Top 10 Low Cost Business Marketing Ideas

You don’t need to have a large budget set aside to market you business. There are many great low-
cost ways which can effectively promote your business.

1. Add value to your customers

The basic rule of marketing is to create value for customers to gain value in return. Make your
consumers feel special and let them know how important they are for your business. Don’t forget
your old clients when making new ones.

2. Create your business card

Make sure you have a business card to hand out to prospects with all vital contact information. You
can also hand out notepads to your clients, with your business details printed on every page as they
serve as excellent source of reminders and have fewer chances of being misplaced or discarded.

3. Have a logo designed for your business

Have a professional design a distinctive logo for you. If you cannot afford the cost, you can get a
logo designed from many websites offering the service for a low fee. A distinctive logo will help
your prospects to differentiate you from others.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments

Is Facebook ‘Subscribe’ for real? Booming new traffic explained

As their Facebook “subscriber” lists have spiraled upward — into the thousands and tens of thousands in recent weeks — many journalists have looked on in awe and wonder.

Executives at the social media behemoth say the “Subscribe” function, introduced in September, has instantly become a hugely popular feature. It allows the public to follow journalists, artists and political figures without taking the more personal, and potentially intrusive, step of “friending.”

The manager of the Journalist Program for Facebook said in a posting Wednesday that subscriptions have jumped more than threefold since November for a sample of 25 journalists around the country. Vadim Lavrusik, the program manager, suggested that the exponential growth — CNN weather reporter Bonnie Schneider somewhat suddenly has 72,000 subscribers — is a reflection of the “organic discovery mechanisms” built into the social network.

Read the rest of this entry »

, ,

No Comments

Consumer outlook improving

The consumer’s outlook is improving, according to the January Consumer Reports Index, a measure of overall consumer financial health. The study reports that stress levels have diminished, financial difficulties have moderated compared to past months, and the strong retail performance of the holiday season is an important marker that Americans may be willing to engage and spend once again.

The Consumer Reports Index captures respondents’ attitudes, asking if they are feeling better or worse off than a year ago. When the index is greater than 50, more consumers are feeling positive about their situation. When it is below 50, more consumers are feeling worse. The Sentiment Index can vary from a high of 100 to a low of 0.

Read the rest of this entry »

, ,

No Comments

eBrand Interactive produces happy holiday returns for new clients

Gemvara, Rent the Runway and Bonobos retained eBrand Interactive to deliver people genuinely interested in their unique value propositions for the holiday season.   

Los Angeles, CA–(eBizine)–1/03/2012-8:45 AM – eBrand Media, Inc. (EBM), a leading provider of digital advertising and marketing solutions to emerging and established businesses announced today that its agency division, eBrand Interactive, directed thousands of visitors to the Gemvara, Bonobos, and Rent the Runway websites during the holiday season through CAN-SPAM compliant email on a CPC (cost-per-click), CPM (cost-per-thousand), and CPL (cost-per-lead)  basis. The agency met all established benchmarks while doing so.

“We manage lists for a number of well known brands and as a result we have permission to market to over 150,000,000 people through our CAN-Spam compliant email channel. We take private labeled offers from leading companies and send them to people who have opted to receive offers from 3rd parties. In short we email 3rd party offers to 3rd party email lists that we’ve been licensed to manage”, said Tom Polanski, EVP of Business Development at the eBrand Media Group.

Mr. Polanski went on to say; “Gemvara, Bonobos, and Rent the Runway retained eBrand to email their offers for the critical holiday season to the lists we manage. My email team started mailing slowly so that we could analyze performance with minimal risk to these companies. The goal as always is to ensure that our traffic is meeting or beating advertiser mandates. In this case hitting the established CPA (cost-per-acquisition) or lowering it. Once our analysis was done on the initial test, we were had the clarity and statistical confidence to scale while adhering to mandates. As a result we now have an ongoing relationship with each of these companies”. Read the rest of this entry »

,

No Comments

Retailers Tagging Social and Mobile as 2012 Targets

According to the report, “Surviving the Current Market Mania with a Solid 2012 Plan,” by Bronto Software, while traditional digital channels such as search and email continue to dominate retailer marketing spending, social and mobile channels are growing in importance.

Use of Mobile and Social Marketing Tools (% of Respondents; November 2011)
Tool In Use Now Plan to Use in Next 6 Months
Facebook fan page and/or shopping 87% 8
Twitter publishing 82 8
M-commerce site 29 42
Bar, codes, QR codes in traditional advertising 38 31
Mobile application 19 27
Collecting SMS opt-in (all channels) 14 29
Texting marketing messages 7 29
Texting transactional support messages 6 26
Source: The E-tailing Group, November 2011

Marketers are also seeking to improve data analytics capabilities to identify the most profitable channels and design the optimal marketing mix for driving engagement and sales. Important tactics include:           

Planned Improved Tactics
  % of Respondents
Tactic Critical Very Important
Capturing phone numbers during call center transaction 13% 15%
Capturing phone numbers during online transaction 10 16
Capturing phone numbers during retail transaction 3 12
Executing email campaigns with SMS opt-in objectives 5 9
Executing traditional marketing or advertising campaigns with SMS opt-in objectives 1 9
Source: The E-tailing Group, November 2011

Read the rest of this entry »

, , ,

No Comments