With everyone having more email than they can handle, doesn’t it make more sense to try something different?

No.

Email is the primary source of information and communication, and it is going to stay that way. If you’re concerned that your emails might get lost in the shuffle of all of the forwards that a person receives, here’s 8 powerful reasons why email marketing makes a difference for readers and for companies.

• It’s cheap – When you set up email marketing, you don’t have to spend any money if you’re willing to put in the time to send the emails yourself. In fact, many people will spend nothing at all to create their first email campaigns. Sometimes, it only takes one campaign to make money and then you can pay someone else to do the work for you, which is still a bargain.

• It’s easy – Whether you use templates or not, email marketing is easy. And how can you believe that? Look at all of the email marketing messages that you get in your email box right now. Those messages are from the mailing lists that you’ve signed up for because you were persuaded to do so by someone who might have felt just as clueless about where to begin.

• It’s fast – If you have a product that you want to launch within a month because it’s already ready for the audience, you don’t have to wait for the email marketing campaign to be ready. It can be ready in just a few days with the help of templates and a clear plan of attack.

• It’s effective – Think right now about how many mailing lists you’ve signed up for; it’s probably more than one. And of those mailing lists, you’ve bought products from the sender. Email marketing is effective. When you use this marketing strategy to focus on one product, it can be even more beneficial to your profit goals.

• It’s directed – You can use email marketing to create a focused strategy. In the case of product launches, you’re focusing on one product or one package, which is easier to sell than trying to market an entire store of products.

• It’s voluntary – Voluntary unsubscribe features at the end of your marketing emails make these campaigns something that the customer either reads or doesn’t read. Plus, since the subscriber made the decision in the first place to receive the emails, you still have the power since he/she is already interested and he/she can’t blame you for ‘making’ him/her sign up.

• It’s a conversation – Keeping in contact with your audience helps you to create a dialogue. Whether you send out a message or a newsletter, the more that you engage your reader, the more memorable you become in a sea of junk email.

• It’s a reminder – You can also create a system that allows the reader to remember what’s coming up, what you’ve done in the past, etc. The more visible that you are in an email box, the more likely that the reader will find out more about what you do and how it might help them.

Email marketing, especially for product launches, is essential for your long-term business strategy. Plus, since your competition is already doing it, why are you waiting?

In the first section of this 2 part series, we explored the nature of why many network marketing and MLM companies are setting you up for massive failure from the get-go. I’m not reviewing this statistic or trying to say this company and or that company is better for you, rather, I’m implying that if The Direct Selling Association is saying that a company representative can effectively work with 2.8 distribution channels over a lifetime, then why would you partner yourself with a company that goes against what the “average person” has been proven to profit from?

We also spoke about the horrific attributes of horizontal marketing. Once you understand the “woes” of the ways of conventional thinking, you’ll never view business the same again. I don’t claim to be the end-all-be-all or know-it-all, I simply enjoy being an informational vessel that has worked long and hard to acquire the necessary knowledge to lead prominent leaders.

The last point from part #1 of this 2 part series was that multi-level marketing (MLM) compounds the negative and ill-effects of horizontal marketing. The reason I said that you’ve bought into a roller-coaster ride is directly aimed at how the rigorous recruiting is never-ending for network marketing and MLM professionals.

It’s PROVEN that 97% of network marketers and MLM business builders spend more money than they make in their careers. Although I’m an advocate for the direct marketing industry, I want to share JR’s vision about why the Market America (MA) business plan is radically different from ANYTHING ELSE on the open market.

In building an UnFranchise® there are 4 logistical factors that must be considered when partaking in the process of doing your due diligence? You should know these differentiators if you aspire to learn more about being on the edge of ‘cutting edge’ in today’s economy.

When you personally sell a product in MA, everyone on the team can also get paid.
If a person sells a product, they can share 100% of the sale with their team.
UnFranchise® owners can open multiple locations. Some say, the MA business and the Market America business plan it capped – it’s not, and actually, you can pay your partners again for the same volume. This one strategy is completely earth-shattering and doesn’t exist anywhere!
When a product is sold, there is a 2x paying of self, plus everyone else benefits.
These 4 Market America business plan principles are the “game changers” for anybody that evaluates the Market America UnFranchise® business opportunity. The technology, people power and vast vision to surpass amazon.com in the next 3 years are present – so watch out world, there’s a new “big fish” online!

When a small business hires an online marketing firm to increase website traffic there are expectations. Most small business owners want to increase sales and get the telephone ringing. Online marketing should increase overall business.

The ROI in online marketing is more easily and accurately measured than print, radio, television and direct mail. Web analytics software allows for measurement of daily traffic to a website. Every move a visitor makes on a website will be recorded on this type of software.

Google Analytics is free to use and easy to install. There are other website analytics programs that are more sophisticated which can be purchased for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For most service-based businesses, Google Analytics is sufficient. Product based companies running an e-commerce website may want to invest in more sophisticated analytics programs.

Measuring Visitation to a Website
Analyzing website traffic is a reliable method of measuring the success of an online marketing campaign. Before a search engine marketing firm begins an online campaign, traffic levels should be measured on the website in order to obtain a baseline for comparison. Traffic increases can be measured on an ongoing quarterly or monthly basis, and should occur within the first 1-3 months of a campaign. Allow three months to pass before looking at figures closely. If possible, compare this 3-month period to the previous 3 months. Google Analytics breaks down traffic into three categories: direct, referral and search engine traffic. Any good search engine marketing firm will be looking to increase organic search engine traffic and referral traffic. Look closely at these numbers. Direct traffic can often be the result of a print, radio, or television campaign, so it may be best to keep these increases separate.

Quality of Traffic: Interested in Product or Service
The traffic that is being driven to the website should be interested in purchasing products or services. Interest is gauged by the amount of time visitors spend on a website and the number of pages they dig into. If visitors are only staying for less than a minute and leaving once the home page is viewed, they are more than likely not interested in the product or service. Or, the visitors may be frustrated by a website that is not easy to navigate or has functional problems. Consider adjusting the web page layout or improving functionality to be more effective. Test the functionality of forms, audios, videos, downloads, etc. to be certain the visitor is not frustrated when using the website.

Measuring Landing Page Effectiveness and Optimization
A landing page is the place a visitor will ‘land’ as a result of a search or referral from another website. Some search engine marketing firms build a landing page that is separate from the website for more accurate measurement of the results of their campaigns. Some SEO companies simply drive traffic to the home page of a website and measure visitation increases through the main website. The page where visitors land is important. Look closely at analytics to determine if visitors are staying and going deeper into the site. If visitors are abandoning this page, consider making design enhancements that will increase online conversions. Take a closer look at content and revise with call to action text and graphics to increase sales. Make sure that links to contact us or quote pages are embedded in web page text and that these menu items are easily accessible from the landing page.

Build Funnels to Contact Us Forms
Most search engine marketing firms will want to show a definite increase in sales or leads. The way to measure this increase is to build a funnel to the contact us or quote page and measure the amount of visitors who complete these forms. If funnels are built for the campaign, it will be easier to determine a ROI for the campaign. Website visitors who take the time to fill out forms are definitely interested in purchasing products or services. In the case of service-based companies, these leads can then be converted to sales. For product based sites, build funnels to product pages that are being promoted with the search engine marketing campaign. For E-commerce websites, the effectiveness of a campaign is measured by an increase in product sales.

Phone Call Inquiries About Products or Services
For many entrepreneurs and small businesses promoting their services or products online, telephone inquiries are a good way to measure effectiveness of a campaign. If a visitor takes the time to make a phone call, they are definitely a hot lead and interested in purchasing. Make sure that the company phone number is listed prominently on landing pages and contact us pages so the visitor is encouraged to call. Though phone calls are one way of measuring a campaign’s effectiveness, remember that many leads will come through the contact form. People who purchase goods or services through the Web often do this to save time and are not interested in speaking on the telephone. For this reason, sales staff should be well versed in responding to leads with effective, call to action emails.

Website analytics are a wonderful way to measure the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign. Most small business owners will not be familiar with how to read a web analytics report, so be certain that the search engine marketing firm provides accurate interpretation of traffic figures. Measure the effectiveness of a campaign over the course of several months, instead of several weeks. Try to look at traffic figures the first week of every month, after search engines have completed their end of the month ‘crawl.’

Online marketing is an effective way to increase sales and raise a brand’s visibility online. If the search engine marketing company is not providing the kind of measurement discussed in this article, it may be time to look for a new SEO company.

Your cellphone knows where you are. It is tracking your every move, accumulating mountains of data about where you go, and when you go there.

We all know about sites like Foursquare, which make a game out of the GPS systems embedded into the phones of players. However, did you know that your cellphone may be tracking your movements without your permission?

This is the basis of a recent lawsuit filed by a pair of Android phone users. The two Michigan residents claim that Google has been surreptitiously recording the movements of Android users without their consent.

Apple is also facing questions over tracking the whereabouts of iPhone users without them ever knowing.

What could this information be used for? Smartphones are already being leveraged by law enforcement to identify, track, and arrest suspected criminals.

What about marketing? Could Google and Apple be collecting this ocean of data to later sell as marketing demographic information? Many corporations would pay big bucks to know, for example, the weekend shopping patterns of women in Atlanta who are between the ages of 18 to 34.

Obtaining that sort of market data would allow companies to hit those markets with targeted messages, thereby greatly increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of their efforts.

The recently-filed lawsuits make it very unlikely that this market data utopia (nightmare?) will ever become reality. However, sophisticated marketers already have high-impact (and legal) tools to help companies directly address core target markets efficiently and effectively.

One of those tools is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). An effective Search Engine Marketing strategy encompasses all the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and a slew of others. The most relevant consumers are targeted while they’re at the heart of their buying cycle.

Pay-Per-Click ads are one potential Search Engine Marketing strategy. These ads prominently display a company’s website when a consumer is actively searching for their products or services. Industry-specific key terms and geographic landmarks are incorporated into the search terms of each campaign. Ads are only served in the geographic target areas that are most relevant to the advertiser.

The best part of a pay-per-click campaign is you only pay when a searcher who is looking for your products and services, in your geographical target area, visits your website and interacts with your message. So in essence it is like a yellow page ad that you only pay for when someone is searching for your service and interacting with your company, only it isn’t a small ad in a big yellow book, it is your website with a wealth of information about your products and services.

SEM awareness-building tools like Online Display Advertising can also be highly effective and efficient marketing tools. Online Display Advertising strategies allow small and mid-sized businesses to have a local presence on nationally- recognized websites including ESPN, CNN, Facebook, Yahoo and hundreds more.

Like Pay-Per-Click strategies, the goal is to directly address the most relevant target audience. The ability to target geographically, behaviorally and contextually allows our clients to communicate to and build awareness with those consumers who are most likely to purchase their products or services.

Well-run SEM campaigns also make use of a re-marketing strategy (using cookies) that recognizes when your website is visited by a specific computer. When that cookie is placed on the visitor’s computer, they will be presented with a display ad several more times throughout the month, reinforcing the message of the products and services that they have researched previously.

Bill Zaferopolos is Director of Business Development for The Website Marketing Agency.

“These search engine marketing strategies have proven to be very successful for our clients, in large part because of how the consumer is targeted and tracked,” Zaferopolos said. “This allows companies to present their message to those consumers who are most likely to purchase their products and services.”

In combination with the growing prevalence of online product research, these highly efficient and effective tools are why more traditional advertising mediums are eroding, and in turn trying to catch up with online advertising options.