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Direct mail marketing can be a great way for a chiropractic office to develop new customers. The chiropractors can advertise an introductory special and in this way people who have back problems or aches and pains can come in and find out what is going on. It makes sense for new patients to come in for the introductory offer because preventative maintenance ahead of time can usually had off disaster is back problems later.

It behooves chiropractic offices to participate in direct-mail marketing programs by putting their discount coupons into mail out packages. When doing this it also makes sense to include those zip codes within a 25-mile radius in rural areas and a 15-mile radius within the city. Use direct-mail marketing and such discounts?

I would recommend doing it at least four times per year in those zip codes with in that radius, because people do not always opened these discount packages, but sometimes they do. Additionally, there will be new people moving into the area and replacing those people who have moved out of the area. This means a steady stream of new customers coming into the chiropractic clinic to replace the attrition of those people moving out of the area. Please consider all this in 2006.

You started a home-based business.

So why are you spending so much time away from home. . .

Prospecting at your job (if you still have one), the mall, the grocery store, networking groups, church, family gatherings, prospecting at. . STOP ALREADY, JUST STOP IT!!!

There is a better way. The most powerful tool you will ever learn to use in network marketing or direct sales is the telephone. The most powerful fuel for that tool is scripts. Before you can use a script, you need to have prospects, and that is what we will cover now.

First, stop chasing “prospects” that just happen to be in your life – your “warm market”. Not only is that a relief for them, since I know a few of them, they wanted me to tell you that they’d rather be your friend than your business partner. But, don’t you think you will be a little more than humiliated groveling through your warm market only to turn off your closest friends, relatives, and professional business contacts? This can kill you and your business during the first 90 days in business. Forget warm market prospecting because it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

Our personal recommendation: DON’T go to your warm market at all. And if you send your new reps to their warm market (warm market defined as family and friends), who will in turn most likely reject them, causing your new rep to just disappear on you. The Art and Science of Marketing, when executed properly, puts the correct prospect in front of you and are interested in what you have to offer. It’s not about you and your need. Using your relationship through warm market prospecting may damage your relationships permanently.

Second: Get cold, targeted leads for your business’ products and/or services which is who we define as your true warm market, warm to what you actually have to solve a person’s problem, that’s our definition of a warm market and then learn how to use the most powerful tool in your arsenal, the phone. Time after time we’ve seen people bail out of network marketing because they are afraid of the phone. Why? They don’t have a proven script used by hundreds of people before them who have acquired a customer or a rep as a result. When the new rep strikes out in the “make a list of family, friends, and business you do business with” warm market, they feel foolish, and that’s the end of them.

Third: Analyze your product offering and identify the people who have a true need, want, and desire for your product or service the true warm market. This is how you will target your leads. If it was so simple and inexpensive to advertise to get customers, your company could do their own customer gathering without you. However, companies use the “network marketing” business model knowing most representatives will be out of business within 90 days and leave behind an average of 3 customers. Stop doing that.

Fourth, learn how to approach these re-defined warm market prospects through positioning; having people who have a true need want and desire come to you and requesting information. That’s the ideal way to market, right? Large companies brand their product and do traditional advertising such as newspapers, direct mail, radio and TV. However, as an independent rep, small business owner, these options will break your bank account in short order. Until you learn the art of positioning, you cannot put in 20 to 30 reps a week or make 20 to $30k a week targeting this true warm market.

Network marketing and/or direct sales can truly be done from home without hotel meetings and accosting your “warm market” friends, families and strangers. Know what your tools are, know how to use them, and before you know it, your business will take off.

USB flash drives – also often referred to as thumb drives or jump drives – act as reusable portable hard drives. These small units – about the size of a pack of gum – can easily be carried in a pocket, worn around the neck like a necklace or used as a key chain by your clients and prospects. There are even USB flash pens – with the flash drive “hidden” inside the writing utensil.

USB flash drives plug directly into your Universal Serial Bus (USB) port of a computer and are typically built to hold between 64 megabytes and 2 gigabytes of data. The popularity of flash drives have grown significantly over the past several years as storage capacities have increased and USB-enabled computers have become ubiquitous. The popularity and capabilities of flash drives has led to the advent of flash drive marketing.

The use of USB flash drives as effective marketing tools is continuing to evolve for forward thinking marketing professionals.

Custom Flash Drive Marketing Delivers Branded Product To Customers

Thumb drives can be stamped with a company’s logo and as a result, custom logo USB drives have become trade show and convention favorites.

Companies are giving branded custom logo flash drives to key customers and prospects providing them with an instant reminder of your company every time they use the flash drive to transfer files or back up a document. Providing your customers (and potential customers) with a branded custom logo USB flash delivers a great way to market by keeping your brand in front of customers while giving them something of real value they will use over and over.

Flash Drive Marketing Delivers Branded Product With Targeted Messages

Using flash drives as branded giveaways and corporate gifts are just the tip of the marketing iceberg. Savvy marketers are increasingly using the storage capabilities of these compact devices to deliver their message. Flash drives can now be pre-loaded with data, music, video or other content. The devices can also be setup to auto-run a marketing message or load a specific website when inserted into a computer. Customers are able to continue to use the flash drive, storing their data alongside the pre-loaded content. A custom logo USB flash drive that also holds a pre-loaded message or presentation offers companies the benefit of delivering a branded product AND targeted message at the same time.

The concept of delivering your marketing messages via thumb drive was started several years ago when automobile manufacturers provided flash drives pre-loaded with presentations touting the features of their latest models. The idea has caught on – and not just for big companies. Looking for creative and cutting edge ways to stand out from the competition, large, medium, and small sized firms, companies and organizations across a wide range of industries are now looking to flash drive marketing to communicate their messages.

Ways That Organizations Can Utilize Flash Drive Marketing:

o Schools can provide handbooks and required course materials to incoming students via thumb drives featuring school colors and mascot. Students can continue to use the thumb drive for data storage and transfer throughout the school year

o Design and creative agencies can provide multi-media portfolios with links to additional web-based content

o Bands can promote and deliver new music via flash drive. In addition, bands can use USB mp3 players to allow users to listen to music directly from the device

As the popularity and capabilities of USB flash drives continue to grow, marketing professionals will continue to find unique and innovative ways to utilize flash drive marketing. The marketing possibilities may only be limited by the imagination.

So, what is the best home business to start? Depending on whom you ask, the answers will vary. But anyone who actually makes a living online will tell you that affiliate marketing is the way to go. People simply love the idea of affiliate marketing. In fact, many are taking it up full-time. You can make thousands a year advertising other peoples products online–you are paid every time you help generate a sale. But it is not that simple–you have to know exactly what to do if you are to make money.

So lets quickly run over the some of basics of affiliate marketing…

With affiliate marketing, you are promoting someone else’s product, website, or service. When a visitor clicks on your affiliate link on your website (or through your ads) and makes a purchase from the merchant you are promoting, you get a commission. The commission amount you are paid is based on the commission % and the price of the product. In the end, both the merchant and affiliate win as they help grow each other’s businesses.

From a merchants perspective…

Companies like the idea of using affiliates to grow their business, so they usually offer generous commission to lure potential affiliates in (up to 75%). Companies can then have thousands of affiliates promoting their products and only have to pay the affiliate if a sale is made.

From an affiliates perspective…

You can work with as many companies as you’d like when you’re an affiliate. All you have to do after you get your affiliate link is get as much traffic as possible to the merchant website.

Many companies can’t do without affiliates-who usually do the boatload of advertising.

The lifestyle you lead…

Affiliate marketing allows you to work at your own pace and be your own boss. You choose the hours you want to work. The amount of money you can make with affiliate marketing is virtually limitless.

With that being said, you can clearly see why affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online.

Now lets run over some important rules…

Rule #1: Know the products you are promoting

To me, familiarizing yourself with the product you are promoting is the key to affiliates writing a comprehensive review. When you actually own the product that you recommend, your visitors will be in awe of your in depth analysis (lets face it, you can’t fake a good review).

Your review should point out the good, as well as the bad, of a product/service; you must be unbiased at all cost. If you neglect writing a good review, then your customers won’t believe you, and they will quickly exit your site in favor of a more reliable source. This is a rule that many affiliate marketers look past, but I guarantee if they would follow this first rule they would have sales going through the roof.

When I first started using this technique a couple of years ago I simply couldn’t believe how much it helped my sales conversions.

So don’t be lazy; know your product and then write the best review possible.

Rule #2: If you bought it, you should use it.

It shocks me when people purchase a book or guide but don’t actually use it. You have got to put your plan in motion and use the products you purchase to your advantage. That means you must read and reread every chapter and implement every technique you learn. That is exactly what I do and I make a living online because of it.

The bottom line is that most people don’t want to read and follow simple instructions; they want an easier way out. What you want to do is read and implement. If you do that, you will have great success with affiliate marketing.

While I know many people hate the idea of buying anything, it truly is an advantage when you know something that your competition doesn’t. So rule# 2 is to pick up a quality affiliate marketing guide, read it, and put it in motion by applying all of the techniques that you learn. If you are serious about making money online, you have to learn as much as possible.

Rule #3: Choosing the right products

If you want any kind of success with affiliate marketing you are going to have to choose the right products. That means you must join a good affiliate program–the last thing you need is to be in business with a bad merchant who doesn’t pay as promised and/or has a dismal affiliate program altogether.

Most affiliate programs are free to join. You must spend time finding high quality affiliate programs if you are to make money. But if you want to save time and choose from quality merchants all in one place, you can just check out some affiliate networks. All you have to do is sign up once and you’re introduced to thousands of products from many different companies.

The main advantage of an affiliate network is that, unlike individual affiliate programs, they will pay you from their network as opposed to individual companies sending you separate paychecks. For example, if I join the affiliate programs of Citibank, Circuit City, and Best Buy, I would receive 3 separate commission paychecks. But if I were to sign up to these programs directly through a network I would receive one big fat paycheck instead of three separate checks.

The other advantage of the networks is that affiliate programs are ranked so you know which ones are doing good and which ones you should stay away from.

Bonus Tip # 1: Don’t always go after the products with highest commission payouts, they tend to convert less–even though there are exceptions such as gambling and computer products that convert very well in spite of higher prices. For now, you should stick with lower priced ($50 or less) products until you are more experienced with affiliate marketing; they convert at incredible clips.

When you apply this rule, you will have more customers that are willing to pay at your doorstep.

Rule #4: Getting Traffic

It’s not just the products; it is your marketing ability that will make you money. The marketing methods that you use will ultimately earn you the money, not the products alone. And one technique that you are going to have to master is getting as much traffic as possible. Lets face it, no matter how great your product is, you still need traffic.

I will briefly cover the best ways to get traffic.

Lets start with…

Good ol’ SEO…

First, you should apply some white hat Search Engine Optimization: Link exchanges, writing high quality content, submitting your website to the major and second tier directories, writing articles, writing press releases etc.

Use viral marketing to grow your business…

Take advantage of viral marketing. Give away free reports, free ebooks, and free downloads. You should make it possible that your subscribers can give it away to there visitors and audience as well. This will quickly spread the name of your business and generate unprecedented traffic.

Pay-per-click advertising…

Last, but certainly not least, is pay-per-click advertising. The best PPC service is Google Adwords. Running a successful campaign can get a bit tricky, but if you get it right, you receive highly targeted traffic instantly.

If you use these three techniques, you give yourself a much better chance of getting a high volume of quality traffic.

Rule #5: You are going to need a website

In the last lesson I covered different ways you can get traffic. Now we are going to talk about the importance of a website. Yes, you can send traffic directly to you merchants by Direct Linking and see some success without a website, but to really take advantage of affiliate marketing you must a have good website. With a solid website, you can “wow” your visitors with great content, take advantage of email marketing, write reviews for different products, provide reliable information, sell ads (such as Google Adsense), and so much more.

Rule #6: Using pop ups to your advantage…

When someone visits your website, you only have about 5-10 seconds to grab the visitors attention. What happens if you do all that work to get traffic and the visitor leaves and never returns? You have wasted time and money advertising and implementing SEO techniques. A good way you can turn that traffic into loyal visitors is to have popups that advertise your newsletter or any other particular offers you may have. What happens is a customer likes your websites presentation and sees a pop-up window and decides to give you their email address for future references.

I highly recommend you take advantage of using popovers; they are great attention grabbers and it is a must for any affiliate marketer looking to grow his or her opt-in list. Remember your opt-in list is where some of your most loyal customers will come from.

Last Thoughts…

Affiliate marketing is a dream come true for anyone looking to earn money from home. It has changed my life and I am now doing things that I never thought possible. If you work hard, it will happen for you as well.

Car Rental Agencies need visitors and travelers to come and rent cars, but they also know that some of their business is local and therefore they need to be involved in the community and work with other businesses to refer them clientele. Companies like Car Lots, Auto Service Garages, Insurance Companies and Tow Companies too. Often these other business will provide them with additional leads for portential renters of their cars

But what if they want more? Well, how about a robust yet inexpensive advertising and marketing campaign to target all the local small businesses and residents nearby to tell them that they exist and have cars to rent at fair and reasonable rates?

It is recommended that rental car agencies use direct-mail and direct-mail marketing advertising in coupon packages. Rent-a-Car agencies should send these direct-mail packages out quarterly with weekend rate discounts to all the households with in a 15-mile radius.

Direct-mail marketing is an effective way to advertise and the cost is fairly low compared to other forms of advertising. Rental car agencies, which use direct-mail have been satisfied with the results and report excellent return on investment for this type of advertising. Please consider this in 2006.

Physical Trainers are very important to human mobility and anyone who has ever been in a situation where they were not about to move around properly knows their value. Too any athlete who has ever been injured or gone after a super performance knows that these folks know their stuff.

Of course it is not always so easy to brag about yourself as a Physical Trainer and to get that level of confidence in future customers you need some clientele to start spreading the word of mouth advertising.

But how can you get the first customers in the door to show them your stuff? Well a proper advertising and marketing campaign should do the trick, but realize that you need to do this on a budget and save some duckets too.

Is recommended that physical trainers in professional practice use direct-mail and direct-mail marketing coupon packages to attract new business. They should send out coupon packages out to all the households within a 15-mile radius at least two times per year.

Some physical trainers have noted that if they send them out quarterly they have all the business they can handle. Direct-mail marketing and direct-mail advertising can be an effective way to promote a professional physical trainer business.

Architects, the good ones always seem to have lots of work, from referrals and such, but it was not always that way, you see they had to get the clientele in the first place, do a great service and then those folks had to tell their friends and so on and so on. Of course we all know in such professional services that word-of-mouth and referrals is by far the best form of advertising, but how do you get it going when no one knows you?

Well think for second, how to get the first clients? A robust yet inexpensive marketing and advertising program might do the trick. Let me explain; you see, direct-mail marketing and direct-mail marketing coupon packages work very well for architects.

It is recommended that architects send out these direct-mail marketing packages to businesses and high net worth individuals within a 15-mile radius two times per year. In doing so architects will find that they have significant new business coming and have not paid out a lot of money unnecessarily in advertising that did not pull. If you own an architectural professional corporation perhaps you will consider this is part of your marketing and advertising strategy in 2006.

Probably the hardest task that every senior marketing manager regularly faces is planning to maximise budget efficiency. Nowhere is this more challenging than when deciding on where to spend the marketing communications budget.

The exponential growth of new media covers every aspect of life from the second your (digital of course) radio alarm goes off in the morning through all the traditional offline media you’re exposed to over the course of the day. Once we go online and explore the huge demands on the budget related to email marketing, search engine optimisation, pay per click, web design and a plethora of other online marketing opportunities, the budget dilemma seems to become impossible. Various studies indicate the average person living in a developed country is exposed to anywhere between 3000 and 7000 differing advertising messages per day. If you’re targeting that person, then how do you choose the one or two messages that are going to grab their attention and generate the right response? Even for highly experienced marketers these are not easy decisions. Some will claim to take a highly scientific approach but in this article we will treat the budgeting exercise as a combination of art and science.

The answers can be found in a few key areas: The size of your brand and business, the nature of your target market, the relative size of your competitors, the level of experience you have gained from previous marketing activity and your personal predisposition to believe in a particular approach. I’ve packaged that into

Ten golden rules for planning an integrated advertising campaign:

1 Repetition builds awareness builds response

Don’t spread your budget too thin. It’s better to repeat your message three or four times to the same person in the same media than to spread your message to a wider audience that may only see it once or twice

2 Online marketing is fashionable but that doesn’t make it right for your business

If you know you can build your business by increasing your web visits then online expenditure makes sense. But if your business model is not dependent on your website be careful about throwing all your money online

3 The smaller your budget the more benefit Public Relations can provide

Public Relations takes time and effort but the results can be amazing and the monthly fee often equates to just one advertisement

4 The bigger your business the more important brand building

As a massive generalisation, small businesses need to focus on building response and every penny they spend on marketing is looking for a short-term return. In the long run it’s the budgets that invest in brand building that win but there’s no point in worrying about that when your budget is small.

5 Direct Mail and e-shots are the starting point for most small businesses

You can directly compare costs with return.

6 No more than 50% of your budget online

OK that’s not really a golden rule as some businesses can prosper never appearing outside the virtual world. But it’s rare to find a target market that is not responsive to offline communications and on average over 50% of ‘commercial’ web visits are driven by traditional media.

7 Information Is Power

Quite simply the more you understand your target market and their media consumption the better you can plan campaigns that connect with them. Also if something has worked before it will probably work again, but not in quite the same way. So learn from your successes as well as your mistakes.

8 Don’t swim with the big fish

If you’re a small fish then swim upstream or downstream of the big ones Taken from Adam Morgan’s book ‘Eating the Big Fish’ this rule simply says that challenger brands need to do things differently to the competition

9 Sponsorship is for laughs

If you have many millions of pounds or dollars to spend then sponsor a premiership football club. If your budget is smaller avoid spending too much money on simple brand awareness and make sure your brand values, unique selling points and call to action are built into your marketing communications

10 Integrated communications are impressive

Even better than repeating your message to one person in the same medium is getting that message across to that person through different marketing communications. A direct mail piece, an e-shot, a press ad combined with a PR article come together to make your budget look much bigger than it is

Finally, there’s an 11th rule too! If you can’t afford it then that rules it out. It seems obvious but a lot of highly experienced marketers make the mistake of wanting to try media they perceive to be prestigious such as National TV that soak up more than 50% of their budget and leave a lot of the more hard working, cost effective, demand driving media unaffordable.

To summarise, it’s art and science coming together, there are no definite right answers but there are a lot of obviously bad ones. If in doubt get an integrated marketing agencyto help you decide. Specialist agencies will always try to get as much of your budget as they can. An integrated agency might want almost your entire budget but it will work with you to maximise its effectiveness!

Nonprofit fund-raising events are the hallmark of most nonprofit organizations and they often host these annual events in order to raise much-needed funds for their group. If these fund-raising events are successful the group can propel its work and help those people in need.

This brings us to the next point; publicity and public relations are a key for nonprofit group fund raising, but it is not always enough. Sometimes it is important to advertise the nonprofit group’s fund-raising events.

Of course one problem with heavy advertising for nonprofit fund raising event is that if you spend too much money you will take away from the money you earn during a fund-raising event. That means less money goes to the needy people that nonprofit group is trying to help.

This is why I recommend direct-mail marketing advertising pieces like you seen those little coupon booklets that come in the mail. If a nonprofit fund-raising event is to take place within two months it makes sense to send out these direct-mail marketing pieces with invitations inside to the event.

I recommend sending them each month that is possible before the date of the event. This will help get more people to the event and may also help you generate volunteers for your nonprofit organization. I hope you will please consider this in 2006 and I hope that the direct-mail marketing advertising company will give you a discount when you ask; since you are a nonprofit.

The phone rang; it was the telephone company telling me that my new phone service was now active. The week before that a local bookstore left a very nice message on my voice mail that told me the book I had ordered was now in stock and ready for either pick up at the store, or delivery, whichever was most convenient for me. I wasn’t at home when this call arrived. Here is how it works: A voice message left on your phone’s answering machine can be a 35-second pre-recorded audio message that sounds like a live call. As the paying advertiser, you can choose the content of the call, the style, length and even the gender of the voice making the call. This is done with a combination of hardware and software utilized by a specific service provider of voice marketing services. Typically a voice marketing campaign is launched between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (when most folks are out) and can be targeted at a focused customer group or expanded to reach thousands of customers. If the call seems to sound realistic and being given by a live person, all the better. Marketers choose specific professional voices who “read” the copy so that it is what they call “professionally unprofessional sounding.” It sounds like a live person leaving the message. If the householder happens to be home (which happens in 20 percent of the cases), the sophisticated technology recognizes the algorithm of a voice owned by a human and immediately switches from a 35-second message to a shorter one, and quickly signs off.

Automated voice messaging has been around for while. This is not new; but in this new age of “Do Not Call” lists and fines for telemarketers, it has taken on a whole new meaning…and importance. It’s a cost-effective way to legally deliver timely messages about sales, service, new products/services, or upcoming appointments to name just a few. Of importance too, is that these messages are likely to be delivered when the home owner is not at home. The response to these messages is usually higher than with newspaper print ads and/or direct mail. ‘Less expensive too. The main thing to keep in mind in this instance, however, is that this is not a ‘mass marketing’ or even a ‘target marketing’ technique. It should not be utilized with anyone other than clients/customers you currently have a business relationship with. Do NOT send these messages to the answering machines of folks you have not done business with before. If you do, you’ll get severely censured…and fined.

Some marketers believe that a voice marketing campaign can outperform a direct mail campaign in both response rate and average transaction. The good news is that the average cost of direct mail is in the 40¢ to 50¢ range while the average cost for voice marketing (for national customers) is in the 6¢ to 10¢ range. If you were a local customer those rates would likely be higher, I expect. But still, even if they were as high as 20 cents, imagine how much more money you would have to put into other media, such as newspaper advertising, radio, or online to support your campaign.

The National Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry, which includes 44 states at present, says that: “Voice marketing is 100 percent compliant with the federal and state [Do-Not-Call] requirements.” So you likely won’t get in trouble using this marketing technique. But don’t take just my word for it. To cover your backside, check with the registry to make sure you’re in compliance.

My understanding is that this form of voice mail broadcasting is legal and permitted if there is an established relationship between you and the person being called. Only your existing customers should be called in this program. It’s a bit like the “opt-in” email lists online. However, in this instance, only those who have agreed to be contacted by you or have an existing relationship with you are legal for you to contact.

To learn more about this different and unique way of communication with your existing clients, I suggest going to Ask.com or Google and type in the words: “voice marketing”. If you have gmail with Google, send yourself an email discussing the concept of “voice marketing” and see what pops up on the right hand side of the page. I obtained the following potential suppliers: voicepunch.com, MarketingMessages.com, evoice.com, vofx.com and eWoss.com. The choice is yours; I’m not an affiliate; ‘Just passing ‘em on.