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The Book on Marketing: Partnering with Your Suppliers.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Partnering with Your Suppliers.

Generally speaking, your suppliers want you to be successful since it will boost their sales. They might foot the bill for more staff, mailings, salespeople, etc. You won't learn anything if you don't ask.

A couple of my closest friends are Primerica Advisors. One of the investments they sell is through Brighthouse Financial. Guess what! Brighthouse will send people out to their office and train them on the products they sell plus they offer all kinds of supplier-side training materials and phone support. Brighthouse Financial has a stake I=n my friend’s succeeding. 

In the restaurant industry, if you pick Coke or Pepsi (it doesn’t matter which) and go exclusive with them, they will gift you tons of free stuff for your business. Sometimes you can get them to pay money for their correct logo to appear on the menu as a way to recoup menu costs. It’s not just Coke either. Imagine carrying Campbell’s Soup (the largest supplier of soup to restaurants in the United States) and also allowing them to advertise their logo. Hatch, the green chili company out of New Mexico does this too for menu items with their logo on it. This is a joint venture to cover menu expenses but how about going haves on radio commercials? 

Window suppliers will produce twenty- and fifty-second ads with a ten second music bed on the end for the local distributer to advertise. Sometimes the distributer pays full price for the advertising but the production of the commercial was handled up front and some times they may pick up part of the actual advertising expense locally. Never be afraid to ask.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Column Writing.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Column Writing.

A consistent column, whether it be in a newspaper, magazine, ezine, or offline newsletter, is a terrific method to position yourself as an authority in your industry. To support your sales letters and marketing materials, you can also distribute copies to your clients and prospects.

How does one describe a column? A column is news even though it is not a news item. In general, it provides explanations for why and how. When employing the first and second person, it is frequently personal (I and you). A column frequently expresses a viewpoint. According to others, it resembles writing an open letter. A column also features a typical head at the top called a by-line (name) and a title. They let the reader recognize you and your column.

Op-ed pages, often known as the opinion and editorial sections of newspapers, continue to be one of the most distinctive and well-read aspects of the print medium. The opinions presented in letters to the editor and by guest columnists have the power to affect the community and capture readers' attention. 

Writing a column or letter to the editor for your local newspaper is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, a committed member of your community, and a vehicle for spreading the word about your company.

Choose a subject. There is undoubtedly no shortage of news—global, domestic, and local—to discuss, and doing so can make you the center of attention in the neighborhood. A businessperson like you may be uniquely positioned to shed some light on local events, such as an increase in parking meter rates, an increase in local business taxes, or a proposed noise ordinance. Topics may range from broad, all-encompassing issues like the current financial crisis and shifting political winds (with you giving a local perspective and sharing your own unique point of view) to local events.

Share a personal story. After stating the topic, go into detail, using examples from your own life, as to why you are particularly suited to make a statement. Explain how the lack of parking spaces has affected your business and others as the neighborhood has grown and why the construction of a contentious municipal parking garage makes sense for the neighborhood, for instance, if the topic is the lack of parking spaces in the area where your business is located (e.g., it will revitalize businesses in the area and generate more tax revenue).

Establish a relationship. Consult your local paper to find the editor in charge of the op-ed section once you've finished editing your column or letter and had a trusted second party with excellent grammar skills (such as a spouse or coworker) read it and offer their feedback. This can be done as easily as making a phone call to the newspaper's headquarters or visiting its website. It is usually better to contact editors via email as they are sometimes swamped with phone calls. Introduce yourself, briefly explain why you are writing the letter or column, and provide the submission as a Microsoft Word attachment in that communication. Since editors frequently want to confirm information, be sure to provide your contact information in the email.

Make it your own. Even as you express your distinct corporate perspective, don't forget to emphasize your connection to the community. Be sure to mention your high school graduation or the fact that your kids attend a particular grammar school if the discussion is about the public schools in your community. Promote the fact that you have owned a local business for X amount of years while mentioning the name of your company. (You should sign the letter or column with your full name, job title, and company name.)

Start strong. Come off strong by stating your perspective and why you are well-positioned to enlighten your neighbors, coworkers, and clients/customers on the subject. In the constant barrage of information hitting the public, it's critical to make your point clearly and attract readers' attention. They might decide not to read further if you don't.

Position yourself—carefully. Writing an opinion post is all about expressing your point of view, which is what you are doing here. It is one thing to express your view about a proposed law that would affect your company as well as others' and to associate your name with that opinion. But stay clear from very divisive topics (like some political ones, for instance), as doing so could harm your reputation, business, and connections with others in the neighborhood. This is where controversy works in limited amounts. Take a controversial stance on something, but not too controversial. 

Writing a column. 

Consider and choose the column's aim, audience, substance, and organization before you start writing. Why do you write? Is it to let the neighborhood know about a gathering? Does the editor of the publication, the neighborhood, or coworkers want it? Are you educating, entertaining, or both? Are you looking for exposure or an identity? Who are you attempting to contact? Who are you trying to reach? Choose who you want to reach. Write about topics that the audience needs to know or wants to know in their language and at their level. What topics will your column cover? How will you talk about it? Determining what will be aided by addressing why and how. Always keep in mind that columns should be truthful and based on facts. In a personal column, names are important. Despite the informal nature of personal articles, accuracy and source material are important. How will your audience hear your message? In addition to the personal column, there are various kinds of columns. Several of these focus on particular subjects or kinds of data. A "question and answer," "new concept," "how-to-do-it" piece, a "calendar," and "coming events" are just a few examples. There should be a lot of local names in personal columns. Also used are phrases like "I," "us," and "you."

Give the reader relevant, useful information while writing a column, establish a structure, and stick to it. Write often, use short, simple phrases and paragraphs to connect with your audience, whenever feasible, utilize local names and locations, allow others speak for you by using quotes and references, and be sure to understand the distinction between a column and a news article.

Avoid speaking in jargon or using new phrases, discussing the same subject repeatedly, providing too much information, or referring to yourself in the third person. Instead, use simple language that everyone in your audience can understand. Do not ever use self-quotes in your writing.

Some Best Practices.

  • Write as you speak. However keep in mind proper language and usage. 
  • Discover a "lead" or opening that will pique your readers' curiosity. 
  • Utilize a mix of sources and don't stick to one topic. 
  • Write about individuals. Try to use local people's experiences to tell the story when dealing with relevant material. 
  • Write clearly. Avert using complex or technical terminology, extensive sentences, and lengthy paragraphs. 
  • Avoid adding too many details to your column. Don't exhaust a topic; instead, try to pique interest in it. 
  • When touring fields and residences, jot down ideas, names, numbers, impressions, etc. on a notepad. This offers the best column material available.
  • Be on time. Maintain track of the impact of the seasons, weather, and other factors, emphasizing their importance locally. 
  • Keep in mind who you are speaking to and provide facts to them in a way that will be helpful to them. 
  • Send your columns to the editor or publication on time at all times. 

If you've been writing a column for a few months, you might want to think about taking the next step and pitching it to multiple publications. As newspaper readership is typically based on location rather than interest and consequently rarely overlaps, this is especially ideal for newspaper columns. As long as you are confident that there will be little "reader overlap," you can frequently sell the same column to newspapers in separate states, or even papers in different counties or cities within the same state. 

National syndication is a goal shared by many writers, but it is initially far more difficult to achieve. It's typically easier to launch your column by pitching it to a growing number of newspapers until you've amassed enough of a following to warrant a wider distribution. 

A column is only "self-syndicated" when it is made available, non-exclusively, to a number of newspapers that are not directly competitive with one another. Newspapers from your area should be your first stop. Such publications won't care if your column appears in the following county or even the following city because their readership is typically restricted to a single town, city, county, or region.

Choose a Topic.

You should select a topic that can be sold to numerous periodicals in a specific geographic area or that cuts across regional boundaries.’

Some topics, like parenting advice or health advice, are universal (or at least tend to work well within the bounds of your own country; other countries may have different health systems or different ideas about parenting). Nonetheless, some topics are more regionally focused than others. If you're writing a gardening column, for instance, you'll need to adapt it to the area you're familiar with, addressing the climate, soil, plant, etc. difficulties that are specific to that area. Selling a piece on gardening advice from the Pacific Northwest to an Arizona newspaper would be challenging. So, when choosing where to sell your column, the topic is frequently the top priority.

The less "commonplace" your column should be, the further afield you choose to promote it. Even though you could be the only parent contributing to your hometown newspaper, thousands of other authors are writing on parenting for various newspapers around the nation. You must therefore create a column that adds something distinctive to the subject in order for it to compete with other columns that cover related topics if you want to reach a larger audience.

This also holds true for "review" columns. Reviewers from different regions may disagree on literature, movies, and music (if you can create a compelling reason for an editor to buy your reviews rather than those of a local or nationally known reviewer). Yet, opinions about restaurants and activities are typically far more regional (though you might be able to pitch such a column to a travel page as a "destination" piece). 

In other words, it's not worth wasting your time trying to export a column that only has a little local value. Instead, concentrate on finding methods to expand the popularity of your column; alternatively, think about starting a completely new column that you may pitch to many magazines right away.

Select Your Markets.

The number of local newspapers in your state or region may surprise you. These publications can be found on any of the dozens of online "newsstands" that exist. The Gales Directory of Media Publications, which is located in the reference department of your local library, can provide you with even more specific information about several papers. While doing newspaper research online is more convenient, Gales offers the advantage of offering crucial details on circulation, frequency, and editorial staff. Consider turning to Gales if, for instance, you have determined that you only want to target daily newspapers with a circulation of at least 20,000.

The addresses and editors of U.S. and Canadian daily newspapers, as well as alternative publications and specialized publications covering topics like parenting, seniors, ethnic groups, and real estate, are listed in the Annual Editor & Publisher International Year Book, which is available in most libraries. You may find out useful information about a newspaper's frequency of publication (daily, weekly, bimonthly), circulation numbers, if it publishes a Sunday magazine, and a list of its regular sections and special editions in the E&P Year Book. It is a prudent precaution to pre-screen newspapers based on their circulation and content. You shouldn't waste time or money sending columns to weekly publications that are "shoppers" or that are obviously too small to have any budget for freelance (or at least non-local freelance) submissions. Also, if more than one newspaper serves a city or area, you shouldn't submit to both at once.

Local newspapers and major state or big-city papers both cover some areas. You must choose which to target first because you don't want your column to appear in both (or, more precisely, your editors won't appreciate it if your column appears in both). That might not be as simple a choice as it seems. Although a big-city paper may pay more (and will reach a larger readership), it is also likely to seek more rights, or even all rights, and is also more likely to want to post your material on its website, which might further restrict your ability to share that column elsewhere. Although though they sometimes offer lower compensation, smaller papers could be less rights-demanding.

Define Your Terms.

A straightforward explanation of the terms you are offering should be included in your fundamental submission package for syndication, such as:

•Column length (usually 750 to 1000 words is best).

•Column frequency (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly).

•Rights retained and rights offered.

When a column is self-syndicated, rights are a crucial concern. In fact, you should start pondering "rights" as soon as you sell your first column to your first newspaper. This is much earlier than when you might think about self-syndication. 

All kinds of markets are putting more and more pressure on authors to give up their rights. Newspapers in small towns and other media outlets are increasingly asking columnists to sign away the rights to their work or even create it as "work for hire" (which means that the newspaper owns the copyright to the material from the beginning). You might discover that newspapers that only pay $10 to $50 per column nonetheless want you to give up all ownership of that content.

You must make sure that you have the rights to sell your work elsewhere if you want to do so. Normally, you should give a newspaper "one-time nonexclusive rights" to publish your column, potentially with the assurance that it won't be published by a rival outlet. Offering "exclusive regional rights" with a clear definition of what is meant by "region" is one alternative. If the paper is only read in Yakima, Washington, for example, don't let that stop you from selling the same column to another paper in Seattle or Tacoma. The region should be limited to the area of the newspaper's general readership.

A newspaper might occasionally demand "first" rights. If your first column sale is to your local newspaper, this strategy can work because it allows you to resell that column to all of your other markets a week later. However before granting this option, make sure to give it some thought since there can only ever be one "first" publication.

Refrain from agreeing to additional money for "full rights." The purpose of self-syndication is to get your article as widely distributed as possible, not to make a significant amount of money from any one publication. Remuneration for columns is typically pretty modest; even the biggest paper is unlikely to make you an offer for more than $500. You've already quadrupled that sum and perhaps even doubled your viewership if you can sell the same article to 20 newspapers at $50 each. (Your success will be heavily reliant on your audience numbers if you intend to move on to national syndication. It is preferable for a large number of individuals to read it throughout a variety of marketplaces rather than merely a huge number of people.)

The last step is to choose the lowest price you're willing to accept. Some smaller newspapers still pay as low as $10 for a column, but if you can sell your piece to other publications, the money can add up rapidly. The price for "Family Daze," a syndicated column by Debbie Farmer, is calculated using a conventional formula: 50 per 1000 subscribers.

Prepare Your Package.

Self-syndication has a drawback: cost. Many newspapers still favor receiving column proposal submissions via surface mail over email. A written proposal and set of samples are easier to share around than an email when more than one editor needs to assess a column proposal (or to have to print one out). This implies that you will need to spend money on postage, printing, and envelopes if you want to pitch your idea to other markets. Included in your submission package should be: a letter of introduction outlining the proposed column (be sure to list the terms you are offering); clips, three to six sample columns, and supporting materials.

   

You should certainly order a lot of these materials if you intend to submit your column to several newspapers. Print your cover letter on high-quality paper, and you can print your clips and column examples on standard 20-lb. bond. The majority of print facilities can also produce your reply postcard. Print your clips in double-sided format to reduce expenses and weight.

Follow Up and Move On.

Don't be afraid to follow up if your best prospects don't respond to your mailing after a month. Frequently, information gets misplaced on a busy editor's desk, and all it could take to seal the deal is a kind phone call. (A follow-up card or letter runs a high chance of getting lost in a flurry of paperwork.) It might also be appropriate to send an email.

If an editor wants to change the terms of your agreement, don't be shocked. Some people might want to propose a different word count or a cheaper fee. You are free to accept or reject such alterations. It might not be worth the work to customize the content for each magazine separately if you want to distribute your column to a lot of them. But, if your mailing garnered minimal reaction, this can be a fantastic approach to establish a strong relationship with one or two publications, which may eventually result in better rates and more jobs.

When you follow up on your original mailing and you still haven't heard anything, don't be shocked. You might never hear back from many of your markets because many newspaper editors simply don't react to submissions they don't intend to publish. Don't take it personally; just move on to the next potential client.

Self-syndication is an excellent method for increasing your portfolio. Request copies of the issues where your column appears, or at the very least, a tearsheet of your column, as necessary. You can list yourself as a "contributor" or "stringer" to a local paper once you have a regular column there (even if it's not local to you). This could be the stepping stone your column needs to enter the big leagues, like national syndication.

If your column is published, you could be well on your way to finding your community's voice and gaining beneficial exposure for both you and your company. Furthermore, when you gain recognition as a "expert" who has been cited in the neighborhood press, you might be contacted by one of the paper's writers for a news item about which you could contribute your knowledge or even by other media, such neighborhood radio, podcasts, or television stations.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Using Supply Chains to Create Value for Customers.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Using Supply Chains to Create Value for Customers.

 

Providing excellent value for clients while still keeping your costs competitive is how you maintain a competitive advantage. If you cut costs too much, you can no longer provide quality customer service. And the main factor in retaining customers is service. Your competitors may have an edge if they can appropriately balance costs with consumer value if your costs are too high. It should be remembered that the value-chain includes every activity, from product and service design through customer assistance after a customer purchases a product.

Today, you may provide more value to your consumers by boosting productivity through a streamlined work process, improved connections with your suppliers, and effective use of contemporary technology. Any company's success is reliant on the success of its suppliers and resellers, so efficient and effective supply chain management is essential to the success of each individual component. A typical supply chain involves the movement of goods and services from the producer of the raw materials to suppliers, contractors, and ultimately the owners who require them. Manufacturers and raw material suppliers frequently receive and respond to critical market information last because customer information and money flow in the opposite direction.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the term of choice for this entire process. All chain links must cooperate for items and services to be delivered to clients when, when, and in the manner they choose. SCM must simultaneously concentrate on reducing expenses and maximizing resources in order to increase value. 

The majority of value chains will have three links:

  • Delivering goods and services to customers is known as distribution.
  • Production: Transforming raw materials into completed goods and services in response to client expectations.
  • Getting the necessary supplies, labor, and other resources to create the desired good or service.

We begin by examining the Distribution link since it is the step closest to the customer and because the entire process is customer-driven. Manufacturer to agent, agency to distributor, distributor to retailer, and retailer to customer were the traditional connections in the distribution chain. Today's global e-commerce environment frequently just has two visible links: the manufacturer and the client. We shorten lead times and save costs in the supply chain by deleting linkages.

The biggest advantages of supply chain management come from the collaboration of numerous businesses to use a set of common principles uniformly throughout all of their projects. Companies that do not use supply chain management are likely to lag behind quickly. This results in several benefits, including cost savings, higher revenue, and improvement of all work processes. Only when they meet the specific demands of the client and deliver on what they want, anticipate, and value will products and services continue to be valuable to them. Customers will undoubtedly perceive value differently based on your business, therefore it is crucial to get to know them and customize your offerings to meet their needs.

The client product map is a helpful tool for streamlining distribution relationships. Customers will be distinguished using a grid or map of their products. For instance, some clients prefer traditional distribution channels, while others like direct sales. Customer maps also show the linkages between different product combinations, regional marketplaces, seasonal patterns, and other aspects of customer demand. It is crucial to get information regarding customer demand. The goal is to involve the customer in Supply Chain Management (SCM) driving.

Integrating production into distribution is the next stage after re-designing distribution around the customer. You require a production procedure that is quick, adaptable, and focused on the client's request. The days of manufacturing standard goods under standard cost accounting frameworks are long gone. With throughput accounting, the process is now customer-driven and no longer depends on production projections.

You can use SCM to transition to the Resource Area once manufacturing and distribution have been tailored to suit the market. In order to effectively manage resources, materials and other resources must be delivered only when they are actually needed. You will need to inform providers of the needs of your market in order to do this. It's crucial to build trusting connections with everyone involved. When using e-procurement technologies, you might need to phase out some suppliers in favor of those who are more networked and cutting edge. In order to maintain partnerships, it might also be important to split costs with suppliers.

For any organization involved in the process, good supply chain management has a number of advantages. These advantages consist of:

  • Decreased stock levels.
  • Increased cash flow on a whole.
  • Decreased borrowing expenses for both clients and enterprises.
  • Decrease in labor costs.
  • Better manufacturing lead times.
  • Shorter timetables for construction.
  • Improved project profitability overall.
  • A better standing among your clients.

From the product's suppliers to its final users, the entire supply chain needs to be assessed. In a setting that is extremely competitive, supply chains must be externally focused. You must collaborate closely with suppliers, clients, and everyone else in the supply chain to do this. Finally, costs are managed by examining the factors that influence them. To organize your activities more effectively than the competitors is the goal. You can achieve this goal by letting the client direct the process (SCM).

Sourcing and Procurement.

Treat agencies differently than any other category. You are actually purchasing a team and individuals, not goods. RFP guidelines that are too strict and structured scorecards won't function in marketing procurement. Brands are reluctant to work with many agencies because they worry about getting the "B Team." Don't insist that all brands utilize the same AOR, then. You need to establish your credibility in order to persuade Marketing or any other company partner. The easiest method to do it is to offer insightful advice by comprehending their industry (what marketing is/does), and by coordinating your annual goals and objectives.

Due to timeframes, budgetary restrictions, quick technology advancements, and rigorous adherence to governmental and industry rules, it can be difficult to differentiate products, leave a lasting impression, and keep customers loyal. Existing marketing teams must work too hard to overcome these time-consuming obstacles. Your marketing staff may become too stressed while trying to evaluate and choose suppliers from creative agencies. A strategic sourcing team may help your business find the best creative agencies, improving value, lowering risk, and facilitating competitive agreements.

Demand Planning and Inventory Control.

Planning for demand and inventory are seen as crucial components of the supply chain. However, many view them as distinct and rather disjointed supply chain management functions. In one perspective, inventory management is concerned with having the stock on hand to fulfill customer orders, whereas demand planning is a projection of what should or may happen with orders.

The connections between the two are stronger than they initially appear if you look closely. Accurate demand forecasting is the key to understanding the relationship between inventory management and demand planning since real-time data analysis is becoming more prevalent. That link will only strengthen as software technology develops and the supply chain's digitization progresses.

Traditionally, inventory management was done by hand. To "tighten up" operations, find faults, and calculate scrap rates, several businesses employed periodic inventory accounting. Sadly, this had the effect of delaying the availability of solutions until, if ever, the dreaded quarterly inventory. Additionally, a delay of many weeks or months made process improvement challenging. 

These manual techniques couldn't compete in a sophisticated inventory environment. However, software that automates counting and reconciling become accessible over time. Many businesses have been able to transition from a periodic inventory system to a perpetual inventory system and use tools like barcoding, RFID tagging, and scanning to track goods in real time.

Planning for traditional demand was the same. Spreadsheets and charts eventually replaced the manually maintained notepads, guesswork, and crude marketing analyses that had initially been used to predict demand. Demand planning, a process that aims to forecast product demand, however suffered from a lack of forecast accuracy due to siloed data and the time it took to transform data into insights.

However, because demand planning was inaccurate, some "gut-feeling" and experience were needed at the inventory and buy levels, which meant that purchasing remained more closely related to inventory management. Software improved the dependability of demand planning, similar to inventory management. However, the inability to use demand estimates as a guide or link to current events was hampered by the lack of real-time data and sophisticated statistical and analytical tools.

Demand forecasting and inventory management have grown more effective thanks to software. What was lacking, however, was a precise method of connecting the two. Software has developed to the point that data can now be used to improve every stage of the supply chain management process. Real-time supply chain and industrial digitization has made it possible to create a full-fledged "smart factory" environment. Because of this convergence, the insights for inventory control and demand forecasting occur at the same time.

Furthermore, analysis can be completed more quickly than human planners could because to enhanced analytics and a cloud-based, adaptable database structure. This analysis removes prejudice, "gut-feeling," and human input errors while revealing hidden trends and patterns.

Finally, the data is standardized for all supply chain functions. This makes the system entirely transparent by giving users access to the same data in the same form as all other stakeholders.

These developments mean that the margin for error in both inventory management and demand planning is reduced, even if they continue to be two separate supply chain responsibilities. Software is able to generate extremely precise demand projections that are immediately linked to perpetual inventory management, automated purchasing, and easily accessible logistical data. These forecasts make it possible to make smarter decisions, and an inventory management system may now depend more than ever on demand estimates as a reference for stock levels.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Flyers, Inserts, and Circulars for Joint Ventures (JV).

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Flyers, Inserts, and Circulars for Joint Ventures (JV).

You may arrange to have your content inserted as a flyer, insert, or circular inside another magazine that is currently being sent, much like JV mailings. Even while local brick and mortar businesses frequently use newspaper inserts, this "hitching a ride" tactic is most effective when your audience is specifically chosen. The joint venture component is engaged when you pay a specific sum per lead or a percentage of all sales produced by the arrangement. Depending on your price structure, you can pay a percentage of the first sale alone, a tiered system where a lower amount is paid for all first-year purchases, a percentage of the back-end purchase, etc. You must find the deals that give your JV partners a reasonable incentive while also producing the best profits for you. And that applies to all kinds of transactions.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Package Inserts.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Package Inserts.

Always include a sales letter promoting a different product with a product or package that you are mailing to a customer. It won't cost you any more, and when your customer receives the package, provided your goods isn't rubbish, he or she will be satisfied with the product and be more likely to make another purchase from you. You can also collaborate with other businesses that serve your specialized market and persuade them to ship your insert together with their goods.

Before shipping packages to clients, e-commerce businesses can add an extra item called a packing insert. This is a terrific approach to advance your shipping and fulfillment strategy. Packing inserts, also known as packaging inserts, are frequently unanticipated and can win over new clients. 

A packing insert costs nothing more for customers. Instead, a company will employ a packaging insert to spread the word about campaigns and promotions and to offer extra value. In general, package inserts are a practical and affordable way to interact with your customers.

Tips and tricks guides.
To ensure that your clients get the most out of your products, consider creating a tips and tricks guide. This could include anything from advice on how to utilize your goods efficiently to guidelines for eco-friendly product disposal. 

When producing your how-to guide, keep the following in mind:

  • Choose a style guide that complements your brand. If your product is a DIY kit, for instance, your guide might offer safety advice for your clients. 
  • Make your advice and directions understandable and welcoming. 
  • Which paper type and finish do you employ? Make sure it fits with your brand, whether it's rustic kraft paper, matte card stock, or lamination.

Discount offers. 

A discount offer is among the most well-liked and simple sorts of product package inserts. Despite the fact that you can send these by email, putting them directly in the box guarantees that your clients will hold the offer in their hands rather than in their spam folder. Also, it provides them with a material reminder. 

For instance, if you run an online cosmetics firm, you can increase consumer loyalty by using a variety of packaging inserts. Buyers may get a few packing inserts, one of which contains a coupon for 20% off their subsequent purchase.

Printing discount or deal offers in business card size and including them with your e-commerce packaging is one of the most economical ways to make such offers (business cards are such a commodity at this point that they are extremely inexpensive). 

Two discount or coupon cards, one for the buyer and one for the buyer to give to a friend, can be included with each transaction. To determine which form of offer your audience responds to the best, you might want to test out a few different ones.

For example:

  • Free Shipping on Your Next Order.
  • $10 Credit Toward Your Next Order.
  • 25% Off Your Next Order.
  • Free Gift With Your Next Order.
  • Free Upgrade on Your Next Order.

Product samples.

For a number of reasons, samples can significantly enhance the unboxing experience of your packages. First, depending on the goods you offer, your merchants may occasionally provide you samples for free. Second, offering clients product samples is a wonderful method to cross-sell to them and expose them to new product categories and product lines that they might not be familiar with but are keen to try. 

Provide free samples in your shipment if you sell a variety of products. Customers can sample your other products in this way as well. Also, as many customers have been seen to share the samples with their friends and family, this has helped the business receive positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

Small gifts.

Similar to samples, modest gifts can be an excellent method to surprise and please clients without giving them the impression that you're trying to upsell them. It's not necessary to provide an expensive present (it can be as simple as a sticker with your company logo on it). Most people will be pleasantly delighted by any additional gifts because it is unexpected. 

These modest, frequently inexpensive presents make others feel special and help you take advantage of the law of reciprocity. It's a potent psychological catalyst that makes consumers want to pay it forward and can help promote repeat business while making everyone involved feel good about the exchange.

Thank you cards and personal notes.

A handmade thank you note is the easiest, most affordable, and most customized insert you can provide in client deliveries. A straightforward card can be a genuinely kind action that fosters loyalty. 

When first starting out, a bespoke box insert, like a card, may be especially useful because it provides a competitive edge that the majority of larger-scale businesses are no longer able to provide. Make use of this to your benefit. 

Here are some quick guidelines for composing clients' thank-you letters:

  • Use high-quality stationery if it is financially possible. 
  • Use the customer's name, please. 
  • Convey your appreciation while outlining the purpose for the note. 
  • Provide specifics about the aspects of this customer's interaction with you that you found enjoyable (a fantastic opportunity to be specific and thoughtful). 
  • Mention your interactions with the customer in the future. 
  • Finish with a signature and a formal yet friendly sign-off. (For example, best wishes, sympathies, sincere gratitude, etc.)

Product review or a “share on social” request.

Packaging inserts can be a wonderful spot to request product reviews or for customers to share their experience on social media since the sent item typically signifies the conclusion of the transaction for the majority of customers.

Return form or return shipping label.

Including a return form or return mailing label in your package requirements may seem paradoxical, but it's a terrific approach to win over customers. Invesp statistics shows that 92% of customers will repurchase a product if the return procedure is simple.

A return form is simple to make. With each transaction, you can include a physical copy return sheet or a card with a website or email address where buyers can view your return policy and begin the procedure.

Packaging inserts very useful!

Every shipment will either fall short of, meet, or surpass the expectations of your customers. There are several factors, some of which are even beyond your control, that could lead to you performing below expectations. You might satisfy your consumers' expectations if everything goes according to plan, such as the post office being on time and the foam inserts you selected doing their job of safeguarding fragile things.

Yet, it's the little extras, like employing the ideal packaging insert concepts, that will make you stand out and surpass expectations. Here are some additional major justifications for why package inserts are so crucial:

  • Packaging inserts may be inexpensive. Inserts for packaging can be added to the mix with little financial outlay. Each of the examples below is inexpensive but has a tremendous potential for profit. 
  • Insertions may be very specific. You already know what the receiver purchased because they are a current customer. You can customize your package insert to the specific recipient. 
  • The price of communicating the message has already been covered. You might as well take advantage of the fact that the product is already in transit. 
  • Cross-selling is made easy with package inserts. You may offer incredibly focused cross-sell chances as you know exactly what your consumer currently enjoys.
  • Packaging inserts are a fantastic method to sell off inventory. The relationship you have with your present consumers will improve by turning expensive hard-to-move goods into a marketing expense. 
  • The correct inserts boost patronage. Packaging inserts can make your consumers feel special, and happy customers are more likely to buy from you again.

It seems very straightforward to include a flyer or discount in the box whenever you mail an item as a package insert. Yet you have a lot of options at your disposal if you want to provide your customers with additional value and increase their loyalty. Let's examine some of the most common packaging insert possibilities.

Prepare your packaging inserts with customer loyalty in mind.

In the end, packaging inserts are truly all about adding value by going above and beyond expectations and finding the ideal offer for your target market. 

In order to create your own effective program that will boost customer loyalty, revenue, and profit for your company, be sure to test various package insert programs and offers.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Using Marketing Channels to Create Value for Customers.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Using Marketing Channels to Create Value for Customers.

 

What Are Marketing Channels?

A marketing channel is a platform that you may utilize to promote your business. See how to select the ideal marketing channel for your company here. 

Digital marketing channels have existed since the beginning of the Internet, but the definition of a marketing channel has evolved over time. There was just one response to the question "What are marketing channels?" in the 1990s: display advertisements.

Just 0.1% of Americans and 0.09% of Canadians will click on any particular Internet display banner, down from a click rate of 44%. Without a doubt, if you were to ask, "What are marketing channels?" The response would not be "Well, they are display adverts" in 2022. Online marketing channels now come in a far wider range and are much more complicated. Paid advertising and other forms of paid marketing have given way to digital marketing. There are a range of effective marketing channels that supply content and promotion.

Types of Marketing Channels.

Digital advertising, events, influencer marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, word-of-mouth, and conventional marketing through mass media and print are all examples of marketing channels in 2022. Your marketing objectives most likely involve increasing brand awareness, generating leads, enhancing conversion, and encouraging repeat business, regardless of how your marketing channel is defined.

Digital Advertisements.

You may market your items, communicate your message, and strengthen your brand's online presence through digital adverts that use photos, audio, and video. In digital display advertising, keywords are not targeted. It isn't restricted to search engine results. Compared to search ads in search engine results, digital advertising pages on websites are much more numerous.

The cost per click for digital advertising is typically far lower than the cost per click you would have to pay for Google ads because of these factors. To ensure that your ads appear on pages with information that draws website visitors interested in what you have to offer, you must conduct some research.

The ability to track display advertising is one of its benefits. You can use a cookie to track visitors who click on your display advertisement to your website but do not convert. Afterwards, you can utilize this knowledge to better target your market with an advertisement. Digital advertising becomes incredibly cost-effective when you establish contextual relevancy with your adverts.

Email.

Although email marketing isn't the most cutting-edge tool at the disposal of digital marketers, it is well-known, measured, and understood. 

While maintaining within your marketing budget, email marketing also enables you to make use of some of the newest content marketing capabilities, such as automation and personalization. Even in 2022, 63% of digital marketers still cite email as their most effective lead-generation tool, and 73% believe it is their most cost-efficient source of new revenue.

Your emails must be formatted for mobile reading, and your website must load quickly and be responsive if you want to attract potential consumers via email marketing. Otherwise, readers will simply swipe to the next message.

Events.

You can't devote all of your attention to developing a digital presence if you want to distinguish your business. On occasion, you must interact directly with your target market. You can practice your sales techniques in person at trade exhibitions, expos, client conventions, product launches, and brand launches. 

Event marketing is a form of advertising that involves face-to-face interactions between brand representatives, influencers, and consumers. Every occasion is slightly unique. For each audience, it is always vital to offer content that is, at the very least, slightly different while taking into account regional culture.

The majority of digital marketing experts have discovered that ongoing innovation is necessary to retain a good return on investment on marketing dollars as online marketing tools get more complex. Consider hosting an event if your open and click-through rates are driving you crazy. 

According to an Aventri-sponsored survey, 31% of marketers believe that event marketing is their most potent technique for boosting sales. Perhaps more significantly, 87% of executives believe in the effectiveness of events, and 84% of event attendees said that after attending an event, they had a more favorable opinion of the good, service, brand, or organization being marketed.

Influencer Marketing.

Influencer marketing has become a viable alternative to traditional kinds of advertising for reaching customers. 

According to Backlink, 45% of consumers use ad blockers on their computers, while 24% do so on their mobile devices. Nonetheless, almost everyone uses social media. Bloggers who are social media influencers write about their daily life and interactions with the brands who support them. A social influencer's responsibility is to build relationships online. An outcome of those connections on social media is interest in sponsored goods. 

Relational, not transactional, marketing is what influencers do. Instead of increasing product sales, you are cultivating relationships with your brand. But, as time passes, more people will become interested in your products after seeing online mentions of them from social influencers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

A crucial instrument in multichannel marketing is SEO. Making sure that Google, in particular, can detect your material is the main goal of SEO. 

The most crucial component of effective SEO, according to Google, is useful content. In theory, Google will give you top ranks if you are producing the material users are looking for. Your pages won't automatically appear at the top of the search results thanks to any magic algorithms.

Content Marketing.

The most helpful instrument for daily marketing activities, according to digital marketers all over the world, is content marketing. According to the research firm Statista, marketers are three times more likely to choose content marketing over better user experience and four times more likely to name it as their most effective marketing tactic than social media. 

Customers may return to your website again to learn more thanks to content marketing. Every time they visit your website, even if they don't necessarily buy something, you build your brand and make your products the top choice for customers' demands.

Social Media.

In 2022, TikTok has excelled in the field of digital marketing. Due in large part to the fact that its algorithms give everyone an equal chance to go viral, it has surpassed Google as the most popular website worldwide. TikTok still lacks Facebook's reach despite having one billion followers. Any social media marketing plan needs to incorporate Facebook as well. But make sure TikTok is a part of your social media strategy for its enormous promotional potential.

Word-of-Mouth.

Great value and good service naturally lead to word-of-mouth promotion. If you pleasure your consumers, they will tell their friends. Word of mouth is free, and the advantages it may bring to your brand may be immeasurable.

Traditional (Legacy) Marketing.

Direct marketing platforms including television, radio, billboards, signage, and print are examples of traditional marketing methods. Traditional marketing is still effective for simultaneously reaching huge numbers of individuals. To minimize overspending, you must weigh the price of conventional marketing against its possible advantages.

Benefits of Using Multiple Marketing Channels.

You may increase the return on your promotional spending by having a clear plan for how you will use each marketing channel available to your company. While hiring the correct professionals to handle your marketing channels will cost money, the payoff will be larger than if you handled everything yourself. 

Channels for marketing save time. You don't have to handle every aspect of product distribution on your own. Also, using many marketing platforms allows you to reach considerably more customers than you would have otherwise.

The marketing channel that gives you the most clients who spend the most money is the one that is most effective for your company. You shouldn't rely on speculation to determine which marketing channels are most effective for your company. Being SMART and focusing on defined goals with established success criteria is the greatest method to identify the finest marketing channels. Your goals should be attainable, pertinent, and time-bound. 

You might test some marketing avenues that you subsequently decide to abandon. Just a portion of what it costs to run a business. Find the marketing strategies that are most effective for you by using A/B testing.

Multichannel Marketing Strategies.

To more effectively reach their audiences, many companies and organizations employ multichannel marketing techniques. A wonderful technique to understand your customers and improve connections with your clientele is to implement a multichannel marketing plan within your company. This article covers the definition of a multichannel marketing strategy, how to select the channels to employ, and how to develop your own multichannel marketing strategy.

What is multichannel marketing?

Interacting with clients and advertising your company across several online and offline platforms is known as multichannel marketing.  Some examples of marketing channels include:

  • Email
  • Social media
  • Pay-per-click advertising
  • Search engines
  • Blogs
  • Television ads
  • Print ads
  • Direct mail
  • Radio ads
  • Podcast ads
  • Word of mouth
  • Video advertising
  • E-books
  • Live chat

Businesses develop a plan to execute multiple of the aforementioned channels and connect them to one another, rather than concentrating on just one marketing channel. As a result, they may connect with a larger audience and find novel ways to engage their target demographic. A person is more likely to recall and learn more about a brand after hearing about it several times.

How to choose which channels to use

Every company is innately more successful on some channels than others. A fashion firm, for instance, would see better marketing results through a visual platform than from an email newsletter. You may create marketing plans that are more effective by determining these channels.

1. Create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a made-up profile of your ideal client. It gives information about the person's age, ethnicity, locality, means of subsistence, and interests. Creating a buyer persona can help you make sure that all of your choices are directed toward your target market. 

A buyer persona can be created in a variety of ways. You can make it up based on who you think your target audience is, use data that is already available about your customers, speak with potential consumers, or both. You may then hone your customer persona as you go along by discovering more about your target. The better your customer profile, the more data you can incorporate.

Many businesses also employ several client personas based on the various products they sell. Create as many consumer personas as you believe you'll require, bearing in mind that each will probably require a different marketing plan.

2. Research different channels. Your buyer persona should include information about how much time they spend online. Investigate the many marketing channels companies employ to determine this. For instance, you may investigate the demographics for various social media platforms or discover the email open rates for various age groups. The channels that work best for each buyer profile you built are revealed through this procedure.

3. Run tests. Do a trial campaign on the marketing channel you believe is best to guarantee you have found the best ones. Then conduct comparable studies on additional marketing platforms that appear to be effective. You can acquire additional information prior to allocating more resources to a larger campaign by developing modest tests on promising marketing channels.

4. Evaluate results. If it takes a few weeks, keep running your tests until you have enough information to analyze them. The information you gather from each test can then be used to decide which channels are worthwhile for your money. For instance, you can find that after launching comparable advertisements on two text-based social media platforms, one of them generated more interaction than the other because your target market is more active there. This would indicate to you that you should either change your campaign for the site with lower engagement or increase your campaign spending on the site with higher engagement.

How to Create a Multichannel Marketing Plan.

A business can sell itself in an organized and systematic manner by developing a multichannel marketing strategy.

1. Identify your channels. 

Choose the platforms on which you want to market your company. Even while you might want to be present on every channel imaginable, it is usually preferable to focus more narrowly. Following the procedures in the preceding section, select out the finest marketing channels for your firm.

2. Create a consistent message. 

Have a consistent voice throughout all of your marketing channels, even though each one demands a distinct strategy, to make your brand more recognizable to your target audience. The audience starts to trust you as a result of this familiarity. By deciding on your brand voice, the color schemes you'll employ, and the subject of your material, you can develop a communications plan that is consistent.

3. Use the advantages of each channel. 

Each marketing channel has advantages of its own, such as the material you can distribute or the audience it targets. Determine the benefits of each channel and make use of them to maximize the effectiveness of your multichannel marketing strategy. When compared to your website, social media, for instance, enables more direct communication with your customers. Make a list of the benefits of each marketing channel you plan to employ, along with your strategy for maximizing those benefits.

4. Connect your channels. 

Making connections between your various marketing channels aids in directing customers through the buying process. Connect each marketing channel to as many others as you can whenever you can to improve efficiency and boost engagement. For instance, you might link to your website and social media accounts in an email you send to your subscriber list. On each of your blog posts, which you may promote on your social media accounts whenever you publish them, you might also provide a mechanism for people to sign up for your email list. By providing your clients with additional destinations, you can prevent them from using your competitors' brands and keep them interested in yours.

5. Automate the process. 

Many of the time-consuming duties involved in managing a multichannel marketing strategy are eliminated by setting up process automation. You can automate a lot of tasks, like newsletter distribution, blog article sharing, social network posting, and live chat. Make a list of the processes that you anticipate taking the most time, then look into automating those operations. By implementing automation early on, you may improve the procedure over time, making it more capable as your marketing plan expands.

6. Evaluate and refine. 

Create a method that enables you to assess how well your multichannel marketing plan is working. Decide what metrics, such as page views, impressions, shares, or interactions, you wish to monitor. Then set a target for each of these measures, such as a growth of a specific percentage over a quarter. 

You may use these KPIs to gauge your success once you begin putting your multichannel marketing plan into practice. Then, you may assess the success of your plan and alter your objectives and procedures as necessary.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Write an Article.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Write an Article.

An story can be anything from a brief essay on a subject to a feature article in a magazine, newspaper, e-zine, newsletter, or any other type of publication. Reprints of articles aid in selling by bolstering your arguments with additional evidence.

Growing businesses like an essay writing service are continuously looking for innovative ways to reach their target audience and engage potential clients in the oversaturated web market. There are several possibilities available, ranging from creating visual marketing materials like brochures and movies to blogging and article writing.

Growing businesses like an essay writing service are continuously looking for innovative ways to reach their target audience and engage potential clients in the oversaturated web market. There are several possibilities available, ranging from creating visual marketing materials like brochures and movies to blogging and article writing. In fact, writing articles has become one of the most well-liked methods for establishing "a favorable presence online. When used effectively, marketing articles may strengthen your position as a thought leader and offer you the advantage you need to beat out the opposition. The majority of people still don't properly comprehend what article marketing is all about, which is the primary issue.

What exactly are marketing articles? 

We must first define what writing an article actually entails before we can begin to discuss some of the best practices for article creation. Marketing articles aren't only blog entries; they're also well-written informational pieces that can be published on a variety of platforms, such as:

  • News websites.
  • eMarketing directories.
  • Company websites.
  • Social media.
  • Guest-posting sites.

When done effectively, digital marketing articles can be an efficient approach to increase the reach of your company. They are effective tools for establishing your internet presence and demonstrating your worth to customers. It's crucial to keep in mind that creating an article involves more than just researching keywords and working to increase the number of backlinks to your website. 

Writing high-quality content that is interesting and beneficial to your target market is the key to creating effective digital marketing articles, from thought leadership pieces to industry news. You might post some of them on your website and others on websites that are related.

The objectives of publications on digital marketing frequently include:

Gaining links to the website from outside sources. 

Enhancing natural search outcomes. 

A rise in relevant website traffic that is targeted. 

Enhancing a website's utility and uniqueness (educating, entertaining, and informing your readers). 

Enhancing a brand's recognition and repute.

Techniques for writing a marketing article.

One of the best and most well-liked techniques to make money online has evolved as article marketing. On the internet, people actively search for information practically continuously. By publishing articles, you can improve the likelihood that prospective clients would choose you over your rival while looking for solutions to their problems. 

Let's examine the process of writing a marketing piece.

Step 1. Producing the content. 

Any article you create to sell your company should be valuable in some way. In other words, you shouldn't create articles that are overstuffed with keywords. Instead, your digital marketing articles should be stuffed with of tips and important information. The finest articles typically include a ton of useful information and responses to specific queries.

Step 2. Be concise. 

The fact that articles are frequently longer than a typical blog is one of the contrasts between blogging and article writing. But, if you want to leave the appropriate impression on your audience, it's crucial to choose the right length for your article. Your readers will disregard articles that are too short, while those that are too extensive will have trouble keeping their interest. 

While deciding on a length, the most important thing to remember is that your essay should get to the subject as swiftly as possible. The first paragraph should demonstrate the value you are bringing to the readers, and you should continue to do so throughout the essay.

Step 3. Adding links. 

The majority of the time, marketing content will have backlinks that take readers to other pages on your website. The placement of these links requires careful balancing between providing your clients with the additional information they require and distracting them with too many connections. 

Make sure you carefully select links so that they give your article authority, relevancy, and additional value for your readers.

Step 4. Provide helpful guidance.

Article writing is meant to be a way for businesses to demonstrate their specialized knowledge online, whereas blogs may be a terrific way to communicate any kind of content, from views and opinions to fresh ideas. Usually, this means that you should concentrate on giving lots of useful suggestions. In the first sentence of your article, answer the question you'll be answering for your reader and then continue using a straightforward approach.

You can utilize the body of your article to provide guidance, directions, and other important information after establishing the tone for the piece with a strong introduction. Don't let your writing get off topic. Before finishing your final draft, conduct further research if you need assistance in offering compelling and pertinent information.

Step 5. Producing an article. 

You may build your influence and online visibility by using thought leadership and article authoring. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to increase your opportunities for SEO copywriting as well. When you're focused on producing quality content, consider how you may effectively incorporate keywords and keyword phrases to improve your ranking with the major search engines.

Although keyword words are still a crucial component of marketing articles, it's crucial to avoid letting your ambition to rank overpower your work. Your text will appear cluttered and forced if you utilize too many keywords. 

Step 6. Being published.

Finally, even if your post has some of the most useful information available online, it will be of no use if neither search engines nor customers can find it. Making ensuring that your material is seen by the public is the main goal of marketing. Guest posting opportunities and article submission websites can also be useful resources for this.

For a more complete content strategy, you can also combine your article writing services with blogging. 

Remember that it's crucial to understand the fundamentals of your objectives and the means by which you intend to achieve them when you first enter the realm of article writing. Learning the technique can take time to perfect, just like anything else in business, but learning how to create a marketing article is an excellent starting point.

The distinction between blogging and article writing. 

It's likely that our explanation of how to produce a marketing piece made blogging come to mind a lot. Although blogging and article writing are quite similar, it's crucial to understand the differences between the two when developing your thought leadership and content marketing strategies. 

It takes a lot of time and effort to create high-quality content in the area of online brand growth. In light of this, it's critical to consider your options as soon as feasible. Focusing on your goals is your greatest bet. 

Building relationships with readers and increasing your presence on search engines are the main goals of blogs. While papers emphasize data and facts, blogs frequently include opinions, theories, and hot issues. 

Delivering information on the most recent advancements in new research and developments is the main goal of articles. Article writing might be a smart idea for you if it's necessary to provide your clients with lots of current knowledge about important themes in your sector and address the questions that could discourage them from purchasing your goods. A wonderful method to develop your position as a thought leader is through articles.

Those who are unsure of the distinction between blogs and articles frequently blur the lines between them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing since many companies combine blog and article authoring to offer their audience a more complete selection of online tools. 

Yet, the following points should be noted by anyone looking to differentiate between blogs and article writing. Articles can range in length from a few hundred to several thousand words. Articles typically have a more formal style because they are intended to inform readers of important information. Articles are ideal for thought leadership since they are fact-based, educational, and thorough. Usually 500 words or less, blogs are shorter than articles. Blogs provide businesses and brands a method to communicate with their audience because they are typically much more informal. Blogs offer a subjective point of view. Compared to articles, blogs are typically updated more regularly.

Incorporating a strategy for both blogging and article writing to your content solution can be a terrific idea. When you make both of these efforts at once, you not only give quick bits of knowledge to those looking for concise material, but you also give excellent advice to those looking to gain more out of your website.

Include links to more general topics that you've addressed in your articles in your blogs, if you do decide to employ a combination of short-form blogs and articles. In this manner, buyers can study more about a particular topic without going to your rivals for assistance.

Articles about the advantages of digital marketing.

One of the finest ways to enhance your content marketing strategy as a developing brand is through article authoring. Yet, if you commit to the process on a regular basis, you can only obtain great benefits through article and content development. 

Writing articles, digital marketing, and content marketing are all facets of brand development that demand commitment over the long term. These actions are a long-term approach to establish your internet presence and lay a solid basis for a lasting brand; they are not a quick fix for becoming wealthy.

When done with diligence, good article writing may highlight the expertise of a firm and provide it the support it needs to win the audience's trust. The following are some of the greatest advantages of digital marketing articles: 

1. More incentives to stay on your website.

Customers want to spend more time with your business if your website has more high-quality content. Long-form articles that are packed with knowledge and advice will keep your readers interested, familiarize them with your brand, and foster the trust that boosts conversion rates. 

2. More authoritative domains.

Writing more lengthy pieces of content might occasionally improve your online visibility, but creating more high-quality articles can frequently raise your perceived level of authority, relevance, and competence. Hence, article authoring might raise your domain authority by generating more inbound links from other sources. Better search engine rankings also follow from higher domain authority!

3. More visibility in search results.

Each blog you add to your website, along with the articles you write, adds another page that Google may index for your brand. Having a lot of high-quality indexed pages can increase your ability to rank for more search queries, even though having more pages doesn't always result in greater search traffic. Just be sure to concentrate on the words and phrases that your clients frequently use to search.

4. Increased social media fans.

More people will start reading your stuff if you take the effort to syndicate the content you publish in your articles through your social media platforms. Additionally, this implies that your content may be shared on social media with friends, family, and coworkers, so extending your social reach. Your brand will raise its social media ranking and start to get more traffic over time.

5. A better standing.

People's perceptions of your brand will start to form as they read your marketing pieces. They'll automatically think more highly of your brand if they think the content you produce is educational, interesting, and helpful. Additionally, they will view you as a more reliable source of thought leadership in your sector if they see your work appearing on external sites and in their newsfeed.

6. Anybody can succeed with article writing. 

There is no industry that cannot benefit from content, which is one of the major advantages of article writing for brand reach. Any company, in any setting, can employ content as a component of their marketing plan. This is due to the fact that there will always be customers and businesspeople interested in knowing more about particular markets and themes.

7. Excellent financial results 

There are plenty of various strategies to increase your reach when it comes to marketing. Only a writer's fee and some of your time are required for content marketing. As a result, it is very economical and offers excellent compounding returns. The following months will see more progress even if the initial few months might not show many effects. By the time you've invested for a few years, you might have quadrupled your money.

Articles on thought leadership: The necessity of thought leadership 

Writing articles can help you strengthen your industry position on your website, share the most recent business news through email marketing, or provide more value to customers through free downloads. Thought leadership pieces remain one of the most well-liked types of article writing available today.

In order to consistently address some of your target audience's most pressing questions, thought leadership pieces draw on the passion, talent, and expertise that exist within your company. 

For both B2B and B2C businesses, thought leadership is an essential component of brand building. This is due to the fact that thought leadership articles can assist clients and other companies in learning more about how your organization operates and what you're doing to address the needs of your target market.

The advantages of articles on thought leadership.

Brand affinity is the first step toward earning the benefits of a thought leadership approach. You participate in a bigger discourse at an earlier point of the purchase experience by sharing your thought leadership. This gives people a chance to learn more about your brand.

Thought leadership can encourage participation from a variety of prospective clients and investors. This is due to the fact that modern consumers are frequently looking for solutions to problems rather than a particular good or service. You may create a lasting, devoted relationship with your audience if you speak to them while they're still in the "awareness" stage of the buying cycle and searching for a solution to their issue. 

You can gain from one of the main advantages of article writing—the chance to position oneself in your market—by publishing thought leadership articles. You can convince your readers that you are deserving of their respect and confidence by writing the appropriate content. Thought leadership can encourage participation from a variety of prospective clients and investors. This is due to the fact that modern consumers are frequently looking for solutions to problems rather than a particular good or service. You may create a lasting, devoted relationship with your audience if you speak to them while they're still in the "awareness" stage of the buying cycle and searching for a solution to their issue. Additionally, you can even position yourself to appear more knowledgeable than your rivals, which is a terrific method to increase sales.

How to write articles with thought leadership.

How then do you produce thought leadership content that inspires interaction and yields concrete outcomes? There are only five easy steps: 

  1. Much of research is necessary to become the go-to source in your industry for quality article writing and online content. The appropriate study into your unique niche and the needs of your clients will help you achieve this. 
  1. One of the main goals of article writing is to entertain and amuse your readers while also giving them useful information. That does not, however, imply that the articles you produce must be uninteresting and unoriginal. Prospects are more likely to remember you if you can add personality to your messages.
  1. Learn more about your clients. Consider speaking with your product team to find out the most frequent questions your readers have so you can improve your thought leadership pieces. 
  1. Engage your clients. One of the finest ways to produce educational marketing articles is to speak with your clients and obtain their input on the topics they would want to read about on your website. 
  1. Be open and honest. Finally, be honest and make an effort to come across to your clients as a person. Prospects frequently prefer to interact with relatable individuals over large, impersonal corporations.

How to make writing articles profitable for you 

Every day, millions of articles and blog posts are published online. Nevertheless, research indicates that only 55% of customers read your material for more than 15 seconds. So, you must abide by certain sound guidelines for producing relevant material if you want to make article writing profitable for you. 

We'll simplify the process for you here by providing two tips on how to encourage people to read your online content, even though opinions on the ideal guidelines for creating excellent marketing pieces differ.

Keep it current. If you want people to read your content, it can be hilarious and engaging, formal and educational, or anything else, but it must be pertinent. Consider your audience's needs while you write your articles. Create content that responds to the queries on your clients' minds by considering what they need to hear about, including their desires and pain issues. The three following are the greatest ways to determine whether your content is relevant: 

  1. Relevance based on popular topics: Depending on the current season or popular issues in the market, your content may be relevant. A story about holiday shopping, for instance, is more likely to be read in December than in March. Relevance frequently has a chronological component.
  1. Expertise-based relevance: Your material should always be pertinent to the industry or subject matter in which your reader is interested. If your business specializes in brand design, users won't be looking for marketing articles about how to make the best roast beef or smoothies on your website.
  1. Relevancy based on insight: Although knowing your own industry can help you start your search for pertinent topics, learning more about your consumers through interviews and buyer personas can help you understand what they actually want to hear from you.

Simple is best. 

The 400-word restriction for all of your article writing is not required by the rule of simplicity. Instead, it implies that it must be simple for your reader to scan your information and discover the solutions to their problems. 

Although it would be ideal if readers read the entire piece, there is a good probability that they won't. As a result, providing a ton of pertinent, scannable material is the best method to keep visitors on your website for longer while strengthening your reputation as an authority in your industry.

A 124% increase in visibility can be achieved using scannable article writing that divides parts with several bullet points, statistics, sub-headings, and photos.

Your headlines and subheadings should offer immediate value and relevancy. Strong headlines are the secret to effective web content, and your article writing should establish relationships with readers right away. For text that can be quickly scanned, bullet points and numbered lists work great. Larger blocks of text can be broken up with them to make it less intimidating to read on a screen because they are easier for the eyes to move across. Text formatting adds a new level of text that can be scanned. In other words, check to see that the typefaces you're choosing are both easily readable and totally compatible with your background. When developing your brand image, you will keep this in mind.

Writing articles to build brands. 

Article writing is a fantastic technique for businesses to start standing out in the internet market in an era of fierce brand competition. Articles, blogs, videos, and infographics are all types of content that can help you persuade your audience that you are informed and reliable. This is frequently the first step in creating a brand that customers can identify with and that may truly help your business turn a profit. 

After all, creating a website and expecting visitors to come to you is no longer sufficient in today's market. Successful businesses must discover a method to connect with their customers and show them their value. Though article writing isn’t intended for instant success, it is a long-lasting way to build a brand online.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Voice Broadcasts.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Voice Broadcasts.

 

Voice broadcasts are a very underused strategy. The Do Not Call list does not apply if you already have a relationship with your customers or potential customers. This creates the ideal situation for a superb method of concurrently calling thousands of your clients when they are most likely not at home. The technology takes care of the rest when you upload your customers' phone numbers and record the message you want to leave. 

"Hello, my name is John Smith. I apologize for missing you, but I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow is the last day of our fire sale.”

Voice announcements function best when they are included in a sequence. 

"Hello, John Smith from Smith Publishing phoning," for instance. “I apologize for missing you, but I wanted to let you know about an important letter and complimentary present we will be delivering to your house. It ought to get to you within the following few of days. Just keep an eye out for the vivid blue envelope.”

Nothing is as intimate and satisfying as a phone call. Despite the development of technology, verbal communication still outperforms texting and email because it allows for a deeper emotional bond to form between the individuals. Businesses that wish to have a solid, devoted consumer base must establish these quick ties. But until the invention of voice broadcast, making phone calls to each individual consumer might be expensive, time-consuming, or even impossible.

How can you quickly contact thousands of your customers? Email is one method, but since its average open rates are only between 17 and 25 percent, it is not as effective when used alone. Email marketing for small businesses is still effective, but messages can get buried among the hundreds of others fighting for your customers' attention. You may reach a larger audience who want to hear your message and act on it by using voice broadcast as an alternative communication strategy.

Also, voice broadcast enables you to simultaneously communicate with all of your consumers, saving you both money and time. It's as simple as crafting a message, scheduling it to go off, and submitting your phone book to a voice broadcast site. You can also use text-to-speech capability to verbalize your written communications if you don't want to use your own voice.

You can use voice broadcast to promote your small business marketing campaigns and unique events. Voice broadcast is the perfect means to grab your clients' attention if you have any unique messages, current promotions, upcoming events, special discounts, or other offers to share with them.

For instance, if you own a neighborhood restaurant and want to inform guests about your Valentine's Day menu and offers, you could use voice broadcast to craft a clever, enticing message. Give clients the option to book a reservation straight from the message using a tool like CallFire's "Press 1" function to boost sales. By just hitting "1," recipients can be connected straight to your customer care staff with the "Press 1" feature.

Through voice broadcast, you may assess a promotion's effectiveness. The majority of voice broadcasting services let you know how many calls were made and, if they include a "Press 1" feature, how many recipients used it. You can use this data to determine which messages were effective and which ones weren't so you can make adjustments for subsequent campaigns. 

Sending reminder messages will help you get more signups for any unique events you are hosting, whether they are online or offline.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Kansas

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Kansas state flag.
Kansas state flag.

Kansas looks just like Iowa without the cool big ass truck stop.  It’s corn.  I texted a friend from St.  Paul,  Minnesota and showed her a picture of me in a traffic jam behind a tractor and she reminded me that before we met,  she was from a town of fifteen hundred so it’s nothing new to her and me being from Indiana,  I see it frequently,  but it’s still annoying,  especially when it’s right next to an interstate. 

In Kansas City I had to take the bus out because there is,  sadly,  nothing else cost-efficient to get home.  I assumed the bus station wouldn’t be in a bad area like most because my vision of Kansas City was that of a nice clean city where there is no crime, people don’t lock their doors, and the city that closes everything at 7PM.  Nope!  It was by the homeless shelter and mission and it was in the bad part of town—like usual.  I was hungry and went on my phone to find restaurants nearby.  Most restaurants were already closed and if I wasn’t waiting on a bus,  I wouldn’t have been there after dark either.  I was walking towards one spot and as I walked,  I could tell it was not the place I wanted to be walking around and I would have to walk back to the bus station after dark.  Then as I was walking,  I saw some gang markings on the sidewalk and a condom on the ground.  Nope!  I don’t know what happened there and I really don’t want to know,  but I turned around and ate bus station food. 

My friend Robert went there one time and had some time to kill before leaving and found this barbecue restaurant that he bragged about.  He really enjoyed it.  He told me it was the epitome of Kansas City style barbecue.  We ended up having a trip there one time and had extra time to kill and we were both hungry so we went there.  Like a proud father,   he wanted to show me his discovery.  And—I hated it.  I didn’t mean to hate it.  I felt like I stabbed him because he really liked it and we generally have similar tastes but I couldn’t bring myself to like it.  They use too much vinegar. I get the whole tangy verses sweet thing, but the tang almost made me throw up.  It was like a sweet and sour sauce that forgot any form of sweet.  The food stayed down,  but it didn’t want to.  The copious amounts of  “tangy”  just didn’t set well with me.  It was tantamount to feeling parched and the water was in the hot trunk of your car.  The food was necessary,  but unsoothing at the same time.  I love Barbecue and I really wanted to like this place and they had great reviews,  so I chalk it up to being me,  not them.  I’m sure they are doing just fine and the line out the door would suggest as much,  but I just don’t have the pallet for their food.  Just like a relationship between two awesome people,  it doesn’t always work out for no other reason than personal preferences. 

So to sum up Kansas,  farmlands,  ghetto,  and some barbecue I don’t really like.  Did I forget anything? 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Podcasts.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Podcasts.

One marketing tool that professionals have at their disposal in this day and age, the podcast, is sometimes misused. Podcasts are powerful marketing tools because they enable firms to connect with a particular audience. Research shows that podcasts are effective at hyper-targeting listeners and offer a fair return on investment. The fact that podcasts are frequently instructive and informative adds value for listeners. iTunes is a website with a rank of one, according to Forbes. So, any founder who is mentioned in a podcast with a description raises the brand's SEO rankings. Thus, podcasts can be a useful strategy for improving page rankings. The number of podcast listeners is rising, and 115 million individuals are predicted to do so weekly.

The podcast industry has less competition than other social media channels. Over 80 million businesses have pages on Facebook, whereas there are only 70,000 podcasts. Finding an audience-friendly unexplored niche for podcasts is simpler. Also, because podcasts simply need to be heard, listening to them requires less concentration. Many have been attempting to cut back on their screen usage, particularly during the pandemic. Hence, taking a break from screens by listening to a podcast is a wonderful idea.

Podcasts have actual worth since they do more than just serve as a tool for branding; they also add value for listeners. Through participating in discussion, listeners can feel connected, have a sense of belonging, discover more about their interests, and be a part of the podcast community.

There is much more to podcasts than just marketing. Informational and containing knowledge that listeners find fascinating, podcasts are. They are useful for expanding reach as well as for marketing. Podcasts are stronger marketing tools since they develop a highly interested niche.

There are several podcasts that target a certain niche and are widely circulated within that area. The niche factor enables marketers to target particular demographics and reach consumers.

Podcasts are considered incomparable to YouTube and Instagram. It might be difficult for brands to select a platform on which to establish a presence. The majority of companies are working to increase their visibility on Facebook and Instagram, but many are ignoring the niche that may be developed on Spotify and iTunes.

Podcasts can make B2B companies more productive. It can be challenging to develop a marketing campaign for a B2B company that has a strong connection to the other company. Personal and professional stories frequently fail to capture audiences' attention the way they could in B2C marketing. For B2B businesses, podcasts are an entertaining method to tell their stories. So, podcasts can be a useful tool for companies that do not have the resources or space to develop an efficient marketing strategy.

Your firm can benefit from using podcasts as a marketing strategy. They can attract more devoted viewers in addition to redirecting traffic to other social media platforms. Overall, podcasts serve purposes other than marketing. They also support community building by educating and engaging customers on a deeper level. Podcasts shouldn't be overlooked in a time when businesses want to be active on social media channels.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: San Antonio

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

San Antonio

San Antonio city flag.
San Antonio city flag.

San Antonio has the look and feel of the French Quarter in New Orleans,  but with Mexican influences instead of French,  if that makes any sense.  Like New Orleans,  it’s a mix of old and new world downtown.  The fist place I had to go after leaving my hotel was The Alamo.  After a long line,  I finally made it inside and it was underwhelming,  but with only a caveat as a reason.  My parents were both history buffs and they loved the history of The Alamo.  Growing up,  I heard all about it and remember what they told me.  Mother loved westerns so we even watched a few movies that featured it.  You expect larger than life events to be larger than life.  In the end, it was an inconspicuous two hundred year old church that has been preserved.  The church was built as most churches of the time would have been in areas of lesser income,  still ornate for the time,  but no cathedral.  Speaking to an Uber driver named Jesus later,  he said to check out some of the other missions in town,  as they are more impressive.  Though not a strategic enough battle to have made a difference,  the incident at The Alamo had deep emotional meaning and those who died there,  were heroes of Texas,  near patron saints of Texas liberation, and that served as a battle cry for the rest of the conflict before Texas became independent of Mexico.  It is just physically small in comparison to the size of the meaning behind the church. 

Moving on,  you will come across the riverwalk,  a really cool design.  According to maps and brochures published,  the riverwalk area is roughly fifteen miles long.  I wasn’t walking fifteen miles,  but I did walk some of it on a cool,  but humid day and it was really awesome to see all of the riverfront restaurants,  parks,  and shops.  If you go up to the street level,  it’s even more of the same.  I was suggested by an Uber driver to check out The Pearl,  which is a restaurant,  but a part of town became known by that name too.  According to the Uber driver,  it was a restaurant,  then a cooking school.  Students didn’t always leave upon graduation and some started restaurants in the same area.  Driving past the area,  it was the epitome of gentrification.  That’s a word that a lot of people don’t like because it usually means property values go up and reduce affordable housing in areas.  I don’t like the term because it usually means I don’t want to be there after nightfall.  Driving through,  it wasn’t the most savory of places,  but it also looked like a foodie’s wet dream of little something restaurants and bistros. 

I took the Amtrak out of San Antonio and when I got near the train station,  I discovered another part of the downtown area to fall in love with.  San Antonio is truly an amazing city that I need explore further. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Company Seminars and Speeches.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Company Seminars and Speeches.

Internal meetings and seminars are common in businesses. Most just impose a little fee. You may use the same strategies to market and sell your products and services. It's a great strategy to enter a company and present.

Schools share the same situation. You might offer to teach a course at nearby community colleges and other educational institutions for free or for payment. Even though you will teach them useful skills, the logical outcome of your course is for customers to purchase your entire course and additional information items. Although I haven't personally done it, I am aware of people who have, and it's a great way to establish yourself as an authority while generating side income. Furthermore, the inevitable publicity is beneficial.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Arkansas

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Arkansas

Arkansas State Flag
Arkansas State Flag

Arkansas is a strange state and I’ve mostly traveled it from West Memphis,  which is east on Interstate 40 to Little Rock,  then Interstate 30 to Texarkana at the Texas border. 

Arkansas makes me believe a study should be done between the wearing of short Daisy Dukes and corollate that to unwed pregnancies.  When I say short,  I mean cut off so short that the pockets hang out on the outer side and one lip hangs out of both sides of the inner seem.  I see short short short shorts and nineteen year old pregnant women everywhere I go there.  Maybe there really isn’t much else to do for that age group.  I particularly enjoy antiquing,  much to the chagrin and questioning of many of my friends and I find Arkansas to be great for that,  especially in and around Little Rock. 

Some of my worst few nights traveling were in Arkansas.  It was hot and humid and I was trying to sleep in the back of a truck.  As I lay there in a hammock,  my ankles start burning like there were matches on them.  I heard a lone mosquito in my ear but just one buzzing so I wrongly discounted mosquitoes.  I got up after about ninety minutes of feeling like I rolled in insulation and kept going.  I got sleepy again and had the same issue so I closed all windows and vents on the truck and sweated.  Later I just drove another hundred miles into Texas where I was so tired that I had to stop and then it was fine.  I was covered in mosquito bites.  They couldn’t bite through both my hammock and my clothes,  but they could bite bare skin through the hammock where the bottom of my shirt lifted up.  My next attempt was similar and after that I tried staying in West Memphis,  Arkansas.  I had a brilliant plan that just popped up by chance.  As I pulled in,  I heard bats squawking.  Great!  Bats eat mosquitoes so they will keep those at bay and I won’t be eaten alive.  The problem with that flawed logic is that bats won’t go in those numbers in a place where the food source isn’t plentiful so—there were mosquitoes to spare—a lot of mosquitoes to spare....  I ended up with a small nine dollar can of Deep Woods Off from the truck stop and that actually helped a lot. 

I’m not a huge fan of the thick southern accent so that gets irritating and I can barely understand some people there,  but that aside,  Arkansas really isn’t bad and the former Governor has my name and there’s a town near Little Rock with my last name,  so it’s not all that bad of a place to visit.  

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Novelty Items.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Novelty Items.

 

You may customize anything with your phrase on it, including t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, pens, pencils, mouse pads, and more. The key is to have a catchy tagline or image. For instance, a company name or logo is uninteresting. However, a smart statement or image that includes a site address will be seen and used more often.

When you put your logo to promotional games and novelty items, you encourage fun. With unusual items like jump ropes, playing cards, bubbles, hacky sacks, and yo-yos, you may advertise your business, institution, or event. With giveaways like spirit cowbells, personalized temporary tattoos, miniature foam footballs, and sticker rolls, you may celebrate your favorite team, school, or college. 

Adult and kid-friendly promotional coloring books are a fun way to advertise your company and display your logo. We have books in a range of relaxing themes and instructive subjects that can help with stress reduction. For both indoor and outdoor events, flyers and fans are excellent.

These are a useful way to advertise your brand, whether you want to take it outside for some fun or stay cool at events. Another great freebie that customers and clients are sure to use are games and puzzles. Puzzles like Sudoku, word searches, and crosswords will keep people's thoughts active and thinking about your business. 

Keep attendees entertained with imprinted board games, enjoyable flying discs, beach balls, and more with this wonderful gimmick for drawing visitors to your trade show station. Further interesting discussion starters are novelty pens, toys, and puzzles.

For your indoor or outdoor event, are you looking for even more entertaining promotional product ideas? Explore variety of sports & outdoor products, cuddly animals, stress relievers, and novelty pens. 

By printing personalized water bottles with your logo or mascot and giving them out at open houses, sporting events, or as back-to-school gifts for kids, you can foster school spirit and collect money for teams and organizations. T-shirts, drawstring bags, and blankets are a few other widely used educational freebies.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Idaho

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Idaho

Idaho State Flag
Idaho State Flag

Idaho is a desert.  With all of our potatoes coming from there,  I never thought it would be a desert.  I mean the entire state isn’t one,  but going Northwest from Utah towards Oregon is pretty baron,  but a pretty baron.  You drive through a flat brown desert and off in the distance on both sides of you are these gigantic mountains that eventually close in on you.  It really is cool,  regardless of the extreme heat and no air conditioning one time and 102 degree temperatures.  I went through $30 in Gatorade that day and still got to a point where I stopped sweating and started shivering.  Not good!  Finally I found a place with air conditioning and felt a lot better.  I called Robert to complain about the heat and his response was,  “Do you know how Death Valley got its name?  It’s 116 where I’m driving right now.”  OK.  Well—whatever.  Maybe he had a point,  but it was still really hot where America’s potatoes come from and I was taken aback. 

The only two places of significance I have found besides a restaurant in Boise called Chuck-a-Rama are Lookout Pass,  which may technically be in be partially in Montana and Coeur d’Alene.  Lookout Pass is a mountain pass you drive up into from Montana,  but by the time you hit Idaho,  if its going to snow,  it will be snowing there.  It was horrible and it’s where I realized my hatred of mountain passes.  Even in the summer,  its a lot of twists and turns in big trucks not exactly with the best road performance tuned suspensions and in the winter,  it’s a snow and ice covered hell and snow accumulates fast.  To no surprise,  there is a ski recreation area on Lookout Pass.  Chuck-a-Rama is part of a chain of all you can eat buffet restaurants in Utah and Idaho.  Though really good and something that has become a personal tradition,  I think they are equal to Golden Corral. 

Coeur d’Alene is one of the most amazing places I have been to and I try to make a point of stopping there on my way to Seattle whenever I am through.  Coeur d’Alene is like Vale,  a year-round resort.  They have a gorgeous mountain lake that in the daytime of summer has the sunlight shimmering on a perfect clean glass top.  I have also had the distinct pleasure of driving through under a full moon and its beauty almost brings a tear to your eye under that glow.  The town itself tries to be quaint,  but is anything but with big box stores,  high end boutiques everywhere,  and Tesla charging stations.  It’s a place I would love to spend a few days and explore in-depth instead of a sporadic night here and there.  Personal research has shown it to be economically one of the fastest growing cities under a population of one hundred thousand in the United States.

Idaho is a state that shocked the hell out of me with its uniqueness.  Like Utah,  it was a state I never cared about,  but after being there,  I really liked it.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Essential Tools Every Internet Marketer Should Possess.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Essential Tools Every Internet Marketer Should Possess.

Your research will show that there are a few fundamental tools that are going to be crucial to the success of any Internet marketing strategy. By establishing this strong foundation, you may avoid having to start from scratch with each new campaign, though you should always be ready to make some adjustments to meet the needs of the good or service you wish to promote.

Here are some steps to take in order to execute your marketing strategies effectively.

You must first create a website. Period. Discussions and hesitation are not permitted. People trust organizations that they believe to be "genuine" enterprises, it is a simple truth of life. If you have a legitimate website that people can visit, bookmark, and share with their friends and family, you will appear to be a well-established company, even if your marketing empire is being built from the garage or a spare bedroom.

An outstanding illustration of this is freelance writers. While certain lucrative markets are always seeking for new authors, they tend to favor those who have websites with writing samples, contact details, and content that shows the site is run as a real business and not simply a side gig or pastime.

With marketing, the same is true. Sure, you can position ads everywhere, but if there is nothing to inspire confidence in the viability of your company, all of your efforts will likely be ineffective.

The good news is that websites these days are still rather affordable, and many suppliers will even provide you with online tools to help you design a beautiful website. They provide the basic layout, color palettes, and outline. You give us the text, pictures, and graphics. You can use this as the foundation of your marketing strategy by getting your website up and operating over the course of a weekend.

Your domain name is one of the first things to think about when building a website. Trying to be quirky or charming with the name is one of the most common blunders individuals make. Unless you can mix quirky and cute with a short, simple to remember domain name, forget quirky and cute. Remember that visitors will have a tougher time remembering your domain name the longer it is.

Sure, they can always save your website address to their Favorites, but what good is that when they are casually discussing your website with a friend? Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, that in-person interaction is when word-of-mouth is most likely to happen. It is much more likely that a new prospect will be lead to your website if the domain name can be easily recited.

The truth is that despite many people's best intentions, their everyday obligations often cause them to forget their promises to email links to others. Make life simpler for both you and visitors to your website. Use KISS's old Toastmasters advice (keep it simple stupid). Everyone will have a better quality of life.

The structure of your domain name should then be carefully considered. Are there any simple ways to include memorable keywords in the domain name? Try to incorporate "greeting" or "cards" into the domain name if, for instance, you intend to create a website devoted to the marketing of your own line of greeting cards. The name of your business might not be the ideal option for the domain name, so keep that in mind.

Even though we all enjoy seeing our names appear when we browse the Internet, your attention should be on the things you need to advertise rather than the fantastic name you have given your company. If it appears like giving up using your company name in the URL will result in a domain name that draws attention to your goods and services, take the bullet and go for it. Remember that there are numerous locations on the real website where you can mention your business.

This contributes to two goals. Visitors will initially link the URL to the categories of goods you are marketing. This is always advantageous because it makes it much simpler for customers to remember and share your information with others. 

Additionally, it makes it much simpler for your target market to reach your website during search engine queries. Your domain name's effectiveness as a marketing tool will increase as it becomes more targeted and narrowly focused, which will help you in your quest for success.

Making the most of your website's title tag on the home page is another crucial consideration. One deadly error that is frequently committed is to create a welcome message for the site in this spot. 

Even though it would be a pleasant touch to welcome guests into your home, it is totally unnecessary on your website. There is no need to spend space by expressing the obvious since it is assumed that everyone who sees the site is welcome.

Instead, make use of that area to clearly state what you have to offer in everyday language. Keep in mind that individuals today want rapid gratification because we live in such a society. As a result, you generally only have five to ten seconds to persuade your visitor to continue reading. 

Use that title tag to draw attention to your website and you'll probably discover that you rank higher on numerous search engines and utilize your page space more effectively.

While it is always lovely when clients come to you, the truth is that if you have the mentality that people will be lined up to buy whatever it is you are promoting because of your fantastic website, you will starve. It will take a very long time to establish a consistent customer if the appropriate people are unaware that your website even exists. Knowing where to market to your potential consumer base is one of the things that will help you succeed.

Internet marketers have had access to a variety of materials over the years for use in marketing initiatives. The email list is one of the most popular. Approaching this kind of resource should be done with extreme caution. The truth is that these ready-to-use lists are frequently unqualified. 

Only email addresses that have chosen to be on the list and agree to receive emails about particular goods and services are included in a qualified email list.

Too frequently, lists are marketed that are nothing more than a collection of email addresses that have been collected from the Internet. Spam, or unsolicited emails, are produced when a list is used that is not qualified. No ethical Internet marketer makes use of inaccurate contact lists. 

You risk being harmed in two ways by an unqualified list. To start with, you must pay a lot of money for that list. You effectively lost resources that could have been used more effectively if you bought a list of 10,000 email addresses and all but 100 of them were returned as undeliverable.

Utilizing an unqualified email list has the even more serious side effect of allowing your communications to reach consumers who become irate because they never wanted the email in the first place. Your business name or website address may soon appear on user-driven spam reporting websites, which will give you the kind of publicity you do not want. 

Make sure the list is qualified if you must include email in your marketing strategy. Yet, don't anticipate spectacular outcomes. Within three seconds of your transaction, the identical eligible email list was probably sold to five other persons.

Make sure consumers are aware that you won't give or sell the list to any third parties and that they can always choose not to receive mail from you if their thoughts change. This kind of courtesy will improve your professional standing and give you access to a focused direct email audience that is interested in your advertising. 

There are other online tools at your disposal to sell your goods and services. Find places that will appreciate the inclusion of your contact information and an advertisement for your business by doing some research. These places can include discussion boards, online yellow pages, business organizations, want advertising at chamber of commerce websites, and more. 

Although some may have a little price, many of these are free. In some circumstances, you might be able to locate a website related to a sector of business that would profit from your good or service and work out a deal for a long-term advertisement there.

Having a clear understanding of the kind of customer who might be interested in what you are promoting is a useful skill. Traditional marketing has used profiling as a technique for many years. Basically, you want to paint a picture of your typical consumer, complete with information about their lives, preferences, and dislikes. 

For instance, would single folks or those in committed relationships or who are married find your goods more appealing? Do those who are just starting out, perhaps in their twenties, find your offering more appealing?

Perhaps those in their middle years of life or those who are retired find your goods to be more appealing. Will those who reside in urban areas be drawn to your offering, or will those who reside in rural areas find it more appealing? 

You will benefit in a few ways by asking yourself these crucial questions about the kinds of individuals who are most likely to be interested in your product and the reasons they would be.

You might start by looking for marketing strategies that concentrate on successfully contacting people who suit the profile you created. As a result, you will need to invest more time in getting your brand's name and contact details in front of those who are most likely to take the time to check out what you have to offer.

Second, you may use this profile as the foundation for your marketing materials. When your services are targeted at residents of small towns, why waste time talking about the big city? By exposing you to the possibilities of talking points that will attract the attention of the appropriate audience, profiling helps to give your campaign focus. 

Regarding online advertising, there is one thing you need to keep in mind. What was effective a few years ago is now ordinary and, in some cases, stale. Simply said, some forms of electronic advertising are no longer very effective.

Nevertheless, depending on the type of customer you're attempting to reach, some of these strategies might work. The most important thing to keep in mind when promoting online is not to limit yourself to one single strategy at the expense of all others. Make thorough research on your alternatives, and keep at least three or four strategies active at once.

Something is amiss if you can't name at least three of these strategies that will help you connect with your intended audience. Your basic client profile is either too specific, or you need to learn more about the marketing possibilities that are accessible. 

Make yourself available as your final option. Businesses aren't founded only on your website and catchy advertising. People will occasionally approach you to discuss what you have to offer. This means that you should always make sure that clients and prospects may easily get in touch with you.

A branded email, as opposed to one of those free ones, clearly conveys that you are a professional and establishes your availability. Another smart move is, if at all possible, to include a phone number. As long as it's a business line and not your home phone, that is. Your three-year-old picking up the call is probably not something that potential clients will appreciate. Install a second phone line, and be careful to have the name of your company read when the call is answered.

Create a message board as part of your web presence as a third choice. In addition to allowing satisfied consumers to tell others what they liked about your business, your service, and the products they bought, it also allows people to communicate with you in that way. Being approachable and quick to respond to inquiries from clients and prospects will greatly improve your professional standing with the general public.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Oregon

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Oregon state flag.
Oregon state flag.

Oregon

This may be the most beautiful ugly state or ugliest beautiful state in the United States.  Let me explain.  It’s half high rolling arid dessert and half green forests and farmlands.  Everything is mixed and you drive through multiple climates. 

You’ll notice the West coast earthy smell of organic fertilizers throughout the state and if you’re not from there,  you will realize that it must be too hard to pump gas on your own because the clerks have to do it for you in most places.  It was one hundred percent,  but in 2018,  the state legislature relaxed some of the full-service requirements,  much to the chagrin of many residents,  one being quoted in the news by saying,  “How can we be expected to handle something that complex and dangerous?”  This doesn’t give me a lot of faith in the average Oregonian if they are afraid of doing something the rest of us have done since at least age sixteen.  

Portland is representative of the rest of the state’s beautiful ugliness as well.  The Pacific Northwest doesn’t get hard freezes so it’s become a homeless haven in what is one of the most beautiful cities in the country.  I really love Portland,  but they also allow motorhomes to just park in parallel spots on the side of the streets and people can freely live there so long as it’s not a metered parking spot.  It creates a blight throughout the beautiful city.  One oddity is that it’s not on the ocean at all,  but a river—which is the port.  From the name,  I figured it’d be a oceanic port,  but it’s not.  The port is on a river then the river goes to the ocean so you’re not having a legitimate beach day in city limits.  My time spent in Portland is,  unfortunately,  limited for such a beautiful city,  but as expected,  they do have several hipster colonies throughout so if you can stomach the man bun craze,  you’ll find great brew houses and restaurants with amazing food.  Driving in a car in the city is easy,  but a larger truck becomes nightmarish. 

Portland International Airport  (PDX)  is one of my favorites when I can get a good price.  Normally if I need to go to Portland or Seattle,  I will book a redeye flight at either Portland International or SEA-TAC  (SEA)  in Seattle.  The Amtrak between the two cities is inexpensive so it makes a nice,  easy exodus to get back to Chicago or anywhere else you need to go.

Portland is actually on my shortlist of cities I could see myself moving to if I had a desire to fully move from the area I live now,  despite the many people I have met there.  I have seen more blue hair on twenty-something hipsters there than eighty-somethings in nursing homes.  How the hell do you hold a professional job with blue hair or even go through an interview successfully?  Whatever!  I saw the TV show Portlandia years back and I hated it.  I can’t imaging any real people acting like that.  Well fuck me running,  they really do.  It was like the 1990’s took a wrong turn there and went into a much weirder place the the rest of us went.  Aside from the people that populate Portland,  however,  I really love the city itself. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Posters.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Posters.

 

Who says you can't hire high school students to hide them under windshields or pack them into mailboxes? Obviously, it would be better to target the windshields of a posh hotel than your neighborhood Wal-Mart if you were offering an expensive financial course. If you wish to ship them, I believe the US Postal Service will also print them for you like they do with postcards.

Does your business use poster marketing as a component of its advertising plan? If not, you're passing on a fantastic chance to engage your audience and convert potential customers. When making a shopping choice, 82% of consumers prefer print advertisements like posters to other kinds of advertising. Let's look at how your business might begin including poster marketing in its print plan. 

Potential clients must interact with your brand seven times (often called the “Marketing Rule of Seven”) if you want to boost sales. In actuality, a prospect needs to interact with you seven times before they decide to buy. The amount of encounters clients have with your brand is increased when you combine your existing print marketing tactics, such as newsletters and direct mail, with poster marketing. This increases brand recognition and consumer confidence, which boosts sales.

Considering that 77% of consumers base their purchases on the brand, raising brand recognition for businesses should be a top priority. You may enhance the amount of interactions prospects have with your business and raise that crucial brand awareness by integrating poster marketing with your current print strategy.

Given that we live in a digital age, it should come as no surprise that internet advertising is crucial if you want to draw in clients. Not that you should disregard print, though. You may actually increase traffic to your online platforms by using poster marketing. 

Customers might find you on social media by looking for your company's handles on posters. Additionally, you may utilize posters to advertise a distinctive hashtag that invites people to engage with your company online. Do you want to publicize a significant landing page or sign-up form? Include a QR code on your poster to lead people to the desired page. The addition of distinctive touchpoints to the consumer journey provided by poster advertising helps your company stand out from the competition.

So now that you are aware of the significance of posters in advertising, great job! But how do you design one that your clients will find interesting? We've included our top tips for creating a poster that generates buzz below. 

Keep it simple, please! Save the complex images for a different advertising medium, despite the temptation to utilize sophisticated fonts and intricate designs. Simplicity is key when it comes to poster marketing. Posters should be visually appealing without becoming overly busy. Less can be more. Customers might only give you a fleeting glance, so you only have a split second to grab their attention.

Stay Consistent. Utilizing poster advertising together with other marketing tactics like social media or direct mail will help your marketing effort succeed. However, you must maintain a consistent brand image across all platforms. This calls for consistent messaging and imagery across all of your adverts. By doing this, your brand will be simpler to recognize and you can experience an increase in sales. Brands that uphold a consistent brand image see a 33% rise in sales. 

Select the appropriate location. If your potential customers can't see your poster, no amount of snappy copy or eye-catching design will matter. For this reason, it's crucial to place posters where your target audience frequents so that they can be seen. 

Consider where your target audience spends the most of their time before choosing the location for your poster. A college campus might be a wonderful place to display posters if you're trying to reach young folks. If you want to reach families, think about putting up posters at shopping malls or at establishments close to schools.

Make It Easy to Read. There's a good chance that your intended audience won't carefully scrutinize your work like it's the concert poster for their preferred band. Therefore, it's crucial that your message is clear even at a distance. Consider concentrating on a bold statement or attention-grabbing title rather than trying to jam a full paragraph into your advertisement. Additionally, you should pick a straightforward, easy-to-read font. Serif and Sans Serif are the two font types that are most frequently used for posters. Both of their visual and tactile qualities are distinct, although either can be used for poster marketing.

Remember Your CTA. A compelling call to action (CTA) should be present on your poster if you want to maximize your return on investment (ROI). A call to action will inform viewers of the next step they must take to interact with your brand. Choose action words that will interest your readers when creating a call to action. Here are some examples of action words you might want to try: 

  • Follow.
  • Share.
  • Tag.
  • Call.
  • Learn.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Virginia

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Virginia state flag.
Virginia state flag.

Virginia

Virginia is one of the states that I’m not really sure what to say about.  It’s a state I have driven through a few times,  but isn’t on my normal routes and I always just drive through without stopping for much. 

I can say that one of my worst trips ever was through there coming up from Atlanta and heading up to New Hampshire.  In Virginia,  I was on Interstate 85 and starting about thirty miles south of Richmond I hit traffic.  Following that route north sucked.  Richmond is busy,  but not horrible,  but keeping up,  I hit Alexandria,  Baltimore,  Washington D.C,  Philadelphia,  Newark,  New York City,  and Boston.  Going up the East Coast,  Richmond marks the start of the hellacious traffic you will encounter and your travel time—just double what it says. 

Aside from heavy traffic starting there while going north,  it’s difficult to talk about,  which is ironic for me,  given my love of antiques and historic places,  both of which being well-represented in Virginia. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

The Book on Marketing: Optimization.

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I wrote yet another book! This one is pretty big, actually, with over 90 chapters, all of which are rather meaty. The book, The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily for close to 100 days and then the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Optimization.

Online marketing is ideally equipped to optimize and measure success since you have such complete control over the digital experience, as opposed to offline marketing where these tasks are far more challenging.

Businesses typically improve their digital campaigns for search engines (SEO) by using visitor data, such as search traffic and demographics, to create better content. It's wise to optimize your content for readers as well as search engines. It is not recommended to manipulate search engines to avoid consequences like lower ranking because they are rather good at determining which websites best respond to requests.

You may choose to use social media campaigns to advertise your company and products based on these customer demographics. There, it's crucial to concentrate on audience interaction and demonstrating how items work. Social media platforms are a terrific area to solicit client feedback and even get people to write reviews endorsing your goods since, well, they're social.

It's a good idea to monitor how adjustments you make to your internet marketing initiatives affect the buyer experience as you refine them. You can assess those modifications more accurately with the aid of tools like A/B testing, which also provides assurance about how they are influencing your clients' behavior.

Also think about merging offline marketing with all of these concepts. Although in-store and offline marketing can have quite distinct target audiences, several companies have found success in bridging the gap between the two by marketing in-store specials online and vice versa.

Thank you for reading this little piece of The Book on Marketing: No More Excuses for Marketing Inaction. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

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