There's a reason Amazon has been able to become so successful so fast. They know how to get the edge on their competition and use the cloud to their advantage. With net sales rocketing 41% last year alone to a tasty $41 billion, entrepreneurs could certainly find worse organizations to model themselves after. What is the real secret to Amazon's success?
News is spreading of a new, even hotter real estate market rebound with areas like Miami even breaking the records achieved during the bubble years. However, there are three hotter things to invest in today that could deliver an even better ROI...
Internet Domain Names
Domain name appraisals have become a growing business over the last decade. When you consider how web domain names are valued, you may ask whether it is worth paying for a domain name appraisal and what is the best way to avoid overpaying for a domain name?
Domain name appraising is definitely more of an art than a science. More than one way exists to appraise a domain name and a range of factors can be used to determine its value, including name length, marketability, brand recognition, industry strength, revenue, traffic, and search engine popularity as well as how a domain name compares with other recent sales. However, what a domain name is worth to one person is often far different to what the next person in line may be willing to pay for it. In fact, few other products out there vary so widely in value, with web domain names ranging from a few dollars to millions.
If you are flipping domain names for profit, it may be a good move to invest in domain name appraisals or at least to educate yourself better on how they are valued. Those who want to launch new ventures with a bang and enjoy healthy amounts of traffic from day one may also benefit from further research. For most, however, it is a matter of what an individual domain name is worth to you and your brand. For example, if you made the mistake of creating other branding materials, registering a business name, and acquiring a toll free vanity number only to discover the matching domain name is taken, then you may really need it and have to be willing to pay a significant amount for it. Whereas if having a certain web domain name is just a nice addition or preference, then you obviously are not under the same pressure.
There is quite a bit of strategy that goes into getting the best deal on a web domain name, and making one small mistake at the beginning could result in the owner skyrocketing his demands. So before you begin any negotiations or show any interest in a domain name that is already taken, it is wise to consult a professional service that offers web domain negotiation so you can be sure to get the best possible deal.
As with anything done well, your business success will generate people who want to feed off or piggyback on your success. This situation is especially true for web domain names and business phone numbers.
On one hand, you certainly can’t blame competitors for maximizing their own marketing ROI with this smart strategy. But it can be extremely frustrating and may mean losing potential deals and clients despite all of your hard work and dedication to growing your organization. Fortunately, you have the ability to stop the situation before it even begins!
First, you must understand how competitors can feed off your business phone number. Just as with having similar Internet domain names, other businesses can feed off your advertising, reputation, and marketing budget by acquiring similar business phone numbers to yours. For numeric numbers, this situation could mean obtaining similar numbers that could be incorrectly dialed. In terms of vanity numbers, competitors may try getting their hands on the same vanity numbers with different prefixes since dialing the wrong prefix is a common mistake by customers trying to call you, especially if you do not have the 800 number version. Worse, if you have a well known company name, but you do not have the matching vanity number that spells out your name, competitors might acquire it and be able to take large amounts of prospects and even current customers who were actually attempting to call your business phone number.
To protect yourself, begin by making sure you have a unified brand, including an easily recognizable vanity number. Then just as with reserving a domain name for your website, try to reserve as many variations of your business phone number as you can. Start with the 800, 888, 877, 866 and 855 prefixes and then move on to any other obvious combinations.
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With the surge in Internet marketing and the ability to launch virtual companies overnight without a massive budget, many entrepreneurs and business owners are sadly overlooking some of the basics and their branding in particular.
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Branding is still more important than ever regardless of what industry you are in, whether you will have a local brick and mortar presence, and the size of your operation. When branding is mentioned, most people immediately think of logos and slogans; however, web domain names and 800 vanity numbers are just as important.
In fact, 800 vanity numbers could actually be the most essential and powerful part of your organization’s branding. It is no secret that some of the most successful, industry dominating companies right now have gained their influence and are enjoying such lofty revenues due to their 800 vanity numbers alone. But even if your goals aren’t that big, the bottom line is that anchoring your brand with a premium 800 vanity number will have a positive compounding effect on all areas of your business, resulting in better ROI and superior profit margins.
With a winning 800 vanity number as part of your core branding, your company will immediately benefit from increased credibility and recognition, which translates not only to more volume and customers seeking you out, but it makes closing deals a breeze. Of course, you can launch marketing campaigns without an 800 vanity number; you may even see some response although it is doubtful it will be anywhere near as successful as if you had one. The advantages of using toll free numbers and the impact they can have on advertising effectiveness are well known. So with premium vanity numbers available from as little $19 a month that will likely result in double digit improvements in response rates to your marketing, why would you even consider launching without one?
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It is common knowledge that many benefits result from having multiple web domain names. And it is just as important to have multiple business phone lines.
We are not just talking about multiple in-office lines so you can handle multiple phone calls simultaneously. What is more critical is having business phone lines that appeal to different prospects and target markets and that can be used to maximize marketing ROI.
Without doubt, vanity numbers for your business phone lines are now one of the most powerful and important branding and marketing tools available to businesses today. They can be used to separate your business from the pack, add credibility, test marketing strategies, and monitor metrics. However, one vanity number just isn’t enough. If you can acquire the generic vanity number for your industry for your business phone lines, that is great. However, it is not always possible. Regardless of whether you have this number or not, your company will benefit from niche marketing as well, no matter whether you are a new start up trying to cut out a slice of the pie for yourself or even a largest industry dominating conglomerations. Don’t believe it? Just look at the likes of insurance giant Geico, undoubtedly one of the most well known companies in America, yet it still continues to use the power of niche marketing.
By obtaining multiple vanity numbers for your business phone lines, you can better reach your ideal customers and expand your grip on the market. For example, you may want to hone in and make a name for yourself in one segment of the industry so you can block out the competition. Or perhaps there is currently a demand for speed in your industry, so obtaining a vanity number with the word "fast" in it can portray you as the most attractive option to do business with. Look at your current and future marketing strategies and analyze where you can make a big difference by having additional business phone lines.
If your customers can’t find you, they won’t be able to acquire your products or services even if they so desire. This problem applies equally to potential prospects and existing or past customers. Without an easy-to-remember phone number, it is also much more difficult to generate word-of-mouth advertising and referrals.
Sure you can list your business in the Yellow Pages and various online directories, but what we are talking about is an easy-to-remember number that can be memorized in a few seconds and is easily recognized as being yours. Smart business owners know how important it is to lock in winning vanity phone numbers that unify their branding and tie together their web domain names and company names from the start.
Just having a great toll free phone number is no use if no one knows about it, so make sure to include your vanity number on all of your marketing pieces as well as all communications with the public. Take a minute and think about your own shopping and referral habits. No doubt you have seen thousands of infomercials on TV, hundreds of billboards and display ads, and have received countless direct mail pieces. Often even may have been interested in what was being offered, but if you didn’t have the time to write down the phone number, you likely ended up going with another company for your needs, one that was easier to call. When it comes to referrals, you may often enjoy helping others by giving them contact numbers for companies and services that can help them. However, if you don’t remember the number off the top of your head and you can’t find it in your wallet or phone within a couple of seconds, the opportunity usually ends there. Referrals and word-of-mouth advertising are the most profitable forms of marketing; plan ahead for them. Isn’t it worth making sure you have a phone number that promotes for you?
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Without a strong brand image and a unified brand, your business does not have a solid foundation to grow on. We all know the story of The Three Little Pigs and what happened to the homes made out of straw and sticks! Core to building a solid brand is making sure your Internet domain name, toll free vanity number, and business name all match and blend together. If they are different, you will find that you are losing a lot of business from customers who can’t find you and come across your competition instead.
Not having a domain name that matches your business name can be an easy mistake for new entrepreneurs and small business start ups. However, it can also be an extremely expensive one, not only from having to secure different Internet domain names, or toll free numbers, or changing your business name, but also in terms of new research that will need to be done and redrafting marketing campaigns.
So before you go too deep into the planning stage of a new venture or spinning off a new division, make sure you can reserve and secure the appropriate matching business name, vanity number, and Internet domain names. Just making sure that they are available isn’t enough. Hundreds of new businesses and websites are created each day. Lock in your Internet domain name early if you want to succeed.
Another factor that is often overlooked by those rushing to register new companies and web domain names is checking to see whether your proposed business name is in use in another state or has been used recently. If the name has been taken, you may want to spend time checking out the reputation of that company name. The last thing you want is to secure a new Internet domain name and launch a business only to find that one with a similar name was just shut down for fraud!
It is no secret that to survive and succeed in the business world today you must become efficient at testing marketing strategy. Split testing is the best way to compare quickly the advertising effectiveness of different factors of your campaigns. Direct marketing via direct mail and print advertising is one way to achieve split testing and can be incredibly effective and accurate using blocks of toll free numbers to pinpoint the successes and issues with your marketing campaigns. Now with most businesses extensively marketing online, it is also essential to test your Internet advertising campaigns before committing to one channel or strategy.
It is no secret that to survive and succeed in the business world today you must become efficient at testing marketing strategy. Split testing is the best way to compare quickly the advertising effectiveness of different factors of your campaigns. Direct marketing via direct mail and print advertising is one way to achieve split testing and can be incredibly effective and accurate using blocks of toll free numbers to pinpoint the successes and issues with your marketing campaigns. Now with most businesses extensively marketing online, it is also essential to test your Internet advertising campaigns before committing to one channel or strategy.
