David Nour is the thought leader on relationship economics, the quantifiable value of business relationships. The Nour Group, Inc. helps organizations drive growth through unique return on their strategic relationships.

By now, you have a robust profile on LinkedIn, you tweet several times a day with hashtags, you have a Facebook Page, several videos on YouTube, and you’ve even created several clever boards on Pinterest. You attend a handful of networking events every month, and you venture out to interesting events like SXSW a couple of times every year. But after all that, how do you build your social circle and influential contacts in key centers of influence?

How do you maintain, nurture, and ideally, bridge the gap between relationship creation and relationship capitalization? How do you turn friends and followers into active, interested social currency. How do you foster engagement to create valuable, lasting relationships?

Well, it has to do with the evolution of our on- and off-line business relationships. How do our business relationships evolve, why do we screw some up, and how can we repair them? Why do some partner, client, investor, supplier or even colleague relationships tend to accelerate naturally, while others fizzle and never fully materialize as you had hoped?

Quite simply, the manner in which we build business relationships has evolved. Find out how to keep the pace.

Initial Contact
You meet someone or, ideally, are referred through a trusted introduction. Tossing an unsolicited email over the wall is a losing proposition. Online and in-person relationships are getting more sophisticated, better protected and constantly pressured for efficiency and effectiveness.


The critical focus here is to add value in every interaction, to provoke, or to provide a contrarian perspective. In other words, if you want to elevate yourself above the noise, ensure that a person remembers your conversation. I recommend that you become well-read in a variety of topics, listen intently, question constantly, and capitalize on the value of brevity (aka Twitter etiquette). Finally, get to the point without pontificating.

Additional Interaction
If, during the initial contact, you made a strong, positive and value-centric impression, people will begin to seek you out. The conversation was impactful enough to warrant immediate action on their behalf.

Their follow-up email starts, “I left our visit excited about the conversation on X topic,” or “I enjoyed meeting you and discussing X technology.” The timeliness of their response should communicate that your interaction was a priority.

But what if the roles are reversed, and you’re the one following up? Here are my recommendations.

• Pre-Initial Contact: Research the event, the topic of discussion, potential attendees, industry trends, topical conversation starters and recent similar events. And get there early! If you’ve already been introduced online to the person you’re targeting, reinforce credibility by association. If you were engaged around an interesting topic, bring up a question to jump-start the next interaction.

• During the Event: Engage proactively, be present in each conversation, add value, don’t be a conversation hog, and don’t distribute business cards excessively. After speaking, immediately capture a couple of notes about the conversation. Be as diligent disengaging from conversations as you were proactive in initiating them. Finally, anticipate their needs; simply meeting their current or articulated needs is not enough. Don’t let them ask you for more.

• Immediately After: Send a brief follow-up note the same day, and include something of value, for example, a link to relevant data, a PDF of an article, a couple bullet points of interest, or an introduction to an influential relationship. Finally, proactively suggest a next step.Be interested but casual. Pace yourself — too much, too fast turns most people off. Be poignant, practical and pragmatic and always give them options, for example, “Can we meet or Skype next Tuesday or Thursday at these times? If next week is bad for you, let me know what the following week looks like on your calendar.”

• If the person’s business stature is higher, position yourself as a peer and don’t get delegated to others down the food chain. If the business stature is same or lower, be humble and make time. Most importantly, be candid: “Apologies in advance. I travel extensively, so please don’t take my unavailability as a lack of interest — it’s simply a lack of immediate bandwidth.”

• A Week Later: If you haven’t heard anything in a week, call and email to make sure they received your follow-up. Be professional and polished, and remember to add value at every interaction.If you don’t get any response, ask yourself whether you could have done anything differently. If you didn’t add sufficient value in your early interactions, pestering them won’t do much good. Move on and focus on working with, helping and adding value to relevant, responsive contacts.
  
  

Additional best practices: Demonstrate unquestionable integrity, have pride in the relationship, garner a personal passion to work together, and earn a person’s vested interest in the long-term viability of the relationship.

Never lose sight of the fact that your performance, execution and results rely on fostering relationships. Lack thereof will dilute your credibility and relevance. Remain competent within your industry and among your peers, and the resulting value will match the effort.

Social networks are flooded with potential customers. Therefore, today’s companies need to foster a socially engaged culture within company walls.

A business becomes more inherently social by going beyond the corporate Twitter account and Facebook Page. A social business engages the entire company, from CEO to executive assistant. Take advantage of the opportunity to foster your company’s internal community and teach valuable social media skills as the space rapidly grows and evolves. But how do you get everyone on board?

1. Give Interactive Tutorials


It’s hard to get people to tweet consistently when they don’t understand what an @mention is. By hosting a few interactive Facebook and/or Twitter tutorials across the company, you can provide a valuable service to your coworkers, both in and out of the office.

Have everyone bring laptops and phones to the session to keep it interactive. Try setting tasks at the beginning of the session, such as creating a special tutorial hashtag, and then ask everyone to tweet photos of the tutorial.

2. Focus on Fun Ways to Use Twitter

Show your employees how to use a hashtag that they can relate to. For example, follow funny Twitter commentary while watching an episode of The Bachelor. Or show the foodies on your team curated lists of food truck Twitter accounts and how to see where they are parked.

Provide examples that demonstrate how Twitter can organize information and news for just about any job or industry. Once they learn the basic tools and creative uses of social media, they will naturally see how they can gather more information applicable to their jobs as well.

3. Find Influencers Within the Company

Chances are you already have several employees that love social media, whether they’re Pinterest fanatics or live tweet their entire weekends. Recognize these employees internally for their mastery of social media by highlighting their content. For example, the team member with the most active Instagram account could be in charge of documenting your company’s product launch party.

Once you start finding ways to feature and utilize the social media prowess of employees, more of the team will chime in and participate. Encourage the team to @mention the corporate Twitter feed when they find pertinent industry news and content. This will generate more content and a larger social media presence for the company as a whole.

It’s important that your internal experts feel their social skills and expertise are appreciated by the company. These people will naturally start helping and encouraging other employees to do the same.

4. Launch a Fun Contest or Internal Campaign

Once you’ve taught employees the basics and highlighted the company’s influencers, it’s time to get everyone involved in some straight-up fun. Try launching a contest: Record everyone’s Klout score and see who can improve hers the most within a month. Or announce an Instagram photo contest, in which the office chooses the winning photographs, and frames the winning entries as office art. Or host a company room on turntable.fm and vote on the company’s best DJ. That person could DJ the next office party.

Be sure to follow up with incentives and recognition, crucial aspects of any competition. Social media allows for a great deal of creativity, so take full advantage and set the contest up as a fun outlet for the company.

5. Engage

As you encourage your company to become more social media savvy, make sure to foster a sense of community. People want to learn information from social networks, but they also want to communicate with one another. Social media channels provide a way to do this outside the normal confines of cubicle culture, and can boost overall company moral by augmenting the experience of working together.

Occasionally highlight team members’ tweets, Facebook posts and content from the corporate accounts (with content, make sure to get permission). If someone has an especially funny or relevant tweet, draw attention to it. This activity not only shows employees and onlookers that team members are valued, but also personalizes and gives your brand authenticity. Plus, company employees will be more excited to share and listen to the company within social media channels.

6. Get creative!

The opportunities to infuse social behavior into your company only increase with engagement. You’ll be able to create more advanced tutorials, educate about emerging platforms, launch new initiatives that bring everyone closer together, and much more. Ask your employees what types of contests and initiatives they’d like to be a part of. Social media provides a company a way to have some fun at work, so make the most of it!

Convincing newbies to jump headfirst into social media can seem challenging, but by demonstrating value and communicating enthusiasm, your company will take off into social media stardom. If you explain how to use a social media channel, show its potential, and reward creative participation, you are well on your way to creating a company with social values built into its foundation.

Mae Karwowski runs social media strategy and oversees community management at Gilt City, a subsidiary of the Gilt Groupe. She also consults for several startups. 

The four marketing P (product, price, place and promotion) is important in developing the entire marketing process for your home based business or small business. The 4Ps will be discussed in details in the following points in order to ensure a good marketing plan is developed.

i) Product
There are several aspect that the business owner should take into consideration for the product or service provided in relation to the marketing strategy. The business owner have to consider the benefit for the consumer or customer if they purchase the product or service and detail research in this area is a must. The business owner have to think of creating a outstanding packaging that it could be separated from the competitors’ packaging. The business owner also have to consider the warranty use of the product and how to make the customer feel that they are staying in the comfortable zone after they buy your product.

ii) Price
The next important P is the pricing strategy, if you set the price for a product high you will be facing a great resistance in pursuing people to purchase your product, if you set the price for a product low you will generate a perception of low quality for the product. The business owner have to do some home works to find out what is the best price to charge in order to convince the customer that they have a perception that they are not buying an expensive product with the same product quality which the competitors are able to provide.

iii) Promotion
The business owner have to think on how to promote the product or service provided in order to generate great sales projection. The activities that the business owner would go through includes identify the type of advertising medium that is to be used, the marketing effort that is to be carried out, discuss about public relation, describe the promotional and the plan for using advertising specialties or premium items such as pencil, flower and so on.

iv) Place
The word place means by itself indicate that where your product should be sell at and where your customer can purchase your products. Most of the home based business or small business are selling their product through website, auction or direct mail order. For example, if you own a SEO company and where you sell your SEO product should be through online marketplace like forum, online classifieds, webcart and so on. Place is not determined as where the product originated but is best determined as where you should sell your product.

I long admired his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen and was in sheer awe of his natural instincts for what appeals to consumers. On the other hand I bristled at what I saw as his — and by extension Apple’s — occasionally capricious and even contradictory actions (App store products in or out, inability to get in front of product issues, antennae gate) and super-secretive nature.

Now, having finished the 600-plus page Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, I think I finally understand Steve Jobs. Like most of us, his personality had many sides. He could be aloof, super-intense, odd, gross, passionate, creative, driven, unfair, conciliatory and deeply introspective. He lived a rich and unique life.

Here is the highlighted interesting, surprising and relevant passages.

Don’t Wait
When the young Steve Jobs wanted to build something and needed a piece of equipment, he went straight to the source.

“He began by recalling that he had wanted to build a frequency counter when he was twelve, and he was able to look up Bill Hewlett, the founder of HP, in the phone book and call him to get parts.”

Make Your Own Reality
Steve Jobs learned early that when you don’t like how things are in your life or in your world, change them, either through action or sheer force of will.

“As Hoffman later lamented, “The reality distortion field can serve as a spur, but then reality itself hits.” – Joanna Hoffman, part of Apple’s early Macintosh team.

“I didn’t want to be a father, so I wasn’t,” Jobs later said, with only a touch of remorse in his voice.

Control Everything You Can
Steve Jobs was, to a certain degree, a hippie. However, unlike most free spirits of the 1960s-to-1970s love-in era, Jobs was a detail-oriented control freak.

“He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.”

Own Your Mistakes

Jobs could be harsh and even thoughtless. Perhaps nowhere was that more in evidence than with his first daughter. Still, as Jobs grew older and began to face mortality, he more readily admitted his mistakes.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was twenty-three and the way I handled that,” Jobs said.”

Know Yourself

While not always aware of how those around him were reacting to his appearance or demeanor, Jobs had no illusions about his own formidable intellectual skills.

“Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents.”

Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic
Jobs was a seeker, pursuing spiritual enlightenment and body purification throughout his life. He wasn’t a particularly religious person, but did not dismiss the existence or something beyond our earth-bound realm.

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.” — Steve Jobs

Don’t Hold Back
Apple’s founder was famous for his outbursts and sometimes over-emotional responses. In product development, things were often amazing or sh_t.

“He was an enlightened being who was cruel,” she recalled. “That’s a strange combination.”– former girlfriend and mother of Jobs’ first daughter, Chrisann Brennan

Surround Yourself with Brilliance
Whether he was willing to admit it or not, Steve Jobs could not do everything. Yes, he could have a huge impact on every product and marketing campaign, but he also knew that there were others in the world with skills he did not possess. Jobs’ early partnership with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak perfectly illustrated this fact. His early success with Wozniak provided the template for future collaborations.

“After a couple of months he was ready to test it. ‘I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters were displayed on the screen.’ It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal computer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front of them.”

Build a Team of A Players
Far too often, companies and managers settle for average employees. Steve Jobs recognized talent and decided that any conflict that might arise from a company full of “A”-level players would be counterbalanced by awesome output. He may have been right.

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players.”– Steve Jobs

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them,” Jobs later explained. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.”

Be Yourself
Steve Jobs was often so busy being himself that he had no idea how people saw him, especially in his early, dirty-hippie days.

“At meetings we had to look at his dirty feet. Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his colleagues.”—Mike Markkula, Apple’s first chairman.

Be Persuasive
While it’s true that early Steve Jobs was a somewhat smelly and unpleasant person to be around, this same Steve Jobs also trained himself to stare without blinking for long periods of time and found that he could persuade people to do the seemingly impossible.

“If it could save a person’s life, would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved per year.”

Show Others the Way
Jobs wasn’t truly a programmer or technologist, certainly not in the way that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is, yet he had an intuitive understanding for technology and design that ended up altering the world’s expectations for computers and, more importantly, consumer electronics.

“To be honest, we didn’t know what it meant for a computer to be ‘friendly’ until Steve told us.” — Terry Oyama, part of the early Macintosh design team.

Trust Your Instincts
I have, in my own career, navigated by gut on more than one occasion. Steve Jobs, though, had a deep and abiding belief in his own tastes and believed with utter certainty that if he liked something, the public would as well. He was almost invariably right.

“Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” — Steve Jobs

Take Risks
Throughout his career, Steve Jobs took chances, first with the launch of Apple, then in walking away from it and then returning in 1997. In an era when most companies were figuring out ways to diversify, Apple — under Job’s leadership — shed businesses and products, and focused on relatively few areas. He was also willing to steer the entire Apple ship (or at least some aspects of it) in a single direction if he thought it would generate future success.

“One of Jobs’ management philosophies was that it is crucial, every now and then, to roll the dice and ‘bet the company’ on some new idea or technology.”

“I had this crazy idea that we could sell just as many Macs by advertising the iPod. In addition, the iPod would position Apple as evoking innovation and youth. So I moved $75 million of advertising money to the iPod, even though the category didn’t justify one hundredth of that. That meant that we completely dominated the market for music players. We outspent everybody by a factor of about a hundred.” — Steve Jobs.

Follow Great with Great
In everything from products to movies (under Pixar), Steve Jobs sought to create great follow-ups. He wasn’t so successful in the early part of his career (see Lisa), but his third acts to Pixar and Apple proved he had the sequel touch.

“There’s a classic thing in business, which is the second-product syndrome,” Jobs later said. It comes from not understanding what made your first product so successful. “I lived through that at Apple. My feeling was, if we got through our second film, we’d make it.”

Make Tough Decisions

Good managers and leaders are willing to do hard work and, often, make unpopular decisions. Jobs apparently had little concern about being liked and therefore was well-equipped to make tough choices.

“The most visible decision he made was to kill, once and for all, the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost-good handwriting-recognition system.”

Presentation Can Make a World of Difference
The Apple founder hated PowerPoint presentations, but perhaps somewhat uncharacteristically, believed elegant product presentation was critical.

“Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.” — Jony Ive, Apple designer.

Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity
It’s unclear if Steve Jobs ever truly mellowed, but he did learn that a buffer between him and the rest of Apple could be useful.

“In a company that was led by a CEO prone to tantrums and withering blasts, Cook commanded situations with a calm demeanor, a soothing Alabama accent, and silent stares.”

Live for Today
Even as Steve Jobs struggled with cancer, he rarely slowed down. If anything, the disease helped him focus his efforts and pursue some of his grandest dreams.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” — Steve Jobs

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs

Share Your Wisdom
Steve Jobs was not a philanthropic soul. He had a passion for products and success, but it wasn’t until he became quite ill that he started reaching out and offering his wisdom to others in the tech community.

“I will continue to do that with people like Mark Zuckerberg too. That’s how I’m going to spend part of the time I have left. I can help the next generation remember the lineage of great companies here and how to continue the tradition. The Valley has been very supportive of me. I should do my best to repay.” — Steve Jobs

by Lance Ulanoff 

Experts agree that in the current employment climate, bad behavior is becoming less and less something employers tolerate -- and more of a fireable offense. "For every one of you, there are a 100 people lining up to take your job," says Kiki Weingarten, an executive career coach based in New York City. "Employers are more able than ever to be as picky as they want."

Here, four leading career coaches offer 10 bad workplace habits they've seen that send employees down the road to poor reviews. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Habit: You're addicted to email

In meetings, with clients, with your boss, you just can't stop scrolling through your BlackBerry. You think you're being productive by making sure you don't miss a message while stuck in the weekly sales meeting but your colleagues (particularly those speaking) see it as a personal insult. Constantly checking your smart phone conveys a real sense of arrogance, says Princeton, New Jersey-based  communication coach Matt Eventoff.

How to break it:
Put the BlackBerry down," says Eventoff, "especially if you're in a meeting." Turn it off, put it away, leave it in your office. "If you're waiting for a particular, time-sensitive email, let your coworkers know beforehand," Eventoff says, "Otherwise your BlackBerry has no place at the meeting."

Habit: You're a brown-noser

Nobody likes a kiss-up, and in the office one too many well-placed compliments could leave you with this reviled reputation. Say yes to everything a higher-up asks for, and your teammates will easily resent your enthusiasm. Even worse, your boss might see through your constant congratulations and think you more a nuisance than a constructive team-member.

How to break it:

Take a look at the last 10 things you've said yes to, whether opinions of your supervisor or tasks around the office. Is there anything you disagree to when you think honestly about them? Learning to say no every now and then will show both your supervisors and your teammates that you actually have a spine.

Habit: You're a busy-body

Do you mind your own business or is your ear constantly perked for the latest gossip or office happenings? Check yourself. You habit of needing to be in the know is likely a source of stress for your coworkers. Whether it's the movement of colleagues within the company or who's meeting who for post-work cocktails, making everything your business spells trouble.

How to break it:

If it's information you need to perform in your position, schedule weekly meetings with colleagues and team meeting to stay on top of pertinent happenings. Otherwise wait for information to come to you and avoid the urge to jump into overheard conversations. If all else fails, invest in some headphones.

Habit: Your email etiquette is lacking

If your outbox reads more like a firing squad than friendly exchanges, it may be time to take a look at your communication style.  "It's very rarely that emails are being perceived as too meek," says Eventoff. "As email has no tone, no emotions, no intonation, it's very easy for your short emails to be perceived as pushy, demanding or impatient."

How to break it:

If poor email habits persist, bad feelings are bound to brew in a team, Eventoff says. Make a habit of reading over emails before you send and gauge how they might be received, particularly if they're directed to someone outside of your office.

Habit: You're full of excuses

You may have forgotten the zip drive with your presentation notes, but you're not about to admit it. You don't know the answer to your supervisor's questions but try to talk your way around it. The result is that you've wasted not just your own time, but your manager's and colleagues' as well.

How to break it:

Set a reminder ten minutes before the start of every meeting on your docket, says Patrick Flannery, an executive advisor based in Arlington, Virginia.  "Better 10 minutes of your own time to gather necessary papers and gather your thoughts then 20 minutes spent making excuses in front of colleagues."

Habit: You're a multi-tasking mess

Technology has made multi-tasking the norm in most workplaces, but experts say it's causing more problems than productivity. If you've been caught more than once missing pertinent information in emails or correspondence  — especially deadlines, dollar signs or project elements—it might be a sign you're not as skilled at juggling tasks as you think, according to Roy Cohen, career consultant and author of "The Wall Street Professional's Survival Guide."

How to break it:

Make a conscious effort to focus on only the task (or phone call or email) in front of you. Read each email thoroughly and respond before moving on to the next. "And don't answer the phone until you're finished," Flannery warns. The habit of juggling different tasks is hard to break, but if your performance is suffering it's unavoidable.

Habit: You're a prima donna

"That's not in my job description." The problem with setting too many boundaries at work—whether it's saying no to tasks or assignments you feel aren't your responsibility, or keeping iron-clad 9-to-4:59 hours—is that when you think "self-protective," your coworkers think "jerk." And if that "somebody" are your colleagues and managers, you'll quickly find you've done yourself no favors by sticking to your guns. Chances are it's not in their contracts either.

How to break it:

The next time an unattractive task comes across your desk, ask yourself who'll have to tackle it if you pass it off. Recognize that in periods of downsizing, everyone must pick up extra slack—and your reputation will suffer if you make yourself the exception.

Habit: You're the office thief

If pens keep "appearing" on your desktop that are not yours, chances are you have a "borrowing" problem. Walking off with people's pens, staplers or favorite coffee mugs is never going to win you any love.

How to break it:

Label your own things, or at least stick to a certain, identifiable brand of pens. This may seem counter intuitive, says Flannery, but the second you see a pen on your desk that isn't "your brand," you'll make a conscious effort to remember whose it is -- and return it.

Habit: Your style does you no favors

Personal style is one thing. Questionable style is another. When your supervisor questions whether your look is "client-appropriate" you've got a fashion-work conflict that could cost you your next promotion.

How to break it:

Imagine the closet of the person you admire most at the office, Cohen suggests. How do they dress and why does it suit their position in the company? Imagine their daily wardrobe decisions. Then go shopping with your role model in mind.

Habit: You're quick-tempered

"An angry employee is a dangerous employee," says Cohen, who has spent twenty years coaching fiery execs. "Managers are wary of employees who are quick to anger. They know what 'going postal' means." If your blood pressure spikes every time the photocopier breaks down, or assistants scatter when you enter a room, it's time to reexamine your behavior. Uneasy or uncomfortable coworkers are unlikely to sing your praises.

How to break it:

To lose the reputation of a loose cannon, make an effort to pause before reacting to a stressful situation. Flannery suggests closing your office door and taking several deep breaths, and "by all means, avoid venting to coworkers before thinking it through." If all else fails, Cohen says to seek counseling. "Chances are you're angry about more than just the job."


by Meghan Casserly

Nowadays, with Internet spreading its wings all over the globe, more and more people are switching from physical mediums of business promotion to online marketing. Email marketing is one of the best means of promoting your products and services online. It is also one of the oldest sources of business-to-business marketing used by virtually everyone.
A well planned effective email marketing campaign can help your business products and services gain maximum visibility and recognition, not only locally but all over the world. With this direct marketing procedure you start getting quick response once your email reaches your targeted customers.


The Importance
In today’s world of cut-throat business competition, companies and enterprises are making use of only the most effective means of business promotion, and email marketing is one of these mediums. Businesses find email marketing beneficial because of its ability to be highly adaptable to today’s constantly changing business world.

Other factor that adds to the inevitable importance of email marketing is its aspect of being highly inexpensive and affordable. It can also easily be built into existing marketing systems of any organization seeking promotion at international level. Moreover, online marketing can make business promotion more efficiently, short, and real time in terms of delivering something to your clients and customers. 


Benefit Of Email Marketing

Rightly executed email marketing can compliment all other marketing initiatives and reap you many benefits, some of which are as follows:

Cost-Effectiveness
No matter how inexpensive the conventional mediums of marketing and business promotion can get, they can never be compared to the cost-effectiveness of email marketing. Marketing collateral, like press advertisements, brochures, flyers and posters require a significant financial outlay. On the other hand, email marketing is live, constantly changing and is easy to implement, along with being inexpensive.

Global Approach
A good advantage of email marketing comes with the globalism of the Internet. No matter where you are or whom you need to reach, email marketing paves the way to a global approach of business promotion. Borders are no obstacles in email marketing.

A Personalized Medium
Email marketing is a personalized medium of advertising and business promotion. It enables you to create a special bond with the prospects. Unlike other mediums of marketing and promotions, email marketing can be segmented in terms of its target audience, meaning that you can split people off into smaller, more focused lists. This too gives a more personalized approach to your marketing messages.

Gauge Results
Any marketing campaign needs to be gauged in terms of its results and feedback from the target market. With email marketing as a tool of business promotion, you can easily carry out litmus tests on your target audience regarding different campaigns.
You can accurately measure click-through rate, conversion rate, how a person arrived at your website, and more, through readily available tools on the Internet, and assess the success of different email campaigns.

Quicker Response
Time Another advantage of email marketing over the conventional means of business promotion is that it has a quicker response time. The average response time of email marketing is one to three days at max and you get the most responses on the first day itself, while a direct mail campaign would take minimum two weeks to generate any responses.

Ease of UseEmail marketing comes with an ease of use for both the sender and the receiver. Executing an email marketing campaign is simple and anyone can do it without any extensive resources.

6 Tips To Do It Well

For every effective marketing campaign, doing it right matters a lot. Following are certain tips which will help you execute better and more effective email marketing campaigns.

1. Pre-determine Your Campaign’s Objectives
Before executing any campaign, its objectives and targets need to be pre-determined in order to get the maximum out of it. A general email marketing campaign can have two basic objectives i.e. to strengthen customer loyalty and ongoing relationships and to drive direct response of the customers. Whichever of these two are your campaign objectives, it is important that you plan it out and then set it for execution.

2. Avoid Spamming
No matter how easy, affordable and responsive it gets, the biggest hurdle in the way of a successful email marketing campaign is the spam filters. When more and more people started misusing email marketing, email service providers all over the world introduced spam filters, which were a great setback for this mode of business promotion. Therefore, when the successful marketing practitioners realized that people’s dislike to spam destroyed the customer loyalty they worked so hard to address the problem with best practices that revolved around the aspect of ‘permission’.

Permission is best and the only authentic way to avoid spamming in the process of email marketing. This may sound a tedious process to you, however, in actual getting permission is not much difficult. Offer something useful to your customers (a coupon or special discounts, a research related to your product or perhaps an informational newsletter) in return as if the person agrees on receive your messages and, often, to provide valuable personal information.

Never underestimate the power of "free" and use the same in taking customer’s permission for email marketing. When you will give them something free, build the relationship and then recommend products or services, they are likely to buy from you and will stay loyal to your brand.

3. Opt-in Option
An opt-in option is a perfect way of taking permission and carrying out an effective email marketing campaign. Adding an opt-in form to your email marketing message is the best practice in terms of marketing ethics and effectiveness.
Considering the importance of an opt-in option, larger organizations even go for a ‘double opt-in’ option i.e. after the receiver of their marketing message firstly enters his/her email address to subscribe to their list, they send them a confirmation email which contains a special link back to their email marketing campaign, which verifies that this visitor did indeed sign up to their mailing list. This way they easily avoid spamming and their customers develop a sense of respect for them.

4. Creating the Message
Once you plan out your campaign objectives and also get permissions of your customers, the next step is to create the actual message that needs to be sent out. There are some points to be remembered while creating your email marketing message:

• The subject line is the most essential element of email message content. The subject line should always make sense and should standout.
• Create the content of your message absolutely clear and easily readable.
• Go for the ‘inverted pyramid model of message construction i.e. start from ‘most important’ information to ‘less important’ one
• Web readers have very less time and are always in a hurry so keep your message short, to-the-point and ensure its relevance.
• There are certain essential elements of an email message content i.e. the ‘to’ line and ‘from’ line, the subject line, the offer, the format, the body copy, the message category, message personalization and targeting.
• Like the subject line, signature has a crucial importance in an email message. Always include a signature at the bottom of your emails, as it is a good way to attract more traffic to your website. This signature should include your personal details, your company details, and an opt-out link.

5. Testing the Message
Before sending out the actual campaign in execution, it is better to test its different aspects with trial and error method. Try out different fonts for both content and links, re-positioning images such as logos and buttons and experiment with different emailing patterns (including the greeting and sign off).

Send three different patterns of your email, compare their click-thru stats and see which one works best. This way you will be sending the right mix of content and images that will attract more visitors, and ultimately more sales.

6. Develop and Maintain the Email List
As mentioned earlier, in order for your email marketing campaign to be successful, it is important to be focused in every aspect of execution. Similar is the case with email list. You need to develop a proper and well-searched email list for your campaign (probably of the people who are interested or have opted-in for your marketing initiatives).

Also, email list is not a one-time thing. It needs to be trimmed and maintained according to the circumstances. Longer lists should be broken down into smaller segments, targeting the consumer and personalizing the message. Also, after every three months, shed off the people in your list who do not rear or respond to your messages.



The Conclusion

Email marketing is a fully grown and well-used tactic for business promotion via emails. It is cost-effective, easily executed and gives a good impact to your campaigns. Email marketing does not replace your other marketing activities but compliments them extremely well. A well run and good email marketing campaign can grow your customer pool and add to customer’s loyalty.

Hearing from your brand repeatedly, with good content reminds readers of your business’ value, especially if they take your advice and find it works for them. Although email marketing comes with lower risks and higher profitability, however, this can only be achieved through proper planning and execution tuning into higher success rates for your business.

By Arfa Mirza

1. Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing how you can help others.

2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.

3. Visit as many groups / chapter as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.

4.Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.

5. Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. This means questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple yes or no. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.

6. Become known as a powerful resource (A Living & Moving Dictionary) for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.

7. Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special or different from others doing the same thing. In order to get referrals, you must first have a clear understanding of what you do that you can easily articulate to others.

8. Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, "How may I help you?" and no immediate answer comes to mind.

9. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.

10. Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice verse. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas or opinion how to improve each business value.

When was the last time you got up in front of an audience to showcase your expertise? If you don’t think you’ll ever be a presenter, you may be surprised. Whether you’re pitching a new client, teaching a class or speaking at a conference, there may come a time when you need to prepare for and deliver a Awesome presentation.

+ 1st Impression make lasting Impression +

If you’re a bit rusty with your presentation skills, or just feel out of your element in front of a group, this can be an intimidating prospect. Here are some tips to help you deliver a winning and memorable presentation, one that you actually enjoy giving!

Preparing for the Presentation:

1. Chill...Give yourself a little bit of time, don’t wait until the last minute to start thinking about your presentation. As soon as you know you will be presenting, start making notes about all of the elements you want to cover.

2. Research your audience: Your audience should drive not only the content you present, but your approach as well. Find out who will be in the audience and tailor your presentation directly to them.

3. Identify your purposes & goals: Why are you doing this presentation? Are you trying to win business? Are you sharing your expertise or informative source? Take time to identify your goal and keep it in mind as you develop your presentation.

4. Know your time limit: Make sure you ask how long you will have to present. Knowing if you have 30 minutes, an hour or longer is vital before you start preparing your content.

5. Start with an outline: To make sure your presentation flows and covers all of the points you want to hit on, draft an outline. Break it down into sections to make it manageable in the development stage as well as the delivery.

6. Write it down: Once you have your outline, write down everything you want to say for each point. Think about the content from your audience’s point of view so you can balance the content with engagement.

7. Create visual aids: You’ll want some kind of visual aid to add to your presentation, but fight the temptation of including everything you wrote down on your slides. Keep it short and simple.

8. Memorize it: Don’t worry, you’re not going to memorize and rehash your presentation. BUT, start by memorizing it anyway. Knowing the content inside and out will make you more comfortable and confident during the delivery.

9. Practice, practice and practice : Run through your presentation in full several times before the big day. You may even consider video taping yourself so you can self-critique and fine-tune. (Talk to yourself or do in front of your friend or someone the wont laugh at you :)

10. Get help: Sometimes an outside perspective can help you make sure you’re hitting the mark. Ask a family member, mentor, colleague or even a public speaking coach for help.

11. Get there early: Not only do you want to be on time, but if you get there early, you can scope out the room where you will be presenting and start to familiarize yourself with the environment. You can also meet some of the people in the audience, which can help add a conversational tone.

12. Breathe: Take a deep breath before you start and remember to breathe during the presentation. You should pause frequently to give your words a chance to sink in and to give yourself a break.

13. Be a storyteller: People love stories, so the more anecdotal you are, the more memorable your presentation will be., tell by example of an event not by unrelated topic and goes no where.

14. Show your Energy & Passion: Hopefully you’re passionate about the subject matter. Let your enthusiasm come through in your delivery. It can be contagious and the perfect way to engage your audience.

15. Make it interactive: To prevent boredom for your audience, plan group activities, ask questions and work in a break, if appropriate.

16. Use humor: Humor can be powerful in a presentation setting. Not only can it put the audience at ease, but it can make you more relaxed as well.... not to mention, don go "too far", make it just nice.

17. Plan time for questions: Make sure you leave time at the end of your presentation for a Q&A session. And it’s always a good idea to build in a little buffer time in case you go over during the actual presentation.

18. Leave something behind: Handouts are a great way to drive home your message and give attendees something to refer to after they leave. Be sure to include your contact information for example name card and invite the audience to contact you again with questions.

SOMETHING EXTRA: Like many aspects of business, confidence is important in public speaking situations. Be sure to include these confidence-inspiring tips in your preparation. Remember, when people gets to like, your chances to do business with them is nearer.