Do Business Well

10. Curtail your advertising agent’s spending

An agent makes more money, the more you spend. He’ll be happy if you go for a bigger, more expensive, more frequent advertising campaign. It could be worth monitoring that expenditure does not exceed the agreed budget figure.

11. Buy publicity-related services direct from the supplier

Advertising agents will usually make a profit on any service, however small, that they arrange for you. Search for opportunities to go direct for some of these services. In quiet times you may well have the capacity to do the work yourself. Continue Reading »

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A number of different providers can help you solve your email customer communications and marketing needs.

Email Marketing Service Providers

Over the past few years a new breed of company has grown up to meet the demand for complete solutions to companies‘ email marketing needs. Providers offer a wide variety of marketing services, technical capabilities, and focus. The services these companies (the three leading players are Post Communications, Message Media, and Digital Impact) provide range from customized email marketing programs and high-volume email delivery to one-off direct email campaign execution. Naturally, prices vary considerably. Most still charge based on the old direct marketing model of cost per email sent, while others have introduced new pricing models that are based on managing the customer database and optimizing the value of the client’s customer relationships. What they have in common is that they allow you to out- source all—or at least a large part—of your email marketing solution. Continue Reading »

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Will you make money — a lot of it — overnight? Direct selling can make you rich, but not overnight. Network marketing is often presented as a get-rich-quick scheme.

However, nothing worthwhile ever came without a struggle, and rewards are modest at first. The average earning for someone who puts in considerable effort could be R300 to R5 000 per month at the end of the first year. But this varies from company to company.

This is not much, you may say. But consider this: if you went to university to study engineering, you might end up with a job that paid R100 000 per year. During the three to four years you studied, you would earn no money. (We’ll exclude vacation jobs.) The cost of a three- to four- year residential course is about R45 000 to R60 000. So you’ve lost between R45 000 and R60 000 and three to four years of income as well! Continue Reading »

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There are dozens of methods of contacting prospects. The following are the most popular methods:

Over the phone

The quickest and most cost-effective way to get around is by phone. Although this has a down-side — you can’t see the customer, his face or his expressions — the phone should be used to obtain interviews where you can sell the opportunity.

Just bear in mind that a telephone call can be unwelcome. You are intruding on the prospect’s time. So make what you have to say short, relevant and of interest to the prospect. Your phone call must, within seconds, convey a benefit which will be of interest to that prospect.

Do not try to explain networking over the telephone. This rarely works. You want a face-to-face interview lasting just 10 minutes with the prospect to drop off material. If you can obtain that, and the prospect is interested, you can be sure that your appointment will last considerably longer. Continue Reading »

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