Cash Tips News

Gaining A Competitive Advantage…

When you’re in business you have to be aware of what’s going on within your industry. In order to stay competitive you must monitor the market for any changes that might affect your company.

Competitive Intelligence will give you the facts on which to base your business decisions. It will give you an edge over your competitors and will help to minimize your risks.

You have to keep tabs on your competition!

Can you answer these questions?

* Who are your competitors?

* What are their strengths and weaknesses?

* How do they advertise?

* How does their product, or service, differ to yours?

Competitive Intelligence is all about gaining a competitive advantage - it’s not just about gathering facts. So before you start collecting information you will need to decide what you are going to look for.

The information of your competitors’ websites is public and it’s free!

Look at their adverts, read their newsletters, check out their affiliate program (if they have one), buy their product…

You can also find useful information at:

* Associations they are members of

* Press release distribution sites

* Product review sites

* News sites

Not all the information you find will be accurate, so check and verify as much as possible.

After you have gathered all the information you need, you’ll have to analyze it. Look for trends and patterns that are relevant to your business.

Copyright @ AdMistress

Make your visitors curious about your product by telling them they need to sign up to get into a password protected site to read the rest of the ad.

This will give your product extra perceived value because it is so well guarded. Just like a diamond in a bank vault.

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In sales, especially in advertising, a true professionals job is never quite done, but we are allowed breaks. Even with breaks, our days and nights are very long.

Sales people are sometimes classified as “exempt” workers. We’re not covered under any hourly labor laws, and for good reason. If we stop to count our hours, we’re in the wrong business. Our job is to get the job done, no matter what it takes. Being goal-motivated and goal-driven means that the clock doesn’t exist for us. We’re on a mission. Focus always counts (more…)

Are you relentless when it comes down to contacting hard to reach people? Anyone that you didn’t have a chance to speak to, certainly deserves another call. These may not be classified as top priority calls but you should contact them nonetheless. You never really know who could instantly decide that they do need your product. They could sign that big deal on the dotted line! (more…)

Money isn’t everything but it sure keeps the kids in touch.

Juan comes up to the Mexican border on his bicycle. He’s got two large bags over his shoulders. The guard stops him and says, ‘What’s in the bags?’.

‘Sand’, says Juan. The guard says , ‘We’ll just see about that; get off the bike.’ The guard takes the bags and rips them apart; he empties them out and finds nothing in them but sand. He detains Juan overnight and has the sand analysed, only to discover that there is nothing in the bags. The guard releases Juan, puts the sand into new bags, lifts them onto the man’s shoulders, and lets him cross the border.

A week later, the same thing happens. The guard asks, ‘ What have you got?’.

‘Sand’, says Juan. The guard does his thorough examination and discovers that the bags contain nothing but sand. He gives the sand back to Juan, who crosses the border on his bicycle.

This sequence of events is repeated every week for three years. Finally, Juan doesn’t show up one day and the guard meets him in a cantina in Mexico. ‘Hey Buddy’, says the guard, ‘I know you are smuggling something. It’s driving me crazy. It’s all I think about. I can’t sleep. Just between you and me, what are you smuggling?’

Juan sips his beer and says, ‘Bicycles’

Rules About Ads For Contests Or Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes-type promotions that require a purchase by participants are illegal in the United States.

Other agencies, including the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), also enforce federal laws governing contests and prize promotions. And each state has laws that may require promoters to make disclosures, seek licensing, or post a bond. Since state laws vary, check with the Attorney General’s Office in the state(s) in which you plan to advertise.

If a contest or promotion involves telephone calls, the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule requires specific disclosures, such as the odds of winning a prize, how to participate without buying anything, and that no purchase or payment is required to win. If pay-per-call services are involved, the FTC’s 900 Number Rule requires certain disclosures.

For more information, ask the FTC for the publications Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule and Complying with the 900 Number Rule.

….

Source: http://www.ftc.gov

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How Can You Accomplish More In Less Time?

There are many opportunities for you to increase your sales, sign-ups, lists, etc by using the power of leveraging. You won’t even need to drive any additional traffic to your site… if you use Integration Marketing.

Integration Marketing can be described as form of joint venture or cross-selling. You make an arrangement with one or more people to work together promoting each other’s products or services to your own customers or prospects.

You could also offer another of your own products or services.

If someone has signed up for your ezine you could recommend other ezines they might also be interested in.

If a customer has just bought something from you, you could offer an upgrade or a complementary product.

“Thank You” pages are a great location for these recommendations or offers. Visitors to your “Thank You” pages have already performed an action, so it would make sense to encourage them to perform another action by placing relevant information or ads about additional products or services that they might be interested in.

You can also place offers in your customer follow-up email messages and autoresponder messages.

The key here though is to focus your efforts on meeting your customer’s needs, not just pitching more products and services.

Copyright @ AdMistress

Business Tip # 10

Create an alliance with 3 or 4 web sites. Include each of your ads or banners on the other web sites. You will all share targeted traffic with each other.

For example, you would instantly have 3 web sites selling for you without paying them an affiliate income. You would just be giving them ad space on your web site.

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Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine