Promotions
Strategic Collaborative Marketing
Strategic collaborative marketing is a style and system of marketing. Marketing is a science and getting the word out about a product or service is vital to business. It is a known strategy that one cannot use just one method to market products and services. There needs to be at least two in play for each campaign. This goes for Internet marketing as well as traditional marketing principles. The more people who are spreading the word about your product or service the better off you will be at making money.
One of the oldest methods is to reciprocate marketing of services. Reciprocating services is one example of strategic collaborative marketing. If your product or service fits into the business strategy of another business, consider asking if they would put out your cards and flyers if you did the same for them. Another strategy is to offer coupons or discounts to customers referred to you by a strategic partner. This is a win-win situation for both of you. The other thing that could be done is to offer your services to them and vise-versa as a means of standing behind your products.
We all can’t provide the same services and be able to afford the start-up costs for adding additional services. By partnering with another associated business, you can take advantage of their expertise and they get yours as well. This method allows for businesses to work together and have synergy.
In order for many businesses to succeed, there has to be a unified strategy and a collaborative one. This planned initiative is considered strategic collaborative marketing.
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Tags: Collaborative marketing, marketing, strategic marketing | 
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Cheap Template Sites
One of the many ideas that I have been playing with in the last few months has been the creation of a site with themed WordPress and Joomla! templates. I know there are thousands of sites out there already, but there are still many niche areas that have not been covered. Therefore, combining the concept of themed templates and cheap templates, I think there is room for some great enterprising.
If you’re from the New York City area, I’d be interested in comments on what scenes you’d like to see developed.
QR Codes with Branding
We have all seen at one point or another the QR barcodes that are scannable with an equipped smartphone. However, it is also possible to personalize these codes with minor modifications such as a logo. Being able to superimpose a logo on top of the QR code also can make a big difference in your marketing and branding.
It is not difficult to do I found. The secret is the location of the logo and the size. The actual editing of the code can be done in any image editor. All that is needed is the QR code in PNG, JPG or EPS format. The editor you choose will be dependent on the file format. Just make sure that the overlay does not cover more than 30% of the total area and does NOT cover any of the three large corner dots.
Posted in Printing and Graphics, Promotions | Tags: custom qr code, hacking qr code, hacking qr codes, QR code, qr code with logo | No Comments »
Web Marketing Using QR Codes
All over now you see strange looking bar codes in magazines, on billboards, and flyers. You may be wondering what they are. They are called QR Codes and are intended to be used by smartphones with QR code scanner apps to get you to access a website or other web based medium. These QR codes are available for FREE. They are one of the newest tools developed for Internet marketing, but more specifically mobile web marketing. With most of us on the go during the day, these codes allow us to get information about something quickly without having to type in the address to our mobile devices.
If you’ve ever used a service like Bitly or TinyURL to reduce the size of a web address for sharing, you are familiar with these URL shortening services. Well, QR codes use the same concept except use a barcode and software that works with your phone’s camera to link you to a specific web address. QR Codes can forward a user to a web URL, SMS address, a service like Facebook, a YouTube video, and many others.
Once you’ve gotten the QR Code, you can either download the HTML code to embed it in your website, blog, electronic newsletter or download a image file that can be placed in printed documents and other physical items.
QR codes are a significant bridge in marketing. They create a link between the printed world and the online world. So, what does this all mean? Websites these days are a portal linking us to various sources of information relating to our businesses. On the other hand, printed flyers, advertisements and such printed material only discuss a small portion of what is actually happening. With the QR code embedded on a printed marketing piece, the person who takes the document now has the option of scanning the barcode and being sent to the website or other web reference that the business would like the person to visit for additional information.
So, if you’re looking to get your product or service out to the masses and want to make it easy for prospective customers to get information, then consider getting a QR code or a few.
Posted in Internet Marketing, Printing and Graphics, Promotions | Tags: cell phone marketing, Internet Marketing, QR code, qr code generator | No Comments »
Marketing using Google Places
A great resource for getting your business out there on the Internet aside from marketing your own website, is using Google Places. Google Places would be considered the modern day equivalent of the Yellow Pages in the phone book. There is one difference from the phone book to the Internet; that difference is the ability to be interactive.
Google Places allows a business to post a mark on Google’s maps. The information you place in that listing not only includes the phone number and address, but can also be enhanced with photos, videos, and other pertinent information about the business. Later on, those who deal with you can then comment on your customer service, products, etc. It literally becomes an extension of your website and also a boost to your web traffic.
Once your “Place” has been found and visited, analytics will be made available to you providing key data on what people are looking for in your line of business. Your ongoing market research is actually being done for you in real time rather than you having to do it yourself as a dedicated project. That saves you time and money!
So, take your business online and increase your income and web traffic using one of Google’s great tools made for today’s businesses.
Posted in Internet Marketing, Promotions | Tags: Google Places, market research, real time market research, web traffic, web traffic analytics | No Comments »
