Online Marketing Gold

By Rene Graeber

In the past few years, we saw a significant boom in the telemarketing UK industry. From the multi-million dollar corporations to small businesses, and even to political campaigns, telemarketing is used by people all over UK. However, certain telemarketing rules were recently passed which to some extent makes this year, 2006, a tougher year for telemarketers. The new rules I”m talking about is the sudden rise in Telephone Preference Service (TPS) registrations.

According to some reports, the diagnosis for the T. UK industry is critical as TPS registrations recently passed the 10 million mark. The registration was passed for the people to be able to avoid receiving cold calls or those unsolicited telemarketing UK calls by registering their phone numbers on a statutory list that bars the calls.

However, this new rule has caused some consternation in the telemarketing UK industry. It has been reported that the TPS registration leaves a significant impact on the UK business, perhaps for the reason that many UK companies rely on cold calling as a primary means of winning new customers, and if that route is no longer available because of the TPS registrations their business will under threat, so does the telemarketing UK industry.

Despite all those cries, several reports and surveys have made it clear that the future of the cold call is really under attack. First, the new and stronger regulation is allowing the consumers to avoid those unwanted calls. At present, the TPS registration has attracted 5.25 million members, which is equivalent to 24 percent of the UK population. It is further interesting to now that this summer, the TPS was extended to allow business numbers to be registered. Several industry specific regulations are even starting to emerge. One of those is perhaps the Financial Services Authority’’s ban on the cold selling of mortgage products, which according to some reports will be introduced in October this year.

Another support for the claim that the telemarketing UK industry’’s cold calling is currently under attack is the fact that most people in UK these days are using technology to control those unwanted calls. To put it simply, the consumers today are using answer calls to vet calls and avoid those they don”t want. Finally, many telemarketing UK consumers are simply refusing products that are marketed through telephones. This is what led the telemarketing UK industry further into their doomsday.

Because of those facts, the telemarketing UK industry is now calling the companies to take action as early as possible. Experts said that companies should start planning for a future which they may not be able to win new customers by phone. They should start on counting the cost of bad practice, which is one of the major factors that trigger the passage of the TPS registrations. Also, the companies must adopt best practices in all telemarketing activities to stave off further legislation, as well as to lessen customer frustration. There are also some who recommends minimizing the telemarketing UK companies dependency on cold calling, and win customer trust by treating them with respect and consideration.

Today, although the UK industry somehow felt a sort of despair over TPS, the newly passed legislation should be seen as just the latest development in the information privacy not only in UK, but in Europe.

About The Author

If you want to have more information about telemarketing visit my blog at http://seokingpro.blogspot.com

By Chris Marlow

This month I”ll answer a question posed by Cynthia B. who is returning to copywriting after a long absence. She wants to know:

How important it is to have an agency quality website?

The answer is that it is very important to have a high quality website IF you are prospecting other than locally.

When you prospect locally, the client can meet you personally. But when you prospect nationally, your client gains an impression of you from your website, telephone personality, and marketing materials.

Fortunately, it’’s not difficult to find a designer/webmaster who can help you build a high quality site at a reasonable cost. And some of my students do a very nice job of creating a
quality site themselves.

Because I”ve found national prospecting to be far more profitable than working with local business, I encourage my coaching students to prospect nationally, and sometimes internationally, and create a website that supports a sophisticated positioning.

What, exactly, constitutes an agency quality website?

Here are five pointers for creating a website that convinces quality clients that you are the right copywriter for them,plus two common mistakes to avoid:

1. Make sure your website has a you orientation, with you in this case being the client. The Home page should not talk about you, the copywriter, except in the context of what you can offer a client.

2. Have a unique selling proposition (USP), or positioning statement. Why are you the best choice? Do you serve a particular niche? Are you an expert at some important element of copywriting, such as offer development, headlines, concepting, etc.? Make sure your USP shines through on your Home page.

3. View your entire site as a lead-generating tool. If you write a direct response package, you first try to get your prospect into the envelope. Once inside, you attempt to lead your prospect through the package, with the end destination the reply card or
order device.

Use the same principle in designing your website and its navigation. Always send your prospect to the contact page, or the page where you offer more information. As with any lead-generation effort, your only goal is to get your website visitor to respond.

4. Create an offer, and offer it on your website. Unlike general advertising, direct marketing is defined by the offer. If you don”t have an offer, you”re not employing the most fundamental rule of marketing, and it will cost you responses.

5. Pay attention to look and feel. Copywriters have the right and responsibility to make sure the end product produces leads or sales.

This means that the copywriter should offer the art director some level of direction on look and feel,without overstepping bounds, of course.

A clean, well-organized website that exhibits a professional finish will offer a sophisticated client some level of assurance that contacting you will not be a waste of their time.

What NOT to do on your website:

First and foremost, do not preach to the choir. Because the world of copywriting is new to new copywriters, they have a tendency to tell what they know on their website.

But a quality client, usually a mid-size to large company or organization, doesn”t want to know WHY copywriting will help him. He already knows that, even if he doesn”t know how to write copy himself.

What he’’s looking for is validation that you could be the RIGHT copywriter for him.

Websites that attempt to teach generally attract clients who need teaching, oftentimes small business with a low appreciation of what good copywriting can do for them and an even lower threshold for paying reasonable fees.

The second mistake I see is mentioning price on the Home page, or anywhere in the site, for that matter.

Quality clients do not put price first, and any discussion of price usually comes after the copywriter has a complete picture of the marketing problem that needs to be solved.

Not long ago, one of my coaching students complained that his prospects seemed fixated on price. After going to his website I noticed that his Home page positioned him as more attractively priced than other copywriters.

This positioning inadvertently created a USP based on low price, something we copywriters should always avoid.

Bringing up the subject of price on your website will actually cause your prospect to put it front and center. Best to let pricing discussions occur naturally in the process of landing a job.

About The Author

Marketing coach Chris Marlow publishes a free newsletter for freelancers who want to land the high-quality, high-value clients:
Sign up here

By Chris Marlow

This month I”ll answer a question posed by Cynthia B. who is returning to copywriting after a long absence. She wants to know:

How important it is to have an agency quality website?

The answer is that it is very important to have a high quality website IF you are prospecting other than locally.

When you prospect locally, the client can meet you personally. But when you prospect nationally, your client gains an impression of you from your website, telephone personality, and marketing materials.

Fortunately, it’’s not difficult to find a designer/webmaster who can help you build a high quality site at a reasonable cost. And some of my students do a very nice job of creating a
quality site themselves.

Because I”ve found national prospecting to be far more profitable than working with local business, I encourage my coaching students to prospect nationally, and sometimes internationally, and create a website that supports a sophisticated positioning.

What, exactly, constitutes an agency quality website?

Here are five pointers for creating a website that convinces quality clients that you are the right copywriter for them,plus two common mistakes to avoid:

1. Make sure your website has a you orientation, with you in this case being the client. The Home page should not talk about you, the copywriter, except in the context of what you can offer a client.

2. Have a unique selling proposition (USP), or positioning statement. Why are you the best choice? Do you serve a particular niche? Are you an expert at some important element of copywriting, such as offer development, headlines, concepting, etc.? Make sure your USP shines through on your Home page.

3. View your entire site as a lead-generating tool. If you write a direct response package, you first try to get your prospect into the envelope. Once inside, you attempt to lead your prospect through the package, with the end destination the reply card or
order device.

Use the same principle in designing your website and its navigation. Always send your prospect to the contact page, or the page where you offer more information. As with any lead-generation effort, your only goal is to get your website visitor to respond.

4. Create an offer, and offer it on your website. Unlike general advertising, direct marketing is defined by the offer. If you don”t have an offer, you”re not employing the most fundamental rule of marketing, and it will cost you responses.

5. Pay attention to look and feel. Copywriters have the right and responsibility to make sure the end product produces leads or sales.

This means that the copywriter should offer the art director some level of direction on look and feel,without overstepping bounds, of course.

A clean, well-organized website that exhibits a professional finish will offer a sophisticated client some level of assurance that contacting you will not be a waste of their time.

What NOT to do on your website:

First and foremost, do not preach to the choir. Because the world of copywriting is new to new copywriters, they have a tendency to tell what they know on their website.

But a quality client, usually a mid-size to large company or organization, doesn”t want to know WHY copywriting will help him. He already knows that, even if he doesn”t know how to write copy himself.

What he’’s looking for is validation that you could be the RIGHT copywriter for him.

Websites that attempt to teach generally attract clients who need teaching, oftentimes small business with a low appreciation of what good copywriting can do for them and an even lower threshold for paying reasonable fees.

The second mistake I see is mentioning price on the Home page, or anywhere in the site, for that matter.

Quality clients do not put price first, and any discussion of price usually comes after the copywriter has a complete picture of the marketing problem that needs to be solved.

Not long ago, one of my coaching students complained that his prospects seemed fixated on price. After going to his website I noticed that his Home page positioned him as more attractively priced than other copywriters.

This positioning inadvertently created a USP based on low price, something we copywriters should always avoid.

Bringing up the subject of price on your website will actually cause your prospect to put it front and center. Best to let pricing discussions occur naturally in the process of landing a job.

About The Author

Marketing coach Chris Marlow publishes a free newsletter for freelancers who want to land the high-quality, high-value clients:
Sign up here

By Frank Martinez

Everyone knows someone who has decided to go into small business but did you know that 70% of all small businesses fail within the first 12 months of operation?

That failure rate, in some countries, can reach as much as 85-90%. Setting up a small business is actually one of the most difficult things you can ever do. And to make matters worse, the vast majority do it for the wrong reason.

I have started a number of small businesses over the last 10 years and every single one of them has been started from scratch and went on to grow into a thriving business. Just recently I have decided to sell one of the businesses off because it had done what I expected it to do.

This might seem a strange thing to do but actually it is the first issue you need to think about when starting a small business.

Believe it or not, most of the people who actually set up a small business do so for the wrong reasons. I”ve also done the same. What do I mean by the wrong reason? Most people start a small business because they believe they can do a better job then their current boss. Perhaps there is an element of truth in this. However, most small business owners really want improved employment conditions with an increased income. To be fair, there isn”t anyone who can really blame you for desiring that. However, if this sounds like you then I would advise you NOT to get involved with your own small business.

One of the major things you must give some thought to up-front before getting started with your small business is the image you want it to present to others. How do you want your customers and clients to see your business? What is your personal vision of success? Where do you want to go with the business?

The second thing is this. How will you know when the business is “done” i.e. when it is finished? How will you know when you have finished creating what you wanted to create? And even more importantly, how will you then get out of the business?

The thing is, you see, most men and women when they go into business have no idea of an exit strategy. This is really bad. Before you ever start a business, the first thing you must work out is how you are going to get out of the business.

For example, I started a small car cleaning business a couple of years ago. My wife was the main driving force behind the idea because she wanted to see if she could build a business from nothing. We planned to part with the business once it was all set up and making money. But the question remained of how were we going to sell it?

The truth of the situation is that we could indeed have taken many different approaches with eventually selling the business. We could have franchised it, sold it off to another small business entrepreneur or even let it float on the stock market.

We originally decided our aim was to sell it off to another small business owner. But, even with that in mind, we still set it up so that it could still grow and provide more opportunities for the new owner. In essence, we had removed the risky bits for them on how to operate the business by clearly spelling out and documenting everything they needed to know in order to run the small business successfully.

Such an approach worked for us. It could for you too.

About The Author

Go here for information on Government Grants For Starting A Small Business page. To search through all the pages of the website, visit Guide To Starting A Small Business

By Frank Martinez

Everyone knows someone who has decided to go into small business but did you know that 70% of all small businesses fail within the first 12 months of operation?

That failure rate, in some countries, can reach as much as 85-90%. Setting up a small business is actually one of the most difficult things you can ever do. And to make matters worse, the vast majority do it for the wrong reason.

I have started a number of small businesses over the last 10 years and every single one of them has been started from scratch and went on to grow into a thriving business. Just recently I have decided to sell one of the businesses off because it had done what I expected it to do.

This might seem a strange thing to do but actually it is the first issue you need to think about when starting a small business.

Believe it or not, most of the people who actually set up a small business do so for the wrong reasons. I”ve also done the same. What do I mean by the wrong reason? Most people start a small business because they believe they can do a better job then their current boss. Perhaps there is an element of truth in this. However, most small business owners really want improved employment conditions with an increased income. To be fair, there isn”t anyone who can really blame you for desiring that. However, if this sounds like you then I would advise you NOT to get involved with your own small business.

One of the major things you must give some thought to up-front before getting started with your small business is the image you want it to present to others. How do you want your customers and clients to see your business? What is your personal vision of success? Where do you want to go with the business?

The second thing is this. How will you know when the business is “done” i.e. when it is finished? How will you know when you have finished creating what you wanted to create? And even more importantly, how will you then get out of the business?

The thing is, you see, most men and women when they go into business have no idea of an exit strategy. This is really bad. Before you ever start a business, the first thing you must work out is how you are going to get out of the business.

For example, I started a small car cleaning business a couple of years ago. My wife was the main driving force behind the idea because she wanted to see if she could build a business from nothing. We planned to part with the business once it was all set up and making money. But the question remained of how were we going to sell it?

The truth of the situation is that we could indeed have taken many different approaches with eventually selling the business. We could have franchised it, sold it off to another small business entrepreneur or even let it float on the stock market.

We originally decided our aim was to sell it off to another small business owner. But, even with that in mind, we still set it up so that it could still grow and provide more opportunities for the new owner. In essence, we had removed the risky bits for them on how to operate the business by clearly spelling out and documenting everything they needed to know in order to run the small business successfully.

Such an approach worked for us. It could for you too.

About The Author

Go here for information on Government Grants For Starting A Small Business page. To search through all the pages of the website, visit Guide To Starting A Small Business