One indisputable growth area over the last few years has been online sales.

Recent figures from Retail Decisions show a 21 per cent increase in online sales in 2009, up to 49.8bn, with more than 33 million Brits buying online.

While online is clearly the way to grow, competition is rife and etailers still need to have the edge when it comes to making the purchase process easy and enticing for their customers.

But how do you know what will work?

The 2009 Consumer eTail Report from GSI Commerce, a global company specialising in servicing the ecommerce needs for retailers, has highlighted the online sales methods which consumers themselves say will have products flying off your shelves.

More than anything, their research shows you should not expect an ounce of patience from the purchasing public of 2010.

Streamline first, market afterwards

So, before paying big money to bring thousands of potential customers to your site, make sure the basics are there so they won’t turn on their heels the minute they attempt to buy something - working on this final stage can prove amazingly profitable.

As GSI Commerce executive vice president international Steve Davis says: ‘Retailers are seeing that investing in a streamlined online strategy is highly profitable and can yield significantly more than investing in traditional growth areas.’

Here are 5 simple ways to streamline your purchasing process in 2010 and see your sales rocket as a result.

1. Keep it brief

Customers are no longer happy to wade through a complex registration before buying. In fact three quarters (75%) of consumers asked in the study said that a lengthy registration process would be the factor most likely to make them abandon an online purchase in 2009, more than twice as many as in 2008 (33%).

2. No frills necessary

Almost half (45%) of consumers said they would be so annoyed by being shown irrelevant information that they would choose not to spend - keep it concise and trim the fat where you can.

3. Just one page

Only 8% of people hated multi-page payment processes enough to decide against buying in 2008, this went up to 38% in 2009, proving it is definitely now worth putting it all on one page where possible.

4. Offer free delivery

If a product is offered at the same price on two different sites, 94% say free delivery would be the deciding factor, up from 68% in 2008. And offering a variety of delivery options is now seen as highly desirable by consumers. Twenty-nine per cent claim their decision to purchase would be positively influenced by retailers offering multichannel shopping, such as ‘buy online, pick up in-store’, up from just 5% in 2008.

5. Watch and learn

While there are plenty of general rules to make things easier for consumers, every site is different and there is nothing more valuable than seeing exactly what your customers are getting up to when they buy.

Usability and eye-tracking testing can be as simple as paying three strangers £50 each to let you watch them while they make a purchase on your site.

‘Watch the experience; ask them to talk you through it’, says Davis. ‘You’ll be shocked at how many opportunities you have to simplify and enhance your shopping experience.’

Corinne writes for atom42, an online marketing agency in London. atom42 employs a range of marketing fields to create an integrated online marketing strategy for each of its clientsArticle Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/online-marketing-advice-5-simple-ways-to-streamline-your-purchasing-process-1788093.html

If you have something that has gone broken or requires you to call the call care solutions, then you might know the headaches of it and say screw it. Many do. So, why is it that call center solutions software is needed? There are a few reasons. It is due to the service that the customers get. If they do not get help fast enough or the help they need, they are likely to go elsewhere meaning the competition.

For starters, there are some who hate the fact that just to get the big bucks, call centers will stay open longer, but the people you are talking to are not always great at understanding just what your problem is. They tend to hand the calls over to other countries for a lower fee and in return, the cultural barrier is sometimes hard to deal with.

The next thing that people have found with call center solutions is that they have to go through all these prompts before they take you to someone who can talk to you. If you do not know which prompt you need you are put at the end of the line to wait for someone to take your call. For people on the go, this is hard to do as you have to be here and there and do not have the time to sit on the phone waiting to be directed to a human being.

While you are waiting because there is a wait for everything when it comes to open source call center solutions, you often get to hear what people call elevator music. You sometimes get hung up on. Then what do you do if you have a beep? The possibilities are endless as you wait your turn to be dealt with.

Many times, you do not get the answer you are looking for. After taking you through a process to rule out any and every cause they tell you something that you could have told them to begin with. They say it sounds like you have this problem and you have to do this. If you are calling about a charge then they tell you to pay it over the phone where they might tell you that they are going to charge you for making the payment. To some, this just gives them more of a problem than before.

In a few cases, many say that they wonder if they really got any answers. They feel that they just tell you what you want to hear and then take it from there. In some cases, they have to feed you to another department and after being shuffled around, people are just sick of it.

As you can see much needs to be done. Some are getting software that should help. Others tend to find other ways to help their customers. In some cases, they hire more people, but at a lower cost. Others tend to change the rules so that they do not get as many calls.

Something needs to be done. While software might be able to help call center solutions, other times it might be a whole new arrangement they need. Some will tell you that they just need to close during the night or try sticking to people who are close to home. The ruling is still out. When it all comes to it, something needs to be done as many companies find that they are losing customers at a time when these customers are needed.

Looking for call center solutions? Well, look no further! We offer competitive pricing with our open source call center Toronto solutions and our asterisk consulting Toronto.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/revamping-the-call-center-solutions-department-1772660.html

Whether you’re trying to name a new company or rename an existing product, it’s far from easy to generate a name that sounds great, looks cool, means what you want it to and sets you apart from all the competition.

Narrow down the range of possibilities by first figuring out which of these six types of names you prefer.

I. Made-up Names
Examples: Verizon, Intel, Centuria, Zumasys

People seem to either love made-up names or hate them. On the one hand, they offer a blank slate for branding - if you’ve got the budget to hammer them into the public’s consciousness. And on the other hand, they tend to have a cold, bureaucratic, big-business and inhuman tone.

II. Descriptive Names
Examples: 5 Minute Oil Change, Paycheck Loans, Diapers.com

These are no-nonsense names that make it really clear what the company or product does, but they usually cannot be trademarked. While they communicate well, they can be downright dull.

III. Proper Names
Examples: Wells Fargo, Brooks Brothers, John Hancock, New England Estates

These can be family names, first names, geographic names and even fictional names that conjure up a specific person or a place. Proper names can be restrictive on your future expansion and make your company harder to sell. On the other hand, they can help root you in a community or highlight the founders. They’re especially good for local companies and common in the fashion and financial industries, among others.

IV. Suggestive Names
Examples: Greyhound, Staples, Mustang, Blackberry

Here the names feature a word or a phrase that suggests a quality with which the company or product wishes to be linked. On the one hand they can be easy to remember, spell and pronounce and highly appealing to the public. They also lend themselves to vivid logos, but it may be hard to find a good one that’s not already in use by a giant in another industry.

V. Compound Names
Examples: MailChimp, DieHard, YouTube

Popular for online companies, these involve taking two disparate ideas and combining them. Each element is recognizable in the compound, but there may be one element that carries most of the meaning while the other is somewhat arbitrary. They might be presented as two words or as one, and they tend to have a warmer tone than the made-up names. Some compound names suggest vivid logos, like the suggestive names, and some are a bit hard to spell or to remember.

VI. Emotional Names
Examples: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Save the Children, Named At Last

Here you highlight a particular feeling, such as astonishment, compassion or relief, which tends to lend the name a lighthearted tone. Make sure that if there’s some sort of implied promise in the name, that’s a promise your company delivers on.

Since the vast majority of company and product names fall into one of the above categories, you’ve made great progress when you’ve identified which matches your personal preferences most and is best for your particular naming challenge.

Happy naming!

Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms exciting company names, product names and tag lines for clients around the world. Download a free copy of “19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line” at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm .Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/six-types-of-new-business-names-which-one-is-right-for-your-product-or-company-1776207.html

The United States Postal Service – can’t live with them, can’t live without them! They are the biggest monopoly out there and for a long time – actually until recently – they behaved just that way! Use us or nobody, so we don’t care… something like that. At least that’s how I perceived them. But recently there has been a lot of good news coming out of the US Postal Service (USPS), and I wanted to make sure you’re up to date.

No 2010 Postage Rate Hikes.
First of all, you can prepare your 2010 direct-mail budgets with confidence. The USPS recently stated that they will not increase postage rates in 2010 for first-class, standard mail and periodicals. That should mean no surprise rate hikes for your postcard mailings!

 Postmaster General John E. Potter says, “We want mailers to continue to invest in mail to grow their business, communicate with valued customers and maintain a strong presence in the marketplace.”

I whole-heartedly agree. This is a change in viewpoint for them and is good news that creates a very positive impact for getting good return on your direct mail investment going forward. For the first time that I am aware of, the USPS is putting attention on us – small business – as important customers. You may want to create a google alert for USPS to stay abreast of all the programs they are rolling out.

So what IS the USPS doing to try to handle the budgetary issues that they have been experiencing?

USPS switches to a Monday - Friday schedule.
You’ve heard the rumors, now it’s all but official. Kiplingers.com reports that “Congress will grudgingly go along (with ending Saturday mail delivery), though not till after the 2010 elections.” This change should take effect sometime in 2011, and “save (the USPS) an estimated $3 billion a year.”

Why direct mail is better than ever!
So why, even with one less day of mail delivery, is direct mail a better-than-ever choice for your marketing dollars? With no rate increase this upcoming year, and the US Postal Service getting more customer-oriented in their thought process — coming up with more creative fixes instead of simply raising rates — means that the biggest supplier in your direct mail chain is concerned, more than ever, with your return on investment.

In addition, mail volume overall is down, which means less competition for your promotions in your prospects’ mailboxes. In order to take full advantage of the situation, you need to make sure that your postcards are designed with a clear, concise and attention-grabbing headline. Make sure you don’t let the opportunity slip by.  Read my article “Design Tips You Won’t See on MSNBC” at my website for more information on designing an effective postcard.

Using a powerful, simple, extremely cost effective way of communicating with customers has earned Joy Gendusa Inc. Magazine’s recognition as the nation’s fastest growing direct mail postcard-marketing firm with year 2008 revenues close to $19,000,000. Gendusa began in 1998 with zero investment capital. Today, her Clearwater, FL firm called PostcardMania (www.PostcardMania.com), employs over 160 people and prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards representing 35,000-plus customers in over 350 industries each week. Download the first three chapters of Joy’s book “The Ultimate Postcard Marketing Success Manual” here: (www.PostcardMarketingSuccessManual.com)

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/postal-changes-are-coming-whats-in-it-for-you-1776880.html

If you’re trying to Sell Your Music Online and get into music marketing and you want to try and sell something online, it’s got to be a real big deal. A bunch of songs won’t do it for even $9. And, get close to the customer. Customers especially fans can be demanding, but that doesn’t mean you should sterilize the whole sales process. If you can help people who buy the product with free advice than they feel they’ve got their moneys worth, and as I said, everyone’s different. Writing a quick email to make some suggestions to a fan or customer, I feel I’ve delivered value.

I’m quite experienced in Music Marketing and promoting novel acts because my background is in marketing and branding, which is all about translating unique experiences into value for audiences, and making their enjoyment and your recognition into a source of income online.

It’s important when artists understand that they are personally committed to their art that professional support is probably required to determine whether there’s a realistic market for what you offer, or more precisely in my field, to determine whether this can be developed into a source of income through new online business models and marketing methods.

From a sales perspective, you need a strong sales pitch on your site so to speak, but perhaps before we investigate that it would be worth examining your basic business models. I don’t know how viable driving sales and revenue with a CD in this era so we’d want to look at what you can offer in broader depth.In terms of promotion we have plenty of methods and techniques that would compliment your emerging brand but we’d have to assess what we’d need to do pronounce that brand - really take that tone from your blog and make it present.

I always say to artists we can do our promotion and drive fans but there needs to be something there for them to engage with, you’ve got your email list, now you need to drive sign ups with content that connects. Thats why this branding and development of content for your audience is so important. Online you have to have a consistent presence in order to build a consistent fanbase, then you can create revenue by servicing that fanbase in multiple ways including CD sales.

With $600 we could do a fair bit in 3 months, I’d suggest a makeover for your site, and developing your blog as a platform, and promoting that through search engines. I would also use an online advertising campaign to drive email sign ups - this becomes more effective once your whole sales process has matured - but we’d also have to develop your email management process to work in with your business model.

So there’d be a lot of written content development and editing required but we’d also look at how we can use video to meet our needs, and perhaps work on creating a video for the purpose of driving

propositions such as email sign ups and sales relevant to our primary business model (whether thats selling CD’s or otherwise).

Youtube and Myspace promotion we’d have to discuss whether these were suitable.

Basically it depends whether you want simple online promotions or you need us to get involved with branding and content creation also.

I know your basic content is strong but have you got the capacity to engage a building fanbase with regular weekly content?

So your basic $200 p/month covers the promotion you’re talking about, social networks, and search through Google. I’ll also discuss recommended strategies for online advertising which I suggest an

additional budget of $50 p/month for.

But what will happen when social and search visitors begin to arrive?

Have you got free content we can offer to push email sign ups?

And will you need support in delivery weekly content through the social portals and your blog?

If you and/or the artists can contribute regular blog posts, video content and interactive/viral concepts, great, but you may need regular content developed (blogs, video, interactive/viral elements) and branding support to engage fans.I think once you’ve got your head around outsourcing and having guys overseas do all the promotion for you, that’s pretty much half of learning Music Marketing how to sell your music online. But you want to know which sites I use where I do everything and how I do it so it all works out. Once you know that stuff, well you’ve already got the edge over the guy who is completely DIY.

Now you just need to work out how to make money. I can’t promise anything there but I can give you plenty of ideas to Sell Your Music Online and some of them work for me, I’m sure one or two will work for you. You just have to be ready for it take a couple of years. That’s life. For more log onto: http://www.musicmarketingmanagement.com

Matt Turner is director of Kurb Promotions (www.kurb.co.nz), a New Zealand based company offering comprehensive and affordable Music Marketing and Sell Your Music Online services to entertainers and small businesses around the world offering internet marketing packages, video marketing.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/sell-your-music-online-online-music-marketing-and-management-1778144.html

How you should choose a network marketing opportunity?

Once you have decided that network marking is the opportunity you would like to pursue, it is time to get your checklist out and get busy!  As you create your “how to choose a network marketing company” list you will want to start with research, locating an experienced person in the business, locating information sessions, looking at the pay structure, and what type of training and support is offered.  

Taking the time to do some basic research will pay off in the long run.  There are a couple of resources such as The Better Business Bureau, and the Direct Selling Association will be a great resource on how to choose a network marketing opportunity.  You will be able to see any negative reports and complaints that are on file for a company and much more.

One of the best ways to find out more information about this industry and a specific company would be to find someone who is already in the business and has had some success.  They would be able to provide you with a wealth of information and share some insight regarding their personal experience within the network marketing opportunities.  

As you are collecting information on the various network marketing opportunities, it would be prudent to attend as many information sessions that you can locate.  You will be able to analyze all the information and make a decision.  If you find someone in the network marketing business, you could ask him or her if you could go with him or her to one of his or her local meetings.  

The training and support provided by the company should also be a part in how you choose a network marketing company.  Having someone to turn to when you need help and getting all the follow-up needed will help you be successful.  Check into the exact structure and outline of what this consists of and see if it will fit into your life.  You may be transitioning into this business part-time while still working your full-time job and will need a structure that supports your transition.  

Getting paid is always an important component that should be considered when you are choosing your network marketing company.  How sophisticated is the company technologically speaking?  Are they set-up to have your commissions easily sent to your account, etc?  How long it takes to get paid and how much you are getting paid on your transactions? The overall compensation structure is important to understand.  You might even want to talk with other representatives of the company and get feedback from them on their experience with getting paid and support for training.  

How to pick a network marketing company will encompass the above points and it will be important to look at each point in-depth.  Everything thing from research, finding an experienced person, information sessions, training and support, and the pay structure are all critical parts of your decision making process.   By following this outline, you will be well on your way to working with a network marketing company.

Maryjean Howe is a professional internet marketer and business coach based out of Oceanside, CA. She works with people to help them start a business and continues to help them use training materials to effectively run a successful business. Maryjean has worked with people from all different backgrounds to help them start a business with or without any experience. For more information or to learn how to work with Maryjean, go to http://MaryjeanAHowe.net/?t=mit

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/how-you-should-choose-a-network-marketing-opportunity-1778357.html