Monday, September 13, 2010

4.6 BILLION Mobile Subscriptions by End of 2010

This interesting report by the ‘International Telecommunication Union‘ shows that mobile growth is continuing unabated, with global mobile subscriptions likely to top 4.6 billion by the end of the 2009, and mobile broadband subscriptions to top 600 million in 2009, having overtaken fixed broadband subscribers in 2008.

http://lazerpromotions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/pr-39-graph.jpg

If you are running a business and are looking to get into the mobile marketing game, please check out our full-service mobile marketing solution.

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Knowing How to Reach Your Market

There used to be a time when a business trying to reach a female demographic would be wise to schedule advertisements during soap operas. Times have definitely changed. According to online research firm BIGresearch, women are likely to be watching:

Hispanics

* Soap operas 63.7%
* Sports 61.8%

African/Americans

* Soap operas 53.8%
* Sports 66.2%

Asians

* Soap operas 40.2%
* Sports 55%

Caucasians

* Soap operas 36.3%
* Sports 60.7%

This is not just for television. Even online searches for sports vary by ethnic group. About 42% of women engage in this activity, but rates are much higher for Asians (50.3%) and Hispanics (49.3%).

This goes to show that a business really needs to do their research before assuming what worked in the past is still relevant today. Times have definitely changed, and any business that refuses to keep up will certainly be left behind.

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Positive Entrepreneurial Attitude = Recipe for Success

It’s widely accepted that a positive attitude can give you a happier and healthier life, but it’s less widely known that it can also help to make your business more successful.

Entrepreneurs need many qualities to be successful, with one of the most important being persistence. Even if they fail at something, they need to have the persistence to treat it as a learning experience, pick themselves up and keep moving forward.

If you visualize a given situation in a positive light, you’re likely going to see the possibilities rather than the failures. These possibilities might end up being the driving force that will keep you focused and moving towards your ultimate goal. Once you stop working with a particular goal in mind, you might as well look for something else to do.

A positive attitude usually makes one a happier person, and happier people are often a more appealing business partner. The idea is not to unrealistically look at every situation and consider it perfect, but to see a problem or negative result as a learning tool and look at it with its possibilities rather than it’s problems.

Of course looking at everything this way can be a tough thing to do, especially when the tangible results you see from a particular project aren’t what you were expecting. Here are a few steps, some large, some small, that you can take to put a more positive spin on your business and your life.

- Surround yourself with generally positive people. You can’t choose everyone you have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, but you can make sure the people you do choose aren’t dragging you down. If you have a good friend or family member that seems to take a negative slant to everything and you find that they seem to be bringing you down, tell then how you feel and try to make it a challenge to both turn your thinking around.

- Give yourself positive affirmations every day. These are positive statements about your business and yourself that you repeat to yourself at least once a day. You will likely find that you start believing these things more and more. You might want to even write them down and put them in a place that you’ll see every day.

- Make a list of your accomplishments. At the end of every business day, make a list of what you completed that day. Keep it positive and purposely push the negative thoughts out of your head. At the beginning of the next day you should read these accomplishments to help give you a positive start to your day. You can use the previous day’s accomplishments to chart your goals for the day and week ahead.

- Take care of yourself. It’s hard to be positive about the situation you are in if you don’t feel good about yourself. This can be done by eating better, exercising regularly, and keeping a normal schedule. If you feel like your business is causing stress, take a day or two off and allow yourself to rejuvenate. On these days, try not to look at email or answer your phone. Give your clients notice that you’ll be unavailable and go away. These breaks can be great for clearing your mind of negative thoughts and giving you a fresh new perspective on your business and your life.

Times can be tough, but looking at the potential of every situation instead of the problems can go a long way. If you take whatever steps are necessary to make yourself into a generally positive person, you might not only see a difference in your business results, but might also notice a higher quality of your personal life as well.

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Online Business Marketing

The Internet has thrown open the gates for business ventures to quickly achieve results that were once thought impossible. As the Internet continues to expand its reach, online business marketing and advertising have begun to take a bigger slice of the overall marketing pie. A majority of the population is still surfing and searching the internet, and a business that is able to reach these people when they are ready to buy what they are selling will almost certainly succeed.

All of these people are potential buyers for an online business. This opportunity makes having an online business marketing plan absolutely critical. Many businesses are succeeding in promoting their products this way in order to improve their profitability. In some ways, the internet has made what was once considered impossible possible for many businesses worldwide. In what other way can a small business reach out to an individual in another state, or even another country?

You should be dedicated and determined to achieve your goal – and possess the right mindset to NOT give up if you have any initial setbacks. Such failures might discourage you, but if you are not able to use it as a learning experience and keep pursuing your goal, you will likely never get to where you want to be. The best advice would be to not keep changing strategies just because you have had a couple setbacks. Take these as an opportunity to learn in order to move forward. Don’t use them as a reason to give up or change directions.

The most successful business strategies often include several different methods of promotion – both on and offline. Don’t find yourself in the position of putting too much effort into a single strategy. The marketing industry changes so quickly that what works today might not work tomorrow. If you are promoting your brand using several different methods, seeing one of them fail won’t be too much of a setback. Also, don’t forget that not everyone is online. Promoting your brand offline will help even the most non-technical savvy individuals hear about it. As you continue to diversify your strategies you will eventually find the most effective one and be able to focus on it to achieve your desired goals.

Remember, when doing online marketing – diversity is important. The most effective plans incorporate several different options. Many business owners don’t have the time to learn all the various marketing strategies and would rather focus on the business itself while outsourcing many of the online marketing tasks.

There are many online marketing advertising businesses that can help you to improve the results of your marketing campaigns. Due to the rapidly changing landscape, it can be hard to keep up on the latest technologies and techniques, and the right firm might be able to open an entirely new world right in front of your eyes.

Many of the online business marketing companies are willing to offer trial periods for their services – which allows you to test it before any sort of long term commitment. If you are considering one that doesn’t, ask them if they will. Any successful marketing business should have enough confidence in their work to allow trial periods. If they don’t, perhaps you should look for another.

Check out the Logic Path Marketing Club for more information on how to join a marketing club that can help you with the marketing of your online business.

 

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Internet Marketing Is Still Viable

Many experts say that the internet marketing industry has become over-saturated. However, with the right plan that utilizes multiple strategies, it’s still quite possible to stand out from the crowd.

There are a number of tools and techniques that you can utilize to improve your internet marketing skills, which will likely lead to an improvement in your overall business. With the internet still emerging as the most profitable marketing avenue, everyone is rushing to use it to promote their products or services. The range of internet marketing options can be staggering when you are first starting out, but it is becoming an essential way to promote your product and establish your identity.

There are many ways to get ahead in this type of marketing. For example, email marketing is an incredibly effective way to promote your business. All you need to do is offer some sort of incentive to new subscribers, send them valuable and relevant information, and then market to them in an unobtrusive and friendly manner. The latest studies are showing that the Return on Investment (ROI) for email marketing is over $40 for every single dollar spent, making it far more profitable than most other methods of advertising.

Another effective way is to find and join one of the various networking or Marketing Clubs that have popped up in recent years. These clubs have introduced many new methods that would be too expensive to do on your own, but become quite affordable when using the power of numbers. For example, cooperative advertising, marketing and information products and Internet Marketing advice and consulting can be costly, but when doing it as a group, it becomes much easier.

These clubs also can offer some good social networking benefits. Through such a club, you will be able to interact and share ideas as well as find out what works for other like-minded business owners.

Marketing clubs are varied and the strategies and techniques they employ are usually distinct. Many of them offer products, services, networking opportunities, website optimization tools, advice, and more. The overall goal is to promote your product or service effectively, drive more traffic to your website and ensure that the traffic is converted into buyers.

Check out the Logic Path Marketing Club for more information on how to join a marketing club that can help you with the marketing of your online business.

 

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing is perhaps the most cost-effective direct marketing method, enabling marketers a degree of targeting along with the luxury of full tracking and analytics to measure and tweak results. By allowing direct delivery of targeted marketing message to voluntary recipients, an email marketing campaign can ensure business owners a solid ROI and deliver high-margin revenue. It also allows for the possibility to test new ideas and closely track metrics. As a result, email marketing remains an increasingly popular form of direct marketing among online business consultants and business owners alike, with growth far outstripping other marketing channels.

So what are the benefits of email marketing, and to what extent does it represent an attractive option for businesses looking to generate more sales leads?

The benefits of email marketing are multifaceted, and have seen it rise to one of the most commonly used direct marketing channels by online business consultants and business owners. By 2011, as email marketing continues to grow, it is projected that sales generated from it will reach $37 billion. Because of the targeted nature of email marketing, particularly with double opt-in subscribers, selling to email prospects is almost as easy as selling to customers in a shop: once they’re through the door, a certain percentage will certainly buy from you.

On average, it takes an average of communications with a prospect before they spend any money. With email marketing, you have the opportunity to build this proximate relationship and effectively and quickly turn lukewarm leads into sales. What’s more, with very little cost associated with sending email marketing messages, the benefits for your business can be profound. It’s also important to bear in mind that over time, you will have the opportunity to refine and test different campaign factors, to generate a closer relationship that generates even more in revenue in the future. Working with online business consultants to refine your marketing plan and email campaign, it is possible to constantly revise the formula upwards to deliver even more of a return on your campaign spend.

Email marketing opt in subscribers are also low-cost leads going forward, making it a popular marketing method for online business consultants. The cost of attracting a new lead is 5 to 10 times more expensive than retaining and selling to an existing one, thus capturing leads and marketing through an email autoresponder makes for an opportunity to sell to the same prospects going forward, multiple times over. Not only does this increase revenue per lead, but also decreases or even eliminates the cost of attracting new leads, to ultimately deliver more profit, regardless of the sector in which you operate.

Thus the advantages of implementing email marketing make it a worthwhile practice for a growing number of businesses. Most online business consultants will tell you the benefits of email marketing and the impact it can have on your business. Low-cost and high0impact, email marketing is fast becoming the mainstay of many businesses’ online marketing, delivering a measurable return on investment and driving more fresh sales prospects in the process.

For more information on email marketing, or to sign up for a membership that includes the solution, please visit the Logic Path Marketing Club page.

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

The U.S. is Catching Up to The World in the SMS Marketing Race

Mobile marketing is marketing directly to consumers through SMS messaging, leveraging the growing number of mobile phone owners and users. Mobile (or text) marketing is predicted to be the next major global technology phenomenon, and to a certain extent it is already used across Europe and Asia by businesses of all sizes to deliver targeted marketing messages on a wholesale scale.

Mobile marketing business consultants and service providers already have access to the frameworks for dealing with SMS text marketing, yet still the US market remains behind much of the rest of the world in mobile SMS marketing.

The US is surprisingly far behind when it comes to utilizing available mobile technologies. While the Internet is very much the domain of US business, in mobile communications the US seems to lag some way behind the rest of the world. There are 36 countries in the world that have over 100% per-capita usage of mobile phones, including many otherwise poor and indebted nations. The US, for whatever reason, isn’t one of these countries.

Forecasts predict that the US will reach the 100% mark by 2013, putting it behind many other countries already far beyond that level of market penetration. When we examine the statistics, the US is currently sitting at 86% per-capita usage, compared to Taiwan’s 106%, the UK’s 120%, Italy’s 140% and 150% in Hong Kong and Estonia (this means that there are more mobile phones than people). This also means there is still some way to go before the US is ‘in’ as deep as many of its European and Asian counterparts. However, this may mean that mobile marketing in the US has an even longer lifespan at maximum responsiveness, while the penetration of the technologies reaches the levels of other nations.

There are still gaps to be exploited in mobile technologies in the US. This doesn’t mean that the effectiveness of SMS marketing is reduced, rather it may give it a level of exclusivity that makes it even MORE effective. As noted earlier, signs are showing that the gap in overall mobile phone penetration between the US and Asia is closing. For advertisers, this means the mobile marketing business is still in it’s infancy, but looks like it is here to stay. For those looking to jump on board, the rewards for being an early adopter may prove even more valuable.

With mobile marketing, business owners across the world are realizing the benefits of this kind of promotion on their bottom line. The mobile marketing business looks set to continue to grow at a rapid rate over the next few years. Consumers in the US are yet to be fully exposed to marketing through SMS, and as such are still very responsive to message passed through this medium.

Indeed, when compared to broadcast and print marketing, the results are staggering. As such, it’s only a matter of time before the mobile marketing business in the US catches up with the more established mobile marketing business sectors in Europe and Asia, which will provide advertisers with a whole world of new marketing possibilities.

For a custom, hands-off SMS solution for your business, please visit our mobile marketing page.

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

The Future is Mobile & Email Marketing

According to recent data from ABI Research, consumers are increasingly demanding smartphones. It’s only a matter of time before most consumers have a smartphone, especially since by 2014 45% of the smartphones shipped that year will be priced below $200.

This of course offers opportunities for mobile marketing, makes it more and more interesting to create a mobile version of your website but it also has important consequences for mobile email.

According to the ‘European email marketing consumer report 2009’ from contactlab, email accounts are more often checked on smartphones, although there are important differences per country.

In Italy for instance 12.4% of consumers access their email accounts via their smartphone, in the UK that’s 7.6% and in Germany 6.5%. Remember: we are also talking consumers here and adoption of smartphones is growing very rapidly. We don’t know many professional users that don’t check their emails on their iPhone, BlackBerry or whatever.

Mobile email is growing and it will keep on growing. However reading email on mobile phones isn’t always that easy, as the people at Emailgarage told us. That’s an issue you’d best keep in mind when drawing out your (mobile) email campaigns.

But how exactly do you go about keeping this important user group satisfied? For starters, you could shorten and clearly describe your URLs. That will prevent them from being cut halfway, making them useless.

Also keep an eye on the weight of your images and optimize rendering when images or html are turned off. And it’s always a clever idea to add a link to view the message in its full glory on your website.

Mobile email usage will keep on growing as smartphones and mobile web devices become standard. Make sure your email communication is optimized for this mobile (r)evolution.

For customized, hands-off email and mobile marketing solutions, please visit our solutions page.

 

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Keep Your Business Vision Alive

The problem with many small business owners is that when they get started they’re all gung-ho and working hard, but after they reach some disappointment, they lose sight of their vision and often stop trying as hard. To run a successful business, it is essential to keep your vision alive.

The first step in keeping your vision alive is to have a clear vision in the first place. If you haven’t already, try sitting down and writing a clear vision statement, for your business and yourself. Think about why you started your business, and what you hope to achieve.

While it’s important to have a vision statement, you have to keep it in mind if you’re going to actually achieve it. Having an idea of what you want doesn’t really matter if you throw it in a drawer and only think about it once every six months. Try posting it somewhere in your office or having it written down where you will see it regularly.

It might also help you to do more than just post your vision. Most people know the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is true in many ways. Find pictures that make you think of what you want and what your goals are in life, and post them in places you’ll see. If may be posters around your office or even just your computer desktop. They’ll serve as a constant reminder of what you’re working for.

To keep your vision going, it’s important that your work reflects your vision. That means not only working towards your goals, but associating with people who feel the same. Sure, you’re not always going to be able to choose who you work with, but you can still try to make business contacts who have similar vision and beliefs as you. These people will help you stick to what you want and become successful.

It’s a generally accepted fact that if you’re surrounded by negative people, you’ll probably start thinking negatively eventually. Attitude is something that permeates to the people around us. To help keep your vision on track, surround yourself not only with positive people, but with those that share your vision, or a similar one. They will help keep you on track when you get discouraged.

If you’re having trouble focusing on your vision statement, maybe it’s not you that needs help, maybe it’s just your vision. You are not the same person you were when you opened your business, so why is your vision statement the same? If your vision statement doesn’t reflect what you want anymore, considering reviewing and revising it. Just be sure not to do it too often, or you’ll find yourself going from focus to focus without actually accomplishing anything.

What’s most important is not to lose faith in yourself and your business. Great businessmen aren’t the ones who have never failed, they’re the ones who failed and kept on going.

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

The Importance of Self Development

If you have no other reason for self-development, technology is it. Technology is changing constantly, and if you’re not up to date, you’re probably going to be left behind. Even if you choose not to use what’s available, you need to be knowledgeable to keep up with your marketing methods and to figure out how to get ahead of those who are using these technologies.

An important part of being a small business owner is staying connected to other people. You generally need people to work with, and you don’t just need to meet them, you also need them to think you’re knowledgeable and worth working with. Going to classes and seminars not only helps you meet business contacts, it also helps you gain knowledge so you can sound like you know what you’re doing and people will want to give you business.

If you own your own small business, you probably are well aware of the rush you get when you take on a new project or come up with a new idea or new way to get things done more efficiently. Gradually, however, that initial push wears off and you sink back into the same old plodding-through work.

Now imagine if you were learning about a cool new product or idea every few weeks, or even every day. You could keep that energy burst going and going. That’s one of the biggest benefits of self-expansion. It keeps you excited about work and wanting to learn more and do more. And in the end, you get more done.

If you’re working on your own, you don’t have a boss to constantly offer to send you to meetings and conferences to expand your horizons. That means you have to find them yourself.

There are all kinds of options out there for self-expansion. Here are just a few general categories but the list goes on:

- E-books

- Seminars

- Local classes

- Online courses

- Newsletters

With all the options available, it’s may be hard for you to figure out which direction you want to go. There are thousands of programs, newsletters, seminars, ebooks, and all kinds of products out there to help you expand yourself and your business.

Before you try to find ways to develop yourself, you need to figure out what you want. This means setting your priorities and business goals. Do you want to make lots of money? Do you want to help others? Or do you just want to have a career your can balance with your already full life? What you want is the most important thing and should be your starting point.

Once you have a vague direction, talk to other people with the same interests and ask for options. Starting with things like newsletters and message boards are great because they’ll probably help you find more information for self-expansion. The key to staying successful is to never stop learning.

 

 

http://hostmyrss.com/feed/logicpathmarketing10

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Tips on Email Marketing Management

List building is one of the most profitable online ventures that you can ever get into. And if you are already making good money through your website, adding list building and an email marketing management solution into your arsenal might give a good boost to your income earning potential.

This is because a list is a very personal and direct way of communicating with your potential customers. You are conversing with people straight through their email inbox. For a short period of time, you likely have their undivided attention as they are reading whatever it is you have to say or offer them. With a good email marketing management software program, you can introduce each email with the name of the recipient. This personal level of communication is not possible with your more ‘traditional’ forms of advertising.

Remember that email marketing is all about relationships and not merely blasting your list with advertisements. Think about it…if every time a friend called you he was trying to get you to buy something, you’d eventually stop answering the phone when he called. This is the same mentality you should have when using email marketing. The overall goal is to slowly brand yourself as an expert in your field and build a two-way relationship with each of your subscribers in order to convert them into loyal customers.

A good business marketing strategy, especially for an email management program, would likely include the following:

1. Be as personal as possible, without overdoing it.
As mentioned earlier, most email marketing management programs will give you the ability to automatically put the names of your readers on each email. All you have to do is to write the message and the program will personalize it for you. Statistics say that people will read the whole email if they see their names in the body of the message. Just be carefully not to overdo it. Just adding the {first.name} tag at the introduction of each email should be more than enough. There is no need to keep adding their name in multiple places throughout the message.

2. Write as if you are talking to a friend.
People often feel much more comfortable when they are being talked to on a very personal level. If you walked into a store and were greeting in a professional, yet friendly, manner, you’d likely feel pretty good about the place. The tone of your emails should be the same – professional, friendly, and more informative than pushy. This will likely cause people to eventually get excited about your message.

3. Do not bombard your list with emails.
This is an important business marketing strategy that is often ignored. Many online marketers send daily emails to their list, all under the guise of trying to gain brand recognition. If you built your list with a single or double opt-in requirement (and you did, right?), you are not doing anything wrong legally. But the term ‘spammer’ is thrown around quite loosely these days. Even if you are not spamming anyone, once you get that label it’s hard to overcome. Much like in real life, a bad reputation can be a big obstacle to your overall goals. As long as you keep #1 and #2 in mind, a weekly email should be more than enough.

The goal of an email marketing campaign is forging a lasting and very personal relationship with the people on your list. Contrary to what many marketers believe, the goal should NOT be to get people to immediately buy what you’re selling. Keeping your emails informative in nature and truly adding value to each one will eventually brand you as an expert in your industry. Once you get that label, your subscribers will not only be more receptive to your products or services, but they may even reach out to when they need something.

And, after all, isn’t this why you started your business in the first place? To fill a need? Email marketing is just a simpler and more personal way of doing so, with a much larger reach and on a more personal level.

If you aren’t sure how to get started with your own campaign, be sure to check out our email marketing page for your own custom built solution.

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com

 

Competitive Markets And Marketing Business Software

The competition in online marketing is getting so strong that a business needs to have a planned approach and a consistent strategy in order to make it work. The vast number of marketers makes it a tough task to establish your brand online unless you have developed and are practicing competitive marketing strategies. Once you have determined your target market, you must then get through the daily bombardment of ads and spam to reach them. Only then can you attempt to build a long-term relationship with these prospects.

To be successful in Internet marketing, you need your product or service to be visible. This can be time and resource consuming. First of all, to gain the attention of a visitor to your website and then attempt to sell your product, you can’t ignore the buyer’s needs and the reason they landed on your website. When you have spent money and time on reaching out to the customer, it only makes sense to try to maintain the interaction.

You can attempt to build your customer base and creating brand loyalty through email marketing software, also known as email marketing management software. This tool helps you in sending emails, newsletters, follow-up emails and any other type of electronic communication. This incredible time saver successfully delivers messages or products to your customers automatically and with very little effort.

This marketing business software helps you by continuously sending updated information via email to your customers and prospects. By asking visitors to your website to sign up for more information, it will help you keep them informed and updated about your product, industry or company. Email marketing software tracking helps to track your efforts and customers to ensure the relationship is maintained.
You may want to offer a free gift or information to those that join your list. Many visitors will be interested and opt-in for your free services. Not only will your clientele likely find this very valuable, but you will be able to brand yourself as an expert in your particular industry. Once you have gained this status, selling what you have to offer can be relatively easy.

This marketing business software can also help you reach out to previous customers. It is far easier to sell to a satisfied customer than it is to find a new one. Previous customers are also more likely to purchase high-ticket items from you because they know what you offer and how it can benefit them.

It should be your goal to provide as much information as possible on your website. Offer a related free gift in exchange for their contact information, and then follow up with them in a non-intrusive way until they have enough knowledge to be able to make an informed purchase – hopefully from you! Once they do so, move them to a different list (of previous buyers) and begin to send them information on bigger products with higher profit margins. This is how you turn a simple email marketing campaign into a loyal customer base that becomes a profitable funnel of dedicated buyers.

For more information on email marketing, or to sign up for a membership that includes the solution, please visit the Logic Path Marketing Club page.

 

------------------------------

Logic Path

Optimize Your Business Vision

http://logicpath.com