The world of business marketing is constantly evolving to produce newer and more effective methods of promoting a business. Proximity marketing, or better known as bluetooth marketing, is just the latest method to break into the scene. Some are already claiming that bluetooth marketing represents the future of marketing and that any business who wants to succeed should join the bandwagon. But, should you? And what are the things you need to know about this marketing method before you decide to employ it on your own business?

Bluetooth marketing is also known as proximity marketing because it utilizes wireless technology to send data from one mobile device to another, provided that they are within the defined radius. This data is a form of promotional content intended to community various forms of marketing campaign to the intended audience within close proximity to the company. There are a number of digital files now being transferred from one mobile device to another, such as photos, videos, texts, or vouchers. It can be used in an indoor or outdoor setting for a number of business applications.

The Bluetooth technology isn’t entirely new as it has been around since 1994. It was developed by Ericsson to make it easier to share files between mobile phones without requiring the use of accessories, such as cables. As of now, it remains unclear how additional radius reach for the device will be able to offer additional benefits, but many are looking at it as an alternative to promoting a business because of its flexibility and low-cost operation.

Before you decide to employ bluetooth marketing for your business, it is best to educate yourself first on what are its advantages and disadvantages (if any). There are several advantages over SMS campaign that are evident right off the bat. For instance, you do not have to know the recipient’s phone number and there are no per-message charges that make it a really low cost solution to marketing. It is also easy to set up and the only thing you have to determine is the radius wherein you can target recipients to your campaign. And because it is located close to your company, it will be easier for a customer to come in and experience the product first-hand during trade shows. This aspect of bluetooth marketing therefore makes it better than other promotional methods because a text or banner can only say so much.

Due to the low-cost and flexible approach to the marketing campaign, many business owners also fear that this method will be used liberally. In fact, a term “Bluespam” has been coined to refer to the possibility of a limitless stream of advertising messages or digital files to recipients. However, responsible marketers must refrain from sending users with an overwhelming amount of messages. If you are using a bluetooth server, then make sure to set it up in such a way that it will send an acceptable amount of messages over a specific span of time.

Bluetooth marketing is also not applicable to all types of business models. If your prospects are limited in number and a marketing campaign that is location-specific, then you could really benefit from this marketing method. It is also recommended that you monitor the progress of your Bluetooth marketing campaign so you can determine how to attract more clients and boost sales.

However, you cannot depend on Bluetooth marketing as your main marketing platform. You can think about integrating it with other media marketing campaign to appeal to a wider range of audience. If you think that your business can benefit from any of the above marketing approaches, then you should consider evaluating this marketing method and see how you can incorporate it into your existing marketing campaign.

Video marketing is a hot topic amongst online business owners these days. And for a good reason – it works! But like most other internet marketing strategies, there is a right and wrong way to do it. If you want to succeed, you need to learn basic video marketing secrets to success because it will make your video marketing campaign stand out despite stiff level of competition.

The first step is to determine whether video marketing is right for your business. According to internet marketing experts, video marketing on YouTube, to be specific offers a lot of rewards. There are more than 2 billion views on YouTube videos on a daily basis and it is the second most popular search engine on the web, next only to Google. Meanwhile, an average YouTube user spends 15 minutes per day watching videos on YouTube. Also, the top internet marketers for the past decade have employed YouTube and video marketing campaign as part of their marketing campaign. Thus, you can try to emulate the methods they have used to increase the possibility of you succeeding in this venture.

Meanwhile, here are some video marketing secrets to success that you need to keep in mind. This will enable your own campaign to succeed as well:

1. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What would like to watch from a video? What would make you come back and watch videos from the same channel? Your ability to capture the attention and interest of your intended audience is crucial in making a video viral.
2. Keep your videos within 2-3 minutes in length. Ideally, your video must not exceed 4 minutes. Web users are known for their short attention span. Thus, you need to provide them the information they are looking for within less than 4 minutes, or else they would be looking somewhere else. The main appeal with video marketing is that it can impart information in a short amount of time. If you create a long and exhaustive video, then it is already going against what this campaign stands for.
3. Always keep your channel fresh by posting updated content on a regular and consistent basis. Once you are able to produce a regular audience base, they will visit your channel from time to time. If they visit and find new content, they will be enticed to look out for your videos in the future. They might even share it to other friends or contacts! However, if every time they visit, they find the same old and idle content, then they will assume that the company went bust and is no longer active.
4. Focus on content. The content and quality of your video is the most essential factor in your video marketing campaign. If you can get enough traffic and views on your video, it is useless if people are not compelled by the content as you cannot generate the response you want from them.
5. Use the right keywords to promote your video. Make sure to include the appropriate keywords in the title, content, and tags for the video. This will make it easier for web users to find your video and also to be ranked in popular search engines.
6. Allow feedback mechanism on your videos. When you set up an account on YouTube or any other video sharing site for that matter, make sure to allow other users to comment on your videos to keep it interactive. Also, make sure to include sharing buttons to make it easier for users to spread the word about your video. This is also one way for a video to quickly become viral. It is also one way to build relationships with people in your network.
7. Leverage the use of social networking sites to increase views on your video and traffic to your site. Focus on building a community and use your video as a means to offer something of value to that community.
8. Do not limit yourself to YouTube. Although this is the most highly trafficked video sharing site on the web, there are several other options on the web such as Vimeo, Dailymotion, or Viddler. Explore these other sites, too, so you can increase the number of traffic coming in.

According to a survey conducted by the Online Publishers Association or OPA, 70% of web users prefer video content over text-based ones. In addition, more than half of them (52% out of the 70%) took action based on what they saw from the video. These are compelling evidences that link video marketing to more internet marketing success. Hence, if you follow the video marketing secrets to success listed above, you can expect to see results from your campaign.

Online marketing is a LOT of work. There are three types of businesses that opt to hire an online marketing firm to perform their own business promotion and advertising on the web: beginners, experts, and those who hate doing the online marketing. Majority of those who hire a firm to do their online marketing belong to the third group.

However, there is no need to worry as there are several choices of online marketing firms that you can hire for professional results. But while the number of options is a good thing, it can also be overwhelming at times. It is important for online business owners to determine what to look for in online marketing firm. Here are some points to include in your checklist so you know what to look for…

Look for a firm that employs effective internet marketing techniques. Your SEO firm must use a combination of techniques that will generate traffic to your website. Some of these techniques include copywriting, article marketing, link building, and page optimization. Make sure to inquire into the methods used by the online marketing firm to reinforce their image as a results-oriented company.

Look for a firm that rank high on top search engines. Before you evaluate a firm’s business portfolio, start with their own website first. Look at how high they place on the leading search engines. If their own website can’t place high enough on the search engine results page, then how can they promise a high ranking for your site? Use your common sense when evaluating your options using this particular point.

Look for a firm that offers customized internet marketing solutions. An internet marketing company must be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of its customers because there is no one-way approach to successful internet marketing. They must be able to combine traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies to ensure that the client gets maximum result.

Look for well reputed and legitimate marketing firms on the web. Ethics should be one of your top priorities when searching for the right online marketing firm for your business. Ask questions about the process used by the firm to promote your business and make sure it coincides with your own ethical considerations. Also, perform a thorough background check on the company to ensure that it is legitimate and well reputed.

Look for a firm that constantly updates its technology and skills. The world of internet marketing is always evolving and the algorithms of leading search engines constantly change, as well. Thus, you must choose a firm that is dedicated in offering the best services by ensuring that their skills and technology are updated, such that their clients can stay competitive as well.

Look for a firm that teaches you how to monitor the progress of your business’ marketing campaign. Another quality to look for in online marketing firm is their willingness to help your business succeed. One example of that is to teach clients how to monitor the progress of their marketing campaign. The results from the monitoring report will be used to evaluate the current marketing campaign and see where they can be improved.

Look for a firm that offers good and reasonable pricing. The cost of hiring an online marketing firm is a practical consideration. Thus, you need to look at the pricing offered by a firm. Do not simply go for the cheapest service provider as it may compromise your site’s ability to get ranked and compete. Look at their methods and your own budget to see if both ends meet.

Use the above pointers when trying to determine what to look for in online marketing firm. It will help you narrow down your choices to ensure that you can find the most qualified company for the job.

If you are fond of traveling and is just too lazy to visit the official website of your favorite airlines then you might want to install Cebu Pacific Flights extension in your Google Chrome browser. Yes! You heard me right, Google Chrome now has a plugin/extension that will let you book a flight without having to visit Cebu Pacific’s website, convenient isn’t it? Just download the plugin here and install it. After installing the plugin, you will see the official logo of Cebu Pacific in the right most of the address bar. Just click on the logo then start booking your next flight!

These are the four big reasons as to when you must decide to hire a content writer. Let’s face the truth, writing is difficult and you can’t shoulder all its pressures once you are an online entrepreneur. It’s also not enough to have an appealing website. A well-optimized website should have interesting blog posts and factual articles.

In this case, it’s simply the right timing to outsource a content writer. You see, you should hire a writer when the load is too heavy to handle. There’s no enough time for you to write a 500-word article when you are already busy monitoring your sales.

Let me enumerate to you the other reasons. You should hire a writer:

When you want an article and a press release that are written professionally.

It is expected from a content writer to write with correct usage, with good grammar and with nice choice of words. The writers’ imagination is vast. You can take advantage of it by hiring them and request them to squeeze their creative juices for your online success.

When you seek speedy productivity.

Content writers are trained to write as many articles as they can without sacrificing the substance and the quality. The article’s substance heavily relies on what and how the writer delivers his message. The quality refers to the level of superiority of an article if compared to the others. These content writers are also taught how to spin and rewrite an existing article using {|} and bullets to make the article 60% brand new.

When you want a well-optimized blog.

Every online entrepreneur must have a blog. The blog is their playground to become popular and credible online. But in reality, a blog is not the place for bursting emotions. As an entrepreneur, your blog must look professional. Content writers are also keen bloggers and they know how to create a post that will attract anybody’s attention and that can be well-optimized in search engines. Content writers are experts in this field and they write posts that are keyword-bounded but still, it’s still interesting to read. The keywords are the content writer’s best buddy.

The modern state of technology has allowed people to communicate anywhere on the planet inexpensively. This is one of the reasons why businesses choose to outsource their technical support to another country.

Outsourcing technical support has been a trend in most multinational companies today. Here are some reasons why:

Increase in call volumes

Unpredictable changes in call volumes are often hard to plan and access. This is common with companies manufacturing computer hardware or software. Calls often queue up for customers who need help with installation or troubleshooting. Companies need to outsource to call center manpower providers to accommodate this area.

Focus on Core Functions of Business

Outsourcing your technical support to third party providers allow you to focus on the major functions of your business. Providers have the workforce of professional and skilled team dedicated to handle technical support aspects without compromising customer service.

Save Cost

Heavy investment on infrastructure is one of the dilemmas of multinational companies in the struggling world economy. However, outsourcing technical support, especially in cheap labor countries will allow you to obtain significant savings, in comparison to hiring staff in developed countries.

Customer Service Expertise

Many offshore outsourcing providers have trained personnel for world class customer service. Product support representatives are properly trained to familiarize the function of your company brand in order to deliver accurately on the demands of your clients.

Allows New Program Testing

Outsourcing providers allows partners easily test new programs and products that can be used in representing the technical support in an inexpensive way, before investing on training employees for your outsourced function.

Whichever way you view it, outsourcing technical support offshore may stay in trend for a long time, as more and more outsourcing providers are continuing to develop their services to gain more clients in the future.

What is Social Media Website?

Social Media Websites are a distinct type of publishing sites that primarily use web-based technologies. Its main purpose is to change media talk into social discussion. These websites support the freedom of knowledge and information. Wikipedia reveals social media website aims to “transform people from content consumers to content producers.”

Ten 10 Secrets you must put in mind to expand your online business using media sites:

1. The first top secret is: Understand how each of these social media sites work. There are hundreds of them in the web and not all have similar features.
2. This is fact: Not all social media sites are good for your business. You only need to choose the bests among the rest.
3. Take time to learn the numerous tools that frame the social media world such as blogging, podcasting, creating viral videos and RSS feeds, designing your widgets and wikis.
4. Important: There is no need to use them all. Be patient in experimenting until you get the very best.
5. Your objective behind social media-ing is to stay on the field and socialize with a group of people with similar interests as yours. Talking to them regularly is the key.
6. This is the type of activity that requires time and a number of resources.
7. Don’t stay at one place. Explore around and search where your audience is. Let the people know who you are.
8. You must learn to understand your audience’s likes and dislikes. Create realistic goals to inspire them.
9. Choose those social media sites, which you believe will work hand-in-hand with your goals.
10. Never treat your social media sites as your only channel for marketing. If possible and it will be more productive if you always look for other ways to advertise your niche. There are several ways of online advertising and social media is simply one of them. Study and never stop learning!

If you cannot decide whether to build the website yourself or hire a professional then this article should help you. First of all you need to ask yourself whether you are a computer person. If not, then do you think you have the interest and eyes for design. Ok if you have asked no to both of these questions then you probably should hire a professional web designer.

There are many benefits. If you are planning to build just one website then it will most likely cost you less by hiring a professional. Why? Because the time you will need to spend in educating yourself on building a website will be days, if not weeks. Even then, you probably still cannot produce the kind of quality that a professional can, simply because they’ve practicing it for years. If you like doing math you can times the number of hours you think it will take you by your current hourly rate. For example, if your hourly rate is 60 dollar per hour and you think it will take you 50 hours, including learning time, then the total cost would be 3000 dollars.

Having done the math you can now see how expensive it REALLY is if you do it yourself. Depending on your budget but you certainly don’t have to go to the big web design companies in order to get professional results. You can easily get a professional web design for one third of this cost. And the end result will most likely be much better. If you’re lucky you might be able to get the web designer to do the logo, business cards and flyers for a bit extra. It’s always better to use the same person for as many things as possible. This way you can bargain with him/her. Some nice people will even do them for free and hoping you will do business with them again. So it’s definitely something to keep in mind and don’t be afraid to ask. You will find that there are many nice people out there still

Anyone having a car or wish to have a car will be very concerned about the insurance policies, best plans, availability of loans etc. Approaching several people to get advised on a topic will be a harder task to many. What if all those questions are answered at a single point? FancyAcar is such a single stop solution.

It doesn’t matter what you are looking for, you will find solutions here. If you are confused about the best insurance plan available at the market or the perfect insurance plan for your drivers, you shall be supported by fancyAcar. The same will be applicable if you are in need of some money to maintain your luxury car or if you are a student who is wondered to find a car loan for students. That is what makes this site accepted among the public.

The site which was started once as a learning project by a university student was later becoming a free information hub for the public, to have any info related to car. Almost all types of questions related to car – from buying to selling to repairing – are covered in the site. As the whole stuff is free to access by the public, facyAcar makes a real difference when compared with similar sites.

Many people are making use of the site to learn a lot when it is about driving, auto parts, auto insurance, maintenance or marketing tips etc. This widespread acceptance is what makes the author keep adding newer stuff each day.

]]> http://www.meldalmacio.com/fancyacar-one-stop-solution-for-car-insurance/feed/ 2 http://www.meldalmacio.com/advantage-of-twitter-in-business/ http://www.meldalmacio.com/advantage-of-twitter-in-business/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:22:12 +0000 dblogger http://www.meldalmacio.com/?p=433

Business owners are constantly seeking for means to be able to advertise their products or services in a cheaper price. Marketing and promotion can cost several hundred of dollars, for large companies this is not an issue at all but for some companies who are just starting out to make its mark in the business scene, this cost can hurt them in so many ways. In the corporate world, it has become a pre-requisite that each company must have a well thought marketing and promotion strategies to be able stay ahead of their competitors but since not all companies can afford the high cost of advertising, several small and medium enterprises have shut down because they were not able compete against the business giants.

When Web 2.0 came to life, it gave a new hope to small and medium business owners to be able to market their products or services in a much cheaper price. Entrepreneurs are quick to take advantage of the presence of social media sites and micro blogging communities. With these micro blogging communities, businessmen can now promote their services and products without spending a fortune.

Twitter is one of most heavily used micro blogging communities these days. So you might want to ask what is it with Twitter that businessmen are depending on it heavily in terms of promoting their services or products. The answer is quite easy; it is free and very effective. Companies who want to use Twitter only need to have an Internet connection and someone who is adept in using the World Wide Web. Once already a member, one can start promoting their services or products by simply providing updates every minute of every day. Each member is given a maximum of 140 characters to write what’s new in their business. To be able to maximize the advantage of Twitter, one must follow other Twitter users that shared the same niche with them and also the more followers the better. Following members that shared the same interest is important because these are people who are always interested to find out something new and fresh news that are relevant to theirs. Aside from the fact that Twitter is free, it also allows business to have a wider range of target audience because of its global reach.

It is true that marketing and promotion is vital to the success of the business but it does not always have to be expensive. So why get stuck with the traditional and expensive marketing strategies when there are so many alternatives waiting to be taken advantage of?