By John Jantsch

 One of the most powerful strategic planning tools your business can possess is a marketing plan. I'm not referring to an academic exercise found in college marketing textbooks. Your marketing plan should be a simple (in some cases, one-page) document that specifically answers who you are, what you do, who needs what you do and how you plan to attract their attention. It's a combination of the planning process and the completed action plan.

Follow these seven simple steps to build the perfect marketing plan:

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By Ryan McCarthy

 Crushpad, a San Francisco winemaker, wants to make you feel better about your battered 401(k) -- and sell you some wine. So it's offering a stock market futures contract in a bottle. For $39, you reserve a bottle of Crushpad's 2007 Bailout Napa Cabernet for delivery in late summer. If by the close of the contract on August 14, the stock market rallies above the level it was at on the day of your purchase, you get to drink your bottle and celebrate your improving portfolio.

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By Anthony Malakian

 By In the banking industry, there are very few images that invoke a bank's name as strongly as Wells Fargo's stagecoach - especially west of the Mississippi River. After purchasing Wachovia, Wells is bringing that iconic symbol east.

The merger between San Francisco's Wells Fargo and Charlotte's Wachovia was completed on the first of the year. The process of converting Wachovia over to Wells is going to be slow and precise, as has been Wells Fargo's reputation. But with the banking industry in a state of severe turmoil, disseminating a unified message couldn't wait. So on January 2, the new brand became, "One team, twice as strong."

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By Anthony Malakian

 Close is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades - well, and marketing, too. If a company gets a five percent response on a direct mail campaign, odds are the marketing department will be thrilled. For TV it's worse.

But there's one marketing strategy that is almost guaranteed to get a 100-percent response rate: free food.

If a man calls Paulie's Pizzeria, asks for a large pie and finds out the pizza is gratis thanks to a local bank, that man is going to remember that bank's name. And it's quite reasonable to expect that he will tell his friends and family about the free pie. Pretty soon his Aunt Beth has told her hairdresser, who passed the word along to Joe, the man behind the counter at the local deli, while buying lotto tickets. At least that's what TD Bank, was hoping when it recently delivered 20,000 pizzas, in TD-branded boxes, to customers of pizzerias up and down the East Coast.

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By Jon Fine

 Add this to the list of media dislocations in general, and television in particular: Maybe prime time isn't prime anymore.

I don't mean the Internet runs the world, etc., and that broadcast TV is but a crude, cavemanlike relic. I mean that prime time—that post-dinner, pre-late-news stretch of the networks' glitziest offerings—may no longer be TV's prime time. Since the new season began last September, the top five broadcast networks' average audiences are down in the high single digits. Yet the networks' late-night shows, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien to Last Call with Carson Daly to Nightline, are up around 5%. The morning shows also are holding their viewers much better than those in the evening.

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By: Michael Fleischner

 

There have been times when my marketing colleagues sit in a room and discuss current customers who have subscribed to a service - wondering how to get them to renew. Unfortunately, this is the wrong conversation to have. The conversation should be about marketing activities that begin from the moment a sales is made.

The best time to renew a client is from the first day after a sale. You need to provide evidence of value to your existing customers from day one... not just day's before their service expires. Do you have products or services that must be renewed on a regular basis?

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By: Susan Burnash

As a Marketing consultant, I am often surprised by how few businesses actually utilize or understand the effectiveness of email newsletters (e-newsletters.) Done well, they keep you connected to customers and potential clients, help you establish and reinforce your organization's brand, and provide an ongoing touchpoint for driving repeat business, new sales, event attendance, donations, and more. But creating an effective e-newsletter and email campaign is a process and a formula.

I'd like to share with you some of the essential ingredients needed to ensure your e-newsletter is a marketing success.

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By: David Gruttadaurio

According to the Harvard Business Review, 91% of small businesses do absolutely nothing to retain their existing clients. That means only 9% of small business owners 'get' these facts:

- The average American business loses 50% of its customer base every 5 years.

- An existing customer spends an average of 67% more than new customers.

- It costs 7 to 9 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an old one. Mailing a monthly newsletter can eliminate all of these problems -- if you do it correctly.

A successful newsletter doesn't just 'happen'. It's composed of very specific elements. Without them, you might as well be sending your clients a comic book.

7 Elements Your Newsletter Must Have If You Want to Retain More Clients

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No matter how hard some people try to mystify SEO, it is not as complicated as many would lead you to believe. Despite all the techno jargon that many in the field will throw at you: SERPs, SEM, PageRank, Keyword Density, Vertical Search, Algorithms.. SEO is really simple to do if you understand some basic concepts and follow some easy steps.

Search Engine Optimization is getting your content listed in all the top positions in Google, Yahoo and MSN for your targeted keywords. When someone does a keyword search in a search engine for your particular subject or niche - you want your site or content to be at the top of the list.

Here are 10 SEO tactics that have worked and are working for me at this moment in time.

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By: Michael Montague

 

What is your goal for your website? When it comes to business websites, a return on investment expected. To get any kind of return, your site needs to have a goal to which all actions will be compared.

Do you want your website to inform, share news and information, communicate with different locations, entertain, or make a profit by selling information, services, or products? Imagine that you can have only one action on the website. What would it be? That's your website goal. Beyond this, only you can define what exactly you want other people to do on your website.

From this goal, you can research and develop your audience, keywords, site structure, site design, content, and promotion for your website. Ask yourself:

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Here Is What A Real Network Marketer Does To Keep On The Winning Edge

by Cindy Heller

How can you become a successful network marketing guru, able to give stirring speeches while conducting seminars in a network marketing business?

1) Subscribe to one professional network marketing journal.

There are many to choose from and many books written on network marketing. Become aware of the latest trends available to you and be willing to teach them. Potential prospects will be impressed if you are able to relate to them the ins and outs of a MLM and do so with confidence and conviction.

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Risk Management In Network Marketing

by Cindy Heller

No matter who you are, where you are and what you are doing, there are always going to be risks. Minimizing your risks, for the most part, depends on your judgment.

Losing money in network marketing is a risk but if you learn fast, than you will develop the needed skills and the faster you break even from this business. If you do want to make a comfortable living then you will need to stay in the MLM for the duration. Not setting high enough financial goals will encourage only a part time or half hearted effort which really is going to see a payment of the "part time" income mentality.

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Common Mistakes To Avoid For Network Marketing Newbies

by Cindy Heller

Perhaps you are new in the network marketing business and you want to initially try the product, read everything you can about the company, understand fully about the compensation plan and memorize the names of the "top dogs" in the company.

That is just not the way to do it. Like riding a bike, you don't read the best manual on riding or learn the moment you peddle.

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The Shocking Truth About Network Marketing

by Cindy Heller

Did you know that over 95% of network marketers or home based business owners are operating their business at a loss? Or they will eventually fold. If you are in the network marketing business for the first time, this can be a very intimidating prospect. Remember, this is just a statistic and if you are not willing to become a statistic than you can find success in a MLM business. Though 95% "fail" there are those 5% who dared take the risk and financially succeeded. These are the ones who stuck it out through the initial ups and downs of a fledgling business and succeeded.

One of the main reasons for failing is being uninformed about MLM business and than blaming that same business for your failure.

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How To Start Off The Right Foot In Network Marketing

by Cindy Heller

You will encounter many obstacles when starting on the road to network marketing. Meetings will need to attended often. Your upline is available for all of your needs. If unqualified, than go to an upline who will be able to mentor you and provide you with all the ins an outs of network marketing.

Once you have downlines, than you are in a position to lead and apply what your upline has taught you. Duplication is the key to success and in building a long term business.

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