Improve Sales Through Marketing - Latest 5 Ways to Increase Your Sales Using Marketing Strategies

It is not enough that you have great products and the best website in the World Wide Web. If you want to make decent sales, you need to know the best ways on how you can sell your products online.

Here's how you can increase your sales using effective marketing strategies:
1. Plan ahead. Do not promote your products and services without creating an Internet marketing plan first. This can serve as your blueprint and can help you make the whole process well-guided to increase your chances of succeeding in this endeavor. Your plan must include every Internet tool that you are going to use, your marketing budget, the actions that you need to take, and mechanisms that you are going to use in order to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.

2. Know your target market. It is very important that you know the online behavior of your target market to make your marketing strategies focused and highly targeted. Identify all the websites that they often visit, the amount of time they spend online, the keywords that they are using on search engines, etc. By doing so, you can easily determine the best Internet marketing tools to use so you can easily connect with these people.

3. Search engine optimization. You need to know how to please the search engines as this is the only way to make your website easier to find online. Do a keyword research and identify the best keywords to target on your website. Launch aggressive link building campaign and submit your site on various directories. If you are running an HTML site, you will need to use relevant tags that can help search spiders in analyzing and indexing your web content.

4. Information based marketing solutions. The best way to capture the attention of your target market is to offer them with the kind of information that they are looking for. You can do this through article marketing, forum posting, blogging, and publishing. If your prospects are impressed with your content, they are most likely to visit your website. This is the first step to convert them to prospects to buying customers.

5. Invade social networking sites. Get your hands on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other networking sites that are popular among online users. Expand your network and advertise your products and services using the sites' bulletin features. Don't forget to communicate their selling points and competitive advantage to increase your chances of making a sale.

Sources of Obtaining your Customer

Variety marketing strategies are applied to reach your customers. However the nature of your business also define the best one. B2B business has different marketing approach compared to personal one. In the below explanation we mainly focus our discussion to B2B business. How do you generate your next customers ?

* Satisfied customers :
Both current and previously satisfied customers are the most effective sources from generating your next customers. Customers not only provide the additional business but also refer to other prospects. Referrals of leads in the same industry are very important due to we have better understanding of the unique needs of the organization.

* Endless chain method
Additional leads from each person we interview whether the person are our satisfied customers or even the person did not buy from us. Some people objects to have their names used as a means of opening the door to friends or business acquaintances. Others, particularly those who trust us and enthusiastic over the products or services, will not hesitate to provide the names of additional prospects. The name of lead provided by either customers or a prospect known as referral leads, is generally considered to be the most successful type of lead.

* Center of influence method
In the center of influence method, the salesperson cultivates a relationship with well-known, influential people in the territory who are willing to supply lead information. This method, as with endless method, works best if the center of influence is already a satisfied customers of the businessperson. In industrial selling situation the center of influence are frequently people in important departments not directly involved in the purchase decision such as : quality control, equipment maintenance or receiving. The businessperson keeps in close touch with them over extended period, solicit their help in a straightforward manner, and keeps them informed on sales that result from their aid.

* Promotional activities
Most companies elicit a steady supply of sales leads with the advertising, catalogs, publicity, direct mail, trade shows and seminars. Successful businesspeople develop an effective system for utilizing and managing such leads.
Inquiries
Firm have developed sophisticated systems to generate inquiries from leads. For example the company send out direct mail to potential clients. The firm also places advertisements in trade publications such as Control Magazine. A reader of the ad can request additional information by using the 800 number in ad or by using the reader service card in the back of magazine. A growing trend is to tie the marketing promotion to an 800 number and the inquirer's fax machine. The prospect calls the 800 number, talks to the salesperson (or voice activated system such as voice mail) and then is asked to supply his or her fax number. The requested information is sent within a seconds often while we still on the phone with the prospects.

Trade shows
Many companies display or demonstrates their products at trade shows, convention and fairs. The company has the sales representatives present to demonstrate their products to inquiring visitors, many of whom have not been called on by us before. Often the primary function of salespeople is to qualify leads for future follow up. Typically having 5 to 10 minutes with the prospects, they need to get down to business and qualify the visitor quickly. At the other trade show (e.g : furniture shows) salespeople actually sell and therefore generally spend more time with the buyers.

Seminars
Many firms use seminars to generate leads and provide information to prospective customers. Andrew Corp, an Orland Park, Illinois, manufacturer of electronic communication equipments, may be one of the most savvy practitioners of business to business seminars. To target the right crowd, the company relied mainly in its own database, consisting largely of inquiries. Experts in seminar field regard this core group his year as the most fruitful source of new business. For this year's series, Andrew Corp, also rented three trade magazine mailing lists and matched them with its own list to come up with a final registry of 43,000 names. The company likes to to mix current customer with new prospects in a 1:2 ratio figuring that satisfied clients not only may buy more but may also pass along word of mouth testimony about the company's products. To reach its audiences the sales and marketing department prepare and sent our a four page invitation to its free, daylong seminar. It detailed the topics to be covered, suggested who should attend, and asked for two names to be listed on reply card or by way of an 800 number. During the lunch break, sitting at each lurch table of 10 persons of sales, marketing, or telemarketing rep., who acts as a facilitator and sounding board. The reps job, apart from presenting a company face to the group, is to gather reactions to the morning seasons, provide the names of contacts and request each attendee to fill out one-page evaluation. The questionnaire, is the company's vehicle to have the feedback. It asks such relevant questions as each person's reason for attending, his/her upcoming products requirements, and the status of any projects-included installation date, value of total projects, budgeting phase, and the name of decision makers. A preliminary review starts after lunch. Sales and marketing people separates the lead into 3 categories : (1) qualified leads - companies with projects and budget approved and will be implemented less than 1 year. (2) Companies with plans for projects and perhaps a tentative installation schedule. (3)those who has not set plans but who may be seeking information for future requirements. The evaluation travel to headquarter where the manager take immediate actions on those in the top priority category.

* Lists and directories

Business people should develop the prospect lists of their own by referring to such sources as public records, telephone directories, Chamber of Commerce Directories, newspapers, club membership, and professional or trade membership. Secondary sources of information from public libraries can be useful. We also can purchase a number of prospecting directories and lead generating publications.

* Canvassing

Other name for this method is cold canvass call. Using this method we try to generate the new business by calling on totally unfamiliar organizations. This method had been used extensively for a long time. However using this method can waste business people time as many companies have neither a need for the product nor the ability to pay for it. This stresses the importance of qualifying the lead quickly in a cold call so as not to waste our time. Try to ask them the proper questions to classify the leads whether it worth or not to continue.

* Spotters

Some people use spotters, also called bird dogs. These individuals for the fee will provide lead to business people. The business people sometimes pays the fee simply for the name of the lead but more often pays only if the leads ends up buying the products or service. Spotters are usually in position to find out when someone is ready to make purchase decision.

* Telemarketing

Increasingly, firms are relying on telemarketing to perform many functions the sales representative used to perform. Telemarketing is the systematic and continuous program of communicating with customers and prospects via telephone or other person to person electronic media. Telemarketing is not limited to consumer sales, but also for business to business companies. Telemarketing is now used to sell from 25 cents supplies to $ 10 million airlines. In inbound telemarketing, telephones are used to generate and then qualify the leads. Inbound telemarketing involves a telephone number (usually an 800 number) that leads and or customer can call for additional information. This method have some limitations. First, customer may find telephone calls an annoying inconvenience. Unexpected calls may interrupt their meeting or their concentration at work. Therefor the telemarketer need to respect the client's privacy and not to abuse the privilege. The other limitation, the method limit the verbal messages. Hence this method is not proper for the sales people who need to demonstrate the product, the feature and its benefits. Another limitation, attracting and maintaining the customer's interest and attention is harder over the phone. Finally it is much easier for the lead to say no over the phone. Sales people need to be aware of these limitations. The telephone offer some advantages and can enhance productivity. But it does not face to face selling in all situation.

* Prospecting via sales letter

Prospectiing via letter should be integrated into an overall prospecting plan. Like the telephone the letter have some limitations. Once the message is sent, it can not be modified. The sender also has no chance to alter the message on the basis of feedback. Blanket mailings, then, can seem impersonal. The business people must first consider the objective of the letter and the audience. Why would the reader want to undertake the action. Why would the reader not undertake the action.

These questions help us writing the letter.

*Other sources of leads

Many business people find leads through personal observations. For example by reading the trade journal carefully, we can learn the names of the important leaders, and hence the decision maker in the industry. Other source is by reading business publications and the local news papers and just keep open your eyes when you drive through your territory.

Leading For Post-Recession Success - Lessons From BDO Consulting

What to do.

I summarize BDO's recommendations here:

* Take Fast and Decisive Action to "determine core needs and shed excess costs".
* Develop a Comprehensive Approach to cutting costs, finding efficiencies and accelerating cash

flow.
* Manage Costs with Targeted and Timely Reporting rather than waiting until it's too late.
* Manage Operating Results Proactively - before you start losing money.
* Conduct an Internal Assessment for Possible Restructuring in order to ensure you are looking at

the big picture and that you understand how your organization fits into the current and future

business environment. Then plan to align it accordingly.

How to do it.
Although finance is not my line of work, Organization & Leadership Development services can enhance the work of Chartered Accountants and Financial Advisors and help organizations ensure success in implementing their advice. BDO tells you what you need to do, Organization & Leadership Development tells you how. The key is in leadership. Strong leadership to establish priorities. BDO's recommendations require leadership excellence in order to establish priorities, guide the process, and implement the procedures for the actions to be taken.

BDO rightly indicates that organizations must take a comprehensive approach to determining core needs and understanding viability now and in the future. In order to successfully actualize BDO's advice an organization needs leaders who will ensure that the steps the organization takes are carefully planned and anchored in core values. If not, they will not be supported by employees or sustainable in an operational sense. Now more than ever organizations need dedicated leaders to articulate and support a clear organizational identity and make decisions accordingly. Many employees are already alarmed at the uncertainty of this economic climate and leaders must help them feel reassured by upholding the organization's values and immersing themselves in the organization's reality. Leaders will need to go back to the Mission and Core Values statements, building plans and making decisions from this foundation. Leaders should also make time for a brief Culture Audit in order to understand the organization's reality to quickly find efficiencies and deficiencies.

In addition, a quick SWOT analysis with key players will also point to current strengths that must be maintained, weaknesses that must be reduced or eliminated, potential threats that must be addressed, and opportunities that can be leveraged, bearing in mind the current climate. Leaders must do their best to make sure that organizational changes are planned and controlled evolutions rather than sudden upheavals. If planning can only take a short time, leaders must ensure the most optimal planning process possible. Core values must be at the centre of this process.

Strong leadership for teamwork.
The actions BDO suggests require support from employees. Thus, strong leadership is also required to ensure teamwork around BDO's proposed actions. Strong leaders will be necessary to drive the process and get everyone on board. Not only because careful implementation is paramount, but because your employees need a pillar of strength in order to re-build or maintain their confidence and abate their fears. People in a distressed organization tend to work together less rather than more if leadership is absent. Absence of leadership only adds to fears and mistrust and often makes employees feel they have nothing left to lose. Leaders must therefore take additional steps to ensure teamwork, making certain that goals, accountability, and decision-making principles are clear, and that everyone feels empowered by the process. Leaders must also be more visible and communicate more. It is often necessary to hold more closed door meetings during a crisis, but leaders still must make it a priority to communicate with all employees and to literally be more visible. Leaders must be seen as allies and as trustworthy. Don't forget that your employees are people with emotional needs, especially right now. They need to know that you believe in them and the organization if they are to rally for the organization's survival.

With strong leadership and careful, albeit quick, planning you can actualize BDO's excellent recommendations.

Promoting Your New Products to Your Target Market

Getting your new product out to your target market is essentially the main goal of your marketing campaign. As a business owner, having to introduce your product to your clients via your marketing campaign such as your brochure printing, is one of the priorities of having a business.

Despite the problems and troubles associated with marketing, business owners still have to promote new stuff in order to maintain the interest of their target market. Often, marketing efforts are justified and successful. Leads are generated and buyers are produced that makes one’s business achieve its goals. On the other hand, when goals are not achieved through brochure printing or any other marketing campaign, most products are often ignored. This is when business owners and marketers should double their efforts when coming out with the best marketing campaign such as printing brochures for their products and services.

Most mistakes are committed from the marketing collateral itself especially when printing brochures for example. Even with the best brochure printing company and graphic artist, you as a business owner understand that not all marketing campaigns get to achieve what they’ve set out to do. And most errors are made during the testing of the product itself. Testing your product means getting to know your research, its market acceptance, as well as the suggested pricing, and product development and feasibility of your research. And this boils down to how your target market will receive your new product. It’s not enough that you believe in your product; what’s more important is getting your target market to consider the effectiveness of your merchandise.

Unfortunately, this is not often the case. Moreover, testing is needed during the product introduction itself. Testing allows you to be flexible, particularly in creating a more adaptable product that can change according to the needs and wants of your target market. Everything boils down to the simple fact that your product get sold and purchased by your prospects. It won’t be effective if at the end of day it fails to arouse interest among your client base. Testing is therefore significant because it helps you as the manufacturer to cull and filter all the ideas and support you get for your new product. The end result of which is to ultimately get the most satisfaction from your target market. The key is to have your target market to approve your new product. They have the final say on the success of your marketing campaign. Even with an excellent and effective product, your target clients will be the ones to ultimately decide whether your offer is worth taking or they would just ignore it for the simple reason that they’re not convinced of its impact to their lives.

Focusing On Your Demographics

Who is your perfect customer? Is she the working mom whose age is between 35-50, or the single suburban yuppie of 25-30? Usually marketing campaigns, whether its invitation printing or poster printing, work on the premise that you as the business owner knows your target market so you could form your message to focus on the right people.

Knowing full well your demographics can go a long way in providing the most effective marketing collateral in your custom invitation printing for example that can get more positive response. However, relying on a wide range of demographics is not that good either. Not only do you make your marketing campaign very general, hoping to catch as many as possible in the process; but you are also providing a very vague message on your invitation printing or print posters for example.

You also make the mistake of leaving out a portion of your target group that may have the prospects that actually have a need for your offer. So instead of having a less than effective marketing collateral to promote your business, what if you get very specific in your demographics? What about going down to a specific demographic such as an individual? The point here is to go as low as possible in your chain of target market and get focused on a particular segment.

Focus. This is the name of the game – thinking past generalities and the majority to get focused on your target. This is to ensure that you point to a particular segment that would benefit more from your offer in your custom invitation printing for one, thereby making your message more effective and valuable. The way to do it in your marketing campaign such as your invitation printing or custom invitation printing is to make a profile of your individual. What makes a perfect match? This means targeting an individual that you believe is the perfect fit for your offering. You need to go down and get to the nitty-gritty of things. Thorough research of your profile for your individual can guide you to have the most information that you need.

Nevertheless, do not let your insight and intuitions go unnoticed. These qualities can get you what your research lacks. Next, be sure to provide a multi-dimensional design in your collaterals by including images and other elements that can attract your individual’s attention. Integrate the senses to help you come up with a unique idea that can pique their interest. And always remember to never let your creativity be boxed in. Understand your individual’s personality and be sure to interact with it to create a more responsive marketing collateral. The key is to narrow down your target and focus on the individual in your market. When you do, you will be able to think of fresh and new ideas that can provide you with unexplored paths in your marketing efforts.

How To Write A Letter That Gets You A Face-to-Face Meeting

It's a simple fact. The best way to sell anything is face-to-face. When you're literally in the room with a prospect, you can probe for areas of customer interest, read body-language, sell with emotion and personality, answer objections, and most importantly, close the sale. In the old days, the Fuller Brush man, the Avon Lady, and other intrepid souls would make the rounds and work their magic in person, right in the prospect's living room. Obviously, today, marketers can't afford to have a sales force contact every single prospect personally. So we use direct mail, e-mail, advertising, etc., as proxies for a flesh and blood sales force. We must depend, as Grey Advertising put it, on "salesmanship in print." This means that lead generation is the name of the game. We use irresistible free offers to get people to raise their hands and only then put precious human assets in touch with them (telemarketers, regional salespeople, etc.). But you know, sometimes you don't WANT to generate leads. You don't WANT a six-month sales cycle. What you want is an APPOINTMENT. A chance to walk right into the decision-maker's office, sit down with him or her, and make your case in person! One of the best ways to get a personal appointment with a key prospect is to send them a terrific letter which paves the way for your personal call. The letter can't be some soporific "Allow me to introduce myself" piece of junk. You really have to spark their interest, make a great impression, and be sure that when you call, you'll be able to make that important appointment. Here are some ideas for creating a door-opener letter that can help make you a winner . . .

1. Don't use a #10 envelope. Go FedEx Hey. You're not writing 600,000 people. You're contacting just a few key prospects who you want to meet personally. So make a splash by using an overnight service. That way, you'll look major league and can be 100% certain that your letter will get noticed. The guiding principle is, when you're contacting a small number of people, your cost-per-mailing can and should go up!

2. Consider a "dimensional" mailing In the jargon of direct mail professionals, a dimensional mailing is a package that actually has something stuffed inside it (i.e. it has three dimensions). Often, by adding an attention-getter, you can be sure your package will get opened.

3. Make sure you've got something really important to talk about You should only try to set up an appointment when it's appropriate. Want to demo something that's really hot and will save the prospect a lot of money? Go for a one-on-one meeting. Want to discuss creating a strategic partnership that truly has upside for both of you? Shoot for the meeting. But don't try set up an appointment for some routine sales presentation. Save the big guns for when you really need them!

4. Start your letter with punch Don't pussy-foot around. Get to the point. For example, you can roll into a get-an-appointment letter for yourself like this: "Dear Steve: I want to ask you for something extremely precious. Forty-five minutes of your time." The letter can go on to explain why such an expenditure of the CIO's valuable time made excellent sense.

5. Dramatize what will happen at the meeting Don't simply say that you want to make an appointment to stop by and chat. Give it a little excitement: "Key members of my team would like to fly to Chicago and meet with you at your corporate headquarters in July. They have created a personal briefing that will give you new insight into your competitors' technology plans . . .etc."

6. Tell them what they'll learn The letter you write is all about proving that a meeting is worth having, so be very explicit about what information you have waiting for them. Consider using bullet points to break out the benefits.

7. Prepare them for your phone call and explain that you will call to set up an appointment. Let them know when you will contact them. Make sure that if they don't answer their phone, their gatekeeper should know you will be in touch. The take-away message? Keep up your lead-generation efforts for sure. But if you ever need to meet with a truly important prospect in person, a well-written letter can be a great door opener.
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Understanding Your Customer

Understanding your customer is your core business. Every failure in marketing is caused by lack of understanding the customer's needs hence misinterpreting them. To understand your customer you should talk and survey them. Hence you will get better idea about how to satisfy their needs.

Why many managers often forget to talk to their customers once they need to develop the marketing strategy. Some of the easons are :

* The pressure to gain short term target

* The manager believe that they already knew the customer's need

* They don't want to hear customers talk about negative side of their company's products and

service

* They are too confident to their products

* The belieft that customers are so dependant to their products

Prior you conduct the survey, try to find out the benefit of your product. The benefit itself represants the customer's problem, which is in your side the customer's problem could be turned to be your business opportunity to satisfy them. However your product's features represant the specification of your product or service. You should differentiate between these two in order to have better feeling of your customer's need.

Actually it is difficult task to identify your real customers. For B2B business especially, everyone who is getting involved in purchasing decision could be defined as decision making unit. The decision making unit could be categorized into :

1. Users

2. Initiators

3. Influencers

4. Gate keepers

5. Deciders

6. Stoppers

Try to identify these decision making unit, so that you can suits your marketing strategy for each.

Other way to understand your customer is the market research. Market research could be ranged from simple one up to multiple complex research which spend so much company's money. However you can also conduct the simple one by asking the questions to your customers regarding their need, the competitor might do to your customer, environmental trend etc. You can arrange the questions for survey and having the feed back for analysis.

You should recognize also the weakness and strong points of the data gathered by you or the marketing research company as it will impact the data analysis.

Marketing survey could be focused to all of players and movers who will influence the marketing performance of the organizations. They could be end users, reseller, competitors, suppliers and trend. However most of marketing survey usually is focused to the customers, their needs, habita and behaviours.

The study of end users included :

* Segment : The characteristics which can be used to identify and differentiate the

customer

* Purchasing behaviour : how they learn about our product and service and mhy they choose

them

* Need : the benefit offered to customers and priority

* Perceived value : maximal value to be paid and why

* Product : evaluate the competitor's products and services available in market

* Brand : accesories which is associated to our brand

* Copy of advertising : advertising comparison

* Media : the media where our customers obtain the information

* Selling presentation : content of presentation

* Pricing : how customers react to price changing

* Buying behaviour

Kind of data for marketing survey is divided into :

1. Primary data : the data which is collected by marketing person and its colleagues inside

the company. The survey is designed by them.Therefore the company

aware about the weaknesses of the data and its limitations.

2. Secondary data : the data which is gained by marketing research company or other third

party