Archive for February, 2012


When you consider your options for conveying your brand image and communicating your marketing messages, what media comes to mind? Websites? Brochures? TV ads and radio spots? In an ever-expanding Web 2.0 world, your marketing content has to find a successful balance to satisfy the needs of human consumers and search engine spiders, making video marketing a critical component in a holistic marketing plan.

Let’s discuss some quick stats in the US provided by comScore, the global leader in digital business analytics, so you understand the potential for marketing with video.

89 million people will watch 1.2 billion videos today. Yes, today. Not for the week, or for the month, or for the year, but every day.

Businesses spent $1.4 billion in video marketing on 441 billion videos in 2010. This number continues to increase.

Video is popular across all age groups. Although 18 – 34 year olds spend the most time watching video, over 80% of the population across all age demographics watches video. So it isn’t just your teen that consumes content on the screen.

Probably the most important statistic of all, comScore reported that on average retail site visitors who view videos are 64% more likely to purchase than other site visitors.

These are 2010 statistics. All predications suggest that these numbers will increase over 2011 and we’ll see continuing positive trends for 2012.

In addition to these thought-provoking stats, here are four additional reasons why video marketing works.

1. When you market with video, you can convey your brand on many levels.

A holistic marketing strategy requires you to utilize varied forms of media because you need to connect with your target audience in a multitude of ways and in various locations. Video is powerful because it can convey a living brand through imagery, sound, and action. Plus, it can capture your market’s reaction which can be an excellent tool for research as well as publishing testimonials. Furthermore, video educates and entertains in a way that is superior to many other forms of marketing. Ultimately, video marketing helps to create a better bond with your audience.

2. You can re-purpose your video content into other marketing collateral.

When you shoot a video, you have multiple components that you can convert into and include in other marketing collateral. You have still and motion imagery; you have an audio track, and you have a transcript. For example, let’s say your business sells software products that format college papers. You decide to shoot a promotional video walking a potential college student through the steps of using one of your products. You could take screen captures from the video and use them in other print and online media. You could take the audio track and upload it to your website or other sites for people who prefer to listen to process. And you could transcribe the audio track into a helpful user guide.

3. Video can be consumed in many different locations and on a variety of devices.

Customers watch DVDs on TVs and on their computers. They watch streaming video on their smartphones. There are video displays in airports, in public transit vehicles, and in retail locations for communicating thousands of marketing messages. Decision makers search for and consume videos online – on Google, YouTube, VEVO, Facebook, on businesses’ websites and on news sites. Displaying video isn’t limited to TV anymore. It’s in many locations, and it’s on the go.

4. Video satisfies the demands of human consumers and search engine spiders.

Although the search engine spiders can’t crawl the content of video, many of the online social video sharing sites like YouTube allow you to add in written content that aids with SEO. This includes keyword rich titles, descriptions, backlinks, and meta tags. And when you consider that YouTube ranks as one of the top three largest search engines, it shows the demand people have for watching videos as a means for entertainment, education, and researching businesses and products.

For more information about how video marketing can help your business attract and convert more customers, go to our Contact Us page, or call us at (410)-366-9479 ext. 2#. 

Dina Wasmer is President of Incite Creative, a marketing and graphic design firm that provides brand-building services for financial services, insurance, education and non-profit industries in Maryland, DC and Virginia. For more information, log onto www.incitecreativeinc.com or contact dina@incitecreativeinc.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/does-video-marketing-work-5624711.html

About the Author

Dina Wasmer is the author of this article on video marketing. Find more information, about marketing strategy here

A proactive business professional analyzes every possible angle of a business situation before making any kind of move. One of the more comprehensive kinds of analysis a business professional would do is a stakeholder analysis. This is where every person who could have influence in the decision-making process is considered and evaluated. Business is a profession built around relationships. The better you understand the relationships of the people you are dealing with to the deal you are trying to make, the better your chances of getting the results you are looking for. A stakeholder analysis matrix allows you to lay out the landscape of a business situation and then analyze the influence that each person will have in the final outcome. This is why it is so important for sales people to become intimately familiar with every person who would have a stake in an important business decision.

The most difficult part of using a stakeholder analysis matrix is in making sure that it is filled out in a comprehensive manner. The business professional can spend months working with a client just to find out who all of the decision makers and stakeholders are in each decision-making process. It can be a tricky process because some companies keep their decision-makers very well protected. The good sales professional finds ways of creating a comprehensive stakeholder profile of each client and then using that profile to help influence the way that business decisions regarding that particular client are made.

Every stakeholder is going to have a different interest in different projects. That is why the stakeholder analysis matrix should be used for every individual business situation. Each sales presentation should have its own matrix as well as contract negotiation processes as well. It is important that the stakeholder analysis be correct, because that is how you decide your approach to each situation. If you have the wrong stakeholder information, then you are probably not going to be able to talk to the right people for your particular project.

A stakeholder analysis matrix will show you who can help push a deal through and who could potentially kill a deal. It will show you whose approval is needed to get the final purchase order and how each of those people actually affects the decision-making process. This can be an invaluable tool in closing important business deals and ensuring that you are always talking to the right contacts at each of your client’s locations.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/stakeholder-analysis-matrix-analyzing-the-players-in-a-business-deal-5592164.html

About the Author

DM Analysts are experts at marketing tools and strategies that get results like Stakeholder Analysis Matrix. To learn more, visit http://www.demandmetric.com today!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could find your ideal clients all in one place? What if they were gathered together for you? That would sure make marketing a heck of a lot easier wouldn’t it? The good news is that this is completely possible!

There are two basic ways to find your ideal clients and both methods work really well.

1. Find ways to pull your ideal clients toward you, inexpensively and in large numbers.

There is something you could offer, whether it’s a special report, a class or workshop you could create that your ideal clients would literally jump for. One important feature, is that whatever you decide on, it should be available free to prospects. This eliminates any monetary barriers that might prevent your ideal prospects from connecting with you. Consider options from this valuable list of freebies:

- CD/audio program
- Special report
- Consultation
- MP3 audio
- Live workshop
- Introductory evening
- “Bonus Day” event
- Sample of your work

Many of these ideas cost very little to produce, but have a tremendous value to your prospects. Free products or programs have amazing appeal, give prospects a taste of your work with no risk, and allow people to get to know you. It’s a great way to build trust which helps you attract the clients you want most.

2. Determine who has already gathered your ideal clients for you.

Think about it this way – your ideal clients have quite a few similarities. They might:

- Earn the same amount of money
- Have the same hobby
- Be in the same age bracket
- Enjoy the same leisure activities
- Do the same job
- Have the same problem
- Have young children or college students

Keeping these parallels in mind, it stands to reason that your target audience congregates in certain places. To make it easier to find them, ask yourself, “Who has already done the work of gathering these folks for me?” What other types of businesses market to the same group of people?

Once you discover businesses that target the same ideal clients, you now have a strong marketing opportunity at your disposal. You can partner with other non-competing professionals in your marketing efforts. See if they’ll promote you to their list for a referral fee, or request referrals from them.

For example, you might coach people going through divorce. Other non-competing professionals who market to this same group include divorce attorneys, financial planners, realtors, life insurance salespeople, and child-care providers, among others. You can start to see the opportunities of getting to know people in these related fields, since you all serve clients going through divorce.

In other words, these professionals have already gathered a group of clients going through divorce that you might be able to leverage once you get to know and trust each other.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Think about what you already have in your marketing arsenal that could be turned into a freebie. Do you have a report or audio that can be repackaged and offered to prospects? If not, what do your ideal clients want that you can easily prepare and offer them?

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/two-simple-ways-to-find-your-ideal-clients-5592862.html

About the Author

Fabienne Fredrickson is founder of ClientAttraction.com, ranked on the Inc. 500/5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2011. ClientAttraction.com is devoted to teaching entrepreneurs around the world how to consistently attract ideal, high-paying clients, put their marketing on autopilot, shift their mindset towards abundance and take a no-excuses approach to creating a highly successful and meaningful business, while working less. Through her workshops, courses, coaching programs, and products, Fabienne shows her students how to go from 5-figures to 6-figures in their business and then from 6-figures to 7-figures, while experiencing freedom and creating an abundant life they love.

To order Fabienne’s FREE Audio CD, “How to Attract All the Clients You Need” by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.clientattraction.com.

In order to ship household goods overseas, you will need to start by assessing how much space you will need. Will you require a full container (FCL) or is it a smaller amount that will need to be loaded in with other cargo as a less than container load (LCL). In a full container, you will be charged a flat rate depending on the size of the container (20′STD, 40STD, 40HC). If it will be an LCL shipment, then your rate will be an amount based on the weight or the measure (kg/m3) of your shipment, whichever is more. Usually you will get a better rate with LCL if you are using a consolidator to help move your cargo. Otherwise this can be much more expensive in comparison.

Either way, your freight shipping quote will be much better shipping by sea than would be by air so you will be better off. You just need to find a company who has well recommended global shipping services as well as cheap international shipping so your quote will be reasonable. After you have determined the size of your shipment, you will need to gather all of the information on your goods so that you can fill out a Valued Packing List. This form will require you to list the inventory you intend to ship including a value for each item. This list is not only required by the shipping line, but it will help you as well in the event that the seal is broken on your container. It is also how customs will determine your duty so it is very important that this information is as exact as possible. If you are filling out a Valued Packing

List, you will not need a Commercial Invoice for this shipment. Whether you ship LCL or FCL it is your responsibility to tightly pack your cargo for shipment. Please also remember that all cargo must be boxed or palletized in order for you to ship LCL. Either way, you will need to completely and safely secure everything that you are shipping so it will not move around in the shipping container. This will not only help you organize your personal effects, but it will help keep your goods from being broken in transit. Although this is possible to do on your own, there are companies who will pack and load your container at additional cost for you if you would prefer. Another document that will be necessary is the bill of lading. If you are using a freight forwarder, you will be issued a House bill of lading based on the Master bill of lading from the steamship line.

These documents will list all of the details of the shipment including origin, destination, weight and a description of the goods (used clothing, used furniture, etc) as well as value of the goods. Depending on where you are shipping to and from, there may be other documents required. Upon reaching your destination, your cargo will be available for pickup at the closest port unless you set up the shipment as a through bill of lading to your new home. Also remember that transit times are not always as quoted. Leave time in your schedule in case your cargo is delayed. Whether stuck with a late arrival of the ship or cargo is set to be inspected by customs, having flexibility built into your schedule the better off you will be.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/tips-for-shipping-household-goods-5596358.html

About the Author

Richard A. Manfredi has written about www.containerquote.com . ContainerQuote.com is a leading freight forwarding company offering affordable freight forwarding services, international freight shipping, and instant freight shipping rates.

Today’s strategy from Fabienne for getting more clients, making more money, leveraging your business and enjoying your time off so you work less is about staying in touch.

I find that a lot of entrepreneurs, people like you and me, once they learn how to put in place a client attraction system, it’s all about getting new prospects, getting new leads. Then when they have the new prospects and the new leads, they just don’t do much with them.

This is why I want you to think about staying in touch because 90% of closing the sale can be about staying in touch and taking that person from interest to paying client.

Some people ask me, “How often do you stay in touch with somebody?” I had a woman ask me many years ago, “How do stay in touch without feeling like a gnat, like always bothering them.” I said, “Well, you stay in touch by adding value, but you also stay in touch by always being on their radar screen.”

Think about some things that you have done in the past that have taken somebody from where they were in their interest level and brought them to paying client level. Write some of these things down. I have a list here that I’ve shared with my Gold clients and Platinum clients several times.

I’m going to share some of these things with you. There are 17 things on my list. I’ll share 3 with you. By the way, these are very simple. A lot of the client attraction systems that are available to you are very simple; it’s just that you haven’t made time to do them or you haven’t created systems around them.

I’m going to share 3 of them to you and I want you to write these down and start implementing them because if you made a list of all of the people who have expressed interest in working with you and are not yet paying clients, there would be quite a few people. You can use some of these strategies to move them forward.

One of the very first ways for you to stay in touch without seeming like you’re trying to get something is just to send them unexpected notes. Send unexpected notes. It could be, “I saw you on Facebook. Congratulations on your award,” or “I saw this article and was thinking about you,” or just a note, any note but in the mail. I think people are too used to getting things by email. How different you would seem from everyone else if they actually received something from you in the mail.

Another thing is actually to send them a little gift. Send somebody something really nice that is personal. It shows that you know about them, that you care about them and it’s not something that everybody is getting, with a little note. Perhaps it’s a book that really resonates with them and you sign something in the beginning. It’s really heartfelt and you mean what you said in the book, then you will be on their radar screen and they’ll really pay attention to you.

Another thing that you can do is to invite a prospect to a talk that you’re giving. They may already know you but they may not have seen you in action. That’s another thing that you can do to move the process along.

The more of these things that you can do on a regular basis, the more it will seem to the prospect that it’s a sign that they should be working with you. In fact it is. If you’re thinking about them and you’re caring for them, then these are absolutely valuable things to be doing in your business.

If you can automate them or systematize them or have a process for this, a verifiable, repeatable process for doing this with many prospects and turning them into paying clients, the better for you.

Your assignment for today is to make a list of all those people who have expressed interest in working with you but haven’t turned into paying clients yet and find some ways to stay in touch regularly.

And your extra credit assignment is creating a system around that because it doesn’t matter what level in business you are. You could be just starting out. This is going to be hugely valuable for you. If you’re already making very good money, the key is to systematize it so that it doesn’t all depend on you.

Pay it forward. Let your friends know and get this client attraction information in as many hands as possible.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/how-to-get-more-clients-by-staying-in-touch-5595499.html

About the Author

Fabienne Fredrickson is founder of ClientAttraction.com, ranked on the Inc. 500/5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2011. ClientAttraction.com is devoted to teaching entrepreneurs around the world how to consistently attract ideal, high-paying clients, put their marketing on autopilot, shift their mindset towards abundance and take a no-excuses approach to creating a highly successful and meaningful business, while working less. Through her workshops, courses, coaching programs, and products, Fabienne shows her students how to go from 5-figures to 6-figures in their business and then from 6-figures to 7-figures, while experiencing freedom and creating an abundant life they love.

To order Fabienne’s FREE Audio CD, “How to Attract All the Clients You Need” by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.clientattraction.com.

Today’s strategy from Fabienne for getting more clients, making more money, leveraging your business and enjoying your time off so you work less is about staying in touch.

I find that a lot of entrepreneurs, people like you and me, once they learn how to put in place a client attraction system, it’s all about getting new prospects, getting new leads. Then when they have the new prospects and the new leads, they just don’t do much with them.

This is why I want you to think about staying in touch because 90% of closing the sale can be about staying in touch and taking that person from interest to paying client.

Some people ask me, “How often do you stay in touch with somebody?” I had a woman ask me many years ago, “How do stay in touch without feeling like a gnat, like always bothering them.” I said, “Well, you stay in touch by adding value, but you also stay in touch by always being on their radar screen.”

Think about some things that you have done in the past that have taken somebody from where they were in their interest level and brought them to paying client level. Write some of these things down. I have a list here that I’ve shared with my Gold clients and Platinum clients several times.

I’m going to share some of these things with you. There are 17 things on my list. I’ll share 3 with you. By the way, these are very simple. A lot of the client attraction systems that are available to you are very simple; it’s just that you haven’t made time to do them or you haven’t created systems around them.

I’m going to share 3 of them to you and I want you to write these down and start implementing them because if you made a list of all of the people who have expressed interest in working with you and are not yet paying clients, there would be quite a few people. You can use some of these strategies to move them forward.

One of the very first ways for you to stay in touch without seeming like you’re trying to get something is just to send them unexpected notes. Send unexpected notes. It could be, “I saw you on Facebook. Congratulations on your award,” or “I saw this article and was thinking about you,” or just a note, any note but in the mail. I think people are too used to getting things by email. How different you would seem from everyone else if they actually received something from you in the mail.

Another thing is actually to send them a little gift. Send somebody something really nice that is personal. It shows that you know about them, that you care about them and it’s not something that everybody is getting, with a little note. Perhaps it’s a book that really resonates with them and you sign something in the beginning. It’s really heartfelt and you mean what you said in the book, then you will be on their radar screen and they’ll really pay attention to you.

Another thing that you can do is to invite a prospect to a talk that you’re giving. They may already know you but they may not have seen you in action. That’s another thing that you can do to move the process along.

The more of these things that you can do on a regular basis, the more it will seem to the prospect that it’s a sign that they should be working with you. In fact it is. If you’re thinking about them and you’re caring for them, then these are absolutely valuable things to be doing in your business.

If you can automate them or systematize them or have a process for this, a verifiable, repeatable process for doing this with many prospects and turning them into paying clients, the better for you.

Your assignment for today is to make a list of all those people who have expressed interest in working with you but haven’t turned into paying clients yet and find some ways to stay in touch regularly.

And your extra credit assignment is creating a system around that because it doesn’t matter what level in business you are. You could be just starting out. This is going to be hugely valuable for you. If you’re already making very good money, the key is to systematize it so that it doesn’t all depend on you.

Pay it forward. Let your friends know and get this client attraction information in as many hands as possible.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/how-to-get-more-clients-by-staying-in-touch-5595499.html

About the Author

Fabienne Fredrickson is founder of ClientAttraction.com, ranked on the Inc. 500/5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2011. ClientAttraction.com is devoted to teaching entrepreneurs around the world how to consistently attract ideal, high-paying clients, put their marketing on autopilot, shift their mindset towards abundance and take a no-excuses approach to creating a highly successful and meaningful business, while working less. Through her workshops, courses, coaching programs, and products, Fabienne shows her students how to go from 5-figures to 6-figures in their business and then from 6-figures to 7-figures, while experiencing freedom and creating an abundant life they love.

To order Fabienne’s FREE Audio CD, “How to Attract All the Clients You Need” by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.clientattraction.com.

Skype is a site where people can connect regardless of the distance apart. With Skype, one can send texts; make voice recordings and videos or chat. This makes it simple for Skype users to share experiences with friends and families wherever they are. This is possible and easy especially with the installation of a Skype call recorder for calls recording or Skype video recorder for videos. Skype videos are fantastic and are of high quality and quite a replica of the real videos with features such as side by side split screen modes.

A Skype call recorder is an innovation that has made calls across the globe affordable, inexpensive and easy. This is the most professional and efficient method of calling as one can also record their session for ones blog or website! For long-distance calls, the recorder has a push button to record a Skype chat or conversation. For real videos Skype video recorder is the way to go. This technique allows one to record video conversations which is a real treasure and one can revisit just incase they need clarification.

Skype video recorder is a program that automatically records one Skype conversations and stores them in local files making references to these videos easy. When installed, this technique is simple and intuitive as if turned on to access the Skype’s client, both active and incoming calls can be recorded simultaneously for later use without one necessarily having to tune on the recorder every now and then.

When having a real conversation on a real phone, the ability to have the call split is only available to very few handsets. For Skype call recorder especially the Mac one, calls are split into separate tracks for both the caller and the one called, making the call resemble a real time conversation; this idea is similar to a podcast! Recording an interview has also been made easy with Skype. Employers can use Skype call recorder to capture call sounds more easily than the regular phone calls and this is great especially when one want to get the specifics of the interview or when remote reporting. This idea is also replicated when one want to record calls side by side on separate sound tracks making it easy for editing.

An addition advantage to using both the Skype call recorder and Skype video recorder is the ease at which one can control their recordings. With this feature, files can be recorded automatically and saved into a folder with the details of the caller’s name and the date the call was done. This feature makes call backs quite easy!

With a Skype video recorder, the Skype calling out and interview procedures are easy. Recorded information is valuable in many ways especially in business deals where they can guard one’s reputation or help ones business grow. With Skype out calling plan, one can also call private handsets and landlines worldwide. This is quite an advantage as calls need not be made only to people connected to the Skype, landlines calls can be made too and the conversations still will be recorded.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/skype-call-recorder-and-skype-video-recorder-5595194.html

About the Author

However, when recording one need beware of the laws and regulations pertaining recording of conversations in the state one is living. Therefore the use of a Skype Call Recorder or Skype video recorder need be done in legal order, one need always confirm if it is allowed or not.