The 10 Keys to Branding Your Massage Therapy Business
Do you struggle to attract and retain the right clients for you? Do you yearn to have word-of-mouth renown? In an increasingly challenging market flooded with talented therapists and extremely savvy consumers, discover 10 Keys to developing a brand full of integrity that will inspire you, attract loyal customers, and make promoting your practice effortless.
1. Identify your values: This is the most critical step and yet, the one most massage therapists overlook. Do some soul searching and get a crystal clear idea of what matters most to you as an individual first and then as a company. Your values form the base of your business and should influence every decision, from what kind of logo you print on your business cards to the business partners you seek.
2. Identify your mission: Once you clearly identify your values, take the time to write a mission statement. Ask, why does my practice exist? What do I aim to accomplish? Write in simple language that a 12-year old can understand using, ideally, 8 words or less. If you are stuck, do a search on the internet for “mission statements” and use the most compelling ones as templates. Your statement should energize and inspire you morning, noon, and night.
3. Identify your ideal client: Again, an incredibly critical step. Looking at your mission statement, ask, “Who do I love working with most? With whom do I have the most success?” Although you might be reluctant to narrow down the potential pool of clients, the biggest mistake you can make is trying to please everyone. This dilutes your service and identity so much that you fail to strike a nerve with anyone. Even though you will turn some people off, you will attract others who will bond with you for life. And the best part about identifying your ideal client is knowing where to find them.
4. Create an emotional connection: Every potential customer wants to know one thing, “What’s in it for me?” In order to compel someone to purchase a session with you vs. any other therapist, you need to connect with her in an emotional way. How can make her life better? What pain will your service potentially reduce or eliminate? What problems do your clients face? How will hiring you solve those problems? What will his life be like afterwards? Think in terms of the benefits your client will receive instead of the features of what you offer (see Key #5).
5. Identify the benefits vs. the features: Know your services and/or products inside and out. But instead of simply listing the features of the various methods you offer, describe your menu in terms of how the client will benefit. So instead of simply listing “shiatsu massage,” describe it as “a relaxing and soothing experience that will erase the knots and twinges of your stressful environment.” Remember, it’s all about creating that emotional connection with your ideal client and telling them how you can make their life better.
6. Create an experience: Why should your potential client hire you as opposed to any one of your competitors? What makes you unique? Successful companies understand that they are in the business of creating experiences that enrich lives. Starbucks does not just sell coffee. From the music they play (and sell) to the comfortable furniture and inviting d
It’s All About Marketing
Promoting your CD to radio takes a lot of organization and time management skills. Let me help organize your process. First you need to find radio stations that are willing to accept submissions from independent artists (Contact names, addresses, phone and email for radio stations across the globe are listed in “The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money” ISBN 978-0-9746229-4-1 and The Indie Contact Guide - it’s companion book.).
You have to decide whether you are going to local and regional stations (which are a good recommendation if you don’t have a lot of money to work with and you aren’t worried about charting.), or if you are going after national stations, which is only a good idea if you are already established locally and are seeking national exposure and a chance to chart.
As with all submissions, always get permission ahead of time before you submit your music. There are two easy ways to find radio station information. The first is to log onto the internet and search the radio station databases available. This method is free, but will take some time. The best resources I have found are “MIT Radio Stations on the Web” and “BRS Radio.
Most sites list the stations by genre (style of music), state, etc. You should bookmark these sites in your Internet browser. You will find yourself going back to these sites often.
The major advantage the internet offers is the ability to download information into a spreadsheet or word processing document to make labels and save data for your follow-up files.
However, if you decide looking for information on the internet takes too much time, an alternative is to purchase books that already have all the information for radio stations listed in them.
When finding radio stations to submit to, it’s best to start with college radio first, especially if you are a new act without a track record. It will be easier for you to get added on college stations, which are usually “free format” and are more likely to air something new and exciting.
If you decide on the college route, make sure you have verified they have a format for your music. Most college stations have a variety of music styles and Music Directors.
Rock, Jazz, and Alternative Music tend to be the main stay for college stations. Country acts will have a more difficult time on college stations and there are many that have Folk Music programs. For Country acts you’ll have a better opportunity at stations that play Country Music specifically and/or those that play Americana.
Once you conquer the college charts, you will have a solid base and track record to promote yourself to the larger stations. It’s like a snowball that rolls down the mountain. The more it rolls, the larger it gets. Make sure when approaching larger stations that you ask specifically if they play independent artists.
If they tell you they occasionally give an independent artist an opportunity, and you have the extra resources, go ahead and submit your CD to them. You never know, they may play it.
But if you hear: ‘No. We only play major-label releases, or artists that are in the top 50 of the Billboard charts, but why don’t you go ahead and send it along anyway.’ Think long and hard about it before sending your CD. You’re better off to be patient, record the comment on your spreadsheet and wait until you chart before contacting that station again.
If the goal for your music is charting you will need to make sure that all of the radio stations you submit to, report to the same charts. This will help ensure that all of your “spins” count. (Spins are the amount of times a song is played.)
If the radio stations don’t report to any charts, or the charts they do report to are not consistent with those you already have, you may want to think about passing on them until you have more resources. It would be like sending an unsolicited press kit to a management firm that doesn’t accept them. It’s a waste of time, energy and press kits.
If you are only looking for exposure, then by all means send it to every radio station you get permission from as long as your budget allows. However, try to stay in one local/regional area so it’s saturated with your music. It will give you a much better chance at lining up a distributor as well as selling more CD’s.
It is easier to get added to a play list on stations that don’t report, than do. The competition is not as fierce. Remember: air time is an important commodity to a radio station. Each station only has so many hours and slots they can play songs. If you can get your song charted, you will have a better chance of getting into one of those precious slots. You have to decide which route you want to take.
Once you have found the radio stations you plan to submit to, and you have entered that information into a database, you are ready to send the press kit out (assuming your CD is ready).
At this time, make sure to call the radio stations again and verify that all the information you’ve gathered is still the same. The industry is very volatile. Stations get bought and sold very quickly, and there is an extremely high turnover rate for personnel. You don’t want to send your Heavy Metal CD to a station that is now a Smooth Jazz station. And you don’t want to send something out with the words “Material Requested” on it, to someone who no longer works there.
You’ll need a cover letter for your press kit, make sure to suggest the tracks you think radio personnel will like, and the ones you think are more commercial. Give them an opportunity to listen to several tracks, but don’t ask them to listen to the entire CD. It’s not professional. Radio promoters push one track at a time.
Pushing only one track will show them you know what you are doing and are respectful of their time. To push a track means to tell the radio personnel which track you are suggesting at this time for airplay. Tell them it’s the first release off your new CD.
In order to chart you must have a substantial amount of “spins”. Here’s another major reason to push only one spin: If you have a lot of tracks that are being played, but no stations are playing similar tracks, your chances of charting for a particular song are very slim. While you really don’t have a choice of what is played, you can help it along by constantly suggesting the same track.
Most Program Directors (PD’s) and Music Directors (MD’s) have specific call times, on specific days, every week. You can only call them on these days or they will not take your calls. Once you have sent your press kit out, wait approximately two weeks, then call and confirm that your CD has arrived safely.
If the CD has not arrived, wait one more week and call again. If at that point the CD has still not arrived, tell the PD or MD that you will send another package and then send it. Wait another week and then follow up again.
The life of one song is anywhere from 4 - 6 weeks. You can’t just assume that at the end of 6 weeks the radio station is going to automatically play another track from your CD. It’s up to you to suggest it.
At the end of your first 4 weeks of air time, continue to push the first track but also start suggesting the next track you plan to release. Start building a rapport with the PD’s and MD’s. Find out their likes, dislikes, and interests. You will get much farther if you are truly interested in who they are and what they do, than if you are only interested in what they can do for you.
Because Program and Music Directors have different call times and days, time management is essential. To help make your job a little easier, create a database to hold all your contact information and keep track of calls and call times. If you have succeeded in getting a station to add your music, here are some questions you should ask:
How To Boost Sales
We are all cluttered thinkers, our minds preoccupied with numerous thoughts, feelings, and unresolved information.
You can see that clearly as you walk down any city street.
Faces are contorted with angst, inner dialogues, and multilayered emotions. People even walk and move in an uncoordinated way.
Examine your own thinking, and you’ll see that hidden agendas, conflicts, and internal upsets constantly interfere with the clarity of your logic.
This is both an opportunity and an obstacle for salesmanship.
It is an opportunity because you can offer people something that they need to improve their lives, ease their pain, and end their confusion.
Your product may very well provide the relief that your customers need.
It may be a way for them to make more money following a specific technology.
It may be a way for them to develop will power and self confidence.
It may be something that makes their lives easier to organize, maintain, and evolve.
It may be a way for them to get rest, relief, and peace.
Or it may be a way for them to recuperate energy, health, and well-being.
Yet you also have an obstacle. They can’t see you, hear you, or even respond to you-again, because of their preoccupation.
As a psychologist this happens to me quite often.
People write to me about some difficulty they are having. I write back, proposing a simple, common-sense and highly-doable solution.
Then they write back repeating their complaint, completely ignoring the solution.
In other words, they weren’t even able to understand that they had been presented with a solution.
The way most marketers try to break through this preoccupation is to increase their marketing signal to break through the customer’s internal noise.
They amp up their marketing message-playing on the customer’s spectrum of desires with a hammer. It’s called hype.
In their desperation, customers often respond in the way that the marketer desired.
Encouraged, the marketer then rolls out the next pitch with the same tactics.
Eventually, however, even this does not work. The customer becomes numbed out, tone deaf, and utterly indifferent.
In addition, everybody else is assailing the customer’s sensibility, trying to attract their attention, with the same dramatic techniques.
A better approach is to tone down the customer’s inner noise, rather than raise your own marketing signal.
How do you do this?
You simplify and clarify your message at every point of contact.
Rather than hype things up, you present your information in an increasingly simple and direct way.
Whether you’re into internet marketing, network marketing, mail order or sales, you will always have a better response if you simplify your marketing message.
This is why USP’s, slogans, and other techniques are popular-they give a handle to the brand or product.
Sometimes even an unusual company, brand, or product name can awaken a whole train of familiar associations in the customer’s mind.
However, the principle is more important than the technique being used.
And the principle is keep it short and simple.
If your message is clear, it will be received and acted upon. Your sales will improve. And if you get really good at this, they will soar!
Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. http://www.theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html
Branding Or Marketing? Same Or Different?
While marketing and branding are alike in some ways, they are also sometimes mistaken as the same business action. This is not true, but definitely understandable on the two can be misconstrued as the same.
There are several brand tools that can also fall into the marketing category. This is what makes the two concepts so closely related, but at the same time so much different. Brand tools can consist of several different components, all of which are useful. Brand tools such as positioning, or where to position a product, can be a very important and effective technique. These brand tools can also be lumped into the marketing aspect of a company’s effort. If a product is not positioned correctly, in other words if it is not placed in the appropriate market, you are not going to see a lot of return on investment. Another component that would fit into the brand tools category would be perception. The best way of identifying this is by conducting market research. Brand tools can become more effective if the company knows what the market is looking for. Therefore they can gear their efforts towards the appropriate party without losing out on time, money, and most importantly potential profits.
Brand software is also a very effective way of saving you or your company time, money, and headaches. With brand software, sometime referred to as marketing software, a company or individual can track their efforts with ease, instead of guessing on how well a certain project or plan is performing. Without brand software companies would be left to speculate on how much money their product is making, or how their marketing efforts are doing. Some versions of brand software allows the tracking of marketing plans so that the user can see which plans are effective and which ones are not. If you know what is effective, then you will also know what you can discontinue, thus saving time and money and again maximizing profits!
Brand software can be bought in every major electronics store. Customizable software is also available through some software developing companies. These companies will design a specific program so that everything you need is customized right into your system. Do you need to track profit per sale? That can be done. How about which marketing plan performed best during the first and third quarter of last year? Yep, they can do that too. One thing to remember is to do your research and find a company that fits your needs. If you are new to brand software you may also want to try some of the free demo versions that are available through numerous internet sites. Just go to your favorite search engine and type in “brand software.” You will have several sites to choose from. Do your research, and then decide which one is best for you. You can then buy the full version knowing that you made the best decision for your company, making the profits grow and grow. Your company is like part of your own family and you want to see it succeed through everything that you do. That is now possible thanks to the brand software that is highly available.
Kevin Dark is an online marketer. You can find out more about his new project on http://www.targetz.info
Educate Your Customer to Make the Sale
If you’ve been on the internet for any length of time, you’ve probably seen thousands of ebooks, courses, and other types of tutorials on just about any topic that you can imagine.
The problem with a lot of these courses and ebooks businesses are giving away are junk. They don’t contain any real information. Many are nothing more than blatant sales pitches.
Although it may seem like a waste of time to create a course when this technique seems to be so overused, have you ever considered that this could be a way to sell more of your products and services?
Although the market seems to be flooded with courses, ebooks, and tutorials, there’s alway room for this material provided it’s high quality.
What is key is creating a course or ebook, or some other type of tutorial is to offer some real choice information nuggets your readers don’t know.
Although you can create a course, ebook, or tutorial out of others’ articles, this isn’t really a good idea unless you can find really valuable, and useful, content.
If you decide to go this route, you’ll need to do some research. There are plenty of top notch article directories where you can find articles to create your course:
Ezine Articles - http://www.ezinearticles.com
Go Articles - http://www.goarticles.com
Both of these article directories are general article directories and contain plenty of articles on just about any topic.
If you can’t find enough quality articles to create your course, then you may want to consider more specialized article directories.
You can find find article directories here:
Directory of Article Directories - http://www.directoryofarticledirectories.com/ - Although this is a fairly new directory, you’ll find quite a few niche article directories on a lot of different topics.
When selecting your articles, you should select at least seven. It takes an average of seven contacts with your reader to make the sale.
Send them out over a period of at least 30 days or more. One or two emails per week is plenty. Don’t bombard your reader with email. Include a short note to your reader, and make sure that you mention your product or service. Be subtle about it. No one likes to be sold.
The other alternative is to write your own course. Personally, this is a better choice because your content is original. You have an opportunity to give your reader a few choice nuggets they won’t know, and it’s an opportunity for you to really show your potential customers what you really know.
Tie these nuggets to your products and services and show what your products and services can do for your readers, and you have a winner.
When you’re ready to take your course to the next level, you need to publish it for wider distribution. Sites like Learno, http://www.learno.com, can help you publish your course, as well as turn your course into a real book for publication. This will allow you to leverage your work and share your knowledge and expertise more quickly.
By leveraging your work, you’ll brand yourself as an expert more quickly. Potential customers who are interested in your offers will seek you out. This will save you time and money on your internet marketing efforts. by driving targeted visitors to your site.
Although using courses, ebooks, and tutorials to promote your products and services has been overused, if you create quality content and offer your visitor something useful, you’ll increase your chance of making the sale.
Jinger Jarrett will show you how to get more traffic and sales with free marketing. Get her book, “1001 High Traffic Sites Where You Can Market for Free”, at http://www.jingerjarrett.com/.
How To Make Traffic Exchange Programs Work For You!
What do all websites need to be successful? Traffic! Do you know that one of the cheapest, easiest and quickest ways to generate traffic is by using traffic exchanges?
The way they work is that you earn credits by surfing other peoples websites. Your earned credits are then used to show other people your website. To join, you need to submit your name, email and website. Your website will then go into rotation with the other websites that have registered with that particular traffic exchange.
When surfing on a traffic exchange there is a counter that counts down a certain number of seconds and when the counter is done you have to click on a number to move to the next site. They operate on a credit system and you get credit by spending time on a particular website. Your credit gets reduced when another member of the exchange visits your website. Increasing your credit gives your website a more effective and wider reach.
A good tip is to use a multi tab browser. This will allow you to surf many exchanges at the same time by running several websites in multiple tabs while only one window is open for viewing in your browser. The Firefox Browser and newer versions of Netscape will let you surf multiple exchanges at once.
Here are some more tips on how to get the most from traffic exchanges:
1. Try to use only about 3 to 5 good exchanges. It is difficult to keep up with too many and this will allow you to focus your efforts on productive advertising.
2. You must take the time to surf and build up credits. Plan to stick with it for a couple of months at least.
3. You can also advertise your traffic exchange referral links from one exchange to another and build your downline while also getting more free credits.
4. Do not just use your main website on the exchanges. Advertise additional pages off of your main website page that have special offers or other related services.
5. Be different and offer something for free, such as an ebook, software, etc. There is nothing wrong with being nice and offering people a free gift for visiting your website.
6. If your offering a network marketing or affiliate program then do yourself a favor and create your own opt in form. Something new will attract more attention.
7. Leave the selling for another time. Try and get as many emails as possible and then worry about making the sale. Offer a newsletter related to your website.
When determining what traffic exchanges to use it is important that you are able to promote multiple URLs. You want the capability to promote other services or programs other then your main one. Since you will be using a number of traffic exchange programs you can promote one traffic exchange on another exchange. This will make it easier for you to get free credits by referring others. Do not forget that you also may want to be able to promote any affiliate programs that you may be involved with.
Some of the free traffic exchange sites may only let you add a few pages, but you can get around this by changing the ones you are promoting at any time even though it is more work. If a traffic exchange program is sending visitors to your website then the extra work is worth it.
As with any other form of advertising on the internet you have to do some research to determine the best traffic exchanges for your needs. Here are some helpful tips for finding good quality traffic exchanges:
1. Find out which ones rank high on Google, and also in the paid ads. A traffic exchange site that is worth your effort will be able to afford to get a high search engine ranking and be able to pay a lot of money for paid classified ads.
2. Use Alexa.com and check the rankings of the exchange sites. If a site has a high Alexa ranking, then they probably have lots of traffic. If you join that traffic exchange then you now have your website appearing on a highly visible site. For example, Trafficswarm has a high Alexa ranking.
3. You can try to find reviews online, but that may not be a good idea since people are going to promote a program because they want to sign you up through their referral link.
4. Select exchanges with many members and try to determine whether the exchange already has alot of websites that are similar to yours, if they do then move on!
5. Try to use traffic exchanges that have categories available for you to place your website in. This will give you more targeted traffic.
The real key to free traffic exchanges is that you do not have to upgrade or spend any money to buy credits. You can always stop using them if you do not get any results.
A good traffic exchange program that is free should be able to get you some results, if not then do not waste your time!
Even if you do not get lots of traffic, your site is being seen by real people and this helps to get your website and name in front of as many people as possible so that they may remember your website in the future.
For your website to be successful it needs to be seen by as many people and as many times as possible.
Copyright 2006 by Joe Rispoli
Joe Rispoli has been involved in online marketing for over 10 years. He would like to invite entrepreneurs to start using his online marketing information and free advertising resources to help them promote their home business! Visit his website at http://www.UcanTo.com
A Refreshing Alternative To Advertising And Cold Call Selling
Years ago I shared a very small office with a man simply know as “The Jeffrey.” He agreed to share the office with me because neither of us could afford the rent on our own. He was a telecommunication consultant and I was a customer service trainer. Even though we were very good at what we did, neither of us knew how to generate new business without spending money on advertising or making sales calls. Unfortunately, those things didn’t really work for us either.
Jeffrey was an interesting guy. He was forever trying to figure out how the most successful people got to the top of their profession. Often after work, we would sit and talk about how we could earn a million dollars doing what we loved while avoiding the things we didn’t enjoy - like advertising and cold call selling. Then one afternoon, out of the blue, Jeffrey looked up and said, “I’ve got it!”
“You’ve got what?” I asked, concerned at what he may have contracted.
“I know how the highest paid consultants got to the top of their professions and I know how we can get there too,” he said throwing his feet up on my desk. Apparently my health was safe. “They’ve learned how to position themselves as expert problem solvers in the minds of their customers! Here’s what they did.”
For the next five hours we talked excitedly about what these highly paid professionals were doing to generate such astounding incomes. They were earning between 10 and 100 times what we were earning without spending a dime on advertising. They didn’t make cold calls or prospect for new business and the demand for their service was so high that they were turning customers away. Their marketing was ingenious and yet so simple. We went home that night confident that we could to the same thing - only faster.
Three years later our customers recognized us as expert problem solvers. Our income went up by a factor of twenty and we had more customers than we could handle. We did it all without advertising or investing our time in low return cold call selling.
Here’s How We Did It
The key to getting to the top of your profession and earning the income that accompanies that spot is to position yourself as the most well known problem solver in your industry. And how do you do that? You do it by making yourself visible as a problem solver to the people you are trying to serve. Here are five ways to get that visibility.
Write an Article
I love reading articles that help me solve a problem. Take a moment right now and sketch out an article idea that your customers will find interesting. Start by identifying the problem your readers have and show them how to solve it. Use examples, stories and terminology they understand. Encourage them along the way. Provide a tag line at the end of your article with your credentials and contact information and send it out to potential publishers. Submit it to article directories on the Internet for distribution and make it available on your website, but don’t stop there. Send it as an email attachment, print it and send it to your customers through the mail or send it to the local newspapers or trade journals and watch what happens.
Be a Guest on a Radio Talk Show
There are 40 million Americans who listen to talk radio every day and the hosts of these shows are always looking for interesting guests to fill the airtime. Are you an expert on a subject that a radio audience would find interesting? If so, there are thousands of radio stations just dying to hear from you. Write out a description of what you can talk about along with ten of the most commonly asked questions people ask. Fax or email you’re page to the radio stations and follow up with a telephone call. If you’re subject is interesting, unique or timely there is a very good chance you’ll be invited on as a guest. It’s not only fun, but profitable as well.
Build a Resource Website
Most professionals have what’s known as a brochure website. This is a site that talks about what they do, how much they charge for their service and where their office is located. Problem is, people don’t visit brochure sites more than once. There’s no reason to do so.
If you have a brochure site, think seriously about converting it to a resource site. Load it with tips and articles and links to other great websites. Add your own articles and comment on what’s going on in your industry. Make your website a place where people will want to come back time and time again. Let them see you as the go-to-guy or gal in the process. As an added bonus, search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo will place you near the top of their search pages when they see the changes you’ve made.
Stand Up, Speak Out
Look for opportunities to speak at meetings where your customers and potential customers are likely to gather. This includes associations, corporations, churches, PTA meetings etc. Virtually every organization needs speakers who have something interesting to share with their members. You can find these organizations listed in the newspaper, on the Internet and through the people you know. Ask yourself who would be interested in what you have to say and give them the chance to invite you to speak at one of their meetings.
Write a Book
Writing a book is arguably the best way to position yourself as an expert problem solver. It separates you from the masses. Imagine sitting on an airplane talking to your seatmate about what you do for a living and they ask, “How do you know so much about thus subject?”
You can answer by saying, “I wrote a book on the subject!” I like the sound of that, don’t you?
Writing a book is a big undertaking but not so big that it’s impossible. Think of your book as an accumulation of many smaller ideas (chapters). Create a file for each of these ideas and begin to gather your information today. Spend the first few weeks accumulating and sorting your stories, facts and statistics and placing them in your file. You will be amazed at how quickly the information piles up. Soon you will have enough content to write a single chapter and then another and then another until you’ve written an entire book. Now imagine one of your prospects picking up your book and seeing your name on the cover. Bingo! They’ve just reframed you from salesperson to expert problem solver. That’s quite a transformation.
These are only a few of the things you can do to position yourself as the expert in your field. There are some great books on the subject and many additional resources on the web. Strive to think differently about your business and how people see you. Remember, it’s not who you know or who knows you - it’s how people perceive you that matters most. Change the way your customers see you and it will change the way your customers treat you.
Bob Sommers is the host of The Recognized Expert Marketing show on Maui. Find out how you can become recognized as the expert in your field by taking Bob’s popular free e-course available at: http://www.RecognizedExpert.com
The Power Of Brandable E-Books
A quick background to brandable e-books for all of you unfamiliar with the term. Brandable e-Books are e-Books that allow you to brand the product with your own affiliate links. So for example, you could have an e-book that is about creating your own software product, and at the end of the book there could be a link to some related software.
A brandable e-Book would allow you to encode the link to the product so that if someone purchased, you would get a commission for the sale. Not bad considering all you had to do to make the sale was sell/giveaway the e-Book.
Now, in theory that sounds all well and good, but what about in the real world; does it actually work?
Short answer…YES
The thing that made me create this article was a small 4.55 US Dollar payment into my Clickbank account earlier this week. The payment wasnt for a product that I promoted, or one that I had created myself. It was someone elses e-book that I was able to brand with my affiliate link, I then simply made the e-book available to download from my website and from then on I have been receiving 4.55 USD payments into my Clickbank account on a regular basis; for doing virtually no work at all!
As an e-Book author I am a firm believer in branding my e-Books. I fell that it gives resellers more opportunity to make more money from the e-book, aside from the fee they receive from the sale of the e-book; they also get the chance to make backend sales from the affiliate links within the e-book.
Once you have branded an e-Book and you start to distribute it, I always give out resale rights, this means that the e-Book you branded then gets handed around the Internet like wildfire. Every time someone reads that e-Book there is a chance you will make an affiliate commission!
The example I gave was an e-Book that promoted a low priced product, however most will give you a generous commission. My latest creation (and yes, it is 100% brandable and resalable!). Contains a link in the footer of the document. The e-Book allows you to brand that link so it is your very own affiliate link.
As the link is in the footer you have your affiliate link in every single page of the document! If someone clicks on that link and purchases the full Auction SOS! Product then you (or whoever branded the e-book!) receives 23.50 USD into your paypal account.
Not bad for simply selling or giving away a single e-Book! The next time you decide to write an e-Book it would be a good idea to make it brandable!
There are a number of high quality brandable e-Books on the market. You can view the latest brandable e-Book by the author at: http://auctionsos.com/report/
The 6 C’s of Marketing Unleashed
We have all learned about the 4P’s of marketing in undergrad: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. If not, you can open up one of your old marketing text books, blow off the dust and read about it there. The 6 C’s, however, is a not a concept that replaces the 4′Ps; rather, it just expands on the promotion element and provides a more granular look at consumer marketing.
CUSTOMER
In this day and age, a company’s marketing strategy needs to be customer focused. It’s about understanding the target consumer; their wants, needs and motivations. Not as demographics, psychographics or any other graphics, but as real people. Its understanding why customers do what they do (or don’t do),when they do it and why they do it. Such knowledge is critical in marketing since having a strong understanding of buyer behavior will help shed light on what is important to the customer. It’s about focusing on the target customer first and then working back to the brand. It’s imperative that companies have mindshare before focusing on market share.
CONSISTENCY
Companies need to maintain consistency in their message; a practice called integrated marketing communications, from packaging and advertising to sales promotion and publicity. This will maintain and reinforce a brand’s personality and image in a real life context and avoid doing something brainless like changing the distinctive color of the UPS truck to orange. I am sure it’s been talked about.
CREATIVITY
Creativity is imperative to attract attention in a world cluttered with thousands of messages. Creativity means laying aside the rules, and engages in out-of-box thinking so that marketers can reach beyond logic and structure and tap into their imaginations.
Creativity Informs - Marketing’s responsibility to inform is greatly enhanced by creativity. Creativity makes marketing more vivid, and many researchers believe vividness attracts attention, maintains interest, and stimulates consumers’ thinking.
Creativity Persuades - The ancients Greeks created legends and myths about gods and heroes, symbols for humankind’s instinctive longings and fears, to influence human behavior and thought. Today’s marketers are doing the same thing; they are creating new myths, heroes and symbols like Ronald McDonald, the “Can You Hear Me Now” guy from Verizon, and more recently the Gecko from Geico Insurance.
Creativity Reminds - Imagine using the same invitation, without any creativity, to remind people to try a particular product everyday for a month. The invitation would become stale very quickly. Only creativity can transform boring reminders into interesting, entertaining marketing communications. Nike is proof. Several commercials in a Nike campaign never mention the company name or even spelled it out on the screen. Each communication told a story. And, the only on-screen cue identifying the sponsor was a single “swoosh” logo inscribed on the final scene.
CULTURE
All marketing communications needs cross-cultural research to be able to succeed. It’s simple to see things from your own perspective, assuming that everyone else in the world thinks exactly like you and should understand what’s so great about your product or service. Just reading about all the mistakes made by large corporations proves that even the most sizable and experienced marketers have made errors time and again.
One of the most famous examples is Coca Cola translating the name into Chinese without back-translating it (”bite the wax tadpole”), ultimately resulting in a horrible response from an insulted society. Marketing books are full of examples like these. As David Ogilvy, known as the Father of Advertising, states, “If you are trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think”.
COMMUNICATION
This one is basic. Consumers don’t want to be “marketed to”. Rather, they want to be “communicated with”. Good marketing communication creates value with target customers, speaks in their language and tells your story. It’s about building long term, trustworthy, and profitable relationships with your customers. As Seth Godin states, it’s about reinforcing the lies that consumers tell themselves everyday (i.e. I look much better in these jeans from Abercrombie; they make me look sexy).
CHANGE
Marketing is not just a business function, but a process. There is a beginning, middle, but there is never an end. Marketers must constantly CHANGE as society changes. They should never be afraid to try something new. Marketing today is not what it was 2 - 5 - or even 20 years ago. Marketing needs to be an evolving process that considers change in the world, economy, market, consumers; as well as internal change within the organization.
Conclusion (not the 7th C)
So there it is; the 6 C’s of marketing: Customer, Consistency, Creativity, Culture, Communication and Change. I am sure that these will be published in every text book in the country within the next ten years and I will be a rich, well known author. Yeah right!
To read more about online marketing strategies, please visit: http://www.britopian.com/blog. Michael Brito is the founder of Britopian Marketing and offers web marketing strategy services for small clients.
Build Your Internet Identity
Notice how the top earners online, be it a Super Affiliate, Ad Sense Master or Internet Passive Income Guru, all seem to have their names secured in a niche industry on the internet. When you think of the Coca Cola brand, what comes to mind? Does an image of a red can with words Coca Cola written in white display in your mind’s eye, or perhaps a coke bottle? Likewise we must pick our niche on the internet and brand our name accordingly. Be known for doing good in 1 area before moving on to the next project.
Here are the things we need:
1) A website that belongs to you. Even though an affiliate can utilize the merchants affiliate page, it is still preferred to have your own website. This allows you to present the sales/business opportunity in your own words and pre sell the product, before sending your visitor to the merchants sales page.
2) Auto Responder and Opt In box. Your visitors will most likely not make a purchase on the 1st attempt and when they leave your site, you will not see them again. Don’t forget, there are also other competing sites that want a share of the sale too. So do capture your visitors details with an auto responder opt in box and follow up with a series of emails. For ideas on what to write, you can use information found on the merchants site and re-express them in your own words. Follow up emails reinforces your brand name in the mind of your readers. Respectful persistence wins sales.
3) Photograph & Signature. A picture paints a thousand words. Scan a groomed, smiling photo of yourself and your a penned signature. This adds that personal touch to let your audience know you are a real person. When your readers establish a connection with you on a personal note, they will make a purchase based on your recommendation.
4) Audio. Do you have a nice speaking voice? If so, combine this with your photograph and signature to humanize your website and establish rapport with your audience. You’ll need a recording software and a microphone. Internet audio streaming software you can use are BYOAudio and Audio Generator.
5) Blog. A blog can be an addon to your main website or be used as a free alternative to a website, at least until you are generating profits. You can combine every aspect of name branding mentioned in the above points into your free blog. Update your blog at regular consistent intervals with content specific to your vision. If you’re into internet passive income programs, then write about that topic and do not deviate. It is ok to write about other matters that lead to the finalization of the end goal. Refrain from writing about off topic content so as to keep your message and theme consistent. One way to keep your readers posted about your content is to use RSS feeds. Check out Feed Burner for their free service.
6) A Domain name. You can register a domain name and forward it to point at your Blog. Use the domain masking feature that allows your website to have a professional look. This will allow www.yourdomain.blogspot.com to appear as www.yourdomain.com
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Sherman Choo is an Internet Marketer helping people all over the globe achieve Financial Freedom. To discover the perfect Internet Network Marketing Business Model and leverage on his expertise to earn internet passive income, visit, http://www.success-university.us