Multi-level Marketing

Multi-level marketing is a business model where salespersons like sales consultants, distributors, and even franchise owners and independent owners work in harmony to increase the sales of the product, on commission basis. This is more like a franchise arrangement where the sales of the product depend on the combined effort of each franchise and regional manager. There are multiple levels of people receiving commission. Usually there are seven or more levels. Multilevel marketing is basically a combination of franchise and direct marketing.

This concept started in 1980s when most of the companies started handling the stocking and distribution issues and started compensating all the individuals involved. This increased the interest of each member in promoting sales due to the chance of earning bonuses and since then the Multilevel Marketing companies have taken the responsibility of taking orders, shipping goods, and paying revenue. Things became easier with the transition to Internet. Product promotion, advertising and sales were made online and hence, the whole process began to be known as online MLM.

There are various MLM compensations plans. According to the uni-level or stairway breakaway plans there are two types of distributors involved managers and non-managers. According to the matrix plans, the width of each level in a distributor's group is regulated. In binary plans, the limit of each level's width has two legs. Commission was paid when both the legs reached a specific target. In elevator scheme, the distributors pay splits after a certain number of units have been paid.   

The commissions are paid in two ways, the first says that the commission is paid only if the product is sold and the second one involves paying commission even if the customer just signed-up, it doesn't require the customer to buy anything. Because of the second method illegitimate MLM or illegal pyramid started to arise. The intermediate members used to make proxy customer sign-ups to receive commission and they used to tempt the participant to buy more products than they can be sold. But as most of these businesses present themselves as legal, precautions must be taken. It is better to approach businesses that follow the first method of commission, where it's compulsory to make a sale and not just recruiting a customer. Here money isn't paid for customer sign-up at all. MLM marketing is being practiced all over the United States and in hundreds of other countries.   

In 1979, Amway Corporation was accused of price fixing. They exaggerated sales claims, while their distributors sold the products at a minimum price. After that, FTC warned all multi-level companies whose commission was based on recruiting and not sales. In 2006, all the business sellers including MLM organizations were asked to provide customers with thorough information, according to the Business Opportunity Rule introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, so as to save them from deception. Before that many motivating programs were started which hid the truth. Such programs were known as cult programs.   

Laws have been made stronger. As a measure, pyramid scheme is banned in most of the countries. All the newly hired salespeople have to bare the cost of initial training and material. They even have to buy a big amount of inventory. To test the legality of MLM marketing, the 70% rule is being implemented. The members are stopped from over-loading so as to increase their commission. Only when seventy percent of the inventory is sold, order can be made for new material. 

 

 

Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategy helps organizations to focus their attention to complete resource utilization to increase sales and win over their competitors. Every company applies some kind of marketing strategies to maintain existing customers, attract potential customers and also to maintain and enhance their reputation in the market.

When designing a marketing plan, first a marketing strategy is taken into consideration. The marketing plan consists of steps to be taken so as to attain success in the implementation of the marketing strategy chosen. Big projects involve selection of different strategies at different levels. Usually a strategy consists of well-sketched tactics. They are meant to meet the needs and finally reach marketing objectives. Each of the strategies has pre-calculated results because when a particular strategy is chosen at a particular level, its outcome becomes the goal of that particular level. If there is an absence of a well thought strategy in a marketing plan means it is supposedly lacking a good foundation. A reasonable marketing strategy should not only facilitate marketing goals, but also the action sequence of a campaign.

At regular time intervals the firm should analyze the marketing decision. This is done with the help of strategic models and the 3C's model is considered for this purpose. To calculate the company's strategic position, Ansoff matrix is used. The 3C's model determines the factors, which leads to the success of a marketing campaign. There are three key parties involved in this model the corporation, the customer and the competitors. The involvement of all the three key parties leads to positive results and this involvement is known as the 3C's or strategic triangle.

The role of the corporation is to increase the strength of the company in the success critical areas, when compared to that of the competitor. The customer and his interest form the basis of any strategy. The competitor also plays a vital part. The competitor-based strategies are based on the functioning of business competitors like design and engineering, sales and servicing, and purchasing.

When making a marketing plan depending on some particular strategies known as mix strategies are used. 4P's model is used to calculate whether the plan is sticking to the strategies or not. The four Ps stand for product, price, place and promotion. Products are goods produced by the company on a huge scale for the purpose of selling them and earning profit. Price is the money paid for a product by the customer. The price is based on many factors like competition, market share, customer perception and product identity. Place where the product is sold can be either physical store or store on the Internet. It is also known as distribution channel. To make the customer knowledgeable about a product, the marketer does promotion. It involves advertising, public relation and point of sale. 

There are different types of marketing strategies based on some criteria.  Challenger, Leader and Follower are types of market dominance strategies. Market dominance strategies are used to dominate the market. Cost leadership, Market segmentation and Product differentiation are types of porter generic strategies. Porter generic strategies are built on strategic strength or competing abilities and strategic scope or market penetration. Close followers, late follower and Pioneers are types of innovation strategies. Innovation strategies are meant to trigger the rate of product development and model innovation. It helps the firm to incorporate latest technologies. Intensification, Diversification, Vertical integration and Horizontal integration are types of growth strategies. Growth strategies facilitate the growth of the organization. Marketing warfare strategies are conjunction of marketing strategies and military strategies.

A marketing strategy or a mix of them is chosen only after thorough market research. A marketer should always be ready to face any kind of situations like if the strategy is changed in the middle, he should be able to perform another market research so as to choose the proper strategy, within a short period of time. This can be done easily if you have experience. 

Recognizing Target Market

Achieving good sales is the ultimate target of any firm. Many criteria, such as competitive pricing, near perfect product, reaching out to correct audience and motivational advertising, are responsible for this and should be dealt with in marketing.

First things first, all the efforts will go futile if the correct audience is not recognized. It is the major factor in getting abundant sales, because the right customers aren't targeted, they won't buy the product. The right customers are known as targeted customers or niche market, those who will be happy to buy products that fulfill their needs and is also less pricey.

Small businesses shouldn't fear competition with large companies as they produce products considering a bigger spectrum, which sometimes won't be customer specific as the products are more generalized and they don't much care about the competition they might get from others. This gives an opportunity to the smaller firms to produce products, which can cater to the need of a section of people whose needs aren't met specifically by the large companies.

Although it seems like a silly question, but firstly, a firm should understand who are the people they want to target. The success lies behind understanding this, which requires thorough research and analysis. Various factors must be considered. The age group is the first factor, whether the product will be useful to babies or children or teenagers or youngsters or middle aged or old. Sometimes there is a possibility that the product will cater to the needs of all age groups. Next thing to consider is gender. Marital status, occupation, ethnic background, health status, income status, education, hobbies, etc., are some of the factors that should also be pondered upon.

After decided upon the customer group to be targeted, the benefits that can be provided by the product to this group should be jotted down. A thorough examination of the service or product should be done for this purpose. If there is sufficient time, a survey can be conducted on the current customers and pose them with questions like what they liked in the products they are using, anything discomfort they are facing, do they want anything to be changed to make the product better, etc.

After making a list of all the benefits, thought should be applied to which of these benefits will actually help the targeted audience. Make a short list of the benefits that will be advantageous and send it to the marketing department. It can surely help in their marketing plan and can boost up sales.

Internet has made reaching out to the targeted customers can be very easy. Search engines can be utilized to the maximum extent for this purpose. The thing to be exactly searched can be typed as a keyword or search phrase in the search engines and the results brought on the first three pages will be of great value. But lots of time and investment is involved in this process, as different keywords will fetch different search results. So efforts should be made to finally get what is desired.

Next best thing is reaching out by newsletters and ezines. Many ezines are related to marketing, finance, shopping, Internet, etc. A number of ezines websites can be found in an ezines directory, which even contains the contact information, advertising price, etc. The list of ezines website sites should be cut down to which are relating to the target market and ad should be placed in the ones selected which should include all the product advantages if the ad allows that many words.

Recognizing the target market is crucial to any successful advertising and sales campaign. Once it is recognized, they can be reached through different channels like websites, newspapers, magazines, etc. This makes the customer think that he is being directly addressed to. And since the whole approach will interest them, the amount of traffic received in return will be simply overwhelming and the whole effort will be worth it.    
 
 

Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategy helps organizations to focus their attention to complete resource utilization to increase sales and win over their competitors. Every company applies some kind of marketing strategies to maintain existing customers, attract potential customers and also to maintain and enhance their reputation in the market.

When designing a marketing plan, first a marketing strategy is taken into consideration. The marketing plan consists of steps to be taken so as to attain success in the implementation of the marketing strategy chosen. Big projects involve selection of different strategies at different levels. Usually a strategy consists of well-sketched tactics. They are meant to meet the needs and finally reach marketing objectives. Each of the strategies has pre-calculated results because when a particular strategy is chosen at a particular level, its outcome becomes the goal of that particular level. If there is an absence of a well thought strategy in a marketing plan means it is supposedly lacking a good foundation. A reasonable marketing strategy should not only facilitate marketing goals, but also the action sequence of a campaign.

At regular time intervals the firm should analyze the marketing decision. This is done with the help of strategic models and the 3C's model is considered for this purpose. To calculate the company's strategic position, Ansoff matrix is used. The 3C's model determines the factors, which leads to the success of a marketing campaign. There are three key parties involved in this model the corporation, the customer and the competitors. The involvement of all the three key parties leads to positive results and this involvement is known as the 3C's or strategic triangle.

The role of the corporation is to increase the strength of the company in the success critical areas, when compared to that of the competitor. The customer and his interest form the basis of any strategy. The competitor also plays a vital part. The competitor-based strategies are based on the functioning of business competitors like design and engineering, sales and servicing, and purchasing.

When making a marketing plan depending on some particular strategies known as mix strategies are used. 4P's model is used to calculate whether the plan is sticking to the strategies or not. The four Ps stand for product, price, place and promotion. Products are goods produced by the company on a huge scale for the purpose of selling them and earning profit. Price is the money paid for a product by the customer. The price is based on many factors like competition, market share, customer perception and product identity. Place where the product is sold can be either physical store or store on the Internet. It is also known as distribution channel. To make the customer knowledgeable about a product, the marketer does promotion. It involves advertising, public relation and point of sale. 

There are different types of marketing strategies based on some criteria.  Challenger, Leader and Follower are types of market dominance strategies. Market dominance strategies are used to dominate the market. Cost leadership, Market segmentation and Product differentiation are types of porter generic strategies. Porter generic strategies are built on strategic strength or competing abilities and strategic scope or market penetration. Close followers, late follower and Pioneers are types of innovation strategies. Innovation strategies are meant to trigger the rate of product development and model innovation. It helps the firm to incorporate latest technologies. Intensification, Diversification, Vertical integration and Horizontal integration are types of growth strategies. Growth strategies facilitate the growth of the organization. Marketing warfare strategies are conjunction of marketing strategies and military strategies.

A marketing strategy or a mix of them is chosen only after thorough market research. A marketer should always be ready to face any kind of situations like if the strategy is changed in the middle, he should be able to perform another market research so as to choose the proper strategy, within a short period of time. This can be done easily if you have experience. 

What is a business analyst?

A business analyst is a person whose job is to analyze business needs and critical problems for the stakeholders and propose practical solutions. Many times this is done with a project proposal. The business analyst is to study the proposal, determining which would be the best course of action to reach the proposed solution. At times this can not be done.

The plan and solution may look good on paper. When it comes time to implement the program, people and teams can be divided. 50% of all project proposals fail due to a lack of communication. The business analyst must also be a good people person to make the teams work together for the betterment of the business.

The entire project is based on saving money. When a qualified business analyst can not perform his or her duties because of the lack of co-operation, the result is a waste of time and money. The project is doomed for failure. A business analyst must be able to use negotiation skills and motivational techniques for the entire project to succeed short term and long term.

A business analyst will listen. Instead of jumping ahead and looking at the goal, he or she will take the time to understand the needs of the company. Asking questions is a key element to success in the world of business analysis. If the business analyst fails to comprehend the true needs of a company, the project can be sidetracked with issues unrelated. Again, the result would be failure.

A certified business analyst has been trained to read and recognize omissions in the project proposal. He or she will understand the need for outsourcing certain tasks. Choosing to use in-house personnel or outside resources will be something the professional business analyst can determine by assessing the needs of the company. This may be where a lack of communication or even team failure comes into the equation. A good analyst will explain as the project progresses so each team knows what is happening.

The business analyst may be hired to complete a proposed project but he or she must pull the company together as a whole. A good analyst knows company failure can result because of division in the offices or departments. He or she will see to it the company as a whole can see the vision of the business. He or she will explain how each department is integrated with the other. The project proposal may include more than is listed. The proposal may take another route to get the job done. A business analyst familiar with the industry involved will be able to recognize the overlooked or not so obvious issues involved.

There are times when services from outside sources may be utilized by the business. The business analyst is trained to understand the importance or lack of need for these sources. He or she can determine the most cost effective way to use the sources. The business analyst may find directing the designated tasks to in-house departments more beneficial to the company. This is part of researching the project proposal. The business analyst is to determine the most cost effective way to reach the goal and still succeed with a bottom line net profit.

The Job Market for a Business Analyst

Business analyst is not a new term in the business world. It has become extremely popular over the past few years. With businesses expanding world wide more emphasis has been put on the IT teams and departments to monitor and or expand with corporate peers. This has brought about changes in how business operates. A need for business analysis and systems analysts was born. Stakeholders wanted to know the money being spent was worth the expenditure. They needed someone to come in and tell them where to invest within the company to raise profits. The business analyst job was created.

The job of the business analyst was simple at first. He or she was nothing more than a monitor. Observe what was going on and try to improve on it. Look for problems and find a way to fix them. The position became complex when stakeholders started demanding things from IT and no-one knew what to do. The business analyst became the go between. Acting as the liaison for stakeholders and IT, the business analyst became the one who got things done. He or she acted as the motivator. He or she was the mover and shaker of the company.

Today a business analyst can have several different names. Systems analyst and project manager are just an example. The job of business analyst can be held from inside the company or with an outside research and consulting firm. Certain business analysts are independent business owners choosing to offer their experience to a broad range of clientèle. It is basically how the business analyst wishes to work which determines the job market for him or her.

There are those people who wish to ensure job stability within a corporation. They will feel more secure knowing they are a part of a dynamic organization they can grow with. The skill level will grow with the demands of the job. Emphasis will be placed on what the boss wants at any given time.

Other people breaking into the job market may wish to join with a group of individuals already working with several clients to fulfill the needs of stakeholders. A research and development firm may be just what is needed for this individual. He or she will want to learn with their peers, work with a trained team, and accomplish things as a team player. They will be able to grow and expand by learning from the years of experience the firm has to offer.

The business analyst who thinks outside the box may be truly happy on his or her own. He or she may want to develop their own kind of strategy for the job market. This kind of person may choose to open his or her own consulting firm. He or she may be very good at working alone while still motivating the teams and departments to get the job done. His or her success depends on the negotiating skills and other people skills one is born with. Some independent business analysts are very successful.

The job market is open to many who seek this type of position research should be done prior to just accepting any offer that comes. Questions should be asked. Is this the type of company I will be happy with? Is there room for advancement? Will I gain experience while working here? Will I be able to express myself freely when I foresee a problem with a project? What are they looking for in a business analyst? Do I truly fit the description?

Determining what the business analyst is looking for before he or she even starts career chasing will save quite a few headaches down the road.

Tips for Writing an Effective E-mail Signature Promoting Your Blog

Branding is big business. Companies actually use a significant amount of their budget simply to build and fortify their brands. Brands identify a product and are used by consumers to associate a company with a specific business or service. When you’re marketing online to promote your blog or your business, easily one of the most effective means to build your brand is using an e-mail signature, one that will identify you and associate you with a specific type of service or information.

What exactly is an e-mail signature?

An e-mail signature is an identifier that you will usually include at the end of every e-mail message, article, post or thread that you send or publish online. It includes your name, your company, the title of your blog or website, its address and other contact information about you.

The e-mail signature is equivalent to a real world business card – its main purpose is to introduce you to visitors and readers and to provide them with a means to get in touch with you or find their way to your blog. It’s easy to set up and better yet, you can use it a thousand times each week and still not spend a single cent.

How important is an e-mail signature? Consider the posts in blogs, articles and comments that marketers and bloggers often leave online and on all those e-mails you receive. At the bottom, you’ll find the ubiquitous e-mail signature with a short description of the blogger and their contact information.

Click on the link provided and you’ll be brought to that blogger’s little space in the Web. Without a signature, it will be difficult indeed for anyone to locate that blogger’s URL or at least go through the trouble of seeking him out actively in search engines.

Writing a good and effective e-mail signature for your blog

Promoting your blog can be done in small yet effective steps. One of these is by using an effective e-mail signature. Here’s how to write an e-mail signature that will work for you and create buzz for your blog at the same time:

Check the e-mail application or program you’re using

Most e-mail applications popular today have a tool that allows you to set up your own e-mail signature. This tool will then automatically add your signature to every e-mail you send out.

Check your e-mail program for this tool. In Windows Mail or Outlook, for example, writing a good e-mail signature can be performed in just a few minutes with a few simple clicks. Use the signature editor on the program in case you want to make changes or use the signature only on specific e-mails you want to send out.

Include carefully chosen keywords

Other than your contact information, consider using keywords in the text link that are related to your blog’s subject. This will help increase that link’s relevance and popularity, promoting your blog in the process.

Keep it short but informative

Think about all the important information you’ll want to include in your e-mail signature – your name, contact information, blog title, address, etc. It’s a free country, so you pretty much have a choice on what you want to include but it’s best to stick only to the kind of information that will bring you the best results and promote your blog.

Keep your links minimal. One or two will do. Most readers find multiple links to different URLs a bit suspect, so it’s best to use only links to the blog where information related to your entry will be found.

Be prepared to be flexible

If you will be submitting some of your blog entries or e-mail content to article directories, find out if these directories have any submission guidelines you will have to comply with. Generally, you’ll find that directories or databases prefer plain text formatting and specific rules regarding placement, length and structure of your byline. Tweak your e-mail signature just a bit and you’ll be refused.

Since these aren’t your rules to bend, you’ll have no choice but to follow these submission guidelines so you can get back to the business of promoting your blog. To solve this, write multiple e-mail signatures and use these templates as needed. Then update these should changes occur.

This is also a good idea in case you will be sending out e-mails with a different theme. Changing the keywords on your text link will help increase its relevance and promote your blog.