousands, of Twitter profile followers.

Making Tweets Embeddable

If a tweet hopes to become embedded on another site, it will have to possess some informational value. This could be topical, humorous or just plain weird – whatever the reason, the tweet will most likely not be run-of-the-mill.

Posting, “I just had eggs for breakfast” or, “Lose 2 stone in a week at tinyurllink.com” will not encourage anyone to snatch up a tweet and embed it on another website. A business, or marketer, will have to up their game when it comes to posts and start to tweet breaking news, useful information, or helpful advice.

A valuable tip is to follow topic-related sites that are popular, and of course, the main media companies that have Twitter profiles. These sites are regularly monitored by information-hungry third parties and this technique will boost a tweet’s chances of being snapped up and embedded.

The Attraction of Twitter

The very format of Twitter makes it irresistible to news sites, and other websites, looking for up-to-date informational snippets. People seeing anything of interest: be it accidents, armed robberies or moments of unbridled hilarity  - will rarely reach for their mobile phones to call a news station, they will log onto Twitter and post a tweet. Breaking news often hits Twitter long before it reaches the news industry and that means news sites are constantly monitoring Twitter for the latest stories.

And it is not just the news sites watching; anyone on the look-out for the latest information often scans Twitter. Food industries, marketing companies, media conglomerates and the like – often use Twitter as a valuable source of real-time information. You only have to visit a large website to see reference to a recent tweet that has sparked their interest.

That is the beauty of Twitter – it is straight to the point and right on the button and this makes it incredibly attractive to anyone on the hunt for the latest updates to show their readership

Embeddable Tweets up the Ante

Whereas previously, a website would have needed to make reference to an interesting tweet, with either a dull textual link, or by quoting the actual tweet in the website content – they can now display the tweet in its full glory.

Embeddable tweets will allow a website to post an image of the tweet – as it looks on Twitter. But the greatest advantage is that there is speculation that the embedded tweets will come with fully-functioning buttons that allow a reader to reply, re-tweet, or add the post to their favorites.

Not only will the tweet be read by many new readers, these readers can interact and engage with the tweets and could pass the tweet onto more eager new viewers, or even choose to become a follower of the original tweeter.

This is a great opportunity for any business, or marketer, to profit from a free viral promotion. The key to success is to provide engaging, information tweets that encourage others to embed the tweets onto other websites.

Telemarketing Tips

TELEMARKETING AND THE HOW TO GUIDE -
Introduction -

So we start with the most inspiring part of the call.

We have to deliver an impact at this point otherwise we wont get what we want from the call.

We could be talking to a receptionist or a senior decision maker throughout the call duration and we need to treat everyone with the utmost of respect and professionalism no matter what the outcome.

When talking to anyone we have to gather as much information as possible and again we need to make sure that we do this in the right way.

We start by looking to contact the person that you feel is the right person to get a decision for your product or service that you are offering.

Whilst it could be a failure it is still best to ensure that we keep notes for the next call to make that all important impact.

The impact can come in many different forms but can be mirrored to the individual you are talking to! I.E – When talking to the potential he/she may like to talk about how they are feeling. This can be a nice ice breaker better than – ”hi, i am calling because”.

We need to give a brief and positive statement and look to get contact as quickly as possible. Something like ”Hi my name is ________ and i was wondering if i could speak to the person that deals with the generation of new business there please, i have a product/service that i feel could be a real benefit to him”.

This is positive and direct and gets the job done quickly in a professional manner.

We then get through to the person that we need to talk to and can take the same quick approach. From this we can then ask if that is something that they would like to discuss?
The Fact Find -

Now we have introduced and made an initial statement that oozes confidence we need to find out as much information as possible and we need to do that with 6 different types of questions -

WHO,
WHAT,
WHERE,
WHEN,
HOW,
AND WHY?

These types of questions are what i call open questions they lead to a sentence answer that is a lot better than yes or no at this stage. E.I. – ”Can i start by asking how would you say you compare to your competitors”? This can lead to answer I.E. – ”Well we seem to be a very good printer that does mainly large runs of digital print for people” From this we have a wealth of information at our fingertips. We need to continue on our investigation of finding what makes the person/s we are talking to happy and how they see themselves going forward and how our product or service can only help them achieve their goals in a quicker/easier/more cost effective way etc etc. We need to find out as much as what we can for later on. How many people work there? What is there projected growth etc etc. The more we ask is the more information that we can use later on when building their desire for our product. We are showing an interest and there is no person in business that wont like talking about their business and how they have got it to where it is at the time of the call. This shows the potential client that you want to help and analyse how good the solution you are offering will work for them.

Return On Investment -

So how much can your product or service benefit them. We have to ask some more questions -

How much is their average customer worth?
How much of that revenue is profit?
How many customers could they take on per month/week?
What is the least amount of profit from one customer for the basic job?

How much is your product/service and how long will it take for them to gain the return from what they have spent or are about to spend on your product/service. This part of the process gives us the ability to show the potential client that we can give them a good profit from our product/service in a period of time that is acceptable. If done right this part of the call alone will secure their belief in your product/services without too much emphasis on any other part of the call.

The Pitch -

This is your opportunity to explain in detail what your service/product is and how it can benefit the potential client. At this stage we can use some of the facts that we have already found out to ensure that we deliver the best pitch relevant to their needs. When we are in this part of the call it is of paramount importance that we remain polite and courteous at all times. We need to maintain listening skills and again it is important to show our potential client that we are hearing what they have said and we are remaining vigilante at all times by explaining how our product/service will benefit the matter raised from the conversation. When pitching we need to make sure that when we deliver a feature of the product that we back it up with a statement that will show the benefit of that particular feature. I.E ”This stereo has the loudest volume on the marketplace this will give you the volume you require to fill up your night club”. We have then preempted any questions our potential client may have before the question arises.

Closing Question -

Now we have done all of the above we should be in a position to ask whether our product/service is something that they feel could benefit their business. We need to take a consultative approach at this stage and use questions like -

1 -Subject to cost does this sound like the kind of product/service that could benefit your business?

2 -With this product/service i feel that your company could benefit from it, do you agree?

We need to lead our client to saying yes if we can as this will impact on the final decision and will making saying yes easier at the final decision making time.

Pricing -

As a rule we have now done our job subject to the yes and approval from the above. Now we need to ensure that we make the price sound as attractive as possible by using the information that we have gained throughout the call. We know a lot of information now and know that our potential client is at the point of making a decision and this can take one route or another. We have a product or service that we have assessed on a consultative approach and we have someone that has been happy to spend time on the phone. This is a commitment to what we have covered in the conversation so far and has now achieved closest to what we call pipeline or a cold call sale from start to finish. We have to ensure that our price is something that creates a desire to use our product or service. If our price is within range we can safely say that by now we have a deal as long as there is no one else involved in the process. So far we have shown -

Passion,
Knowledge (although limited),
Interest,

This only creates vanity, desire and greed within our pitch (some of the strongest selling points for any service or product)

With a partner, fellow director or friend this will create a call back. If there is no one else and the potential has the budget to take your product then nine out of ten times there will be a very good lead on your desk. Sometimes we give our price and someone says ok that sounds good we take the next step fill out and close……

Other times we will have to take a closer look at the above and retry but telesales/marketing can result in a number of ways and if you follow my guide i will guarantee that the face of your business would change.
Author: Dave Paget.
Founder of http://www.salesandmarketingforums.co.uk

E-commerce Solutions – Enhancement of Online Business

Want to make a millions? Then start online business. Now it the age of online business. The glob becomes a big market. Any one can sell and purchase anything and from anywhere. Now business is not limited to boundaries. One can sell his or her products to customer stayed thousands miles away. Now customers also have an opportunity to purchase online. So now business is not limited to boundaries. Ecommerce is latest buzzword in the online businesses. The popularity of Ecommerce increasing day by day because of the fact that businesses conducted over the internet can easily reach out to the customers throughout the world. Ecommerce solutions help to start online business and it is very useful for running online business easily. With Ecommerce solutions one can expand his or her online business up to any height. With The help of Ecommerce solutions it is now easy to sell and purchase products and services online. Better adoption of Ecommerce solutions make any online business flooded with orders and customers. For services related online businesses companies are required to make their services highly customer oriented and to achieve this objective, it is necessary for them to opt for a comprehensive Ecommerce solutions.

Now it is latest business trend to sell products or services online. It is more beneficial for any business because from the internet their products or services can reach out to customers of whole world. Ecommerce solutions can grow and expand one’s business up to no limit. If some one is looking for the company which provides Ecommerce solutions services then Perception System is the right choice for them. It is an India based IT company which engaged in the business of provide better and improved Ecommerce solution services. It has vast experience of successfully completing Ecommerce Solutions projects. Its dedicated developers strive to get best results. One can hire its dedicated Ecommerce developer and take an advantage of round the clock working experience. One can visit its website www.perceptionsystem.com/e-commerce-solutions-services.html for more information.

Leaflet distribution tips

leaflet distribution generates results plain and simple. Whether you are looking for a sustained custom from your clients or a big hit for an upcoming event, leaflet distribution can give your business that edge you need. However, a leafleting campaign takes planning in order to get the best result and one should not approach this process lightly. Once considered the “poor mans advertising” it has now been embraced by many companies as an essential part of their marketing mix. To get your campaign off to a flying start here is a few things you can do.

The message
When designing your leaflet, always sell the benefits of the service you are offering. Let the reader feel an emotion tied to not having you’re what you are selling. Ninety five percent of businesses make the mistake of selling a feature of their product instead of how it will enhance the life of the customer

The leaflet
Knowing what size and colour to use to best describe your offerings can be tricky. One thing to always keep in mind is the use of space. People will generally glance over an advertisement to find trigger words. If your leaflet is too cluttered, these words will be missed and the rest of the message discarded. Google is a prime example of how white space can be used effectively. Also remember that your leaflets are being pushed through letterboxes. Having your leaflets torn as they are pushed through because of the size is not the best ‘first impression’ you want to give to a customer.

The Distribution
When thinking about distribution there are two options that are available for you to use, Solus and shared. On a shared distribution your materials will be delivered with up to four other leaflets. Even though this method is cheaper one of the major downside is that your message can be easily lost in the pile. With every other company screaming ‘buy me buy me’ you would be in a better position to have your leaflets distributed on its own.

The distribution Day
Following on from the last tip, the day you distribute your leaflets also will have a significant impact on how well your message is received. If possible get a hold of the distribution date of other local newspaper and magazines, then try to distribute your on a different day. That way you quickly improve the chances of getting your material read and your sale pitch taken onboard.

Do the test
Rushing your campaigning without test can sometimes spell disaster. Instead of doing 50,000 leaflets, planning a smaller distribution in the same area can let you to easily test the market. It also allow you to make adjustment to your campaign based on customer feedback. The data collected from this initial campaign can then be used to know how many results you can expect per X amount of leaflets sent out.

The Season
Some businesses have a seasonal cycle with low points throughout the year. If you are just starting up and do not know your cycle you could be planning a poor campaign no matter what you do. It is important to know when customers are most likely to buy what you are selling and only by doing proper research can you know this.

Finding a bargain
Many companies often think that cheaper is better, but this is not the case. Paying for cheap distribution will often lead to your materials being thrown away. The job of Leaflet distributor is very tiring and is indeed hard work. Just like any other business it is essential to keep workers motivated and paying them poorly is not a good way to achieve this. If you pay a company less than minimum wage to have your leaflet distributed, not only are you helping to break the law, you are also being instrumental in the demise of your promotion by further encouraging a lack-luster performance

Fast-letterbox is an established leaflet distribution company located in London. We provide distribution to areas within the M25 and throughout Essex