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Do you know the definition of “marketing”? Marketing is all about finding a hungry, starving niche market, and then providing a solution to this niche where they will immediately jump on it. If you have never sold anything in your life (rather yet online), then there’s a learning curve that you have to go through.

When you market your products and services, you let the whole neighborhood that you’re open for business, and that you have a good selection of products that can improve someone’s life. If you can get on your marketing grind, then I think you will stand a good chance of having your ad being a success.

When it comes to marketing, you really do have 2 options:

1) Brand marketing
2) Direct response marketing

Both of these techniques are options that many business owners use with great success. But which one do I recommend for you? Well it’s clear – I’m a fan of direct response marketing. Direct response marketing (or direct response or direct marketing…) is a technique that is geared towards generating a response now rather than waiting to get your name out there.

With brand marketing, you face to stand in direct competition with major business chains in your area. And if you are advertising your products and services the way that the major chains are doing, you’re more than likely losing a lot of money on the ads that you run. For this reason, I think you should start with a medium-sized display ad for you to run.

In your ad, mention multiple means of contact. Use a 1-800 number, a website, and even your email address. People want to know who they’re dealing with, so the more information that you can provide, the more your sales and profits will increase because you look like a credible figure in your niche.

Use direct mail for whatever you do. If you’re in the dreaded MLM business, then you know that it’s tough to get prospects to say “yes” to you. I once heard of a book called “Prospecting Sucks” by a marketing expert named Dan Kennedy. You can order this book from Amazon.com’s website.

I think you should leave brand advertising alone 100%. If you’re one of those business owners who think that all you need is more exposure with brand advertising, by the time that your ad ends you will find yourself with a lost of funds from your advertising campaign. This something that you don’t want to happen to you, because I’m sure that you can stand to get a great deal on something.

With direct response, you can invest very little just to get a good feeling of what the response rates will be in a niche market that you go into. The same can’t be said about brand marketing. Don’t believe the hype that you want to promote your business using brand marketing alone. It’s ineffective, and you will end up losing thousands of dollars in the process.

In Chinese culture, coins are good fortune symbols, but even more powerful for attracting wealth and prosperity are the feng shui coins or I Ching coins. These coins are usually gold in color, round in shape and have square holes in the center. They are often seen in groups of three tied together with a red ribbon or string in the auspicious color of red. This is what energizes them.

Making Heads or Tales of Them

The two sides of feng shui coins represent yin and yang respectively and you can distinguish which side is which by identifying the Chinese characters imprinted on them. You don’t need to know the Chinese language to do this. If one side of the coin has a collection of four separate chinese characters or symbols, then you are looking at the yang side. The other side is yin and has only two characters.

Feng shui coins come in sets of three for a reason. One coin represents luck from heaven, one coin luck from earth and one coin luck from man. Bound together, they create a very powerful money magnet. Now lets see how we can use these feng shui coins for attracting more money, luck and good fortune into our lives.

Attracting Fortune – At Home

As the south east corner of your house or room on a Bagua map is the wealth sector, it makes sense to hang the energized feng shui coins in this area. You can hang them on the wall or a hook from the ribbon or string they are bound with or you can place them on a table top or under a plant for an even more powerful wealth attractor. Try to display them with the yang side facing outwards for a stronger effect.

Attracting Fortune – In your own Business

Increase your sales or profit with these energized coins by placing them in your order or sales book facing Yang side up. This will help attract more wealth energy in the form of sales and profits and ultimately resulting in more success in your business. Many chinese retail or restaurant managers have been using this tip for years with great success. The same principle can be used for other business related books or folders such as invoice folders or customer files. Use it where you want to increase what’s important for your business that will eventually bring you more money whether it is more sales, more customers or more higher paying customers.

If you have a physical retail store or restaurant, you can place the energized feng shui coins on your doorstep or bury nine coins all tied together under the pavement or walkway leading to your store. You can even place them under a welcome mat. This will result in an increase in the flow of money that enters your business.

Attracting Fortune – At Work

If you work in an office, workshop or any place outside of the home where you work, you can power up the feng shui coins to work for you here also. Secure the three energized feng shui coins to the south east side of your desk, office space, cubicle or corner of the room you work in according to the bagua map, yang side up of course. It’s a simple as that. Soon you’ll be seeing your earnings increase.

So now you know how to make these powerful symbols of wealth and prosperity work for you. Next time you’re in Chinatown or in a Chinese supermarket or in China, be sure to pick up a few of these for the home and office. You’ll soon be reaping the rewards.

Amidst this pandemic many people got the opportunity to help out and do what they need for their community. A lot of us got to connect with our communities in new ways. In Boston small businesses have lost a significant amount of foot traffic.

“There’s people DoorDashing and post-mating half the stuff they usually buy” – owner of Symphony Mart on Boylston St. in Fenway.

Convenience stores are losing foot traffic at the rates they’ve never seen.

“Who’s buying diamonds during the pandemic? Not a lot of people” – owner of Boston jewels, Maury and his wife (have been operating over 20 years).
This is another brick and mortar store that was advertised by this small marketing agency in Downtown Boston.

When I was reaching out to the founder of Oakland Trust Marketing Company, I told him I was an aspiring journalist interested in their methods. He responded to me with a phrase that I may not be allowed to re write on here. I explained to him that I’m not here to complain about anything, just to learn. Finally he agreed to give a statement although he asked not to be named, he wanted the world to take away one thing;
“Connecting customers with quality products is all I know how to do, I was doing it before the pandemic and We’re doing it even more now. This is the time when people need you to shop, we spent our money like crazy before the pandemic and now all of a sudden we know how to budget. Buy your candy bar you deserve it! Have been looking for a sign from god to pull the trigger on a Beautiful argument solving necklace for your significant other, now you have it.” – Founder of Oakland Trust Marketing Company.

I get the sense that maybe he was trying a bit too hard on the sell there in our conversation, but at the same time I sort of appreciate the effort just because I know that’s what this young kid is doing while running around Boston promoting these stores. He’s always on the sell and always making sure you know where to go. I wouldn’t want to have a long nice relaxing dinner with the guy but I’d definitely want him pushing whatever I think of in the future. If I was going to make a start up I’d definitely consider their designs and slogans. After looking into them I was fascinated by the way they incorporated actual features unique to these stores within the ad. The ads didn’t look tacky, they were tacky don’t get me wrong, because they are ads and almost all ads are tacky when you know they are trying to sell. This was a different style of tacky, I hadn’t seen it before. I didn’t know how to rate it, how to judge it, I didn’t even know what to say about it, but here I am 73 hours later writing about it.

Whether it’s following up on work, assigning tasks, checking on your business mail, or just replying to customers, it can all be done from your phone. As a matter of fact, almost anything can get done online, through your phone today.

Yes, it’s that simple. But don’t go running home or rushing off to your next vacation destination just yet! We need to establish how you can get all this done and more without being at the office. Keep reading to find out the key factors you need to consider when managing your business while traveling or being away.

Key Factors to remotely managing your business:

Conduct Regular Meetings:

Everyone doesn’t need to be huddled up in the conference room to conduct a good meeting; you can get remote employees, freelancers, and employees at the office all in the same meeting with just an internet connection.

Now meeting on a daily or even weekly basis can be difficult while you’re traveling because you’re mostly busy and have other things to address. However, meeting with the managers weekly or bi-weekly will reassure your presence in the office and confirm your supervision on all business matters.

You can easily conduct meetings through Skype or Google Hangouts where everyone can see each other and even share files if needed. You can also use Google Slides for presentations or Team Viewer to share your computer screen with everyone for demonstration.

Be sure to regularly interact with your employees no matter where you are and build close relations with them that can evolve into trust. If this is accomplished, you’ll never need to worry about business when you’re away.

Follow-up on Work Progress & Hours:

You being away from the office should never mean work doesn’t get done or is on pause. Technology created a solution for slacking or lazy employees, time tracking software. This type of software allows you to track employees working hours so you will always be updated with who came late or who worked overtime.

Employees will be able to track their shifts, breaks, and leave notes on their work progress.

There are many types of time tracking software, some are essentially focused on tracking working hours like ClockIn Portal that generate timesheets and can be integrated with payroll systems.

Others include a project management feature like Zoho Projects where you can share projects, assign tasks, and follow-up on tasks.

You can also use essential project management software like Basecamp or Asana that mainly focus on getting work done efficiently. Project management software allows you to assign tasks, update them with comments, set deadlines, add attachments, and eventually mark them as complete. With a straightforward tracking method of working hours and work progress, employees will feel obligated to stay focused and get things done faster.

Handle Business Mail Instantly:

While traveling, your mail is something you mustn’t forget about. Neglecting your mail for even a few days can lead to problems. Unattended mail can be important contracts from clients, documents from partners or investors, or feedback from your customers.

With a virtual mailbox, you can take your mail with you wherever you go.

A virtual mailbox is a mailbox that you can access online and handle your mail. The options vary from shredding any document or forwarding packages to opening, archiving, or downloading mail in just a few minutes. Your mail is delivered to secure mail facilities where the envelope is scanned and uploaded to your cloud-based mailbox for you to control.

So not only is it remote access to your important mail, but it eliminates the need for a mailroom! This means lesser paper storage, no mail operators, and faster mail operations, a win-win for you and your pocket.

Travelling is a very basic component of every business institution. Meeting with the partners and remote coworkers every now and then is crucial to intensify the growth of the business. Generally, the business executives prefer meetings in person. For countless reasons you may have to travel to different cities or countries and host business meetings.

However, the work ethics has changed significantly in the world, making things more digitalized but there are not enough ideas in the world that can put an end to business travelling. While hotel conference rooms are always a pick for the business travellers, the meetings can also be held in the coworking spaces.

Hotel conference rooms charge immensely to arrange meetings. And since these meetings are quite frequent, you always look for an outlet that can save you some money. So today, we will be discussing some of the choices that you have to hold meetings or presentation for your business-

Business Centers- To begin with, we would like to introduce Business Centers as your initial choice of holding business meetings. This alternative does not require any former investment. The presentation rooms and business meeting rooms are rented on hourly basis or for days. You can rent the room as per your needs. Most of these places are equipped with internet, printers, workstations, meeting tables in different sitting capacities, projectors, etc. The Business Centers are designed to give you real-life office experience on a remote location.

Business Hotels- As we were discussing earlier, Business Hotels is the common-most choice of every business traveller to host business meetings. These hotels usually have meeting rooms, classrooms, private office, individual desks etc. The ambience is amazing and you can also quickly arrange lunch for the clients. The Business Hotels are usually equipped with all the major amenities that you may need to hold meetings. The rent however is a troublesome element. You will find business hotels to charge massively for the services delivered. You can rent it for hours or days, as per your needs. Of course, you can also stay at the same hotel and make arrangements for the meeting.

Coworking Spaces- One of the most pragmatic option that is available on an affordable rate are the coworking spaces. Coworking spaces are still creating their market as not many business people know about it. These offices are available at low prices and can be rented for hours or days. They have fine suitable for different kinds of professionals. The amenities that you get at coworking spaces are internet, projectors, meeting rooms, etc. You can also conduct meetings in the dedicated coworking places and meet new people. This will also help you to connect with professionals that may help you with your business as well. It is a perfect choice for the professionals with budget constraint.

To get started creating authentic content, you’ll want to define your ideal customer and know what is important to share with them to lead them through your funnels – in a way that matches their intent based on where they are in their buying cycle.

Share Your Stories

But you need to know what stories to share. When you really understand who your audience is, and what they need to know based on where they are in their buying cycle, it’s easy to choose which stories to share. And the more you can share with your audience, the better. When you share and relate with them, they’re going to see your authenticity shining through as it relates to them.

Be Transparent

Okay, you want to be transparent. But first you need to decide how transparent, then stick to that. Makes sure the transparency you’re using matches the need of the customer. For example, if you are claiming to make $100K a year, why don’t you show them? If you’re just saying you can make money, that’s different. But if you state a number, it’s important to also be willing to show the proof.

Engage More

A great way to create content is through engagement. For example, if you have Facebook groups that you like to go to, are you using them in a manner that is authentic with what you want to achieve? Do you answer questions openly or do you ask them to PM you? It’s probably better to talk about some things openly even if they are a problem or complaint. This is going to make you even more transparent and authentic to your followers.

Tell Customer Stories

One way to use content to show authenticity is to collect and share your customers’ success stories. This is a great way to show what is working to the rest of your audience. They love to read stories and connect with people who are already your customers. You can do this in a blog post, on social media, or via live interviews using Facebook Live or Zoom.us.

Be Consistent on All Channels

Today, marketing in a multichannel environment is expected. You’re going to need to market online and offline and in various channels in both environments. Then you need to be consistent. Consistency is much easier if you’re already being authentic to your brand and yourself.

Use Different Formats

Content marketing requires that you use a lot of different formats of content, much of which you can repurpose. For example, if you interview a satisfied customer via Facebook Live or Zoom, you can turn that interview into a blog post as well. Then you can even use that interview in a book as an example. Plus, you can pull quotes from the interview to make memes.

When you learn to match the content to your customer’s buying cycle, using authentic forms of content from yourself, users, and others who contribute content to your industry or niche, you’re going to find that it’s easier to create content for your audience. This is because you know that you’re being true to your brand and yourself.

Various types of products and services have various marketing objectives due to the nature of their trade. Objectives are best defined in a marketing plan which details exactly how the company can benefit if it takes on projected sales and marketing activities. The plan highlights the marketing mix, its budget, and how the business will expand in a specific period.

Marketing communication has channels that deliver your business message to the large masses. These days, companies use both print media and electronic media in their marketing mix. They like to take part in events and put up kiosks in various busy spots of the city for product testing as well. If the objective is to reach large masses you can create TV ads. To engage users online companies create websites and use questionnaires for new product development, learn more about consumer behavior, their likes and dislikes.

Reinforcement is the main element of integrated marketing communication as it ensures all elements of a result-driven campaign work cohesively to achieve objectives. For brand awareness five elements are most important as follows:

Personal Selling
Advertising
Sales Promotion
Direct Marketing
Publicity

A promotional mix works like a combination of options and the options that suit the trade best are always part of a marketing mix. If you are a local restaurant there is no need to advertise on TV. All you need is sales promotions, websites, and direct marketing through food delivery companies. For an FMCG TV ads are essential when you have a lot of competitors. FMCGs try to make sales using all types of channels. So objectives of the marketing communications (MC) depend on the type of business you are in.

The importance of integration

Integration is important for consistency. For example, if the brand logo appears different on the packaging than what is displayed on the website it gives off a very bad impression. Uniformity gives you a clean brand image that is more trustworthy. The corporate identity has to be maintained at all times. The look and style of your brand need not change across the various channels. Your brand message has to be consistent for corporate reasons. The target audience will take actions you want them to if you have a consistent message across many platforms. For this reason, the brand, the agencies, media, channel members, and the MC support services all need to work together to ensure they are on the same page. This prevents clutter which is damaging for the company image.

Role of marketing communications in promoting and developing brands

Promoting and developing brands requires work on graphics. When you have attractive graphics the brand name will be well recalled as the mind likes to retain eye-catchy graphics. When you have the effectual graphics for your advertising and publicity you are ready to promote a brand. The logo is a vital element of the brand as it distinguishes you from others. It can be revamped when the market trends change. Brands are best developed using the right IMC strategy so they can find consumers in the large target market and this requires research. After that, we can build a brand using a marketing mix for IMC. It helps with customer retention and getting new customers. By building brand equity brands can survive n the market. Product information that consumers get leads to making informed decisions about making purchases.

A business message gives the target market awareness about who you are and the benefits you have to offer. By using events at expositions or interacting with consumers online at websites or social media sites we can build associations with the consumers. When we have a large following the perception of the brand in the market will be positive. More prospects will trust us and try it. From the experience they get online and from the product use, they will be loyal.