Monday, April 21, 2014

Tips For Conducting Great Giveaways For Your Business

One of the best ways for you to gain extra customers for your business is by conducting giveaways, as giveaways are a means for you to sacrifice a small amount of inventory or time for a lot of extra exposure; before you try doing a giveaway for your business, however, it will be important that you pay attention to a few things that will go into making this giveaway successful.

When putting together a giveaway, one of the biggest mistakes businesses tend to make is that they give away something that is easy or convenient for them, rather than making sure they are giving away something customers will actually want; instead of giving away something that will stir up no desire in the hearts of customers and potential customers, you should view the giveaway as an investment, or as advertising, and expand your budget accordingly to give customers something they will want.

Doing a giveaway that involves participation from your customers will be another key to making your giveaway successful, but realize that this does not mean you need to make their participation difficult; when doing a giveaway, always aim to make the participation aspect fun and easy, as this will make it much more likely that people will take time and effort to participate in the contest.

And finally, you should understand that getting people to help you spread the word about the contest itself will be a huge key to making the giveaway successful, and you will need to make sure you are taking the right steps in order to cause this to happen; the best way to get people to spread the word about a contest is to make this part of the contest itself, where entries are given into the contest for using social media (or other means) to let people know about the contest itself!

When you run a contest for your business by taking these steps, you will find that lots of new customers are coming your way, and that the inventory and time spent on these contests are absolutely worth it!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Making The Cold Call Work For You

Cold calling is one of the oldest sales techniques out there. It is also widely ridiculed and derided! One of the main reasons why it is made fun of so mercilessly is plain and simple: most people don't like receiving cold calls. In fact, plenty of people don't really enjoy having anything "sold" to them at all! You have probably been on the other end of this and experienced this yourself. And by knowing this, you already know the biggest key to cold calling: Do not do it the way everyone else does! You have already lost the battle if someone picks up and thinks, "Oh, great - another cold call." Instead, you need to know how to cold call differently.

The first thing you have to do is put in your time researching. A little research can go a long way, and can save you a lot of time. Instead of blindly calling tons of people, hoping you somehow hit the mark somewhere, make sure you are calling people who will be interested in hearing from you. While there are a lot of ways to gather good information for cold calls, one of the best ways is research and questionnaires of your own.

Make sure you have confidence when you make the actual phone call. One of the best ways to achieve the necessary level of confidence - and in fact, one of the best ways to cold call in general - is to have a script. And stick to this script once you have it in place! You do not need a word-for-word script - just a general outline of what you will say, and the order in which you will say it. You can refine your script over time as well. Add things onto the script when you find that they work. When you find that something does not work, take it out.

As you gain more experience, you can start customizing your script depending on the flow of the conversation, or on who you are speaking with. Soften things up a bit if you are speaking with a small business owner. When speaking with a high-ranking executive, put on a more formal air. You will become more and more adept at making adjustments the more cold calls you have made.

Some companies have stated that cold calls no longer work, and they have cut them out of their strategy. But if you know how to use them, cold calls can be a huge help for your business!

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Which Is Better, Paying For Ads Or Using SEO?

When it comes to the topic of whether you would be better off saving money on online advertising and instead working on search engine optimization for your small business, or if it would be better to save some time and put some money into online advertising, there is plenty of debate; certainly, there are merits to the arguments on either side, but if you have been trying to make this decision yourself, one of the best thing you can do is simply look at the numbers.

One of the most popular websites on the Internet these days - and certainly one of the places where people are most likely to spend their time - is Twitter, and for this reason, Twitter has become one of the most popular places to advertise; as far as the effectiveness of advertising on Twitter, however, you should realize that only about half of one percent of all clicks on Twitter come on the ads on the site!

Of course, another one of the most popular destinations on the Web nowadays is facebook, and facebook makes lots of money off of their advertising services; while facebook ads can be effective, however, the numbers show that the click-through rate of facebook ads is generally well under one percent - which, again, is far less than optimal!

And one of the most popular places to pay for ads these days - because it is just about the most popular destination on the Web - is Google, but while the ads on Google are effective, it would be far more effective to have used search engine optimization to get your site onto Page One of Google rankings than to have paid for an ad; on average, only about 18 percent of the clicks on Google go to the ads, while the other 82 percent go to the organic results!

Paying for ads for your small business is not a bad thing to do, but you should also realize that there are great merits to using search engine optimization - as even though it can take a little bit of extra time, it can also bring you much greater results!

How to Market to an Attentive Audience

Marketing is in the middle of a drastic movement of change. Audiences of consumers no longer want to be marketed through interruptions in their different forms of entertainment. Magazine ads, commercials, and direct mailings are still being used but are no longer the most cost effective ways to advertise. Consumers throughout the modern world have developed mind blockades for these advertisements. They know when they are trying to be sold and are able to avoid the ad quite well.

A more efficient process is now in place even though it takes longer to accomplish. You must first get someone’s permission to advertise to them. This can be done in many different ways. A few examples are to offer a free item in return for a survey or to offer a large discount on an item they want to buy. All of these different things involve the customer spending some time to interact with you. At this point you will be on the way to developing a relationship with them.

The permission to use a customer’s valuable time is extremely valuable to a business. The use of the internet is the best way to do this. Physically offering a discount for an item or a coupon on one can incur many costs for a business. Physical copies of the offer, envelopes, and stamps would all be needed. You can market this way much cheaper through the use of the internet since it can help to eliminate all of these costs.

People pay attention to what you are trying to sell them if you market in this way according to statistics. They also will take a longer period of time to pay attention. Any form of marketing today is rather transparent and this one is really no different. But the main aspect that differentiates it is that the consumer is ok with it since they are getting something. They will still be getting something they want to compensate for this time even though they may not want to purchase the main item you are marketing.

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How To Score High Praise At Work

One of the most important things at your job will be that you understand how to do the things you should do in order to score high praise; of course, one reason why you want to do this is because high praise from those above you is a great indication that you are doing the job you are supposed to be doing, but the other reason why scoring high praise is an important part of your job is that this can give you the energy and the drive you need in order to keep doing great work!

In order to score high praise at work, one of the first things you need to do is be willing to take on challenging assignments; many people try to avoid the assignments that will be more difficult, but your higher-ups at work know which are the more difficult projects and assignments, and they will certainly notice if you are always the person volunteering to tackle these projects as others shy away from them.

It will also be important that you are willing to work harder than what is expected of you when you are looking to score high praise at work, as going over and above expectations will catch the eye of those above you - and even if you do not do a perfect job on a project or assignment, you will be given a bit more room for error if they see that you are always working as hard as you can to go over and above!

And as you wait for your hard work to pay off, you need to have a bit of patience; you will not always see the fruits of your labors right away, but as you continue plugging away and working hard, this will certainly be noticed in time, and you will be rewarded accordingly - with high praise, and with all the other things that come with this.

Of course, in the end, you should truly be working as hard as you can at work simply for yourself, always knowing that you are doing the best job possible - but scoring high praise at work is certainly an added benefit of this hard work, and in taking this approach, you will reach this desired end result.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Tips For Making Your Blog Look Good

People will choose to start a blog for lots of different reasons, ranging from starting a blog for personal use, as a promotional tool for your business, or even just as a means to connect with and interact with others; regardless of the purpose behind your blog, however, it will really be serving no purpose at all if no one is reading it – and one thing you should realize about a blog is that it is unlikely to keep many readers if the blog itself is an eyesore, even if the content on the blog itself is great!

When you are trying to make sure your blog looks good, the first thing you will want to pay attention to is the color scheme you are choosing; a lot of people make the mistake of picking out colors that are too harsh or too dark, which puts the reader in a position where they have to strain their eyes just to look at the page, and many of these people will end up going elsewhere for their blog reading so that their eyes will not hurt so much!

Font that is too small or too difficult to read is another thing that can cause people's eyes to hurt or get tired, and can therefore cause these people to simply head elsewhere; when picking the font for your website, go with something that people are used to seeing, and make sure you are also keeping this font large enough that people who maybe do not have perfect eyesight will still have no problem reading it.

And of course, having plenty of space that is not covered by text is one thing that will be appealing on a website; leave plenty of white space on your site, and also sprinkle some pictures and other forms of media across your site, as this will keep the site from appearing so overwhelming that no one wants to try to tackle it!

As you set up your website with these tips in mind, making sure that your website is both easy to look at and easy to enjoy, it will be much easier for you to grow the readership on your site, and to experience all the success and benefits that come with this!

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How To Collect Your Thoughts When You Are Stuck On A Project

It can become easy to get "stuck" when you are working on a project, regardless of whether your project is for work or just for fun. And when many people get stuck, they end up pushing so hard to get past this point that they just get more and more frustrated. A better approach than "pushing" - regardless of whether it is a work project you are stuck on, a creative project, or just something for fun - is to find a way to ease out of the rut. Oftentimes, the best way to ease out of the rut is to take some time to collect your thoughts.

Different people tend to collect their thoughts well in different manners, so it is important that you find the best way for you. For instance, some people find that brainstorming with others - especially if you are on a project team - helps to get them out of the rut. If you find that brainstorming is a good approach for you, check with your project team to make sure it is also a good approach for them. If it is, you can sit around and brainstorm together without the pressure of you having to push out of the rut on your own.

Other people find that the best way for them to collect their thoughts is simply for them to go for a walk. These people find that they can sort through their ideas and organize their thoughts when they are able to get outside for a bit or simply get away from their desk. By the time these people return to their desk, they have a new perspective and are ready to attack the project again.

And one of the strangest ways to get out of a rut with a project - but one of the ways that seems to work best of all - is to just not think of it. Many people find that when they finally stop thinking about a project - forcing themselves to move onto other things - the breakthrough will come!

There is certainly nothing wrong with getting stuck on a project, as it tends to happen to everyone; the big difference is whether you stay stuck, or whether you find the best way that works for you to get yourself unstuck!