Sales & Marketing Authority, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

In the past we’ve discussed stragetic alliances and the benefits of partnering with another company or business in order to take advantage of each other’s skills and jumpstart your growth. If you’re still on the fence, especially in this troubled economy, I’d like to encourage you to consider a strategic alliance again. They’re beneficial not only financially but from the skillset level as well. Here are 5 more reasons to consider a strategic alliance:

• You’ll save money in your business because you won’t have to hire any (or as many) new employees to help with your new projects. Since you’ll be working with a partner you’ll have the advantage of working with his team of employees as well.
• You’ll have the opportunity to learn from your strategic alliance. Your partner and his team will have a very different set of skills than you and your own team. By working together you’ll have the chance to learn and absorb a part of the industry you may not be familiar with.
• By aligning yourself with a strategic partner you’ll have the opportunity to endorse each other in advertisements. This is incredibly effective if you each have a strong business presence to begin with as the endorsements will only strengthen your credibility.
• Your customers will be happier because you’ll have more people on your side to solve their problems at a faster rate. The entire customer service experience will improve.
• You’ll be able to offer your clients a wider variety of products and services, based on those offered by your new partner, without spending money on product development.

Do these reasons seem selfish? They’re not, really. Just remember that your business partner will be entering into a strategic alignment for the same reasons. Work together and you’ll be well on your way to success!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert

Quite a while back we talked about how to launch a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign and which PPC companies were available for you to choose from. While Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are the most popular, there are several others for you to choose from. Today I’m going to suggest a few others for you to consider.

WidgetBucks

WidgetBucks is a quickly growing new network that allows you to cycle advertisements through your website. The ads are usually all graphic-based and are very bright so you may not want to use this system if you have a low-key blog or website or are worried about the way advertisements will appear in contrast to the rest of your page.

ClickThruTraffic

I’ve heard that ClickThruTraffic isn’t the best option available but it’s still just that – an option. They supposedly pay anywhere from 6 to 20 cents everytime someone clicks on an advertisement on your site.

AdToll

AdToll is actually a very interesting new system. You get paid on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis but the advertisements aren’t forced into your sidebar. You can use a “peel away” advertisement to place the ad in the top corner of your page. When a user hovers over the peel away tab the ad will show and you’re more likely to get clicks from interested web browsers.

Clicksor

Clicksor is very similar to Google Adsense and allows you to use both their suggested keywords and those you have chosen on your own. You can include an unlimited number of domains under one account and you’re paid by check or PayPal when your account reaches $50 – a huge improvement over Google’s $100, check-only minimum.

ExitJunction

ExitJunction works off of an interesting concept as well. Visitors aren’t shown advertisements when they land on your website. They are instead shown an advertisement after clicking the “back” button to go back to their search engine pages. The advertisements they see are always related to the advertisements that brought them to your page to start with and you are paid per impression, not per click.

It’s up to you to experiment and determine which PPC system is most profitable for you. If you have a network of sites you may want to try several different options and compare the results. Good luck!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert

Despite the decline in print publications and the rise in internet marketing, print advertising is still an effective method for getting the word out about your products and services. The trick to running a successful print campaign, however, depends on your abililty to avoid a few common mistakes when designing your ads.

Trying to be Different

No two marketing campains are alike but I can guarantee one thing. Every single marketing team in the country is gathered around the conference room table asking “how can we  be different.” In our quest to become different we often stray too far out of the box and either gain negative attention or no attention at all. Sit back, be cool, and let the others do strange things. Your clients will appreciate you for acting normal.

Focusing on Features

There is a huge difference between benefits and features. Features are added perks. Benefits are things your clients can use. Make sure your advertising method focuses on the features your product has to offer – the things that will help your client to grow his own business.

Overlooking Current Customers

Don’t forget to design print ads that target your current customers. They’re already interested in what you have to offer but won’t know about new services and features unless you make them aware.

Running a Short Campaign

Advertising is tricky and if you plan on running a print campaign you need to be prepared to give it at least a year to work. A lot of businesses give up after 3-6 months because they don’t see results and can’t afford to continue but the truth is that their brand simply isn’t well-known yet.

Changing Your Ads

It may be tempting to change your advertisements frequently but the truth is that you need to pick a general ad template and let it ride for a longer period of time. You can change the information about your seasonal specials but the overall layout should stay the same in order to avoid confusing your customers.

Avoid these mistakes and you’ll likely see better results from your print advertisements, even if it takes a while to get them going. Good luck!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert

A long time ago we talked about affiliate marketing and how to grow your sales business if you’re focusing on affiliate marketing. But what if you have a product of your own you want to sell? Have you ever considered creating your own affilliate program?

Creating an affiliate program isn’t difficult. You need to follow 5 main steps in order to get it up and running. They are as follows:

1. First you need to decide what niche your product falls into. You can’t sell a zillion products to a zillion people. Design your product to fit into one, popular niche.
2. Find websites and people who are into your niche to partner with. The right partners will already have a high level of traffic and a great mailing list – perfect for promoting your offer to a trusting group.
3. Create a series of great promotional products for your product. Create banner advertisements and promotional materials to give your marketers free of charge so that they can more easily promote your product.
4. Never stop looking for new partners, even if the ones you have are doing a great job. Always look to recruit new partners so that if you lose one you don’t experience a huge drop in business.
5. Treat your partners well. The more you work with them the more they’ll appreciate you and your product. Give them marketing tips, pay them on time (and accurately) and consider a bonus plan for your top sellers.

It’s not difficult to build an affililiate program but it does take quiet a bit of time. With a little bit of patience and persistence you’ll soon see your hard work pay off!

Good luck,

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker – Sales Expert