The Collective Is The Focus Group

Originally posted at Experience Matters We've been thinking about the current economic climate and the pressure, not to mention scrutiny digital (if not all) initiatives are currently under. Digital by definition is highly measurable, which can increase the focus of ROI (return on investment) for project before it ever gets off the ground. The challenge however is that there is so much to learn from initiatives that launch insights can be applied directly to that project, or indirectly to something else. In addition to launching our own initiatives as organizations, we realize that companies may not see the advantages they can have simply by listening and potentially participating in what we like to think of as "The Collective". Every day, millions of people are talking about what they care about, and your products and services are most likely part of that story.  Download our POV on "The Collective Is The Focus Group" and let us know what you think about what we have to say about tapping the collective for insights. Is this something that can yield a real return?  You can also see a version of this article on BusinessWeek.

Have you given up with Internet Marketing yet?

Say, have you ever been sent an e-mail that really intrigued you so much that you opened it, and clicked on the link to discover how some so-called internet guru manages to “siphon” a large amount of money regularly into their bank account using some kind of “secret loophole”?

Yes, of course you have, we all have  many times probably! We all get dragged into yet another long one page sales letter with lots of bold statements and claims, photos of luxury homes and fast cars that we surmise are owned by the author, shots of supposedly genuine Click bank statements with “evidence” of wheelbarrow loads of cash shoved in daily, and reasons why the finder of this “underground” method is altruistically selling it to you  for only !

The sad thing is that these ubiquitous nasty brash sales sites selling “get rich quick” systems and software are often the first introduction many people get into the world of Internet Marketing. Yes, maybe if I saw one for the very first time, I would be tempted too. I suppose I would have thought myself lucky having “stumbled” on this “very secret site”. Maybe I would have dashed to get my credit card out of my wallet as this system, implying it could pour thousands daily into my account, was only available for the next 9 customers…and then the site was coming down!

The even sadder thing is that once many folk buy the product, many are disappointed by it, and either get a refund or simply take it on the chin and don’t bother, thinking Internet Marketing is simply not for them.

It’s a real shame as I know that it’s perfectly possible to make a good income from selling on the internet, and some  and I say some of the products sold with the hype-filled sales pages are actually perfectly useful tools or programs when you eventually get them.

But the strange thing is that many of the designers, writers or programmers of new Internet Marketing products get persuaded into selling using these crazy sales pages. They are similar in look, with graphics and buttons and phrases that seem to come from the same design agency.

Why don’t they appeal to the sensible, level headed people among us, and tell us exactly what their product is? If it’s for example article spinning software and an auto submitter, tell us! If it’s a basic Internet Marketing training program me with a few free sites thrown in, tell us! If it’s automatic back link submission software, then please, tell us! But oh, no, most new products have to be called daft titles such as “Auto Traffic Cash Extreme Siphon Empire” or some such nonsense with all the marketing catch phrases and gimmicks they think will make it successful.

Internet Marketing Tips – How to Know If Your Tips Are Outdated

Online marketing how to tips…what would we do without them? I think there are more tips on how to sell on the internet than there is sand at Coney Island. But I truly have to ask this question. By the time you get a hold of these “powerful” tips, are they already outdated? Well, that kind of depends on what the tip is all about and how long it took you to discover it. This article is going to discuss about this problem briefly so you can get a good idea of whether or not to waste your valuable time with the hot tip of the day.

Let’s begin with the type of tip first. This is very important. The reason is because some tips are what I call evergreen tips and will probably remain for years if not forever. Other tips are what I refer to a flash in the pan tips. These tips are usually only useful for a short period of time. Alright, so how can you differentiate them? Well, after you’ve been at this for some time, it’s quite easy. But if you’re new it wouldn’t be so easy. So what are you going to do? Is there a pointer (indicator)?

I look for how specific the marketing tip is. In most cases, the more specific, the shorter the life span, though this is not often the case. For instance, if I read an internet marketing tip that says, “Use Twitter to send out tweets that your blog has been updated in order to drive more traffic to your homepage” that is an example of what I call flash in the pan tip. Why do I say that? Well, for one simple reason, nobody is certain on how long Twitter is going to be around. Of course, it’s the waves of the moment, but who knows what it’s going to be like a year after, or even a few months from now?

On the other side, an internet marketing tip that says “Give your list useful free content and you’ll stand a better chance of keeping them subscribed” is more of an evergreen tip because it’s a broad statement, and if you’ve been doing this for quite some, pretty clear. However, it may not be clear to an individual just starting a list. They may believe that every email has to be a sales pitch. This online marketing tip will tell them that they shouldn’t do that and instead focus on sending their list information that they can use.

Simple And Applicable Strategies For Effective Facebook Marketing

Social networks are helping the brands and products in a handsome way and like any other marketing channel they are doing a perfect job for the marketers. The most favorable factor of these new virtual marketing agents is that they doesn’t need a rocket science to operate and attain the goals and objectives, the only thing required is the perfect and timely implementation.

Discussing social networks means to compile a book because the numbers of social networking websites have increased tremendously within last couple of years. Making it more precise to have a greater benefit we will only discuss the giant of social world who somehow has virtually captured the lives of people. In the present day the most successive and highly user oriented social website is Facebook, but the general strategy for all other social networks remains same.

Facebook Pages: Helps you in analyzing your market popularity, number of ‘likes’(real) on your page describes the awareness among the people about your ‘brand’. Your fan page is like a spokesperson for your company/brand where a two way communication occurs between brand and its consumers. Try to explore and discover the niche and needs of your fans because understanding what your customer wants from you will help you a lot at the stage of production and setting new promotions/offers. In this way you can also eradicate the weaknesses and loopholes in your products and their marketing strategies because customers are the ultimate judges regardless of how much qualitative products/services you offer. Engaging your existing customers, attracting new potential customers and developing a relation of trust and brand loyalty with them should be your only and ultimate goal while doing facebook marketing.