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Smart marketers can make use of nearly anything

One smart marketing idea that will cost you practically nothing is to turn your invoices into marketing tools. This can be done by adding your slogan to the bottom, or by making sure that your company name, Web address and other information is included prominently on the invoice.

Sweetening the deal

But the invoice can also serve as a vehicle for other marketing tools. Include a coupon with the invoice, or a short message about a special promotion your company is having. You can also write a handwritten note, thanking the customer for being such a good customer, and offering a discount on the next order.

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• Smart Marketing Ideas
  Becoming a smart marketer

Smart marketing shows the customer value

Smart marketing involves showing the customer real value. It means that you focus on what your product or service can do for them. It needs to solve a problem or improve quality of life. And effective marketing demands that you show the customer how your product or service does this. A list of features is nice, but that really doesn’t show value. Features are about you. Show the benefits. Benefits are about the customer, and they are what the customer relates to.

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• Effective Marketing
  Smart marketing ideas

Smart marketing includes a marketing plan

Effective marketing doesn’t just happen. It has to be planned. Smart marketing involves a carefully written plan that includes a marketing budget, a plan for where and when to run advertisements and stage publicity, as well as a clear idea of what audiences are targeted by each ad or publicity event. When you get ready to create a marketing plan, make sure that you understand the following items:

• What you have in terms of available assets and resources
• Know your target audience in terms of problems, desires, frustrations and emotional triggers
• Know how you are different from others in your field, and understand how what you offer is unique

When you have a good handle on these items, you are better able to create a realistic marketing plan that targets whom you want to target, when you want to target them. Additionally, you should be able to create a plan of action based on the above information.

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• Creating a Marketing Plan
  Smart marketing ideas

Help people remember you better with this smart marketing technique

One of the best smart marketing ideas you can use to raise awareness of your business is to make your business card unique. This does not have to mean something loud and garish. Here are some simple ways to make sure that your business card stands out, and that you are remembered.

• Present your business card. Use both hands and make sure that the writing is right side up and facing your contact.
• Mark your business card in some way. A small device in the corner, or a whole punched into your business card can be a conversation piece.
• Make your business card slightly larger. Add a fourth of an inch to the size of your card, making it slightly larger than the others. Or, make is a different shape, like round or square.
• Write on the business card. Personalize it by adding your cell phone number, or turning it into a coupon with a discount written on the back of the card.

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• Smart Marketing
  Smart marketing ideas and tools

Keeping up with might affect your company, product or audience is smart marketing

When it comes to smart marketing, it is important to keep track of marketing trends, as well as other trends. You will have a more effective marketing campaign if you understand the general direction different products, audiences and companies are going in relation to your own. Additionally, keeping track of market trends will help you better target your audience, depending on where you are going and what you hope to accomplish with your marketing campaign.

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• Watching Market Trends
  Creating a more effective marketing campaign

Smart marketing means making the sale easy

You want to make the sale easy for your audience. This means, when it comes to a smart marketing campaign, that you have to tell your audience what to do, and how to do it, when it comes to taking action and buying your product or service. Make sure that your marketing campaign clearly includes what to do (buy your product or service) when to do it (immediately), and how they can do so (provide your contact information).

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• Smart Marketing Ideas
  Effective marketing campaign

An editorial calendar can be your best friend

When it comes to smart marketing, it can help to know the editorial calendars of print (especially magazine) and broadcast media. Why? Because editorial calendars give a clue of planned coverage and stories. And this means that you have a better idea of what a media outlet is looking for. Tailoring your press release or story pitch to what will be needed increases your chances of getting covered. Additionally, an editorial calendar can help you see when special sections are being published. This means that you can buy space in special sections that relate to your business.

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• Smart Marketing
  Marketing ideas

Tagging is essential in online marketing

Smart online marketing demands that you begin tagging your Web content. This is especially useful when it comes to your business blog and your other Web content. Tagging is basically a way of using keywords to help people find your content. Tagging Web sites like Technorati and del.icio.us help users keep track of what they like. And if you register your Web site with these sites, and make use of tagging, then you can boost traffic to your e-commerce Web site. Tagging is fast becoming an important online marketing tool, and you would be wise to adopt it.

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• Smart Marketing
  Online marketing tools for your e-commerce Web site

Your business can benefit from podcast marketing

Using new technology is a good way to use some smart marketing tools. And one of the latest tools is podcast marketing. You can reach a wider audience by providing interesting podcasting content. Things like tutorials, demos and advice can all be done with audio or video podcasting. Plus, podcasts are easy to distribute. You can put them up on your business Web site for people to download, post them on your business blog, or distribute them using an RSS feed. Podcasting is one of those things that almost everyone knows about. And you can harness it as a business marketing tool.

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• Business Marketing Tools
  Using smart marketing tools

Make yourself a part of your marketing efforts

Branding does not always have to be about the product or service. Dave Thomas of Wendys showed us that. Smart marketing can include using yourself in the brand marketing. Have you thought about yourself as part of your brand? Adding a human face to your product or service makes it more accessible. Plus, you can give your entire business a bit more personality and make it more interesting when you decide to brand yourself. Figure out the public image you want to project, and how you want to be associated with your product or service. Then go about making sure you’re branding yourself as part of your overall brand marketing campaign.

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• Smart Marketing
  Ideas for more a more successful brand marketing campaign

Tackle your prospecting list backward

When it comes to smart marketing, thinking outside the box is critical. And one of the ways to do that is to approach your prospecting list in a different way. Most people buy prospecting lists and then start going through them, starting from the top. This can be annoying to people at the top of the list, since they get a ton of calls from everyone who bought the list. Smart marketing, though, could be starting from the bottom of the prospecting list. These people are not called as often, as few marketing people ever make it all the way through the list. You might have more willing listeners when you start from the bottom of the prospecting list.

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• Smart Marketing Ideas
  Tools and tips for betting marketing

Brand marketing yourself as a leader

One good smart marketing strategy is to market yourself as a leader. No matter what field you are in, brand marketing your company, product or service as a leader in the field will set you above the rest. You need to set yourself apart as "ahead of the pack," or as an innovator that offers unique solutions to customer problems. Showing leadership in your field can help you brand yourself in the minds of your customers and potential customers. When people want to buy, they want to do so from the leader — not from someone without any original ideas.

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• Brand Marketing Ideas
  Smart marketing strategy and tools

Speaking to others is smart marketing

One way you can market your business for very little is to offer yourself as a speaker or to give seminars. These gatherings offer a great way for you to establish yourself as an expert, and a way to pass out business cards and do a little business networking. Think of some good tips you can give that are related to your business. Or just offer to give a seminar on how to start a business or on an effective marketing campaign. Sharing your knowledge with others is a cost-effective marketing tool that you can use to raise your visibility and find more customers.

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• Effective Marketing
  Smart marketing tools for your business

Coupon marketing that works

Many businesses use coupon marketing as a way to draw in customers and encourage them to buy. However, as with all promotional marketing, it is important to remember that you have to make the coupon worth using if it is to do any good. Whether it is an online coupon or an offline coupon, there needs to be a way to use it over the Internet (a promo code to type in). Additionally, it needs to be a discount that is substantial: at least 15 percent. Buy one get one half off, and buy one get one free, are the most popular coupons. Smart marketing makes the discount worth the customer’s while when it comes to coupon advertising.

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• Promotional Marketing
  Smart marketing ideas

Make your presence known

It really is true, what they say about "Location! Location! Location!" Every time I go to the bank, I pass a salon on the corner of one of my turns. After passing it about 50 times, guess what the first thought that popped into my head was when I needed a haircut? That salon. There are others closer to my home. But I wanted to try that one because I passed it so much and knew that I just had to try it out.

The same thing can apply to your marketing campaign. Make your presence known with an attractive (not garish) sign that is placed to be seen. Pass out business cards wherever you go. A good marketing plan is one that allows your potential customers to know you are there, and that contantly places your business before their eyes. This way, when they need the product or service you provide, they think of you immediately.

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• Smart Marketing Ideas
  Helpful hints for a more successful marketing campaign

Marketing tools that can help you with your Internet marketing campaign

The Internet offers plenty of smart marketing tools for the savvy marketer. If you are looking to garner more Web traffic, and increase sales and visibility in general, the Internet is a great place to go for your marketing campaign.

Here are a few online marketing tools that can help you boost traffic and sales to your e-commerce Web site:

• A well-designed e-commerce Web site
• Helpful advice and useful information on your e-commerce Web site
• A frequently updated blog offering useful information
• Articles submitted to online databases and e-zines
• Created electronic newsletters
• Frequent contributions to online discussion boards and forums

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• Online Marketing
  Smart marketing with Internet tools

One ad does not make up an ad campaign

Running one or two ads and then stopping is not a good way to integrate your advertising strategy into your smart marketing campaign. Consistent advertising is an important part of any marketing campaign, since it is how the word of your business gets out.

No one-time ads

The key with effective advertising is consistency. To set up a regular advertising schedule and keep your ads playing, in the paper or online. That wat they can help your business become familiar to consumers, and it can help you maintain top of mind awareness.

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• Advertising Strategy
  Including effective advertising in your marketing campaign

Meta tags can be good online marketing tools

When creating a Web page for your e-commerce business Web site, you can enhance your online marketing power by using meta tags. Meta tags provide a way for search engines to more easily search your Web page, boosting your search engine rankings. Meta tags come with labels such as "title," "head," "description," and "keyword."

While meta tags will not solve all of your search engine ranking problems, they can help. Meta tags are not the entire equation, but they are a part of it. Integrated into a smart marketing campaign that includes useful and fresh content, RSS feeds and other online marketing tools, meta tags can help you get more noticed online.

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• Marketing Tools
  Smart online marketing tips

Using brochures in your marketing strategy

If you are looking to boost your marketing strategy results, using a brochure can be a good way to increase business. Brochures are smart marketing because they are designed to be easy to look through and easy to carry around. Do not make your brochure too big. You want it to be something that prospects can put in their pockets or purses and come across again…and again as it is repeatedly found. Plus, a brochure is easy to pass along to friends and relatives.

Things to remember as your write your business brochure:

• Focus on your audience instead of on your company.
• Present problems that your prospects have, and then make sure you present your solutions.
• Focus on the results your company will produce, and how they will help customers, rather than listing features.
• Use a compelling headline.
• Keep the design and layout attractive and simple.
• If you have “proof” — stats or case studies — include these in your business brochure.

See Also

• Smart Marketing
  Tools and tips for your marketing campaign

Are reaching “green” customers?

Because more and more people are considered about the environment, it is a good idea to design marketing strategies to appeal to the "green" crowd as well as other market segments. These are people who range from being mildly concerned about things like pollution and healthy living through some organic foods, to people who are devoted to reducing human impacts on the planet and follow a vegan lifestyle.

Smart marketing includes the "green"

Don’t slight this growing market segment. Consider creating a landing page that explains your "green" business practices. This page can be the end result of link exchanges with other green Web sites. Additionally, there are plenty of RSS news feeds and electronic newsletters that target the environmentally conscious. You can advertise in those.

See Also

• Smart Marketing
  Targeting desirable market segments