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In this issue:
• Marketing Article: Offline Techniques That Work
• Marketing Article: Fill Your Site With Customers Who Spend MORE!

52 pages written in an easy-to-read format with step-by-step instructions, we show you how to write effective press releases to get journalists to "take notice". We don't stop there! Our book gives you the tools to locate the niche media for your distribution. The end result: reaching your targeted audience. Included in the book are:

Available now for only $29.95 throughout October! Order online at: http://www.marketingsource.com/pressreleases/press_release_kit.html

The key is to look around and see what type of marketing works the best in YOUR city…your town…your area. See which events have the biggest crowds and then see how they marketed it. Apply that marketing technique to your business or product. Add a little twist of your own and you got it! It's that simple!

I'll just be jotting down a list of techniques and any pertinent comments that may affect your success with a particular technique. Make sure you look at using as many of these techniques as possible to market your business. Even if you get just a mediocre result from the majority of the techniques, the cumulative affect of using all of them will be a BIG shot in the arm for your business!

SO…here we go!

Press Release: The secret to getting a press release published is to forget all about what you want to accomplish with a press release and concentrate on what the newspaper you're sending it to wants from your press release. Don't make your press release sound like a commercial… make it sound like a news story…answer the 5 "W"s, who, what, where, when, why. Call the paper and talk to them first, see what they think. Any small paper is always looking for relevant news…they'll work with you!

Posters: Make sure all you're trying to accomplish with any poster or printed advertising is to get the reader to go to a website or a phone number. Don't try to sell from a 8 X 11 piece of paper! Just get their interest and then give them someplace to go to get more information.

Door-To-Door: Be sure you're careful with this! Make sure the door-to-door thing is done legally! Pay some kids you trust to hand out your flier. Again, make it a teaser and then send them to your website or a telephone number.

T-shirts: A friend of mine has had huge successes using t-shirts that are imprinted with his logo and business URL. He gets the t-shirts for under $5.00 and gives them out free! Good buzz gets started each time he does this.

Free Papers: These papers are called a variety of things…free trader, green tab, free stuff. The secret is that almost everyone looks at them during the week! The ad rates for business ads are very reasonable and you'll find that the conversion rate is high in most of the papers. Again, use a teaser and send them to your site.

Local Cable Channels: The FCC mandated that each cable provider must provide free access to the community. Make use of that. You probably have a community service channel on your cable system. You know, with the crawling ads and that sort of thing. Usually very inexpensive and they do convert to a sale now and then.

Business Cards: You really need to make up business cards if you haven't already and get them out all over town. On bulletin boards, in rest rooms…everywhere you can that won't get you arrested for littering!

Speaking: speak about your business at Chamber Of Commerce meetings, Rotary Clubs, just about anywhere you can think of. Make you speech something like: "10 things everyone should know about [your specialty]" make the speech short and sweet and informative. Become a local expert in their eyes.

Team Up With Local Groups: Is your product or service something that a local group of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, FHA, FFA…whatever could sell for you? If so, give them a percentage of the sale for doing so. Groups like this are always looking for fundraisers!

Finally, Use Your Eyes: What type of local advertising makes you see it? What do you notice? Write those things down and then add your own little twist to is and start doing it! The secret is to never try to sell from an ad like this. Give them enough to want more information and then send them to a website!

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Christopher T. Robinson is a renowned online marketing author. He is the author of his free ebook "Effectively Marketing Your Home Business 2006", Free Home Business Ebook, and also highly recommends these best selling online tools and software best internet marketing tools http://www.hype-factor.com.

Associations and non-profit groups are a powerful resource for building and expanding networking and business opportunities, finding jobs, evaluating goods and services, and industry publications.

Our database puts you in direct contact with these organizations.

Occasionally, I get friends who say to me, “Diane, online business changes so often, it’s hard to know the next best strategy to market my business.”

It’s true that the Internet moves faster than the speed of light! In fact, I’ve heard that some electronics producers have such a short cycle between discovery and getting it to market that they’re fixing problems with new technology while it’s in the hands of their customers. Internet marketing is often the same way: One day it’s banner ads. Another day it’s Google Adwords. Some people are suggesting that Google is gently rocking on its high horse and could be replaced in the next few years with something else. Will it be blogs and podcasting? Will it be a new technology we have not heard of yet?

One opportunity does not change and I tell people about it over and over.

Here’s what I tell them: When you go grocery shopping, do you buy your products based on the cleverest advertising? Most would say no. Then I ask how they buy their groceries and most reply that it’s a combination of need, desire, and…

Coupons.

Coupons are an absolutely amazing marketing tactic that have never grown old. Coupons have been around, it seems, as long as there have been commerce and I suspect that will be the same for some time to come!

But, for some reason, coupons are a mainstay in offline advertising, but not online advertising. Sure, sites like clickbank.com will ask for a coupon code, but never will you see an AdWords ad that says “coupon available.”

Why is that? Coupons are huge!

Did you know that one study in 2002 discovered that people spend $8 in products for every $1 coupon they used? I don’t know about you, but my calculator says that’s an 800% increase in business and my purse says “I like it!”

If you’re a business owner and the idea of $8 spent for a $1 coupon doesn’t excite you, then you should stop being a business owner and get into another line of work!

Other marketing ideas have come and gone but coupons, I think, are here to stay. Coupons offer some great ways for customers to use them, which gives business owners great flexibility in how they market their products: half-off, or buy-on-get-one-free, or a certain dollar amount off.

So what will make your coupon campaign effective?

• Coupons should create a sense of urgency: they need to come with an expiration date so that customers will want to use them before they are no longer valid.

• Coupons need to be timely: they should come out just in time for a promotion.

• Coupons should provide a real sense of value: Consumers are usually willing to spend the full amount on an item, so an item they can buy for less means a greater perception of value on the product they purchase.

• Coupons should grab the customer’s attention, force them to make a decision, and clearly spell out how to take action.

One company lets you do this: www.myVoucher.com gives you a place to sign up for a free trial period then continue with them for a small price. What they allow you to do is create online coupons for use either online or offline. If you own an online business (as most of my friends and clients do), the coupons create a coupon code you can use with your shopping cart to provide a discount to your merchandise… ultimately selling more product!

Occasionally I get a client who owns an offline store, like a restaurant, and I suggest this idea to them as a way to get local business without the expense of printing coupons.

What separates myVoucher.com from other coupon providers is that each person who signs up gets their own webpage which they can customize with their shop’s information and list their coupons with individual information. Then, they can include that URL in their advertising to encourage clients to shop at their store instead of elsewhere.

Unless you live on the moon, you’ve used a coupon in your life and know of its potential in the marketplace. It works so well in the offline world. Harness that power for your online store!

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Diane Hughes
http://ProBizTips.com
ATTENTION! I am giving away $2,446.13 worth of marketing tools and products and over $5,010.64 worth of resale rights. Demand is great and memberships are going fast!
http://www.madmarketer.com/diane