Once you have created your product and decided where to market your business, it’s time to determine a price for your services. Setting a price for your products or services is not always a simple task, and may require a great deal of market research in your industry to establish a fair price. You will want to compare how other companies in your industry price their products to help determine where your business fits in.

Pricing can be a delicate task. Charging too little may make it more difficult for you to create a sustainable business through selling your products, at least when you initially launch your company. Your customers may also incorrectly perceive your products as being low-end compared to other companies. On the other hand, charging too much may alienate many potential customers and stop them from purchasing your products. Finding a balance between how much you believe your product or service is worth, and its perceived value by the public, is vital when settling on the right price your product.

For example, iContact is the most affordably priced email marketing service in the industry. I believe that email marketing is about establishing strong relationships with your customers, and that it shouldn’t impact your business’s middle line. To establish a reasonable price for our customers, we researched the pricing plans and subscription packages of other email marketing companies in our industry, and came up with a fair price for our customers.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back at the end of the week to conclude our discussion on the Four Ps of Marketing.

Cheers,

Ryan Allis

In the last post, I began the discussion about the Four Ps of Marketing: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. Learning how to use each of these concepts effectively can greatly help the success your business. With the first of the Four Ps, Product, if your product fulfills a need or want, has either niche or mass-market appeal, has a high perceived value and can be sold easily, your business has a higher probability of succeeding.

The second of the Four Ps is Place, which is the location where you physically market your business. Two decades ago, the place where you advertised and marketed your business was in the phone book, on telephone poles, and on flyers. With advent of the Internet and online marketing, Place has changed dramatically. You can efficiently market your business through email marketing to a seemingly endless number of people who subscribe to your newsletters. New venues have been created on the Internet for entrepreneurs to host their businesses and reach more potential customers than previously possible.

An ever-growing popular place to market your business is on blogs. As I wrote in a recent post, blogging can help you directly connect to your customers in a more casual way, and can improve your site’s rankings on search engines. Only a few years ago, a blog was not considered a legitimate venue to market a company. Now, more business owners are turning to blogging to compliment their online marketing campaigns.

iContact provides several venues for you to participate in the online marketing industry. You can send the email newsletters you create with iContact out to your subscribers. You can also create and publish content to your blogs on our online customer forum, the iContact Community. The more people that read and comment on your blog posts, the higher your search engine rankings will be.

As the online marketing industry continues to grow, more venues will be developed for you to market your company across the Internet. Have a great weekend and I’ll be back next week to continue our discussion on the Four Ps of Marketing.

Cheers,

Ryan Allis

Last week, I gave advice about how to use Sign-up forms for event planning and management. Your Sign-up forms can be used for your invitees to RSVP to your company’s event. Once your guests register, you can send them additional notifications about your event, such as reminders, directions, or menu choices.

Today, I’m going to begin a discussion on the Four Ps of Marketing: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. While the fundamentals of marketing have held constant over the years, the techniques used to manage the Four Ps have dramatically changed. New markets have been opened, laws have changed, and what was once the smart distribution method is no longer the most profitable. Understanding these key marketing basic can significantly help your business increase profits and assist you in navigating the current trends of the marketplace.

The first of the Four Ps is Product. If you want to make money in business in general, you have to do one of two things. You have to either create a new product or business model, or invest in a business that is creating a new product. In my book Zero to One Million, I outline in detail a ten-step process to build your company from scratch to $1 million dollars in sales. Creating and developing your product is a major step in this process, and it requires some strong market research and evaluation.

If your product fulfills a need or want, has either niche or mass-market appeal, has a high perceived value and can be sold easily, your business has a higher probability of succeeding. You can use your email newsletter to highlight different aspects of your product, ask for customer feedback, or announce product improvements. At iContact, you can do all of this in one place.

As an entrepreneur who wants to build a strong relationship with your customers, you should consistently improve on the product you have created. Over time, this constant improvement will allow you to be able to expand the scale of your marketplace and create a lasting and profitable organization for yourself.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back to continue our discussion on the Four Ps of Marketing in a few days.

Cheers,

Ryan Allis

Overwhelmingly, online consumers prefer green products over similar products that aren't green. (Sounds like a toothpaste commercial, but it's true!)

A brand new study shows that 83% of consumers will choose the greener of two products that are similar. Pretty compelling.

The study can be found be visiting this link at Doubleclick Performics.

Further, surprisingly in this tough economy, the study shows people will be willing to pay as much as 5% more for the greener product.

If you're listening to your customers, you'll soon stop your greenwashing and truly go green. It's good business.

Rich

In my last post, I discussed the importance of blogging for your business. Blogging is an easy and efficient way to connect with your customers and readers, and can help you greatly improve your business’s search engines rankings. Along with your email newsletters, you can use blog posts to elevate your company’s organized marketing campaigns and bring your message to more readers.
 
Today, I’m going to talk about a little-known advanced email marketing feature that can assist you if you are planning a company event. By using a basic Sign-up form, you can create a way for people to sign up or RSVP for your event. If you use iContact as your email marketing service, you can compose and send professionally-formatted invitations, track those who RSVP for your event, and even request additional information from attendees.
 
In just a few easy steps and mouse clicks, you can create your event’s guest list. First, create a list of those people you would like to invite, and then make a separate empty list for those who RSVP. You can name these lists “Event Invitees” and “Event Attendees” respectively. Post your Sign-up form to a web page dedicated to your event, and have your invitees fill in the relevant information. When your invitees click on the link to register, they will be automatically be added to your “Event Attendees” list. Once people register, you can send them out additional messages with information like reminders, dinner menu choices, or directions to your event.
 
Next week, I’m going to discuss the “Four P’s” of marketing, and how you can relate each of them to your online marketing campaigns. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
 
Cheers,

Ryan Allis