contebria.info

In this property market things are changing faster than ever before. Eventually we will have a new property market that is working from a new base and at the start of a new property cycle. Landlords and tenants, sellers and buyers, they will all have made adjustments to their expectations, and transacting property deals will again be the norm.

At the moment we are waiting on the banks and lending groups in many locations to come back into the larger property deals. Some countries are feeling this pressure more than others.

Given that most things are changing faster today for all elements of the commercial property market, we have listed what we believe are the critical elements of market intelligence that as a commercial property agent you will need to bring to the clients and prospects that you work with.

The correct information and market intelligence is the foundation of a good listing, better negotiation, and faster closing today. It is mainly the evidence and facts that will support your position in negotiation. It is almost as if the clients and prospects we work with need a reason to accept the obvious! The market has changed!

Be Informative and Professional!

So when meeting with the owner or landlord of a property, you should ensure that you have the correct critical mass of information and in the correct format to match the meeting momentum and the property needs.

Focus your attention on the information that will support your discussions and position. There are 5 parts to the process.

Property Data: first and foremost, you need to know everything about the property that your prospect owns. This may be a building, land, or development site. When looking at a building, understand the physical details of the property such as the area of the land and premises, the rental so achieved within the property, tenant profile, floor plans and plates, car parking facilities, age of the building, and the improvement history. If you are lacking any information, you can question the building owner appropriately and with focused comments. They will appreciate professional questions relative to their property. They will also however expect your professional knowledge of the marketplace. Typically building owners will always want to talk about their property in reasonable detail given the opportunity. This is a process called ‘Freudian slip’ in negotiation, where a person will divulge almost any information you want when you ask them sufficient well directed questions.
Ownership Detail: the owner of the property needs to be explored for critical owner’s information. Ask them about the ownership structure, timing of ownership and disposal, hurdles and challenges they currently face, tenancy detail, lease tenure and structure, and their perception of the market. It is common for property owners to have an inflated view of their property in the current market. Identify this difficulty from the outset and shape their attitude appropriately as you proceed. In most cases, you will be able to tell the property owner where their property sits in the current market and your opinion of relevant price or rental. We again emphasise that there is no point taking on an overpriced listing in this economy. The only situation in which this should be done is where you can see reasonable chance of sale or rent through price adjustment and owner flexibility.
Market Detail: whilst we should understand the greater commercial real estate market fully, we also need to identify with what has happened to the subject property in the current market. Most particularly identify if the property has been marketed by other agencies in recent time. There is no point taking on a stale appointment to sell or rent a property unless there is a significant adjustment of price or rental. People watch the market and the new listings coming and going through it. The only way you will reactivate interest in an old property listing is through a reasonable price adjustment. Do not be afraid to ask questions about the owner’s relationship and results with the previous agency to direct them towards a fresh property price adjustment. When a property has been unsold for some period of time you will find that the property owner will be more open to adjusting the price or rent. Do you want to take the property listing on an open or exclusive basis? Do you want owner funded marketing campaigns? These are important points of consideration today.
Agency Information: when meeting with property owners, give them information which supports your expertise and activities in the marketplace. This will include details of essential staff, recent sales, market intelligence, evidence of effective marketing programs, evidence of buyer and tenant prospects that are desirable for the subject listing, and anything else that can reinforce the reason they should select you as their agent.
Moving Forward: regardless of whether you have achieved a listing or simply information from the client, you should always close your first meeting with an agreement to move to the next stage of contact. Momentum and decisions are the key elements of success in commercial real estate. Keep your clients and prospects moving ahead in the direction you desire!
The most successful people in the industry will move forward to a fixed contact plan and structure of meetings. A good CRM program is foundational to this process and will form your pipeline of opportunity.

How many people should you be actively contacting on a regular basis? The answer is about 1000 contacts across an equal balance of businesses, investors, and tenants in your region. You need to contact them at least every 90 days to set up a professional contact cycle. This is your funnel for business generation.

One useful strategy in moving towards the next meeting is to tell the prospect or client that you would like to undertake further specific study of market trends relative to their property type. In doing this you would like to return to them in a few days with more market intelligence and feedback. This extra time will allow you to formulate a specific report that they will find useful in their future decisions and discussions.

The complexity of any commercial property commonly needs detailed market investigation; consequently you can use this delay strategy successfully as leverage for more time and further contact.

##Need More Help?##

John Highman is a prominent investment real estate speaker and coach that helps real estate agents and real estate brokers globally to improve their commercial real estate market share and close more sales and leasing deals. He himself is a successful real estate agent that has specialised in commercial, industrial, and retail real estate of all types for over 30+ years.

Whether you specialise in real estate sales, leasing, or investment, John has the tools that can help you and your office succeed in your market.

Today John Highman gives workshops and keynotes to real estate agents and brokers globally on how to be professionally better than your competition in any market and drive more of the right listings and commissions.

People love to be known. They love to be catered to. They love feeling like something is just for them and for them alone. How do you do this with marketing? You personalize your marketing efforts. It may seem a daunting prospect. “But I have thousands of clients and customers, Geoff! How the devil do I personalize it for each one of them?”

Don’t fret. It is not all that hard.

Here are some easy steps:

Figure out who your typical customer is
Design your sales copy and the emails you send to your prospects and customers as if you are talking directly to that one typical customer
Use the merge codes in your email service to personalize each email going out to be addressed directly to the person receiving it.
Easy. Thanks. But how do I do all that?

Well, number three is simply a matter of figuring out how to use your email service. All of them allow you to insert the recipient’s first name into the email, you just need to find out how your specific one does it.

And number two almost takes care of itself if you have done number one.

So how do you take care of number one?

Figuring Out Who Your Typical Customer Is

Yes, I know. Almost every product or service has an unlimited number of potential buyers, and they are by no means typical. Yours especially. Doesn’t matter. This will still work for you.

Sit down and do some imagining work. It will feel good. Imagine someone buying your product, or using your service. I am thinking of someone who might want to buy a course in creative writing. She is in her thirties, married, has a couple of kids. She lives in suburbia. She loves her family and her life but has always dreamed of more. She wants to feel like her early dreams, in high school and college, are still viable. I will even go so far as to say she has blonde hair with a little bit of a natural wave in it, that is mostly kept a bit unruly because she doesn’t often have time to get it done. She wears practical clothing, but usually has at least one thing that is bright and daring on. Socks or a belt or a brightly colored shift.

Now. Could I sell my course to someone completely different than this woman? Yes, and I had better or I would go broke very quickly, but I will bet you most of my students are at least something like this, wether I like it or not.

So, when I write my sales copy, or I write my emails, I write them directly to that person. As if I were talking to her. When I say “you” in my copy, or in my emails, I really do mean a specific you.

Then, anyone who is reading the copy, or the email, won’t feel like it is just generic. They will feel like I was talking directly to them. Even if they are an unmarried lumberjack in the rugged Pacific Northwest, living in a log cabin with a pet bear.

I hope you have picked up a hint or two about how to make your copy alive here. And say hi to the bear for me.

Geoff Hoff is a best selling author and teaches creative writing on the internet. After studying Internet marketing for many years and putting up several sales pages for his products, services and courses, people started asking him to critique and/or write their sales copy so he is now an Internet copywriter.

Not many people want to invest with the way the economy is. They feel that it is too risky with all of the ups and downs in the stock. It is so important to save and invest in things for retirement.

It is so important because retirement comes sooner than most people think. Most people have to put a little away over a long period of time to save for retirement. One great way to help save for retirement is investing in things because it generates more money without having to work harder.

Most people have been investing in the traditional IRA or the 401K and this economy is making them loose money. They are losing money because they do not allow a diverse portfolio. A diverse portfolio is much more likely to grow than a strict one.

It is more likely to grow because the portfolio consists of several different markets. While one market may be going down, it is likely that another will be going up. A self directed IRA gives individuals the opportunity to have a diverse portfolio.

Investors have the opportunity to have a diverse portfolio because the self directed IRA gives the investors the control. The investors choose how much and in what to invest in. They also have a custodian to help them with the IRA.

Real estate is a great thing to invest in with this IRA. It offers little risk for the return received. Land is always wanted, but stocks go up and down daily.

There are many options with in real estate. The property can be an apartment complex that generates a profit through the tenant’s rents. There are companies that will manage the apartments if the investors do not want to do it.

A fixer upper house can even be the property. It can be fixed up with IRA money and then turned around and sold with a profit. Only a self directed IRA gives investors the control they want to be able to invest in real estate.

Social media marketing is a frequently misunderstood form of marketing despite its phenomenally huge reward to marketers who appropriately use it. Such rewards include higher search engine rankings for top key words, more rankings on “long tail” keyword phrases, greater link popularity, as well as increased activity on blogs.

Most people however get overwhelmed into inaction when they think about setting up their own social media marketing platforms. Most of these wannabe social marketers overlook the importance of patience and time in gaining “social authority”.

Acquiring great traffic from social site requires a well articulated and gradual strategy that brings return over time.

As a starter, you need to set aside time every day to getting one more link, signing up one more account on a networking site and participating in at least one conversation.

Social marketing is not an “all or nothing” kind of business, a little goes along way. Before you even realize it, you will become established on the social site you need to have a presence on.

Here are some practical steps that you can implement when starting up your own social marketing campaign

i. Commit time daily to doing something new. This can involve signing up on social networking sites and posting comments on them.

ii. Open an account with major social networking sites like Propeller.com, Mixx.com and Digg.com. Once you’ve signed up, completely fill your profile page. At this point, refrain from posting your own threads until you’ve done some substantial job commenting on posts that have no direct relationship with your site. Do not attempt to push your content into the networks that you have signed up on.

iii. You need to have a blog. There is no second choice to this as it is an integral part of today’s web.

iv. With your blog up, you should then join networks that will help you attract visitors, generate authority and create links. Such networks include MyBlogLog.com and BlogCatalog.com.

v. In these networks, consider joining groups and interact with other bloggers as you make friends with them. Associate with people who are likely to link to your blog and send you traffic.

vi. Once you’ve gained ground on these sites, it is about time you move on to other sites that can be easily targeted directly to your niche as well as your target market. You can aim for smaller social networking sites whose membership is a bit warmer to your kind of information.

vii. You now have some social presence at this point. Consider joining groups which are devoted to social marketing and spend some time picking up tips from already established marketers. Keep signing up to other sites to establish your social authority.

viii. Join blogger.com and start remote blogging by putting some content in there. This provides you with another link to your main site and at the same time get you traffic and link over time.

ix. Diligently track your progress. Should you notice that your posts are not generating traffic, then you need to move on to more rewarding topics.

You can trace where traffic is coming from at MyBlogLog.com. This will save you time and effort while making you focus more attention on the site and topics that are generating more traffic to you.

Do Restaurant Marketing Strategies Such as Social Mobile Really Work? Restaurant marketing strategies that really work are a top priorties these days. The restaurant industry has experienced the steepest decline in traffic in the last three decades. Fine dining restaurants are feeling the effects of greatly reduced receipts and this segment in particular has contracted significantly in the number of open restaurants. Full service and casual dining restaurants are experiencing flat sales. Fast food chains are seeing flat to marginal sales trends, none of which looks to improve in 2010 with an unemployment rate of over 9%. Cost retrenchment only goes so far and customer acquisition is a necessity. “What’s required is a sound marketing strategy that you can afford” according to Ben Wheeler, a restaurant advertising and social mobile strategist with Socious Mobile, ” and that’s the balancing act.”

Most restaurants in today’s economic climate can’t afford prime time commercials, major print advertising campaign. Radio, although cost effective, alone may not be enough. Many restaurants have either thought about it or toyed with setting up a Facebook account. Some have been successful but many have not because social media campaigns requires a well thought out strategy and a dedicated focus to optimize the channel. “Setting up a Facebook page with your logo and this week’s specials isn’t going to do it.” according to Mr. Wheeler. So what is Social Mobile marketing? Social media marketing refers to the explosive trend in “common communities” online where friends, business associates and families network and share their lives. The biggest being Facebook with more than 400 million active users, 50% are active users that log on daily with an average of 130 friends in their network, according to Facebook.Although Facebook is the most popular, other sites we recommend developing strategies for include LinkedIn, a professional networking site and MeetUp.com, a site were people with shared interest meet on line to arrange to meet in person usually as a group activity.

“Mobile” in social mobile refers to mobile marketing, the most direct method of marketing to your customers is by far right to their cell phone. Over 200 million American’s have a mobile phone and over 60% text message. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have mobile status alert features where subscribers can get their updates sent right to their phone via text. Similar to email marketing campaign but more direct, mobile marketing can be very effective by sending text coupons to a subscriber’s cell phone instantly. A challenge associated with mobile marketing is collecting “opt-ins” or mobile subscribers. Recent advancements is restaurant pager technology enables restaurants and other businesses that have to manage a wait list, the ability to notify guests via a text or voice message right to the guests cell phone without handing out expensive coaster pagers. These new guest pager systems are referred to as restaurant cell phone pagers and are extremely effective and affordable. The best of breed cell phone pager systems offer an integrated mobile marketing platform that makes it easier to prompt guests to join your mobile loyalty program. To learn more about cell phone text pagers read the article ” The Iconic Restaurant Coaster Pager Evolves into the Restaurant Cell Phone Pager”

The explosion of iPhones and Droid phones (smart phones) have made access to your restaurant’s social networking site on the fly even easier. Social networking sites have mobile versions of their site which makes it easy for your guests to interact with your page. The emerging trend is mobile website, which will continue to grow and restaurants should consider developing a mobile website as well. Overall, ABI Research data indicates that about 25% of US consumers accessed the internet via mobile phone at least once per day in February 2010. Mobile sites are becoming increasingly important for restaurants now that many guests are using iPhone apps such as Zagat’s mobile or Yelp! mobile to find your restaurant. Guests get frustrated when they find an unwieldy web pages they can’t navigate easily on their phone. Developing a mobile website isn’t terribly expensive and can be very beneficial.

Successful restaurant social network marketing campaigns are based on loyalty enhancing, real-time updates that engage your guests and puts your restaurant top of mind. An effective web site and mobile marketing campaign should also be utilized and integrated into your marketing program. Any traditional media channels being used should always promote your social media accounts and mobile loyalty campaign call to action. The value proposition of both social media marketing and mobile marketing campaigns is the ability to capture and retain customers beyond the limited duration of your print or radio campaign. You now have customers as either “fans” or their cell phone number as a “subscriber” or Mobile VIPs.

Social mobile strategies are the best way to assure ROI from any marketing campaign you execute. Both offer great metrics. Remember, social and mobile campaigns require weekly if not daily interaction by you and your staff. The fresher the content, particularly for social media campaigns, the more engaged your customers will be. Mobile marketing campaigns are the most effective direct marketing strategy and the key to success is to offer valuable incentives to your guests in turn for their cell phone number. Customers in mobile loyalty program expect to receive value rich promotional offers(by one get one free, 25% off text coupon, etc), so make sure you deliver on the expectation. Mobile is especially effective because it is INSTANT you can drive business with the right promotion in a matter of an hour or two. The key is to leverage multiple marketing channels to assure you get you message across and integrating a comprehensive social mobile strategy into your next campaign is essential.

Direct Marketing, Multi-Level Marketing, Home-Based Business, Network Marketing, Social Marketing- All One In The Same.

Network Marketing is a Business about People.

The right network marketing company will teach you how to build a successful wealth building team. Network Marketing is your very own business, but as opposed to most small businesses, in direct marketing you are able to open a business with a very low start up cost and with that low start up cost, you will also have the support of a team of leaders… kinda like your very own “how to start a business manual”;) behind you providing you with personal support and knowledge on ‘how to’ build successfully.

Network Marketing is the big picture, it is not a Get Rich Quick scheme. If that is what you are trying to find in Network Marketing, than it is not for you. It is a business that takes time to build, it is a business built on relationships and integrity, therefore it will take, if worked properly, network marketing takes 2-5 years to have substantial income, a passive residual income and after 2-5 years you will have the financial freedom to do what you wish with your time, as the paychecks continue to roll in week after week, for the rest of your life.

Network Marketing is what we do every day, it comes natural to us..

How so, you may ask. Well..A new candy bar comes out in the store, you try it and love it, so you tell your friends about it and they buy it, try it and love it, they then tell their siblings about it, who try this new candy, love it and they tell their friends who tell their friends and soon this new candy is a Hot commodity and Hershey is making A Lot of Money off of Your Suggestion to your friend, which led to a chain reaction of suggestions, which led to this product being purchased and suggested over and over and over again. There is Nothing More Powerful or Persuasive than “Word of Mouth Advertising.”

You may have heard this before, But why is that true?? Because, think about this way, there are Hundreds of commercials we see in just one day, hundreds of billboards we drive by on the streets, advertising everywhere, in the grocery story or cars driving by, are brains are overloaded with advertisement! In an hour long T.V. series, 25 minutes of that, on average, is commercials.

But say your very good friend walks up to you and tells you about this candy bar they have tried or better yet, they tell you about an Incredible Movie they saw; when deciding, next time, to go to the theatre, the movie that was recommended to you, by your good friend, is the movie you are most likely to see and it’s even more likely for you to buy a ticket, to that particular film, if 2 or more friends recommend that very same movie to you, ” It’s a Must See Movie.” Even if the commercials were not particularly appealing to you, because you trust the opinion of your one or two friends, 9 times out of 10, you will go and see That recommended movie.

Network marketing is this and More. As in the first example with the candy bar, how one suggestion turned in to landslide of suggestions and purchases of that particular “new ” candy bar and how Hershey made a Bunch of Profit off of Your Suggestion and how you made Zip, Nada, Squat, well with Network Marketing, if your friends like a “product” that you suggest to them, you have the opportunity to make money and if they really like the product and could also use the extra cash, they have the opportunity to make money.

With network marketing, a company has decided to not pay for commercials and other forms of advertisement, But instead has decided to take the average Joe or Jane;) and pay them to to do what we already do on a regular day to day basis. Buy a product and share the benefits of the product with friends.

So for example, with RevvNRG, RevvNRG is an all natural energy drink, that you feel within 10 minutes. I drink it, I share it with my friends, who love it and drink it and they share it with their friends and family, meanwhile we’re all getting paid to drink and share it. Some people are being paid a little more because they choose to share it on a larger scale and others a little less because they choose not to share it as much.
Network Marketing is designed so that the “average person” can have financial freedom, or a least an extra $500 a month for that needed vacation, for the car payments, extra play money meanwhile using and sharing an inexpensive product, that they would have been purchasing whether, they were getting paid to or not.

Network Marketing is the leading source of millionaires over the last 5 years and is providing that extra financial boost to regular people all throughout the world.

In order to execute an effective marketing campaign, every business needs to have an internal marketing list. Marketing lists are an essential part of growing and expanding any business. By looking at a company’s marketing list, you can learn a lot about its goals, the products and services it provides and a great deal about the organization in general. Optimally, a company’s internal marketing list will include a specially selected, core audience that is most likely to respond to their advertising efforts.

When used properly, marketing lists can help your company grow, expand and remain as competitive as possible. Whether it’s a direct mail campaign, an email marketing campaign or a telemarketing campaign, an up-to-date internal marketing list is critical. You simply can’t move forward with an effective marketing campaign without a proper list.

While marketing lists are an important way of recruiting new clients and customers, they should also be used to keep existing customers “in the loop”. Overlooking customers who have used your services or products in the past is a recipe for disaster. Existing customers can be a valuable resource in terms of referrals, and people like to be remembered and are generally happy to receive correspondence. Sometimes, all that is needed is a friendly “hello” to remind existing customers of your company. The next time they require a certain product or service, they are much more likely to use your company than another one.

Marketing campaigns whose goals are expanding the scope and reach of your business – and whose primary aim is gaining new customers – need as much help as possible. Getting your message and information about your business out to as many new people and places as possible is key. Think about it this way: if you’re not reaching out to new prospects, then your competition is. You’ll be missing out on many lucrative possibilities by overlooking the importance of marketing for expansion and growth. Don’t let your competitors snag customers that should rightfully be yours. Keep on top of things by continually marketing and advertising your business.

You can get the help you need to execute the most effective marketing campaign possible by taking advantage of the many professional marketing lists available today. There are many different varieties of mailing list on the market today, allowing you to target the precise audience that you need. By marketing to a specially targeted audience, you are much more likely to experience success in your marketing endeavors. Don’t waste you time with generic lists, when you can easily get your hands on precise, relevant data. Some examples of specially designed lists that are available include:

Consumer Lists
Real Estate Lists
Business Lists
Specialty Lists
New Business Lists
Lists Sorted By Ethnicity
Lists Sorted By Gender
Lists Sorted By Age
Lists Arranged By Hobby And/Or Interest
International Lists
Investor Lists
…and many, many more!

By defining your market, you can use a list provider like Mailing Lists Online to filter your results down to the best possible targets. Doing so, you generate targeted marketing lists that can then become an essential component of your overall marketing strategy. Coming up with an efficient – and useful – list is so vital that seeking professional help is key. If you don’t use professionally organized resources to help you create a core, targeted marketing list, your campaigns are probably doomed to failure.

These days, you can choose to either rent or purchase your marketing lists. Do your homework and look at as many providers as possible to find the one that’s right for you. Only consider providers who offer customized results and who are willing to create lists that target your ideal audience.

If you want to start making some money at multi level marketing, it makes sense to look into one of the multi level marketing management programs available. This is because no matter what you do for a living, management in that job or field is going to command a higher salary than the worker bee level. Multi level marketing is no exception to this rule. The sooner you transform yourself into “management material” the sooner you will be making the big bucks. The programs and software available in this area will also help you to get a handle on the workflow and progress of your sales.

Since you are curious about a management program geared toward the idea of direct referral selling, or network marketing, you probably are aware of how multi level marketing (MLM) works. It is basically offering products or services under the direction of a larger company through word of mouth. It has the potential to bring in more and more money by means of the seller receiving a certain percentage of each downward level of sales traceable to him/her. It is perfectly legitimate and is not to be confused with a pyramid scheme, which offers no true tangible goods or services of any value. Many reputable companies use multi level marketing techniques as part of their overall marketing plan. Companies like Mary Kay, Avon, Discovery Toys, and Herbalife, are all examples of such companies. They do very well and you can bet that the management team at these places is extremely dialed in. What can you do to learn more about MLM management programs?

There are software programs for the management of MLM, to help you execute your plan and generate more business. Some are free and some are quite costly. Start with the free ones you can download. Try them out and see how they work for you. If they do not meet your needs you may need to purchase a more sophisticated program. Keeping track of multi level marketing data can be chaotic and time consuming. Ensure your success by reviewing specific software programs. Among a few of the popular programs are: iMatrix Software (customers include New Vision, Tupperware, and First Fitness), DH Software with DH-MLM programs, and VAR/MLM Management System. iMatrix Software lays claim to being one of the first (if not the very first) multi level marketing software programs available. They were launched in the late 1990′s. There are a lot of programs out there, so do your research! You can find out more about available software that will meet your needs depending on how much time you want to invest in promoting multi level marketing.

In relation to software there is the real and necessary aspect of gaining some general management experience as it pertains to the subject of multi level marketing. This can be gained through basic management courses that are applied directly to steps involved in MLM. The Internet is a great resource for both of these purposes, use it to your advantage!

If you are a local or small business owner, then you really need to understand the importance of getting a constant stream of customers into your business. After you finish reading this article you will learn the importance of marketing, how to ascertain your ROI, and what medium you should use for a successful campaign.

1. Marketing – The only way people get to hear about your business is through your marketing efforts. Whether you use online strategies such as SEO and PPC or use off-line strategies such as print advertising or radio or even word-of-mouth, it is extremely important that you understand what is getting you new customers.

2. Testing – One of the things you need to do with all your advertising and marketing budgets is to ensure that you are making the most of them. The only way to do this is to use strategies that are measurable. You should follow the lead of extremely successful direct marketers such as Ted Nicholas and the late Gary Halbert. These folks have tested everything small before they rolled out big. A small business should be particularly diligent on their advertising expenditure. They do need to understand that not spending money on advertising is not an option.

3. Medium – This is where most people get it wrong. If you can afford it, you should have marketing channels in every medium possible. You should then use testing strategies to find out which medium gives you the best ROI. For example a few businesses are particularly suited to yellow page advertising, and others are not. Some businesses work particularly well online and some might get massive success using direct marketing methods such as postcards. It is important that you understand which method brings you the most customers with the least investment so you can keep your customer acquisition costs as low as possible.

Don’t be misled by people selling the idea of marketing online or off-line or which one is better for you. You need to test and decide yourself. If the strategy works for getting leads and sales effectively, then it is a good strategy. Don’t just follow what your competitors are doing unless it is working for them. You also need to understand what works for your competitor may not necessarily work for you and you need to test it yourself.

So now you know the importance of marketing, the need for testing, and the importance of choosing a medium for your business advertising. It is best that you test small in various mediums to find out what works better for your business and then roll out big.

Now you can effectively choose your marketing medium, ensure it works by testing it and continuously advertise and get a constant stream of fresh new customers into your business in any market.

Wonder how some business thrive irrespective of the economy? Take your business and advertising knowledge to the next level. The legendary Ted Nicholas has sold over $7.8 billion of products and services for himself and his clients in 49 different industries. Sanjay Pande considers himself lucky to be mentored by Ted.

Marketing Automation Software provides companies with many advantages. It can help reduce the complexity of marketing activities and lower costs. It does this by focusing on two core tasks.

Customer Segmentation

The first is automated message testing through customer segmentation. Customer segmentation is the process of sub-sectioning your customer database into unique areas based on consumer behavior, preferences or demographics. By focusing on multiple segments, marketers can improve their efficiency. When you provide prospects with a relevant, targeted message, studies show time and time again that consumers are more responsive and likely to take action. Using marketing automation software to properly segment and then test messages to different segments within your database can help companies improve their purchase conversion rates and increase revenue from an existing customer base.

Campaign Management

Secondly, marketing automation software can automate your campaign management and execution. Most systems will allow marketers to design sustained campaigns of content that is delivered to your prospects overtime. Think of an automated campaign in the same way people do an investment account. It is better to continually add small amounts of money overtime. By taking the same approach with your marketing campaigns, you can benefit from multiple consumer touch points, brand building as well as the direct response aspects of digital marketing. An example of a campaign like this would be a multi-week e-mail marketing campaign with a series of marketing messages and content all focused on a single theme.

Most marketing automation software tools focus on e-mail marketing, while more advanced applications are beginning to focus on blogging, social media, SEO and the entire breadth of digital marketing tactics. These new tools will allow marketers to create content once, then share that content across multiple digital channels such as podcasts, presentations, webinars, social media in additional to email. Nearly any digital marketing channel can benefit from automation. Technology constantly changes, however, the process and principles of marketing automation software have been around for decades in the form of direct response systems, direct mail and loyalty programs.

How to get Started

Start using marketing automation software today to increase the value of your existing customers and to distribute unique content and attract new customers. We suggest that you first explore e-mail marketing automation tools such as Constant Contact or Aweber. These software tools are low cost and very user friendly. When dealing in the Social Media sphere, we recommend TweetDeck. TweekDeck provides users with a quick and easy dashboard that shows your messaging from multiple social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and MySpace. A tool like TweetDeck is essential for managing your Social media presence. If you are focusing deeply on Twitter then you should check out HootSuite or Cotweet. If you are not using it already, your choice for automating your web presence should be WordPress, it is user friendly and has lots of premade templates and plugins available.