Humans Need A Compelling Story To Act - Marketing 101

The lack of communicating a compelling story is why many businesses and web sites fail. This is so fundamental to marketing, yet many businesses miss it and end up struggling instead of enjoying the lion's share of the profits in their arena.

Your business may be missing its proper share of profits because you made the mistake of developing your web site and marketing collateral with someone stronger in information technology than in truthful storytelling.

Integrated Marketing Communications plus the technology to deliver it are necessary to effectively deliver a message to the mind, heart, and wallets of the customers. Many businesses brochures and web sites contain the proper information and all the right reasons to buy - but they are emotionally uninteresting and therefore fail to create the right response.

Emotional engagement is necessary to cause the intended action. 

A story is what creates meaning and we act once something becomes meaningful to us.

It is not just enough to know. Just think about how many exercise and health practices you know, but rarely do. Instead you must also feel -- feel the benefits to yourself personally.

People talk about business-to-business marketing or of business-to-consumer marketing. But at a more fundamental level we are all people that make up the businesses. People are the decision-makers.

At Promise Productions, we are skilled in B2B and B2C marketing, but if you really want to succeed, then talk to us about providing a human-to-human marketing campaign.  The incredible rise of Social Media Marketing expresses this truth that we are all people with common interests and needs and we want to be marketed to AS HUMAN BEINGS.

For the marketing strategies that make all the difference, call Promise Productions  at 972-822-3587 to talk about attracting a higher level of success.

Social Media Is The Key To Powerful Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

"Social Media" is THE buzzword of 2010, friends, and every professional is wondering if it's here to help, or here to destroy, their business. Some practitioners say that all social media is good for is wasting time on the internet, while others swear by its potential.

Everyone agrees, however, that it changes all the rules about getting new business. The New Marketing is here, and here to stay. So the answer to is Social Media Marketing good or bad for you is it depends:

• Are You using social media to market in a strategic way?
• Are You integrating multiple social media sites to amplify their effectiveness?
• Are You reaching your prospects with value that is meaningful to them?
• Are You learning from their likes and dislikes?

Question: What's better than great word-of-mouth for your business?
Answer: great word of mouth ONLINE -- where it can spread to thousands, circulating on business directories and social media sites to prospects both locally and worldwide.

Social Media Marketing is key to enjoying these rewards. Every month, millions of people discover new products and services and share their experiences and opinions on them. People are already talking about your marketplace and your brand. Are you engaging with them? Are you joining the conversation, helpfully steering them to the benefits and value your company provides?

If your business does not have an effective strategy to do this, you are increasingly losing the listening of your prospects. And, sooner or later, that will spell the death of any business.

However, the reverse is also true: customers love to have the company interact with them. It makes them feel important and listened to. It can resurrect that near-dead holy grail of marketing -- brand loyalty. There are many more benefits (including Positive PR) and we will be happy to discuss them with you when you call 972-822-3587 for a strategic marketing consultation.

Happy New Year, fellow business owners, and here's to a bright 2010 for all of us!

Warmest regards,
Promise Productions Marketing Communications • 972-822-3587
Los Angeles  |  Dallas  |  Las Vegas  |  Houston

Why Your Business Needs a Professional Website

eMarketer quoted an Ad-ologysurvey today that found that 46 percent of small business owners do not have a Website they are happy with . 

A separate Vistaprint study cited by eMarketer found that only half of those with a site are currently tracking their marketing efforts. No wonder companies who fail to plan their marketing strategy are failing left and right!

These numbers paint a picture of where many Small and Medium businesses are in the Internet marketing learning curve -- dangerously behind and missing the lion's share of their market's profits. Also badly in need of professional marketing consultation. 

Yes, we’ve seen small businesses do some amazing things in social media. I actually think they’re some of the best unofficial social media marketers out there because they still have the heart, the ears, and the passion that many larger corporations have lost. But as the numbers offered by eMarketer and Discover show, not everyone is at that point. Some are still fighting getting their feet wet.

What are SMB owners losing by NOT having a Web site?

In a word: Customers.

Small business owners need to realize that people aren’t using phone books for anything other than door stops anymore. As of last week, all three major search engines are skewing search queries towards local even when a user doesn’t include a local modifier. Local businesses need to not only create a Web presence, but to control it, as well... to promote it and market it to their service area.Without a real Web site, you lose your ability to:

• Differentiate yourself
• Create authority and street cred with customers and within your industry
• Spread ideas
• Get social
• Take advantage of Universal Search’s ranking power
• Benefit from the engines bias to show local results
• Share your company story and information
• House your own community
• Save costs by answering frequently asked questions
• Target your specific neighborhood (defined by zip code, points of interest, ideas, etc)
• Build an email list.

WHERE SHOULD YOUR COMPANY START WHEN MAKING A BUSINESS WEBSITE?

1 • Identify the purpose(s) of the site: Not all small business Web sites have the same goal. Some want to simply promote the product, while others are looking to promote their ideas or build an active community. Give some thought to what you want to accomplish before you consider anything else. You’d be surprised how it changes your perspective.

2 • Get your domain: In most cases, the domain name you choose will probably be very similar to your business name, however, that’s not always the case.

3 • Get hosting: This is typically where small business owners start eyeing the door. They’re cool with coming up with a wicked domain name, but for some reason “hosting” sounds scary. If you’re a small business owner, there are plenty of very affordable hosting options available that will get you up and running for less than $10 a month. Your hosting plan should also allow you the opportunity to create a [you@domainname.com] email address – make sure you set that up to give you some added street cred.

4 • Employ a Professional Web Designer: You don’t need a fancy, feature-heavy Web site in order to promote your small business on the Web, but you do need one that looks professional. If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to give you a hand. 

5 • Create your content: Again, you’re not Sears or CNN. You don’t need a huge Web site over flowing with content. You just need to give potential customers some place trusted to land that tells them who you are and what you’re about. That means creating (at minimum) your Home page, Product or Service pages, an About Us page, and a Contact us page to share information about who you are and what you do, but also to localize your business through content.

6 • Get listed: Claiming your local business listing in Google, Yahoo, Bing, BOTW and all over third-party sites is important enough that I do include it on the Setting Up Your Site list. If you’re not sure if you’re site is already listed or what info the engines have about you, the appropriately-named GetListed.org is your window into that world.

7 • Marketing Your Web Site: Like the design stage above, you may want to outsource your marketing efforts to professionals who can help you create a social media marketing plan or a marketing road map. However, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, you may not have to. 

While the number of Small Businesses creating Web sites is up 36% over the past two years, that number really needs to grow in the next year. The search engines’ obsession with local has made your Web site an even bigger part of your business and marketing plan. Make sure you’re treating as such -- call Promise Productions Strategic Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

Nickleback Uses Integrates Green Screen with Social Media Marketing

The popular rock band, Nickleback, places great importance on their relationship with their fans.  They’re more than rock stars; they’re smart marketers who realize that their fans drive their success. Just like any business venture - you exist to provide a service to your customers.

What makes this noteworthy, however, is how they used integrated marketing of all these marketing methods into a single, effective campaign.
• Relationship Marketing
• Event Marketing
• Photographic Branding
• Social Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

Here is how Nickleback did it on their most recent worldwide tour:

1. Event Marketing: At the concert, fans received a card with a bar code card, which was scanned when they had their photo taken in front of a green screen.
2. Green Screen Photography: The image was used to create a shot of the fan with the band.
3. Internet Marketing: The card had the log-in info for fans to access their images online. When they went online to access their image, they were asked to complete a brief survey.
4. Add Value: Online, they had an opportunity to add a frame or stickers to their photos.
5. Social Media Marketing: The completed image could be automatically uploaded to Facebook, Twitter social media networking sites.

The main benefits? First, Nickleback received demographic data on the fans and could continue the band/fan relationship with specials, cross-selling and early release announcements. Second, fans spread images and awareness of Nickleback by the thousands through the social media worlds of Twitter and Facebook!

For innovative marketing that gets superior results, thrive with

Promise Productions Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

Choose your customers, choose your future

Marketers rarely think about choosing customers... like a sailor on shore leave, they're not so picky. Huge mistake!

Your customers define what you make, how you make it, where you sell it, what you charge, who you hire and even how you fund your business. If your customer base changes over time but you fail to make changes in the rest of your organization, stress and failure will follow.

Every company (unless it is a dictatorship) exists to serve its customers. In a democracy, we punish monopolies precisely because they might be inclined to serve themselves at the expense of their customers. Everybody serves someone. The great news is that you can choose who you serve!

Sell to angry cheapskates and your business will reflect that. On the other hand, when you find great customers, they will eagerly co-create with you. They will engage and invent and spread the word.

It takes vision and guts to turn someone down and focus on a different segment, on people who might be more difficult to sell at first, but will lead you where you want to go over time.

For effective marketing communications that leads your business to profit and fulfillment, call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.

The Right Customer Makes All The Difference

It is time again to give ourselves the reminder that the right customer makes all the difference. They can make you business a joy, whereas the wrong one, will make it a burden. Even keeping the services and the profits the same.

In your business, you don't want to sell or market to everyone. You want the right customer.

Customers who care about what your business does. Customers who will make a contribution that matters. Customers who will spread the word.

As soon as you focus your marketing on finding the right clients, things get better, fast. That's because you can ignore everyone and settle in and focus on the clientele you actually want.

Know the right clients. Marketing to THEM specifically. There is power in focus.

For marketing communications expertise and service, call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.

Prosper by Marketing VALUE not Price

In an uncertain economic environment, businesses of all kinds are faced with more skeptical buyers and contracting budgets. At Promise Productions Marketing Communications, we believe the answer to this is a stronger value proposition and inbound marketing strategies.

Many times a company will react to these buyer objections by offering to lower their pricesl. However, this approach substantially impacts the business owner whose overhead usually remains constant. If you sell a product with a 20% profit margin that your sales team routinely discounts by 5% in order to get the deal, then in effect you need to drive your team to sell 25% more of that product in order for you to break even!

• Do you often end up paying for the non-performance of your client's existing vendor by dropping your price to get the client, whose problem wasn’t being handled by the incumbent effectively to begin with?
• Do you buckle every time your competitor price-drops simply because you lack the conviction or knowledge to differentiate and sell on value?

The buyer's motivation when objecting to price tells you a lot about your marketing strategy for dealing with pricing and these objections.

Value Perception: 

The price of your product or service, whether accepted or rejected, is contingent upon your prospect's perception of what that product or service will ultimately do for them when compared to the competition. What the buyer believes your offering is going to provide them is their reality. 

Before showing or telling them anything it is essential that you first uncover what they are looking for and more importantly what your solution will actually do for them (or avoid with regard to back-end issues) above and beyond their current mode of handling the problem (incumbent). Unless you uncover what is lacking in their current product or service and the ramifications of this absence, you will not be able to sell on value and hold your price.

I was watching a video this morning on some ultra high-performance and high-luxury cars that cost a fortune! And yet the manufacturer was confident they would sell every single one of them at exactly his asking price. Why? Because the had SUPERIOR VALUE -- the product did something for the buyer that no ordinarily-priced car would do. In this luxury item, the value is the prestige, the envy factor, the exclusivity, the fast speed, etc.. Those who value those things will not haggle about the price. 

Although you could feed an entire 3rd world village for a year with the price tag on the item, the buyers were lining up begging to have one because of the VALUE it represented for them. Friends, this is the power of value-based marketing.

The other thing this company did right was to know their market -- they were not trying to sell to everyone, just those who were already receptive to their value. Those who deal in commodities (fast food, coca-cola, etc.) can never raise their prices above a certain level because they have insufficient extra value over their competition to justify raising their prices.

That means you must understand your buyer and what they want MORE than money, or at least a certain level of money. Unless you know what your buyer values, all you have left to bargain with is price and you lose.

In contrast to value-based-marketing, the typical sales person attempts to resolve the price objection by reasoning with the prospect intellectually. However, by repeating the same features and benefits that were insufficient to capture the prospect's signature to begin with you are getting nowhere. What is necessary to close the sale is to distinguish MORE VALUE to the buyer.

By emotionally engaging the prospect you allow them to visualize the outcome or result of your product or services. The value of what you offer must become real to them.


If the price objection you're dealing with is ego driven, money is secondary and the ability to feel as if they won is paramount. In this situation, give in to to their ego, not to a price concession. In some situations the buyer simply needs to win, or know they somehow managed to negotiate "extra value" for themselves. 


In this case, see what other aspect of the deal you can give them other than to lower your prices. Uncover what is important to them such as delivery, meeting critical deadlines or response time to problem resolution. If you can give in on one of their demands this often allows both parties to get what they want. They win with regards to a term you held fast on and you win by holding your price.


For specific strategies for your business to win through value, contact Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.

Elements For Business Success - Dallas Marketing #3

Promise Productionsromise Productions is your advocate for business success. Our strategic marketing services can bring the ideal clients for optimum profits.

Whether your are a businessperson, manager or business owner, here is the Third of Three Principles that successful businesses share:

3 • Consistancy Key to success is making the right actions a HABIT. That means marketing is not a "here and there" kind of thing. It is a process with a regular budget, with repeated actions to KEEP your visibility out there.

Especially in Social Media Marketing, since it is conversational marketing, the conversation has to keep going in order to STAY present to your audience.

People are forgetful. We counteract that with compelling and creative visual marketing messaging, but, like a tire with a slow leak, out of sight will eventually mean out of mind.

So "consistency" really means "make marketing a habit". Keep your company running as it should with refreshing the air in your marketing. Call us at 972-822-3587 for solutions for your business' cashflow needs.

How Covenant Designs Gears Your Business For Success

Promise Productions' strategic marketing and branding services are results-driven to overcome obstacles to success and cause you to surpass your goals.

VISIBILITY SERVICES: being found by your prospects is essential for a steady stream of new leads and customers. We provide direct mail campaigns and postcard marketing to put your message in your prospect's hands.

We also provide Online Marketing for your business website and social media so you are found in the search engines through these 3 core strategies:

1. Pay-Per-Click Marketing Campaigns: we take a unique approach for smart results without tasting your ad dollars.
2. Searh Engine Optimization Services: the rules are changing and it is money well spent to stay at the top for your marketplace.
3. Strategic Blogging Services: blog in a marketing-savvy way to best promote your company and its website.

STRATEGIC MARKETING SERVICE: We also provide Marketing INTEGRATION so your web marketing, traditional marketing, print advertising, direct mail campaigns and social media marketing all work TOGETHER for optimum results.

PROFITABILITY SERVICES: Don't forget about customer loyalty and retention programs. After all, it costs more time and money to get a new customer than it does to get repeat business from a previous customer. Don't overlook this cashflow goldmine!


Let us show you how to tack advantage of all these for increased profits -- call Promise Productions Business Marketing at 972-822-3587.

Making White Space Serve You - Graphic Design & Marketing Strategy

Graphic Design and Business Marketing Strategy are both in The Business Of Dealing with White Space

In business strategy and visual design, both need to work with white space? White space is both a graphic design and a business strategy term. In graphic design white space refers to visual space that isn't occupied by text, images, or other visible elements. The amount and use of white space is a key design element to page layout. White space is a component of a page's readability and legibility.
In Web Site design, a page with too little white space makes people feel uncomfortable because the page seems so cluttered and crowded and distracting/unfocused. On the other hand, pages with too much white space seem empty and as if there’s nothing to explore. So both the brand strategy and usability strategy guides the direction must come to a balance.
The same can be applied to retail design. The same challenge remains as every dept wants their spot on the shelves. Or they want to optimize every inch of their homepage real estate for ads. This is common debate and most of the time designers can’t win and that’s why all the sites out there are filled with stuff. More is NOT better and Less is often not enough.
In the retail world, look at Apple stores. They have the highest sales per-square-foot among many retailers. Then look at a Radio Shack store , which has a lot of stuff crowding its store but is less profitable. So white space management is an essential part of optimum profits.
Harnessing Business White Space
In business marketing strategy, we also use the phrase “identifying white space” which means finding opportunities necessitates exploration into areas adjacent to but outside your core business. Unconventional approaches are required to uncover these high-value opportunities and to convert them into attractive businesses (and cash flow). We call it innovation.
And if it affects the organization in the way it competes both from an economics, channel, brand, product and user behavior and requires significant adaptation from a competencies and operations perspective, then we call it “strategic innovation”. To explore these strategic marketing white spaces, we have to apply “design thinking” concepts to business strategy development.
Managing the white space often requires a dual focus – exploring the intersection of emerging trends and at the same time defining how the convergence of multiple technologies or capabilities might satisfy powerful latent consumer needs. Whatever the idea is, you need to continually engage in continuous learning around new consumers, channel partners, suppliers, competitors, business models and other emerging marketplace dynamics.
In general today we find that there is less and less differentiation among brands, companies, technologies and channel. Therefore, it is in the most outer sphere that offers the biggest opportunity and usually associated with most risks (internal and external).

Example: you offer professional wedding photography? Then, consider expanding into the adjacent wedding videography business too. That is great but not too much of a leap. Some others are starting to copy that move and decrease your distinctiveness. An example of white space innovation further out of the box would be to offer, Same Day Wedding Photos On An Engraved Wedding iPod. It is still wedding photos, but delivered in a whole new way.

Author Steve Coley notes in The Alchemy of Growth, "What distinguishes the corporations that carry on growing is…they can innovate in their core businesses and build new ones at the same time." Great examples are Apple expanding beyond computers to the iPod music player. It changed the entire music industry, integrated with digital music on the computer and made billions.
This is not to say that profitable white space is only in new markets and categories. It can certainly emerge and be identified in a mature marketing landscape, as consumer needs change and brands mature and the whole landscape begins to transform or is redefined.
Look at the impact of change when Starbucks first exploited the "third place" market by the white space. They are now struggling with finding the new white space -- the new innovation.
Branding and Innovation
This brings us to white space and re-branding. Today Starbucks needs help from outside people because any great company carries a legacy that created an inertia -- sometimes that inertia works against them. Starbucks is a brand many still enjoy and might see another decade of success.
Another example is Kodak. They were branded as the film company. When film died, Kodak almost died because their inertia resisted the re-branding to the era of digital photography.
In order for an organization to exploit "white space", it will need to make bold strategic moves... otherwise known as change :-) These changes involve significant development of new capabiltiy, commitment of people and investment, and possibly new brand creation or even a company wide transformation. Thus the larger your company is, the slower capitalizing on white space is likely to be as a tactical quick-fix for cashflow woes.
Kodak is also an example here as well because their slow change to digital photography opened a gap of opportunity and today we have several digital camera brands that have emerged.
Social Media and White Space
Social media is an opportunity to market to your customers (and emerging prospective customers) by engaging in online dialogue with them. It takes many forms but of interest to us regarding white space opportunities is the customer feedback that social media can quickly bring into your company.
Some ad agencies make a living off of making "discovering your white space" more complicated than it needs to be. Yes, you need visionaries that see industry trends, forecast the economy and marketplace and analyze competitors. But you also to remember that all companies ultimately serve people. So the word-on-the-street is invaluable!
Enter Social Media Marketing Services! There is Business-To-Business marketing, Business to Consumer marketing. Social Media is more like Human-To-Human marketing.
Social Media is ideal for determining what customers think of your brand, of your competitor's and of what products and services they want to see. Think of it like a focus group, only it is always going on and it is less focused :-) Social Media feedback opportunities let your customers tell you what they want.
Any strategic innovation initiatives require more than creativity and new product ideas, it needs to look at an industry from economic structure perspective. If your company wants to take advantage of business white space for fresh profits ask yourself:

• Are we really ready to do what it takes to make the necessary changes once we discover them?
• The rules of our industry have changed; HOW have they changed? And where are the opportunities in those changes.
• How can we take what our company is already good at and present it to another market segment in a fresh way?

Let Promise Productions Strategic Marketing Communications guide you into becoming irresistible to your prospects with compelling visuals, smarter strategy and a more powerful presentation of your value in a way that translates into more profits. Call us with your needs at 972-822-3587.

More Effective Social Media Marketing for Your Business

Social Marketing is a very powerful way to create massive online visibility, drive traffic and build prospects and sales leads. The challenge for many companies is how do you find the time to do what you need to do to be effective on each social media asset – and to do it in a way that does not take hours each day.

The good news is there are many ways to both automate and integrate your Social Media Marketing. Promise Productiosn provides social media marketing strategies to make the most of your time and still get powerful results. We offer full social media marketing consultation and social media marketing campaigns that support your:
• Business Objectives
• Public Relations Initiatives
• Integrates with your Traditional and Online Marketing

Social Media Marketing Automation - There are actions on each of the Social Marketing tools that can be set up to be done automatically for you, so you do not have to be there to take each action.

Social Media Marketing Integration – Many of the main Social Marketing tools can be set up so that an action (a marketing message) taken on one site will result in an action (other marketing messages) taken on one or more other sites.

Here are brief examples of Automation and Integration with 5 of the major Social Media Marketing sites.

Video Marketing – one of the smartest things you can be doing right now, because of the enormous amount traffic generated by sites like YouTube. But how do you get traffic to your videos?

Great question, here is a part of the answer: set up your YouTube account so that each time you upload a new video an announcement automatically shows up on Twitter and Facebook.

Strategic Blogging - In Social Media, your company blog is the hub of your system. From your hub you can reach out to Twitter and Facebook when you set it up so that each new blog post is also automatically announced on these two Social Marketing sites.

These two examples above of automation and integration means you take one action and get 3 results.

Twitter - Your tweets can be automatically sent to Facebook. Some people set it up to have every tweet sent. I recommend using the "Selective Twitter Status" app so that not every tweet is automatically sent. I've seen some companies who tweet dozens of times a day get their account suspended because of too many tweets or too many similar tweets being sent.

Facebook - When you update your Facebook status you can set it up to be automatically sent to Twitter. One action, two results.

EzineArticles - Set it up so that each time you have a new article published it is "auto-tweeted" to Twitter. The title of the article is displayed in your Twitter stream along with the link to your article.

For specific applications to best forward your business needs, contact Promise Productions for social media consultation and campaigns at 972-822-3587.

Elements For Business Success - Dallas Marketing #2

Promise Productions is your advocate for business success. Our strategic marketing can bring the ideal clients for optimum profits.

Whether your are a businessperson, manager or business owner, here is the Second of Three Principles that successful businesses share:

2 • The Right Strategy: Strategy is key because it either empowers or dis-empowers your actions and efforts. You can work hard, but much more important is working smart. Successful companies consistently implement smarter strategies than their competitors.

The wrong strategy is like driving on the wrong road -- you may get there eventually but have to take more bumps, stops and turns. Or worse, you might be headed in the wrong direction altogether!

Not to worry -- strategy is our specialty. And realize that strategy is changing as companies and the business landscape changes. So you need fresh strategies for results in today's marketplace.

These strategies include: the visual image in photos, videos and graphic design for your company. They include better ways to reach your target audience. Smarter strategy applies to how you implement a social media marketing campaign too. Good strategy will provide the most compelling presentation of your value proposition for higher responses. The benefits of the right marketing strategy are nearly endless! It is the difference between being frustrated and being effective.

Stay tuned for part 3 in another blog post. We look forward to serving you with the best focused strategies for your business' success. Call Promise Productions Strategic Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

Elements For Business Success - Dallas Marketing #1

Promise Productions  is your advocate for business success. Our strategic marketing can bring the ideal clients for optimum profits.

Whether your are a businessperson, manager or business owner, here is the First of Three Principles that successful businesses share:

1 • The Right Focus: Your focus in business is like the direction your tires are pointed in -- that is where you will head. Whatever your business focuses on, will seem to grow, be that problems, innovation, service or solutions. There is a place to focus on breakdowns and problems, but only to create the strategy for a breakthrough. Successful business focus on strategies for success and devote the majority of their mindshare to solutions.

Sports mentors teach not to just focus on the goal, but focus beyond the goal. Aim high without fear of failure. It is the followthrough swing in golf. It is the boxer's punch 3 inches INTO the opponent's body. Don't just hit the other boxer's body, punch THROUGH them! Likewise, don't just reach your business objective and stop, breakTHROUGH it.

Focus determine thoughts, which stimulate feelings, which engage actions. And actions set results in motion. Consistent actions create habits. Don't you want all of those thoughts, feelings, actions, habits and results to be success-producing?

Likewise, there is a focus to your marketing. Your marketing message must proclaim a focused proposition of your value. A consistent message of your products and services will attract the corresponding kinds of customers.

What kinds of customers do you want? The answer goes beyond the obvious. Once you know that, really know that, you can focus your business in a powerful and profitable way. Turn to Promise Productions for business marketing that get's results -- call 972-822-3587.

How to Boost Your E-Commerce This Christmas

So you have a well-designed E-Commerce website. We are about to reveal how you can increase sales. These strategies are true all the time, but the purpose of this post is focused on the Winter / Christmas 2009 season.

PRICE
Of course your online shopper is cost-conscious. You have to offer a competitive price and I am assuming you already are doing this with your e-commerce website. This much is obvious so I will not say more.

One thing I will say about price is that if you are looking for a good product to sell online, my suggestion is to choose smaller items that do not weigh a lot. The reason is simply that these items have lower shipping costs, thereby making the overall cost lower (and more attractive) to your clientele.

You should already be savvy about your product prices. What you want to focus on is TRUST.

TRUST
The best way to increase trust (which smooths the way for more sales) is to put 3rd party opinions and reviews on your site. The best e-commerce sites allow users to even upload videos about the particular product they themselves have made.

One reason is that all marketing is shifting rapidly to "social media marketing". Your e-commerce web site design will increase in sales because other consumers "just like them" have already bought and tried the product and tell you how it performed for them.

Now, if your site contains products that are consistently rated low, you need to remove them. Who needs more disappointing customers? This forces a level of honesty and forms the basis for trust and value for the items on your site.

Sure, people can play some games with this feedback review system by putting in fake reviews, but, over time as dozens of buyers rate the product, a theme will emerge as the general consensus about how the product performs and compares to others.

In this case other customers will tell your customers which products to buy and how good of a value they are. The price you pay is the time to incorporate feedback reviews into your e-commerce site. The advantage you get

When your prospective buyers see you are not afraid to have a bad review of your product here and there, they trust you more and your sales increase.

So do yourself a favor and boost your profits with products that have real value. You'll be glad you did.

For strategic e-commerce that enjoys maximum profits, call Promise Productions Web Design and Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

How To Grow Your Business in Today's Economy

First, we are a professional marketing communications company. Marketing is all about growing your business and profits through smarter attraction strategies, so for any questions or needs, simply call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.

That said, here are the Best Free Tips for growing your business in today's economy.

GET BIGGER CLIENTS: That's right, attract clients with larger budgets and larger needs for your services. One of the very best ways to grow is to work with people and companies that have larger resources than those you have now.

DEVELOP STRATEGIC ALLIANCES: Your business partner(s) will make or break your business. Someone who needs complimentary services (you sell hammers; they sell nails) will offer OVERLAP in your target marketplace, and thus sharing your customers, successful practices and the combined expansion of your services can be a win-win!

There are many ingredients of business success: steady flow of leads, know-how, money, contacts, resources, etc. You may not have it all and they may not have it all. By sharing and giving you can benefit each others.

GET HELP WITH NO UP-FRONT COST: You can get help in many ways without being hit right away with all the up front costs that come with an additional full-time employee:

• get part-time help
• get a commission salesperson
• get interns
• get an independent contractor

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE PUBLICITY: get massive publicity through your local newspaper and TV station. Also take advantage of the many ways a smart social media marketing campaign can get your business visibility in the Internet search engines.

INCREASE YOUR ADVERTISING & MARKETING: let people know what you have to offer. Marketing is about communicating your company's value proposition to attract those most interested.

Common to all these free marketing tips is the idea of FIRST attracting the additional business, then getting the production help second, to DO the business you just got.

For smart marketing strategy for optimum profits, contact Promise Productions Strategic Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

December Marketing - Position Your Company for the Best of Success

December is the time to implement some marketing strategy to position your company to enter the New Year strong and ON TOP. Don't accept the temptation to just coast through December -- too much is at stake.

"In fact, while other companies are slowing down, yours can be gearing up to dominate your marketplace... and its profits."

Let's explore who your most profitable clients are and how to attract them online. We then integrate your company website, strategic blog, twitter and other social media marketing assets. The right content, message and strategy will attract new customers, new orders and stimulate a steady flow of leads for increased cashflow.

Call Promise Productions to maximize your Winter marketing at 972-822-3587.