Blitz Ezine # 236 April 5th, 2004

Note: This is an archived issue. Some links and/or content may be outdated

The Blitz-Promotions News Letter
Issue no. 236, April 5th, 2004

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Blitz Comments
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Hopefully everyone remembered to set their clocks ahead an hour yesterday. It seems that every time I Spring forward it takes me a week to get readjusted... maybe it's just me.

We've just finished work on our blog - make sure to take a peek at it.

http://smallbusinesspromotions.gnomeblogs.com/

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In this Issue
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- Paying for advertising.
- Backing it up.
- The importance of your USP.

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Food for thought
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The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
Theodore Rubin

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Buying Traffic
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If you haven't heard it mentioned before, now is the time to start thinking about reinvesting some of your profits into paid advertising. We talked about pay per clicks during the last couple of issues, but the same basic concept holds true here as well.

If you get more profits from the sales than you paid for the advertising, then it has been worthwhile. So how do we determine if it's profitable or not. Let's use an example.

1) We buy an ad in an ezine for four issues of an ezine. $100.00.
2) We pay to have a solo ad sent to a friends email list. $25.00.
3) We pay for a text link on a comprable site for three months. $500.00.
4) We buy a display ad in the local paper for 5 weekends. $400.00

You must be able to track the following.

Clicks from each of the ads.
We must be able to track the sales from those clicks.

We've talked about tracking software - but how can we track offline advertising? There are a couple of different ways. 1) You can use an extension of your url - www.blitzpromotions.com/special 2) You can setup a redirect url just for your offline ads. Also we have figured that each of our ezine subscribers will bring us on average $4.00 of revenue / year.

This is our stats -

Sales (profits)- Ezine signups = total .
1) $15.00 - 5 ($20.00) = $35.00
2) $0.00 - 20 ($80.00) = $80.00
3) $220.00 - 5 ($20.00) = $240.00
4) $615.00 - 0 = $615.00

So which ad did the best? If you said ad number 2 you are correct - we tripled the amount we spent. Which ads will we advertise with again. 2 and 4. We would run 1 and 3 only if we were trying to figure out what went wrong. The MOST important thing is to track your sales.

So how can you find places to spend your money?

Think like your customer. Do a survey with some of your current customers and find out - what they like to read and do in their spare time. Then do some research to find ezines, sites that cater to them.

Find out what the ad rates are and ask for references from previous advertisers. Then take out an ad and track your results.

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Search Engine and Business News
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Yahoo comes out with web rank - very similar to page rank.
< Details > Please note that the toolbar beta program is filled up, but you can find out your web rank by visiting this page.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/webrank/

March 29th - Google changes how they display the results. Includes much more prominent froogle listings.

Ad Sense changes from Google -
http://adsense.sitesell.com/blitzpromotions.html

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Quick fixes - Backing It Up
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If you haven't backed up your computer lately - do it today - right now, while you're thinking about it. Details on how to back up your computer can be found at the links below.

http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/howto/story/0,24330,3345469,00.html

http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerstips/story/0,24330,2245044,00.html

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Guest Articles
Differentiate and Grow Rich:
The Importance of a Strong USP
Author: Eric Graham
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“With 50 other companies selling the same products and services, why should I do business with you rather than one of your competitors?”

The number of competitors you face as an online merchant
grows daily. If you can’t answer that one question, it’s
only a matter of time before you go out of business.

If you can answer that question and answer it clearly, communicating it to your prospective customers in everything you do, your road to eCommerce success is paved with gold!

Your USP or Unique Selling Proposition answers that most critical question. If you have studied business for very long you’ve probably read or heard about the importance of having a strong, clear USP. However, it doesn’t take much surfing online to see that few companies listen. Most know that they need a USP, they just don’t know how to develop one.

The process of developing your Unique Selling Proposition
is fairly simple (note that I didn’t say easy.) I conduct intensive on-site USP development workshops for my clients around the world. By doing these workshops I’ve discovered 4 critical steps to developing your USP.

First, study your competition. Search online for potential competitors. Pick the top 5 to 10 and try to determine their USP. Most will lack a clear USP, for these look for some of the features or services that they stress.

Now look for the gap in their products or services. What
area of the market could we better service?

Second, examine you own business. Sit down and brainstorm
with your staff possible USP concepts. Don’t judge the
ideas, just write them down. To stimulate thought and
ideas ask the following questions:

· What do we do the best?
· What do we do better than our competition?
· What awards have we won?
· What do our customers say about us?
· What praise do we often get from our customers?
· What celebrities or well know organizations endorse us?
What endorsements could we get?
· What does our product or service do better than anyone
else?
· What makes our business model different from our
competition? How could we make it different?
· What market category or niche could our industry better
service?

It also helps at this stage to interview and survey your current and past customers. Ask them why they bought from you rather than your competition? What do they want from a provider of your product or service? What’s important to them when making a buying decision? What feature or benefits do they value most or would like to see added to your product or service?

Third, begin to write down and crystallize your ideas.
Don’t worry about length at first, just write down the key points of your USP concept. Focus on the benefits to your customer of each concept. Develop a list of 5 to 10 possible USPs.

Show this list to your staff, friends, family and current customers. Get their input and suggestions and use these suggestions and comments to narrow your USP concept down to a single main differentiating concept.

Once you’ve settled on the most unique and compelling
feature of your product or business, begin to distill it
down to one paragraph that clearly communicates and sums up
why your customers should buy from you. Use this paragraph
on your website or in your print marketing materials where
you have more room to explain the unique benefits that you bring to your customers. However, it’s still too long to for an effective tag line or slogan.

You still need to distill your USP down to one or two
focused sentences that clearly and concisely communicate
the benefits of your USP to your customers. This statement should leave no question in your customers mind about what you do and what makes you different than your competition.

This USP statement will become your tagline or slogan. This process will take some time and your USP statement may require several revisions before you’re comfortable with the final draft.

Fourth, integrate your USP statement into everything you
do. Put it on every page of your website, on your
letterhead, in all of your advertising and marketing.
Communicate it to your employees, managers and staff. Let
it infuse into your corporate culture. Every time you talk
to your customers, employees or suppliers you should
mention this USP. You cannot just give lip service to your USP, you must live it and breath it! It must become a part of you.

Every product, business or service needs a USP that will
make it stand out from the competition. It’s up to you to discover or create this element of uniqueness.
Differentiate yourself, your business and your products
from your competition and watch your profits soar!

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Eric Graham is the owner and CEO of several successful
online and offline businesses. Recognized as one of the top authorities on eCommerce and Internet Marketing, Eric is a sought after speaker and consultant. He also publishes the eCommerce Mastery newsletter. Visit www.web-site-evaluations.com to sign up for a free subscription.

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Links you can use -
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Inspirational story about not giving up -
http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m=252234

Totally free image program that rivals many of the big names.

http://www.gimp.org/

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Fun and Games
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So, You Think A Gallon Of Gas Is Expensive?
This makes one think, and puts things in perspective.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ......... $10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ....... $ 9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 .............. $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 ......... $10 .00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 ............ $33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ............ $178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 ........... $123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ................. $25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ................... $84.48 per gallon
and this is the REAL KICKER......
Evian water 9 oz for $1.49 ........ $21.19 per gallon.
$21.19 FOR WATER! .... and the buyers don't
even know the source.

So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car
doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, or Heaven
forbid, PEPTO BISMOL or NYQUIL!!!!

Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next
trip to the pump!!!!!!!!!!!

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Reviews
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Review - 1 - Books

Another fantasy / sci fi book that we enjoyed. Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand. You can find it at Amazon or your local bookstore.

Review - 2 - Useless Addiction

Don't check this out unless you have some time to waste. The latest time waster we installed is called Zuma. It's from PopCap games and you can find a free download at their site.

http://www.popcap.com

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Useful links to our site
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Find more useful promotion and design articles here -
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/articleindex.htm

Check out our archives for issues you may have missed.
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/ezinearchives.htm

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Next Issues
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May - Increasing your ROI
June - Increasing your profits - decreasing your overhead.
July - Increasing your average sale.
August - Getting ready for the holidays.

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Final Thoughts
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Tim and Lisa Hamblin
Tisa Enterprises
PO Box 221
Hazard KY 41702
http://www.blitzpromotions.com
http://www.crochetnmore.com
http://www.webpageplanner.com
http://www.ineedlinks.com