Vanity phone numbers have proven to be one of the greatest marketing tools for improving branding and increasing advertising effectiveness, but it doesn’t end there. The recent changes in the economy are demanding that companies not only fight harder to expand their market share in their current niches but also become the company of choice in other niches within their industries in order to maintain revenue levels and grow. Vanity numbers can help accomplish this goal.

Vanity numbers that spell out words can be used to target specific groups and needs within your given industry, enabling your enterprise to carve out big slices of market share and dominate them. Obviously there are advantages to having generic vanity phone numbers for your industry if they occupy the number one spot like 800-FLOWERS, 800-CONTACTS, or 800-MORTGAGE. However, if you can’t get your hands on these for some reason, then look at targeted vanity phone numbers that can help you take over different market segments one at a time. These phone numbers make it easier to maximize marketing ROI with more targeted campaigns. Once you have locked in a top position in a certain niche, it is going to cost your competitors much more to try and compete with you in it, no matter how good their products or services. Then, while they are planning attacks on you in one area of your industry, you have the luxury of a head start to go after other niches with new vanity phone numbers while they are not paying attention.

How can you put this marketing strategy into play for yourself? Start by looking at customer needs and desires. Then take a look at how your company differentiates itself in your industry. Typically, you can harness factors like being easier and faster to deal with than your competitors in order to grab attention and drive prospects to action. Use words like FAST, EASY, EZ, and NOW in your vanity phone numbers for maximum effect. You may not even be the fastest or easiest in your industry, but it is all about perception. Harness the power of winning vanity phone numbers and grow your business.

How effective are you on the World Wide Web? Are you getting a maximum return on investment? If you think there is room for improvement, take action today. It is important to measure your advertising campaigns' effectiveness. That's the only way to find out if you’re really getting value for your money.

To measure effectiveness, the first question to ask is, "What is the goal of my website?" Most websites have one of the following goals: generate leads, improve sales, provide information, and improve brand recall. Once you have goals in place, it is easier to measure how effective you are in meeting those goals.

Some general ways exist to track the effectiveness of your Internet advertising campaigns. For example, by simply comparing the pre-advertising and post-advertising traffic, you will get an overview of the campaign's results. Aside from comparing the site traffic numbers, look into your sales figures as well.

If you're into pay-per-click advertising (PPC), some factors you need to measure include the click-through rate, relevance of your ads, and return on investment. These statistics are easy to see on the control panel of your PPC account. In Google Adwords, for example, detailed metrics can be viewed.

The importance of measuring Internet advertising effectiveness cannot be denied. The only question is: How in-depth do you want to go in your analysis? Whatever you decide, many tools are available to help.

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Are you analyzing marketing strategy metrics to improve the quality of your website? If not, then it's time to start now. There are key metrics you need to look into and study. It is important to have an in-depth understanding about your customers in order to gain time and a competitive edge in today's marketplace.

Some important marketing strategy metrics that deserve your attention include the following:

Website Visits:  Consider those statistics by day, week, month, and year. These will give you an idea about when your peak season is and what time of day visitors usually go to your site.   

• Visitor Geography:  Where are your visitors coming from? Consider if you are getting hits from the target area.
• Traffic Sources:  What sites refer visitors to yours (what search engine if any, blogs, websites, etc)?
• Bounce Rate:  Percentage of visitors who abandoned your site within seconds.
• Content:  Determine how your visitors are interacting with the text and other information on your website. It is possible to see their reactions if you have a blog or forum section on the site.
• SEO Ranking:  Is your website located within the first few pages of the search engine results page (SERP)? Related to traffic sources, your search engine ranking will determine whether you’ll get relevant visitors. What are the figures showing?

Besides all the facts stated above, it is crucial to study marketing metrics to determine how effective your campaign is toward fulfilling your company's goal.

We all know that trading man hours for dollars is not really the way to make a living. It is not only an extremely risky way to live when you consider the limits on your time and the possibility of becoming physically unable to continue, but it does not enable you to enjoy significant wealth or the lifestyle you dream of having. Some choose to open their own businesses to take the next step, but unless you do it right, you can just as easily find that you are a slave to your own business and you will work more hours per week than ever before.

However, ways exist to make money online that enable you to put your income on auto pilot so you are able to spend your time focusing on the things you really love and enjoy doing while your income keeps rolling in. You can do this by setting up expansive and complicated business models to make money online using toll free numbers, remote workers, and various Internet advertising programs and channels. Nothing is wrong with this. Provided that you have great managers and bookkeeping, you can travel and explore the world with your income on auto pilot and just check in a couple of hours a week to deal with major issues or make adjustments to your system.

Unfortunately, this situation can be time consuming to set up and will take a little while to perfect as you test out employees and strive to maximize your marketing ROI. Other ways to make money online are not as complicated or complex to run. Joining a quality affiliate marketing program, which allows you to partner up with established and respected companies that have already perfected their systems, is a great way to make money online and set your income on auto pilot. Then you will be able to harness the power of great products and services that have already created a demand as well as being able to tap into proven marketing strategies that are already being used to make money online. This situation also means less expense and set-up time, thereby shortening your cash flow cycle and offering the best possible return on investment.

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A huge explosion of marketing online has occurred across almost every industry in the last few years. This growth in marketing online has not only been due to advances in technology but also out of a need to expand into new markets, lower costs, and for individuals to launch their own businesses since the downturn in the economy. Unfortunately, as with any industry that booms, it also means that marketing online has increasingly become the new favorite haunt of fraudsters – well, in addition to the banking and foreclosure industry of course.

This situation applies both to scam companies selling a variety of services and products as well as companies offering marketing online, including SEO marketing online, website design, toll free numbers, and social media marketing online. Why? Certainly the current economic situation has made many people more desperate than ever before, and they are doing things to others they would have never previously dreamed of doing. However, many of the other fraudsters now jumping into marketing online are those who have been chased out of the stock market, car sales, and the mortgage industry. They are just looking for the next hot thing that is selling quickly and will allow them to  take advantage of people – marketing online offers them that.

Another reason marketing online is so popular with fraudsters is that it is very hard to track them down. Anyone can now throw together a scam company in a couple of hours on the Internet, complete with a new Internet domain name and website. This process is even easier for those based outside of the U.S. Really, nothing can be done in most cases if you are scammed by fraudsters operating out of remote foreign countries. Even if they can be tracked down, the expense is just too much for law enforcement.

So what can you do to protect yourself from scams involving marketing online? Educate yourself a little. You don’t have to become an expert at marketing online, but you should look around and get an idea of what actually works and what doesn’t so you can recognize most scams when you see them. Next, take a couple of minutes to research companies before you send them your money. How long have they been in business? Of course, new businesses are necessary to grow in new directions, but it is certainly much wiser to go with a company marketing online that has been around for over ten years. At a minimum, make sure a company's website has real contact information posted, not just a web form. Look for an actual contact name, physical address, and business phone number.

Social media marketing is probably the biggest thing to hit the Internet since the search engines. But like any form of marketing, there are bound to be "No No’s" that can destroy your strategy and even your reputation in social media. It is important to be aware of these before you make the same mistakes! Some things readers and customers won't forgive you for include: 

Using Misleading Headlines and Images – A great headline can certainly attract traffic. But it is quality content that will make people stay. Make sure your headline or image is always related to your content and the business in general. If it isn't, then all your social media efforts are just wasted.

• Ignore Valid Criticisms – It’s impossible to please everyone. As you become more popular, you’re bound to encounter more fans…as well as haters. While it’s certainly important to focus on the positive, look into the relevance of negative comments too. However, don’t let this discourage you or sap your energy. Certain users just can’t be satisfied no matter what you do.
• Forget the Option to Share – Every website has countless widgets, extensions, and plug-ins that are easy to install. Be sure to include these, especially on blogs! People won’t make the effort to submit your site or share it with friends if you make it difficult for them to do so.

Another common SMM mistake that’s committed by even the most experienced marketers is targeting only one social network. Sure, it is definitely important to concentrate more on sites that actually deliver. But by doing so, you are ignoring other sites' potential. Keep a noticeable presence, at the very least, on other sites so you can take advantage of their social media marketing opportunities as they become available.

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Social media marketing is probably the biggest thing to hit the Internet since the search engines. But like any form of marketing, there are bound to be "No No’s" that can destroy your strategy and even your reputation in social media. It is important to be aware of these before you make the same mistakes! Some things readers and customers won't forgive you for include: 

Using Misleading Headlines and Images – A great headline can certainly attract traffic. But it is quality content that will make people stay. Make sure your headline or image is always related to your content and the business in general. If it isn't, then all your social media efforts are just wasted.

• Ignore Valid Criticisms – It’s impossible to please everyone. As you become more popular, you’re bound to encounter more fans…as well as haters. While it’s certainly important to focus on the positive, look into the relevance of negative comments too. However, don’t let this discourage you or sap your energy. Certain users just can’t be satisfied no matter what you do.
• Forget the Option to Share – Every website has countless widgets, extensions, and plug-ins that are easy to install. Be sure to include these, especially on blogs! People won’t make the effort to submit your site or share it with friends if you make it difficult for them to do so.

Another common SMM mistake that’s committed by even the most experienced marketers is targeting only one social network. Sure, it is definitely important to concentrate more on sites that actually deliver. But by doing so, you are ignoring other sites' potential. Keep a noticeable presence, at the very least, on other sites so you can take advantage of their social media marketing opportunities as they become available.

Credit Line: © Michael Brown | Dreamstime.com

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is otherwise known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Basically, this advertising method involves paying a certain amount to appear on the search engine results page. Unlike SEO, this strategy provides quick results. When implemented properly, it is possible to generate thousands of click-throughs within a short timeframe.

Early in your PPC efforts, it is important to recognize that success in PPC advertising lies in your effective choice of keywords and ad copy. The key to determining a response rate is to start small and to experiment. Identify the ads as well as ad groups that provide the best results; eliminate those that generate poor response rates. This analysis will help you to maximize the return on your investment. Another important consideration in PPC advertising is the “Quality Score.” Once you become more familiar with this advertising method, you’re bound to hear this term over and over again because quality score will determine whether your ad will be displayed prominently on the search engine results page (SERP).

Remember that in PPC advertising, not everything comes down to money. The business model used by search engines relies on delivering relevant results to searchers. So while sites like Google would definitely love your ad money, their long-term feasibility depends on their ability to display quality advertising. If you intend to become successful in PPC advertising, improving your quality score should be your focus.

Without a doubt, the current economic environment requires businesses to be more careful with and more demanding of their marketing budgets than ever before. If you want your company to survive and prosper, you must maximize your business marketing return-on-investment. So how do you calculate your business marketing ROI? What factors are the most important?

Most forms of advertising and lead generation are invested in terms of how many pieces or leads you receive for your money. For direct mail, it is how many pieces you send out; for pay-per-click, it is the number of prospects that click through to your site, and for Internet leads, it is how many actual leads you receive. When calculating expected business marketing ROI from an advertising campaign, it is important to recognize the difference between leads and revenues. It really does not matter how many leads or calls you get on your toll free numbers if none of them are converting into actual customers. In fact, too many contacts not following through will actually begin to cost you more money. While most lead generation companies will shy away from giving you any hard figures on what you can expect in actual closing ratios, the prospective close ratio is still the most important figure when calculating business marketing ROI. However, smart marketing companies and lead generators, who offer direct marketing like direct mail and use toll free numbers for tracking, should be able to show you real numbers from what similar campaigns have generated in actual prospects and incoming calls. These historic results help close the gap between your marketing pieces and actual business marketing ROI, but in the end, it still comes down to your staff to ensure conversion.

When calculating business marketing ROI, what you really need to look at is cost-per-action. In other words, what is it really costing for each new client and each dollar in revenues? Compare these numbers to your other advertising options; then strive to achieve the lowest cost-per-action possible and hone your campaigns to maximize business marketing ROI. This strategy includes doing a better job of targeting your ideal customers and improving the conversion capability of your phone staff or website.

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