Marketing Tips for Economic Downtime In today's unpredictable marketing climate, many business owners are riding the waves of our recent economic tides by focusing their attention on the customer. Thoughtful customer feedback is one of the most valuable sources of information to consider for informed marketing decisions.  However, eliciting informative customer feedback is sometimes easier said than done.  After customers purchase and use your product, few will be bothered to fill out a survey or comment card and return it to you via mail.  Many dislike the interruption and inconvenience of telephone solicitations.  Today's marketing professionals are challenged to search ...

Segmentation in business; is the method of dividing business into correlated groups that enhances the business view. For structural growth in business, segmentation is an imperative and effective means to achieve the end result. With emerging smaller franchises the need to find 'that subtle' difference to bring forth the marketing edge is very important. Opportunities in marketing increase when segmented groups of clients and customers with varying needs and wants are recognized. Markets can be segmented or targeted using a variety of factor. The bases for segmenting consumer markets include: Demographical bases (age, family, gender, occupation, ethnicity) Geographical bases (cities, states, regions, countries) Behavior bases ...

If you aren't familiar with the phrase "viral marketing", don't worry because you're probably already using the technique. As another way of saying "word of mouth", viral marketing refers to the systematic, planned approach to spreading information from person to person. With the costs of products and services on the rise today, and the unstable economy, it may seem that shrinking back on marketing your business is the answer to finding the balance. However, we'd like to suggest a few viral marketing strategies before you decide to make any marketing cutbacks. 1)      Target a Defined Audience- The best way to determine the ...

With the familiarity of Firefox, yet with a foundation all its own, Flock 2.0, the new social browser, boasts a combination of media tools that is sure to revolutionize your web-browsing experience. Nearly a year after its beta release, the newest version of Flock is making waves as it aims to enhance what the Internet is most known for, the art of connection. With all the energy spent on keeping up with everything that's the latest, why not make your social life easier by streamlining it? Enter Flock. By integrating social services such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Picasa, to name ...

Have you ever set aside time to sit down and update your business blog, only to find out you have no idea what to write about?  It's easy to talk with customers and answer questions about your areas of expertise; you feel comfortable and competent "talking shop" with colleagues, but writing a blog brings on an intense case of writer's block.  Sound familiar?  Try these time-tested tips for instant blog successes! 1.    Answer a frequently asked question.  Choose a question that you often hear from your clients and write out a description of the conundrum and your best answer.  Chances are, ...

Today's online marketers can learn a lot from the techniques employed by the Democratic and Republican strategists advising the candidates in our current presidential election season.  Inspiring voters to rally around a specific party or candidate is much like motivating consumers to have confidence in a brand or purchase a product.  As we daily witness the events of the 2008 presidential race, online marketers can benefit from a closer analysis of the dynamics of marketing segmentation. Presidential marketing campaigns are fueled with enormous budgets, massive manpower, and seemingly almost unlimited resources.  Despite the numerous complexities and nuances involved in "marketing" a ...

As a business owner, it might seem enticing to send an e-mail blast about the latest product or service your company offers to everyone on your list. However, before you do, take a few minutes to see how segmenting your customer base provides more-focused advertising, as well as more sales and marketing opportunities. Here are a few categories to consider when segmenting your e-mail lists: Gender-Not to wage a battle of the sexes, but many times taking into consideration the gender of your customers is well worth your time and effort. Age- How much of an impact does age have on your products ...

Although the experts may disagree about whether or not we are currently in a true recession in the U.S., the fact remains:  these are troubling economic times for many Americans.  How does this climate of concern affect today’s B2B market? Simply put, fewer consumers equals less demand.  Less demand means less dollars spent on advertising.  During the 2001 recession, U.S. advertising dropped 9%; U.S. advertising on the internet dropped 27%.  However, these statistics may be misleading.  While some forms of marketing slow down during a recession, some efforts, such as direct marketing, actually show signs of growth during economic slowdowns.  In ...

If You Build It Right, They Will Come:  The Art of Search Engine Optimization Any movie buff will tell you how Kevin Costner came to build a baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield in the modern classic “Field of Dreams.”  He was following the instructions of a mysterious voice in his head, a voice that promised, “If you build it, they will come.” Many modern business owners have ventured into online marketing lured by the same voice:  Build an attractive website and the multitudes will swarm to you.  Unfortunately, it’s simply not that easy.  Online marketers who enjoy heavy ...

Optimization means "the action of finding the best solution." Mathematical programming, or optimization modeling, is a branch of mathematical modeling that is concerned with finding the optimal solution to a problem. Initially, optimization was used as a way to mathematically determine the optimal allocation of scarce resources. The concept has been borrowed by businesspeople to aid decision-making.Optimization has been used in the areas of the manufacturing supply chain, airline revenue yields, and financial investment risk assessment. More recently, the concept is being adopted by marketing. Phrases such as site optimization, search engine optimization, event optimization, and campaign optimization must be familiar. ...

Strategic agility; Traditional management models of creating a long term business are flawed since our knowledge of the future is always imperfect and marketplace conditions are changing continuously. In order to curb this inconsistency having a clear long-term vision, particularly, where it isn't based on environment analysis is very important. For instance keeping the vision fuzzy, but the priorities clear. Marketplace evaluation for strategic agility can be achieved through reconnaissance which acts as a basis for strategic agility. This approach describes how the knowledge of future is based on uncertainty, but how the reconnaissance mission can be implemented if something was ...

In the past year, podcast audiences grew by 18%.  Videocast audiences grew by 10%.  With the many social marketing tools available today, podcasts continue to grow in popularity and many online marketers are realizing the incredible potential of podcasting as a social media tool.  30% of all internet users have downloaded and listened to a podcast. The term “podcast” can be deceiving.  Listeners do not need an iPod or any kind of music player to listen to a podcast.  Almost half of all podcast listeners download programs and listen directly on their computers.  A videocast is simply a podcast with accompanying ...