Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’
Description of ‘Marketing’ Tag:
marketing
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
With marketing today it is absolutely necessary for a business to develop a strong advertising plan and utilize a diverse set of marketing strategies. In most cases, businesses tend to spend much more on the their company advertisement or the promotion of their products than the actual cost of production. In the past we have emphasized the different ways to market your company online however you should also keep in mind the opportunities that offline advertising has to offer. 
The basic principle behind promoting your business is to express and convey the company’s goals, products, or ideas to the targeted audience. Businesses use marketing methods in order to maximize their brand recognition and customer awareness. With today’s technology it is fairly simple to market your business online with email, blogs, and social media sites. However, a well-designed marketing campaign should actually incorporate both online and offline promotional strategies. Due to the intense focus that has recently been directed to online marketing, some companies may have lost focus and have possibly missed out on attracting offline consumers. The following is the more widely used offline marketing strategies. Each of these methods can be used to increase your company’s brand and reputation.
- Place your website’s URL in emails, letterheads, and business cards.
- Give out complementary promotional items. For example you could give T-Shirts, fliers, bumper stickers, pens, and magnets all with your business logo or company website listed.
- Advertise your company and the website’s URL in newspaper or magazine press releases.
- Using QR codes so mobile users can access your website
- Create window or storefront signs that display your website’s URL for both customers and potential customers passing your store.
- Join local community groups to spread information about your company. (Business associations and Chamber of Commerce)
- Create and Send Business Post Cards that provide contact information about for your company.
- Contact your local business direct mailing advertiser. Design and create an advertisement for your local audience.
- Sponsor local Events, Fundraisers, and Charity Functions.
- Attend Business Trade Shows or Seminars to network with other industry professionals.
- Use Word Of Mouth by reaching out to your contacts and spreading promotional information to friends, family, and acquaintances.
These are just a few tips for marketing your online business offline, for more examples visit 37 Original ways promote your Business . In conclusion, marketing should be a blend of online and offline techniques. The internet may offer a good environment to market your business but that doesn’t mean that you should limit your company’s reach to the internet and restrict your marketing potential. Almost every business on the Internet is performing online marketing which is why adding some offline promotional strategies can potentially help distinguish you from your competitions.
Thanks for Reading!
Dustin
CDTek.com
Tags: advertising, business promotion, company advertising, Marketing, offline, offline marketing, online advertising, promotion
Posted in Marketing, Networking, Small Business Tips | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 30th, 2011
 from http://www.quora.com/, Oct 2011 In June 2009 a website known as Quora was founded by two former Facebook employees. This question and answer based social interaction site was initially launched as a private beta version in December 2009 and then later made public on June 21, 2010. Although it has only been two short years, since then Quora has quickly joined the ranks of the other social bookmarking and social networking websites like Reddit, Delicious, LinkedIn, Answers.com, and Stack Exchange.
Quora creates an interactive platform where users can ask questions and receive high quality answers from people with firsthand knowledge. Users can collaborate to create questions and identify the best answers. Although it works similar to a forum the information is regarded as more authoritative, knowledgeable, and respectable. The information on Quora is always improving and it is their goal to discover the highest quality answers to each of their question pages. Quora’s question pages can also be thought of as Wikipedia pages, only with more specific information straight from industry experts. Unlike Wikipedia, Quora answers can target the exact information that the user is seeking based on the initial question.
In order to access Quora’s vast knowledge base a user must first register and provide either their Twitter or Facebook user name. Quora is successful because it exhibits 5 major elements that consist of being Collaborative, Organized, Specific, Continually Improving, and most importantly it focuses on the people.
Besides being an informative resource, Quora can also be used as a marketing tool for your small business. The following are some suggestions for using Quora as a part of your small business strategy.
- Asking Questions – Find in-depth information or solve a specific problem.
- Content Mining – Find new business, blog, and website ideas.
- Cultivate Existing Relationships – Open new lines of communications with your audience.
- Expanding Your Audience – Use questions and answer to establish new professional contacts and develop potential customer relationships.
- Growing as a Professional – Improve your communication and professional writing skills.
- Self-Promotion – Establish a presence by appearing as an industry expert or leading authority.
- Market Research – Monitor your competitor’s reputation as well as strengthen your own by setting up Google alerts for company mentions.
- Strengthen Customer Experience – Monitor your audience and join in the conversations.
- Lead Generation – Target specific questions from other users and reach out to them.
- Stay Informed – Follow other leading industry experts to stay in tune with the latest trends.
- Evaluating Merchants – Investigate potential business vendors, business tools, and business partners.
- Link Building – Develop relationships with other users and reach out to them about a potential link exchange.
Why wait for your audience to find you when you can target your audience. Quora allows you to find the people who are seeking your knowledge. More than just a Q & A website, Quora is a blend between forums, Wikipedia, Answers.com, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This is a great option whether it is to lend your expertise or gain knowledge from another expert. Quora is a high quality resource that provides some of the best information on the web and cuts through much of the spam that users typically encounter when seeking information.
Thanks for Reading!
Dustin
CDTek.com
Tags: answers, Marketing, Question, Quora, Small Business, social media, Social Networking
Posted in Business Tools, Small Business Tips, Social Networking | No Comments »
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Lately More and more companies have begun to use Quick Response code or QR codes to promote their products and services. You may have noticed that recently some of your favorite companies are now displaying these 2-D barcodes on some of their products or advertisements. These two-dimensional icons are known as QR codes and can be scanned by smartphone cameras to automatically pull up text, photos, videos, music, URLs, and even make phone calls or send emails. This form of brand marketing is now on the rise and is providing businesses with many new, creative, and effective marketing opportunities.
Internetbeacon.com QR Code
Quick Response codes are still fairly new and because they are just getting started in the United States many people are still unaware of what they can do or how they work. Most of the Businesses that utilize Quick Response Coded promotional material also provide directions for first time users on how to use them. To produce the codes a company must use an online QR code generator and in order for the customer to access the information contained in the code they need to have a mobile QR scanner. Some of the popular QR generators include Kaywa Code Generator, iCandy, StickyBits, QR-Stuff, plus many other Mobile Barcode generators. Customers can download their free QR scanner from their smart phone app store.
According to a recent comScore Survey 14 million mobile users in the US have scanned a Quick Response Code but that’s only 6.2% of all mobile users. 60.5% of the code scanners were men that were mostly between ages 18-34 and had an income of over $100k. Around half of the participants said that they scanned the QR codes from a magazine or newspaper and roughly 35% scanned from product packaging. As consumer awareness for QR codes increases the number of uses for the codes also expands. The following are 10 creative places Quick Response Codes can be used to promote your business.
Business cards can only contain a small portion of information without looking too cluttered, with a QR code placed on your business card the contacts you meet can quickly access your all of your information and even store it on their mobile device. Business cards can accumulate and are often ignored which is why having the QR code automatically call or store the contact information will increase the chance of the new contact retaining your correct information.
- Mail advertisements or Postcards:
With mail advertisements or postcards your potential customers may be more inclined to check out your business. Most of the time people carry their mobile device on them and because it only takes a couple of seconds to scan and access your content the QR advertisements could prove to be very valuable. The majority of people discard mail newsletters but a QR code may peak their interest enough to discover more information.
- Magazine and Newspaper ads:
Magazine and newspaper ads also provide great space for Quick Response Code placement. Readers or skimmers will be able to see your advertisement and quickly acquire more details through the QR code. Sometimes readers don’t always own the newspaper or magazine that they see your advertisement in and having a QR code available would be a great way for readers to hold on to information. For example, the waiting room at a doctor’s or dentist office may have a magazine with an interesting business advertising that you want to learn more about. A Quick Response Code would enable you to scan, access, and store that information for later whether it is a phone number, website, or one of the many other possible uses of a QR code.
If you already run coupons in the newspaper you can add a QR code that provides users with more information such as store locations, directions, and additional promotions. Quick Response Codes can also be used to gain customer feedback. Companies can place a code on their customer receipts that provides their phone number and website or be used as a way to acquire customer feedback. For example the receipt code can offer a future discount in exchange for a few moments of the customer’s time.
Having a store display with a Quick Response code on it can allow a customer to access more information and reviews about a specific product. In addition QR codes can also be displayed in a window or on a company door for the people passing by. These codes can be especially helpful with providing store information during the hours that the business is closed.
QR codes on product packaging are also a good way to reach new and existing customers. Customers who purchased the product can easily learn more about it, send feedback, or call customer service. Quick Response Codes can be extremely useful for food delivery services, for example Papa John’s includes QR codes on their pizza boxes so customers can easily visit their website, place an order, and leave reviews.
- Stickers, magnets and Commercials:
Stickers and magnets with your QR code can be placed anywhere you or your customers wish to stick them. Again food delivery services can greatly benefit from this because users can quickly scan their fridge magnet when they want to place an order. Television commercials and YouTube videos can also be used to showcase your company’s Quick Response Code. At the end of the video you can use this code to direct people to your company website or initiate a phone call.
Having QR codes located in or around your business will allow your customers to do a location login. The codes can be used to log into Facebook locations or Foursquare so people can tell their friends where they are and what they are doing.
Some companies have even begun to include Quick Response codes on clothing. Placing these codes on clothing is an interesting way to have the public and company employees perform their advertising.
Although Quick Response Codes are usually used to direct users to a website including them on a website or email isn’t necessarily a bad idea. Placing the code on an email or website can allow users to quickly and effortlessly call your company, follow you on a social media site, and get directions sent to their mobile device. QR codes on a website can also be useful for users who want to continue viewing the information after they leave their computer.
Visit the link to learn Additional locations for Quick Response Codes
These are only some of the many different uses for QR codes and Even though it might be a while before Quick Response Codes are fully integrated into our advertising it is always better to be ahead of the trend than it is to be behind your competition. Quick Response codes can be used to increase sales, increase incoming calls, build a subscribers list, advertise promotions, get more Facebook likes, get more Twitter Follows, and connect and engage your existing or potential customers. QR codes seem to only offer more company and product exposure, so what do you have to lose? Start creating QR codes today and see all the ways this new promotional tool can help your business!
Thanks for Reading have a Great Day!
Dustin
CDTek.com
Tags: advertising, code, codes, Marketing, Mobile, QR code, qr generator, qr scanner, quick response code, scan
Posted in Marketing, Mobile Applications, Small Business Tips | 4 Comments »
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
 Hello and welcome to Chesapeake Digital Technology´s blog. We’re an information technology firm in Maryland.
We provide several services, like InternetMarketing and Technical Support to small and medium business.
So you’ve got an amazing, potentially award-winning blog. Welcome to the Internet. There are lots of both terrific and terrible writers out there, waiting for their voices to be heard. You are now one of them. Now here comes the tricky part, how do you get them to look at your blog before everyone else’s? Well, there are a few ways to make this happen. One of the fastest and most reliable is to submit them
Digg.com
Digg is one of the most popular socially powered aggregate news sites on the Web. Users must register before posting or commenting on the site, but membership is free. If you are submitting an article, you submit the link and provide basic details about the post. You choose the category, enter the Title and Description, and send it on its way. Your post will appear on the site relatively quickly and then users browsing the New Posts section will see it. If they like it, they vote for it (Digg It!).
Facebook
We’ve talked before about using Facebook to promote your business. If you have a page for your business/blog already, then you can update it as necessary to reflect new posts or marketing strategies to draw in more users. Facebook’s status as a social networking site makes it a great place to spread your influence. Bear in mind, you may want to get involved in various Facebook groups to get your name out there.
StumbleUpon
SU was around for a while before either Digg or Facebook, and as such has a decently sized user base. You must register to use it, and then you submit your articles in the same way that you would with Digg, though StumbleUpon offers a bit more description possibilities. The cool part of StumbleUpon is their “Stumble button that takes into account info from the user’s history and randomly suggests a site.
-Josh
Chesapeake Digital Technologies
Tags: blog, Blogging, Marketing, Small Business, Social Networking
Posted in Business Tools, Marketing, Small Business Tips | No Comments »
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Your blog is a great way to get your particular message out to folks around the world. Whether you are sharing business strategies or trading baseball cards, your blog can become a hub of activity. Naturally, there are people drawn to blogs to take advantage of the large amount of activity. These people come to your blog with an ulterior motive and are not interested in adding value, but instead try to promote unrelated commercial services with links to other websites, they are known as blog spammers. You can tell who they are because they do not usually add to the conversation, but rather promote their own or someone else’s website. Keeping these people off of your blog will go a long way towards building its legitimacy. Here are three ways to do that.
1) CAPTCHA Them.
First, please forgive the play on words. Okay, a CAPTCHA is a tool for many blogs and other sites which requires the user to enter the text they see in an image that looks slightly garbled of distorted. We’ve all seen them. CAPTCHA is used to prevent automated software from just scanning a website and filling in their information. This is a classic method for spammers. The best part of this is that implementation is free and has very little impact on the end user. It is readily available for WordPress blogs as an add-on called “SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam”. It’s free so go out and grab it if WordPress.com is powering your blog.
2) Papers Please
Another way to ensure that the comments left on your blog are legitimate is to require users to register themselves. This is an almost surefire way to make sure that comments left are legitimate. The biggest downside here is that many users may not wish to set up an account just to comment on a blog. Because of this, registration may be a better idea once your blog is established.
3) Everything in Moderation
The best way to make sure that no one posts something you don’t like is to require moderator approval of all comments. There are two sides to this. On one hand, you will absolute control over anything posted on your site. Nothing will get past you/whomever you place in charge of this duty. On the other hands, you are looking at an inordinate amount of time required to sift through a multitude of entries. Also, users may be less inclined to post if they feel they may be censored for no reason.
Well, that’s all for this week. We covered some basic steps for protecting your blog from spammers and unwanted ads. Check back next week for more!
-Josh and Sean
CDTek.com
Tags: Blog Hints, captcha, comments, internet, Marketing, seo, spammers
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
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Three Ways to Stop or Slow Spam on Your Business Blog
Friday, March 26th, 2010Your blog is a great way to get your particular message out to folks around the world. Whether you are sharing business strategies or trading baseball cards, your blog can become a hub of activity. Naturally, there are people drawn to blogs to take advantage of the large amount of activity. These people come to your blog with an ulterior motive and are not interested in adding value, but instead try to promote unrelated commercial services with links to other websites, they are known as blog spammers. You can tell who they are because they do not usually add to the conversation, but rather promote their own or someone else’s website. Keeping these people off of your blog will go a long way towards building its legitimacy. Here are three ways to do that.
1) CAPTCHA Them.
First, please forgive the play on words. Okay, a CAPTCHA is a tool for many blogs and other sites which requires the user to enter the text they see in an image that looks slightly garbled of distorted. We’ve all seen them. CAPTCHA is used to prevent automated software from just scanning a website and filling in their information. This is a classic method for spammers. The best part of this is that implementation is free and has very little impact on the end user. It is readily available for WordPress blogs as an add-on called “SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam”. It’s free so go out and grab it if WordPress.com is powering your blog.
2) Papers Please
Another way to ensure that the comments left on your blog are legitimate is to require users to register themselves. This is an almost surefire way to make sure that comments left are legitimate. The biggest downside here is that many users may not wish to set up an account just to comment on a blog. Because of this, registration may be a better idea once your blog is established.
3) Everything in Moderation
The best way to make sure that no one posts something you don’t like is to require moderator approval of all comments. There are two sides to this. On one hand, you will absolute control over anything posted on your site. Nothing will get past you/whomever you place in charge of this duty. On the other hands, you are looking at an inordinate amount of time required to sift through a multitude of entries. Also, users may be less inclined to post if they feel they may be censored for no reason.
Well, that’s all for this week. We covered some basic steps for protecting your blog from spammers and unwanted ads. Check back next week for more!
-Josh and Sean
CDTek.com
Tags: Blog Hints, captcha, comments, internet, Marketing, seo, spammers
Posted in Blog | No Comments »