Browse published articles attributed to Andrew McCombe, with full-archive search.
There is a lot of buzz these days about internet marketing, and it is true that it is a great, cost effective way to build a brand, and gain new business. However, whether you are running a brick and mortar business, or an online enterprise, there are still some great offline marketing ideas that you should not ignore.
Most people do not understand statistics in any kind of detail, but if there is one statistic that every business owner out there does understand, it is that the more people there are that know about your business, you are more likely to have a profitable concern. It is a simple numbers game really. If you consistently get 5% business from your advertising efforts, then having your message reach one thousand people, instead of one hundred, will result in more business.
A few short decades ago, the internet was just starting out. Instead of the millions of websites we had today, there were a few thousand. Back then, there was even a ‘notice board’ that announced the creation of each new site on the net! Something like that would be unimaginable these days, and plenty of other things have changed over the years too! Back in those days, websites were very different to the sites we have come to recognise today. They were based on text, and were purely a means of sharing information. All the advertising, images, and interactivity only came along later.
These days, you are likely to hear terms like SEO, or search engine optimisation, bandied about quite a bit, as businesses move from traditional brick and mortar conce s into the online arena. If you still think they sound like Greek, then read on for a quick explanation about what search engine optimisation is, and how it can affect your business. The first thing you need to understand about search engine optimisation is that it is designed to make your website more visible to search engines.
If you have heard the term conversion rate, and you are wondering what on earth it is, what it means, and why you should be conce ed about it, do not worry. Conversion rate is another one of those complex business terms that is actually used to describe something quite simple.
Do you have career goals that just don't fit in with your regular nine-to-five job? Do you often dream about being your own boss? If so, then you may have just what it takes to become an entrepreneur. This is not something that everyone is cut out for, but if you have the desire, the passion, and a really good business idea, you can be very successful at being your own boss. Of course, just because you start a business doesn't mean that you are automatically self-employed.
Many people still believe that in order to start a business, they need to have a real world store, and sell a real, tangible product. The truth is, however, that starting a business that sells information products is often far easier for a new business owner or entrepreneur. Information products are products that are not necessarily tangible, although they could be in the form of a book or DVD. They are products that are based purely on learning. While starting a college may be one way of selling information, information products also are not limited to formal training.
Every entrepreneur in the world has been there at some point. Stuck in a job that they are not fond of, dreaming of bigger, better things, and wondering how to make that next crucial step. The trouble is, while you may not like your job (in fact, you may even outright hate it) it does guarantee you a salary every month, while your big business idea might not work, leaving you without an income, and with bills to pay.
Don’t you wish that there were some way that you could track your advertisements, and find out where they go, who saw them, and whether they actually read them, or simply balled them up and threw them away? If you’re involved in online business and marketing, you can. There are plenty of tracking services out there, but one of the very best site traffic tracking services has to be Google Analytics. The best part is that it’s free! It’s a service that Google, the world’s largest search engine, provides to all webmasters and site owners, and it’s easy to sign up and get started.
When most of us think of social networking, we think of Facebook and Myspace. However, while those are certainly two of the biggest social networks, they are by no means the only ones out there!
One of the best ways to succeed in business is to focus on the big picture. This means not focusing on sales, but instead, focusing on how to sell the business itself, or basically, franchising. When you franchise, you are giving others a chance to be entrepreneurs, while retaining total control, and seeing a huge increase in your profit margin. In order to do this, you must follow a successful business franchise model. If you want more reasons why you need to build your business based on system and not on products, here are five excellent ones:
You probably already know how important it is to have a website for your business. But do you also know that there are certain elements that every website should have in order to be great? A lot of people don't know about these elements, and they end up with an underperforming website because of them. You want to have the best website possible, so it is important that you learn everything you can about what makes a website great. Here are five things that you must have on your website to make it profitable for you:
Small business owners around the world are always looking for ways to market their business without spending a fortune. Fortunately, thanks to the internet and electronic communications, there are more possibilities to do just that than ever before. Of course, every business owner knows that the saying ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ definitely does not apply in business! You want to keep your clients up to date about your business, and to keep your company in the forefront of their minds, otherwise they might choose your competitor over you the next time they buy!
There are some really different things you can do to generate new leads for your business. Really, it is all about being creative and trying to find any way possible to do the marketing you need to do while saving as much money as you can in the process. One thing that many of the larger businesses are doing is getting their sales through channel development. Basically, this is lead generation that comes from other businesses that are similar to yours, but not your competitors.
What is the secret to staying in business? Getting and keeping customers. Without customers, no business is ever going to attain any sort of profits, but getting and keeping customers is not always as easy as it sounds. But, when you do have a loyal customer base, you will find that you are earning the profits you always dreamed of, and you don't have to work yourself into an early grave to do it. One way to ensure this is to have a business that is so great that your customers will do your advertising for you. Here are five ways that you can achieve this:
In order to succeed in business, it is important to know how to save money, and to use this skill wherever and whenever possible. After all, the whole point of being in business is to make money, so it is a good idea to be able to do as much as possible to save costs for your business. One way to do this is by cutting back on the amount of paperwork you have. You would be surprised how much of your everyday paperwork is really unnecessary, and is actually costing you money. Here are four more great reasons why your business should be a paperless one:
Getting the sales you want all depends on how many customers you have, and in the end, your profits are all about numbers. Getting a business off the ground and making it a successful one is not an easy task, but it can be an extremely rewarding one. The thing is to learn about numbers, and how they work for you. Once you learn this, you will have a much easier time finding ways to improve these numbers and make your business even more successful.
Affiliate marketing is a relatively new concept, having become popular on the internet just a few years ago, but in essence, it works in much the same way as becoming an agent for a product or service, or using freelance sales representatives to sell a product or service. Unlike those old-fashioned means of selling, however, affiliate marketing takes place almost entirely on the internet, and people who run affiliate programs use complex software and technology, as well as unique web links and other tools, to track and pay the affiliates that work for them.
When it comes to running your own business, one of the scariest prospects is the money you are going to have to spend. Of course, there are going to be all kinds of great little tools that you could really use to help your business, but you won’t want to have to spend any more money than is absolutely necessary. After all, there are always going to be expenses cropping up, and you don't want to have all of your money tied up in other things.
If you are just getting started in internet marketing for your business, you have probably been wondering how to manage email-marketing campaigns, without spending hours manually sending to your marketing list. The simple solution that you might have heard about is to use what is known as an autoresponder. An autoresponder is usually a third party software application or website, that you pay a low monthly fee to, who manages your email list, and sends your prewritten marketing emails, in sequence, to people who subscribe to your list.
Developing new leads is something that is always on the minds of any small business owner, but unfortunately, they are not always as successful with their lead generating endeavors as they expected. Is this something that you are having difficulties with? It is not always easy getting out there and generating new leads, and if you are not constantly looking for more and better results, it may be because you just don't understand the fine nuances of lead generating. Here are five reasons why you may be having trouble generating new leads for your business:
There is a method of lead generation that is becoming more and more popular all the time, and many small business owners are starting to take advantage of it. This is known as Online Lead Generation (OLG) and it can offer many benefits to companies of all sizes. It is a great way to generate new leads and drive traffic to any website, and there are some great ways that you can use online lead generation to your advantage:
It is never easy to get any business started, but once you do the rewards can be great. It takes a lot of hard work to get any new business off the ground, and there are many things that you can do to help ensure your success. Owning your own business can be like a dream come true when things are going well, and here are five excellent steps to getting your business started on the right track;
There probably isn't an advancement in technology more important to businesses, especially small businesses, than the Internet. There are so many ways that people can market their products and services, and if you are the owner of a small business, you need to make sure that you are taking advantage of all that the Internet has to offer. Some methods of lead generation work better than others, especially for small businesses, and these methods are really helping small business owners see an increase in their profits.
If you are an entrepreneur, and you want to ensure that you always have great sales, you must learn to never stop trying to sell, even on your own personal time. This doesn't mean that you have to go out on your day off and start knocking on doors looking for sales. But, there are a number of ways that you can make your downtime really work for you, and increase your sales by improving your sales skills. For example, if you have a long commute, you are not really doing anything anyway, so why not use that time to improve your sales skills.
Anyone who sells for a living can tell you that it is not always an easy life, and a typical work day can be filled with ups and downs. There are always things that need to be done, including the annoying paperwork that always seems to be getting in the way of getting out there and actually getting more customers and making more sales and profits. For many entrepreneurs, all of this work falls strictly on them, and they can find themselves becoming pretty frazzled at times.
Every year, there are all kinds of new businesses being started. Unfortunately, a lot of these businesses will close during the first year of operation. This is the most critical time for any new business, and there are all kinds of things that need to be done to ensure that the new business is successful. There are five great steps you can take when you are starting your business to ensure that you will be celebrating your first and many more anniversaries of being in business for yourself:
Advertising has always been one of the most important things for businesses, and over the years, advertising has evolved from simple print ads to television commercials, and today, Internet advertising. Unfortunately, even though it is essential for all businesses to advertise, this can also be a very costly venture, often far too costly for many small business owners. But, even the smallest of businesses need to advertise, so it is important to be able to find a way to do it on even the smallest of budgets. This is where social media can come in really handy.
Everyone loves the Internet and what it can do for increasing sales for many businesses, but even with all of the advancements in technology, nothing works better for lead generation than getting out there and meeting with others in person. Although there are advantages to Internet lead generation, one thing that you can not do online is convey feelings with vocal tones and facial expressions. Face-to-face meetings are more intimate, and a great way to do business. Here are some ways that you can close sales the old-fashioned way:
Everyone wants to be wealthy, but unfortunately, not everyone is. It is not that difficult to gain wealth, but so many people make excuses for why it is impossible for them to achieve the wealth they want. Creating wealth is not something that can be done ove ight, and it takes a lot hard work and perseverance. But, if you just keep on making excuses, you are never going to get anywhere, both in the financial world, and in life. Here are five excuses people make that keep them from becoming wealthy, and how to bust them:
For yours now, you've wanted to get out of your dead end job. You've had some pretty great ideas for your own business, but you have never had the courage to give up your steady job, not matter how terrible it is, to go for something that is not a sure thing. And then there is the fact that most people think starting a business is something that only people with business degrees can do successfully. Well, it is a lot easier than you think to start your own business in Australia, and, you don't need to have any special degrees to be a successful small business person.
There are good things and bad things about running your own business, and there are things that are going to be pretty simple to take care of, and others that are more complicated. It is not the easiest thing in the world to run a successful small business, but at the same time, if you take the time to do things right, and learn everything that you possibly can, it is not really all that difficult a job. In fact, it can be extremely rewarding when things go well, which you can ensure if you follow a few golden rules of entrepreneurship, such as:
How is your business going? Is it everything you dreamed about, or do you feel like you just have another dissatisfying job you must go to every day? Many people who are self-employed own jobs, not businesses, and in order to make it the other way around, they have to really work at it. Work on a business, not in it, and you will be much happier, and see much better results. If you really want to make your business something you love and something that brings great profits, here are six fundamental requirements to build a profit machine:
One of the biggest hurdles to small business owners, who want to do business online, or to boost their real world sales with a website, is that they do not have direct contact with their client. Where they would, in the real world, be able to ‘sell’ their customers on their products, when it comes to e-commerce, the process is almost entirely driven by the client, who can choose to leave your site at any time. The answer is sales copy, but what is it, exactly, and how can small business owners make sure that their sales copy turns visitors to their site into paying customers.
When you are an entrepreneur, most of the time, it is you and you alone who is doing all the work, and this means taking on many different types of jobs. After a while, you can find yourself becoming less and less productive, because there are so many things that you have to do. It is a really good idea to try and leverage technology to save yourself time and money, and you will be able to concentrate on things you may have been letting slip by because you just didn't have the time. Here are five ways that technology can help boost your productivity:
Anyone in business for themselves today understands the value of marketing on the Internet, and they take advantage of all of the marketing opportunities available. Two of the best, and that can be used in combination to really boost sales, are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media websites. Marketing Sherpa did a study of more than 2,000 marketers, and found that this combination is especially effective. Here are five ways you can use social media websites and SEO to your advantage:
Do you own your own small business? If so, chances are that the bulk of your client base is people from the area you are working from. How would you like to greatly expand your business by making it global? Thanks to the Internet, this is not nearly as hard as it would have been 20 years ago. In fact, it is a very simple thing to make your products and services available to the entire world.
If you are using the Internet to do business, which of course you are if you really want to get ahead today, then you need to find ways to bring people to your website, and convert them into actual paying customers. So, what you need to have is really great copy that is going to capture, and hold, the attention of readers. The better the copy, the more chances you have of getting more traffic to your website. Here are five great tips to make your copy give you better conversions:
“Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich”. This unforgettable quote by French writer Sarah Be hardt is something that entrepreneurs should live by. We must push ourselves to achieve all that we can, and when we don't, we never reach that level of success that we really want. Everyone dreams of wealth, but in order to achieve this, one must know which roads to take to get them there. One way to find that road is to use Roger Hamilton's Wealth Dynamics Profiling, which is a really helpful tool to have.
There are many skills one needs to be a successful entrepreneur, and one of the most important skills is the ability to network, and to be able to turn that networking into profits. This is something that a lot of entrepreneurs unfortunately don't do, because they simply do not realize the benefits networking can bring. When you know how to network, you can get the best type of advertising there is: word of mouth advertising. Here are some really great ways to use networking to boost your business:
Running your own business is not something that is all that difficult to do, as long as you are up to the task of meeting challenges head on, and not having unnecessary complications. A lot of the time, small business owners have the tendency to spend all of their time on the things that may seem important to them, but are not nearly as important as other areas which should have more intense focus. Here are five things that many entrepreneurs spend too much time focusing their efforts on:
Every entrepreneur is always looking for the best ways to advertise, and something that every small business owner should take advantage of are local classified ads or Yellow Page ads. This is a fairly easy way to advertise, and one of the least expensive ways. This type of advertising is going to reach people in your locality, and possibly even beyond. Here are five great ways that you can make this type of advertising work for your small business:
Anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur needs to have certain traits or they are never going to get anywhere with their business. Some people are born with these traits, others must learn and practice until these traits are like second nature to them. One of the most necessary traits is a passion for what you are doing. If you do not have this, there really is no sense in even getting started, because you will not have the passion to do what it takes to really make a go of it.
There are many small business owners who treat their business cards as just ways to provide people with contact information. This is really a waste of money if this is all that they are being used for, since there are ways that you can turn business cards in to really great marketing tools. If you find that this sounds like you, there are things you can do to make your business cards work more than they currently are. Use them as mini-flyers to generate as many sales as possible. Here are some great tips on how you can get more from your business cards:
When you are setting up your business, you have to find your target audience. Once you do this, then it is time to find the best ways to market your business to your target audience. Today, the Internet is one of the most popular ways to market businesses of all sizes, and in order to do this properly, you need to have web pages that have excellent content that provides people with information that they need and want to read. Of course, you need to understand certain creative and content writing techniques to be able to create really excellent web content.
No one likes cold calling for sales. Let's face it, we are all afraid of rejection, even if we don't like to admit it, and cold-calling involves a lot of rejection, especially while you are still learning all the tricks of the trade. But, cold-calling is one of the best ways for entrepreneurs to generate interest in their business, and get the customers they need to get off the ground and start making profits. There are a few simple things you can do to make the idea of cold-calling a lot less terrifying, including: Have the Right Mindset
It is incredibly important these days for all businesses to have a website. Websites provide an excellent way to keep ahead in today's business world. But just having a website isn't enough. You have to make sure that your website is working for you, and the only way to do this is to make sure that you are offering something that is going to keep customers coming back to your website time and time again. Even if they are not buying anything from you all the time, they are still visiting, and that is half the battle already won.
There are a lot of little details that always need to be taken care of when you start a business, and a lot of people seem to just jump right into it feet first without giving any thought to creating any type of a business plan. While this may work for some people, it is not the best idea. Creating a business plan is not just something you do when you need to get financing for your business. It is also a great tool that you can always use to make sure that your business is staying on track.
In the beginning, starting your own business seems exciting and fun. After a while, you realize that there is a lot more work than you may have initially expected, and the initial excitement begins to wear off. But, if you follow certain steps, you can keep this from happening to you, and you will always be excited to get up every day and operate your business. There are many mistakes that entrepreneurs make that cause them to not have the excitement about their businesses they once had, and here are ten of them:
The more transactions you make, the more profits your business is going to earn. It's as simple as that, and it is something that every entrepreneur knows. Unfortunately, not every entrepreneur knows how to pump up the number of transactions per customer, which is very important. It is true that the longer someone is doing business with you, the more apt they are going to be to start purchasing even more products and services from you, because they have grown to trust your business and what you are selling.