Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Marketing Your Cleaning Business With Flyers

Here's an economical way to advertise to the best neighborhoods in your city. The system outlined here works great for any carpet cleaning, window cleaning, maid service, or pressure washing business.

I get many emails from guys who want to know if passing out flyers will work. They read that I've had success with it and wonder how. Almost everyone has tried passing out flyers at one point. I always hear, "It used to work 10 years ago, but now it just doesn't work any more."

Yes, it may have gotten more difficult. Consumers are getting wiser. A flyer without selling power won't bring you any new clients. Homeowners want to know more than how cheap you are. They are skeptical about bait-and-switch advertising that is prevalent in the cleaning industry. It's up to you to change their mind when you put a flyer on their doorknob.

Marketing Your Cleaning Business With Flyers

First, keep in mind flyers are a cheap way to advertise. This isn't necessarily a good thing. In fact, I usually recommend steering away from cheap ways to advertise because your prospect can view you as cheap. They WILL view you as cheap if all you do is put a piece of paper on their mailbox or a run-of-the-mill door hanger on their door.

You have to do something different. If you're going to use flyers, they have to be something extraordinary. One of the most profitable flyers we've used appears like a folder that sits on a doorknob. Many clients have told me, "I got your nice little information folder." They didn't look at it like some cheap flyer.

Other times, we've put a salesletter, brochure, magnet, and business card in a plastic door hanger bag. In this case, the prospect views it as a package left on the doorknob. If you're going to bother to go out and walk door to door, put something nice on the door. Use full color printing with attention getting pictures. Or, if you use black and white print, make sure it's on a heavy piece of colored paper. You want something that will look good as well as feel good in their hands.

Try using an exclusive offer just for homeowners in a particular neighborhood. Or, use a limited time offer due to a slow week, holiday offer, FREE trial offer, or an offer based around something going on in your city in your flyer. Create a great offer, but also tell how you're unique. Write your flyer with a particular target client in mind.

This is important: When you pass out the flyers, wear your company shirt that identifies who you are. Sometimes people will want to speak with you. NEVER, EVER place a flyer on a mailbox. Stress this to anyone who passes flyers out for you. Then, spot-check the neighborhood to make sure they did it how you asked. It's actually a federal offense to place anything inside or on a mailbox. Plus, it looks unprofessional.

Use flyer advertising as a way to keep your employees busy on a slow afternoon. It can reap a harvest of many clients to come.

Marketing Your Cleaning Business With Flyers
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John Braun is a copywriter with Hitman Advertising. John started a carpet cleaning company while majoring in advertising so he could practice his advertising skills. He grew his company to one of the most profitable cleaning firms in his area. Now, he teaches cleaners to STOP wasting money and start getting all the profit possible. John offers copywriting services to cleaning companies. He creates highly profitable salesletters, postcards, newspaper ads, radio commercials, and flyers. He can create one for you.

John also offers a complete advertising package called the SECRETS TO PROFITABLE ADVERTISING. Go to the link below for more details.

"Get Your FREE Copy of John's Advertising Planning System That Makes Him ,247 For Every 0 Spent On Ads." To Get Your Copy FREE -- visit www.MarketingCarpetCleaning.com

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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

What is e-Marketing?

e-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to talk about, since no one succeeded to unify the various theories around it; however there is one thing upon which there is no doubt - that e-Marketing first appeared under the form of various techniques deployed by pioneer companies selling their products via the internet in the early 90's.

The frenzy around these new marketing techniques created by e-tailers and supported by the internet rapidly gave birth to a new dimension of what we knew as Marketing: the e-Marketing (electronic Marketing).

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

There are many definitions to what e-Marketing is, the simplest and shortest one being formulated by Mark Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing that uses the internet as manifestation media. A working definition is that coming from a group of CISCO specialists: e-Marketing is the sum of all activities a business conducts through the internet with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers.

e-Marketing Strategy

The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing - the well-known 4 P's (Product - Price - Promotion - Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P's (People - Processes - Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix.

Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate e-Marketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 + 3 P's) is built around the concept of "transactional" and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives e-Marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion.

These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any e-Marketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate, operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P's) and upon each other.

1. Personalization

The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the e-Marketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services.

For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor's computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a low-volume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer's experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages.

Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function.

2. Privacy

Privacy is an element of the mix very much connected to the previous one - personalization. When we gather and store information about our customers and potential customers (therefore, when we perform the personalization part of the e-Marketing mix) a crucial issue arises: that of the way this information will be used, and by whom. A major task to do when implementing an e-Marketing strategy is that of creating and developing a policy upon access procedures to the collected information.

This is a duty and a must for any conscious marketer to consider all aspects of privacy, as long as data are collected and stored, data about individual persons.

Privacy is even more important when establishing the e-Marketing mix since there are many regulations and legal aspects to be considered regarding collection and usage of such information.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is one of the necessary and required activities among the support functions needed in transactional situations.

We will connect the apparition of the customer service processes to the inclusion of the "time" parameter in transactions. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is mostly based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw himself somehow forced into considering support and assistance on a non-temporal level, permanently, over time.

For these reasons, we should consider the Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within the e-Marketing mix.

As we can easily figure out, the service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from the classic 4 P's, hence its moderating character.

4. Community

We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by the existence of this impressive network that the internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a "community" and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community.

The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that the value of a network is given by the number of its components, more exactly the value of a network equals the square of the number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that the value of a community rises with the number of its members. This is the power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it.

The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by the marketer) - therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential.

Interactions among members of such a community can address any of the other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions.

5. Site

We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media - the internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place - a digital location for digital interactions.

Such a location is what we call a "site", which is the most widespread name for it. It is now the time to mention that the "website" is merely a form of a "site" and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The "site" can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example.

This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of the e-Marketing - it is then a moderating function.

6. Security

The "security" function emerged as an essential function of e-Marketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels.

What we need to keep in mind as marketers are the following two issues on security:

- security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction;

- security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors.

A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with the company's IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards the customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes.

7. Sales Promotion

At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume.

This function counts on the marketer's ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan.

On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.

To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from the traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)
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Otilia Otlacan is a young certified professional with expertise in e-Marketing and e-Business, currently working as independent consultant and e-publisher. She developed and teach her own online course in "Principles of e-Marketing" and is also a volunteer Economics teacher.

You can contact her via her personal website at BRAINmarketing.net [http://www.brainmarketing.net] or check out her latest developing Marketing resources project at TeaWithEdge.com

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Copywriting: Drafting Rules for Professionals

As a professional contractor who wears many hats, you owe it to yourself and your clients to be as organized as possible. In a previous article, I discussed the importance of delivering an organized draft that your co-creators can easily work from. Following are some suggestions for freelance copywriters who wish to streamline their copy submission process and ensure a crisp, clean draft every time.

General Copy Drafting Rules

1. Do not deviate from the standard fonts, Arial or Times New Roman, 10 or 12 point.

Copywriting: Drafting Rules for Professionals

2. Submit all copy with ONE SPACE after a period, NOT TWO.

3. Save all copy drafts as a Word document.

4. Make sure that SMART QUOTES and all "autoformatting" is shut off before typing your copy into a fresh Word document. That means NO auto indents, NO auto bullets, NO fraction symbols, etc.

5. Use BOLD, ITALIC or UNDERLINE where necessary. You may also html tag these as so bold if the client has requested it.

6. Every draft should be spellchecked by computer and by eyeball.

Setting Up Your Copy Draft

Develop a Standard Copy Draft Template. Use this template to set up each initial copy draft you create. Be sure to include the following:

A Header that lists:

1. The client's name or company name

2. The author (your name)

3. Today's date

4. Project description

5. Draft Number

A Footer that includes the page number.

(To add page numbers, go the top menu and click INSERT and then PAGE NUMBERS.)

When creating a new document, follow the drafting process as outlined below.

1. Open up the Copy Draft Template on your desktop

2. Immediately do a Save-As and rename the document as follows:

XXX_descrip_draftX

In this naming conventention, the three Xs represent the first three letters of the client's company name. The label "descrip" should be replaced by a qualifier. "DraftX" will be the draft number.

Sample filename for "Rocky's Hot Wings" menu copy, draft number two:

ROC_menu_draft2

In creating additional revised drafts of this copy, use an identical file naming format, replacing only the X value at the end of the filename.

Note: If for some reason you don't have access to your Standard Copy Draft Template, you can create your own document from scratch provided the following is included:

Before you being typing, "prep your document" by doing the following:

1. Turn off the SMART QUOTES feature.

The reason for this is because HTML and PDFs do not interpret curly quotes and curly single quotes or apostrophes correctly. This will CORRUPT your text with weird-looking symbols throughout.

Despite what your college professor may have told you, MAKE SURE YOU USE STRAIGHT QUOTES (") AND FOOT MARKS(') in all of your copy drafts for any client jobs.

2. Turn off all AUTO FORMATTING.

Auto formatting is of absolutely no use to someone who plans to format text into their own style sheets or graphic design. It is more trouble than it's worth so DO NOT hand in formatted text of any kind.

Do not tab, bullet, auto-number, auto-correct, auto-cap, make fractions out of or otherwise format your text.

Label Your Sections

While not every project will require you to divide it into sections, items such as e-book copy, catalog copy and web copy will. If you're working on something that will be presented visually in pieces, label each section of your copy with an appropriate descriptor. Use a BOLD font or some other qualifier to indicate section descriptions.

Note: your section descriptors should not be confused with your headlines. Do something "different" to the section descriptors and apply that treatment uniformly throughout the piece. For example, if your headlines are bolded already, you may want to ALL-CAP your section headers to eliminate confusion.

For example, if you're writing web copy, you might title your descriptors as so:

HOME PAGE

ABOUT US PAGE

PRODUCTS PAGE

SERVICES PAGE

CONTACT PAGE

You can also label your headlines and subheadlines so that whoever is picking up your copy can be sure of how to lay it all out. For example:

TIPS PAGE

Headline: Web Copywriting Basics

Subhead: Master the Tricks the Pros Use

Formatting "Lists"

Some projects such as taglines, banner ad ideas and headline brainstorms will require that you submit them in list format.

Type your lists at 12 point and don't skip a line between each listing. The customer will likely be paying by the page, so he'll want his money's worth of creative input.

Editing An Existing Draft

You may be required to edit a draft occasionally that someone else will make changes to. If this is the case, use the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word. As you edit, your "suggested" revisions will show up in the document as crossouts, replaced text and word additions in a different color than the original text.

You may also be required to make the final revisions on a document that has already been edited with the Track Changes feature. If this is the case, open the document on your desktop, do a Save As, and rename the document to the next consecutive draft number.

You will have to go up to the Track Changes menu again and uncheck the boxes so that you'll be able to make your revisions without "crossouts" and colored edits showing up.

After you've shut off this feature, implement the requested changes as per normal draft creation. Don't forget to SAVE every few minutes!

Preparing a Document for Email Transmission

Note: Before you send your copy draft document, be sure that it's saved as a Word document on your desktop and not in your Temp folder. If you leave it in the Temp folder and then make draft revisions, you can count on losing track of where those revisions are later. They may even be deleted accidentally!

After saving your document to the desktop, attach it to an email message with appropriate intro text.

Your email subjectline should be titled to reflect the client name, project description and draft number.

Sample Email Subjectline:

Rocky's Hot Wings Menu Copy Draft 1

When you make future revisions and subsequent drafts of this client's copy, retain the identical email subjectline and delete the "RE:" from the subjectline, as this will mess up the sorting of your emails in your inbox as well as tick off the person who is on the receiving end of the work.

Your next draft of this same file should be named:

Rocky's Hot Wings Menu Copy Draft 2

At some point you may want to ask questions, qualify what you wrote, make a suggestion or otherwise comment along with copy you submit. The ideal place to do this is in the email itself, as a brief memo. Be sure to include your contact information such as email address and phone number at the bottom of the email for quick reference.

Storing Your Files

For your own peace of mind, it's wise to store existing drafts in their own properly labeled folders on your Desktop or wherever you prefer to keep your work files. You never know when a client will want to go back to "square one" and if you know where square one is located you can save yourself a lot of anguish.

If you have any questions about setting up, submitting or sending copy drafts, please contact Dina Giolitto, Copywriting Consultant, at http://Wordfeeder.com.

Copywriting: Drafting Rules for Professionals
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Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free.

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Cleaning Service Flyers to Advertise Your Small Cleaning Business

Whether you are a new or existing cleaning service provider you can benefit greatly from service flyers to help boost your advertising campaign. You will especially find them useful as an economic alternative to other mainstream advertising alternatives if you own a micro business or are self employed. We don't all have the business budget of a chain of restaurants but with flyer printing you can get a highly effective marketing method for a reasonable and affordable price.

Here's how flyer printing can help you to create a healthy business growth without breaking your budget.

Using an Effective Design.

Cleaning Service Flyers to Advertise Your Small Cleaning Business

Before you take your finished design to the printing company make sure it adheres to their guidelines and regulations. Make sure you are familiar with their printing specifications such as bleed measurements and resolution. Every printing company is different to make sure you ask if you are unsure. You should also make sure you embed and expand all external images and all type in your design. This will avoid missing pictures and different fonts being printed.

Saving some Money.

Save money on your flyer printing job by ordering bulk to take advantage of the bulk discount offers. Make sure you order well in advance to cut down on speedy delivery costs and choose the lowest delivery postage option. Do not compromise on the quality of your flyer to save money, there are plenty of other ways you can save money without sacrificing things like color printing and professional design.

Distribution.

Distribute your cleaning flyers by any means possible to get the maximum exposure possible in your area. Leave your flyers in places people are likely to read them such as in cafés and bars. Use direct mailing as well as newspaper and magazine inserts. Ask local businesses that also target your group of customers for other services if you can leave your flyers with them. Visit offices and leave flyers in the receptions and with the manager in case they would be interested in your cleaning services. Lastly don't forget to include small businesses, many of these businesses need a helping hand to clean their stores and can provide steady regular business for you.

Find New Customers.

Your distribution methods have brought your business to the customer instead of waiting for them to find you. If your distribution plan was expansive and thorough you will quickly find new potential customers you may not have been exposed to before. Because your flyer design is professional and effective you will also find your conversion rate for turning potential customers into actual customers is also increased. That means many more new customers coming through your door.

Get More Phone Calls.

Because you are getting many more new customers, it stands to reason that you'll get more calls asking for your services from referrals and interested parties. You'll also find that your regular customer base will expand and more people will call for price inquiries and to ask about services or talk about what you have to offer. Create a cleaning service flyer that will take your business to the next level, it's cost-effective, relatively easy to complete, and the rewards are great.

Cleaning Service Flyers to Advertise Your Small Cleaning Business
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Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Chris Barr is an experienced marketing professional and graduate of Christopher Newport University. His areas of expertise include SEO, Direct Mail, Ad Campaigns, Business Development, Copywriting, Product Management, New Vertical Identification, Lead/Pipeline Development, PPC (Google, Yahoo, MSN), Email Campaigns (HTML), Analytics, Technical Writing, PR (press releases, radio, media communications, Organic Search Optimization, Article Writing, Technical Writing, Video and Audio Production, Blogs/Web 2.0/Social Networking, Link Building, MS Windows XP/Vista/Office, ACT!. Chris currently serves as Marketing Director for Taradel.com and may be contacted directly regarding your print advertising needs.

Copyright© 2009 Taradel, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Meaning of XING

When my wife and I took our first trip to California before we moved here, we saw a large population of Asian Americans in San Francisco. We had come West from Massachusetts, partly because the state we lived in felt like it was still attached to a round world, and we were seeking the new flat world.

California fit that more modern heterogeneous model of a flat world state.

As we were driving down to Big Sur, we passed a number of schools where the crosswalk had the letters "XING" stenciled onto the roadway in large white letters.

The Meaning of XING

After seeing them a number of times, I turned to my wife and said "See all those "XING" words in the crosswalks?"

"Yes I have," she answered "and I've been wondering what they mean."

Now by nature, and hopefully nurture as well, I am not a nasty person prone to pranks or wisecracks, put-downs or practical jokes. But for some reason I couldn't resist. Maybe the devil made me do it ...

"Well "XING" is Chinese for "Be Careful". It tells all the Asian American kids who can't speak good English yet that they need to watch out when they cross the road."

"That's really nice. I knew I liked California, they would never do something like that back home."

"That's right," I told her. "Only in California."

For the rest of the trip, every time we passed a school and drove across a crosswalk, we would sing in unison "XING" (sounds like Shing, only hold the end for a few seconds).

Until she finally figured it out. "XING"was nothing more than a shortened version of "CROSSING", like Xmas is a shortened version of Christmas.

After that trip, whenever one of us would fake the other one out, the Faker had the right to say "XING", as in "Gotcha", to the Fakee.

Now what on earth, flat or round, does this have to do with Internet Copywriting?

Simple...

If you've read this far, you were hooked by the story. And if I was selling "XING" soap or, more likely, a "XING" web marketing scam, you might be well on your way to becoming one of The Converted.

So here's the lesson and the real meaning of "XING".

Great or even good storytelling is one of the most powerful and seductive ways a Copywriter can take control of your mind. So be careful where you put your brain.

If you let a great Copywriter lead you down the garden path, if you give your self over to someone's compelling story, before you know it you'll be hitting that "Buy Now" button.

Then again, it might just be worth it to pay for the entertainment.

P.S. I'd also bet you won't forget the new meaning of "XING" for a long time.

P.P.S. I also know that if you tried to sing it the way I told you, you'll probably hear it inside your head the next time you drive across a crosswalk marked "XING".

The Meaning of XING
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I am a highly successful copywriter whose work you have more than likely read. I am currently copywriting for my own information products, under the banner of KnowledgeStar, providing advice for The Boomers - from living healthier lives using alternative medicines to making money investing in disruptive technology.

I want to share what I have learned with other aspiring online copywriters and people trying to make money online with web marketing.

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