Can You Handle Your Own Direct Mail Success?

The success of any direct mail campaign rests on several factors: a well written and compelling sales letter; an attention grabbing headline; an offer that cannot be refused and ease of response are all factors that can determine whether a response rate will be good, average or downright poor.

If you have been lucky enough to get the formula right and are enjoying a high response rate from your mailshot, then efficiently handling these responses is vital if you want to capitalise on your positive results and make the most of your success.

The way in which responses are handled has a lasting effect on your business. Get it right and you could see the return on your investment soar. Make mistakes at this point and the whole thing will have been a waste of time and money.

The key is to make sure that your responses, whether they are orders; surveys; information or brochure requests; subscriptions; voucher redemptions; membership renewals or account applications, are handled efficiently and professionally.

This efficiency will ensure that your business portrays a slick and proficient image that impresses customers and prospects. In turn, impressed customers and prospects are more likely to use you again in the future, and recommend you to others. So you have multiplied your marketing efforts in one go, just by efficiently handling your responses!

You should take some time to consider whether you can efficiently handle your responses. Can you give customers the speedy turnaround they expect on their orders? Can you get those brochures out to your prospects before they buy from your competitors? Can you process applications and redemptions smoothly enough to show customers they have made the right decision in choosing your service?

If you can't, then you are not alone because many businesses struggle to keep up with even the smallest of responses.

Furthermore, you also need to consider whether you are in a position to effectively capture data from your responses. This is an exceedingly important step of the process because this information is vital to the upkeep of your database. Recording addressee gone-aways, changes of address or other contact details and noting recipients who no longer wish to receive mailings from you is imperative so that mistakes that could damage customer relationships – and your reputation - aren't made on future mailings.

Be honest with yourself. Is running your business and working on marketing initiatives taking up a large chunk of your time? If so, it may be in your best interests to source an external agency to manage your response handling on your behalf.

There are companies that have specialist systems in place to handle all types of responses. Not only can they take care of the responses and capture data from your direct mail campaigns; they can also handle replies from any other promotional drives such as direct response advertising campaigns, coupon or on-pack promotions and exhibitions. Some of these companies can even store your literature and stock for you and handle your day to day order fulfilment, whether you are running a campaign or not.

Credit Card Rewards Programs

One of the latest and hottest trends with credit cards these days is all the new and varied rewards programs companies offer. These rewards programs are growing in popularity, and surveys and statistics show that rewards programs affect people's decisions about which credit card or cards they choose to apply for, as well as which one of their existing cards they use for a particular purchase.

However, one prevalent problem with credit card rewards programs is that many consumers and cardholders that are a part of these programs often don't redeem their accumulated points, for various reasons, such as forgetting, not wanting to bother or not knowing how.

Credit card companies offer these rewards programs as a way of promoting their particular credit cards to increase their usage. But when points aren't redeemed, there is often less reason to use the card. As a result, credit card companies are encouraged to offer more exciting, alluring, beneficial and practical rewards programs that customers would actually be interested in and want to use more often; as well as better their communication with the finer points and "how-to" of redeeming rewards points, and making point redemption more convenient.

There are many different types of rewards customers can enjoy through the programs and incentives offered by credit card companies. One of more recent popular choices are lifestyle rewards, allowing cardholders to take vacations and go on other getaways or enjoy a "night out," depending on that they prefer, once they've accumulated a certain number of points.

Other rewards include cash-back rewards-a favorite and top choice among credit card patrons-as well as air travel mile rewards, gift certificates, free merchandise and members-only discounts.

Now that rewards programs are high on the average consumer's list of criteria for choosing a good credit card, credit card companies are finding that they not only need to offer rewards programs, but ones that are useful, beneficial, desirable, sought-after and relevant, as well as programs that are different from others and unusual in the competitive credit card market. If a rewards program isn't attractive or particularly relevant, or if it's the same as every other program offered by credit card companies, it's not going to stand out or attract customers.

There are also ways for credit cardholders to maximize the power of credit card rewards programs they are already part of, and enjoy additional savings.

One example involves using your internet connection and computer to take advantage of many available online rewards programs. All you need to do is register your rewards credit card online in order to get those extra points or cash back, which will go into another account. A lot of these online programs involve shopping rewards and coupon savings-for groceries and gas, for example-letting you save even more than simply using your credit card to make purchases.

For coupons, after registering your credit card online, you can have access to coupons that you simply print out to use along with your credit card. As far as shopping rewards go, with an online registered credit card you can make purchases online through participating merchants in order to get cash back incentives. Generally speaking, credit card companies mail out a cash rebate check once you've reached the minimum amount for payout.

Find out what type of rewards programs, bonuses and incentives are offered by your current credit card as well as other credit cards you might be interested in. Although there are many other factors to take into consideration when thinking about choosing a new credit card or even switching all together-such as APR, interest rates, annual fees and other fees, credit limit and acceptability-rewards programs are certainly not to be overlooked.

Do Auto Rewards Cards Help You Cut Your Costs?

Tired of high car maintenance costs? Your credit cards are most likely to help you reduce them. During the last years the leading car manufacturers have presented credit cards under their brands that offer auto rewards. Card users can get rewards points and then redeem them for a car purchase, auto maintenance and spare parts. So, if you wish to save on your auto spendings and benefit from auto services, think of applying for a card offer that deals with your car manufacturer!
Auto credit cards from different companies offer different options. Some of them will help you earn bonus points that can be redeemed for a new card purchase even if it's your first credit card. Others offer you to get auto parts as a reward. So, let's review the most popular auto cards and their peculiarities.
•    The GM Card offers by General Motors is the oldest auto rewards credit card. It appeared in 1992, and since then it has been widely used. This card can help consumers to get bonus points and some day to redeem them for a new vehicle from GM. After this card was a success, the company has issued other cards with different redemption options.
•    Chrysler has at its disposal Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep credit cards. These plastics feature no annual fee and have rewards programs. You can earn points for making purchases at the above-mentioned brands' stores and even elsewhere. You can redeem the earned points for any car-related services or purchases. 
•    BMW company has two credit cards to offer. They are "My Mini" card giving customers a chance to design their own card and a BMW Platinum Visa card.  Cardholders can accumulate bonus points and then redeem for different auto services including a car purchase.  Besides, with My Mini card you can even make charity donations.
•    Mercedes owners can enjoy Mercedes-Benz Visa Signature Card that allows you to get 1.5 pints for each dollar spent. After spending $10,000 you will get a coupon for $150 coupon that you can apply for a Mercedes-Benz car or service. Moreover, this exclusive plastic offers a free concierge service for booking reservations or tickets.
•    For Audi and Subaru owners there are respective credit cards with quite similar rewards programs. Bonus points for service or car purchase, rewards coupons or auto maintenance.
•    Are you a VW fan? Then pay your attention to Volkswagen Platinum Visa. It offers 2 bonus points per each dollar spent on Volkswagen purchases and then redeeming them for different auto services.
However, if you don't wish to be attached to one brand you may easily find a credit card that is accepted at any car manufacturer.  Different leading banks and credit card companies offer auto rewards plastics with various bonuses, such as gas purchase discounts, bonus points for a new car purchase or your auto maintenance.
So there are a lot offers on the credit market, you only have to choose the one that suits your needs perfectly well and save considerably on your car purchase or maintenance.

Defining and Understanding Bond Yields

A bond, simply defined, is a type of investment which is very similar to an IOU. It is a loan in the form of a security with two basic components, the face value (principle), and the coupons (interest rate). The bond is a contract between the issuer and the bondholder to pay certain amounts of money in the future. The issuer of the bond promises to pay the bondholder principle and interest according to the terms and conditions listing in the bond. Many cities and countries issue bonds to fund new highways and other such projects.

The definition of bond yield is the rate of return on the bond, which takes into account the sum of the interest payment, the redemption value at the bond's maturity, and the initial purchase price of the bond. Yield on the bond relates to the return on the capital you invest in the bond. You will hear the term yield a lot as it relates to investing in bonds. There are many types of yields you'll need to be aware of listed below.

* Current Yield
The current yield calculates the percentage of the return that the annual coupon payment provides to the investor. It calculates the percentage of the actual dollar coupon payment is of the price the investor pays for the bond. This can be easily found by dividing the bond's coupon yield by it's market price.

* Coupon Yield
The annual interest rate established when the bond is issued.

* Yield to Maturity
This is the return that the investor will receive from their entire investment in the bond.

* Yield to Call
Yield to call (YTC) is the interest rate that the bond holders would receive if they held the bond until the call date. The call date is the date on which a bond may be redeemed by the issuer before the bond's maturity. If this happens, the bond will be redeemed at par or a higher value.

* Yield to Worst
This is the lowest calculated rate that the bond holder will receive upon maturity or call date. It is typically calculated by conservative investors to determine the worst case scenario.

Be sure to remember that once a bond is issued, the coupon interest rate is fixed. Therefore, if the market interest rates rise, then the price of the bond will fall so that the bond yield will be consistent with current market rates.

Understanding Sms Marketing

Understanding SMS Marketing

Introduction

Short Message Service (SMS) is a wireless service available on digital mobile networks. It enables the transmission of text messages between mobile phones and other systems such as electronic mail, paging and voice mail. Up to 160 characters can be sent and received through the network operator's message system to the mobile phone (Gustafsson & Lenman 2007).

SMS is essentially similar to paging. Paging is the process of a message, which consists of a few digits typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call, to be received by a one-way numeric pager. A pager (sometimes called a beeper) is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message (paging) consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call. While paging requires the pager to be active and within range, SMS messages do not require the mobile phone to be active within the range as they will be held for a number of days until the phone is active and within range. SMS messages are transmitted within the same cell or to anyone with roaming capability. They can also be sent to digital phones from a web site equipped with a PC Link or from one digital phone to another. In addition to SMS gateway is a web site that lets the user enter an SMS message to someone within the cell served by that gateway or acts as an international gateway for users with roaming capability.

The SMS is a store and forward service. In other words, short messages are not sent directly from sender to recipient, but via an SMS Center. Therefore there is a need for a network operator. Each mobile telephone network that supports SMS has one or more messaging centers to handle and manage the short messages.

The SMS features confirmation of message delivery. This means that, unlike e-mailing users do not simply send a short message and trust and hope that it gets delivered. Instead the sender of the short message can receive a return message back notifying them whether the short message has been delivered or not.

Short messages can be sent and received simultaneously with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) voice, data and fax calls. This is possible because whereas voice, data and fax calls take over a dedicated radio channel for the duration of the call, short messages travel over and above the radio channel using the signaling path. As such, users of SMS rarely, if ever, get a busy or engaged signal as they can do during peak network usage times (SPG Media Group PLC 2008).

According to the same study above ways of sending multiple short messages are available. SMS concatenation (stringing several short messages together) and SMS compression have been defined and incorporated in the GSM SMS standards.

The introduction of standardized protocols such as SIM (A small smart card type device that has details of the mobile subscriber including public telephone number and the numbers required by the network to recognise and authenticate the subscriber), Application Toolkit and the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) contribute to an increase in messaging usage by providing a standard service development and deployment environment for application developers and business partners. These protocols also make it easier for users to reply to and otherwise access messaging services through custom menus on the phone. While these protocols are only a means to an end and not new messaging destinations or services, they are likely to lead to a 10-15% uplift in total SMS volumes (SPG Media Group PLC, 2008). Some companies could reach more successful results if manage the SMS marketing processes successfully.

Today, for example, to use SMS, MMS, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), voice mail, and so on, end users must be aware of the underlying technology and their intended recipients' capabilities. Studies and market trends show that messaging solutions must be easier to use if they are to facilitate communication and increase traffic. This will form the base of a successful mobile marketing campaign constructed on SMS.

SMS Marketing under Marketing Overview

SMS has grown into a mainstream communication tool for consumers, reaching them via SMS marketing has become increasingly important strategy for businesses. Whether between two people planning to meet up or a broadcast message to thousands of users, more and more customers are becoming converts every day, and savvy marketers realize text messaging is a great way to quickly communicate with their audience. For this reason; text messaging is increasing at an enormous rate. One of the primary reasons behind this growth is that text messaging has become increasingly used as a business tool (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009).

The trend in Jupiter Research shows that SMS Marketing is quickly surpassing e-mail technology as a tool for marketers and also for customer relationship management. Moreover; Jupiter Research says three billion coupons issued to cell phone users will generate sales of almost $87 billion by 2011 (textsmsmarketing 2006).

 Types of SMS Marketing

Types of SMS Marketing can be defined in three different contexts in general; Purchase Context, Technical Context and User Context. These contexts are mostly given preference while enterprises practising the SMS Marketing efforts.

Purchase Context defines SMS as a product based on the way it is purchased. On the other hand, technical context defines the types of SMS Marketing from the mobile operator point of view while user context defines it from the benefit the SMS provides to the target customer. The common point of these types is that the payment type of these SMS can be defined based on the request of the buyer (the sender). The company that wants to send SMS can chooses either to pay the price of the SMS itself or to charge the price to the target customer.

Purchase Context

In SMS marketing campaigns, there are two different SMS methods as a product; a company can either choose to make a deal with the carrier for a promised amount of SMS for a given time (mostly 1 year). This is called bulk SMS. On the other hand, the company can choose to buy SMS packages that are being sold by the carrier in specified amounts like 1.000 or 500.000 or it can be included on the standart price numbers of dispatch etc. This is called piece SMS.

Marketing strategy is obtained by making corporate SMS purchasing agreements either with Mobile operators or with the infrasturcture providers or different SMS reseller companies. The more amounts of SMS purchased, the less money is paid for an SMS. While it is more profitable to buy over million quantities directly from the GMS operator (bulk SMS), it can be a better decision to buy from the providers or resellers since they buy from the operators with over million quantites and resell them in small quantitities with better price (piece SMS). This also creates a new intermediate trade of SMS. In addition to this; wide extensive solution partnership agreements are available among company. At that time; more services are given in a lot of case such as SMS, logo, melody, conversation, entertainment, competition, game, etc.

Technical Context

There are three types of SMS from the technical perspective. These are one way, single shot and two way SMS's (see in Table 2).

One way SMS is an SMS that sent by the sender to the target customers. With this type of SMS an answer from the target customer is not expected and most of the time not allowed. So there is no customer interaction.

One way Fast SMS (Single Shot) is an SMS which is sent by the sender to the target customer and an answer from the target customer is not allowed. The most important feature of this type is that the SMS is valid for a defined time (mostly a short period like 3 minutes). Becuse of this feature, the SMS must be sent immediately after it is triggered. This type is mainly used to send passwords that are valid for the defined time (Like a password that will be used by the target customer to log in into his/her different accounts over the internet). This type of SMS is not blocked by the filters meaning that a customer can filter the SMS that is coming from a certain sender or number by sending that message to a special filter list of the mobile operator. But this filter is not used for single shot SMS.

Two Way SMS is an SMS sent by the sender to the target customer and an answer from the target customer is expected if he/she wants to join or use the services/benefits that are offered. Since there will be a client interaction, the SMS number that is used to sent this type of SMS must be configured to recieve SMS that will be sent by the customers.

User Context

Premium SMS gives clients the option to earn money on certain text messages and content for which consumers will pay to send or receive. Clients can hold voting contests, like those on many reality TV shows, daily horoscopes, a VIP program, or other instances where new information is time-sensitive, making that information valuable to the consumer.

Mobile Coupons will benefit businesses and customers alike-promoting spending while saving money for consumers. In addition, the convenience and "green" factor (no excess paper or ink needed to produce them) of digital coupons, such as mobile coupons, make them especially appealing to consumers today.

Text-To-Screen is a premium service that allows marketers to create polls and quizzes especially for a particular event.

Marketers have a way to ensure event attendees' interest while adding excitement to shows, parties, major sporting events or a regular evening at a movie theater. A marketer can use giant video screens that are traditionally at these places to advertise a poll or quiz, compel the crowd to participate and then post the results on that same screen in real time. (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009)

The SMS Campaign

The SMS system is a small piece of mobile communication and marketing system. For this purpose, like every marketing campaign, SMS campaign should be carefully planned. There are 3 processes that a campaign manager should plan in order to create a successful SMS campaign.

 Every process has its own individual approaches. In step I, campaign manager should carefully plan the target segment, the message that will be addressed and configuring the body of the SMS based on this message.

In step II, the carrier must be chosen in order to reach the targeted segment based the technical and financial criterias. All the replies must be carefully viewed.

After sending the message, an analysis of the study must be made for performance measurement (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing, mobilesmsmarketing.com 2009).

 In order to create an SMS marketing campaign, a database must be created that consist of the phone numbers of the clients that are targeted. A member or commitment list is being constituted by the enterprises with the help of clients' needs. However; we cannot observe the same situation at the private sector. The companys, which can constitute their lists, can add new numbers to these lists by using different channels. The channels can be;

• inside the company - the companies own database or affilitaions database
• outside from the company - databases that can be provided from consulting firms, SMS operators, yellow pages etc.

This process is sensitive because of the requirements and outlines defined by the law. Both the individual numbers at the newspapers and the other numbers, which are used by institutional enterprises, help to increase the quantity of the numbers at these lists in the behalf of request or guidance.

SMS Marketing Implications

In the past; the companies, which want to communicate with their customers, were using postcards, celebration cards, fax and telephone. These ways were increasing the costs and were creating problems for transportation. Most of the cards were not arrived to the addresses and the companies were not controlling these limitations. By the use of corporate SMS service, the companies began to trace whether the SMS was received by the user. Furthermore; considerably higher profits were provided at the cost side. One of the most attractive sides of this application for the companies is the high returns of the customers, who are taken these messages.

Corporate SMS Working Process

Client applications have a speciality of working as internet-based environment and desktop execution with local database. The applications, which are served as free for customer usage, can be accumulated in three main titles: Desktop SMS application, web-based Web SMS application and Office SMS application, which can be provide sending SMS from directly Microsoft Excel. After controlling SMS sending offer from these applications out of institutional servers, SMSs are transferred on Internet at the same time to the related mobile operator. Then; these SMSs are transmitted to the mobile phones.  

The corporate SMS system can be classified in 3 categories;

First one is the public enterprises, in which SMS application is an indispensible requirement for each company. For instance; small announcements can be transferred to the people by associations, labor unions, foundations, etc. By the way; it provides an opportunity to get lower costs and make the works rapidly.

The second one is the private sector institutions especially finance (banking), automotive, market, retailers, etc. They announce their campaigns to the related clients at the same time and this provides a returnable and customer fidelity.

The last category is about the education sector, in which corporate SMS was began to see as an essential requirement and called service by the guardians. A private class was began preference by giving the services of lack of continuity, examination results and other reports.

Efficiency of SMS

 What could efficiency of SMS bring to companies? The most important issue is to get the transmission reports of the messagings. We can analyze these reports based on;

• People & Responses
• Total cost of Transmission
• Results

In a recent study by Nielsen Mobile, 23% of U.S. mobile phone users remember seeing mobile advertising in the last month, and over 50% responded to the ad. (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009) When we compare this result to another marketing media like TV where the response rate is around 0,3%, it can be seen that SMS can be a very successful media for marketing.

Not only for the mobile advertising however it covers a lot of place in mobile marketing but also constitute a good relationship with the customers are very important subjects to the companies.

SMS Marketing System Analyses

The marketing concepts are changing while these new medias & technologies step into ourlives. An important factor to consider when selecting a marketing technique such as SMS marketing is that method's ability to reach a wide audience. This is why famous TV programs attract a lot of sponsors, famous celebrities get a lot of endorsements and popular websites get a lot of posted ads. Businessmen know that these programs, celebrities and websites will be garnering a lot of visitors; thence, more people will get to see their advertisements. The same equation applies to SMS marketing. Nearly every person in the world possesses a mobile phone. It's only natural that companies and businesses will want to compete in this new marketing arena. (sign-up.to 2008)

It is very important to understand the SMS Marketing system and to manage the system after sending messages to the customers even their target is advertising or relationship. Companies have to find out the most valuable customers by detecting the performance with so many analysis and then to decide and apply what are the following actions whether the companies want to succeed their functionality continuously for their success in marketing.

The companies naturally think about their current customers primarily, because they know their identities, personalities, conventions, pleasures, etc. There are two types of customers; the current customers and the potential customers, who are not available for the present and may be the candidates.

To create opportunities for the companies and satisfy the customers, companies should perform some endevours. Hereby these endevours undertake with marketing philosophy and to give some detailed conveyance for the SMS marketing efforts. Like every marketing concept, analyzing the result to measure the performance of system. In general before passing through to the analyses, suppose that a company determined their customers and sent them an advertising text message, in which the company's new products were recognized. Presume that the amount of these customers is 10,000 and just 1,000 of them have demanded the new products after receiving the SMS. However, since this is a cost for the company, cost - benefit ratio must be taken into account all the time. The other 9,000 people can be classified into two groups: the people, who erase the text messages without seeing; and the people, who erase the text messages after seeing. In this direction; these people may not be interested in these text messages for the reason of the improper time, unsuitable content, previous experiences, etc. In that case what should the company analyze to control the activities and the environment for benefitting from SMS Marketing?

From the strategical point of view the companies should be done below analysis for their safety and do the right things for the good marketing relations and satisfaction of the customers;

Basic Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis is the first step of the success or failure of the system. It includes the response time of the respondents to the text messages, the percentage of the right arrivals, the percentage of the lost messages, etc. In addition to these; these performance results should be traced and understood effectively to take the precautions and determine the SMS strategy primarily. For instance; at Keynote Systems, the average performance for all carriers was 11.8 seconds to receive message and 94.7 percent of all messages arrived at their destination. While these numbers are an improvement over the prior three months, the 94.7 percent availability could represent a significant loss of information and business when the number of lost messages is calculated. (AT&T 2002)

In our example; the company can classify the customers, who have made commercial activities, in 3 groups: high level, mid-level and low level. By the way; the company should also trace these classifications to understand whether there are changes in high levels, mid-levels and low levels. There may be some quantitative changes such as the increase in high levels that also indicates the increase in the expenses or the reduction at all levels that indicates the demand in the market has been declined.

Tendency Analysis

Targeting the audience is one of the most important things that any advertiser should remember. Nowadays, businessmen are considering it more wise and practical to advertise to individuals who will likely become customers. For instance, if a company is selling video games and other hip electronics, then marketers would want to run your SMS marketing campaign on teenagers and other young people who might be interested. (sign-up.to 2002)

Since 80% or more of all cell phone users carry their phone all the time, a text message to their cell phones is the perfect way to alert your subscribers or clients of any urgent information, such as a change of appointment, or product ready for pickup. For this reason; the companies have to understand in which stores and/or products that the customers have paid money by finding out the location of these stores and/or products, what the ranges of these saves are, who these clients are by making data mining, etc. By the way; the company can make identification about the product characteristic and determine new marketing strategy related to the most popular products or services. In addition to this; the products can be served to the people individually.

Capacity Analysis

The main idea of detecting capacity is to answer the question of will the company maintain the investment of sending text messages to the customers. The company has to understand the signals of benefits with the usage of SMSs. Because of the company will produce the products or keep the inventory according to the demands. Whether the demand is low due to the expectations, the company will produce lower parties, keep lower inventories and may reduce or stop the usage of SMS marketing. Moreover; the company may change the marketing strategy. On the other hand; the company may support and increase the usage rate of text messaging by sending them to more people whether the demand is very high. At that time; the company will perform more aggressive role in the market and this will affect the investments of the company.

For this reason; the capacity analysis, which indicates the present situation to meet the present demand and the future situation to meet the following demand, should be investigated and taken into consideration by the companies.

Reviewing Marketing Performance

Mobile marketing can be used for a wide range of occasions like announcing new product, one-day specials, new store openings, special events...etc. Subscribers can be treated as a special group for offers and information that only they have access to, increasing loyalty, purchases, and speed of communications.

While mobile marketing can be used in a lot of areas that helps them customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and incremental sales; the companies should search the performance of their marketing activities to maintain the available situation and then to increase the market share by accessing more satisfied clients. To achieve this; some functions should be generated like market research, market modeling and market consulting.

• Ø Marketing research - world-class qualitative and quantitative research, particularly market segmentation that gives the company growth-oriented insights.
• Ø Marketing modeling - state-of-the-science, profit-focused modeling that offers the company invaluable information about the financial impact of different marketing decisions.
• Ø Marketing consulting - continuously filtering what the statistics say through managerial, statistical, and financial criteria to provide the company with relevant and doable action steps.

In this regard; the company should determine some indicators to trace the performance of the marketing to understand whether the situation is going on the predetermined strategy or not. Some of these indicators are market share, new product, marketing return on investment (ROI), customer, brand, etc.

Furthermore; there are some criteria for selecting the targets of these performance indicators such as sales potential, growth potential, retention potential, common motivations, problem potential, responsiveness, findability, lifetime value, etc. These criteria should be investigated, considered and evaluated before targeting process. (Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research n.d.)

  

Sales Analysis

In sales analysis, the goal is to provide accurate management information related to sales activity in order to improve sales profitability and provide facilities for sales forecasting and planning at customer and product class levels.

By sales analysis; we can make the following actions:

• Ø Identify the most profitable customers
• Ø Know which products are selling
• Ø Analyze market trends and geographic market patterns
• Ø Know the profit generated by each product
• Ø Know which divisions of business are selling
• Ø Identify which salespeople are performing
• Ø Improve sales forecasting
• Ø Measure actual performance against quantity or revenue forecasts
• Ø Analyze tax collections
• Ø Set targets against customers and / or products
• Ø Compare against budgets per product group and/or salesperson

By the way; we can decide to maintain and admire the most profitable customers, continue to produce the most selling products, prompt the most valuable salespersons, get precautions according to the trend of the following months' sales, constitute the budget or make re-budgeting, determine the following targets that the marketing department should provide, etc.

In this regard; SMS marketing is perfect for local and national retailers wishing to promote products or services, provide incentives, and increase customer loyalty and retention. Retailers can send SMS messages to their opt-in subscribers with coupons code inserted directly into the message. Customers can come into the stores and present their coupons right on their cell phones for redemption. This application is very useful for consumers to sale any product in any time at any location, where it helps to increase the sales of the company.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

When consumers make purchases at market prices, they reveal that the things they buy are at least as beneficial to them as the money they relinquish. Consumers will increase their consumption of any commodity up to the point, where the benefit of an additional unit (marginal benefit) is equal to the marginal cost to them of that unit, the market price. The same idea can be used for the companies. A company, which directs its marketing strategy on SMS marketing, wants to get the financial benefit of the application including customer satisfaction. However; when the trend of the earned marginal benefit is going on a reducing direction, the company may decide to give up SMS marketing and consider another methods. On the other side; whether the marginal benefit is going on a positive direction, the company will begin to behave more aggressive way to use more text messages to arrive more customers. 

Character Analysis of the Customers

The first step in SMS Marketing campaign is collecting and getting permission to gather cell phone numbers as stated before. Although it is perfectly acceptable to simply have a signup form on the company's website or retail store with the promise to send valuable offers in return for signup; it is much more effective to come up with a creative tactic that offers more like prizes, memberships, bonus and free stuff. As the comapny build its database of cell phone numbers, try to elicit more than just that one piece of information. Ask for the customers about their hobbies, conventions and then create special announcements based on niche interests. Find out demographics and customize the text messages campaign to that particular cell phone recipient.

In the character analysis; clear purpose and goal focusing, communication skills, time management prioritization and planning, conflict handling and mental attitudes' information should be gathered by the companies. For instance; a goal focused person, who understands the direction of the organization, makes plans and organizes resources, both of people and materials and plans ahead in a strategic manner; can be directed to the gifts of special days and the text messages can be sent to these customers like in this way. Because these people are living in perfect planning days and they do not forget the most important days in their lives. For this reason; the gifts, which emphasize the special days, should be chosen as a content of text messages in SMS marketing strategy at these companies. In a different example; there are also SMART people, who can be described as Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic, and with a definite Time deadline. That's why these people always calculate the time and the cost opportunity, in which the prices are lower at any location. In this regard; the shopping centers' activities such as discounting days or other kind of promotions may be announced to these kinds of people earlier by the help of text messages.

This needs to be new specialists that improve themselves of psychology and marketing.

Institutional Risk Analysis

"Most of the banks in the US are not broke, not in trouble, but they don't trust each other because they don't know which banks are bad. We've got to get the bad ones out."             
William Seidman / American economist and financial commentator

The same situation can be considered for the commercial companies. The expectations will be seen clearly, whether the companies can determine which products are not sold enough, which salespersons are not successful enough, what are the actual and forecasting values of the market, etc. In the same direction; the main idea is to determine which products may not be sold in the following period and what are the actions that can be taken primarily. The methodology of risk analysis can be written as in the following:

• Ø Identify risk assessment and prioritize risks
• Ø Develop strategies to manage risks
• Ø Develop tactics to mitigate risks
• Ø Assign responsibility and implement
• Ø Test effectiveness and evaluate results

Comparative Analysis

Comparative analysis is a tool that uses item by item comparison of two or more comparable issues like processes, products, qualifications, sets of data, systems, etc. For instance; in accounting, changes in a financial statement's items over several accounting periods may be presented together to detect the emerging trends in the firm's operations and results. The company, which uses text messages to arrive to their customers, sends SMSs to their available clients primarily. After a time of this application, there are some feedbacks that some of the clients have made trades against the others have not. The results in here should be recorded. In this regard of this situation, the company may change the content of the text messages and then wants to see the results. In this time; the company can take a photo of two different situations and make a comparative analysis by using the quantity of sales, the amount of saved money, the number of sold products, etc. to see the differences and the impact of the contents. After that; the company can determine the following marketing strategy due to the feedback of these results.

Environmental Factors Analysis

The last searching area is to reveal the environmental factors like the changes in interest rates; crisis surrounding in economical, social and political areas; the developments in the rivals; the sales in each product; the demands in the market; purchase power of the public, new investment areas, which are rising in recent period, etc. Furthermore; SWOT analysis, which takes the information as a result of these previous activities and separate them into internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats), is one of the best techniques to understand and evaluate all these activities together. In SWOT analysis, the knowledge is designed to help an organization an understanding how it relates to its external environment. In other words to act as a way of seeing whether the organization is aligned with the world going on around it.

As a result of these analyses, the company should evaluate the available situation and get some remarks for the future. Whether the situation is not good enough or the demands are not expected, the company can trace the following instructions:

• a. Constituting an action plan
• b. Differentiating text messages
• c. Timing of the text messages
• d. Differentiating of the product
• e. Timing of the product
• f. Determining new marketing strategies
• g. Finding potential customers
• h. Evaluating the channels for their potentials, capabilities and reliability conditions

  

CONCLUSION

Mobile marketing tools are offering easier and more convenient ways with evolving marketing strategies. SMS has been the pioneer in wireless data applications and SMS services were the first mobile data services with a serious impact on the operator's revenue. The industry has seen tremendous growth and, clearly, messaging will lead the way to profits in 3G as well. Inevitably, the way that revenues from mobile applications are currently shared out will change and become much more versatile.

We can admit that SMS Marketing is a very useful tool for the marketers and a competitive marketing strategy for the companies. However; the main issue is not just to apply text messages to the clients. The focal point is to send the right value of contents, at the right time, at the right location, to the right customers with the right effect. Also; after sending them to the clients; the enterprises should follow the marketing auditing like marketing statistics by applying some analysis whether the text messages are effective or not. If there are some problems with this type of marketing strategy, the enterprise should review its' all ongoing processes to understand where the problem is.

The reasons of failure/triumph should be investigated. After the determination of these, the cautions should be taken into a contingency plan, the actions should be revised and the new applications should be done. If all these processes such as taking pre-cautions, monitor the applications in an analysis approach, etc. are taken into consideration in a systematical approach, we think that SMS Marketing will become a very powerful and indispensible tool for the applicant enterprises. On the other hand, most of the forecasts show that data-related services are increasing its value especially in the means of revenue of the mobile operators. Moreover, picture messaging and visuality has taken off, and MMS is a natural progression of these facts. The fact that the consumer preferences are moving fast towards visuality especially with services like Youtube, Video Messaging Services can be the new concept for the mobile world and the mobile marketing strategies.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a new form of communication that combines rich content, such as audio and video clips, photographs and images, with text messaging. It is an end-to-end application for person-to-person mobile messaging, mobile-to-mobile, mobile-to-Internet and Internet-to-mobile. It is good news for service providers, as they can now improve their existing text-based services by adding rich visual content. MMS will be a key mass-market revenue generator for content providers, mobile operators, application developers and advertisers, while for users it will provide a way to capture a moment of time and share it with others.

From the users' perspective, a successful MMS launch needs the terminal to be set up ready to use from the minute he or she walks out of the store with it. An operator can meet this expectation by offering automatic terminal provisioning over the air through its own network and today, Turkcell, the leading operator in Turkey is offering this service over the air. In addition, operators need to educate end users, not only on how they can send and receive MMS messages but also how they can discover and subscribe to MMS content services. Operators can create service packs, set-up content service demos provide customer training and competitions in retail stores, as well as at relevant events such as festivals and concerts.

 

  

 REFERENCES

Gustafsson, Å. & Lenman, AEricsson's enriched messaging architecture, Ericsson Review No. 2, 2007.

SMS (Short Message System) Mobile Technology, International, White Paper SPG Media Group PLC, 2008.

http://www.marketingpundit.com/MktgLessons_files/Introduction_to_Marketing_Planning.pdf

Piercy, N. & Giles, W "Making SWOT Analysis Work", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume: 7 Issue: 5/6, 1989

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis, Dr. E.J.Keeley, Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness and Research

Codling, S. Best Practice Benchmarking, gowerpub.com, 1995

Kotler, P Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, Prentice-Hall, 1988

http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_objectives.htm

Borden, N. H "The Concept of the Marketing Mix", Journal of Advertising Research, 4, June 1994: 2-7

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk

http://www.mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing

http://www.textsmsmarketing.com

http://www.mobilesmsmarketing.com

http://www.plusone.com.au/smsstudies.php

http://www.mobiltim.com.tr/sms_cilginligi.pdf

MMS entering into the next phase, White Paper, Nokia Corporation, 2003

http://www.sign-up.to/0308.php?k=sms-marketing&PageID=8631

Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research, Bringing Science to Marketing

http://portal.bsnl.in/Telecomguide.asp?intNewsId=483&strNewsMore=more

McDaniel, C.D. & Gates, R. H Marketing Research Essentials, Published by Taylor & Francis, 1997

5 Door Hanger Design Tips

Outside of a hotel, where door hangers are used to request or decline maid service, door hangers are often an overlooked form of marketing.  However, they can be very effective, since the person must handle the door hanger to remove it from their door.  They are also inexpensive, particularly if you have someone that can deliver them for you.  Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing your door hangers.

Headlines

The headlines should stand out and be easy to read, as well as convey the main message quickly.  Stay away from colors that will blend into the background of the door hanger or any fonts that can be hard to read.  Remember, your target audience may only glance at the door hanger before throwing it in the garbage, so you need to make sure that they at least read the headline before they do so.

Use Both Sides

Remember that a door hanger does have two sides, and you should use both of them to help get your message across.  The first side should be used to draw attention to the door hanger and capture the customer's interest, while the second side would give more information and contact details.  While this will cost a little bit more in printing costs, it will create a better response to your door hanger and generate more business for you.

Bright Colors

The front of your door hanger should use bright, vivid colors that will attract attention.  If your customer doesn't routinely use their front door, then you don't want the door hanger to hang for days or weeks going unnoticed.  Come up with a design that will stand out and encourage them to go and remove it.  And do not forget to include your company logo on the front in bold colors as well.  Branding is an important part of company recognition, and you do not want to miss an opportunity to help establish your brand.

Contact Info

While this seems obvious, you do need to make sure that your contact information is displayed prominently on the door hanger.  Remember, you want to make it easy for the customer to contact you, so make sure your address, website, or phone number is highlighted so that they will notice it.  Even if they do not contact you right away, you want to make sure that they have the information handy when they do decide to contact you.

Coupons

Do you want to know how effective your door hangers really are for generating business?  Add a coupon to the bottom of it.  Not only will this give potential customers an added incentive to give you a call, but you will be able to track the number of redemptions compared to the number of door hangers you distributed.  If you are not seeing the redemptions that you would like, then it may be time to change your marketing technique.

There are many ways that door hangers can help you to increase your business.  The better designed your door hanger is, the more likely your target audience will be to take a look at it.  Make sure that yours stands out from the competition!

Online Purchases, Signing Up to Paypal

Let's face it PayPal is the way forward when shopping for goods and services online. You could be using one of the many auction sites like eBay or even purchasing your medication from your drug store online.

Right now you can buy pet supplies, toys, coffee, books, computers, shoes, flowers and airline tickets - the list is endless as more and more retailers are signing up to PayPal. The best thing about PayPal Coupons is that you can use them to purchase any product from any seller or store - you just need to know how!

PayPal is quick and easy to use and great for the consumer as you can shop online without giving out your credit card or other personal information which could easily be stolen. You simply add fund to your PayPal account.

If you have received a coupon from eBay via email you are one of the lucky and select few. EBay and PayPal rarely send coupon or gift certificate offers to all members. Maybe you stopped using your eBay or PayPal account and they are trying to lure you back. If you do receive a PayPal Coupon then you will be locked to a specific email address which is a one time use for you.

Now you know that PayPal Coupons, also known as "redemption codes", exist the question is how do you get your hands on them? There must be a way because hundreds of people have been cashing in on them, saving themselves substantial sums.

How to find eBay and PayPal Coupons

The only real way to receive and benefit from PayPal Coupons like so many others is to create your own. The PayPal Coupon website is a superior website where for a yearly fee of $9.95 you can create your own custom coupons of any amount or percentage.

You are not limited to the amount of coupons you create or how frequently you redeem them.

You can use these coupons in one of two ways or even both.

Option 1
If you want to make a purchase online or if you win a bid on eBay you can login in to your account at the PayPal Coupon website, create a coupon for 10% for example or for a bigger amount and apply this at the checkout.

Option 2
If you are an eBay seller you could offer first time bidders a discount. This is a great way to get new customers. You could even reward long time customers with coupons so they will shop with you again.

Using this website is easy, quick and saves you money. Saving money for your online purchases is just a few clicks away.
Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips & hints, Points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques & insights pertaining to Google Adsense, Do please browse for more information at our website :-
http://www.googleatmcash.com

Nice Offers

NOC is a "slam dunk" for businesses that want to attract more customers:

Simply register your business, authorize an offer and bounty you're comfortable with, and you're off and running. There's no cost to get started with NOC.

You can literally be getting results within minutes. Authorize your offer, and we'll go to work immediately to get your offer in front of customers.

6460 businesses from 150 countries worldwide have already become NOC Merchants!

Word-of-mouth has always been the purest and best form of advertising. Through NOC's huge affiliate network, you can now put this powerful form of advertising to work for your business. Indeed, with over 100,000 affiliates worldwide, NOC offers amazing coverage and promotional opportunities for your business –all with no risk to you.

You're the boss. You have complete control over the offer, how customers, expiration, the kind of promotion allowed, and the amount of the bounty may redeem the offer.

Simply put, NOC can save your customers big money –because YOU can save big money by securing customers through NOC's unique, pay-only-for-results advertising system.

You pay ONLY for results. If NOC doesn't bring you sales, you pay nothing. Compare that to traditional advertising in newspapers, radio, television, or direct mail where you could easily spend thousands of dollars with no guarantee of even a single sale being generated.

One of the great things about NOC is that it's so simple and easy to participate in. Here's how it works:

1. First, register your business.




2. Next, create a coupon with some kind of special discount or offer.




3. Authorize a "bounty" (the amount you agree to pay NOC each time your coupon is redeemed).




4. Your offer will immediately appear on the NOC Website (www.niceoffers.com) where it can be in front of potential customers within minutes.




5. Our 150,000+ affiliates will be notified of your new offer so that they can also begin promoting it.




6. Customers will redeem coupons (which they've printed out from the NOC Website and/or they've been given by our affiliates) at your place of business.




7. We'll invoice you once a month for any bounties due.

 

The referring affiliate earns a portion of the bounty each time one of your coupons is redeemed. Of course, this is a win/win/win deal: the customer gets a great deal, our affiliate earns a bounty, and you make a sale/get a valuable new customer!

NOC is partnered with the SFI Marketing Group. SFI operates one of the largest affiliate networks in the world -- with over 150,000 affiliates in more than 200 countries. SFI has been building this broad, global network of affiliates since 1998. SFI's "marketing muscle" is now available to YOU through NOC!

Newspaper advertising is generally expensive. Many businesses regularly pay hundreds of dollars each week for their newspaper ads. How many customers do they get from these ads for the dollars spent? In many cases, because it's difficult to determine, they don't really even know. However, many businesses no doubt spend $25, $50, or even as much as $200 to get one new customer from newspaper advertising. With NOC, you can authorize a bounty of just $20, $10, or even less for each new customer...and you pay it ONLY when NOC generates a sale for you! NOC provides GUARANTEED results instead of placing ads and hoping!

You create your NOC coupons by just filling out a simple form online at www.niceoffers.com. It's very simple and takes less than five minutes.

That's totally up to you --whatever amount of bounty you are comfortable with. However, please keep in mind that the larger the bounty, the more inclined our affiliates will be to promote your offer.

Confirmation e-mail will be sent to you for your registration. Confirmation e-mail will also be sent on every offer you create. You can also go to www.niceoffers.com any time to check your offers. Note: The latest offers are featured on the www.niceoffers.com front page, which provides a little extra free publicity for you.

When you register, you'll be assigned your own private Merchant Administration area at niceoffers.com. You'll be able to track the results of all your offers, retrieve information on your customers who have redeemed coupons, and more.

You can create as many coupons as you like at no cost, whenever you wish to. This is a great way to test different offers to find out which pulls the best.

Just about anything. And since there's no cost to create as many offers as you want, feel free to be creative. As a rule of thumb, just keep in mind that NOC Coupons should be for:

A. Products/services sold from a physical location (e.g. store or restaurant).

B. Products/services sold directly from a Website owned, operated, and under the direct control of the merchant.

Exception(s): If you have the EXCLUSIVE marketing rights to a product or service, we may allow promotion utilizing a third-party Website or physical sales location. Additional exemptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Here a just a few ideas for coupons you can submit:

• 30% off any patio furniture set




• Save $40 off any DVD player normally $140 or more




• Buy one large pizza, get a second large pizza free




• Free bike stand with the purchase of any bike




• Buy two pairs of shoes, get the third pair free




• One-year membership (normally $295) for just $99




• $25 off your first visit

 

Three things are recommended

1. The better the offer is for the customer, the more customers it will attract and the easier it will be for NOC affiliates to create new sales for you.




2. The larger the bounty, the more incentive there will be for NOC affiliates to promote your offer.




3. If possible, make your offer exclusive to NOC. This can be done with just a small modification of your "standard" offer. That is, let's say you normally offer $25 off your product during sales; make it $30 off for NOC and you've now created an exclusive that NOC and its affiliates can promote more aggressively.

 

Remember, with NOC you pay only for results. Hence, some of what you would have otherwise spent in advertising can be rolled back into the offer in the form of a better deal for the customer and/or a larger bounty.

When you set up your coupon, you can designate any restrictions you'd like such as limiting usage to new customers only. Additionally, previous sales information is a click away at your Merchant Admin area (at niceoffers.com), so you can quickly verify that someone hasn't used a coupon already. Over and above this, you can of course maintain your own records that would prevent unwanted coupon use.

 Affiliates have special access to the NOC Website where they can peruse and compare all the available offers as they come in. We also send our affiliates a weekly newsletter announcing the latest offers. We also introduce NOC to the thousands of brand new affiliates each week who are continually joining the network.

NOC just launched in the Fall of 2005. However, already, thousands of people visit Niceoffers.com every week to browse the latest offers.

Our affiliates may use any legal/ethical method at their disposal. The most prominent methods will normally be word-of-mouth and online marketing. For example, many of our affiliates operate Websites that get substantial daily traffic. Via ad banners on their Websites, they can generate significant exposure for your offers. Note! If there's any form of advertising you wish to restrict our affiliates from using, you can designate this when you create your coupons.

Keeping existing customers is crucial for a healthy business. NOC can help you set up a simple, easy-to-maintain "Preferred Customer" program that will help you keep your current customers from jumping ship to the competition.

SFI has affiliates in virtually every country in the world to create exposure for NOC merchants everywhere.

Customers will be printing your coupons from the NOC Website and bringing them into your store for redemption.

You can create offers just like any other merchant. The only difference is that customers will redeem your offers directly via an online purchase instead of physically presenting a paper coupon.

When you create your coupons, you'll be able to give your customer the option of shopping at your physical store OR redeeming your offer online.

While it's likely you won't be seeing any new sales from customers living on the other side of the world, our broad affiliate network can still serve you in a substantial way. For one thing, we may have dozens or even hundreds of affiliates who live in your city or region and can effectively drive business to your store. Secondly, the Internet goes everywhere. Therefore, affiliates around the world may be generating local sales for you from customers who learned about your offer from the remote affiliate's Website.

On the first of every month, all of the coupons will be tally you have redeemed for the previous month and send you an invoice with the total bounty amount due. Invoice are payable within 10 days. If desired, you can pay all invoices online via credit card or Pay Pal.

 

 

 

 

 

Internet Marketing: - Simple Steps in Marketing Promotions Strategy

Promotional Risk... Is it worth it? Over the past decade, there has been tremendous growth in consumer and business product releases, bringing challenges to consumer and B2B marketers to differentiate brands. The ever changing media market increases the complexities, for both offline and online marketing professionals. The combined formula, with the recent recession and ongoing downturn of this economy, leaves marketers with an environment that is unique to any year in history, for more details visit to www.outsource-beginners.com with a challenge that only the riskiest of marketers will survive. Are you willing to bet your marketing, advertising, public relations or promotions career on your willingness to take a risk? If you do not include this risk in your promotional strategy, while your competitor does, what will happen? Will your marketing competitor win market share that you have lost or will the safe road you have taken pay off?   It is my experience that you must take the promotional risk. You are about to learn why you should include promotional risk coverage in marketing strategy to engage the consumer and secure a larger market share, during this recession. Follow these simple steps in marketing promotions strategy and build big brands that will stand the test of time.
 
There is no argument that consumers are responding to large cash and prize giveaways. Your marketing research can stop with the review of network programming you find in recent shows like Deal or No Deal, Price Is Right, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and the many other network promotions which include large prize and cash offerings to both gain consumer loyalty and increase ratings. Radio and television stations, newsprint and magazine publications, online and offline companies alike are all tapping into the simplest of strategy to increase viewers, for more details visit to www.popups-generator.com visitors and readership, while gaining promotional affiliations and sponsorships. The strategy is simple. They are taking promotional risk.

This promotional strategy doesn't require the risk to your company or your job, which you might initially assume. You give away cash or large prizes. Everyone likes to win and most people like to see others win. As long as you protect yourself and company with promotional risk coverage, you will also be the winner. Your prize offerings are based on the odds of a winner claiming the prize. As long as your promotional strategy does not include a guaranteed prize offering as the only prize, your company can include promotional risk coverage with the promotion. Promotional risk coverage can be found in promotions like you see on television, hear on the radio, read in newspapers, magazines, see online or in internet marketing promotions. They offer the consumer a chance to win, and when there is a winner, your company is protected against having to pay the winner. Much like you insure your car from an accident or your home from a natural disaster, you can cover your promotion against a risk associated with the liabilities of giving away large valued prize amounts. The cost of promotional risk is minimal, literally a fraction of the prize value, and is based on the promotional odds, the prize value, and the number of chances given to win the promotion.  

The strategy behind marketing promotions, which include promotional risk coverage, is simple and enables companies to differentiate brands in a very competitive market. Promotional risk covered promotions open up possibilities to offer larger prizes than most companies can afford, or would want to take promotional risk on. These large prizes are proven to increase registrations of online users, traffic in stores, and sales at any given time, leads generated both offline and online promotions, and build large brands through consumer loyalty. The strategy is to include a prize offering, which can be based on a game of skill, game of chance, or the redemption of an offer.

With Games of Skill, you could include promotional risk coverage in offering someone a chance to win up to $1,000,000 in a sports promotion. You have probably seen such games of skill in basketball promotions of a random fan shooting a basketball from half court. A football promotion might include a punt or throwing contest, or a hole in one coverage for golf promotions and tournaments.

Games of Chance are found in online marketing promotions and Internet marketing, with sweepstakes, online contests and games. You might see them in offline promotions for trade shows and events where B2B marketers or consumer marketers are holding drawings to increase traffic to events, increase customer response and generate leads.

Promotional risk coverage can be included in marketing promotions to protect companies against over redemption of coupon offerings and fix promotional marketing budgets for both consumer and B2B marketing strategies. Conditional offerings, such as conditional weather rebates, can add to marketing promotions to engage consumer involvement in the promotion and increase promotional coverage and public relations of the marketing effort.

Over redemption coverage allows promotional risk coverage to prevent the variable costs associated to budgeting of a marketing promotion when there is uncertainty about your program's response rate or outcome. Promotional risk companies cover the cost of excess redemptions or responses, whatever the value of the prize, rebate, coupon, or premium. This allows you to plan promotional expenses to the penny, eliminate budget overruns for higher than expected response, and stretch promotional dollars for a maximum market impact.

Promotional Risk Coverage Differentiates Brands Which Bet on This Promotional Marketing Strategy

1. Follow these simple steps in marketing promotions strategy and build big brands that will stand the test of time.

There is no argument that consumers are responding to large cash and prize giveaways. Your marketing research can stop with the review of network programming you find in recent shows like Deal or No Deal, Price Is Right, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, and the many other network promotions which include large prize and cash offerings to both gain consumer loyalty and increase ratings. Radio and television stations, newsprint and magazine publications, online and offline companies alike are all tapping into the simplest of strategy to increase viewers, visitors and readership, while gaining promotional affiliations and sponsorships. The strategy is simple. They are taking promotional risk.

The strategy behind marketing promotions, which include promotional risk coverage, is simple and enables companies to differentiate brands in a very competitive market. Promotional risk covered promotions open up possibilities to offer larger prizes than most companies can afford, or would want to take promotional risk on. These large prizes are proven to increase registrations of online users, traffic in stores, and sales at any given time, leads generated both offline and online promotions, and build large brands through consumer loyalty. The strategy is to include a prize offering, which can be based on a game of skill, game of chance, or the redemption of an offer.

With Games of Skill, you could include promotional risk coverage in offering someone a chance to win up to $1,000,000 in a sports promotion. You have probably seen such games of skill in basketball promotions of a random fan shooting a basketball from half court. A football promotion might include a punt or throwing contest, or a hole in one coverage for golf promotions and tournaments.

Games of Chance are found in online marketing promotions and Internet marketing, with sweepstakes, online contests and games. You might see them in offline promotions for trade shows and events where B2B marketers or consumer marketers are holding drawings to increase traffic to events, increase customer response and generate leads.

Promotional risk coverage can be included in marketing promotions to protect companies against over redemption of coupon offerings and fix promotional marketing budgets for both consumer and B2B marketing strategies. Conditional offerings, such as conditional weather rebates, can add to marketing promotions to engage consumer involvement in the promotion and increase promotional coverage and public relations of the marketing effort.

Over redemption coverage allows promotional risk coverage to prevent the variable costs associated to budgeting of a marketing promotion when there is uncertainty about your program's response rate or outcome. Promotional risk companies cover the cost of excess redemptions or responses, whatever the value of the prize, rebate, coupon, or premium. This allows you to plan promotional expenses to the penny, eliminate budget overruns for higher than expected response, and stretch promotional dollars for a maximum market impact.

The bottom line is magnified during the current economic climate, within every department of every business, small or large. To drive business in a recession, or any economic downturn, marketers must find new ways to gain and maintain market share. Those who realize that the success and longevity of their brand is in the hands of the American consumer will stand far ahead of the competitor. In order to engage the consumer and gain brand loyalty, the savvy marketer provides that consumer with benefits which will entice reaction. Consumers react to what they perceive is in their best interest. Find that formula in promotional risk coverage and you will benefit.

Along with incorporating promotional risk coverage into Promotional Currency's digital incentive product offerings, the promotional marketing company assists businesses manage their risk on redemption-based promotions.  By analyzing the odds of redemption and then placing the risk with an A+ insurance company, Promotional Currency can provide your brand with a fixed-cost solution that amounts to a fraction of the actual promotional value.  And should over-redemption occur, Promotional Currency will cover the cost – whatever the value of the prize, rebate, coupon or premium.

Using the Yield Add-in Functions

Excel provides five functions that let you make price calculations for securities such as bonds more easily: YIELD, YIELDDISC, ODDFYIELD, ODDLYIELD, and ODDLYIELD. (Excel's online help file supplies the actual formulas used for many of these yield functions.)

Some Background Info on the Yield Functions

As a group, the functions use a set of standard arguments:

The settlement date specifies the date the bond is settled, or purchased.

The maturity date specifies the date the bond matures, or expires.

The issue date is the date on which a security is issued. You may enter the date arguments either as text strings enclosed in quotation marks (for example, “7/4/99”) or as serial date values (for example, 37000 for April 19, 2001.)

The functions for pricing odd-period securities—ODDFYIELD and ODDLYIELD—also require the date of the first regular coupon payment or the date of the last regular coupon payment in order to calculate the first or last odd period.

The rate argument is the bond’s interest rate.

The yield argument is the bond’s annual yield.

The redemption argument is the bond’s redemption value per each $100 of face value.

The price argument shows the price of a bond expressed as a percentage of its face value.
For example, a bond that cost $991.83 would be priced at 99.183.

The frequency argument gives the number of coupon payments made each year: you specify
1 to indicate an annual coupon, 2 to indicate a semiannual coupon, and 4 to indicate a
quarterly coupon.

Finally, the basis argument specifies the number of days in the month and year assumed for the
date calculations. You specify the basis as 0 for the US (or NASD) version of 30 days in a
month and 360 days in a year; as 1 for the actual number of days in the month and year; 2
for the actual number of days in the month but 360 days in a year; 3 for the actual number
of days in the month and 365 days in a year; and 4 for the European version of 30 days in
a month and 360 days in a year.

NOTE: Excel uses only the integer portion of the arguments you supply to the add-in
and yield date functions.

Using the YIELD function

The YIELD function calculates the yield of a security given the settlement date, maturity
date, coupon rate, price, redemption price, coupon frequency, and basis. It uses the following
syntax:

YIELD (settlement, maturity, rate, price, redemption, frequency, basis)

Suppose, for example, that you want to calculate the yield on a bond that you purchased on
March 4, 2000, that will mature on May 31, 2011, pays a semiannual coupon of 3.5%, is
priced at 101.1425, and will be redeemed at face value, or 100. Further assume that you want
to use the European, 30-days-in-a-month, 360-days-in-a-year day count basis. To make this
calculation, you use the following formula:

=YIELD("3/4/2000","5/31/2011",.035*2,101.1425,100,2,4)

The function returns 0.068507, which is equivalent to 6.8507%.

Using the YIELDDISC function

The YIELDDISC function calculates the yield of a discounted security given the settlement
date, maturity date, price, redemption price, and basis. It uses the following syntax:

YIELDDISC (settlement, maturity, price, redemption, basis)

Suppose, for example, that you want to calculate the yield on a discounted security that you
purchased on March 4, 2000, that will mature on May 31, 2011, is discounted at 56.1762,
and will be redeemed at face value, or 100. Further assume that you want to use the European,
30-days-in-a-month, 360-days-in-a-year day count basis. To make this calculation,
you use the following formula:

=YIELDDISC("3/4/2000","5/31/2011",56.1762,100,4)

The function returns 0.069412, which is equivalent to 6.9412%.

Using the YIELDMAT function

The YIELDMAT function calculates the yield of a security that will pay its interest upon
maturity given the settlement date, maturity date, issue date, coupon rate, price, and basis.
It uses the following syntax:

YIELDMAT (settlement, maturity, issue, rate, price, basis)

Suppose, for example, that you want to calculate the yield on a security that you purchased
on March 4, 2000, was first issued on March 4, 1999, that will mature on May 31, 2011,
pays a coupon of 3.5% semiannually, and is priced at 95.8194. Further assume that you want
to use the European, 30-days-in-a-month, 360-days-in-a-year day count basis. To make this
calculation, you use the following formula:

=YIELDMAT("3/4/2000","5/31/2011","3/4/1999",.035*2,95.8194,4)

The function returns 0.071698, which is equivalent to 7.1698%.

Using the ODDFYIELD function

The ODDFYIELD function calculates the yield of a security when the first period is odd—
shorter or longer than a typical coupon period—given the settlement date, maturity date,
issue date, first coupon date, coupon rate, price, redemption price, coupon frequency, and
basis. It uses the following syntax:

ODDFYIELD (settlement, maturity, issue, first coupon, rate, price, redemption, frequency, basis)

Suppose, for example, that you want to calculate the price on an odd-period bond that you
purchased on March 4, 2000, that will mature on May 31, 2011, was originally issued on
December 7, 1999, pays a semiannual coupon of 3.5% starting on November 30, 2000, and
is priced at 99.183 but will be redeemed at face value. Further assume that you want to use
the European, 30-days-in-a-month, 360-days-in-a-year day count basis. To make this calculation,
you use the following formula:

=ODDFYIELD("3/4/2000","5/31/2011","12/7/1999","11/30/2000",.035*2,99.183,100,2,4)

The function returns 0.066599, which is equivalent to 6.6599%.

Using the ODDLYIELD function

The ODDFYIELD function calculates the yield of a security when the last period is odd—
shorter or longer than a typical coupon period—given the settlement date, maturity date,
issue date, last coupon date, coupon rate, price, redemption price, coupon frequency, and basis.
It uses the following syntax:

ODDLYIELD (settlement, maturity, issue, last coupon, rate, price, redemption, frequency, basis)

Suppose, for example, that you want to calculate the price on an odd-period bond that you
purchased on March 4, 2000, that will mature on May 31, 2011, was originally issued on
December 7, 1999, pays a semiannual coupon of 3.5%, last paid a coupon on November 30,
1999, and is priced at 99.183 but will be redeemed at face value. Further assume that you
want to use the European, 30-days-in-a-month, 360-days-in-a-year day count basis. To
make this calculation, you use the following formula:

=ODDLYIELD("3/4/2000","5/31/2011","11/30/1999",.035*2,99.183,100,2,4)

The function returns 0.070019, which is equivalent to 7.0019%.

Secrets to Stop Foreclosure (part 1)

Most homeowners believe that foreclosure laws are designed to hurt rather than help them. Not so. The secret is that foreclosure laws have evolved to protect the borrower--not the lender. There, I've said it. The secret is out! Now listen closely and understand why I say this. The foreclosure process gives you, the borrower, specific periods of time in which to:

• bring your loan current by making up the missed payments (known as "reinstatement"), or

• pay off your loan in its entirety (called "redemption").

If neither of these options is feasible, you will still have time to prevent your property from being sold at a public auction (the foreclosure sale).

You will get the most benefit out of the foreclosure process if you envision this secret as a "window of opportunity" to resolve your financial problems. During this window of opportunity, you have time to learn about the foreclosure process and implement a strategy to stop the foreclosure.

Another basic misconception about foreclosure is that lenders want to foreclose. Nothing could be further from the truth! Lenders are in the business of loaning money--not owning real estate.

They don't want your house back for numerous reasons. Lenders are reluctant to incur the costs of a foreclosure. For example, if your lender is forced to foreclose, it will not only lose your back payments, but it will also incur foreclosure expenses, taxes, insurance, wear and tear while you (or your tenant) live in the
property, repair costs to refurbish the property for sale, and a real estate agent's commission once the property is sold. As a result, many lenders will go out of their way to work out a resolution--short of actually foreclosing--if you give them the opportunity.

A. Communicate With Your Lender

The secret to stopping your foreclosure is communicating with your lender. With the sudden avalanche of foreclosures and defaults, lenders are more eager than ever before to workout a solution rather than foreclosing. Lenders will do almost anything to avoid increasing their overflowing REO inventory of foreclosed properties.

Don't shy away because you've missed payments, concerned that you will miss some payments in the future, or that your property has already gone into foreclosure. Whether you communicate by telephone, letter, email, fax, or in person, you will have a much easier time stopping (or at the very least, delaying) the foreclosure if you talk to your lender rather than adopting a code of silence.

The secret is to negotiate directly with someone with "authority" at your lender's office. The first step is to determine who your lender actually is. (This is no small feat these days with lenders selling their loans to other lenders like hot potatoes.) If your property has already gone into foreclosure, the first person you will be dealing with will either be the foreclosing trustee, or the attorney for the lender. If it is a judicial foreclosure, you will most likely be contacted by a process server, sent by the lender's attorney. If it is a non-judicial foreclosure, the trustee is responsible for handling the foreclosure process. You will need to contact these people.

But the secret is that you will be more successful if you communicate directly with your lender, rather than the trustee or the attorney. So you should request from the trustee or the attorney, the name, telephone number, and address of the foreclosing lender. In the unlikely event that they refuse to disclose the name of your lender, you can look on the Notice of Default, or the summons and complaint, or telephone the customer service department of a local title insurance company.

Another situation may occur where you discover the name of your lender, but it turns out to be a servicing agent rather than the party that actually holds the deed of trust or mortgage. A servicing agent is a company (sometimes it can be a bank, mortgage company, or private corporation) that is hired by the actual lender to "service" the loan, (issuing mortgage statements, payment coupons and late notices, collecting payments, monitoring the impounding of insurance and tax payments, and handling foreclosures if necessary). Fortunately, most servicing agents will disclose the name of the lender. If they won't, you may be forced to negotiate with the servicing agent.

In the interim, you will receive threatening calls from collection agents at the lender's office. Do not under any circumstance ignore your lender's contacts. Your goal should be to respond to every phone call or letter. Difficult as it may be to talk about your financial problems, be polite and cooperative. Follow up all telephone calls with a letter to the person you spoke to, confirming what was said. If you're not in when a call comes, return it as soon as you can. Use these calls to collect information regarding your lender (i.e. lender's name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, responsible department or individual).

When you receive a letter from your lender (always keep the original), immediately write a letter in response. The secret here is to establish a paper trail so you can prove to your lender (or a court, if necessary) that you have been cooperative, especially during the initial stages of the foreclosure process.

It is also important to send copies of all of your letters to:
• the lender's CEO
• the branch manager (if applicable)
• the loan officer who helped you obtain your loan, and
• any other person you know by name at your lender's office.

B. CONTACTING PEOPLE YOU KNOW AT THE LENDER'S OFFICE

Make sure your letter indicates you are sending copies by typing "cc:" and the name of the person(s) below your signature. Please don't be hesitant to send copies of your letters to these individuals, as they can't do anything to help you if they aren't aware of your predicament. There is a secret to sending copies to other people and showing the "cc" at the bottom of your letters. At the very least, the person you sent the letter to won't be able to ignore your letter because he or she knows that supervisors have received copies.

Typically, in their initial letters and telephone calls, your lender will state that they have not received your payment(s) and inquire innocently whether or not you have mailed a payment. What you say in response to your lender's inquiry is another matter. If you already mailed your payment, give your lender the date. If you have not, tell the truth. Your lender in turn will want to know why you haven't paid, and what date you will be sending a payment. Acknowledge that you are having temporary financial problems and that you won't be able to make the payments for the next couple of months. Provide a good explanation of your financial difficulties (i.e. layoff, medical emergency, death in the family, loss of business, divorce). Contrary to popular belief, sharing this information will not speed up the foreclosure process. What you say may make the lender more sympathetic to your situation and may delay the foreclosure. At the very least, it will foster a positive atmosphere for negotiations later in the process.

Your lender may warn you that if payments are not made, your loan will go into default. It may also threaten to start foreclosure proceedings unless you bring all of your payments current immediately. Don't be intimidated. Stay calm and understand that the person you're dealing with is simply doing his job. At this point, write a letter explaining your financial problem and request an appointment with a senior loan officer to discuss your loan.

Want to Invest in Indian Government Bonds – Learn More About Rbi Bonds and Bond Market of India

India – progress and development is thy name! And the same stands true for the Indian economy, more so for the 'bond market'. An innovation of the recent past, asset-backed securities have grown to be a pivotal part of the corporate debt market. Floating rate instruments, convertible bonds, step redemption bonds, zero coupon bonds – these and many more such instruments are today being acknowledged country-wide.

A decade back, banks like ICICI and IDBI began issuing step bonds. While those of the ICICI Bank paid a higher rate of interest, those of the IDBI allowed clients to pay the redemption amount in instalments after an initial holding period. In addition, the approach of maturity of ICICI step bonds clearly showed the benefits of bond issuance in India, while IDBI step bonds had two put and call options before maturity. All these have provided a range of securities that have helped in maintaining a sought-after risk return balance. Due to these corporate issuers, preference has changed from public issues to private placements.

Upon comparing the equity market with the bond market for the past decade, we find that the equity market saw a drop of almost 14% of GDP – slumping from 42% in 1993-94 to 28.6% in 2000-01. Au contraire, the Government of India bonds (GOI bonds) enjoyed an increase of about 8% of GDP - from 28% to 36.7% - in the same period. As a result, there appeared a reduction in liquidity in the equity market and a substantial increase in liquidity in the Indian bond market.

But don't get stupefied with the impressive statistics of the GOI bonds. Every coin has two sides. Similarly, there are some drawbacks to the Indian bond market also. The GOI bond market doesn't use trade as an exchange and features a bilateral negotiation between dealers. The market hence, lacked price time priority. To top it, bilateral negotiations imposed credit risk on participants narrowing the market with a homogeneous credit risk.

The Indian bond market, however, is today at par with some of the leading markets of Asia like Korea. The grapevine is that in a few years, the Indian bond market will be counted as a renowned market of the world.

We feel proud to recognise the bond market of India better than that of China. And this is definitely an evidence of Indian economy's quick progression. Moreover, the Indian bond market is profitable to almost anyone and everyone. The new business houses especially find the Indian market profitable from an operational point of view. That is pretty obvious as they have been able to initiate business in a very short time span and generate capital easily.

LIQUIDITY OF INDIAN DEBT MARKET

The liquidity of the Indian debt market has helped both the market as well as the various companies operating in it. But, for the market to sustain itself, and that too in an international level requires capital. Luckily, the Indian debt market has been able to attract enough companies.

POTENTIAL OF FIXED INCOME MARKET IN INDIA

Every market has its highs and lows. For the Indian market, the fixed income market is counted in the former. As stated before, the Indian economy is considered better than the Chinese economy, and the fixed income market is one amongst many reasons for this. Experts expect the bond market in India to grow manifold and become one of the biggest in the world in perhaps another decade or so.

SECONDARY INDIA BOND MARKET

One of the best secondary bond markets of Asia is that of India. It has a high amount of liquidity. The market is an establishment of sixteen primary dealers who underwrite the sales of the debt of the Government of India and deal with India's apex bank, the Reserve Bank of India, directly. As icing on the cake, some bonds in the secondary market have maturity period of as long as thirty years!

Got Gas?

In today's economic environment it's almost impossible to understand what is true or real.  We are given continuous news, to the point it is no longer news but discussions and opinions.  We are given spin, and then we are spun and wrung out of every penny we can create.  So we need more pennies.  The biggest "story" right now is gas.  How much is there?  Why can't we drill our own, doesn't Iraq have a lot they are not using, is Wall Street doing this? and on and on...  We are just beginning to see different marketing programs by the gas companies to regain something they have lost because of their increasing prices.  What they have lost is brand loyalty.

 

When we were younger most of us (and our parents) had a favorite brand of gas; Shell, Texaco etc. and that's the kind station we went to.  Now we look for pennies on the signs.  If a station is 2 or 3 cents less than the last one we saw, and we need gas we pull in.  This is creating a dilemma for the gas companies.  The station around the corner changes the sign and the cars like lemmings turn into it so the other station has to change its sign, you can see the problem. 

 

A marketing plan designed to help the gas companies and regain brand loyalty is based on $25 Free gas cards.  Basically you join a membership rewards program by purchasing a Rewards Certificate, usually $10.  You activate the certificate by mail and in a short time receive a redemption kit by mail.  Then you go online and redeem vouchers by entering the certificate number you received in the redemption kit.  You must select one brand of gas (all brands appear to be available).  Then print out a number of monthly vouchers.  The number of vouchers you will receive is based on the $ value of the certificate you bought.  For example if you bought a $100 certificate you would get 4 vouchers.  The first voucher is valid for the first month after you activated your certificate.  Buy your gas from the brand you selected.  Once you have $100 in receipts, send them and the voucher into the redemption center as directed in your kit.  A couple of weeks later you get a $25 gas card for your brand of gas.  Do it again the next month and so on.

 

It's a lot less complicated than it seems and it is a good deal.  Unlike most other internet incentive programs there are no offers to take, samples to try, or surveys to complete, just purchase the Rewards Certificate follow the instructions. There are other small charges along the way including a $5.00 processing fee that is refunded on the last gas card you receive.  You will spend a total of about $30 to get $300 worth of gas cards from www.gas4america.com, one of the authorized distributors.  You can only have one membership per household address.  The gas companies want you to buy their brand consistently not jump brand to brand to save a few pennies a gallon. This program has me buying my gas, at least $100 worth a month from Hess for the next 12 months.  With gas at $4.00 I save $1.00 per gallon for 25 gallons!

 

Back to telling what's true and what isn't, right now I am working on my 2nd gas card, first one worked great and I even got a free sandwich from Quiznos on a coupon they sent me.  So for me what sounds too good to be true is true.