Arran Events, Advertising and Marketing

One marketing technique may work wonders for someone, but that doesn’t guarantee that it’ll do the same for you. The only way to really know what works for YOUR products and YOUR target audience is to experiment. Testing and experimentation are crucial to increasing your profits.

1. Try using the occasional pop-up window to get more subscribers to your newsletter. Some people *really* hate these, so use them sparingly. For example, you could have a window pop up only the first time someone visits your site … or you could have one appear whenever someone leaves your site. Try different scenarios to see what works best.

2. Change the price of your product and see what impact it has on sales. Even if your sales drop, you may still come out ahead when it comes to profits. Note: your sales may not drop at all; I increased the price of my own booklet from $12.95 to $19.95 and sales stayed the same. You never know until you try.

3. Test different sales copy on your website and in your autoresponder. Should you come on strong, be subtle, be extremely detailed? Does long sales copy do better than short copy, or vice versa? Do you get more sales by spreading your sales copy on multiple pages, or by putting it all on one page? Be sure to make backups of your previous work; if you find the new copy kills sales, you can always restore the previous version.

4. Track your advertising. There are a number of commercially available ad tracking packages that can help you see which ads are working well and which aren’t. Discard anything that doesn’t work, and try to improve on ads that appear to work well.

5. Experiment with the navigation of your website. For example, change the number of clicks required to get to your ordering page, or change the flow of navigation so that your visitor always ends up at an ordering page.

6. Test different types of links. You might try short ads in the margins of your web pages vs. text links within the context of an article, for example.

7. Test response rates between direct links to your sales page and the use of a follow-up autoresponder. Sometimes people just need an extra ‘push’ or a reminder to order. (make sure your autoresponder has an easy way for your prospect to unsubscribe)

About The Author

Angela runs several successful sites dedicated to helping beginners profit from the Internet. Her new web magazine, Online Business Basics, features step-by-step tutorials for eBusiness ‘newbies’. To take the guesswork out of starting and building an Internet business, click over to http://www.onlinebusinessbasics.com

Tags: closing the sale, Marketing, sales, sales closing, sales letters, sales tips

Most good event planners are a bit on the anal side. That is because “the devil” really is in the details.

And if the details are not well managed, it is very easy for all kinds of problems to occur.

A good example occurred just this week.

I received a call from a client this past Tuesday. She wanted to talk about the party she is scheduled to have for this coming Saturday.

She had done all of the right things including planning and booking her vendors well in advance. In fact, she had booked our services back in February.

The reason for the call? She received a panicked call from her catering hall.

It turns out that they double-booked the time slot for her event.

This catering hall is run by a husband-wife team. The wife generally handles reservations. But her husband had taken down a reservation for another event, a wedding reception. He didn’t see that the time slot was already reserved for my client’s event.

The wife discovered the oversight while reviewing arrangements for the weekend.

The upshot? My client, who didn’t have the heart to displace a wedding celebration, had to reschedule her event on short notice.

Needless to say, the oversight caused my client a great deal of inconvenience. For starters, she is expecting out-of-town guests who will have to change their arrangements.

The hall is trying to compensate by giving my client its use for free.

Nonetheless, damage was done.

In this case, there was little the client could have done to prevent this problem. It was caused by conditions out of her knowledge and control.

The reality is that people are human and screw-ups happen to the best of us.

But you can minimize problems arising from items under your control.

The key is organization.

If you are planning an event, keep a timeline and keep records. The timeline will give you a way to impose order on the endless details by letting you quickly see what has to take place and when.

Records will give you concrete reference so you don’t have to rely on memory. Contracts, receipts, papers, and your notes of phone conversations should be kept in a central place such as a folder.

A diary system based on your timeline will trigger necessary reviews and action on your part.

For example, if you book a vendor’s services and they promise to send you a contract, ask when you can expect to receive it. Then, note the date in your diary. Check it off when you receive the paperwork.

Failure to recieve the contract or any other promised paperwork should precipitate follow up on your part.

Such failures can be caused by any number of things. Papers get lost in the mail, and occasionally vendors don’t properly record an order.

It is rare, but it happens.

Likewise, many providers of party services require the payment of a deposit to secure your order.

Many clients shop around, change plans, or fail to commit for any number of reasons. Depending on the specific product or service, some vendors receive orders from a small percentage of their inquiries.

So a vendor may not follow up if you do not send in the deposit. And you may find yourself scrambling to obtain that service under a short deadline. This is more likely during peak periods when the vendor’s resources are stretched.

A diary system will keep you on track and organized.

Experiences like my client’s are rare. But mistakes do happen.

By being organized and on top of your diary system, you’ll prevent a lot of problems. And you can be confident that you have the details of your event under control.

Ellen Zucker owns Faces & Fortunes, a party entertainment company specializing in providing Caricature artists and Fortune tellers in the Philadelphia area. Her website is http://www.facesandfortunes.com

For more advice on planning your event, visit her sister site, http://www.faces-and-fortunes-partytips.com

Tags: event planners, event planning, organizing a party, party planning, preventing problems

I watch a lot of stuff on Television in India, particularly the ads that make me think. Now hold on. I don’t mean that in a good way but the fact that they bring the thought, “What the hell was that all about?” speeding in to my head.

You know the stuff that makes you wonder what were they thinking? Well I am sure there will be constant supply of this stuff in the coming months and years so I am starting this article as a series.

To open this 1st episode if you like I would bring the ad for the Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle to your attention. They used the song, “These Boots were made for walking” as the soundtrack. The first fifteen seconds or so you think it’s a shoe ad. Then for the next ten you feel it’s a Ray Ban commercial and then out of nowhere wham – It’s a Bike! Great.

Next up is an ad that still sends shivers down my neck every time I see it. It’s the one for HP Pavilion Desktop. It features a boy that seems interested in this girl that’s always surrounded by other guys. It’s the geek gets the girl routine and that’s fine. The chink in the “amore” so to speak here is the fact that the boy and girl chosen look so much like each other they could be brother and sister. Ouch! I know but look at them, they even feature in the press ads and it’s shocking stuff. Quick get that out my mind!

That’s better. Now to cool things off lets have a look at the latest ad for the Mahindra Scorpio SUV set in a very snowy part of the world. You know the funky looking Helicopter ad. Where this chic looking lady, pilots the helicopter that blows the snow off of Scorpio that belongs to the very chic looking dude in an overcoat. Well look at it – something’s not right. And you know what it is? No its not the MCP concept of the guy getting all the work done by the gal but in fact the Helicopter is a R/C model. Not the one that the lady is sitting in but the little thingy that is shown flying around the SUV. Come on guys you can do better!

Finally to round things off we go back to another beauty from Bajaj. This time for the motorcycle called Discover. I am sure you’ve heard that Time Warner is suing Bajaj for using the “Harry Potter” look-a-like to sell their bike. To make matters worse it got heavy exposure on tele and also print. The only “Jadoo” [Magic] was that they thought they could get away with it. Hey who knows they still might!

Sasha Masand the founder of Indian Voice Overs is an award winning Television Producer who has been part of the Indian media industry for over twelve years.

Tags: India Advertising