Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Internet Marketing Business Plan

Internet Marketing, as a concept, is a requirement for any business or service provider, these days. I know, there are several websites that will help you to get your Internet promotion planning done yourself (a few of my articles would fall in the list too). Nonetheless, those ideas are most effective in case of small businesses. Like, if a business is in set up mode, then it would not be favorable for it to spend a lot of money on hiring professionals. As such, the "do-it-yourself" business plans are good to start off with. But, in the case of moderate to big businesses, the most plausible idea would be to hire a firm that could handle the Internet marketing on their behalf. This is why businesses promoted online have scope.

As usual, I am going to start off with a case study:
"LinkIn Consultancy is a firm that deals in Internet promoting solutions. It was started by a group of 4 college friends who were very Internet savvy and had done their Marketing Management Courses. As such, they know what the market needs and how to deliver. Since, they were young and energetic, they did a lot of self marketing and networking, this got them good long term clients. Now, at the age of 45, each one of them is drawing a turnover of Rs 300,000/- per month, individually" Isn't it amazing how a little out of the box thinking can make you rich and keep you intellectually fulfilled?

Let us now, see how to set up an Internet Marketing Business
First and foremost, it is imperative for anyone desirous to start this business, to have a good idea about several marketing strategies. It is vital to stay up-to-date with the latest case studies, take overs, and other similar activities. They may not all be Internet related, but they are, nonetheless, required to get an understanding of the market and its components.

Now we come to the starting points, I like to call them "Engine notes"
Once you have built a good enough marketing knowledge-base, you need to market yourself in order to get clients. You need to use online marketing, that would be applicable for small business and promote your website, as well. Google AdSense and Google AdWords could be put to good use in this case!

Next, you need to know exactly how to set up referral, Google AdSense and Google AdWords accounts (for the potential clients). Before you start work on a particular project, Google for related and relevant websites and blogs. This can assist virtual participation and visibility. Further, linking and back linking can be put in use, as well. Make sure, that the company that has retained you, provides you with rights to participate virtually on their behalf. They could do it themselves as well, but that would be redundant (they have hired you to do the Internet work, right?).

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

How a Guarantee Can Change Your Business

A well written guarantee takes the risk out of a purchase and, as a result, can compel a customer to buy from you instead of your competition. As such it is a fantastic tool in your sales and marketing toolbox.

A guarantee is a promise backed by a process. There's no point in promising something your customers don't want and there's no point promising something you can't deliver.

As such, a guarantee does two things for your business. It takes the fear and risk out of buying from you, and it focuses your attention on delivering what's most important to your customers.

I recently came across this guarantee offered by an estate agent. This particular company guaranteed their customers that they could negotiate their fees down - even completely eliminate them - if they felt they didn't receive full value for their money.

Can you imagine which of your competitors would go bust very quickly if they offered such a guarantee? That's a great test of a brilliant guarantee by the way - it should be something your competitors would never be able to or want to copy. It gives you a truly unique selling proposition.

How many processes would you need to change in your business to be able to offer that guarantee? How radically would they need to be changed? If the changes are small, why not make the changes, see how you get on and then go for it and deliver your killer guarantee.

Would your team rise to the challenge to meet the conditions of the guarantee? Wouldn't that be awesome.

Do you think you would attract more customers if you offered a guarantee like that? That's a rhetorical question...

This kind of guarantee could apply in any number of service industries. For example, I have recently had dealings with a number of national and regional business brokers, and I can speak from first hand experience that many would go bust very quickly if they offered a guarantee like this.

Which means there is a huge opportunity for a business brokerage firm to take over the market if they can find a way to offer clients such an amazing service that they could offer a value based negotiable fee. Now given that only 22% of businesses listed for sale in the UK are actually sold, that would be a huge undertaking, but imagine the opportunity...