Five Sucessful Social Marketing Tips

The effects of social media on marketing and branding have caught many CMOs off guard. Just five years ago, it was conventional wisdom that social media would quickly peak and fade in importance. Then two years ago, CMOs found themselves scrambling to launch Facebook fan pages and Twitter streams, trying to catch up with consumers who appeared to be migrating in droves to social networks and smartphones.

While the 30-second TV spot has held its own, the evolution of social media marches on. It continues to grow, and is entering its third stage of evolution. It is now becoming the focal point for consumers and citizens to form strong links and communities centered around shared values and common goals to persuade corporations to participate in building a better world. A few brands have caught on with cause-conscious marketing initiatives like the Pepsi Refresh Project, Starbucks' Shared Planet, Walmart's Sustainability Index, Nike's Livestrong partnership, and Procter & Gamble's "Clean Water Blogivation" effort, to name but a few.

Social media represents a significant and permanent change that CMOs must embrace. Disingenuous efforts to fast track your social-media footprint simply by stockpiling "fans" will not only prove ineffective but will backfire. Savvy social-media customers know when there is no authentic commitment to engage with them.

The key today is CMOs must shift their strategies from trumpeting their brand as the "celebrity" (with all attention directed inward on themselves) to being the chief celebrant of their customers' community. This shift entails rethinking many fundamental elements of your marketing strategy. Here is a step-by-step strategy for brands to build customer engagement by leveraging the evolving tools of social media.

1. Define Your Core Values. Rethink how you want to define (or redefine) your brand. What are its core values? Its purpose? The answers should not be framed in terms of admirable but empty promises, but authentically humanistic values that are constructive and shareable within your brand community.

2. Get Leadership Buy-in. As CMO, you need to facilitate the adoption of these values throughout the company. It starts with getting buy-in from your CEO, and must extend down through the leadership and management ranks. You cannot let the inertia of the hierarchical organization become a stumbling block.

3. Align Employees Around the Values and Purpose. Your employee base is your first line of loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising for the brand, so you need to ensure that your brand's support for social cause resonates with them. A powerful way to do this is to invite the CEO to craft a video message or contribute to a blog especially for employees. Also, promote employee volunteer activities and celebrate the good works they do on their own time within the company culture.

4. Celebrate Your Customers, Not Your Brand. This step is one of the hardest for CMOs who have built their success on traditional broadcast thinking. It involves transitioning from a push to a pull strategy, from "me first" to "we first" thinking. One of the key shifts here is to share the brand's storytelling with your customers. You must invite them to co-author the stories your brand is telling and allow them to be partners in the distribution of content about your brand. The guiding principles of a pull strategy are as follows:

    Recognize that your story is now your community's story.
    Lead with listening rather than talking about your own brand.
    Start treating customers as living, breathing people with concerns about the world.
    Invest time and energy in building relationships as well as making profits.
    Expand from a sales focus into a service mentality.
    Become a day trader in social emotion by constantly monitoring your brand's reputation.

5. Focus customer service on engagement. Be mindful of the social footprint of your customers and see them as partners in disseminating your values rather than as purchasers of your products.

Taking these steps may feel uncomfortable at first, as they probably go against the grain of existing business models, profit centers and incentive schemes. But they are reflective of the new marketplace of customers that gravitate to social media at every chance they can to talk about their brand choices. Your goal is to authentically inspire your customers to become emotionally invested in the company's success not only because they love your brand but because they respect your values and purpose.

Article Source: http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/tips-social-media-marketing/227857/

How To Blog For A Business

So, you’ve decided to start up a business blog. Good for you! Blogging is great from a search engine optimization standpoint. We all know that the search engines like new content, which is what every blog post that you post to your website will be. It also provides you with the opportunity to target more keywords by posting content based on those words. However, when it comes to blog writing it’s important to write to your audience and provide relevant and engaging posts. The goal is to position yourself as an industry expert and keep your readers coming back time and time again. After you’ve set up the blog the next step is to start writing! This is where some people may have difficulties. However, don’t stress. There are numerous things to write about.

Here are some blogging ideas:

Industry News

If you’re working in an industry, you should know what’s going on. If you don’t, find out! Pay attention to the news, read industry magazines and other publications, and check out other people’s blog and forum posts. This should give you an idea of what’s going on. Write about it and provide your companies opinions and reactions.


Company News

A blog is a great outlet to reveal a new service or product that you offer. You can also notify your customers of a location move, branch addition, or new personnel that have recently been hired. Really, anything going on in the company is fair game.

Insider Tips

While you don’t want to give away all of your “secrets”, you can use your blog to provide some tricks of the trade. This confirms that you know your stuff and can be trusted. It’s a great way to get customers or clients.

Guest Posts from Employees

These “day in the life of” blog posts can be written by employees from every department and at every level of the company. They can explain their background, what led them to your company, and what their duties are.

A blog is great way to show your personality to customers and prospects. It should be less formal than your website, but still appropriate and business-like. So what are you waiting for? Get to it! If you need help starting a blog or social media marketing campaign contact Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising Agency at 312-204-7253 or www.MontariBrooklyn.com

5 Big Differences Between Press Release Submissions and Article Submission

Building traffic for a brand, whether a storefront or online requires lots of work, dedication, and above all, writing.  Creating content is how you reach the masses, but knowing what to write for whom you are trying to attract can be very different.  Creating quality content is no good if you aren't directing it to, and in a manner that will allow the reader to digest and use it to the best of their ability.

1. Press releases should be written for writers or news media and outlets.  Think of it this way, your press release is a sales pitch, the idea is to get someone as much information as possible in the least amount of time and contain content that can in turn be re-written or broadcasted to the ultimate demographic of the project you are pushing.

2. Press releases should not be written for your demographic.  When writing a press release, you need to assume that the person you're sending it to has almost no knowledge of the content.  Write the press release so the content is easily digestible and understandable by a broad audience.

3. Articles are usually longer and contain more in-depth compared to a press release with the goal of attracting readers and can be used as purely informational, to sell, to suggest or to link to another article, but to drive traffic.  Unlike press releases, articles are written specifically for the target demographic that is to read them, so utilizing keywords and looking at current trends is that niche is essential.

4. Articles can be written to optimize search engines to get inbound traffic.  They can also be written to link to, or have links in-bound from other sites, unlike press releases which are once and done pieces.

5. Press releases are time sensitive.  They are used within a narrow window to make an announcement, draw attention and start a buzz, but they usually point to or reference an article, so in may ways they work together but are definitely different.

Before you start writing, look at who will be reading your work and what you want them to do with it, take from it or remember.  Writing articles usually involves more time and a longer thought processes, they tend not to be time sensitive and most are written with the intent on being archived on the Internet for years to come.  Creating a press release should be more focused on the objective, getting the reader to tell other people about the contents of the release.  Providing them with the tools, information and data they need to do this in an easily readable, no-nonsense manner will increase the chances they follow through with it.

For more information of press releases and public relations contact the Montari Brooklyn Team at 1-855-937-2538 or visit us on the website at www.MontariBrooklyn.com

How To Stay Up To Date With Facebook Marketing

Facebook's announcement that it was testing real-time ad targeting made waves across our industry. At this point, any major change in Facebook's advertising practices could lead more than a few marketers to rewrite their social media strategy, shift their assets and reshape their budgets.

What most people didn't know is that Facebook announces changes and updates to its ad platform on a nearly weekly basis. Granted, not all of these announcements are on par with real-time targeting; that one's a potential game changer. But smaller updates do impact how brands deliver their ads. For example, Facebook will soon roll out a feature that lets advertisers target their ads to specific tabs within its ecosystem. It's not exactly groundbreaking, but it affects targeting strategy and where ads are seen.

Facebook is still young compared to tried and true ad channels like search and banners, so evolution is still a given. With that in mind, it's in every marketer's best interest to keep up to date with the changes so you can take full advantage of every update and addition.

Stay in touch with your agency and vendor partners. 
Trying to stay on top of everything Facebook related is a full-time gig. Luckily, the agency or vendor you use employs someone to do just this sort of job. Keep the lines of communication open and ask for periodic updates. The real-time targeting announcement likely led to more than a few frenzied brand marketers calling their "social media experts" asking about the implications.

You don't have to be one of them. Stay in close contact with the people running your social campaigns and ask if there's anything new that might affect your campaigns or strategy. Request biweekly or monthly email updates. Not every detail is life-changing information, but it's good to stay in the loop.

The Facebook ad team is making a concerted effort to release updates to its Ads API Tool Vendors first, so that this group of vendors can integrate new advetising capabilities and educate the market before the story appears in the press or becomes available in the Facebook advertising marketplace.

Facebook's ads API is still in beta, and as a result, access is limited to just 18 companies. But these companies are the true Facebook insiders with access that others don't have. If you want to stay up to date, it makes sense to turn to them.

Read up.
Even if you're regularly discussing potential platform changes with your agency contact, you need to proactively learn about Facebook on your own. This doesn't mean scrolling through your friends' updates when you should be working. There are plenty of news outlets providing updates and analysis of the latest Facebook marketing tools on a daily basis.

Facebook itself has a Developers' Wiki that's a great resource for anyone running an application within the social network, but it's very tech-specific and might be over the head of the average brand marketer.

In addition to Ad Age, there are blogs specializing solely in Facebook minutia. Inside Facebook covers the platform from a developer and advertiser perspective, while the similar All Facebook is a great resource on marketing news and the companies involved in Facebook marketing, complete with tutorials Mashable, a social media blog, offers breaking news and analysis on the latest happenings in Facebook and all other social media.

Test, test, test. 
By now you know that Facebook is constantly updating its advertising capabilities, so you should build change into your strategy. Once you're up to speed on the latest Facebook updates, the only way to truly understand what makes sense for your campaign is to test.

You don't need to utilize every new feature to run successful campaigns, and trying to do so would stretch you thin. Instead, test, study the results and then apply them. That's basic marketing strategy, and it shouldn't be forgotten on a new platform. Real-time capabilities or targeting specific tabs within Facebook may not give your campaign any sort of boost. Instead, you may find more success targeting certain interest segments and demographics that are totally outside the box. We've seen some surprising correlations between people who buy specific products and the other interests they share. As you strategize about what works for your brand, don't leave out good old trial and error. For more information on Social Media Marketing contact Chicago based Marketing and Advertising Agency, Montari Brooklyn at 312-204-7253 or www.MontariBrooklyn.com

Article Source - http://m.adage.com/article?articleSection=digitalnext&articleSectionName=DigitalNext&articleid=http%3A%2F%2Fadage.com%2Fdigitalnext%2Fpost%3Farticle_id%3D227422

4 Ways To Get Consumers Talking About Your Small Business

Small businesses are in a unique position to truly benefit from customer reviews.  Chains are pretty well locked into their branding and there tends to be very little differentiation city-to-city and state-to-state.  They will build reputations for being consistent and predictable, but rarely break through to extraordinary.  However, small businesses are unencumbered by these expectations; small businesses have the opportunity to make a name for themselves as something really special.  Soliciting customer feedback can play a crucial role in building this reputation.  Here are 4 things to keep in mind as you encourage your own customers to review your business.
 

1)  Incentivize.  Give your customers a reason to review your business or service.  Offer them a coupon or discount off their next purchase if they go to Yelp, Citysearch or EZlocal and leave a review. 

2)  Link your business profiles on your own website.  Don't count on customers tracking down your listing on Yelp, InsiderPages or EZlocal.  Add links to your website for each profile and further encourage customers to go leave reviews. 

3)  Encourage a constant stream of reviews.  Keep the reviews trickling in, this serves two important purposes.  First, it looks better.  If you are visiting a profile whose reviews are all clustered around 3 or 4 dates, it looks questionable, a little bit planned and spammy.  A constant stream of reviews spread across all dates looks much better and will build more trust with potential customers.  

Secondly, a constant review stream will add up in the long run.  Make no mistake, review count matters so always keep that stream trickling in, it will add up and pay dividends, especially if your competitors are only making sporadic pushes for reviews.

4) Don't discourage bad reviews.  We don't live in a perfect world and no one expects your business to bat 1.000.  In fact, if your business has nothing but 5-star reviews across the board it might strike consumers as a bit suspect, is anybody that perfect?  Also, negative reviews offer a golden opportunity for you to prove yourself, to go above and beyond. The Consumerist actually has an entire category dedicated to incidences where businesses stepped up and made things right after something went wrong.  

The strength of small businesses often lies in customer service and attention to detail.  If a bad review falls on your doorstep, rejoice—you have a chance to showcase your talents and turn a negative review into a positive experience, something they will be impressed with and tell their friends about.  This word of mouth will prove to be incredibly valuable to your business.

For more information on growing your business clientele and marketing. Please contact the Montari Brooklyn Team at 1-855-We-Sale-U or visit www.MontariBrooklyn.com


 

7 Tips For An Effective Press Release

Creating a press release for a campaign or assignment requires thought and preparation, without the core fundamentals your release may end up right in the trash folder of your recipients email.  A well-written press release can be an invaluable asset to your company and the success of the content within the release you're trying to help generate attention for.  Here are 7 mistakes most commonly made when writing a press release that you can easily avoid to become more successful at pushing your product, website or idea.

1.  Lack of proper research.  Spend the time to read and subscribe to press releases not only in the niche you work within, but from some of the larger and more successful companies in the world.  Look to see how they are laid out, worded and put together and pick the best parts from each to incorporate into your own releases.

2.  Don't assume anything.  Your reader may not know what it is they are getting, and since your goal is to have your reader generate buzz to their readers or media outlet, lay out the specifics for them.

3.  Don't belittle or talk down to anyone.  While number 2 says to be specific with what you are writing, don't write in a condescending manner, which almost always ends in a delete from the reader.  Assume they are not a total idiot.

4.  Don't oversell your product or service.  The purpose of a press release is to put it into the hands of those who have influence and a crowd to share it with.  They are not the ones who will be buying or using whatever is in the contents of your press release.  Don't try to make them the buyer, rather look at them as your reseller and present the information in the same way you would teach a sales associate how to sell to a customer in a store.

5.  Don't over-write or bloat the release.  A press release is not an article, it's meant to be informative and easily digestible; keep the fluff to a minimum and focus on the details that pertain to the service or product

6.  Do write a clever subject line.  Log into your email and check the messages you have deleted but never opened.  Chances are the subject line didn't entice you to open it.  Be creative and to the point with the subject line, the difference here can be a success or total failure and most new press release writers skip the importance to this small but invaluable part of content delivery.

7.  Don't jump the gun with sending your release.  Wait until you have all the facts, specifics and proper information for the contents within, then send it.  Don't send the release announcing a forthcoming release, which will break the trust and relationship with the readers you have.  You're better off sitting on a release for a few days then sending it out missing crucial information.

These simple mistakes can all be easily avoided, in turn you will have a higher success rate across the board, from emails being opened to media outlets picking up your content.  As with all writing, reread, proof and then read it again to ensure it flows smoothly and covers the exact message across that is needed for each assignment. For more information about submitting a press release or editing, please contact The Montari Brooklyn Team at 1-855-We-Sale-U or visit us on the web at www.MontariBrooklyn.com.

Top 10 Ways To Keep Visitors On Your Website

What are the secrets of the super sites? Why do some sites suceed while the majority of others fail? More and more Internet business owners are asking themselves these questions. The answers are frequently more obvious than you may think. Below are 10 tips for better, more successful web sites.

1. Build Your Website For Speed:

It's a fact of modern life - people are in a hurry. Nowhere is that more true than on the Internet. It seems that no matter how much the technology improves, nothing is ever fast enough. In fact, several studies indicate that the fast technology advances, the faster people expect things to be.

So what does this mean for your website design? It means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer's attention. If they can not at least begin to read about your product in that much time, they will be headed going to another website. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (Javascript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

2. Target Your Market:

Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

3. Focus The Site:

Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page. Upselling or cross selling is vital but don't dedicate so much to it that the customer feels caught in a bait and switch. Make mention of other products but do so subtly.

4. Credibility Is Crucial:

The most professionally designed site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you. The impersonal nature of the Internet breeds a certain level of mistrust. For your web site to be successful you must overcome this tendency.

A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Every commercial web site should have a privacy statement posted on line. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line. Your contact information should include an email address, mailing address, phone number and a fax number, if applicable. If you are unwilling to provide this information to your customers, how can they trust (or buy from) you?

5. Offer A Guarantee:

Offer an ironclad, no exceptions money back guarantee. This item is really a credibility issue but it is important enough to warrant its own mention. What better way to establish your customer's trust than to eliminate any risk for them? If the customer sees that your are willing to assume all of the risk, they will immediately be more inclined to trust you.

6. Make Payment Easy:

Offer a variety of payment methods for your customer. If you don't currently take credit cards, start immediately. You can either set up a merchant account or use one of the many credit card clearing houses. Take checks on line. Provide an address for those who prefer to pay by cash, check or money order. Make sure the payment process is clear, easy to access and intuitive to use. Eliminate as many steps as possible. Do not ask for any more information than is necessary to complete the transaction. Nothing frightens a customer off faster than feeling that their privacy is being invaded.

7. Simple Navigation:

Make site navigation easy and intuitive. While it may be artistic to make your index page all black and hide the link to continue, will that generate business? If your customer can not navigate your site to find what they want, they will go elsewhere. Limit the choices and direct your customers through a sales process.

8. Consistency:

Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

9. Design for indexing:

85% of all web users find what they are looking for via the top search engines. Make sure that your page is designed to maximize your placement. Focus on your keywords and keyword density but don't sacrifice your message. Utilize the meta tags keywords, description and title. Use your keywords when naming your pages.

10. Content Is Extremely Important:

Good content sells product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

Implementing the ten steps above probably will not make your site as successful as Yahoo or Amazon overnight. If they are implemented correctly and integrated into an overall web site design and marketing campaign, you should see an improvement in your website traffic.

10 Reason Why People Leave Your Website and Don't Come Back!

There are a variety of reasons why a website does is not popular with audiences or search engines. Most oftentimes website owners are not really aware of all of the possibilities that could slow down the growth of their website and audience over a period of time.



Here are the top reasons audiences find your your website Un-popular:

1. Too many Google Ads: Trying to monetize your site is perfectly fine, but covering the entire homepage with Google ads is not going to make you successful.

2. Poor Load Time: You don’t want your audience to sit there for a minute because the load time of your website is very slow. They will leave.

3. Poor Graphics: Your graphics need to appeal to your audience and if yours do not you might get people leaving your website fairly quickly.

4. Confusing Layout: Your website needs to lead your traffic down a path and a confusing layout might turn them off or really confuse them.

5. Poor Navigation: Your website navigation should be laid out thoroughly and in a fashion that is not confusing to your audience.

6. Too Much SEO: Nobody wants to view a website that has more links than content so make sure that it is first readable by your audience before you SEO it to death.

7. No Blog: Believe it or not there are certain people that will not engage with your website if it doesn’t have a blog.

8. Lack of Contact Info: Visible contact info is something that allows website visitors to feel warm and fuzzy in order to make further contact with your company.

9. Broken Links: Always make sure that the links on your website are working and not broken. People really don’t like clicking on links that lead them to nowhere.

10. Lack of Information: Your website should have the proper information to answer any of your website visitor’s questions. A lack of information could cause them to go elsewhere.

Make sure that you go through your website with a fine toothed comb and clean up any of these Website Building 101 concerns that sometimes plague website owners from growing their business well into the future. Make sure your  website is user - friendly.

4 MONEY SAVINGS TIPS TO HELP YOUR BUSINESS GAIN PUBLIC EXPOSURE

There are many techniques and methods which help an entrepreneur to reduce over their business marketing and advertising expenses – as it is understood that advertising is an integral and important component of any business. No business can survive or be successfully without some form of marketing or advertising. Below are provided some common methods to reduce marketing and advertising costs of your business.

1.) Piggyback: You can do this task jointly associating with other businesses when you sent out flyers and mailers to the local market. In case you are a buyer of a back page of the weekly community newspaper you can divide the cost of that page with another reputable retailer. This way you can piggyback your ad. Though there may be chance of reduced effect of your ad or lacking in response this can help you to maintain a regular advertising presence and saving money. Always piggyback with a reputable business partner. It can reduce the size of your ad you put the entire control over the other person who gets another half of the newspaper or magazine. So buy your ad yourself and ensure not share it with a competitor.

2.)Move to advertising: Take advertising to the next level of public relations as it is essentially free to some extent and measures. With public relations you can have exposure through your local media outlets and can generate better experience to your ad campaign. One good article about your business in a local newspaper or an appearance on a local TV show brings credibility to your business that is hard to gain with advertising.

3.)Referrals: Start and promote a referral system even in your company among your employees. Pay them some incentive for each referral that they bring in to your business. More you can go for word-of-mouth advertising that is great way and is cheaper than any other mode and method of advertising. You can go to social networking sites to promote your business activities. By using sites like Facebook and Twitter you can make good advantage of the social networking craze and can bring new customers to your business.

4.)Blogs: In the present scenario of online business where social media has rose up to a level there you can start a blog for your business. By using a blog you would be in condition to provide regular information about your products to your customer and in meantime can maintain relation with them.

Tips For Small Business Networking and Marketing

Why should you care? Small business drives the economy: they hire employees (two out of every three people hired are by a small business), they purchase goods and really care about growing their business. These entities are very special, but finding them requires a very tailored approach.

The ‘one size fits all’ method doesn’t work when it comes to connecting with small business owners.

Areas on which to focus that help small business owners notice you have to do with:

1) How your service helps the business owner stand out, in other words promotion.

2) How your service helps the business owner find new customers

As you think about how to apply this message to these business owners, don’t use generic “large company” titles such as “marketing director” or “purchasing agent.” Employees of small businesses wear many hats and have many generalists working at them – everyone needing to pitch in to cover the tasks at hand in order to grow their business.

Speak to how your product or service will help them “be found” or drive more revenue – near and dear to all of us, but especially to the small business person.

Understanding that 50 percent of small businesses with less than five employees don’t have a website, you have to think about how to best reach these business owners as well. While they may not have a website, they do subscribe to industry trade journals, meet with peers and use online services to stay competitive. Even though they might not be on the bleeding edge of technology adoption, as they are busy running their company, small businesses definitely look to find new ways of reaching customers.

Introducing your products and services through targeted ad placement is one approach for connecting with this group, another is providing useful information that helps a small business owner stay competitive. Become a champion of this group – provide resources and participate in the conversation where small business owners are.

So what can you quickly do to connect to the SMB audience? I’d suggest participating in these sites where small businesses are actively present:

1.) Manta (www.manta.com)- allows for specialized/targeted advertising to small businesses and decision makers by revenue, employee size, industry, etc...

2.) LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) – allows for finding business professionals by industry

3.) Present.ly (www.presently.com) – allows individuals within a company to post short, frequent updates that are tracked or "followed" by others. Unlike Twitter, it provides a secure and private way to share updates among members of a company, without them being visible to the general public

3.) TalkBizNow (www.talkbiznow.com) – allows networking while visualizing the small-world phenomenon by displaying how each member is connected to any other member.

For more information on marketing your business, please give Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising Agency a call at 1-855-We-Sale-U or visit us on the website at www.MontariBrooklyn.com.

22 Effective Marketing Tips, That Will Help With Branding

 
Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising consistently offers marketing and advertising tips as an informative tool for everyone. To keep yourself up to date, we suggest that you follow our blog, which provides exclusive tips and strategies.
 
1) Marketing 101: Develop a powerful and compelling core message.
 
“Say something, say it well, say it often.”? Why should customers buy from you? Why should they even take a second glance? You need to build a powerful message that gets key points across without clutter … because clutter is what leads to abandonment. Although this is the essence of a successful branding and marketing campaign, you’d be surprised how many companies fail to grasp this concept.
 
2) Make sure your core message is “benefit oriented”?
 
People don’t buy services or products, they buy the benefits of those services or products. In all your communications, make sure your message translates into specific benefits.
 
3) Make sure your initial message directs prospects toward a specific action.
 
Your customers want to be told where to go to find the solutions they seek. This should be abundantly clear to all four major personality groups (Amiables, Drivers, Expressives, and Analyticals). When you invite customers to go somewhere to learn how to interact with your site and find out more about your company, you can greatly increase your potential for conversions.
 
4) Develop imagery that enhances your message and intrigues your target audience.
 
The images on your site should enhance your message by being visually stimulating. Sometimes this may only be an aesthetic; other times it may involve “timelining”? imagery and content together to use space more effectively and get across a message in a more distinctive fashion.
 
5) Develop a unique value proposition (UVP)
 
Sit down with a branding or marketing expert and define a UVP for your company as a reminder of your competitive advantages. Make sure these advantages are customer-centric, not business-centric.
 
6) Incorporate your UVP into all online and off-line media for brand consistency and saturation.
 
Make sure your message constantly reiterates your competitive benefits and your UVP. You never know which aspect of your brand a prospect might respond to, so make sure the message is consistently broadcast in whatever media you use.
 
7) Tell customers what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them.
 
We call this inside-out marketing. Too often, companies unknowingly focus on what they want to say, rather than what customers want to hear. An outside-in perspective with a true 360° view of your company from the customer’s viewpoint is best accomplished with the help of a qualified branding and marketing firm that can determine customers’ attitudes, expectations, and requirements.
 
8) Build value … not boredom.
 
I leave this one to Napoleon Hill: “It is as useless to try to sell a man something until you have first made him want to listen as it would be to command the earth to stop rotating”? Think and Grow Rich "Napoleon Hill"
 
9) Lead with a header and close with a call to action.
 
Readers are much more likely to read your message, white papers, case studies, etc., if you pique their interest or curiosity through well-written headers, transition headers, body content, and calls to action that lead to the next step in a sales cycle. Visit www.imageworksstudio.com for details on building a sales-generating brand.
 
10) “SCAN I AM”?
 
Today’s readers don’t read, they scan. They scan for areas of interest, offers, links to relevant information, etc. So it is important to set up your text so that it can be quickly scanned. Online text is not linear like a book; it’s interactive to follow users’ nonlinear demands.
 
11) Develop a branding “blueprint”? that …
 
shows clearly how you expect prospects to interact with your messages. This blueprint should start with an outline and show all paths from all forms of communication and how they lead to firm sales. Again, marketing and branding professionals can help develop a plan.
 
12) Evaluate your plan. Have others evaluate your plan. Re-evaluate and adjust.
 
No plan is perfect, and any plan should be constantly adjusted to maximize its effectiveness. It is critical to continually audit your branding plan and all your marketing media.
 
13) Re-evaluate again.
 
14) Adjust your blueprint …
 
to adapt to the market, trends, technologies, customer demands, etc. Review quarterly. Every successful brand in the world is optimized regularly. Branding is an ongoing effort, not a one-time occurrence.
 
15) Use measurable tools to track prospect response.
 
Use online forms and phone logs to track responses from prospects. Capturing information via legitimate means allows you to re-market to this customer base and to see which forms, programs, tools, and salespeople are getting the best results.
 
16) Build a list.
 
Use online forms and phone logs to build an opt-in prospect list to serve as a powerful conversion tool. (See below.)
 
17) Re-market, re-market, re-market.
 
A customer may need to see a message more than five times to even notice it once! Keep your marketing efforts going … and going …
 
18) Don’t forget referrals!
 
Build a specific program to track, manage, and solicit referral business. We like e-mail campaigns and direct mail for this. Give us a call to discuss how to make these work for you: 1-855-937-2538
 
19) Up-selling!
 
Your existing customer base is your best source of more business. Develop a formidable plan to make sure your customers know what services you provide and that you keep your core and other related messages in front of your customers as often as possible. (It may take up to 10 forms of contact for a customer to identify with your brand) Remember, sell the benefits…not the service!
 
20) Use programs and tools to generate interest.
 
People like simplicity and packages, offers, and deals that are easy to understand and evaluate. By creating various packages or free tools for prospects to interact with, you can stimulate interest that may have waned otherwise. 
 
21) Hit them from all angles!
 
It’s called shotgun marketing. A shotgun shell contains hundreds of tiny lead balls, increasing your chance of hitting a target. Marketing is much the same … the more media you use effectively, the better the chance that your message will be seen and remembered. There is no secret solution to marketing; it’s all about creating a total user experience across all platforms that projects your brand.
 
22) Use technologies and trends; they are your friends!
 
Using various technologies such as online bookings, reservations, response forms, PDF downloads, Blogging, Wikis, internal search engines, and newsfeeds can have a dramatic effect on your overall brand identity and on your marketing strategy in general. There are too many benefits to go into here, but feel free to visit us www.MontariBrooklyn.com

7 COMMON MISTAKES SMALL BUSINESSES MAKE

While experience can be a great teacher, learning from others' experiences--successes and failures--can save you time, money and a lot of frustration. So when it comes to growing your small business, here are some mistakes you want to avoid or fix.

Mistake No. 1: I Can Do It On My Own
Most of us became entrepreneurs because we are experts or skilled at something and believed we could do it better than our competitors or maybe our current boss. But building a successful business requires more than technical know-how. None of us are experts at everything. So surround yourself with other experts to fill the gaps. Whether you hire employees, sub-contract work, create joint ventures, work with coaches/consultants or develop strategic alliances, the support you need is available. Don't try to do it all yourself.

Mistake No. 2: Great Products the Market Doesn't Want
The best products or services will go unsold if you are talking to the wrong people--those who will likely never buy! Investing your time and money promoting your products or services to people who don't have the resources, authority or need--today or in the future--is both frustrating and costly. Who are the ideal customers for YOUR products and services? Be clear on this, find out where they are and how to reach them and then apply your resources to pull them in.

Mistake No. 3: Talk More Than You Listen
If you want to earn a customer's business, you need to solve their problem or fill a need. So, before you jump into your sales pitch, take the time to ask questions, listen carefully and determine what the customer needs. Your features and benefits are only relevant when they solve a customer's problem or fill a need. Successful people tend to be good listeners--so you'll achieve greater success when you spend less time talking and more time listening.

Mistake No. 4: No Follow Up
Investing resources to generate leads for your company without a proven method to convert them to paying customers is a costly mistake. Whether potential customers come to you by phone, email, online or in person, a system for consistent and timely follow up is key to sales growth. Take the time to develop a procedure for moving prospects to customers. Take advantage of technology, templates and scripts for efficiency and effectiveness. Be consistent and watch your sales soar.

Mistake No. 5: Disjointed or No Procedures
Documented procedures for all the critical tasks and operations is a key to efficiency, consistency, continuous improvement and profitability. Yet despite the benefits, it's ignored by too many small businesses. This mistake becomes obvious when you hire and train new people, attempt to outsource or start losing customers due to poor service or missed deadlines. Take it one at a time, but make written procedures a priority in your business. The results will surprise you.

Mistake No. 6: Hiring on the Fly
"Quick to hire and slow to fire" describes many small businesses. A strong team of people to support your business is certainly important, but only if they are the right people. There are proven hiring systems and tools, including a job description and clear goals, to help small businesses attract and retain quality people. Always hire with a purpose, invest in training, commit to developing your team and be willing to let go of those who don't fit.

Mistake No. 7: Roller Coaster Marketing
For many small businesses, marketing activities and spending looks like a roller coaster, up and down based on how busy you are or how sales are doing. If your marketing is sporadic, your results will likely be the same. The key to attracting and retaining customers is consistency. It is better to do 5-6 lead generation strategies well and consistently than doing 10-20 of them periodically.
Which of these mistakes are impacting your growth and profit? Make it a priority to fix them--one at a time, if necessary. The sooner you do, the sooner your sales and profit will grow.







Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joan_Nowak

SINGLE SOFTBALL SUNDAYS IN CHICAGO - SIGN UP TODAY

For the Fifth consecutive year, Chicago’s only softball for singles who want to mingle will begin on Sunday May 15th, 2011.  Singles Softball Sundays is a league that allows members to sign up without a team or partner. Members are grouped by age and demographics, 18 soft-baller’

s per team half men half women.  

*SEASON STARTS SUNDAY, MAY 15TH
*8 week season (including 2 weeks of playoffs, all teams make it in).
(No games over Memorial Day and July 4th weekends)
*Games played Sundays at 12, 1, 2 & 3 pm.
*All games at Wrightwood Park on Ashland and Wrightwood in Lincoln Park,
just 2 blocks from our league sponsor bar.
*Post-game parties at Augie's Booze & Schmooze on Wrightwood Ave.
(They have a huge parking lot for S3 Softball  League to park in across the street,
   plenty of outdoor seating, a sand volleyball court & bags)

As a new member, you will receive the following:
* "First Pitch" get to know your team Initial Event before the first game                                        
* 8 weeks of games (6 regular season, 2 playoffs)
(Final week Championship bracket & Consolation bracket                        
* Free beer pitchers for every team & great specials after games at the bar                          
*Team Shirts                                                                                                                                            
*A team drinking party for the winning team
*End of Season Party (we need to give props to the winners)
                                                             
                              So whether you're simply looking for something fun to do, are
                               fresh in town, want to make some new friends or are ready to
                              meet someone in a really casual way, S3 has got cha covered.


WRIGHT PARK
2534 N. Greenview ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
(Neighborhood: Lincoln Park)

JOIN THE LEAGUE TODAY BY VISITING www.S3Softball.com (Promotional Code:MBVIP)  RECEIVE $20.00 Off league fees. (ONLY 30 Spots left out of 500)

Bars and Restaurants Receive Free Marketing and Advertising! Join Today www.MyDrinkon.com
CALLING ON BARS, LOUNGES, RESTAURANTS, CONSUMERS, PARTY GOERS, and DEAL SEEKERS !!!!!!! www.MyDrinkOn.com wants to make a deal with you. Are you an establishment, that wants free marketing and advertising? Are you a consumer looking for great deal?
My Drink On (MDO) is an innovative approach to group buying for the top nightlife venues in the Windy City that incorporates socializing, networking and philanthropy into a single experience. What does this mean!? We have great drink deals and specials to the hottest bars, clubs, restaurants and lounges. We will also be hosting some great events, accompanied by a great drink deal and offer charity events including a great drink special.
“Our mission is to promote a safe consumption of alcohol while socializing, interacting and being active throughout our city. Enjoy a great drink deal with friends or become more active in a charity and have the opportunity to meet its founders while enjoying a drink special.” Says My Drink On.
Through 4 different models of group buying, MDO believes to offer its users and venues a complete nightlife social experience!
Featured Drink On-
Several times a week, an incredible drink deal from one of Chicago’s favorite bars, lounges, restaurants and nightclubs will be offered exclusively to My Drink On participants/subscribers at a discount. Stayed tuned as drink specials will be added continuously as we ramp up!

Premium Drink On-
My Drink On will collaborate with one of the city’s trendy, upscale establishments to aid in publicizing or co-hosting a special themed party for which discounted drink package can be purchased through My Drink On. In addition, My Drink On will start hosting after work functions, also providing a great drink special to accompany the meeting of new young and experienced professionals in Chicago and suburbs.

Civic Drink On-
Wanting to get more involved in philanthropic activities but not knowing how and where to do so, is a widespread commonality. Civic Drink On is an innovative concept that allows consumers to get involved in Chicago’s charitable organizations in a social atmosphere. My Drink On also brings you a great drink special to compliment the experience!

My Choice Drink On
Offers an array of weekly drink specials and deals throughout the city. Offers a range from after work happy hours and discounted drink packages to promotional pricing on the entire drink menu. This groundbreaking feature is ideal for people already out in the city looking for their next destination or just want to step away from their local watering hole and try something new. With My Choice Drink On, bar owners, nightclub proprietors and restaurateurs have the unique ability to list their own drink deals quickly and easily, thus putting their establishment in front of thousands of My Drink On users.

My Drink On wants you to have fun, enjoy the city and do it all at a savings!
JOIN www.MYDRINKON.com TODAY AND START SAVING WHILE NETWORKING WITH NEW INDIVIDUALS.

BUSINESSES:

My Drink On wants to feature you. We are a revolutionary approach to group discounting for the top nightlife venues in Chicago that incorporates socializing, networking and philanthropy into a single experience. My Drink On provides an interactive, user-friendly online marketplace where consumers can quickly and easily find non-restricted drink specials and deals of 50% or more at their favorite bars, nightclubs, restaurants and lounges. Let us customize a special for you, increase your foot traffic and spread the word about your venue through our multiple marketing and advertising channels. Compared to other sites, we will work with you to promote days you are looking for growth and structure a drink special at no cost to you. My Drink On wants to be a partner to bring bodies in without hurting your bottom line. Give us a shot, we entered this market because we read and heard all the other complaints.info@mydrinkon.com.

LET MYDRINKON.COM, become your deal maker! Let us provide your business free marketing and advertising! Let us help you grow your business and build brand awareness! www.MyDrinkon.com

How To Set A Marketing Budget For Business

How To Set a Marketing Budget for your Small Business?

People often ask us, “How much should we spend on marketing?”

It’s one of the most important questions you can ask if you want to maintain a healthy revenue growth for your small or medium business. Most companies under-spend on marketing, thinking they’re saving money. This quite simply isn’t true. You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: you have to spend money to make money. Your marketing efforts have a direct bearing on your revenue—it’s no good being penny wise but pound foolish. The trick is to spend wisely. A tailored marketing plan that will fulfill your company’s goals will recoup far more in increased revenue than you’d have saved by not investing in it.

So how much should you budget for such a thing?

The answer varies by industry and business size. There isn’t any one-size-fits-all figure that every successful company sticks to. Your marketing budget will vary depending on what industry you’re in, how big you are, how much you want to grow, and how fast.

However. There is a healthy range within which your marketing budget should fall. Both SCORE — the counselors to America’s small businesses—and the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) put the range for a proper marketing budget at between 2% and 10% of gross sales. That said, they also note that for B2C, retail and pharmaceuticals companies this figure can exceed 20%—especially during peak brand-building years.

Budget-setting guidelines
The development or refinement of your brand, along with the channels used to promote it. This includes relatively one-off investments like logos, websites, blogs, e-mail campaigns, sales presentations, brochures, ads, and so on.

The ongoing expense of promoting and advertising your brand to your customer base and your prospects.
Although the exact percentage of revenue you’ll dedicate to a marketing budget is determined by your industry and other factors, here’s a table we’ve put together based on our own experience, and several other good sources:
Revenue Marketing Budget
Less than $5 million 7–8%
$5–10 million 6–7%
$10–50 million 5–6%
$50–100 million 4–5%
More than $100 million 1–3%
It’s important to adjust for industry!

Every industry is different, so companies that sell to specific government branches or have ultra-specialized niches may be able to deduct 1–2% from the above figures. If your company is B2B or B2C, on the other hand, you may need to raise your budget by 1–3% to see solid results. Retail and pharmaceuticals lead the spending, with many of these companies devoting more than 20% of their net sales to marketing.

The overall average is reported to be 4–6%. For many companies, though, we think that’s a shade on the low side.

Your own unique circumstances may well merit an increase or reduction in your marketing budget. You’re very welcome to contact us if you’d like advice; and the SBA has some great resources online as well at: 
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html. 

"We’ll just use what’s left over…"
Often, small businesses estimate their sales revenue, cost-of-goods, overhead and salaries, and then gross profit. Anything left is considered available funds for marketing support. That’s not such a good idea. … If you are the new competitor in the marketplace, you will have to spend more aggressively to establish your market share objective.

This is SCORE’s advice, and we couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Deciding what to spend on marketing based on what’s left over after everything else is a sure way to steer your business onto the rocks. If your marketing budget is an afterthought, then your marketing itself is an afterthought…and you’re going to have a very hard time building your revenue stream. Can I grow my company organically?

Sure you can. We call this organic growth, and it’s how nearly every business starts off. Remember washing cars or mowing lawns for a few bucks? Next thing you know, your neighbor wants it done. That neighbor refers you to another neighbor and so on. Many businesses grow their clientele like this: by word of mouth alone. And you can be very successful doing this—up to a point. But you’ll usually hit a brick wall where you just can’t grow any further on referrals and repeat business alone.

That’s when you have to get new customers—and for that you need a solid branding campaign. If you’re relying on partial branding, or organic growth alone, you will lose revenue in the sense that a certain percentage of people who would buy from you don’t know you exist. Either that, or they didn’t have their interest piqued when they interacted with your brand, and so they walked away when they should have stayed.

You cannot tally the lost revenue from those who either never found you, or who perceived your brand negatively and left your website without you ever knowing it. This is why it is so important to build your brand correctly.
Why risk millions to save thousands?

One reason so many Small Business fail is that they simply don’t understand how important marketing is to building a strong revenue stream—and so they allocate far too little money to it. Successful and highly profitable SMBs know how to allocate adequate funding to marketing each year. They know that marketing, if done properly, brings back solid returns…and also vice versa: not allocating enough to marketing could spell disaster. Think of marketing this way: It is a fundamental ingredient for profitability and growth.

Looking for a new marketing direction, request a quote for services from Montari Brooklyn Marketing & Advertising Agency. Call 855-We-Sale-U for more information or visit us at www.MontariBrooklyn.com.

COLD CALLING - STAYING ON TRACK

1.) Capturing your prospect’s attention. Start your process here. You should have a few strategies for capturing your prospect’s attention. Using their name is always a good way to capture their attention. So is paying them a compliment. Only after you have captured their attention can you venture to mentioning who you are and asking for a moment of their time. By the way, asking if they have a moment is a qualifying close. You are asking permission to move forward in the sales process.

2.) Offering a reason for the call, usually tied to a benefit that is of value to them. You should also have several reasons for the call per industry that you are targeting, easy enough to discover from your past customers. Refrain from product centric or company centric reasons, such as “we specialize in…” or “we focus on.” Keep your reasons prospect- or client-centric. A good way to keep this in mind is by starting your reason for your call with a statement like, “Our clients tell us…” followed with the benefits your clients have gained from doing business with you.
 
3.)Asking for the next steps. Asking for the next steps is simply another conditional close asking permission to continue to the next stage in the sales process.

Note * How far you go in the call will depend on your sales process and your product. If your next step is to schedule a lengthier phone call or conference call to ask questions, ask for that. If you next step is to get in front of the prospect, set up a face-to-face meeting. And if your next step is to ask them a few qualifying questions, ask them if they have time for a few questions.

Note * When participants in our programs ask for a cold calling script, they typically want some format to present their products or services as quickly as possible because they don’t want to spend the time doing the research before calling their prospect. It’s a lot easier to simply focus on their company, their products, and themselves and use it on every prospect they contact.

However, if you want to impress your prospects, show them that you care enough about them by focusing on what’s important to them, not on what’s easiest for you.
Focus on developing your communication skills, enhance your awareness, and increase your flexibility in handling multiple situations. You’ll find that you will become less dependent on scripts and work more with developing an opening framework for your sales process.

If you are interested in learning more abou t how Montari Brooklyn can set appointments for your company and sales team please visit us on the website at www.MontariBrooklyn.com or call us at 1-855-We-Sale-U.  "We Sell U! / We Get U Sales!"

Google Adds Their Own "Like Button" In Regards to Social Search

Google is adding its take on the "like" button -- which it is calling the "plus-one" -- in its latest bid to make search more social, as well as combat the growing dominance of Facebook.

Google's plus-one icon

Starting this afternoon, Google will allow users to vote plus-one on search results they find useful, and to share that preference with their connections in Gchat, Gmail, Google Reader, Buzz and, soon, Twitter. Users will see both the total number of plus-one votes, as well as the names and photos of their contacts who have stated a preference.

It's the most aggressive foray into social search to date and the first time Google has added a direct social signal into search results. Over time, Google will integrate the plus-one into the search algorithm itself so human votes will have an impact search ranking.
"When someone recommends something, that's a pretty good indicator of quality," said Matt Cutts, Google's principle engineer for search. "We are strongly looking at using this in our rankings."
Google is also adding the ability to vote plus-one on search ads. Internal tests have shown that plus-one votes increase clicks; Google won't charge for the functionality, but expects better ads to return more plus-ones and, in turn, more clicks. Higher click-through rates can improve quality scores, meaning marketers with better ads could pay less for a given keyword or position.

"We will provide reporting in AdWords for plus-ones," said ads group product manager Christian Oestlien. "Our belief is that advertisers will see increased performance from ads with personalized annotations."
The changes are some of the biggest to the visual architecture of search, the classic list of blue links, as well as its functional underpinnings. Plus-one buttons and social connections are going to join a search-results page getting more and more complicated with both real-time and local-search results, in addition to search ads that have also added functionality.

Traditionally, inbound links have been the strongest indicator of relevance and component of page rank. Last year, Google added Twitter results to also surface results that are more recent. Adding the plus-one will add another social component.

"Injecting a social layer into the algorithmic search is key to relevance," said Dave Karnstedt, CEO of Efficient Frontier. "Do a search on 'DVD player' today now you will see 35,000 results in less than 3 milliseconds. It's meaningless, but if you can sort through those by people who have given a social signal and those rise to the top, I think that can only enhance the user experience."

But the biggest move here may not be about search at all, but about taking another swing at the social networking business -- and at Facebook itself. The first time users clicks on a plus-one button, they will be prompted to create a Google profile, as well as be given the opportunity to adjust privacy settings.

Microsoft's Bing integrated Facebook "likes" into search results late last year but not into its actual algorithm, meaning a "like" has no affect on search rankings. Google has no immediate plans to add Facebook connections to the system, partly because they don't have the right to do so. "It would depend on whether that data were available," Mr. Cutts said.

"Its important for Google to bring in social influence into search results to prevent the social web from becoming a parallel universe," said Bryan Wiener, CEO of 360i, a unit of Dentsu. "I do think they need to have the Facebook 'likes' in there because you're going to have two webs, the social web and the open web."
In addition, Google will allow publishers to add the plus-one button, so users can vote on content outside of search, and ultimately improve the ranking of that content in organic search results. Google has by far the largest publisher network, including websites that use DoubleClick for ad serving or Google's ad exchange, so penetration of the plus-one will be immediate and comprehensive.

The question is whether Google can keep bad actors from gaming the plus-one system for fun or for profit. Google, to its credit, has a lot of experience filtering out attempts to game its algorithms. "The worst case is you just ignore them," Mr. Cutts said, adding that more complexity makes that more difficult. "If you give somebody five signals -- and give them five more -- it can actually get harder for spammers."

Article Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/google-adds-button-foray-social-search/149645/

Complimentary Senor Rio Tequila Tasting - Hosted By Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising

COME OUT TO A COMPLIMENTARY NETWORKING AND SENOR RIO TEQUILA TASTING AT ALLSTARS ON WELLS.

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Pure Elegance is what you will find in our Ultra Premium Señor Rio Tequila.  We invite you to come and taste what you've been missing in a Tequila.  We have Three Different ages/flavors for your enjoyment.

Señor Rio's "Blanco" is very smooth with a hint of citrus that can be recognized on the back of the tongue.

Senor Rio's  "Reposado" is aged for 6 months and is very complex. It has a natural sweetness and a hint of smokiness from resting in the French White Oak barrels along with a little spice.

Senor Rio's  "Anejo"  is aged for 2 years, has an earthier richness from the French White Oak Barrels and has been referred to as "The Cognac of Tequilas". The exquisite taste lingers on the palette for a long lasting finish.

We welcome you to please come and Sip Señor Rio and judge for yourself.
RSVP at Events@MontariBrooklyn.com

AllStars On Wells
205 W. Wacker Dr. (Entrance On Wells)
Chicago, IL 60607
April 5, 2011
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Why MillerCoors Passed On NFL Advertising Deal

Coors Light will lose one asset this year that arguably helped its ascent — its deal with the NFL as the league’s official beer sponsor. The pact terminated at the end of this season and now belongs to Anheuser Busch InBev, which negotiated a six-year deal worth an estimated $50 million a year for Bud Light.
A-B has the exclusive right to use the NFL shield in Bud Light advertising and retail displays. MillerCoors can still run ads during games, just as A-B did when MillerCoors was sponsor. (It all may be a moot point this year, of course, if the NFL and its players union fail to strike a labor deal in time to save the season.)
In an interview with Ad Age, MillerCoors CMO Andy England acknowledged the deal’s value: “This was a great partnership,” he said. “It was a good deal for us. We were paying an appropriate price. We activated the heck out of it and it did for us what we wanted to do.” But he also said that the timing was right for an exit, noting that when Coors Light first struck the deal in 2001, it was before the 2008 merger that created

MillerCoors, bringing Miller Lite and Coors Light under one roof. MillerCoors CEO Leo Kiely, who oversaw Coors before the merger, “will tell you that the No. 1 reason he did that deal at that time was because he wanted to make sure that Coors had more attention through the NFL season than Miller did in Miller/Coors distributors,” Mr. England said. Now, he said, “the No. 1 reason that deal was done has actually gone away because we are now MillerCoors.”

Mr. England said the value in sports league sponsorships is all about retail activation, such as in-season displays that leverage popular NFL imagery. MillerCoors bowed out because the brewer could no longer get a return on investment with the price tag the league was looking for, Mr. England said. That may be so, but at least one distributor indicated to Ad Age that he was at least a little bit concerned, noting that being able to use the NFL shield on brand-sponsored NFL team schedules posted at bars was a valuable tool.

Mr. England emphasized that MillerCoors still has individual sponsorship deals with 21 of the 32 NFL teams, a point subtly hammered home to distributors with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ appearance at the brewer’s spring distributor convention in San Antonio last week. MillerCoors “will still be all over NFL broadcasts,” Mr. England said. “We have deep relationships with CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, all of that.”

The brewer is shifting some of the freed-up sponsorship dollars to Mexican soccer teams and leagues and the National Hockey League, with which it recently inked a seven-year exclusive sponsorship deal estimated to be worth $400 million. MillerCoors hopes to take advantage of hockey’s cold imagery to push Coors Light, while making the NHL a core part of the branding for Molson Canadian.


Published: http://adage.com/article/news/millercoors-passed-nfl-deal/149592/ March 28, 2011

MARKETING SOFTWARE CAN NOT THINK FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Here are some things marketing software products can’t do:

Software Can’t Think
In some cases software can think but when it comes down to making an educated business decision; how is a software program really going to pan out? As a business you need to put yourself in the shoes of your audience when making any marketing decisions and no software program is going to be able to do that.

Social Means Being Social
Automating everything on the social level is not going to create that warm and fuzzy feeling with your audience. Automation software is not going to engage in conversation or reply to others. You might come across something really great that you want to retweet. Automation software is not going to put that thought together and proceed with that action.

Social Customization
I have seen titles show up very strangely on certain platforms in which social bookmarking automation tools have been used. If there was a human submitting individually to each they could fix a title or character that is showing up in a funky way. Automation software is not going to do that for you or put the thought together that it should be done.

Search engine marketing is all about thinking where your audience is hanging out and trying to create inbound traffic streams that simply require a human being to be there in order to make marketing related decisions. No search marketing campaign can be put on autopilot by a software program and expect to see good quality business results. As a business you need to make the time to provide the human element if you want to be successful online.

As the old saying goes "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself or hire a professional". Call Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising at 1-855-We-Sale-U, for an educational complimentary marketing analysis.

"We Sell You! / We Get U Sales!

TOP 10 WAYS TO RANK IN GOOGLE

People don’t really understand that there are many different factors that fall into place when determining where a website ranks in the Google search engine results. Some things to keep in mind when you are wondering why your site doesn’t rank well. It is not always just the obvious reasons that are holding it back.
Over the past years by reading Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, Google SEO Starter Guide, many other industry blogs and by actually doing professional SEO and internet marketing since the late 1990’s, I have gathered data and come to a boiled down short list of the most important Google search engine ranking factors.
Here is the list of my top 10 of important Google SEO ranking factors to consider:

1. Age of Domain: Age of URL is very important. If you just bought your domain a few weeks or even months ago you have a long road ahead of you. The reality is the age of your website helps build trust. If your website has been online for several years, chances are you have an established business.

2. Domain Hosting: Where is your site hosted? Find out through your hosting company what continent or country your site is hosted in. This can often times play a large role in search rankings. Always use a reputable hosting company. If your company is US based then use a hosting company in the United States. Also, I always recommend a dedicated IP when you can. There are virtual dedicated and cloud hosting solutions that are more affordable. Never use the cheapest hosting. The reality is, if you cannot afford hosting you should re-consider the business…I know this is harsh but very true.

3. Your Neighbors: If you have a virtual server, which sites like Godaddy usually are have been known to house hundreds of websites on one server. Make sure that your neighbors on your server are not classified as spam.

4. URL Structure: Make sure your URL structures are very clean. There should not be any random strings of characters at the end of your URL’s. This is part of the onsite search engine optimization process as well.

5. Content: Content is very important. To start make sure you have text on all your important pages, then make sure it is good text consisting of your targeted keywords spread throughout naturally. Simply put, ALWAYS write your content for humans, your website visitors first and NEVER write content for the solo purpose to achieve Google search engine rankings. Chances are the content will not be user focused or provide value to your visitors.

6. Internal Link Structure: Make sure your inner pages are linked correctly. Visitors should have easy made pathways connecting to your other pages from every page of your website. Make sure the code of your website is verified and keep flash and JavaScript to a minimum, if you can. Essentially make sure the site is clean, easy to use and interlinked to help the user experience.

7. Trust: Do you at least have a mailing address listed on your website? You should if you don’t. Google likes to see trust factors on websites so anything you can add that could help build trust for your audience will benefit your rankings. I always recommend having a phone number on each page of your website. Make it easy for people to do business with you, it all starts with establishing trust and that starts with contact information on your website.

8. Keywords: Make sure your website is optimized using your keywords. This means any alt tags for images, meta page information and existing content at the very least of things. Remember to naturally optimize your website based on the content of each page of your website.

9. Bounce Rate: Although bounce rate might not seem important if Google sees that nobody hangs out on your website for more than a few seconds before they leave this could be a ranking problem over time. Make changes to get visitors engaged with your website. Simple things, like video, newsletter sign up, call to actions, etc will help improve your bounce rate over time. Make sure you have proper tracking on your website, such as Google analytics.

10. Outbound links: Make sure the websites that you link to are 100% relevant to your business and industry. If you sell animals toys but you are linking to a site that sells shoes that is not very relevant and over time could really impact your rankings. Bottom line is if it makes sense to link to another site, then do so, but remember you could be sending your visitors away from your site.

**Note: As the Google (and yes there are 2 other major search engines!) algorithm changes there are always new ranking factors that come into play, such as the page load time and many others. I am sure when I re-do this list a year from now, there may be another one or two additional factors.

There are many extensive factors that Google uses when determining website rankings. Very important to get these factors correct otherwise you could find yourself just spinning your wheels. The bottom line is it is all about relevancy and earning your visitors (and yes Google’s) search engine trust over time.

SUCCESSFUL ONLINE EVENT MARKETING TIPS

Most industries in today’s marketplace have special industry related events where people can gather in order to improve their networking skills and meet other peers in their space. Some businesses really depend on their specific industry events and others do not. Regardless of which area you fall into, it is important to try and
kick up your online marketing during these events because you can really develop some nice traffic surrounding the event.

Here are some useful online event marketing tips to use for your next event:

Online Event Marketing Tip #1 – Plan Early
As soon as the information and agenda surrounding the event goes public start thinking about how you can report the information. One thing that you don’t want to do is wait until the last week in order to stick out and become visible because it will most likely be too late.

 
Online Event Marketing Tip #2 – Blog Post Series
Start writing early about different topics surrounding the special industry event. If there are educational courses try doing a blog post or article series dissecting some of the more popular or unpopular courses that people might want to learn more about.

Online Event Marketing Tip #3 – Put A Pay Per Click Advertising Plan Together
It might make sense to geo target some pay per click advertising ads surrounding the event during and prior to the event to let people know that you are there or will be there. Trying to sponsor an event can be really expensive and just out of reach for many smaller businesses, which is why it is important to think about other ways to reach out to the same audience.

Online Event Marketing Tip #4 – Social Media Countdown
Launch a well planned social media countdown prior to the event. Put together a social media communication effort every day for the month prior to the event to get people’s attention. You don’t have to take this approach exactly, but try thinking about how you could leverage the social media landscape in order to improve your message.

Industry events can be great for traffic but you have to hit it early before everyone else does. As you put out new material and content over time, this content will start to rank in search results, ultimately bringing in nicely targeted traffic to your business website.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com/2011/03/16/online-event-marketing

5 THINGS ALL BUSINESS OWNERS MUST KNOW

If you are an entrepreneur there are a few critical tasks that you need to turn into a daily habit in order for your business to keep moving in a positive direction and to make you money. Read on to find out those key items and how you can add them to your daily routine. Entrepreneurs have to wear many hats when a business is just starting. Many things need to be delegated to others in order for the business to run smoothly and there are a few things that you must do yourself. If you can create a habit of performing these 5 things every day, some for just a few minutes, then you will see your business grow right alongside your dreams:

1. Plan for the future a few minutes each day. Assume that your product has stopped selling all of a sudden. What direction will you take your company next? What new income stream can you add? This is a time for day dreaming and recording notes in preparation for the future. You don't necessarily have to take action on these items, but you need to think about them daily in order to bring out the golden ideas.

2. Work on your marketing in some aspect every day to get new customers. If your prospective customers don't know about you they won't buy from you. Work on getting your message out every day even if it is just for a few minutes.

3. Work on closing a sale every single day. whether you are doing this on-line, on the phone, through the mail, or face-to-face you need to be selling every day. Without the close of a sale there is no business. This is not something that you can delegate all the way. even if you have a sales force you need to be out there looking for deals.

4. Develop or strengthen your business network. You need to join or create a business network where you can help others and they can help you back. This is a great place to get free customers through referrals and an excellent mentoring opportunity using the mastermind principle.

5. Contact your current customers. Don't ever forget about the people that have already purchased from you. These are your best customers. They already like what you have to sell and they don't cost anything to acquire. Contact your current customers frequently, even if you are just saying hello. They need to know what you have to offer and they need to know you are still breathing.They won't seek you out. You must go to them. About the

Works Cited: Joshua Black; http://www.UnderdogMillionaire.com  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Black http://EzineArticles.com/?Entrepreneurs---5-Things-You-Must-Do-Every-Day-to-Build-Your-Business&id=3356575

Who Is Forbes Worlds Richest Billionaire?

Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim has retained the title of the world's richest billionaire on Forbes' annual list of the world's richest people, after his fortune surged a staggering $20.5 billion to $74 billion.
Slim, whose fortune is based in Central and South America – his America Movil SAB has 225 million wireless subscribers and also controls Mexico's largest landline phone carrier and companies in Colombia and Peru – is now $18 billion ahead of his nearest rival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose fortune increased $3 billion to $53 billion.

Legendary investor Warren Buffett is again in third spot after his fortune rose $3 billion to $50 billion.
In fourth is luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, whose fortune surged $13.5 billion to $41 billion thanks to a strong rise in the value of his company LVMH, which owns brands including Louis Vuitton and Moët.
Rounding out the top five was Oracle founder Larry Ellison, whose fortune surged 11.5 billion to $39.5 billion thanks to a 30% jump in the value of Oracle shares.

The highest-ranked Australian citizen on the list was mining mogul Gina Rinehart, who ranked 100th with a fortune of $9 billion. Fellow iron ore minder Andrew Forrest ranked 145th with a $6.7 billion fortune and Westfield founder Frank Lowy was ranked in 244th place with a $4.4 billion fortune.
The highest place woman was WalMart heir Christy Walton, who has a fortune of $26.5 billion.
The big rise in the fortunes of the men at the top of the list helped the total wealth on the list surge from $3.4 billion to a record $4.5 billion.

There are now a total of 1,210 billionaires in the world in 2011, up from 1,011 last year. Of those, 102 are women, up from 89 in 2010.

The big story on the list is the rise of a new generation of entrepreneurs connected to social networks.
Mark Zuckerberg is now worth $13.5 billion, up from $4 billion last year, thanks to the recent valuation of Facebook at $50 billion in a recent capital raising. As Forbes points out, Zuckerberg is now almost twice as rich as Australian-born media legend Rupert Murdoch, whose fortune is estimated at $7.6 billion.
Zuckerberg's co-founder, the rather lesser known Dustin Moskovitz, who at 26 years of age is the youngest billionaire on the list with $1.4 billion.

Fellow Facebook shareholders Peter Thiel, Sean Parker, Eduardo Saverin and Yuri Milner also join the billionaire's list for the first time.

Works Cited: http://www.smartcompany.com.au/wealth, March 10, 2011

Website Tips On Attracting Visitors

What good is having a ton of  traffic to your website website if you can not convert them into customers? Website owners have to realize that everything starts with your website and quality keywords.Your website should be able to attract traffic in a way that creates action and conversation. You should always update your website with different designs, branding, and content.

HERE ARE A COUPLE OF WAYS TO TURN YOUR TRAFFIC INTO CUSTOMERS:

Easy Communication


1.) Your visitors should be able to contact you with a "Contact Form" with no problem. They should not have to search for your contact information. If it takes longer than 2 seconds to find your contact information, then you should reconsider re-evaluating your website.


Clean Website

2.) The average website consist of more than 5 pages. It's okay that your website is very informative. However, to much information can be an extreme over kill. You only have one chance to make a first impression and if the first page of your design, content and development is to much - people are quick to navigate away from your website.

A Story Of Three Senor Rio Tequila's

Señor Rio Tequila originates from 100% blue weber agaves grown in the arid red clay soil of Jalisco, Mexico.  It is distilled only twice to preserve the true agave flavor.  The hearts of the agaves, or piñas, are harvested by hand and slow cooked in traditional stone ovens.

Señor Rio is available in three types: the Blanco, the Reposado, and the Añejo.  The Blanco (meaning “white”) is clean and crisp, yet perhaps what is most appealing is the hint of citrus that can be noted in the back of the palette, leaving a smooth finish.  This is due to the open tank fermentation process which captures the fragrance from the mango and citrus trees surrounding the distillery.  The Reposado (meaning “rested”) comes from aging the Blanco for six months in French white oak barrels from Tennessee.  These barrels previously stored whiskey, and thiselement creates afinish in the tequilathat is a nice balance of oak and honey.  Finally, the Añejo (meaning “aged”) comes from aging the Blanco for two years in French white oak barrels.  This process reveals a marked aroma of the wood and a semi-heated finish along with depth, full-body, and intense flavor.  This gentleman’s spirit has been referred to as the “cognac of tequilas,” and is paired well with a fine cigar.

In its brief life on the market, Señor RioTequila has already received three awards in taste and presentation from the L.A. Wine and Spirits Competition, the Spirits of Mexico competition, and the San Francisco Wine and Spirits competition.Its superior quality and smooth finish is enjoyed by tequila aficionados and beginners alike.

For more information on Señor Rio Tequila including events, locations, ordering online, and more, please visit: www.senorrio.com.

If you are located in the State Of Illinois and are interested in Señor Rio Tequila Tastings at your establishment, please contact Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising at 312-204-7253.

A Taste Of Mexico

Senor Rio was first introduced to Arizona as it arrived on May 29, 2009 and the first establishment who ordered Senor Rio was Juan Jamie’s tacos & tequila, Chandler, AZ

The bottle designed by Jonathan Gach was made to resemble a unique crystal decanter, definitely not your typical tequila bottle. It was also designed to be bartender friendly with a long sexy neck for easy pouring. The stopper, sometimes referred to as a chess piece, is also unique with the logo lasered into the glass stopper. The cork is not a natural cork and it will not dry out and crumble into the tequila.
The name and logo are to honor Debbie’s father who gave them the process to make this ultra-premium tequila that dates back three generations in his family.

The taste is superb and Senor Rio has received rave reviews in blind taste tests among other ultra premium tequilas and is 100% natural.Senor Rio’s bottle design received a bronze medal in the L.A. Wine and Spirits Competition for packaging in June 2009.Senor Rio’s Blanco tequila received a bronze medal at the Spirits of Mexico Competition in September 2009. Senor Rio’s Anejo received a bronze medal in The San Francisco World Spirits Competition in May 2010.

During the fermentation process, we keep our tanks open so that the fragrance from the mango and various citrus trees that surround the distillery seep into the tequila naturally for that hint of tropical citrus.
The Blanco is very smooth with a hint of citrus that can be recognized on the back of the tongue.
The Reposado, which is aged for 6 months, is very complex. It has a natural sweetness and a hint of smokiness to it from resting in the French white oak barrels along with a little spice which comes from the rich red volcanic soil which the agave growns in located in the lowlands of Jalisco, Mexico.
The Anejo, which is aged for 2 years, has an earthier richness from the French white oak barrels and has been referred to as “The Cognac of Tequilas”. The exquisite taste lingers on the palette for a long lasting finish.

Senor Rio tequila is only made from 100% blue weber agaves that are all estate grown to keep the quality consistent. The agaves are harvested by hand and slow cooked in traditional stone ovens.
Senor Rio tequila is only distilled twice to keep the true tequila flavor.

To keep current with Senor Rio Events, tastings, and announcements in the Illinois area follow us on Twitter@MontariBrooklyn – You can also win prizes!!!!

LIKE US ON FACE BOOK AND BEGIN TO WIN PRIZES AND START ENJOYING FREE EVENT

Become our fan and “Like Us” on Facebook to get the latest on our various tasting events, promotional events, classes, contest, tips and freebies.

We want to thank all of our clients who made Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising Agency a huge success. In appreciation, we are having a contest and is giving away a free custom designed website for the month of March to - two of our lucky Facebook fans. We ask only that you share the love...the Facebook love!  "Like" us on Facebook. Tell your friends to "Like" us too, because we will give them a free website also if there name is selected. We will randomly be choosing 2 people by the 30^th of every month.Good Luck from Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising Agency.

Book Of The Month - Black young Woman' Thoughts

Book Of The Month:

Black Young Woman’s Thoughts , By Tina Caldwell

Tina Caldwell was born and raised in Chicago. She is the youngest of three siblings. Ms. Caldwell has earned her Bachelor degree in Fashion Management at Columbia College; in addition, she has earned two Master degrees, in Education and H.R Management. She has over 5 years of experience working and mentoring individuals in the area of careers, parenting and education. While attending school and working for the Chicago Public School System, she has encountered many youths and young woman who relied upon her for an opinion and a shoulder to cry on. Her desire to motivate and uplift young woman has been a dream come true.

Tina Caldwell’s “Black Young Woman’s Thoughts”, came to life when she saw a reflection of herself, family, friends and associates in the students and others she mentored. Reality set in and a book of inspirational and spiritual poetry was born. It is a book based upon years of real life experiences of her and other. “Everyone has been in a place in their lives, where they needed motivation and someone to talk to,” Says Tina. This book will allow you to release the load off your shoulders and relax.

If you are looking for a book to keep you motivated and optimistic daily, then this book is for you. This book serves as your personal counselor and provides a since of comfort.

Purchase your copy today from Amazon or Author House by clicking on the following links:

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Young-Womans-Thoughts-Caldwell/dp/1452085455/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1297150171&sr=8-5

http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000381396

For more information on the Author and her book, please visit www.PoetryByTinaCaldwell.com