Before we can calculate the cost, we need to know what a qualified lead is. A qualified lead will have to satisfy four different criteria.

a) The person must need your product or service. There absolutely has to be a use for the item.

b) The person has to be able to pay for the item.

c) The person is a decision maker. Or at least can exert a strong influence to make a purchase.

d) The person knows when to make the purchase

Anyone who satisfies any of these areas can be a potential customer. And chasing this customer is called lead development. So how much must you spend to generate a qualified lead from among the people you target? Some examples of expenses incurred may be in the form of advertisements, labor, postage, or phone bills. Whatever method of customer interaction you use, they all cost money. If a meeting is required before a lead can be qualified, regard that too as a cost. They can be in the form of transport cost, car parking fees, brochure and calling cards.

Not all inquiries can be qualified. The people that make these inquiries simply cannot be reached. They could be on vacation, ignoring you, too busy, not serious, or just didn’t meet the four criteria listed earlier. Assume, about 15% of all inquiries cannot be qualified. That leaves about 75% of the people you can reach. Of this 75% of the people you get in contact, let us assume that the average qualification rate would be about 20%. So we can safely say that 20% of those you interact will become qualified leads.

Example on how your calculated the cost of a qualified leads

Number of inquiries: 100
Number that qualify: 75
Cost of qualifying, per inquiry: $20
Number who turns out to be qualified leads (20%): 15
Total cost of qualifying ($20 X 75): $1,500
Campaign cost of $10,000 + qualifying cost = $11,500
Total cost of $11,500 divided by 15 qualified leads = $766.66

In short, you must invest $766.66 to attract each customer who needs your product or service. This amount varies from industry to industry, but its more a less a very significant amount and it is to your best interest to improve the percentage of qualified leads.

One great idea to improve your percentage of qualified leads is to offer a gift to the people that made an inquiry. Ensure you choose the gift that will enable people to remember you and has your contact printed on it. The gifts need not necessary be expensive as long as they can improve chances of qualified leads.

Assuming you budget $2.00 a lead, and decide to give promotional pens with your logo and contact printed on it. The calculation of cost of qualified leads will now look like this:

Number of inquiries: 100
Number that qualify: 75
Cost of qualifying, per inquiry: $20 + $2 (cost of pen) = $22
Number who turn out to be qualified leads (24%): 18 (Assume gifts improve your chances by 4%)
Total cost of qualifying ($22 X 75): $1,650
Campaign cost of $10,000 + qualifying cost = $11,650
Total cost of $11,650 divided by 18 qualified leads = $647.20

Wait a minute. Cost for 15 qualified leads without gifts was $766.66. Cost for 18 qualified leads with gifts is now $647.20 This is a $119.46 savings with extra 3 more qualified leads!

Now let us consider another angle of calculating the cost of chasing a lead. Suppose we need to qualify a lead by paying a customer a visit. This will incur transport, labor, and car parking cost. It is reasonable to assume that it will cost $50 per trip. Add the cost of the campaign, which includes brochures, marketing materials, samples and the cost of the name card. Assume these materials cost another $30. In total, the cost of qualifying this lead is $80.

If the customer is not sure if he or she needs this product or service, this trip can be totally be wasted. Once you walk away from the customer, your marketing materials may end up in the trash can. Your call card may end up buried under piles of name cards. But the situation can be salvaged when you leave a gift behind. Especially if it is a well chosen and practical gift, it almost never ends up in the trash can nor buried under piles of rubbish. It stays in front of the customer’s desk.

Immediately you chances of this customer turning into a qualified lead somewhere in the future increases! Assuming you choose the same $2.00 pen as a gift. With an extra 2.5% percent of the total cost, you have increased the odds by many times.

There are many angles of which you can analyze the cost of chasing a lead. But when you factor giving as part of your strategy, most of the time, you can drive down the cost of chasing a lead. In a recent American Express Survey conducted by OPEN, budgets for client and customer gifts rose 15% in 2005. This clearly demonstrates that businesses are realizing the value of gifts and are actively making giving as a priority in their marketing strategy.

This is the amazing value of gifts that will help you improve your lead qualification, but your lead generation as well. Practice giving today, and expect it to reduce cost and increase sales. It may just put you in a position never achieved before.

Calculate the Cost of Chasing a Lead. Reduce it by Giving is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

The billboard poster prints in particular are among the most prestigious form of advertising that helps every business to effectively deliver their messages to their targeted audience. Moreover with the aid of the billboard poster printing processes businesses are able to come up with their desired billboard poster prints.

The development processes and methods applied for billboard poster printing services make use of high quality materials and groundbreaking printing equipments. Primarily the printing process and methods involves the following:

1. Materials – the papers, inks, colors and printing substrates. The application of this makes a more striking billboard prints. The papers used are of great quality that offers a greater tear resistance and easier handling. In relations with the inks applied, each outdoor poster are printed with UV stable solvent inks that makes the material to have far more contrast and high impact.

2. Utilization of the different printing processes – mainly this entail the application of printing processes such as digital printing, screen printing, color printing, offset and custom printing. Though they may have different features and developmental processes they can all work out to develop attention grabbing prints.

3. Mounting and lamination – this is efficiently used to protect the designs, colors and inks applied.

Sequentially with the many processes involved you can produce quality billboards that will localize your marketing means. Additionally you can also give your billboard campaign tool the edge by simply customizing the messages and designs for every targeted location.

The coming up of different printing companies had paved to provide lots of significant benefits that had been very helpful to businesses. However not all of them can provide you with what you are in need of. They may not be the company whom you can trust your printing needs. So if you want to have a quality printed billboard poster prints and a company who has the knowledge for billboard poster printing processes you have to perfectly look for a company that can give you all your needs.

Billboard Poster Printing – Its Methods and Developmental Processes is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

Everyone knows that we are a time driven society. We always have to be somewhere. We are in a rush to make a train, plane or bus or we have to meet or pick someone up at a certain time. The wristwatch just doesn’t cut it anymore – you need a clock in every room. And what a great gift a clock makes. They are available in just about any price range. They come in wood, brass, glass, crystal, marble, silver or goldtone. They can be personalized or engraved to make a lasting impression. They can be hung on a wall or placed on a table or shelf. They go in your office, library, kitchen, den or dining room. They can even be found in a bathroom. Clocks can be purchased in every type of decor or color to match or contrast with the area they will be placed. They are available in electric or battery operated models. There are also travel versions. Many have an alarm, some play music or chimes.

There are wall clocks and mantel clocks that play a different sound or tune on the hour. Westminster chimes is a popular sound for the mantel clocks. How can anyone forget the wall clock that had a different bird sound every hour. Many of these clocks have an automatic shut off that keeps them from making noise when the room is dark and everyone is presumably asleep. There are also Lucite desk clocks that change color with every minute. The time changes from red to purple to green to blue and you have to love it. And who could forget those coo-coo clocks that were popular years ago?

Some people prefer analog while others may prefer the digital version. Many of the digital versions will also give the day and/or date. They can also give the room temperature, the phases of the moon, or an estimate of the expected weather. Analog clocks can have roman numerals, or regular numbers. The very popular Movado clocks have just a dot for the twelve. Some clocks will also have room for a photo. Many other clocks are combined with a pen or note paper to make them a desk accessory.

There are also clocks that give the time around the world. These are especially useful to anyone that conducts business in different countries, or anyone that has family traveling or living abroad. It’s easier to know the time when you can see it in front of you, instead of having to count all those hours ahead or behind. World clocks are available in analog or digital versions. These clocks make especially nice corporate gifts and are often shown with a company logo or other personalization.

Movado, Bulova, Seiko, and Seth Thomas are some of the better-known brand names. Howard Miller also makes those furniture clocks that are popular once again. These names represent fine quality clocks that anyone would be proud to give or receive. The next time there’s an occasion and you can’t figure out what to purchase, remembers that it’s always the right time to give a clock as a gift.

As Time goes Buy is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

So you need to be getting your business ready now for the Christmas season if you haven’t already done so, you don’t want to miss out on those sales.

If you have a website that you can edit easily yourself, you can make these changes immediately, and start your Christmas marketing campaign quickly. Then, if you have a mailing list, as soon as your site is ‘set up’ for the festive season you need to use your list to let your customers know.

Keeping in touch with your customers is the key to increasing your sales and this is, of course, especially true in the holiday season.

When so many smaller retailers are competing for consumer attention you need to reach out to your customers before somebody else beats you to it.

Many of your competitors are already sending their Christmas marketing emails out as you read this. As more than 60% of shoppers are buying early this year, you need to capture their attention by sending your marketing message out before the holiday rush starts.

Why not include an incentive? A special offer is always a good marketing tool, you could offer free postage, or buy 3 get one free, or send them a coupon code for your shopping cart that will give them a discount of some kind.

Did you know that more than 79% of consumers say that free postage is an important factor in deciding where to buy?
If you offer a discount or special offer, make it time sensitive, that is give the recipient a set time in which to use it. The fact is that if people do not respond soon after receiving your offer, then they probably won’t respond at all, so give them a good reason to buy now by limiting the time in which the discount or special offers is available.
If you are looking for new customers this Christmas why not invest in a short Google Adword campaign specifically targeted for the season, its only a couple of months away and it could prove to be one of your best investments.

And finally, why don’t you send a Christmas greetings email to your clients, thank them for their business and let your customers know that they are important to you.

So don’t let the grass grow under your feet, set up your site now ready for the Christmas shopping season, and reach out to your customers before someone else does!

Are you ready for the Christmas shopping season is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

5 FREE Resources to get your website built, online and profiting in 7 days or less.

3 Surefire Methods to gain immediate and highly responsive traffic to any website on a ZERO budget.

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Discover The Quick & Easy Way To Make Your Websites Look Even More Professional, Without Spending One Cent On New Software…

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Over 172 Individual “Profit Nuggets” Guaranteed To Crush Your Competition And Ultimately Unlock Your True Online Potential….

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My “Closely Guarded” and highly effective SECRET email technique that’s fail-proof in generating “REPEAT” sales. (Free PC VIDEO and Resale Rights Included)!

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What separates the winners from the losers?  Learn 12 “Obvious Adam” techniques for converting traffic into buyers.

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They aren’t just product descriptions… they’re your GREATEST SELLING TOOL!  Discover 3 Essential Keys that will give you an unfair advantage over your competition!

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3 “Must Have” Profit Nuggets that are guaranteed to increase the sales on your website – Miss any one of these three components and you might as well hang the “Going Out Of Business” sign now!

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The power of your USP!  The 6 critical elements you must consider when defining your niche’.  Fail to deliver on a powerful USP and say goodbye to your customers!

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The MASTER Online Marketer’s Formula (for any market or niche): Successfully making money online = A list (or MULTIPLE lists) + sales copy + products + timing

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12 Steps To Success In Creating Life-Changing Income is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

1. Sell a variety of services. Or you can bundle your services into packages depending on what your typical client is looking for. But be careful about this one. Don’t spread yourself too thin. You want to offer a few different services or a choice of packages but you don’t want too many options because it’s very difficult to market yourself effectively.

2. Sell your own products. These can be information products (books, home study courses, CDs, special reports, etc.) or they can be physical products. You can also group similar products into product lines. Then you can upsell, downsell or cross-sell products to different customers on your list.

3. Sell other people’s products (or services). Here’s where you become an affiliate. Basically how it works is once you’re approved to be an affiliate, you get your own link. Anytime someone uses that link and buys a product, you can a percentage of the sale. That percentage can be anywhere from 10 percent (mostly for services) to more than 50 percent.

Which leads me to my next tip:

4. Put together your own affiliate program. Now you can get other people to market your products and services, and the only time you pay them is when they actually sell something! How cool is that!

5. Create a teleclass, seminar, workshop or other event. This can be a one-time deal or a series of classes. (But if you do this, make sure you record it so you can sell those later.) The nice thing about this tip is it’s a good blend. You can reach groups of people at one time while at the same time providing a personal touch.

6. License one of your programs or services. This is a neat idea if it works in your business. (For instance, a coach could license tools or a program to other coaches.) I don’t know much about this one, but Suzanne Falter-Barnes sells a program that can teach you how to do it.

7. Create a paid membership site. Not only will you be getting regular income each month, but you’ll also building your customer base — people who are interested in purchasing your products and services. It’s much easier to sell to people who are already customers than to find new ones. Plus people like being a part of a community, and becoming a member of something is a good way to do it.

8. Start a continuity program. This is similar to a membership site where you charge a monthly fee for a product or service. Maybe you create a paid newsletter subscription or you offer monthly coaching calls or you interview successful people. Whatever it is, it’s something people find valuable enough to pay you a small, but regular, monthly fee.

9. Sell ads on your web site or e-zine or whatever. This one is probably not going to make you rich, but it could turn into a nice little income stream depending on how many people are looking at your e-zine or web site.

10. Use Adsense. This is when you allow Google to place its pay-per-click ads on your web site or blog. In return, every time someone clicks on one of those ads, Google will pay you a percentage. Pretty nifty program, huh? Anyhow, I do think this is one you have to be a little careful with. Most of the time I don’t think people clicking away from your web site is a good thing (especially since they’ll be going to one of your competitors). But there are times when this is very appropriate. For instance, maybe you’ve developed a web site or blog around a hobby. Or maybe you build a web site or blog for the express reason of selling Adsense. Once it’s set up, you just ca^sh the checks.

Creativity Exercise — Find time to create multiple income streams

Probably the hardest part of creating multiple income streams is finding the time, especially when your primary business is service-based. So, now that you know how important it is, how are you going to find the time to start doing it?

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

* Hire a virtual assistant (VA) or bookkeeper to take care of some tasks you have no business doing anyway.
* Create systems in your business so you can complete business tasks faster and more efficiently.
* Raise your prices so you can take on fewer clients and make more money.
* Dedicate a Saturday or Sunday to working on your business. (Be careful with this one as you could very quickly end up burning yourself out.)

Get a pen and paper and do some brainstorming to see how you can find more time to start creating more income streams.

10 Income Streams You Can Add to Your Business (And Increase Your Bottom Line) is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

Like in any other moneymaking system, to succeed as an email marketer, you will need to understand all the secrets that are available to keep growing your business and apply them immediately.

How to Build a Business Relationship to Gain Customer loyalty!

Everywhere you go online they tell you that you must have a list to succeed. That’s true but it doesn’t go far enough until you understand exactly what makes subscribers eager to pay for your products, success will remain subtle.

If you don’t know how to build a business relationship to keep your subscribers enthusiastic, eagerly waiting for your articles and rush to buy your product without any regard for brand, your list is worthless.

Hands down the main key factor of a responsive email list is the Trust Factor. If you earn your subscribers trust, you will have much more success when it comes to advertise to your list. Without the trust of your subscribers, they will be leery when it comes to pulling out their credit card to buy from you.

1 – Earn your subscribers’ trust

Honesty is essential to earning customers’ trust, and that trust is the key to gaining customer loyalty. Earning customers trust is important to the success of any business. Being honest goes with not hiding anything.

Let your subscribers know your Identification and contact information, such as your name, physical address, email address and telephone number. It is important that you let your subscribers know how to contact you for assistance. The more they know you as a person, the more they’ll trust you. And when it comes to asking for money, nothing is more important than trust.

Warning: Be sure to be selective in what you promote to your subscribers. If you suggest a product that turns out to be a scam, your subscribers will likely blame you first for recommending it to them. You really can’t afford to take a hit like this to your reputation.

2 – Give Them What They Want

When your subscribers sign up to your ezine, they are doing so for a reason. They want the information you are telling them they will receive. Keep giving them that, and they’ll be happy as can be. Diverge from that, and you could find yourself losing subscribers quicker than you can get them.

Tips: Ask Your Subscribers what they want. Don’t guess. Use this great, easy to use online tactic to find out exactly what your subscribers will buy from you or what subject they want to learn about. You could hold a contest. By sending them simple questionnaires or surveys will give you a sense of your market’s needs, wants and preferences. Give the winner a quality prize and/ or gift that he can’t find elsewhere. Getting your subscribers involved like this will also keep them interested in your emails and help get more emails opened.

3 – Don’t send “too many” marketing messages.

Two thing you really need to watch, as a publisher, is how to advertise your product/ service and what product you endorse. Nothing ticks off a subscriber more than thinking a publisher is only in it for the money. This will happen if you advertise too much, or if you advertise the wrong products.

Sending out an email newsletter with too much ads and a little or no quality information will hurt your reputation. You have everything to lose, and nothing at all to gain by stuffing your Ezine with ads.

The ads in your Ezine aren’t the only things you have to worry about. This also includes any ads you send out that are separate from your regularly scheduled newsletter. Sending out an ad each day is not the way to go if you want to build customer loyalty. It is the way to go if you want everyone to unsubscribe from your list.

4 – Make your subscribers your friends!

Give your subscribers a good sense of who you are. It’s important that your subscribers see you as a real person, because they will likely never meet you in person. One thing every successful publisher does is just talk about whatever is on their mind in each issue of their Ezine. They may talk about their family, their favorite sports team, politics, the weather, anything that’s going on. They usually ask the reader to write back a few comments about it, or the reader will just write back without being asked to. This creates a bond between the publisher and the reader that could result in future sales and future partnerships.

5 – Over Deliver

Nothing makes people happier than knowing you pay attention to them. Make your customers and potential clients delighted by giving them more than they expected. After they order your product or sign up for your publication, give them a gift or a bonus that wasn’t advertised, in addition to any gifts or bonus you promised they would get. I’m not talking about any ebook or software they can download from any website. Give something that no one or only a few other people are giving away. This kind of gift and bonus says that you put a lot of attention and thought into helping them succeed.

From time to time and in special events send free gifts just for the heck of it. By continuously over delivering, your subscribers will realize that you are trying to help them learn what they need to know, and they will appreciate it when you give them the tools and information they need to succeed. This is obviously geared more towards strong relationship and they stay loyal customers longer.

6 – Help Them Out

Besides giving your subscribers what they want, helping them with whatever they need help with is the best way to earn customer loyalty. While this works on an individual basis, instead of taking care of all of your subscribers at once, the people you are able to help will be very grateful, and will probably tell their friends, colleagues and neighbors about you. Positive word-of-mouth is a powerful way to acquire new customers and build customer loyalty.

If one of your subscribers sends you an email asking for help, help them out as much as you can. Don’t just give them a quick, one word answer. They’ll probably just be back asking for a little more information. Just go ahead and tell them what you can, and be nice about it, even if you think it’s a stupid question.

7 – Don’t Use Hype

I’m sure you’ve seen this before. It seems to be everywhere you look people trying to hype-up their offer to make it sound better than it is. Most people just want you to be straight with them.

If you just stick to telling the truth about a product, without making it look like hype, I think your subscribers will have much more respect for you. Personally, I think its stimulating when someone sends me a sales letter and outlines how I can benefit from it without trying to make it sound better than it is. Most people can tell the difference, and will probably be turned off by the hype.

The bottom line

When you combine all of these keys, you’ll build a strong relationship with your subscribers and they stay loyal customers for years. All you need to do is find a way to include all of these keys into your business marketing strategies, and you’ll soon find yourself getting new subscribers, building relationships with and earning customer loyalty.

7 Key Strategies to Earn Customer Loyalty is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

To succeed in your business, your main goal should be to build a responsive email list of lifetime customers from your targeted market who trust you, feel grateful to you and value your recommendation.

A good relationship with loyal customers is worth a fortune. That’s the most valuable thing any business can have. The key here is to build your large list of lifetime customers who trust you. Achieve this and you’re set for life.

For that reason you need to learn the key principles of relationship marketing to be able to apply relationship marketing concepts to your web site.

What’s Relationship Marketing?

Relationship marketing is the method of gradually turning website visitors into subscribers and leads them from position to position along a planned program to convert them into life time customers.

Think of relationship building as the foundation to your business. It establishes you as a professional, trust worthy and a consistent source.

7 Key Principles of Relationship Marketing.

Building relationship online is more difficult when compared to offline relationship building. The techniques used are almost the same. But, turning a potential customer into lifetime customer offline is easier due to the nature of the process. In online marketing you can’t meet your clients in person like in offline marketing. But, you can deliver what you want if you think of your potential clients in each step you make when building your business. Relationship marketing is a process, not just a one-time commitment. It starts the moment you think about building a business and continue as long as you stay in.

1 – Know your potential customers.

Before you start building your business; you need to determine your targeted market and know your potential customers. Learn how to know your customers to develop effective tactics for delivering your message to them.

You can start getting to know your customers by taking some very simple steps.

- Determine in advance where your potential customers congregate.
- What newsletter they read?
- What forums they visit and post to?
- What else might do while surfing the net?

The best places where you find your prospects are forums, discussion groups and discussion boards. Visit forums of your targeted market and figure out:

- What’s your potential customers’ problem?
- What they are looking for?
- What kind of business they are involved in?
- How they want their problem to be solved?
- What words they use?

Only by knowing your customers’ wants and needs you can successfully grow your business and be totally customer-oriented. In order to tailor your marketing and advertising strategies to appeal to the tastes and interests of your market, you must first identify your customer.

Relationship is not only based on knowing who your visitors are, but on knowing your customers’ and prospects’ specific needs.

Note: To attract more subscribers and build a strong relationship marketing the easy way use your prospects words. If you feel their pain and use their words when posting to forums, sending message, etc… they’ll be related to you. You will be one of them; you are not a stranger then they will be likely to trust you and consider your recommendation.

2 – Show your expertise.

The majority of business people, never completely and clearly display their knowledge to potential customers. Show to your targeted market you are the leader in your industry and they will follow you.

People like to learn about your experience. They like to follow the expert’s steps to avoid mistakes and reach success the easy way with less investment in time and money.

3 – Start a dialog to establish trust.

Set up a continuing dialog to establish trust. Trust is a vital step to building long-time relationship. This dialog should starts as soon as your visitors submit information along with their email addresses. This explains their interest in your business. In return, you give them what promised when they subscribed and keep contacts at periodic intervals by sending quality information to your subscribers.

Your goal is to create long term relationships marketing with your subscribers. To do that you must invest time to gather available sources and high quality information and put it at your prospects’ disposal to help them succeed. Remember, maintaining customer enthusiasm and creating customer loyalty is your key to success.

4 – Follow up

Dialog leads to follow-up. Hook your subscribers with your follow up messages series. Set up a series of follow up messages to send quality information to every new subscriber. Professionalism is the key to successful relationship.

The main purpose of follow up is to remain visible to your subscribers so, when the need arise and your prospect wants to make a purchase, your product will be the first one the subscriber thinks of.

If you want to make good money your mission will not cease at selling your product. Going after one sale is worthless. Following up with your customer after the sale is made is a great tactic. This important step will help you strength your relationship, decrease the refund proclamations and keep your customer baying from you again and a gain.

Keep following up; don’t stop and be creative. Don’t send your customers only sales messages. From time to time send free useful product they don’t find elsewhere that can help them make money and/or save time. Send special offers with discount for loyal customers only. Keep them up to date and to the point with latest news, etc…

5 – Offer good customer service.

Some people will start an online business and only focus on what services or products they can sell to make good money. They are not worried about establishing good relationship with their customers and potential clients.

- Answer your prospects’ requests as soon as you receive them.
- Replay to every email within 24 hours with the needed response whether it is a question, concern or simply someone looking for more information.
- Treat your customers right. Even if you offer the best products or services, most customers will evaluate your business by how they were treated while doing business with you. For that reason, it’s important to take care of your customers and give them the best product or service they want.

By providing great customer service to the people you do business with, you will get customers coming back to you again and again to buy your products or services.

Note: If you want to stay in your customers’ minds serve them better. You can do this by collecting information from your customers’ feedback. Having a contacts page on your website with a comments or feedback form will keep you informed about your customers’ wants and problems. If you publish a newsletter, you can also accomplish this by asking for feedback from your subscribers.

This is a great way of making your audience know you care about what they have to say and how important they are to you. When you show interest in your customers you will build credibility and loyalty.

6 – Educate your subscribers.

Put at your customers disposal manuals, frequently asked question (FAQ) web page, articles, etc… to help them learn how to use your product or service perfectly. Educate your subscribers to help them build interest and loyalty for your business.

Lifetime clients want you to be their trusted advisor. The more you educate your customers by offering them a variety of options, the greater your chance to earn their lifetime business. Education strengthens relationship marketing with clients.

7 – Sell or recommend only quality products.

Sell quality products that have value, plus offer a guarantee and stand behind it. One of the quickest ways to destroy a business relationship is selling poor quality products and not standing behind what you promise.

If you want to promote other marketers’ affiliate programs from your website, take the time to investigate the companies you advocate. Promote only products from legitimate companies with solid Internet presence. Remember the companies you suggest will have an impact on your business reputation.

Relationship marketing is the corner stone of every business. If you follow these key principles of relationship marketing, you’ll be on your way to building a responsive opt in email list which will lead to more and better sales.

7 Key Principles of Relationship Marketing to Attract Customers and Get Them to Stay on Your Life! is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

A newsletter can emphasize higher margin products, among both customers and employees. For employees, reiterate the benefits (for them and the company) of selling a product or set of products with a higher profit margin. For customers, let them know these products exist, how to buy them, and outline the benefits of using them.

Go From Commodity To Branded Status
Control over pricing is one important advantage a branded product provides over a commodity. Of course, the process of moving a product to branded status starts with incorporation of some value-added feature. But once you add that value you want to make sure your customers know.

A marketing newsletter provides critical communication for the branding process. After all, increasing the cost of a commodity without explaining benefits could lead customers to switch to another supplier. Before the price goes up customers should expect the increase, understand the added value, and appreciate the extra benefits they receive.

Penetrate New Markets Or Territories
Often, sales people focus on existing customers and existing business. That’s not surprising, but not necessarily in your best long-term interests. All businesses need at least some prospecting and new customers. The problem: rewards from prospecting and developing new business come slowly, compared to returns from current customers.

A marketing newsletter can be an effective first-line. Using lists prepared by your sales people, or representatives of the areas you want to enter, mail out your print newsletter and a response form. If you publish a free electronic newsletter, look for ways to find new subscribers in the target area.

The newsletter should make it simple for potential customers to contact you, to ask for information about your products, or to ask a sales person to call. Plan to send multiple issues of the newsletter, since repeat exposures are key to developing new business.

Internal Marketing
Marketing, for good reason, usually focuses on externally-oriented activity. However, one school of thought argues that internal marketing matters, too. Essentially, internal marketing helps ensure that everyone within your organization knows what you sell, and why customers should buy from you. And, don’t forget attitude. Everyone in the organization should be a booster of the company‘s products.

Articles and other pieces that sell to external customers can also help employees. Articles in marketing newsletters should not be written for employees, but they should be kept in mind.

Reduce After-Sale Dissonance
After-sales dissonance refers to our natural inclination to wonder if we got a good deal after we bought something. A buyer who feels that he or she got a poor deal will probably not be a repeat customer, or cause other, costly problems.

You can reduce buyer dissonance by publishing the names of some prominent customers (with their permission, of course). That makes other customers feel secure by knowing that they’re in good company. Also, consider the security-in-numbers idea, reporting on the number of purchases made in a specific period.

Customer Feedback
To think of the newsletter only as an instrument of outward-bound communication misses one of its most powerful possibilities. Use a newsletter to bring in customer complaints, compliments, and suggestions, too.

Some of the more important customer responses include:
* complaints about product performance
* ideas for improvements in products
* ideas for new products
* referrals to new customers
* satisfaction levels
* reports on needs or unsolved problems in the marketplace

These are just a half dozen of the many ways in much you might use a customer or marketing newsletter, demonstrating the power and reach of effective newsletters.

6 Ways To Use Customer & Sales Newsletters is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com

Well, you haven’t tried starting the old mower, but hey, it’s raining cats and dogs outside. With nothing better to do, you head for the mall and find yourself among a line of shiny lawn mowers with a wide variety of prices and features. What are the advantages of each one compared to the difference in costs?

Yep, not every customer that walks through your door is ready to make a purchase. Maybe they’re still in the “thinking about it” stage. Yeah, when you think long enough, you usually talk yourself into doing it. That’s why it’s important to treat every customer’s question with respect. You never know when a properly answered question will lead to a sale.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for effectively answering customer questions:

1. A Question is the Sign of a Potential Sale.
Yeah, if a customer is taking the time to look you up and ask questions, you’re dealing with a high level of interest. Don’t take it lightly. A prompt and quick response laced with the added benefits of the product will go a long way toward closing a sale.

2. Make it Easy to Ask A Question.
There’s nothing more frustration than having a simple question and having to move heaven and earth to get an answer. Make it easy for your customers to ask questions. Make your website question friendly and include a phone number with all of your sales material.

3. Organize – Set up a Frequently Asked Question File
What questions have you emailed answers to sixteen times this week? Keep a file with those repeat questions. You’ll be able to copy and paste the answers into responses. Hey, your customer will be happy and you can spend time doing something else. Everyone wins!

4. Get Back – Quickly
How many times have you shopped around while waiting for someone to get back to you? Yeah, it’s easier than ever on the web. Customer attention spans are ever shortening with the vast global competition at their fingertips. Don’t dilly dally – get back to them pronto!

5. Make Every Question a Sales Opportunity
When someone asks you a question, you’ve got their attention! They’re waiting for an answer that is important to them. Yeah, it’s the perfect opportunity to expand your response to include benefits of the purchase.

Questioning customers wear a badge that says, “Buyer on Board!” Read it and pay attention. Often a little nudge will mean a sale to tally at the day’s end. Think of it like this…learning to effectively answer customer questions is a low-cost and effective way to boost your profits this year!

5 Keys to Capturing Prospective Buyers is a post from: Marketing Blogs | Albrowmarketing.com