Having problems with message search?
Spreading the news for home and small business entrepreneurs
Volume IV Issue iv May, 2003
For easier reading and quick referral later, print this out and keep it handy!
Feature articles:
Leverage Community Events
Think about what annual spring and summer activities your town sponsors and create a promotion around it. For example,
Partner with Complementary Businesses
As a small business owner, you can make greater sales strides by teaming up with other small businesses. For example, a professional coach, make-up artist, professional organizer, nutritionist, hairdresser, personal trainer, personal chef and fashion expert could join forces and co-market a “Life Makeover” seminar. Each could speak for approximately 45 minutes about their expertise and how participants can reach their personal best. What's more, now you have seven additional customer databases
Create a spring and summer promotion. They can be the same; although, if possible, I recommend two different promotions. More activity tends to create more urgency. I categorize spring as late March through late May and summer as early June through the first week of September. The idea behind your promotion is to reach your customer before they begin their "emotional" summer vacation. Most of us still have to work, but in some fashion we tend to take an emotional vacation June through early September. The key to any promotion is to create a unique offering, something you've never offered your customers and that your customers haven't seen from your competitors. Compound your promotion's potential for success by including a late May end date, adding to the urgency. Then let a week, no more than two, pass, and launch your summer promotion early June.
As the seasons change, you need to consider how your customers perceive your products and services. They may inappropriately categorize your products or services as “off season,” diminishing your sales. Instead, take control of your sales messages and position your solutions to match the time of year.
Sharron Senter is a New England-based marketing consultant, speaker, writer and founder of Senter & Associates, a marketing communications firm that helps small businesses deploy low-cost online and offline marketing strategies. Sharron is best known for her free weekly emailed marketing tips, found at http://www.sharronsenter.com. She’s also the author of the Small Biz Survival report series that illustrates affordable ways to grow a small business.
Oh, those acronyms . . . how often have you started to read an article or an explanation of something, and been so confused by the use of acronyms that you don't recognize, that the article was useless to you? No where is that kind of presumptive writing more aggravating than in the world of new entrepreneurs and Internet users. I'm sure the writers think it makes their writing sound more "edgy," their opinion more informed, and their wisdom beyond reproach. In fact, it actually sounds a bit pompous, don't you think? Well, author Azam Corry has written an article to get you past some of the more common Internet marketing acronyms to help you navigate acronym-heavy writing to get maximum benefit from articles intended to help you understand the complex world of Internet marketing for your business.
"Essential Internet Marketing Acronyms Explained"
By Azam Corry
If you're new to Internet marketing, the many acronyms and abbreviations often used in discussions on the subject can be
confusing. To help you get up to speed quickly, here are the meanings of the most important:
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange - A universally recognized set of digital codes that represent each
of the letters, punctuation marks, and other symbols you can type on your computer. What people usually mean by "plain text."
ASP - Application Service Provider - Company that offers access to software applications and related services over a network or
the Internet.
B2B - Business to Business - Refers to trade between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers
B2C - Business to Consumer - Refers to businesses selling products or services to end-user consumers.
CGI - Common Gateway Interface - A way web servers pass information to and from application programs (to process forms
for example). CGI programs or "scripts" can be written in several programming languages, including C, C++, Java and Perl.
CPA - Cost Per Action - Cost to an advertiser for each visitor that takes a specific action in response to an ad, such as
subscribing to an ezine, requesting a free trial, or making a purchase. Also used to describe advertising employing this model.
CPC - Cost Per Click - Cost to an advertiser for each click on a promotional link by a site visitor or newsletter reader. Also
used to describe advertising employing this model.
CPL - Cost Per Lead - Advertising expenditure required to obtain each new sales lead.
CPM - Cost Per Thousand - The amount charged per thousand impressions (showings) of an ad ("M" is the Roman numeral for
1000). Whilst websites sell ad impressions in blocks of 1000, with newsletters the number of subscribers determines the final
price. Also used to describe advertising employing this model.
CPS - Cost Per Sale - Advertising expenditure divided by sales generated to determine the cost to make each sale; or the
commission payable for each sale generated by an affiliate.
CR - Conversion Rate/ Ratio - The percentage of respondents to an ad, or readers of a sales message that complete the action
desired (usually making a purchase, but can also be subscribing to a newsletter, for example).
CRM - Customer Relationship Management - Improving interaction with customers through better understanding, with the aim of
increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty (thus increasing profits).
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets - Used to globally define how elements in a Web page are displayed instead of relying on HTML
code in the page. Makes designs more flexible and reduces HTML file sizes.
CTR - Click-Through Rate/ Ratio - The percentage of website visitors or newsletter readers who click on a particular link.
Used to measure response to ads or sales messages.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - Often used as the title of a page on websites that answers commonly asked questions about a product or service.
FFA - Free-For-All Links - Web pages that allow anyone to add a link back to their own website, usually in exchange for accepting
promotional messages from the FFA page owner.
PFI - Pay For Inclusion - Paying to have web pages included in a search engine's database and regularly updated.
PPA - Pay-Per-Action - Affiliate commissions where a set amount is paid for generating a specific action, such as taking a free
trial or subscribing to an ezine. PPL, PPC and PPS are usually considered as PPA.
PPI - Pay Per Impression - Where an advertiser pays for each display (impression) of their advertisement (usually a banner).
PPL - Pay-Per-Lead - Where a commission is paid for each sales lead generated by an affiliate. A "lead" is usually defined as
somebody who signs up for a free trial, or requests further information, etc.
PPC - Pay Per Click - Ad sales or affiliate commissions where a set amount is paid for each click on a promotional link by a
consumer.
PPCSE - Pay Per Click Search Engine - A search engine where the results are composed of advertisers who pay a fee for each click on their listing. Using a bidding system, the advertiser willing to pay the most is ranked highest.
PPS - Pay-Per-Sale - Where a commission is paid for each sale generated by an affiliate. The commission is usually a percentage
of the sale, although sometimes it's a fixed amount.
ROI - Return on investment - How much profit is made after advertising and other costs have been subtracted. A measure of
how successful a marketing campaign is in terms of the returns on money spent.
RON - Run Of Network - Where ads (usually CPM banners) are shown (rotated) across the pages of the entire network of sites owned by a company, or controlled by a particular advertising network. Cheaper than only having the ad appear on selected sites.
ROS - Run Of Site - Where ads are rotated across the pages of a single site. Cheaper than only having the ad appear on selected
pages.
SE - Search Engine - A searchable database of pages on the Web. Different from an Index (like Yahoo) in that pages are not
reviewed by a human editor before inclusion.
SEM - Search Engine Marketing - Similar to SEO (below), and sometimes used to emphasize that generating quality targeted
traffic is of greater importance than simply obtaining high rankings. Can also include PPCSEs and other search engine
advertising.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization - The process of optimizing web pages to achieve high rankings in the search results of a search engine, in order to attract more visitors.
SEP - Search Engine Positioning - Getting your page listed on the search engine results page. Similar to SEO.
SERP - Search Engine Results Page - The page of listings displayed upon completion of a search at a search engine.
SSI - Server Side Include - A way for a web server to include variable values and information from an external source into a
web page as it is requested by the browser. Uses include automatic display of data like the Last Modified date of the
page, or storing common page elements in their own files, enabling site-wide updates by modifying a single file.
USP - Unique Selling Proposition - The reason why somebody should buy from you and not your competition. The unique benefits
that your products or services offer consumers. What it is that makes you special, different.
I suggest you print this article out and keep it somewhere handy. Refer to it whenever you're not quite sure what something stands
for, and before you know it you'll be an old hand!
© 2003 Azam Corry. "Do it Better. Do it Faster. Do it Right!"
Online since 1998, Azam Corry helps marketers succeed. Get Free Guides, Tools & Web Marketing Resources at: http://NowSell.com/?a Speed profits with resale rights ebooks: http://eBookSaver.com/?a
Creative Site-ings:
Funny . . . and relevant:
The Funny: The prospective father-in-law asked, "Young man, can you support a family?"
The surprised groom-to-be replied, "Well, no. I was just planning to support your daughter. The rest of you will have to fend for yourselves."
The Relevance: Obviously this poor young man suffers from a serious case of tunnel vision. And sometimes new business owners do too. Just as our young bridegroom was blissfully so oblivious to the fact that their may be a family to support in his future that he missed the point of his father-in-law's question, entrepreneurs who jump in unprepared may also miss the big picture and their opportunity to succeed in the process.
Realize that starting your business is only the beginning of a years' long (or sometimes life long) project . . . a project that will take many more dollars than your initial investment, much more planning as it naturally grows and evolves, a serious amount of time and effort to promote and market, and an almost singular dedication if it's to succeed. So don't just plan to get your business started -- plan to keep it going forward. Like the bridegroom with blinders on who will love his future family more than he could ever have imagined on his wedding day, regardless of what he has to go without throughout the years . . . you too will come to cherish your business when you've had to work it day and night from the bottom up, when you've struggled to feed it what it needs to grow, and paid attention to every little detail of its growth. Having a business is very much like having a child . . . it needs you to nurture it, support it, encourage it, develop its potential, take pride in it, and lovingly raise it until one day it finally begins to take care of you. And THAT is how a "family business" is born.
Holly Jo West, Kiddie ID -- Customized Child identification cards, as seen on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Child Safety Identification kits, including DNA, fingerprint and ID card kits.
Keith Davies, Top Executive Greetings -- Specially designed contemporary greeting cards for corporate use.
*************************************************************
That's all for this month, but please visit (and shop) at our online shopping district whenever you're looking for products or services. Support our member small businesses. They're a wonderful group of people! www.asmallbusinessdirectory.com
-- Carol
^j^
SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE: To add a new email address or remove your email address from this newsletter, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creativepublicity and update your groups account.
FEEDBACK: Talk to us! Tell us how you feel about our newsletter, about our website, about our concept of home and small business owners working together to build community. And if there's anything you want us to look into, let us know. Hit your "Reply to Author" button to send your questions and your feedback.
Articles in "TheTown Crier" are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without express permission of Creative Enterprises.
Offline 
Send Email