April 02, 2008

How to Turn Holidays Into Marketing Opportunities with Postcard Printing

For business owners, every date that is marked red on the calendar means an avenue to advertise. For this purpose, postcards printing will be your buddy to make use of each red-letter day to work to your advantage.

Advertising throughout the Holidays
Plan the whole year round early. Start marking the dates when you'll be sending out your postcards. Mark too the promotions you need to make. Planning early means you can specifically cater to a particular audience for every holiday and more.

Think ahead and use these tips to help you pull off a great postcard campaign.

1. Enhancing relationships with clients.
The holidays are different from the regular days. People will surely appreciate the thought that somebody remembered them for a special day. In a way, you're not only marketing your services but you're also developing a business relationship with a client.

2. Pulling in new customers.
This is also a way to draw new clients. When you have your postcard printing done by the right printing company, you can ask them for a mailing list. The list will be constituted of a targeted market based on interest or buying patterns that these companies get from their partner sites.

3. Getting reacquainted with old clients
If you still have the contact details of your previous customers, you must include them on this list. They have already tried you. So there is a higher chance that they'll come back to you for the services if they'll need it.

To do this, you must make them feel that you remember them. Tell them that you value their patronage. Make them feel important and valuable to the company's success.

4. Make you clients feel appreciated.
This is part of good business etiquette. Provide for your clients need and then thank them for choosing your service.

5. Prove that you're a dependable company.
If you'll do this right and deliver high-quality cards, your clients will definitely feel like you're a strong company. It gives an impression that you have the capabilities to produce those cards to reach out to your customers.

That is an impression that will surely go a long way. The clients may even build you up with the people that they know. Through this, you'll gain potential clients through word of mouth.

It is good to invest on marketing schemes that will make you look good to your potential clients. You have to do everything right. You can't commit to any lesser quality type of materials. You have to make an impression and that has to last.

Make use of each holiday. Do not let a day that is marked red pass without making a stint to gain clients and renew business relationships with the old ones.

The author is a very energetic person. She loves to play badminton and volleyball. She likes taking care of dogs. Please visit our website Postcard Printing for further information. Or copy and paste the link www.mypostcardprinting.com/postcard-printing.html

Essential Guide to Write a Winning Business Plan !! Grab The CASH Now !!!

Ever thought of starting a business? Short of money though? Sourcing for capital is definitely essential if you want to grow the business and tide your business over the initial tough period. In the below article, I will share with you the essentials to writing a successful business plan to help you seek better alignment with your team and also to convince the potential investors that you have done your due research and work, and have a clear idea of what you would want to achieve both in the short and long terms. Without this business plan ready, who will be convinced to lend you huge sums of money, right ??

So read on now to find out more...

Outline of a Successful Business plan
1) Executive Summary

2) Customer Need and Business Opportunity
- (Customer)Who are the targeted customers?
- What are their needs?
- What are the characteristics affecting consumer behaviour?
- (Business Opportunity) Understand the nature of the business markets
- Analyze the business buyer behaviour and process
- Understand the buyer-Decision Process for new products
- Additional analysis for institutional markets (eg: hospitals)

3) Market and Competitive Analysis
- Analyze the market environment through the company's micro and macroenvironment
- Understand the marketing research process
- Find out current competitors and the existing products, and explain why our products have an advantage over theirs

4) Business Strategy and Key Milestones
- Types of market segmentation
- Perform target marketing by evaluating different groups, selecting wanted groups, and choosing strategy of marketing
- Positioning: identify possible competitive advantage, choosing the right competitive advantages, selecting an overall positioning strategy(Value Proposition) , developing a positioning statement and communicating and delivering the chosen position
- Make use of promotion, pricing partnership and PR to gain initial entry
- Anticipating and Countering Competitive Reaction
- Brand Development and Other Entry Barrier Building Mechanisms to Defend Position
- Market Growth/Diversification/Internationalization Strategy
- Expansion of Partnership, Affiliation and JV Strategies to Sustain Growth/Diversification
- Maintaining & Exploiting Options for Multiple Revenue Models
- Building Market Sensing Mechanisms to Learn and Adapt

5) Product Development Plan
- Work by R&D team
- Considerations in designing a successful prototype in the shortest period of time
- Product testing
- Test marketing
- Possible Commercialization based on results from test marketing, and the factors to take note
- Deciding on a sequential product development style or simultaneous product development.

6) Marketing Plan
- 4 P's to consider: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place
- Pricing: Factors to consider from internal and external factors. Understand the various general pricing approaches like cost-based pricing, value-based pricing , and competitor based pricing. Also under pricing strategies like market-skimming and market penetration pricing. Test out product mix pricing strategies, price adjustment strategies, and see which is more appropriate.
- Product: Decide on things like product attributes, branding, packaging, labelling and product support services. The product has to appeal to the target market
- Place: Basically about distribution network, figure out the supply chains and the value delivery network, selecting the type of channel design, channel management decisions. Creating marketing logistics and integrated supply chain management.
- Promotion: Applying the marketing communications mix including advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing, and see how to integrate into one. Understand the communication process with consumers, and know the steps in developing effective communication which include identifying target audience, determining communication objectives, designing a message, choosing a media, selecting the message source, and collecting feedback.

7) Operation Plan
- The operating plan should describe facilities, location, space requirements, capital equipment, and labor force that are required to provide the company's product or service.

8) Management and Key Personnel
- The management team is the key to turning a good idea into a successful business. Bankers and investors look for a committed management team with a balance of technical, managerial, and business skills. The proposal should include a description of the organizational structure, key management personnel and their primary duties, and the board of directors, if applicable.
- Describe the exact duties and responsibilities of each key member of the management team. For each individual, include a brief statement of career highlights that focuses on his or her ability to perform the assigned role. A complete resume for each member should be included as an exhibit to the business plan.
- In a table, present the key management roles in the company and the individual who will fill each position. Discuss any current or past situations where the management personnel have worked together, and indicate how their skills complement each other and result in an effective management team.

9) Financial Projection
- The financial plan is basic to the evaluation of a business opportunity and should represent your best estimate of future operations. It can also serve as an operating plan for your management team.
- Includes sources and use of funds, estimated cash flow analysis, P&L, and balance sheets.

10) Risk Factors and Key Assumptions

11) The Proposed Offering
- The potential benefits an investor will expects to get back from investing in your business. No one likes to lose money, right ?? Key Performance Indicator would be ROI (return on investment)
-----------------------------------------------------------
In conclusion, with this basic guideline, you now a better idea of what to include in a business plan to make a convincing statement and proposition to the potential investors. Next step is to start the momentum going !! Time and Tide wait for no man.

Originally Written Article here.The author Jimmy Lee is involved in article writing, publishing, and website design on a freelance basis amid a daytime job as an electrical engineer. His favourite works can be found @ flashgor.blogspot.com/ and http:\www.diypc.wordpress.com

Freelance Writing: Work At Home and Explode Your Income!

"Freelance writing is by far the most lucrative and profitable job online, and will be for many years to come."

If you're searching for a serious work at home job that will truly increase your earning potential, then you must take a closer look at becoming a freelance writer. The demand is at an all time high for writers and you can cash in on it.

Let me get straight to the point. The Internet is made up of millions of pages of information. Articles, blogs, sales letters, etc... are needed on an ongoing basis to feed hungry Internet surfers, craving more and more information all over the world. And there's just not enough writers to keep up with the HUGE demand for original content.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you can write or atleast have the desire to learn how to write, you can earn a very lucrative income writing content at home for websites, newsletters, and any other assignments a company might be needing.

Every day there are thousands of new websites put onto the Internet. All will be needing to add quality content to each page of their sites. Even if you forget about the new websites, you will still be left with millions of already growing websites that need to create new and fresh information. There simply will never be an end to the need for new, fresh website content. And there are webmasters that will pay you top dollar to write one or many articles to be placed on their site.

The job of a freelance writer is not hard to do. You can work your own hours and the job is flexible enough for you to easily fit it in when it is comfortable for you.

Pay is based on the assignment and quality of work you do. In the beginning you might earn anywhere from $10 - $25 per job. But as your writing improves and your reputation spreads, you could possibly demand $80+ per job. It is not unheard of for a professional writer to receive $500-$1,000+ per job. Some sales copywriters even demand royalties for their jobs, where they earn based on the amount of product their letter or article sells.

Why is this a perfect work at home job? Because it isn't a job, it's a career. With the proper information you can become a professional sought after freelance writer. You will be able to set your own hours, pick your jobs, and set your own pay. And you don't have to wait years for this to take off. There are webmasters that will pay you right now to write for them.

Still not convinced? Well let me first say... "What's your PROBLEM!" Freelance writing is a recession proof work at home job. You will never be laid off. You won't have to worry about co-workers and bosses. This is a work at home job that will put money in your bank account no matter where you are in the world. You can sit on a beach in hawaii and shoot out a quick writing job and make $100. What other job can offer you that?

Now there are many, many ways to get started with freelance writing. Some work better than others and some are going to get you to the top quicker than others.

Before you jump in and start writing for companies, you will need to have an idea of what a freelance writer is. You will need to know what the companies expect from your work. And last but not least, you will need to know what to charge for the jobs that you do.

I have found EasyWritingBiz to be the best resource for getting started in the career of freelance writing. It clearly explains the job of a freelance writer and every aspect of it.

In no time, you'll have top companies contacting you to write for them.

Learn simple and easy ways to earn some extra money at home. Quality source for work at home jobs. Work At Home Make Extra Money Online


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