• Instead of asking for e-mail addresses, why not offer customers a free download or coupon?
• Instead of sending snail mail for an upcoming event, why not invite locals on Facebook?
• Instead of just a traditional press release, why not push it towards all your social media profiles?

All the capabilities of direct marketing can be incorporated into a social media forum if you take the time to do some listening as well. I think direct marketing and social media can go hand in hand and it’s definitely something that we have to look forward to in the future.

Any point where this starts looking bad?

1. According to comScore, this is what market share looks like concerning the top search engines. Reports came out that Google suffered a decline for the fourth month in a row, ouch! Just when you think that Google can’t get any bigger, it seems that they may have reached their peak. After all, what comes up, must come down… but Google? They are the only company in the world with no measurable debts!
2. Tired of cluttered and slow loading sites? Mashable reports that Google is taking consideration (a small amount) into the speed of a site in search rankings. Finally, in 2010! Less than 1% is a small portion, but hopefully this will help weed out slow sites.
3. We’ve talked about “augmented reality” before but what about its use in print? DMNews reports that advertisers are embracing this trend, even for their print ad campaigns. Sounds interesting to see it incorporated in print. I wonder what the next advertising trend will be?

Prosper is a peer to peer lending destination. Home Exchange allows homeowners from all over the world to swap homes for a more exotic location. Fiverr is a new site where people can buy what other people have to sell for just $5. If you’re interested in effectively participating in any of these sites, the key is to selling yourself of course! If you’re looking to spruce up your self-selling methods, here are some old favorites that are good to keep in mind.

Give yourself credit. Are you an expert in a certain field? Update your portfolio and keep testimonials handy. You want your potential customers to trust your work and the more specific your examples are, the better.

Add value. When you talk about yourself, don’t forget to include how you can benefit your customers. They want to exactly what they will gain by choosing you over others.

Be yourself. From your social media profiles to your resume, it’s important to stay true to yourself. Don’t inflate your credentials and experiences. Instead, polish up your past successes.

If you can successfully sell yourself, you will inspire confidence in others about your company and its products and services. A meeting with you could well be someone’s first encounter with your brand, and you want to give them the best first impression that you can. Good communication skills will make your job a lot easier.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how much you spend on marketing yourself if it’s not effective. Budget your time and efforts to let your skills shine through. As many would agree, peers will find you if you continue to be honest about yourself.
Have any secret tips for selling yourself?

A New Way to Look at Direct Marketing
John began with asking what we thought about the definition of marketing. It’s always evolving and people have their own different interpretation. According to John, the most succinct way you can think about marketing as “getting someone with a need to know, like and trust you”. By keeping this in mind, it will help you really think about your marketing strategy before implementing your tactics. Do you have your own definition of marketing that differs from John’s?

How to Differentiate and Dominate
Another standout point that John brought up was how small business strive to differentiate and dominate but are often doing it in the wrong way. As John says, most business pride themselves in offering “good service”. What marketer wouldn’t? John also mentions that a lot of people and businesses are sometimes afraid of being different. The key is to highlight a unique selling point that will create value for your customers. Entrepeneur has a few tips on differentiating your business that is worth a quick read.

The Marketing Hourglass vs the Marketing Funnel
Traditional explanations use a funnel to describe the marketing process. John has a better idea and presented us with the idea of a marketing hourglass. The difference is that whereas a funnel utilizes a blast method in an attempt to capture as many customers as possible, the hourglass takes into consideration your pursuit of the “ideal” customer. Yup, that’s a lot to digest in one hour but very informative in the end!

Applying Marketing Goals with Twitter
From raising brand awareness to simply gaining sales, there are many different direct marketing goals. You can even use Twitter as an extension of your customer service. As you think about the goals you want to set for your business, you should also think about using Twitter to reach your audience. There are some different consumers to consider before you start and today, we’re going to discuss the Twitter voyeur.

Taking a Look at the Voyeur
Let’s face it, there are lots of them. They go by many names: the voyeur, the lurker, the shy guy, or even the n00b. Not everyone on Twitter is actively contributing, but their presence can’t be ignored. For example, you may be a boutique owner. Although it’s great to network by following others in your industry, they’re not going to buy what you have to sell. It’s the customers you want to reach out to. Offer rewards and give your followers the inside scoop. Inactive users may stay quiet, but they make take advantages of good deals you offer. Not everyone wants to build and maintain an online relationship with their so-called “friends”. It takes thought and effort, so others may just not have the time.

Monitor with Twitter
Even for those who don’t post to Twitter, it doesn’t mean that they’re not watching. Twitter is a useful, social, and entertaining resource. Some may just browse Twitter’s trending topics to see what others have to say. Twitter is a great tool for small business or individuals to use to gain insight. Bigger companies definitely use it to monitor their brand.

Use Common Sense
Although Twitter is an informal channel, don’t fly blind by forgetting to set a goal. In direct marketing, you have the influencer, decision maker, buyer etc. You can appeal to these same types of consumers when it comes to Twitter. The best thing you can do is to be consistent with your marketing message. Keep some Twitter don’ts in the back of your mind while you do so, and have fun!

Where do direct marketing efforts stand during a recession? Surprisingly, the increase of marketing efforts can clearly be seen, even though marketers have been struggling. In light of the rough economic times, some companies may be putting their direct marketing efforts on the backburner. While pushing this segment aside is a questionable approach, it’s still best for most companies to incorporate multiple methods in their marketing mix. Like any other investment, you should accurately monitor its performance for the most effective use.

Why Direct Marketing?

Experts predict that with every $1 spent on a direct marketing, companies can expect a return of about $11. Be doing your research and targeting the right consumers, companies may see excellent business from their investment. When you first hear about direct marketing, telemarketing may be the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, other effective forms of direct marketing includes: direct mail, coupons, emails, infomercials, and a combination of all of the above. With a wide variety of advertising channels, marketers have the choice of utilizing a method that best suits their needs.

Change Your Approach

If you continue your marketing efforts as scheduled, it may pay off to change your approach. During Christmastime, my email inbox gets loaded with offers. Most of the time, these pesky email blasts go straight in the trash. As one spectator pointed out, it helps to help consumers. Why not differentiate by informing them about something they’re interested in or helping them out with a problem? In a way, your smaller budget is a positive asset as it forces you to be more creative with your marketing plan. As the holidays come and the year draws to a close, it’s the best time to think of your strategy for 2010.

You may have heard of the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, which states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes. When applied to business and marketing, this can mean several different things:

• 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your products
• 80% of your company’s output comes from 20% of your employees

This principle shows that inputs and outputs of your efforts are rarely balanced. So how do you make the best and reap the maximum rewards? One of the keys to success is to maintain and build lasting relationships with your customers. Relationship marketing focuses on communication and efforts to retain customer loyalty in order to build a mutually beneficial relationship. Many businesses forgo this approach in exchange for quick profits in the short run. In the long run, keeping customers happy will help you retain a loyal base of customers.

Rather than constantly looking for new customers, it’s important to keep existing ones happy. This can be easier said that done, especially for large companies who tend to focus on getting more new sales. It’s time to forget the phrase, “If you build it, they will come” and emphasize the point that “The customer is king”. Customers have plenty of choices and can easily choose one of your competitors if they are not treated well.

• CurdBee: A free online billing utility via PayPal or Google Checkout – especially useful for freelancers and small businesses.
• DirectMail: Provides a variety of consumer and business lists. You’ll be able to directly target consumers by age, estimated income, business type, and more.
• WuFoo: An application that allows anybody to create online forms such as: surveys, event calendars, online orders and home finances.
• Copyscape: Allows you to find unauthorized copies of your content online.
• iWebTool: Has resources such as page rank checker, search engine position, and broken link checker.

Have any other useful tools that you’d like to share?

Direct marketing is simply the business of selling products or services directly to the public by mail order, telephone, fax, e-mails, or web selling, rather than through retailers.

This type of marketing can have two objectives:

1. The thirst to obtain new clients. The identification of new potential clients is very crucial when it comes to recruit new prospects and transformed them into your clients.
2. The perpetual loyalty of clients. A loyal consumer cost less than recruiting a new one.

This is the reason why direct marketing exist which is to maintain the relation between the company and his cli