The Mobile Marketing Tidal Wave, Zero Competition, Just Send a Few Text Messages and Cash In

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Did you know that over 260 million Americans carry mobile phones? That’s over 85% of the whole of the country’s population. Did you also know that there are 5+ billion active mobile phones in the world right now? This number is growing rapidly, and as we all know there are over 300,000 android phones selling per day right now. It has also been estimated that in 2012, 9 trillion messages will be sent and delivered globally.

Now here’s another nifty fact. Text messaging alone has a 7 to 8 times higher open rate than email. The open rate for text messages is a whopping 97% open rate, compared to email, which is only 20%. When you get a text message, what is the first thing that you’re going to do? Read it, right? But do you open all your email messages that come into your inbox, or do you delete a whole chunk thinking that it’s spam? The speed of which a text message is opened is also usually much faster than that of email, occurring in the first few minutes, as opposed to an email, which might take a few days to read, if opened at all.

How Businesses Win With Mobile Marketing

Keeping all of the above in mind, the timing is ripe for SME’s to start to take advantage of the multi-trillion dollar mobile market. Why? Because businesses can no longer effectively update customers through email marketing. Email inboxes of customers are getting spammed by all types of services, that customers no longer have the appetite to sift through their emails one by one. But, as we know (at least in the next few years), practically all new messages sent to mobiles are opened and read, and most are opened within the first few seconds too.

Method For Profit

Let’s take the example of a restaurant:

1) Restaurant signs up to a text messaging service, and obtains a short code for the service – this means that whenever a customer texts the short code to a specific number, they subscribe for text coupons.

The person who gets all the answers correctly is given prizes. Since prizes are involved the public tends to participate and are much more interested hence the company is able to reach out to them.

SMS marketing is another technique that is being actively employed by marketers. It is found that many small businesses in comparison to big businesses have benefited from employing this technique. In this technique short messages are sent to the public explaining about their company’s products. Marketers are trying to reach out to as many people as possible hence SMS marketing plays an important role in bringing up the sales.

The latest trend that is being observed in the business world is integration of social media and mobile marketing. Many marketers have found this technique to be extremely profitable and are working to enhance the features of this marketing technique to make it even more efficient. Usage of social websites for marketing has its own advantages such as free promotion of products and publicity for the company.

According to a news brief by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the next year will see a boom in mobile marketing as more businesses use advertising strategies that fully incorporate text messaging and other SMS techniques. Additionally, the majority of those businesses are already using mobile to increase their advertising budgets over the same twelve-month period.

Is Your Phone Part Of Your Marketing Plan

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Attracting new clients in this economy can be a challenge. You need to get creative and adapt the way you promote yourself.

Here are a few simple strategies that you can implement and integrate in your marketing plan today. There is a tool that lots of small business neglect. It is just right there on your desk, but you may not think about it or and you may even be afraid of it.

What is this tool, I am talking about? Your phone. Yes, your phone is a powerful tool that you could use effectively to attract new clients.

In 1998 I started a telemarketing company in France and I was spending 6 to 7 hours on the phone, selling my clients products or setting up appointments for them. I know that calling prospects is not very fun, but I am not speaking of cold calling here. I don’t want you to buy lists of potentials clients and speak to total strangers. I am talking of integrating your phone as part of your follow-up system. You will contact only people that you already met at networking events or online via social media.

Let’s say that you attend networking events on a regular basis, you probably have tons of business cards on your selves or on a shoes box, and are just not doing anything with them. Go back to this pile of business cards, send an email to reintroduce yourself. Use your normal introduction about your services and ask those people what you can do for them or how you can help them. If you get a response, instead of emailing the person back, pick up the phone and call them. You already spoke with the person or met them online. It impresses people that you take the time to actually connect one on one. Make sure you are not trying to sell them anything, that is the tricky part, give them free and valuable information that could help their business. Networking is not about you, it is about them. Networking is not about selling but building a relationship.

If people don’t reply to your first email, don’t be mad, it doesn’t means they are not interested right this minute or they haven’t read your email yet, or maybe it went to spam, or they maybe too busy at the moment. There is no reason to fret. There are a thousand reasons people don’t get back to you right away. Wait for few days or a couple of weeks and send another email or send them some information by mail. You remember the old way to do business – using the post office, well it still works, but only if you actually use it! Combining email and mail doubles your chance to reach people and double your rate of answers. When you pick up the phone after a couple of exchanges, you will see that you will get a lot more chance to attract clients.

After all this online and print information they have received from you they already know about you and your business. They know you care about their problems and can provide them valuable information, so they will either take the time to speak with you on a spot or if you call at a bad time you will get a chance to schedule a phone appointment to speak with them at a later date.

What about calling your previous clients, they already know and like working with you? Do you have a new product or service that you would like to tell them about? Always remember to list the benefits and describe how your new product will help them. Too many small business owners are too busy selling and marketing that they neglect their current clients. It is much easier to have a client become a repeat client than to get a new client. So check your database, who could you call right now?

I don’t have my telemarketing company anymore but on my French consulting business “My French Network” that I started in the US few years ago, I still use the same techniques. I contact each and every person who contacted me for a free consultation. Starting a business in the US for a foreigner can take months or years, time to find the funds or get all the immigration requirements. I give my clients a call within 3 months of the consultation to make sure they are getting somewhere in their process. Then I give them a call at least every 3 months to get updates on their project. If they are still not ready for my help I may call them every 6 months. In the meantime I keep sending my newsletter, stay on top of their mind and check up via email to keep them interested. When I call they are not surprised; they do not reject my call. They are actually glad to see that I still follow their cases and I am still there to help them; I am still building the relationship.

So pick up your phone NOW.

Call your previous clients; reconnect with the people you met since the beginning of the year. Find out how you can help them. Create a follow-up system to keep in touch with them on a regular basis. Don’t just call once and forget about it. Use software like Act or OutLook Express to set reminders of when to call. Schedule a few hours a week to call your contacts and clients. Try it for the next 30 days, track your results, and then check how many new clients come rolling in. You will be surprised by the results. Integrate the process into your daily marketing plan.

Your own phone can change your business, it is as simple as that.

Creating a follow-up system is an integral part of Power of Networking Secrets. You will discover the step-by-step process to integrate and customize simple, yet effective strategies to put your follow-up system on auto-pilot. You will do the set-up work once then let your system work for you! so you will work once, then your system will work for you.
Check Out here PowerofNetworkingSecrets.com

If you like this article and want more networking tips to attract clients, get my Free Audio “Networking Made Easy” at http://www.powerofnetworkingsecrets.com

Biba F. Pdron, Business & Marketing Consultant, founder of Biba4Network, also knows as “The Connection Queen”, helps solo-entrepreneurs to maximize their networking results and reveal proven strategies to attract more clients and double your business with simple but effective networking system.

Biba is the author of “Start Your Dream Business Today! The Proven 11 Steps to Start and Grow Your Own Business”. And “Power of Networking Secrets” a program teaching you step-by-step how to turn more networking contacts into business boosting clients in 7 simple steps.

A brief introduction of car navigation dvd system

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Car navigation system is a kind of in-vehicle entertainment navigation product integrating satellite gps, car theater, mobile office and entertainment system into one. Car gps system uses advanced navigation technology to provide detailed navigation information that enables you to be handy in the driving process and seize opportunities; convenient mobile office system enables you to handle business at any time and any place, and communication is no longer bounded; in leisure time, the entertainment system allows you to truly experience the shock brought by the car digital audio navigation system.

Years of painstaking research and development integrates a full-featured digital center into one body. Concise cutting-edge technology and traditional wisdom creates a navigation boutique. The car entertainment gps system incorporating new ideas helps you discover new joy, feel the modern life and highlight uniqueness. Farewell to the tired and dull journey and enjoy the driving pleasure ever since!

If you are interested in installing an after market car navigation dvd unit, DVDGPSNAV should be your best choice because they provide warranty for all the products and also good pre-sales and after-sales service.

Before using the car navigation dvd system, be sure to carefully read and fully understand the safety information in order to better understand the entertainment navigation system functions. Please keep this manual for future reference. The navigation features of this product (and the optional reversing camera) only serve as an aid while you are driving and do not mean that you can be distracted or careless while driving.

When initially using this navigation audio system, you will enter the radio screen, press MENU or Back to enter the main menu.

In the main menu interface of the machine, there are a total of 12 main function menu keys, the function of which are as follows:

GPS: Enter the GPS navigation system. Radio: Listen to FM /AM radio programs. SD: Play MP3, pictures, videos and so on. BlueTooth: Enter the Bluetooth function, make or receive calls, play back Bluetooth music DVD: Play DVD, VCD, CD, MP3, MPEG and other discs. USB: Play MP3, pictures, videos and so on. DTV: Broadcast mobile TV. AUX: Connect external input device. Car DVR: Enter the tachograph. IPOD: Enter IPOD media player. IE: Browser function

Note: Do not set the navigation system’s volume too high, otherwise you won’t be able to hear the traffic situation and emergency signal for help from outside the car. For safety reasons, when the vehicle is in motion, you can not operate some features of the system, unless the car is stopped or the automatic stop setting is used.

The Marketing Mind The 3 Phases Of Decision Making While You Are Marketing

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Marketing in business environments employs consumer psychology in order to assist the consumer to identify product and services with fulfillment of individual wants and needs. This is done by recognizing that there are 3 unique phases that are present in every decision made regardless of how trivial. If these phases are handled out of order, or with incorrect emphasis, the marketing results will be reflected in the acceptance of any presentations made.

The 3 phases of decision making are as follows:

1.Cognition

Cognition, in respect to the marketing message, involves the consumer becoming aware of, or actively considering, particular wants and needs due to the stimulus of the message. Usually the marketing message will provoke a particular discomfort in the current situation, or accentuate a realistic opportunity for improvement or growth. The initial marketing process will highlight a need for change.

2. Divergence

Divergence, in respect to the marketing message, involves the consumer considering numerous reasonable alternatives that will potentially address the identified, or accentuated, wants and needs. The divergence phase is a phase of inclusion. Efforts should not be made to exclude any reasonable option at this point. The idea is to take a sincere look at viable options, regardless of preference at this moment. A common mistake is made when a marketer attempts to skip, or minimize, this phase and proceed directly to biased product recommendations.

3. Convergence

And finally convergence, in respect to the marketing message, involves the consumer weighing th pros and cons of each alternative, identified in the divergence phase, in order to logically converge upon a best solution (best versus and ideal). The convergence phase is a phase of exclusion. Efforts should be made, by a professional marketer, to facilitate the convergence upon a best fit solution that makes sense to the consumer. It will only make true sense to the consumer if they work through these 3 phases of the decision process personally and make the ultimate decision on their own with only guidance.

Conclusion:

Any marketing efforts that attempt to circumvent the normal 3 phase decision making process will be interpreted as suspect as it involves manipulation and coercion. Successful marketing results will not be consistent and predictable. This is because the true value of a particular product or service is a matter of perspective. And in the end, the only perspective that really matters belongs to the consumer.

Even if a decision is coerced, or achieved through manipulation, the long term benefits will seldom result in consumer satisfaction, repeat business, long-term relationships, or strong referrals.

Therefore, develop a consistent system that allows for lead generation, prospect qualifying, rapport building, interviewing, verifying, and making intelligent presentations based upon the perspective of the consumer.

Film Marketing How Independent Film Makers Can Promote a Film Costing $15,000 or less!

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Online Film Marketing – and insiders guide!

First of all there are 2 main elements to the marketing of your movie:

1. Offline – major premieres, a film festival, electronic press kits, any real world publicity

2. Online – viral marketing via: email/social networking sites/PR newswires/newsletters/social bookmarking – anything that is an -internet’ based opportunity. Let’s examine how we can use social bookmarking and web2.0 to maximise these opportunities.

Introduction

It goes without saying that different films, types and genres require a different level of approach, however there are some general rules that you can follow to generate high traffic levels on the internet.

Where’s the best place to drive all this traffic? I would suggest perhaps your own movie website is the best place to start, but equally it could be a blog (especially during the early stages of your production and you don’t yet have any imagery) or a Facebook Page, or another website which I’ll talk about later.

Your Movie Website

A domain can be purchased relatively cheaply and it is worth building a site that fits the style of the movie – a horror – clearly must have a different style to a romantic comedy. When building your site you must optimize for search engines and there are some basic rules to remember – and your site must be optimized for what are known as -On-page factors’:

1. Put some written content on the page – Google and other search engines focus heavily on text based content so on your opening page make sure that this is there and available for google to see – it should not be image based, and if you do use images make sure you place your keywords in them! i.e. instead of 1234.jpg call it HorrorMovie.jpg. In this way it is visible to search engines.

2. Keywords – keywords drive traffic to your site and therefore your main keywords should be included in your: title, H1, H2, tags, meta description, (and if you can URL) – use different keywords for each page of your site. Use the keywords early in the description.

3. Do your keyword research – it is no use entering keywords that have a massive amount of competition since it is unlikely that unless you have a huge PR budget and lots of high quality sites linking to you that you will ever really be competitive for these keywords. It is best to use what are known as -long-tail keywords’. Typically this means instead of -Romatic Comedy’ as your keyword, you might choose -Action Flick for Girls’.Targeted and more likely to peak an interest.

4. The order of your keywords matters, make sure you are consistent.

Now these on-page elements, which you are able to control, account for a probably 1/3 of the traffic that will be driven to your site. The rest comes from ‘Off-Page’ elements and these are absolutely crucial to how to drive traffic to your website.

What are off-page factors? Off-page factors are things that are effectively beyond your control. Backlinks – i.e. links from other websites and pages which link directly to your website. Certain websites will have more -authority’ than others and therefore command greater respect from Google and backlinks from these sites will push you up the rankings. However there are ways of doing this yourself and having -influence’ over the search engines.

Here’s what I am going to suggest you do. It will be a pain, and take some time but believe me the benefits are really worth it. We should create accounts on the following websites and then aim to link through to your blog or website:

1. Digg

2. Propeller.com

3. Del.icio.us

4. Mister-wong.com

5. Hubpages – write articles about your film, what is involved in the making of the movie etc.

6. Squidoo – create a -lens’ to talk about your project

7. You Tube – use video to promote your film and drive traffic to your site

8. StumbleUpon

9. Mixx.com

There are of course, some sites which have been left off the list, quite deliberately, and these sites should be used to provide a major source of traffic and promotion to your production:

1. Facebook – the obvious choice since it is easy to invite your friends and get them onboard to follow you, as well as keep them updated with the latest developments on your movie project.

2. Twitter – an awesome way to generate interest in your film to thousands!

(For both of the above see the brilliant Mashable.com for great ways to effectively build a fan base on this platform and it would be impossible for me to add to it – its that good!)

3. One Fat Cigar – a new website for professional and up-and-coming film makers specifically to help them market and promote their productions. It’s good because as soon as you have the idea/script for your project you are able to really promote it from day one, and begin the marketing there and then so that by the time you are finished the production you already have a following. There’s a great networking tool too and it is also possible to cast and crew your project through the site.

So what can you do to build more followers and fans?

1. Content is king – without having a significant amount of high quality content no one will become a fan, and once you have people as fans, they need to be continually updated with new, and more importantly interesting content to keep them engaged.

2. What types of content work?-

a) You’re a film maker – use film content!!! Film the ‘makings of’ as it happens, conduct video blogs of your crew, interview the cast and crew (p.s. release forms!), where are you filming? why? what’s difficult about the next stunt you’re going to pull?

b) Stills photographs – very important! imagery and styling always help promote the movie and give the audience an insight into the production

3. Frequency – Updates 2 or 3 times a week are perfect, it could just be a piece to camera discussing where you are with the production and status updates can be done whenever there is something interesting to say, perhaps 2/3 times per day.

4. Interact – why not get involved with your fan base? ask them questions, talk to them and let them feel like they have direct access to you, the film maker. In this way the tie is an emotional one.

5. Share – recommend other high quality film projects you have been following – your fans will thank you for bringing another exciting production to their attention, which present you as a -cool’ authority and generates trust with your fan base.

6. Be Interesting – do things that are fun, and show the more interesting side of film making – the characters, the challenges, the difficulties in achieving certain shots.

Once you have a fan base you can then drive the fans to do what you want them to – buy your DVD, watch your film in the cinema, check it out at a festival, or even petition a distributor!

(In terms of One Fat Cigar, fans can sign up for free to the site, but you’ll need premium membership to be able to create projects but the membership charge isn’t significant and there are discount opportunities for launch to fans of their Facebook page and 500 free 1 year premium membership available. We think it will certainly be worth a punt!)

What to do once you have set-up your One Fat Cigar Project/Facebook Page/Website

While it is likely that you’re going to pick up a fair few fans by simply having your project up on the site, it is also important to promote your project to the search engines.

1. Use a number of the high authority sites (Digg.com/StumbleUpon etc.) listed above to link to your project on One Fat Cigar, Facebook and Website

2. Use Ping-o-matic.com to ping the address for your particular project

3. Link to your project through Twitter/Facebook and then do status updates every time you post something new on the One Fat Cigar site

4. Use anchor text which focuses on your keywords to link through to your page – i.e. if your keyword is -Psychological Thriller’ use this text to link through to your project page on the One Fat Cigar site, and not the name of your film or the One Fat Cigar site. This makes it easier for your keywords to appear in the search engine listings.

5.Put your One Fat Cigar link, links to your Facebook/Twitter and website out on any press releases you may have – that way the press have access to your material online for viewing.

6. Keep adding content – and don’t forget that your fans will immediately have the opportunity transfer over to your next project and so you’ll begin promotion of your second movie from a running start!

Conclusion

So hopefully that provides a solid basic introduction to film marketing and promoting your film online and will begin to generate interest about your project.So hopefully that provides a solid basic introduction to film marketing and promoting your film online and will begin to generate interest about your project.

Don’t forget you won’t get high in the Google rankings overnight, and you will need to track your progress. You’re not looking for the name of your movie, but you are looking for your competitive keywords. There are various rank tracking tools available to do this.

To search for the best keywords Google provides its own tool to help get you started:

http://www.google.com/sktool/#

Susie Tulllett (former head of DDA’s PR unit in Cannes for over 10 years) guide to Film PR can be found on the One Fat Cigar blog.

Ross Grayle Jones is co-founder of One Fat Cigar.com a movie website for people who love film.