Different Types of Direct Marketing Lists

Direct marketing delivers your marketing message directly to a group consumers or businesses on a personalized level (such as a telephone call or via a personal email message). It’s a form of marketing that provides the recipient with a direct call to action. The following are the three main types of direct marketing.Mailing Lists
Direct mail is one of the most common forms of direct marketing and an essential part of an integrated marketing campaign. Companies promote their products and services with a provocative mailer. Direct mail campaigns provide your prospects with a tangible piece of mail to read at their leisure. Direct mail campaigns are extremely effective and when they are personalized and customized to a specific target audience can have great response rates.Telemarketing Lists
Telemarketing is the process of calling prospects on the phone to promote your products or services. This can be done using your own sales staff or by subcontracting out to a call center. Telemarketing is vital in creating brand recognition, building customer relationships, nurturing leads and of course, closing sales.Even with its bad reputation, telemarketing still plays an important part of any direct marketing campaign. Telemarketing is personal and interactive, and capable of providing an immediate response. As effective as telemarketing is, you need to be sensitive to your prospects’ willingness to receiving unsolicited phone calls.Telemarketing campaigns work best when the telemarketing lists are highly targeted, with accurate data that matches your current customer’s profiles.Email Lists
Email marketing is an effective way of reaching out to new prospects or following up with existing customers. Email marketing is extremely versatile, and you can easily customize your marketing messages to various market segments, or for prospects in different stages of the sales funnel.Email marketing can be used to nurture customer relationships, provide company and product information, drive website traffic and to promote direct sales. The emails can be as elaborate or as simple as needed.Most people check their emails on a daily basis, making email a very effective marketing method for your business. However, email marketing should be used responsibly, and it is extremely important to have your customers’ consent before sending emails.The most successful direct marketing campaign will use a mix of marketing methods. Repetition is very important in any type of marketing efforts. The more you can get yourself out in front of prospects, the greater the chance of being remembered. Try a direct mail campaign with a telemarketing follow-up or an email blast in conjunction with a direct mail campaign. A Multi-Channel campaign also allows your prospects multiple ways to communicate back to you.Regardless of the method, the key aspect in any direct marketing campaign is the ability to target the marketing message to a specific audience. With properly defined target market, you can deliver your message directly to those who have a greater probability of purchasing from your business. This allows businesses of all sizes focus their marketing budget and resources where they’re most likely to get results.It’s very important, before starting any direct marketing campaign, that you understand the different regulations governing each method of communication. The responsibility is yours to make sure you are compliant. Legitimate list brokers and managers should be able to confirm that the lists they are providing comply to the various rules and regulations. If you are uncertain, do not hesitate to ask.

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How Branding Defines and Positions Your Business

What is Branding and How it’s Different from a Logo and MarketingWhen you think of brands you probably think of big names, and the big named products you see every day.But what exactly is a brand? What does it mean? How is your brand communicated?When talking with entrepreneurs, I get a sense there’s a lot of confusion on what exactly branding is. After reading this article, you’ll be well informed on some of the common terminologies you hear like brand positioning, why a brand is not just a logo and what to do if you suspect your brand needs a makeover.Branding DefinedA brand is more than just a logo, tagline, website or jingle. It’s the total experience of working with you.Every touch-point a customer has with you shapes your brand. Whether favourable or not, the overall perception the public has about you and your business makes up your brand.Your brand encompasses a visual look and feel through the use of colours, logos, imagery and typography. There is also verbal branding depicted through your core values, vision statement, jingle or tagline.But your brand also includes the results of experiences with you, your team and your company in general through shopping, networking, customer service, your website, and social media channels.The Difference Between Marketing and BrandingMany people think marketing and branding are the same thing but this is not the case. Here’s a story to help you understand the example:- A guy walks into a party and sees a girl he likes. He walks over to her and says “I am a great dancer.”That’s marketing. He’s sharing a message with the prospect I hopes to move her to action.- A guy walks into a party and sees a girl he likes. He walks over to her and says “Hey, I’ll dance with you for the low price of one dollar.”That’s sales. He is offering an opportunity for money to a prospect.- A guy walks into a party and sees a girl he likes. The girl walks over to him and says “those girls tell me you are a great dancer.”That’s branding. Through the girl’s experience, she formed a favourable brand impression that moved into action.What Makes a Good Brand?Many businesses try to appeal to a wide audience. But strong brands have a polarizing effect. They appeal to a smaller niche audience.Today’s customers are craving more transparency and authenticity with their favourite brands. They want to know the REAL person behind the company.Who are they?What inspires them?How did they get into business?What matters to them?What causes do they represent?What do they do in their personal time?Moreover, multimedia is shifting consumers to having more kinds of experiences with their brand. The use of interactive websites, Facebook live feeds, social media responses and live cams all help shape a brand.In fact, millions (including me) are watching April the Giraffe on a live video cam (as of March 14, 2017) as she prepares to give birth to a baby calf. The Animal Adventure Park is exponentially increasing their brand reach and awareness just through this one tactic alone.Brand RepositioningA business can be very organic and as times goes by, the original brand you started with may not fit anymore. This has happened to several of our clients where, after several years, they realize their original brand is no longer consistent with their current business model and the market they are serving.Conducting a brand assessment allows you to evaluate the strength of your brand, understand its value with customers, and how to reposition the brand, if needed, to reflect any changes.So it’s important to periodically do a check to see if your logo, website, bios, headshots, tagline, and other branding elements are still a fit. If you look back at McDonald’s, they have had numerous slogans over the years. You may remember “You deserve a break today” (1971), or “We do it all for you” (1975), or the current one “Lovin’ Beats Hatin’” (2015).As consumers changed, they updated their image and brand messaging to stay fresh and relevant with their audience.Does Your Brand Need a Makeover?Often as a business grows, a rebrand is needed to upscale messaging to fit with the newer level of success. Or a business could be changing its focus when launching a new product/service or appealing to a new target audience.

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5 Tips When Planning a Small Business

Having been a small business consultant for many years, I’ve come across hundreds of individuals starting out on their own with the dream of utilizing a particular trade or knowledge to build their own business. Many of these individuals have impressed me with their genuine passion to succeed, but have lacked the simple business theory needed to become successful. Below I have listed 5 tips to planning a small business, which include expectations, timing, capital, knowledge and risk/rewards.Expectations:
When opening a small business it’s important to first establish a realistic revenue goal and then divide that goal by 3. For example, if you’re opening up a restaurant and expect sales to begin at $24,000 per month, count on $8000. The number one mistake I’ve encountered with new businesses is a gross exaggeration of how much revenue a new business will bring in its first few months of business. This is often due to businesses estimating their revenue based on other comparable firms operating in the area at that time. As you may have guessed, an estimation of this sort fails to account for the good will and established clientele those firms have developed over many years.Don’t get caught up in the hype. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a drink with a new business owner and have listened to discussions of opening up their first store, but then quickly growing into multi-store chain. Before you can grow, you must first succeed. I’m not saying to limit your dreams, but keep focused on your first store or business!Keep in mind that in almost every business you get into, there will be competition. These competitors, just like you, are trying to gain market share and lure customer’s money into their pocket as opposed to yours. Even if there is very little competition when you begin, be aware firms will enter the market eventually and steal business if it’s perceived money can be made. Research how you will sustain your competitive advantages as the pieces of the pie get smaller.In the current economic crisis facing our country, be certain you have the ability to gather enough cash flow away from your competitors to fulfill your basic financial needs. This comes down to how much research you have done in your market and how strong your business model is. Again don’t get caught up in the hype of becoming rich, but rather spend your time more wisely planning not to fail. Remember most businesses are out of business within 3 years.Case in point, if your truly want to become successful spend as much time as you possibly can researching and better understating how you plan to get someone’s dollar in your pocket. Plan to succeed, but review every scenario and establish solutions to ways you could possibly fail. Keep focused!Timing:
Timing is everything when opening a new business. Industries that have been hot over the past 5 years could grow cold for the next 5. With an economy taking a recessionary track without a clear end in sight, analyze if your product or service is a need or a want. If times are tough families may rent a movie instead of going to the theater, cook at home rather than going out to a restaurant and so forth. Is the market you’re entering saturated with businesses left over from a booming market making profit opportunities nearly impossible? By researching trade magazines, which are available for most industries, you can find out very quickly what the current trends are and how healthy it is. An interesting characteristic of timing is your business might have succeeded better 2 years before you plan to start or perhaps 2 years into the future. Be careful with your new business as there is a time and place for everything.Capital:
Another pitfall and the kiss of death for most companies is not having the capital resources to survive. Believing that your company will become profitable within the first 6 months is often not realized. With any new business, you have to gain market share from your competition and that takes time and money. Making just a few mistakes with your business model or research data can create a catastrophic chain reaction if not anticipated and accounted for.Give yourself at least a year of resources to make it through the mistakes and learning curves you will encounter, which includes enough money to cover your fixed cost as if you earned no income from the business at all. This is a very vague rule and often involves a large sum of money, but you get the idea as you need time to maneuver. As they say if you ever want to see time fly, sign a retail location lease. The first of the month seems to creep up every other day.Knowledge:
Are you knowledgeable about the business you’re starting? I always recommend that you have worked in the industry you’re getting into for at least 5 years and are fully competent in the major areas of that sector. Getting into a particular business sector your not familiar with is often a path for destruction. Again there is no substitute to value of time and experience gained through hands on application.Now that you’re knowledgeable, do you know how to manage yourself and others? Do you know how to sell? These are other issues that come up as your work environment and ability to persuade others to execute your vision is essential to success.Risks and Reward:
A question to ask yourself when contemplating a new business is why you’re doing it. Opening up a new business not only requires capital, but also requires large amounts of time and energy on your part. Don’t be surprised if you’re required to work over 70 hours per week for an indefinite amount of time before you’re able to take a break. What is the earnings potential of your business? As opposed to spending thousands of dollars and hours of your life developing a new business that may ultimately fail, how much can you earn working for an established business in the form of salary or commission? I’ve seen a lot of business owners work 7 days a week making less money than they could working for a more established company. Of course you may grow your business over time into a large more profitable company, but at what cost to your friends, family and most importantly your own sanity. Remember the rewards of a successful business can provide your family with unimaginable riches, but these success stories are few and far between.Conclusion:
The purpose of this article is not to scare anyone from fulfilling their dreams of owning a small business, but to add some insight into the pitfalls that occur frequently with new start ups. In my opinion one of the best feelings in the world is owning a successful business that grows over time and allows you the flexibility and financial freedom to call your own shots. I hope by reading this you may add these suggestions to a long list of ingredients to opening your own successful small business!

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Keep These 5 Rules in Mind for Successful Commercial Designing

Who doesn’t want an excellent commercial design? Excellent commercial design is important to maintain the reputation and brand image of the company. As it is said, the first impression is the last impression, a good impression always attracts potential customers. It’s obvious no one would ever love to walk in a congested environment with bad lighting.

Bad design and interiors deteriorate the productivity of the employees. It can be a confusing task when planning a commercial designing project for the first time, hiring expert Commercial Architects Melbourne can be the best option to know about the latest trends and perfect matching designs.

This blog is about some basic rules to consider for making the commercial project successful.
Keep structures versatile

When it comes to transforming any commercial space, focusing on convertibility and keeping office interior decor versatile can be the best option. It can be done by implementing a versatile structure to spaces such as cafeterias, offices, and many more. Everyone gives preference to comfort hence, focusing on spatial and versatile design will help to complete commercial designing projects in an optimal way.

Consider the latest technology implementations

Technology plays a supportive role to enhance the commercial designing project. Moving forward with the latest technology is important to execute any business smoothly because technologies make the work much easier and comfortable for the employee as well as organizations. Implementing centralized and decentralized digital control is much needed in any commercial design.

Keep office aesthetics updated

Good aesthetics and interiors impact the overall representation of the office and make the place functional and attractive. Hire a reputed designer for modern décor and furniture ideas. Hiring a designer reduces half of the project stress and helps to meet the contemporary fashion and latest trends. They can help to choose the perfect theme that blends well with the office decor, atmosphere, and colour.

Provide personalized space to prevent congestion

Majority of customer prefers personalized space such as different seating to seat comfortably and do the personal work. Personalized space is one of the crucial factors for customer-based service offices such as hotels and cafeterias to provide an ambient and comfortable place.

Always keep safety first

Safety is the central feature of every construction and designing project. Hence, it’s the high-priority factor to keep the aesthetic and functional safety at the working place. It can be compromised for interior decoration and design purposes but it’s not at all affordable to compromise for safety purposes.

Following the above useful ideas can easily help in the successful completion of a commercial designing project in a safe and pleasing way. In today’s, modern construction, reliability, and comfort is also an equally important factor.

Final words,

It’s important to hire the experienced Building designer Melbourne to make the commercial designing project worthy. Hope the above rules helped you to scale up your interior designing projects with a better outcome. Follow the above tips for any renovation or remodelling project and surely you will get award-winning and achieve a better office experience.

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How Long Should A Laptop Battery Last And How To Increase the Battery Life

No matter how expensive your laptop is, its battery won’t last more than four years. According to experts, a new laptop battery gives you as many as 1,000 cycles. In other words, you can charge and recharge the battery up to 1000 times. However, many factors play their role to increase or decrease the lifespan of a laptop battery. For instance, the material used for producing the battery substance. So, if you want to ensure that your battery stands the test of time, given below are some of the tips that can help.

1. Install a good battery monitor

If you are looking for an alternative, you can choose from tons of third-party utilities. Basically, the software programs help you monitor your laptop battery. These programs have no compatibility issues with any type of laptop.

Using these tools, you can find out which programs are using most of the battery power. You can then close the unwanted programs to save battery power.

2. Install maintenance apps

You can use some manufacturer-recommended maintenance tools for maintaining your laptop battery. Based on the type of your battery, you will receive different suggestions. Apart from this, your operating system will come with a built-in utility that can help you keep an eye on your battery condition.

3. Maintain your device temperature

You should try your level best to ensure your laptop maintains its temperature. In summer, electronic devices tend to heat up, which negatively impacts the life of the battery packs.

Therefore, you should make sure that there is a little bit of space between the bottom of the device and the table you have placed your device on. Besides, the ventilation system of your device should be working properly. For this purpose, regular cleaning of your device is quite important.

4. Don’t use maximum brightness

When your screen brightness is at maximum level, your device will use the maximum power. So, turning down the brightness is the first thing you can do to save power. Also, it is not a good idea to keep the brightness at max level as it can have a negative impact on your eyesight.

So, by following these simple tips, it will be easier for you to extend the life of your laptop battery.

5. Change the power-saving settings

Before you do anything, go into the power options of your laptop. If you are using Windows operating system, you can go to the control panel to access the power options. The control panel can be accessed from the Start Menu.

Some users have MacOS. If you are one of them, you need to access Energy Saver, which is found in the System Preferences. If these values are set to default, your computer will use the least amount of power.

So, what you need to do is make small changes to the settings so that you achieve a balance between power and performance. For best performance, there is always the choice to connect your device to the AC outlet.

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The Best Ways I’ve Found To Make Money Online From Home

Have you been looking for a way to make money online without having to know much of the internet stuff? Wanting to work at home but don’t know how to do it? Here is the key gem: Between all the tricks on joining the craft beer movement, opening a gallery or being a tour operator, you will find clever advice that anybody can apply to make money online quickly.

The most basic way to make money online is through affiliate marketing. It is really easy. Basically you set up an ad for someone she is selling something and when they click through and buy it, you make money! Simple enough if you have no technical skill at all. Here are some simple tips on how to earn using affiliate marketing:

Drop-shipping is one of the most useful methods. You select a product in which you believe there is a demand and then drop-ship it to your customers in small quantities. You make money from the difference between what the stock costs and what you sell it for. For this method, it is important to note that you may need to make space for your inventory on your premises or perhaps wait until you have a build of an inventory before you can start drop-shipping; but the advantages make it a good choice for those seeking to make money online from their spare time.

Paid surveys are a great way to earn some extra cash. These can be accessed easily and there are many sites where you can get paid from spending your spare time. There is one site, though, which is said to pay $200 a week for twelve weeks straight – you can’t beat that kind of money making potential. With paid surveys, it is important to note that the sites are generally scams, and that you need to do some research to ensure you are making good money making opportunities.

Finally, a passive income generating method that can bring in money on autopilot is eToro’s Forex trading. This works by allowing you to invest on a demo account and earn money from the performance of the currencies being exchanged. The best thing about this system is that it allows you to do virtually anything and still see profits coming in. eToro has an average starting price of less than $50 and can generate an income of five figures in just a few months.

These are the best things I have found for making money online from your home. Though none of them are as good as, say, a paid-online course, they are much more affordable and can provide a valuable education to start earning money immediately online. With just a little research, you should be able to find a legitimate opportunity to get paid to learn the basics of making money in the currency markets. This is a truly remarkable opportunity.

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Finding the Best Business Idea For Your Home Based Business

How many home based business opportunities are available to you? If you want to make money online at home, you really have many options to choose from. The big question is – which one will give you the biggest chance of success? Is there a ‘one size fits all’ answer? The simple truth is that not every opportunity is right for everyone, and not every opportunity will bring you the greatest amount of profit.

So, what are some home business ideas that can make money online for you? The quick and dirty answer is: the one that best suits your particular set of needs. Make a list of your priorities, including a high income; a low-risk schedule; freedom; flexibility; work-life balance; independence; something in your range of skills and expertise; and interesting work that you have an interest in… You can take this list with you and talk to people who are working from home on the same things that you would be considering. Chances are that you will find some great niches that fit your standards and your desires.

But what if you want to get started right away? It’s easy to think that you can jump into a new business idea and be successful immediately, but this often isn’t the case. It takes many different things to make sure that you will be able to get through the hurdles and actually make it to a point where you are seeing profit. If you don’t work at it slowly, you will be setting yourself up for failure. Here’s the lowdown on some different things that you should consider as you create your own business idea:

First, you need to think about what you have to offer. If you don’t have any ideas as to what to do as a freelance writer, a lowdown on finding a niche is very important. Many beginners go into this completely clueless. But if you know that you have a skill that others are desperately seeking, you may be able to provide them with the service they are looking for without having to spend much time building up a website or getting traffic to it.

Another thing to consider is what kinds of products or services would best fit a niche that you would like to get started in. In this case, the lowdown on finding the best business idea for you would include taking a look at what you love to do and what you can offer others. If writing is not your strongest point, but you love to get creative, consider freelance data entry. Freelance data entry does not require a lot of startup capital, but you still need to have the skills that will allow you to be successful in this area. The best lowdown on finding the best business idea for you is to simply start looking at what you like to do and what you can offer others.

There are many other areas of freelance writing that you can explore in order to make the most out of your home based online business. Freelance writers are in high demand online. If you have the skills that are needed to do well in this field, there is no reason that you should not be able to find a great home-based online business that will give you the income that you want.

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Earn Money Writing From Home And Never Run Out of Ideas

Is it your dream to work from home as a writer and earn money from everything you write? That was my dream for years, and 20 years ago it became my reality.

One of the hardest things at first was to come up with ideas of what to write about. I started by doing freelance writing and I also set up my own website and I wanted to write and publish books. It was all a great plan, but it meant coming up with thousands of ideas.

At first I didn’t think it was possible, but it turned out that not only was it possible to come up with endless ideas for writing, but I ended up with notebooks full of ideas because I had more than I could ever use at once.

And I’ll tell you 3 things that helped.

1. I write fast. Once I’m into writing an addictive story or an interesting article – or series of articles, I get into a writing ‘flow’ and can write for hours. I never stop and second-guess myself. I just keep writing because fast writers are mega producers and never have time for writers’ block.

2. The more I write and the faster I write, the more writing ideas I have. Productive writers always get an abundance of ideas as they write. When I’m immersed in my writing, my creative mind goes into hyper-drive. Even if I started with only one or two ideas, once I sit down and start writing the ideas start flowing. And it doesn’t matter what I write. Even if I’m journaling or copying out someone else’s writing by hand (just for practice), it inspires ideas.

3. I love to write. Most days I’m excited and motivated to sit down and write. I hurry through other chores I have to do so that I can get to my desk and write.

At first, being a writer was hard because it’s not easy to work from home with no boss, no set hours and too many distractions. But once I got a writing routine, I found that once I sat my backside in my chair and started writing, it was easy to ignore everything and motivation arrived and kept me going.

So if you find yourself longing to write but stuck for ideas, just sit down and start writing. Write anything even if it’s just nursery rhymes you were taught as a kid, or open a book and start handwriting it out.

And if you’re like me you’ll find that even on days when you think you don’t feel like writing and the ideas just won’t come, sit down and write anyway, and before you know it you’ll be overloaded with ideas.

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