Blog

Several years ago, even small businesses had to spend $6,000, $15,000, or even more on a business phone system in order to handle communications and conduct business with clients effectively. However, with advances in VOIP and cloud computing software, both new and existing companies can eliminate most if not all of this expense while maintaining a professional presence with premium toll free numbers.

Even better, toll free numbers can also help reduce the overall start up investment and monthly overhead. Toll free forwarding combined with Internet phone service can enable your organization to work on higher profit margins and even deliver a higher quality of customer service at the same time while eliminating the need for expensive business phone systems. Call centers and even large companies who need a more robust and elaborate business phone system can find hosted virtual business phone systems that offer more affordable options and flexibility.

In most cases, this new breed of business phone system solutions also offers faster changes when needed and less expensive maintenance. These new business phone solutions mean saying goodbye to the days of messing around with tech support for days on end or even having to deal constantly with replacing or adding new phones which can run hundreds of dollars each. It also makes moving and relocating easy, making your organization as a whole more flexible and able to take advantage of the best opportunities as they arise.

Taking advantage of the best toll free routing and forwarding features for your business phone lines can also give your organization the edge over your competitors who are still trying to do business the old way. And not only will it streamline your business processes but help in maximizing your marketing ROI. So before you go shopping for an expensive new business phone system or put out more money to expand or relocate an existing one, check out your other options; you may be surprised by just how much you can save in terms of money and gain in terms of efficiency.

800 number lookup tools have many invaluable benefits for those in B2B businesses. Not only do 800 number lookup tools provide a mammoth database for harvesting leads, but they can help your staff to understand your prospects better and to hone pitches as well as offering insight into what other products and services you may be able to bundle together to make your offering more attractive.

800 number lookup services can provide easy targeting of specific businesses in niche industries by performing reverse lookups using keywords and phrases in vanity numbers. The best 800 number lookup services will also provide a variety of other details about a number's owner so you can better focus your pitches and sound more educated about your prospects’ needs. These details often include the business' name, web domain name, other contact information, the history of the toll free number in question, as well as other toll free numbers that may be useful for them.

Armed with this information from your 800 number lookup, you may in fact find it profitable to join a toll free affiliate marketing program so you can also offer prospects additional toll free numbers and add to your revenue stream. At the same time, you may even be able to profit from including additional Internet domain names to keep the customer's branding unified, even further increasing your profit margins and the value of your offerings.

In the past, 800 number lookups have been difficult and have required expensive subscriptions to websites that often did not even have the information you wanted. By contrast, today’s leading toll free providers offer free reverse 800 number lookups with a large range of search options that deliver instant results. So if you have been looking for a new source of B2B leads or a way to improve your closing ratios, you may just be a click away….

Image Credit: © Beata Suchenek | Dreamstime.com

1. Article Marketing
Article marketing has emerged in the last couple of years as one of the most powerful additions to a great online advertising strategy. Not only can article marketing be used to position you as an expert in your industry, but it can drive in lots of new traffic to your website and improve your website rankings with the search engines.

2. PPC Advertising
While there have been many new forms of Internet marketing emerging in the last year or two, PPC advertising should remain a part of your core advertising strategy. Done right, it can offer one of the most efficient and effective forms of online marketing and can provide instant results. It should include image and text ads for major search engines as well as through popular social media sites.

3. Press Releases
Press releases distributed across the web as part of your Internet advertising strategy can also be incredibly effective, create a buzz, and get your business noticed. Using sites like PRWeb and PRNewsWire, you can benefit from the viral capabilities of the Internet and boost brand visibility.

4. Blogging
While blogging is hardly new, it should not be overlooked as one of the best ways to drive masses of new traffic to your web assets and increase retention rates. When you look at the incredible volume a good blog can drive in, it is clear it should remain one of the most important elements of your online advertising strategy.

5. Email Marketing
A few years ago, email marketing suffered from overuse and lost a lot of its impact. But the cycle has come full circle now, and when done properly, it can prove to be one of the most inexpensive parts of your advertising strategy. With testing and incorporating links to social media and even video marketing, many companies are now seeing response rates between 10-50 percent compared with as little as 1-2 percent three to five years ago.

6. Mobile Marketing
Any company serious about being successful and staying ahead of the competition must be at least researching how it can incorporate mobile marketing into its overall advertising strategy. Mobile marketing will definitely be a differentiating factor between those who become leaders in their industries and those who fall by the wayside in the next couple of years.

Advertising is basically the act of promoting your business using paid methods. Online advertising is the same as traditional advertising in many ways, but it also has its own distinctions. For example, online advertising is usually more responsive to the comments and feedbacks of users. Since feedback is immediate, mistakes can be corrected quickly as well. Another distinction of online advertising is its significantly lower cost  compared to traditional advertising.

In the online world, there are three players in the process: the advertiser, the publisher, and the middleman (Google Adsense, Yahoo Advertising Network, etc). Depending on the format chosen by the advertiser, the publisher will receive different levels of compensation. The amount the publishers receive would also be based on the niche's competitiveness – basically, how much advertisers are willing to pay to get better advertising than their competitors.
The following types of advertising can be displayed by publishers:

• Graphic Advertising – mostly called banner ads, these are attractive pieces of work. Some graphic advertising makes use of animated images to catch viewer attention.
• Pop-up Advertising – some users dislike these types of ads, but they are highly effective. In the past, pop-up advertising was largely prevalent, but today, it is less commonly used.
• Text Advertising – the simplest form of advertising, text-based ads are simple and direct; it is the ad copy that will attract readers.

Many other online advertising methods exist. For example, on Facebook, you can make use of both text and graphic to get viewers' attention. Social media has definitely become important; be sure to explore the opportunities in others mediums as well.

Image Credit: © Frenta | Dreamstime.com

A common misconception exists that pay-per-click PPC advertising costs significantly more than search engine optimization (SEO). But that need not be the case if you implement low cost PPC advertising techniques. As opposed to SEO, which requires long-term and sustained efforts, the impact of PPC is immediate, but you will also need to shoulder the cost up-front. There’s no need to bust your budget, however, if you follow a few simple tips:

If you have no experience in PPC marketing, it might be best to hire an agency. Look at the agency's pricing models, reviews, and the competence of its staff prior to hiring. These considerations usually dictate the amount the PPC companies charge.

Do it yourself if you have a very tight budget. A number of PPC tools are available for free these days. It has never been easier to start your own PPC advertising campaign. If you choose this option, be prepared to invest a substantial amount of time in learning.

Choose localized advertising. If you choose a certain geographic target where your ads will be displayed, it stretches the value of every dollar. You will be advertising to a highly targeted market rather than a random searcher who happens to type your keywords.

The first step in building a profitable affiliate network is getting the word out and letting people know that you offer an affiliate program. If they don’t know about it, they can’t sign up and bring you new business. Those actively seeking affiliate programs in your industry may know to click on small links in the fine print at the bottom of your web pages where most companies place theirs. But that type of placement could mean missing out on far too many opportunities. Consider adding an affiliate program link to your main navigation page and even including affiliate opportunity information in regular autoresponders or email newsletters that go out to your opt in list.
However, there is a huge difference between adding a lot of affiliates to your network and actually creating a profitable affiliate network. A poor network of channel partners can do much more damage to your business than good. Some affiliates, especially those new to affiliate marketing, can take up so much of your time without producing results that they cost you money. Instead of signing up everyone who has a pulse, be a little more selective or go after "super affiliates" who do this full time.

What should you consider when approving affiliates?

• How long they have been in business?
• What Internet marketing are they actively involved in right now?
• What are their sales volume/revenue levels?
• What experience do they have with PPC advertising?
• How many contacts do they have in their CRM software?
• How many opt in email addresses do they have?
• What is their reputation?

How profitable your affiliate network is also relies on how organized you are. You must automate the process as much as possible to reduce the time needed to manage affiliates. Ensure that you have effective tracking so you are not paying out double commissions or paying for fraudulent transactions. The best way to avoid these issues is to join a high quality affiliate network platform and utilize their affiliate software.
Finally in order to maximize the results from your affiliate network, you need to give your affiliates the tools and education needed to help them effectively promote your product or service. The more marketing materials you provide them, the more likely they are to use them and actually produce results.

Image Credit: © Atee83 | Dreamstime.com

1. Missed Branding Opportunities
Whatever type of marketing campaign you are launching, a vanity number offers instant branding. Even if your prospects do not take immediate action, an easy to remember vanity number will stick in their minds until when they do need your product or service. This truth applies to PPC advertising, direct mail, email marketing, and display ads.

2. Increased Response Rates
It has been proven time and time again that toll free vanity numbers consistently provide significantly higher response rates. So, considering the small investment it takes to get a winning vanity number, why anyone would ever dream of running an ad campaign without one is a mystery. Otherwise, you are not just throwing away money but handing those prospects over to your competition.

3. Improved Closing Ratios
Vanity numbers not only help increase the response rates to your advertising, but more importantly, they also improve the actual closing ratios from your campaigns. That is where you really put profits back into your pocket. Ask yourself how much a closed deal is worth, not only now but also in terms of the value of a lifelong customer and the referrals you will receive. Easily in the tens of thousands. So with some shared use, vanity numbers are available for as little at $19 a month. That small amount can provide at least two or three times the closed deals from a campaign. It is really a no brainer.

4. Tracking & Testing
Toll free numbers offer the ability to track and test easily all types of metrics and variables involved in your marketing. Those tools mean the ability to identify easily what is working well and what you can improve on so you can hone your marketing into a well oiled money making machine.

5. Maximizing Marketing ROI
These compounding factors of increased advertising effectiveness through better brand recognition, higher response and closing ratios, and well-tested campaigns means being able to see the maximum return on investment from your marketing budget. What you do with the extra profit is entirely up to you, whether it is expanding your marketing efforts, handing out bonuses, donating it to charity, improving your products or services, or just treating yourself to a well-deserved vacation in the sun. Going to the market without a vanity number is the equivalent of handing over large slices of market share to your competitors. Win or lose – it is all up to you.

Image Credit: © Vladimir Mucibabic | Dreamstime.com

Hundreds of free affiliate programs can be found online in a huge variety of industries. Although, there is more to finding great affiliate marketing programs than just choosing them because they are free.

Most importantly, you want to be sure you are really going to make money from any free affiliate programs you are considering. After all, you are in it to make a profit and put some cold hard cash in the bank. Surfing some affiliate directories can be frustrating when it seems you just come across one junk program after another. In order to make sure you are signing up for free affiliate programs that will really produce revenues for you, it is important to look at the reputation of the company for whom you will become an affiliate, what level of dedication it has toward making you win as an affiliate partner, and the quality of the affiliate software or platform it is using.

When evaluating free affiliate programs, it is always best to choose a company that has been in business for at least ten years and is really great at what it does. If you are going to be an affiliate to make money, then associate your organization with the best in the business and you will not fail.

Next, consider how much thought and effort the company offering any free affiliate programs has put into its affiliate programs. Of course every company out there would love to have thousands of channel partners promoting its products or services. However, a smart company knows that its success is directly tied to its commitment to the success of its affiliate partners. You can easily tell the difference between weak and powerful free affiliate programs by looking at the marketing materials and tools a company provides to its affiliates. Has it created marketing copy that you can use to get the word out instantly about your new affiliation? These days, this marketing copy should absolutely include email copy, blogs, Tweets, and more. Those who have gone even further offer image ads and banners as well as sticky widgets that will improve the overall effectiveness and conversion rate of your website, not just for them, but for any other products and services you are promoting.

Then weigh the quality of the affiliate platform or software the company is using to track your commissions. After all you are in it to get paid. You don’t have time to be bickering over commissions or chasing up leads. Perhaps the best and most highly respected software platform for free affiliate programs out there is Commission Junction. Any company that is a part of CJ is normally worth checking out and has been carefully tested before being allowed to offer its affiliate program through this medium.

Vanity numbers are highly effective for one reason: it is easier to remember words than random digits. This fact is especially true when it comes to words relevant to your business. It is not surprising then that vanity numbers are more expensive than toll free numbers. In fact, many a business has been built entirely on a good vanity number.

The whole purpose of vanity numbers is to encourage potential customers to call you. By using an easy to remember toll free number, you will find it easier to achieve this objective. Customer orders, concerns, and questions can immediately be attended to when people know how to reach you and even have your phone number memorized.

In today's cutthroat environment, many firms are using marketing methods as well as compelling advertising strategies to stand out. Vanity numbers allow you to compete effectively with them; they allow your brand to get a “space” within the customer’s mind. After that initial impact has been established, it becomes easier to turn your leads into actual sales.

Given all their benefits, seven digit vanity numbers are the key to business success. Whether you operate a startup or a large company, your vanity number will definitely contribute to your bottom line.

Image Credit: © Lex Schmidt | Dreamstime.com