Young web savvy business executives are viewing business cards as being somewhat a waste of time.  If you have a smart phone, e-mail, and a LinkedIn account, why even bother carrying them.

About 85 million people manage their professional networks with LinkedIn. Some 77 million smartphone users have downloaded the Bump app, which allows them to bump their phones together and instantly exchange contact information.

You can find the full article on the link below…

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-business-cards-20120316,0,7418219.story

Here is an interesting article I came across the other day written by Thor Olavsrud on cio.com.

The tag paragraph for the article reads as followings:

Criminals are increasingly seeking to hijack the accounts of business owners and executives to initiate fraudulent wire transfers that can cost organizations a fortune. Here are eight steps you can take to defend your organization against such attacks.

The following is a summary of the 8 Tips:

1. Talk to your financial institution.
2. Perform regular security audits and risk assessments.
3. Install an anti-virus solution on your computers and network and keep it completely updated.
4. Dedicate a computer for financial transactions and only use it for financial transactions.
5. Segregate responsibility for initiating wires from the responsibility for authorizing them, and ensure that each party uses different computers with different authorization credentials.
6. Keep a suspicious mind when you receive email that asks you to click on a link, open an attachment or that seeks your credentials-even if it’s from a trusted source like your bank.
7. Be careful when following links on social networking sites or when asked to give information over the phone.
8. Review your online banking records on a daily basis.

The article goes on and explains what you can do if you think you have been compromised.

For the full article:  http://www.cio.com/article/700354/8_Tips_to_Defend_Against_Online_Financial_Fraud_Threats?page=2&taxonomyId=3089

If a client would answer, “I don’t really know, we just need one, (which does happen), “then I would advise them to do some research and get back with me before we move forward. I continue to tell them, it is not that we do not want their business; it is that I do not want to waste their time and money. Defining a purpose for a website is as important as picking a domain name.

This article will help explain the different directions your website can take as far as the purpose of the site:

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/website-marketing-strategy.html

Our Campaign Planning services actually encompass all of the other services that we offer here. Whether we perform the services for you or just help you develop a plan, we can provide you with the consulting you need to attack any Internet Marketing you want to tackle. Before you get started, we ask that you do a little bit of homework. Grab a cup of coffee (tea, water, whatever) and review our Top Ten list for getting started with Internet Marketing.

1. Establish a reasonable and measurable goal for the plan - Although we all would like to become instant millionaires, you need to attempt that long term goal in segments. Realistic planning will help you achieve short term goals and help work towards longer goals in a realistic fashion.
2. Determine when the plan will expire - You should always have an ending date for your campaigns. This if for a few reasons, but the main reason so that you know when you can review your efforts to determine if you campaign was successful or not.
3. Determine your budget and stick to it - Common sense. If something new comes up during the integration of your campaign, just save it for the next so that you do not corrupt your results.
4. Find someone who has been through a similar plan - Information is always king, and the more you know before you begin the better.
5. Learn from others - Ask questions (or do some research) to find out what has worked for others and what has not worked.
6. Keep it dynamic, adjustments may need to be made - If it does not take any additional funds, then making changes to your plan is fine. Just make sure that you note what changes were made and why.
7. Always Follow-up and Follow-through - It is imperative that you monitor the progress of your campaign, and make sure that you respond to any requests it may generate. Within your plan, you should include those items to monitor and how to respond to potential client requests.
8. Don’t set it and forget it - If you just let your campaign fly and hope for results without monitoring what is going on, you might as well just not invest into the campaign.
9. If it fails, learn from your mistakes - if you do not get your expected results, and you are monitoring what is taking place, you will know what to fix in future campaigns.
10. Plan on trying it again - The Internet is a dynamic (always changing) entity, so Internet Marketing should be dynamic and ongoing. You can never have too many fans on your Facebook page, too many contacts in your e-mail lists, or too many visitors to your website. So Always plan on repeating your efforts in the future.

http://www.spellbrand.com/five-tips-for-maintaining-customer-relationships

The article covers the areas of meeting needs, pleasant interactions, creating pleasing environments, putting yourself out there, and maintaining your brand. How people think of your brand is based mainly on your customer relationships. Everyone knows the power of word-of-mouth advertising for a business and the impact that it can have. By keeping unpleasant incidents to a minimum and making sure the world knows that you think their business is important to you, you will easily maintain a solid customer base for the future of your business.

http://entrepreneurs.about.com/cs/beyondstartup/a/uc041003a.htm

These ten tips help you to define the project, evaluate service providers, know what experience you should be looking for, how to choose a vendor, review their samples, start small, coordinate payments, negotiate ownership of work, support when the project is done, and the ever important, get it in writing.

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/

The four stages they cover are: the Introduction Stage, the Growth Stage, the Maturity Stage, and the Decline stage. Each stage has the options that the business can take to ensure every moving part of the business is working in tandem to produce the desired results. By utilizing these steps and being aware of the life cycle of all of your products, you keep a firm grasp on the fluctuations of your business. By staying aware, the control of your products remains in your grasp instead of the whims of the consumer.

With a business plan, you clearly state for yourself and any employees exactly what your current state of affairs is and where your business needs to improve. It is the one-stop resource for your mission statement, budget, areas for improvement, and goals to keep your business on track. This article from allbusiness.com lays out for you ten simple tips to get your business moving in the right direction and staying there:

http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning-structures/business-plans/437-1.html

By utilizing the steps provided, you will be able to ensure that your business keeps its’ eye on the competition, keeps customers in mind, prepares for unexpected changes, and keeps it’s’ eye on the prize of a prosperous tomorrow.

Here is yet another great article for you to review about building a brand on Facebook. It is definitely worth the look.

To summarize the article:

1. Develop Custom Tabs for Custom Ads

2. Don’t Let New Users Land on the Wall

3. Create a Unique Page Image

4. Integrate Applications To Increase Engagement

5. Join the Conversation, It’s Not Optional Anymore

6. Publish Interesting and Relevant Content

7. Repost Comments By Other Users

8. Update Regularly!

9. Post and Tag Users in Photos and Videos

10. Leverage the Power of Facebook Events

For the complete article…

The Internet is such a dynamic network that it changes almost as fast as it grows and in most cases when you come across a great article to help you with some of our marketing issues it is probably already out of date. However, we found this blog post to be a great little piece that information that will provide you with 21 creative ways you can increase your fan base.

Take a look at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/21-creative-ways-to-increase-your-facebook-fanbase/

Within this article there are six very simple common sense tips to get started growing your Facebook group, for example:

Tip # 2. Friends Build Friends – The best way to get people to join your group is through personal invitation – so get busy inviting your friends who are already in Facebook. Your friends’ friends will then notice that they joined a new group and may be interested in checking out the group.

This is something we do here at eYourNews.com and DNS Technology Consultants, Inc. every time we start a new Facebook page. In fact, all of our staff becomes fans of the page then recommends it to all of their friends, you will be amazed how quickly your followers will begin to grow.

For all of the tips, please review the following article:

http://11marketing.com/blog/?p=10

One tip on avoiding your messages being categorized as spam, is the avoidance of using certain key words or phrases within your messages, here is why:

Spam filters perform regular tests on mail messages to determine if they are spam or not. Most of them work on a point system, so that the occurrence of just one “spam phrase” probably will not trigger rejection. But if your points are too high, your message will get blocked, even if well designed and formatted.

So we have found this list of 200+ keywords and phrases to avoid within your e-mail messages.

http://blog.sendblaster.com/2009/10/19/200-spam-words-and-phrases-to-avoid-in-your-email-newsletters/

If I was sitting in a consultation meeting, and had a client ask this question, I would have to consider what the actual campaign plan was. What is the objective of the plan, and who is the target market for the plan?

For example: Let’s look at promoting a bridal show, posing the question, should we run an ad in the local paper. Answer is, yes, if the budget supports it. If you have inquired about any advertising programs with newspapers, you are well aware that some charges can become quite expensive; but, for a bridal show, there is a section of the target market that still reads the newspapers. This would be the mothers and the grandmothers of the bride. Would the bride read the ad herself, probably not, but would probably be told about it from the others.

Now, if you are considering, “I have about $1000.00 to promote this event, advertise in newsprint or on the Internet.” I would say, go with the Internet. Your main target market is the bride. Brides today retrieve their information from the Internet, and you advertisement dollars will stretch further by implementing some kind of event promotion on the Internet.

However, consider writing a letter to the editor about a related topic, and within your letter (or article) include something about your event. Chances are, they may print it and you would get some free advertising to still try to get the information out to Mom and Grandma.

Now let’s look at another example: A community event. Something related to the holidays maybe. Here you should 100% consider print advertising, especially if it is for a small town or community. Here is one thing we would recommend though, have a web presence for the event. On the website, have detailed information for the event and some items to attacked and keep visitors. Now, in your print advertising always reference the website. Something with, “For more information, please visit us at http://”

So in short, is Newspaper Advertising dead? No, and probably will never be since that is how they receive the funds to produce the papers.

1. Avoid putting “$$$” in your subject or your messages. Many people do not like to receive spam e-mail messages. They rely on their e-mail spam filters to block out some unwanted messages. These spam filters are programmed to search through e-mail messages and subject for certain key words or phrases one of which is $$$. So, it is good practice to avoid this whenever possible. Especially if you would like your message to get through to all of your recipients.
2. Do not use Flash in your messages. There are some articles on the Internet that claim you can enhance your e-mail marketing by sending Flash or Flash videos. This in fact is false. After doing some more research I have found the following: “You will experience compatibility issues along with security warning issues on most e-mail clients. If you want to include a movie you can include a screen capture of the movie and then have the movie launch in their browser once they click on the images.
3. Do not use Javascript in your message. The same with Flash, Javascript will cause compatibility issues along with security warning issues. Leave the Javascript where it is supposed to be, on web pages.
4. Do not use Forms in your messages. Forms within e-mail messages can trigger compatibility and security warnings as well. Is it really worth losing some members of your list by adding a form to your e-mail messages? Again, leave this on your website and have a link within your e-mail.
5. Do not use Background Images in your messages. Some e-mail clients will not display background images; therefore, try to use a layout that does not require this.
6. Be cautious with background colors. The same with background images, background colors will not be displayed either. You need to put these in a wrapping div in order for them to show up correctly.
7. Avoid CC’ing everybody. It is poor practice to display all of the e-mail messages you are sending out your message to within the message. If you are going to do a professional campaign, use a service that will send out the messages individually and has tracking on the messages.
8. Do not send too often (or not enough). If you send out a message to your list constantly, people will request to be removed from the list since you are nagging them too much; however, if you do not send out often enough, they will forget that they opt-in to be on the list. You need to find a happy medium and try to stick to your schedule.
9. Do not send large images. Large images will take forever to be sent out through e-mail. The same rules that apply to your website design also apply to e-mail messages. Keep the images small in size.
10. Do not send a novel. You have about 15 seconds to keep your point across to your customer. Don’t send out a novel, they will not read it and you will just be wasting your time.

Adding a little bit of personalization to your marketing campaigns can make your bulk e-mailings become more personal and more likely to be read by your recipients. If you consider, people receive a lot of spam e-mail, but they weed out those messages that are sent to them personally creating a campaign that appears to be a personal message from your company will go further than having a mass advertisement that is blasted out to your customers.

Another tip would be to add their name to the subject of the message if possible as well. If you were to send the message with a subject like, “Shawn, I have something just for you”, they would be more likely to open and read your e-mail instead of something like “July’s specials”.

In a world where we obtain our information faster and faster, it will pay off in the long run if you stop and take a few extra moments to send a personalized message.

Recap:

1. Be sure to collect first and last name with your e-mail address.
2. Try to personalize messages that are sent out in bulk e-mails.

If possible, personalize the subject of the message.