Friday, December 28, 2007

Promotional Marketing

Promotional marketing is a great way to build your business. Promotional marketing is often overlooked by many business owners. McDonald's and Las Vegas Casinos have taken full advantage of promotional marketing techniques and you should do the same. Promotional marketing can be very effective when employed correctly. We will take a look at a couple of companies who use promotional marketing in their marketing campaign. Many successful companies understand the whole point of business is to get you in the door. If you notice Las Vegas does not advertise their slot machines or game boards, instead they advertise the Las Vegas lifestyle. They just want to get you there, full well knowing once you are there you will gamble.


First let's look at McDonald's. McDonald's does not have the best tasting food or the healthiest food but McDonald's is still one of the most successful restaurant chains today. Why? Two reasons first McDonald's buys real estate in key locations and second they employ effective promotional marketing techniques. Let's take a look at the techniques they use. If you notice McDonald's does not list the benefits of eating their food, why? Their food is not the best food around so they can't. Instead they have a ton of promotional techniques. Remember the beanie baby craze? This was started by McDonald's. McDonald's just sold new beanie babies every week. These beanie babies were going on Ebay for hundreds of dollars. Do you see the whole strategy behind this? See all they wanted was to get you in the door. Full well knowing once you were inside of a McDonald's you would most likely also buy a hamburger and fries besides just a beanie baby. They also employ the same strategy with their Value Meals, Happy Meals, Monopoly Game Sweepstakes, and Dollar Menu.


Next let's look at Las Vegas. Las Vegas casino's are masters at using effective promotional marketing. Las Vegas Casino's are their for one reason and one reason only and that is to make money. Las Vegas casino's do not advertise about gambling, instead they focus on the Vegas lifestyle. "What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas!" is one slogan they have going. They advertise the free rooms, the Vegas nightlife, the Vegas shows, and boxing matches. Their whole goal is just to get you inside of their casino. Knowing full well once you are inside the odds are in their favor you will gamble and lose. It's genius marketing.


Now granted you may not have the spending budget of a McDonald's or Las Vegas casino but you can still use promotional marketing for your business. For example you could give out a free Vegas vacation for the 1,000th customer. Or you could give out little things like a free car wash for the first 100 customers. The main thing to remember is to make sure you give out something of value and your promotional marketing efforts will be effective.
 
 
 

Multilevel Marketing

Multilevel marketing or MLM is a very popular business these days. Multilevel marketing has taken on a life of it's own. Many people have made tons of money from multilevel marketing and others have been scammed completely by multilevel marketing companies. What makes building a multilevel marketing business so tough? Why do so many people not make any money in multilevel marketing companies? I will answer these and other questions in this article. I will also go over what to look for before joining a multilevel marketing company. Not all multilevel marketing companies are bad companies, there are some good companies out there, it is just a matter of you finding them. Remember there is nothing free in life, everything has a price. There is no such thing as something for nothing. It takes dedication and effort in order to succeed, which brings me to my first point.


Many MLM companies advertise with the get rich quick mentality. I'm sure you've seen the ads like "Make a million overnight" or " Learn how I made $150,000 in 48 hours!". Most of these ads are false. It just does not happen for the average person. Many MLM companies use ads like these as their hooks to get people to sign up. Many MLM companies are playing on people's greed. I am not a believer in it's too good to be true because it is very possible to earn large amounts of money. But earning large amounts of money requires work, period. You will have to put in effort to make the money they are talking about.


Next you have to look at the compensation plan. Why? Many multilevel companies have screwed up compensation plans. Actually do the math and see if it makes sense. I have seen compensation plans where you could have one thousand people in your downline and still not be making any money. Many MLM companies are setup this way so the MLM company is the one making any real money.


You also want to look for a product. No product and it is a pyramid scheme. You should also be able to just sell the product alone without ever having to recruit anyone.


Now many people cannot make any decent money with MLM's because they are not producing enough numbers. It is all a numbers game. Many people join an MLM company and then told to write a list of their warm market. After they are then told to invite them to a hotel meeting, or a conference call. Most people spend all week trying to get 1 or 2 prospects to sign up. Going after 1 or 2 prospects a week will never build you the downline you will need. There is a high turnover rate with MLM companies people quit all the time. In order for a person to be effective they must have a large number of prospects joining every week. Most people have no clue how to do this which is why they end up failing. There is a stat which MLMer's use, they say the average person who joins a MLM company will only bring in 2 new prospects. Becoming successful in an MLM company is all about getting a large number of prospects to see what you have to offer weekly.
 
 
 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can be a great way for a person or business to make money. Affiliate marketing is very often over looked but affiliate marketing can be a win-win for every party involved. Affiliate marketing helps out every party in a variety of ways. First off many people are looking to make an income online. Many people do not have the means to build a large business and they most likely do not have the name recognition many of the larger companies have. So affiliate marketing can make sense for someone looking to make money online because they are normally given all of the marketing tools needed to market the company, such as banners, links, and signature links. Affiliate marketing makes sense from a business point of view because affiliate marketing allows a business to have thousands and  thousands of free salesmen trying to sell their product. It is also a huge win for businesses because they do not have to pay salaries or benefits, businesses only have to pay when an affiliate makes a sale. And they only have to pay a percentage of that sale. From a business point of view it is like free money.


Affiliate marketing can be great for the person looking to make money online. A majority of the time all of the setup work is done for you by the company. All you have to do is drive traffic to your links or banners. Normally most companies pay out about 10% of the total sales per customer, it just really depends on the company. Companies love having people join up as affiliates since it is like free advertising for the company. In order to make a lot of money as an affiliate you must have one of two things. You must have a lot of traffic and clicks going to your links and banners. Or you must sell high ticket items or work for companies which give out a nice affiliate percentage. Affiliate marketing can make you a lot of money but it does take work, it is not something that happens overnight. Many people have learned this the hard way.

 

Affiliate marketing can be great for a business because affiliate marketing will help produce sales. Many Fortune 500 companies use affiliate marketing as a way to help increase sales. What makes affiliate marketing so great for so many businesses is the benefits offered through affiliate marketing. You can literally have hundreds of thousands of marketers selling your product for you, at no cost to you. All you do is pay a percentage when they do make a sale. That is pure profit, plus having affiliates sell your product does not come with the headaches of having employees. One thing to remember the better you take care of your affiliates the better affiliates you will have selling for you. Some companies offer huge bonuses, cars, and vacations to their top affiliates.


Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money whether you are a marketer or a business. You should take full advantage of the benefits of affiliate marketing.