Word of Mouth is the most powerful form of advertising as consumers trust the opinion of a friend or stranger rather than official advertising. So with that in mind, innovative marketers should be promoting and channeling the positive feedback they receive about their brand online.

In the Pillars of Business Success, Tony Gattari tells the story of a young man, Matt, who took over the family business. Matt followed his father’s method for running the business and could not understand why in 3 years it was coming to a halt. Instead of finding new ways to fix the new problems that were arising, Matt blamed everything that was outside of his control. A few weeks later, Matt placed an advertisement in the local paper, which returned some business. However, he soon gave up. Tony Gattari resembles this to an archer. If an archer only shot one arrow, how can he expect to win the tournament?

In comparison, Gerry Harvey, Managing Director of Harvey Norman was a marketing genius. He said, “When times are tough, market your way out of it.”

Tony Gattari says, “During the tough times a lot of businesses wind back spending, or stop marketing altogether. Gerry Harvey introduced the 24 months interest free, and advertisements were found in many different mediums. This made Harvey Norman one of the largest retailers in Australia because they never gave up.”

2009 will bring smaller marketing budgets and companies will begin to reach their target audience in more cost effective ways. More direct marketing, where the sales benefits are easy to see, will be more popular marketing trends.

The average Australian now spends 13.7 hours a week online as opposed to 13.3 hours watching television (AC Nielson March 08)

By investing in a website for your company, which allows your customers to provide feedback is a great step for any business that wants to keep abreast of the new marketing trends for 2009.

Economic Crisis – Don’t Stop Marketing is a post from: OE Design Blog

More and more people are researching and shopping online which is why forward thinking companies are getting on the advertising bandwagon.

Read the full article: Online Advertising Set For Continued Solid Growth in 2008-2009

Online Advertising Set For Continued Solid Growth in 2008-2009 is a post from: OE Design Blog

• What are you selling online?
• What could you be selling online?
• What should you be selling online?

Those are probably painful questions for you because your Web site’s not too good, not user friendly, not sales friendly, and contains little more than your silly announcements, and your “self-talk.”

Here’s the test: Click on every page of your Website and print out any page that you think is valuable to your customer. Not information about you or your shipping terms or your business hours — I’m talking about things that your customer will profit from, and benefit from, in terms of them. The more value there is, the more they may want to buy something from you.

CHALLENGE: Click on every page of your Website that has something to sell. Would you buy? Have you tried to buy? How easy is it? Have you called customers that have bought from your site?

WHEW!: Take heart, your competition’s Website is probably as equally crappy as yours.

UH OH!: But if it isn’t, you’re in trouble.

FINAL ANSWER: Three key words: Make it easy. Three more key words: Make it fun. Three more key words: Make it attractive. Three more key words: Build customer value. Three more key words: Take credit cards. Three more key words: Save e-mail addresses. Three more key words: Have weekly specials. Three more key words: Do it now.

———————–

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Sales Answers. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com (C) 2006 All Rights Reserved

What Can I Do To My Website To Entice My Customers To Buy From Me? is a post from: OE Design Blog

People want to be educated about what they’re buying before they’ll part with their money. If you can do that as a business for your potential customers, by allowing them to view your products or services in the comfort of their own home, you are miles ahead of your competition.

But are people buying goods Online? The answer is a resounding YES!

Figures released by Comscore Networks show that the big winners so far this year are: Event Tickets – up 50%, Consumer Electronics – up 43%, Sports and Fitness – up 41% and Apparel and Accessories – up 38%
Total online spending for 2005, including travel, eclipsed 143 billion dollars, which represented an increase of 22% on 2004.

So where does that leave us? Well, there is a world of business out there that is ready and waiting for you and me to pursue. But how are we going to tap into this market?

I believe it’s going to take a two-fold process.

Firstly, EDUCATION. You and I must become more and more educated about the Internet. We’re going to have to learn how we can effectively market our goods and services this way.

Secondly, TOOLS. We must discover and learn how to use the software that will allow us to effectively use the Internet. It’s time to work smarter, not harder.

One of the first steps that I took when first stepping into the online world was that I started to learn, along with my 12-year-old son and my 14-year-old daughter, HTML. I actually paid my children to learn this computer language. Do you think they were highly motivated? You bet! To me it was such an important investment, both for them and for the future of my business and their own businesses. We learnt how to take charge of the Websites that had previously been prepared by others. We also decided to take greater control of our business by learning how to redesign them and create other more productive sites. OE Design – The Web Designers is now the result of those first tentative steps that we took.

But finally, the two major keys that will set you apart from your competition in THE BIG ONLINE SPEND revolution will be the EDUCATION you get and the TOOLS you use. Combine those with action and you’re on the road to astounding success.

For more information about how you can use the power of the Internet to grow your business online go to www.oe-design.com/. Keep in touch with the latest developments on the Internet and in sales and marketing in general by subscribing to our free ‘OE Design Web Tips Newsletter’ at www.oe-design.com. Peter Sinclair is the CEO of OE Design – The Web Designers.

Online Spenders Are A Girl’s Best Friend – Peter Sinclair is a post from: OE Design Blog