By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Angel_Wood]Angel Wood
In the modern world, people are receiving advertisements from all sorts of medium. The people get exposure to the advertisements in all forms. Advertisements are displayed in print, broadcast on television or radio or published on Internet. World Wide Web is a medium that has gained momentum with the advent of Information technology age. In the Internet, a visitor finds all sorts of advertisements in blogs, social networking sites, websites and much more. Email Marketing is one of such techniques that enable a marketer to reach his best prospects. Sending mails to the prospective clients is a popular technique devised by the marketers to get in direct contact with the prospective clients.
Advertisers devise these marketing techniques to promote their business successfully. Marketing through mails is one of such techniques. The advantage with marketing through mails is that it reaches the prospective customers. An advertiser is not dependent on a prospective customer to visit the company's website or blog. A marketer can directly reach the potential customer through his electronic mail. This form of marketing is also successful as many people have access to the electronic mail. This is an easy medium to reach the customers. A marketer should know the basics of this form of marketing to derive effective results.
Marketing through mails has the potential to elicit relevant queries from the customers. It can also offer an opportunity to an advertiser to generate sales for the organization. An advertiser can encourage download trial of the products by the prospective clients. A potential customer can also get himself registered or give his email address and name for sign ups for newsletters. Registration or sign ups can pave way for sending newsletters of specific interests to the customers. The newsletters contain any kind of update or latest development about the company. Receiving promotional messages of various products and services is also beneficial for those customers who have busy schedule. It is time saving for a businessperson to receive the information of various products and services on his electronic mails.
Marketing through mails offers flexibility to an advertiser to customize the advertisements the way a customer prefers. Sending and receiving of messages is just a matter of single click of a button. Customers find it easier to reply to these mails. [http://www.emailsmartz.com]email marketing is cost effective method even for a marketer.
Myself webmaster of emailsmartz.com provides [http://www.emailsmartz.com]email marketing software, email generator, email spider, email sender and much more for promoting and enhancing the business successfully.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angel_Wood http://EzineArticles.com/?Email-Marketing---A-Great-Marketing-Tool&id=3073162
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Marketing Your Company to Trade Journals - Part Three
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Clift]Lisa Clift
Harness the Power of Profiles. In parts 1 and 2 of this series, respectively, we looked at how to market your company to the trade press by building relationships with chief editors and becoming a knowledgeable source who is quoted in articles. The next step in your press coverage plan should be to attract a media outlet to write a company profile about your organization. This coveted coverage can do more to boost sales than any marketing brochure, provided you know how to deliver the right content to the press.
The best company profiles focus on what I call the golden triad: a proven track record of successful business strategies, outstanding human resources, and above-average community involvement. Why? Because balance is the key to excelling at all things in this world-including building a business.
If your company is approached by a media outlet to be the subject of a profile, you must be willing and prepared to provide information on all three of these areas to ensure that the article will present your business in the best possible marketing light. Even if the writer isn't sharp enough to ask all the right questions, your organization should be smart enough to have the foresight to provide all of the right information needed to help set the direction of editorial coverage. If an article does not present information on all three of these areas, it will not hold up under reader scrutiny as an industry benchmark case study.
Here are the top three things your company can do to provide detailed information to the press and, as a result, receive above-average marketing benefits from a company profile.
No. 1: Request Questions. It's appropriate to ask a writer for a list of interview questions and an outline of specific things about your company that prompted the desire to write the story in the first place. A good writer will do this when you ask for it, an even better writer will do this at least a week in advance and send it to you along with a summary of how he or she believes the article angles might develop.
As a chief editor, I had a standard outline of my own that included a list of questions for each part of the triad. I used it to evaluate whether or not a company would make a good profile story. When I identified a company that met the criteria, I would share my outline and a summary of thoughts with the writer assigned to the story. If a writer pitched me a story, I expected the same amount of preliminary research. This is the level of prep work that a good publication/media outlet will undertake, so it should not be a burden to modify the information and share it with you. If you request questions and a writer balks, it's a fairly good indicator that he or she is not prepared and the resulting article will suffer. If that's the case, you might want to think twice about going forward with the story.
No. 2: Take Time to Prepare. Once you receive questions from a writer, use them to prepare! I can't tell you how many times I have shown up at a company to find that the executives I am scheduled to interview have not even looked at the questions I sent in advance. This is a warning sign to the writer that your company is not serious about providing in-depth information for a story. It screams fluff is coming, watch out! Here are three suggestions on how to optimize the preparation process on your company's end:
a. Have one person who is involved in your corporate marketing efforts assigned to distribute the questions to the people who will be interviewed. Have that individual provide assistance in collecting any information, such as statistics and financial numbers, that will be necessary to fully answer the questions. Make sure that information is on paper and in the hands of those who will be interviewed before the interviews take place.
b. Prepare a press kit for the writer that includes a summary of vital statistics about the company (sales, locations, number of employees, product lines, etc.) and copies of any positive press coverage the company has received in the past.
c. If you are going to provide a facility tour as a part of the interview process, make sure all of your employees know how to respond if a writer asks a question. Take the time to meet with employees and brief them on how to interact with the press. It will make a difference. Trust me on this one.
No. 3: Go the Extra Mile. Of course you are going to tell the press what sets your company apart from the competition during an interview, but will your customers and suppliers say the same things if they are approached by the writer for the article? When you are getting ready to participate in a full-length feature profile, you will get better overall coverage if you take it to the next level by making sure the company has a list of contacts within its immediate supply chain available. It should include representatives from suppliers and customers who are aware that your company is going to be profiled and who are willing to discuss your business positively on the record. This is not a guarantee that a writer will not seek his or her own sources, but chances are a writer will follow-up on leads that you provide too.
Overall, the primary purpose of a profile article in the trade press is to provide a case study of best practices for an industry. It is designed to help educate readers and show them examples of what a company is doing right. Therefore, if your company measures up, you need to be willing to share enough details about your operations in the areas of business strategies, human resources, and community involvement to become a benchmark. Otherwise, the article will not have the depth necessary to make your company shine in the media spotlight.
Lisa Clift is a chief editor and manager with 20 years of diverse experience in magazine publishing. She currently is a partner with http://www.mymarketingcompany.com Prior to that, she held the position of chief editor for ProSales, a monthly publication owned by Hanley Wood, LLC, with 35,000 qualified readers in the building materials supply industry.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Clift http://EzineArticles.com/?Marketing-Your-Company-to-Trade-Journals---Part-Three&id=3049874
Harness the Power of Profiles. In parts 1 and 2 of this series, respectively, we looked at how to market your company to the trade press by building relationships with chief editors and becoming a knowledgeable source who is quoted in articles. The next step in your press coverage plan should be to attract a media outlet to write a company profile about your organization. This coveted coverage can do more to boost sales than any marketing brochure, provided you know how to deliver the right content to the press.
The best company profiles focus on what I call the golden triad: a proven track record of successful business strategies, outstanding human resources, and above-average community involvement. Why? Because balance is the key to excelling at all things in this world-including building a business.
If your company is approached by a media outlet to be the subject of a profile, you must be willing and prepared to provide information on all three of these areas to ensure that the article will present your business in the best possible marketing light. Even if the writer isn't sharp enough to ask all the right questions, your organization should be smart enough to have the foresight to provide all of the right information needed to help set the direction of editorial coverage. If an article does not present information on all three of these areas, it will not hold up under reader scrutiny as an industry benchmark case study.
Here are the top three things your company can do to provide detailed information to the press and, as a result, receive above-average marketing benefits from a company profile.
No. 1: Request Questions. It's appropriate to ask a writer for a list of interview questions and an outline of specific things about your company that prompted the desire to write the story in the first place. A good writer will do this when you ask for it, an even better writer will do this at least a week in advance and send it to you along with a summary of how he or she believes the article angles might develop.
As a chief editor, I had a standard outline of my own that included a list of questions for each part of the triad. I used it to evaluate whether or not a company would make a good profile story. When I identified a company that met the criteria, I would share my outline and a summary of thoughts with the writer assigned to the story. If a writer pitched me a story, I expected the same amount of preliminary research. This is the level of prep work that a good publication/media outlet will undertake, so it should not be a burden to modify the information and share it with you. If you request questions and a writer balks, it's a fairly good indicator that he or she is not prepared and the resulting article will suffer. If that's the case, you might want to think twice about going forward with the story.
No. 2: Take Time to Prepare. Once you receive questions from a writer, use them to prepare! I can't tell you how many times I have shown up at a company to find that the executives I am scheduled to interview have not even looked at the questions I sent in advance. This is a warning sign to the writer that your company is not serious about providing in-depth information for a story. It screams fluff is coming, watch out! Here are three suggestions on how to optimize the preparation process on your company's end:
a. Have one person who is involved in your corporate marketing efforts assigned to distribute the questions to the people who will be interviewed. Have that individual provide assistance in collecting any information, such as statistics and financial numbers, that will be necessary to fully answer the questions. Make sure that information is on paper and in the hands of those who will be interviewed before the interviews take place.
b. Prepare a press kit for the writer that includes a summary of vital statistics about the company (sales, locations, number of employees, product lines, etc.) and copies of any positive press coverage the company has received in the past.
c. If you are going to provide a facility tour as a part of the interview process, make sure all of your employees know how to respond if a writer asks a question. Take the time to meet with employees and brief them on how to interact with the press. It will make a difference. Trust me on this one.
No. 3: Go the Extra Mile. Of course you are going to tell the press what sets your company apart from the competition during an interview, but will your customers and suppliers say the same things if they are approached by the writer for the article? When you are getting ready to participate in a full-length feature profile, you will get better overall coverage if you take it to the next level by making sure the company has a list of contacts within its immediate supply chain available. It should include representatives from suppliers and customers who are aware that your company is going to be profiled and who are willing to discuss your business positively on the record. This is not a guarantee that a writer will not seek his or her own sources, but chances are a writer will follow-up on leads that you provide too.
Overall, the primary purpose of a profile article in the trade press is to provide a case study of best practices for an industry. It is designed to help educate readers and show them examples of what a company is doing right. Therefore, if your company measures up, you need to be willing to share enough details about your operations in the areas of business strategies, human resources, and community involvement to become a benchmark. Otherwise, the article will not have the depth necessary to make your company shine in the media spotlight.
Lisa Clift is a chief editor and manager with 20 years of diverse experience in magazine publishing. She currently is a partner with http://www.mymarketingcompany.com Prior to that, she held the position of chief editor for ProSales, a monthly publication owned by Hanley Wood, LLC, with 35,000 qualified readers in the building materials supply industry.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Clift http://EzineArticles.com/?Marketing-Your-Company-to-Trade-Journals---Part-Three&id=3049874
3 Ways to Avoid Wasting Time on Pay For Space Promotional Gift Sites When Sourcing Promotional Gifts
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dan_Toombs]Dan Toombs
There are still a few of them out there: The dinosaur old media pay for space sites that sell advertising space to promotional gift suppliers and not promotional gifts. These media companies hire people to write articles and press releases that take the reader back to their site listing hundreds of business gift suppliers that have paid for the right to be there. Many of the writers of these articles have never even sold a business gift in their lives. They have sold advertising space and they are hoping that by getting you to their site it will keep their advertisers there.
Back when the internet was much younger these types of pay for space websites offered a good service. They offered you a place you could go that was like a yellow pages of the promotional gift industry. Today, however, many promotional merchandise suppliers have begun specialised in one, two or three products and have built outstanding websites around those products. They have properly optimised their websites to ensure you the customer can easily navigate and find the required promotional pens, printed stress balls etc. on their sites. Often they are rewarded by higher search engine ratings and hopefully a few more happy customers.
If you find yourself directed to a site that does not actually sell product but simply houses many sites that do, ask yourself these three questions;
1. Should I stay here or begin my search anew, perhaps with more specific keywords on Google?
2. Have I checked out the pay for click sponsored listings on the major search engines yet? If you cannot find the promotional gifts you are looking for in the organic listings, look in the sponsored listings. Each search engine has sponsored listings. Google for example features their sponsored pay for click advertisements at the top and along the side of each search page. Companies that advertise there are strategically placing their sites to get the best results. They are much more in control and are only charged for how well their site performs rather than for a large chunk of cyber-space. You are much more likely to find a company that offers you excellent information and service and less likely to contact a company that is there because they have a large budget for purchasing banner adds. With pay for click advertising, you can usually see if you are being directed to a supplier's site or if it is merely an advertisement for a business gift portal.
3. Why are you on the pay for space ad website in the first place?: Were you directed there by an online article or press release perhaps? There are a lot of articles out there directly people to such sites. When clicking on links of interesting articles, ask yourself is the author directing me to more detailed information about their products and services or am I simply being led to site in an effort to keep the hits to their site up in an effort to keep their paying customers happy.
Dan Toombs is the Managing Director of CompuGift Limited. Established in 1997, CompuGift was the UK's first internet based promotional gift supplier.
CompuGift's popular [http://www.promotionalpens.co.uk]promotional pens features the largest selection of quality promotional pens in the UK. [http://www.compugift.co.uk]CompuGift is a leading supplier of promotional gifts to businesses in the UK and Europe.
Dan would love to hear from you and would be happy to offer information and advice on any promotional products that are of interest. He can be contact on 01642 782455.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Toombs http://EzineArticles.com/?3-Ways-to-Avoid-Wasting-Time-on-Pay-For-Space-Promotional-Gift-Sites-When-Sourcing-Promotional-Gifts&id=3089719
There are still a few of them out there: The dinosaur old media pay for space sites that sell advertising space to promotional gift suppliers and not promotional gifts. These media companies hire people to write articles and press releases that take the reader back to their site listing hundreds of business gift suppliers that have paid for the right to be there. Many of the writers of these articles have never even sold a business gift in their lives. They have sold advertising space and they are hoping that by getting you to their site it will keep their advertisers there.
Back when the internet was much younger these types of pay for space websites offered a good service. They offered you a place you could go that was like a yellow pages of the promotional gift industry. Today, however, many promotional merchandise suppliers have begun specialised in one, two or three products and have built outstanding websites around those products. They have properly optimised their websites to ensure you the customer can easily navigate and find the required promotional pens, printed stress balls etc. on their sites. Often they are rewarded by higher search engine ratings and hopefully a few more happy customers.
If you find yourself directed to a site that does not actually sell product but simply houses many sites that do, ask yourself these three questions;
1. Should I stay here or begin my search anew, perhaps with more specific keywords on Google?
2. Have I checked out the pay for click sponsored listings on the major search engines yet? If you cannot find the promotional gifts you are looking for in the organic listings, look in the sponsored listings. Each search engine has sponsored listings. Google for example features their sponsored pay for click advertisements at the top and along the side of each search page. Companies that advertise there are strategically placing their sites to get the best results. They are much more in control and are only charged for how well their site performs rather than for a large chunk of cyber-space. You are much more likely to find a company that offers you excellent information and service and less likely to contact a company that is there because they have a large budget for purchasing banner adds. With pay for click advertising, you can usually see if you are being directed to a supplier's site or if it is merely an advertisement for a business gift portal.
3. Why are you on the pay for space ad website in the first place?: Were you directed there by an online article or press release perhaps? There are a lot of articles out there directly people to such sites. When clicking on links of interesting articles, ask yourself is the author directing me to more detailed information about their products and services or am I simply being led to site in an effort to keep the hits to their site up in an effort to keep their paying customers happy.
Dan Toombs is the Managing Director of CompuGift Limited. Established in 1997, CompuGift was the UK's first internet based promotional gift supplier.
CompuGift's popular [http://www.promotionalpens.co.uk]promotional pens features the largest selection of quality promotional pens in the UK. [http://www.compugift.co.uk]CompuGift is a leading supplier of promotional gifts to businesses in the UK and Europe.
Dan would love to hear from you and would be happy to offer information and advice on any promotional products that are of interest. He can be contact on 01642 782455.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Toombs http://EzineArticles.com/?3-Ways-to-Avoid-Wasting-Time-on-Pay-For-Space-Promotional-Gift-Sites-When-Sourcing-Promotional-Gifts&id=3089719
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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