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How To Get To The Top of The Marketing Food Chain
Are you tired of living off handouts from big-name marketers, earning meager affiliate commissions? If you truly want to live and breathe the rarefied air of the super-marketers, what you need is not a change in method, but a change in attitude and mindset. You need to start thinking like a top gun and create your own identity instead of feeding off the efforts of others. Here are some ways of achieving that goal. 1. Be Unique. Write Your Own Content Create, don't copy. You are never going to become a top marketer or ezine publisher if you keep publishing regurgitated information from other top guns. The only people who benefit from that exercise are the top guns themselves. Start writing about your own unique experience as a marketer and share it with others. Write your own unique website content, reports, eBooks if you want to become a "household" name in the marketing community. 2. Be The Content Creator, Not The Distributor Instead of publishing other people's newsfeeds on your website, think about how cool it would be to have YOUR own feed published on thousands of other sites. And then DO it. Create a feed using your own content like I did here and allow others to syndicate your articles. http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/ebizwhiz.xml 3. Be The Product Seller, Not The Affiliate The ones who make the most money out of a product are the product creators. The affiliates and resellers are always lower in the food chain because they do the selling for them. No doubt affiliate marketing can make you a lot of money, but if you want to be at the top of the food chain and make the kind of riches that the top guns make, you do need your OWN product. It not only allows you to pay others to promote for you, but also builds your credibility in eyes of the marketing community. 4. Get Linked To Without Linking Back The marketing top guns have thousands of people linking to them... and they never have to provide a link back to them. How do you get people to link to you? Simple. Just use the steps I outlined earlier to - * Write content so good that others will WANT to link to it. * Create a product and start an affiliate program that pays others for linking to you. * Write unique articles and distribute them with your link in your resource box. Do these and you'll get thousands of people linking back to you without even thinking to ask for a link back. 5. Get Referrals WITHOUT Asking For Then Now again, why would people refer your services, when you could very well be a competitor? Simply because they stand to lose far more by NOT referring you. And how would you make that happen? Let me give you an example. A while ago, super-marketer John Reese published his "MarketingSecrets.com Newsletter" - a 17-page thumper of an issue full of excellent marketing information. I bet it also became the most well-circulated newsletter in recent internet marketing history. Why? Because it was so good, that other publishers practically BEGGED him to allow them to pass it on to their subscribers. They felt they would be passing on a valuable resource their subscribers would thank them for. So how do you do this if you are not John Reese? Well there are lots of ways you can create a resource that people would line up to offer to others. Some ideas - * Create and install a useful script on your website and allow others to link to it * Allow others to install your script on their site with a link pointing back to you * Write useful reports or ebooks and allow others to give them away * Create brandable reports and viral ebooks that others can tag with their affiliate link Allow others to benefit from giving away your information and they will gladly refer you and your products to their precious lists. 6. Become An Expert In Your Field Decide on an area of marketing that interests you. Read everything about your area of expertise that you can lay your hands on. Then write your own reports, preferably with your own unique insights and observations. Publish an ezine, and review products and services that target your audience. Don't be afraid to show off your knowledge. Your specialized knowledge is what will brand you as an *expert* and make people sit up and take notice when you speak or write about it. 7. Be A Leader, Not A Follower Be proactive and interactive. Take part in marketing seminars. Initiate discussions on controversial issues in your field. Start a forum and build a community of people in your field. Infuse your own attitude and enthusiasm into the subject of discussion. Leave your imprint on the minds of the people you touch everyday. Be a source of inspiration to others in your field. 8. Be An Early Adopter And An Innovator Be the first one to adopt new technologies and apply them to your field. Keep abreast of present and future developments. Keep innovating to stay ahead. The ones who apply new technology the earliest become the pioneers. Follow the road less travelled and everyone else will soon be following in YOUR footsteps. Copyright 2004 Priya Shah _______________________________________________ Priya Shah is the author of Number One In Your Niche and edits the newsletters Be a Whiz at eBiz! and The Glutathione Report _______________________________________________
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So make sure your location is prominent and findable (maybe a map). Or compensate for an undesirable location with house calls or free delivery.Expects more than an ad could possibly deliver This problem isn't about the ad, but the advertiser's frame of mind. There's too much hype and biased statistics about what the directory can deliver. New businesses, especially, have unrealistic expectations. The longer a business is in operation, the less impact their listing has upon drawing new business.Treats the Yellow Pages like a stand-alone marketing method It works best for getting new customers, to capture the "undecideds." But relying on mostly new business is an inefficient way to operate. An enterprise also needs repeat customers and referrals to balance out the high financial and effort costs necessary to keep attracting new ones. 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Knowing which ones to use when can make a big difference in the credibility -- and success -- of your marketing campaigns. 13 Lessons in Marketing, Super Bowl Style Each year, the Super Bowl provides marketers opportunity to study and learn from the games' advertisers, players, and coordinators. Super Bowl XXXVI (February, 2002) was no exception. Foremost, of course, was The Game's appropriately patriotic theme. America's mettle and proud heritage were showcased to the world through this year's red, white, and blue logo; music selection by the performers; and depictions of historic U.S. icons. The Game further supported U.S. patriotism through the presence of the armed services, police department, and fire department at the game as well as interviews with troops in Afghanistan. Finally, as if by design, the unlikely Patriots won the championship. 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I have stopped for coffee already and had someone ask me for a card because they saw my car sign as I pulled into the local coffee shop lot. If you want people to discredit you as a businessperson, all you have to do is say "Oh sorry I forgot my cards today." I have even been to trade shows and fellow exhibitors were walking around without cards. You have not only lost an immediate opportunity to market your business, but you look like an amateur who doesn't deserve the business.2. Is the information correct? The reality is that sometimes we change our contact information. If you know that there will be changes in the near future, then limit the number of cards you have printed. Do not, scribble out and hand write information on your card. Back to "Can anyone say amateur?" I said that to someone once and his reply was, "yes but business cards are expensive." That says two things to me: 1) he didn't shop around for a good price and 2) AMATEUR! 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So, hiring a marketing agency to develop and implement that strategy will bring raving fans flocking to stores or your website to buy your incredible offering, right? The Importance of Business Marketing Business marketing is one of the most important parts that your business needs to be addressed with careful attention and proactive thoughts. In last decade or so, the importance of business marketing has increased volcanically, as the advent of Internet and online business has ushered a whole new era in business. It should be noted that the competition and urgency among businessmen has increased due to the fact that Internet has rendered a whole world as a virtual world, and you never know when and from where a potential competitor has entered your territory unnoticed by you. And this is where proper business marketing strategies and sound business marketing plans play their part to make you the choicest businessman for your customers and dealers. The Top 10 Wild and Wacky Ways to Market Yourself for Big Visibility In today's competitive world of business, it takes moxie and pizazz to sell a great product, idea, or service. This list will provide you with ten unusual and creative marketing strategies which will help you to stand apart from the competition and to increase your visibility. The Power of a Survey How many times have you been asked to participate in a survey? If you are anything like me then the answer is probably hundreds. I am often being stopped in the street and invited to take part in a survey that will only take a few minutes. I do feel sorry for these marketers as I usually decline and say that I am too busy. More often than not the survey is in relation to something that I am not interested in anyway. There must be a lot of people who do take the survey because opinion polls are constantly being quoted for a variety of issues. These survey results are extremely powerful in persuading consumers that a particular product has been voted the best in a survey. We are often influenced, possibly subconsciously, by these survey results and buy the particular product that came out on top. |
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