Image courtesy of petesimon.

All kinds of products and services come with a guarantee, but some guarantees aren’t really what they seem. Adrian Jock exposes “the truth about guaranteed hits” in his article below. It’s the kind of examination we should all do before making a buying decision based on a guarantee. And it got me thinking about other guarantees.

I won’t even go into the madness of guaranteed income for online business opportunities. That’s a whole article in and of itself and hopefully by now we all understand the impossibility of that guarantee.

Another common guarantee that many online business owners come across is guaranteed uptime for website hosting. The guarantee makes it sound like a promise that your website will be available 99.5% or even 99.9% of the time. But the hosting company is really guaranteeing is that they’ll credit or refund part of your hosting fees if they don’t maintain that level of service. Personally, I stand to lose more than a few dollars if my site is down for any length of time, so I look for actual uptime statistics rather than guarantees.

When making purchase decisions of any kind, a guarantee may be an important feature. Just be sure you understand what it means. Read Adrian’s article to understand guaranteed hits and please leave your comments and questions.

Email Marketing – The Truth About Guaranteed Hits
By Adrian Jock

Since no traffic equals no sales, hits to his website is the goal of any email marketer. However, many email marketing campaigns fail by delivering few clicks. The reason is simple: this type of marketing is not that easy. You need an attention grabbing subject line, a good ad copy and more. What if someone guarantees you hits?

All hard work is simply skipped. The prospects land on your salesletter without you wasting your time on copywriting and testing. Doesn’t sound great? Yes, it would be nice, but… how true (and effective) are those guaranteed clicks on your link?

Let’s see. So what actually means to get guaranteed hits? Well… No matter how bad my subject line is, no matter what I write in the ad copy, no matter anything, someone (let’s call it from now on the seller) will make his opt-in subscribers click on my link. Wonderful! But how can the seller “force” his subscribers click on my link?

Maybe his subscribers are all dumb. Maybe they don’t do anything all day long but wait for the seller to send emails so that to click on the links from the emails and make happy the seller and the advertisers. How does this sound? Quite unreal, right?

Then… if the subscribers are not dumb but they still click on links no matter how bad and not attractive is an ad copy, then it means that there is something the advertiser doesn’t know… What can it be? An incentive for subscribers! Something to make them click on links, no matter the content of the email. In comparison with the first assumption, this one looks very possible, right?

What if behind the seller’s mailing list there is actually a get paid to read emails program? What if there is a credit based safelist, or a similar program, or a combination of such programs? Wow! That’s it, right? This sounds very real and it seems that we found out how can someone guarantee hits. OK, but this is not what it was advertised when I placed my order, right? Not so nice practice, but… at least is it effective?

Let’s see… Who are those people clicking on my link? Hungry buyers? Hmm… I doubt… a) they waste their time clicking on links because they cannot afford a serious and professional promotion way (or they are freebies hunters) and b) they are looking for credits in order to blast their own ads – they are sellers, not hungry buyers.

Will they at least take a look at my salesletter? No one can tell exactly what other people will do, but… we can estimate their actions by asking ourselves “Why did they land on my page?”. Because they were interested in my very bad subject line? Because they were interested in my ad copy that they did NOT read? Nope! They landed on my page in order to get credits (Most of them are wasting their time, but that’s another story) and right after that will close my page and go to the next email to continue their job. To be honest, if I’m lucky, maybe some of them will take a look at my page, but… hey, did I say lucky? Is this email marketing or gambling?

What is the conclusion? Hmm… No further comments from my part. You know my opinion and actually you know my conclusion. It’s your turn… Be wise!

To Your Online Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. If you want to read more internet marketing tips, you’re invited to subscribe free to the Worst Newsletter in the World. Why would someone call his own newsletter “the worst”? The mystery is revealed here: http://www.adsmarket.biz/internet-marketing-tips-news.html.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adrian_Jock
http://EzineArticles.com/?Email-Marketing—The-Truth-About-Guaranteed-Hits&id=3763160

Because any direct sales consultants and other home business owners start out with little or no marketing training or experience, marketing your business is hit or miss. Your budget is usually limited and you don’t want to waste money on poor results. And free marketing methods require a time commitment and your time is valuable too.

To get the most from your marketing efforts, it’s important to make sure you deliver your message to your target market – to the people who are your ideal customers and team members. Even the most well written advertisement is completely wasted if it’s not delivered to an interested audience.

For example, if you sell high-end baby clothes, you’re not likely to gain a lot of customers on a website for frugal moms. Even though many of the moms there have babies, they are looking for ways to save money and aren’t likely to indulge in designer or expensive baby clothes. You’ll get much better results with an article or ad placed on a site for professional moms on maternity leave or a nanny referral service.

Take some time to figure out who is most likely to buy your product or service. Are they male or female? How old are they? How will your product or service help them? Take a look at companies who sell products that are similar to yours to determine if their market is your market. How and where to they advertise?

By making sure your message gets in front of your target market you’ll start to see a much better result for the time and money you put into marketing.

Many of us who start a business from home have little or no marketing experience, especially with online marketing. We learn as we go. Here are a few common marketing mistakes that if avoided will save time and money, and spare you some disappointment.

1. Not having a marketing plan.
   A marketing plan is simply a blueprint for how you will go about promoting your products or services. In the same way that a business plan provides focus, goals, and tasks for your overall business, a marketing plan provides a road map for your promotions and advertising. It’s best not to approach marketing without one.
2. Putting all your eggs in one basket.
   This old saying seems to work in a lot of situations and marketing is no exception. Diversification is the key to success and growth. You may find one or two strategies that work particularly well for your business, but don’t base your entire marketing plan on just those methods. Explore other options to avoid being stalled at a certain point.
3. Ignoring the power of networking
   Business networking is invaluable. When entrepreneurs get together to brainstorm and exchange ideas, all sorts of beneficial relationships are formed. In your business networks you will form joint venture partnerships, referral networks, and find mentors and friends.
4. Working alone to “run the whole show.”
   Most small businesses start out with one person working alone. But as your business grows there will come a time when you’ll need help to keep things running smoothly. Your time can best be spent marketing the product in new and creative ways. Someone else can take care of designing your web site, answering emails, and handling the bookkeeping. Use your expertise where it will increase profit the most and hire others to take care of the everyday details.
5. Cutting the budget.
   When business is slow is natural to want to cut expenses. But it’s especially important to keep marketing and advertising during a downturn. A better choice is to beef up marketing to reach a new or wider customer base.

If you’ve already made some of these mistakes, don’t panic. Take a good look at what you’ve been doing, keep doing what works and drop what doesn’t, and begin again with more knowledge and a marketing plan for success.

Direct sales consultants are often advised to use a number of free or inexpensive marketing methods that don’t work as well as you might think. But because they are low cost and occasionally produce results, consultant continue to use and recommend them. Before you put any time and effort into them, consider how effective these methods really are.

1 – Business card marketing. While business cards are an essential business tool, leaving a trail of them wherever you go cheapens them and minimizes their effectiveness. To use them to their best advantage, treat your business cards as if they are valuable. Only hand them out in person, to people with whom you are starting a business relationship, and always try your best to get their contact information as well.

Read more in “Is it Marketing or Littering.”

(Flyers and brochures should be handled similarly.)

2 – Catalogs. Consultants are often advised to generously give out catalogs and to leave them in doctor’s offices and hair salons, on the train, or anywhere else someone might pick one up. While a single catalog may be inexpensive, this practice can become a significant expense for consultants over the course of a year or two. And in most cases, catalogs left anywhere are more likely to end up in the trash than result in a sale.

Save your new catalogs for existing customers, guests at sales parties, and people who you meet face-to-face and who express a real interest in ordering from you.

Your old catalogs can be left around town with a big sticker on the back indicating that it’s an outdated catalog and inviting people to contact you for a new one.

3 – Car bumper stickers or magnets. Unless you have an extremely catchy domain name, it’s not likely that you’ll reach many potential customers with this method. When cars are moving it’s difficult to read what’s on the bumper sticker and when they’re stopped or parked it still requires someone to get out a pencil and paper to write down information. And before you add your business information to your car, check with your insurance agent to see if that changes your classification to business use.

4 – Free online classifieds. The only thing I’d recommend advertising in free online classified is an offer of interest to others who place free classifieds. They are the only people that are likely to read the ads.

5 – Safelists. The only reason someone signs up for a safelist is to promote their own offers. Almost no one actually reads the ads. Treat them the same way as free classifieds.

One of the biggest drawbacks to these free and inexpensive marketing methods is that they put control in the hands of potential customers. You drop off cards or catalogs and wait for customers to contact you. If you collect contact information from potential customers you’re in control and can contact them with additional information and reminders.

Additionally, most of these methods have to long term benefit. Cards and catalogs have to be replenished and free online classifieds generally move very quickly and your ad ends up buried under hundreds of other ads.

I won’t say you should never use these methods, but I am advising against relying heavily on them. If you do use them, be sure to track your results so you know which are worth repeating and which aren’t worth the time and effort. Use them as a small part of your marketing plan and spend more time on free marketing methods that also have benefits and are longer lasting. Methods like article marketing, press releases, social media marketing, link directories, and online networking not only connect you with prospective customers and team members, but they promote your expertise, provide search engine benefit (backlinks), and help you develop a referral network.

If paid advertising is part of your overall marketing plan you want to do what you can to get the most for your money. Here are some basic tips that will help achieve your advertising goals more expediently and effectively.

Image courtesy of swanksalot.

1. Advertise where your prospects will see your ads. Do some initial research to find your target audience and use ad tracking to determine if you’re reaching them.
2. Know your competitive edge. What can you offer that others can’t? Find a different spin or edge to make your product more appealing or offer just a little bit more. Maybe you have more experience or knowledge. There are a lot of ways to form a competitive edge. Know your market and your competitors and be creative.
3. Be careful that the image you portray for your company and products is positive. Always be professional. Be careful of what you say, whether it be on air or in print. Use a catchy logo and tag line. Maintain a consistent image so that it becomes recognizable.
4. “You have to spend money to make money.” Many people don’t like this age old adage, but it is very true. You will eventually spend money on advertising. Even free advertising has a cost – your time is money.
   The more money you spend, generally the better your reach. You don’t want to lower your effectiveness by cutting corners. Free or inexpensive advertising may be a good short term solution when you’re starting out but eventually you will want to look into different advertising options that may require more money.
   Of course you want to set an advertising budget, but allow for flexibility so you can take advantage of opportunities that arise. Also, learn the best times and season for your product or service increase your budget accordingly. Keep in mind that these seasonal times can change according to economy and market changes.
5. Keep in mind that your product or service will not appeal to everyone. Find your market and appeal to them.

These basic advertising tips are not difficult to implement. Diversify, be persistent and track your results and before long you’ll find the best mix of advertising to suit your budget and produce results.

The newest resource we offer for promoting your direct sales business is a party plan consultant link directory with free and featured listings.

 
 
We’re pleased to be able to continue to offer listings in the popular InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

And we’ve recently added very affordable 125×125 graphic ads on the right side of this blog.

Advertising is just one aspect of a successful marketing plan. The right ads can bring visitors to your website, promote brand recognition, and provide SEO backlink benefit.

Purchases made at links in this post benefit us (Why tell?)