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Advertising is King to the Success of Your Online
Business
by
Cindy Floyd
Advertising is the most important aspect of
owning a home based business. You can have the classiest
looking website on the internet and the best product on
the plant but if no one knows about it you are not
likely to be making a profit anytime soon.
So what is the king of advertising? TRAFFIC You
need lots of eye balls looking at your site and I mean
lots of them. Not everyone window shopping your site
will buy, but the odds go up when you have tons of
people walking by that a percentage of them are
interested in what you are selling.
How to Generate Traffic
Know your target market
The first thing any savvy internet marketers
need to understand is his/her market. Are you selling to
a younger or older group of people? This is important
when you choose your method of marketing. The younger
crowd is fascinated with gadgets. The older crowd is not
so much. They might prefer email over podcasting. The
delivery method is important in attracting their
attention. Social media sites like MySpace and Facebook
are a great place today to capture events or your
x-boyfriends love life. There is serious marketing
adverting going on in these arenas. So don't overlook
these platforms.
Keyword Generation
Once you understand your target market you need
to develop a set of keywords to use that will draw those
customers to your site. Utilization of those unique
keywords in your website, online ads, blog posts and
article publishing is the magic that combines you and
the right customer.
You can never have too many or too few
keywords. The key here is balance. If you have too few
you risk not reaching your target market. If you have
too many you risk being considered a spammer by the
search engine web crawlers. If you write like you talk
you will naturally meet that balance.
The Ad
When placing the ad you should give some real
thought to your audience and location. A flashing banner
ad might be great on blog site but not well received on
your MySpace or
Facebook profile
page.
When using text ads like classifieds, emails
and Adwords your headline and keyword usages is
important. Your headline should be attention grabbing
and should use one or more of your keywords or keyword
phrases. The body should give them just enough
information to entice them to want to know more by
clicking on your link.
I have found it beneficial to give your
customers multiply ways of contacting you. Providing
your name, a website url, email address, and phone
number gives them options and legitimacy to you and your
product.
Know Your Budget
Your advertising budget is a part of your
overall business plan. It does not matter if your budget
is zero or $2,000 per month, you can advertise and get
your name out there. This is important to drive traffic
to your site and important to your business.
Ideally you will have some funds allotted to
advertising. You will need some budget to move
your business
forward. You might want to use your advertising money on
placing ads and banners while using your time to post to
your blogs, write articles and build your relationships
on the social networking sites.
The key here is to spend your money wisely. Do
your research on the sites you want to place ads and
direct them to the proper target group. This little bit
of effort will pay huge dividends in the end.
Advertising is like a puzzle; it can be
difficult or it can be easy. By following these few tips
you have all the pieces to the puzzle. With the proper
time and effort given to each aspect you now have the
knowledge to create campaigns that drive traffic to your
website.
Develop a Winning Market Research Strategy for Your
Franchise
What is a Target Market?
What is a target market and more specifically, your target
customer? If you own a fast-food franchise you may think
that your target customer is “everyone” because you
believe most people eat fast food at least once per
week. But that may not be the case. Your ideal customer
may be 18-24 years old, be a student, makes less than
$10,000 per year and buy your product only during school
hours.
One of the main goals of being an entrepreneur – and a franchise
owner – is to satisfy your customer’s needs because if
you don’t, your business may never get ahead. If you
know exactly who your customer is, what they expect or
want from your business, and how often or when they are
willing to spend their money, you are on your way to
ensuring that your business is prepared for growth and
success.
Your target market is comprised of the individuals who are most
likely to be your best customers and therefore your
biggest and most frequent spenders because you offer the
product or service they want at the time they want it.
The main way to identify this “group” is through
demographics, or population characteristics.
1. What is a Target Market?
2.
Create a
Target Market Profile
3.
Assembling
the Market Research Study - Part A
4.
Assembling
the Market Research Study - Part B
5.
Market
Research Methods - Surveys
6.
Market
Research Methods - Four Other Options
Create a Target Market Profile
To create a target market profile, make a list of all the following
demographic variables that you feel will best suit your
type of business. For example, if your business is
situated in an ethnically-diverse neighborhood, include
“Language” as a variable because this may impact your
business operations in terms of service.
· Age
· Sex/Gender
· Race/Ethnicity
· Religion
· Occupation
· Education
· Family Size
· Marital Status
· Household Income
· Ownerships (home, car,
pets etc.)
· Language
· Mobility
A solid market research study should cover all the angles when
planning for your franchise’s future promotions and
product positioning. Demographics are key but you can’t
forget the supplementary factors such as lifestyle
(daily routines, local traditions or patterns,
social/communal dynamics and religious observation),
geography (the distance threshold that customers will
commute to your franchise) and ulterior motives
(indirect reasons for customers to patronize your
business) .
Once you’ve covered all of these areas in your search for your
target market, you will have a better idea on what
products to sell, the type of services to offer, the
perfect combination of price points and the best hours
to keep, among other factors.
Assembling the Market Research Study - Part A
This next segment looks at putting together the actual market
research study.
A market research study is not only useful for budding
entrepreneurs to determine the feasbility of their
business within a certain geographical area. As a
franchise owner, you should conduct an MRS (short for
market research study) each and every time you plan to
introduce a new product or service or position certain
products and services to gauge customer reaction and
sales response.
The most important function of an MRS is to help you avoid making
costly mistakes. There is no better test than to have
real people give you real feedback on your ideas. You
may think you have the best new idea in the world, yet
your MRS may tell you something else. Imagine having
placed an order for 10,000 units of a non-organic lawn
fertilizer for your landscaping business only to realize
later that your target market is environmentally
conscious – they wanted organic!
An MRS should be fun, simple and get your critics engaged and
excited in whatever it is you are researching.
Assembling the Market Research Study - Part B
The Research Sample: these are the people who will become the
participants or critics to the objective of your study.
It is important to select the correct sample, meaning
the right mix of people who will accurately provide a
solid and un-biased opinion. In other words, if the
objective of the study is to determine if your gift idea
franchise should start promoting into the corporate
world, do not use a sample consisting of factory
workers, librarians or school teachers.
The Objective: this outlines the purpose of the study and must be
very clear and concise. Remember, an MRS is intended to
reflect the opinions of a specific audience – even if
that audience is a group of 10-year-olds! You should
provide a booklet to each sample (people in your study)
with an introduction to your study, including who you
are, what you do and what you hope to accomplish with
the results of the study.
The Results: depending on the size of your sample and the length of
your objective details, the results of your MRS can vary
in scope and mathematical complexity. What you want to
achieve here are results that spell out true
percentages. For example, 29% of one sample believed
that gift baskets would be an excellent product to sell
at flea markets, yet only 4% of these people actually
attended flea markets.
The key to a successful MRS will be the questions asked to your
sample (objective details) because the answers will tell
you what actions you should take following the study.
Market Research Methods - Surveys
There are five popular methods to conduct an MRS. You will
determine which method is best for you depending on the
type of data you are looking for and the amount of money
you want to spend. An MRS can be as simple as a single
sheet of questions intended for the people in your
neighbourhood or a complex focus group study which
requires an overnight stay.
1. Surveys
By far the most popular method of market research
studies. Packaged in the form of questionnaires, the
questions are concise and straightforward and can be
held almost anywhere. The larger your sample the more
reliable the results will be.
(a) The most popular of this group is the in-person survey,
or one-to-one survey which you frequently see at malls.
While they do generate a response rate of about 90%,
they can be very costly because of the labor costs
involved.
(b) Next, we have the telephone survey which in the last
decade has dwindled considerably. Nobody wants to hear
from a telemarketer during dinner. These are less
expensive than in-person surveys but only generate a
response of about 50%.
(c) The mail survey may be the best choice for small
businesses because it is the most cost-effective and can
reach a broad audience. On the downside, the response
rates can vary from 3% to 15%.
(d) on-line survey can be very inexpensive and quick to
receive response. The problem is that you have no
control over who is responding so your data may not
reflect your target market.
Market Research Methods - Four Other Options
The other four market research method options are as follows:
Focus Groups
These are a more complex method of market research
because they involve getting a group of people together
for several hours and led by a moderator who uses a
scripted series of questions or leads a discussion.
Focus groups are usually videotaped or observed from a
one-way mirror. The results from this method are
weighted heavily on the subjective opinions of the group
as a whole and can require several groups to get
balanced results for your study.
Personal Interviews
Similar to surveys but less structured and involve more
open-ended responses that are usually recorded. This
method is excellent if you are looking for an attitude-
or emotionally-driven response that may give you more
insight into the topic you are researching.
Observation
This method is best summed up by what the sample ‘isn’t
saying.’ Body language rarely lies. To be effective,
observation has to be recorded so you can judge people’s
reactions to things as they happen.
Field Trials
These are mainly reserved for businesses that offer
products which are merchandized to test their sales
potential. You may notice field trials in action at your
supermarket when you see a promotional standee in the
aisle, accompanied by a company representative. This is
an excellent way to test the current success of a
product and in turn allow you to make modifications to
it should your feedback justify it.
Source : About.com
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