Marketing Career Guide and Counseling

Question: How do I find marketing people in USA, who will work on commissions-only basis to market for IT consulting? We are a 2 person start-up company. We have purchased a company with 10 years history, very good credit rating, and at zero employees, in NorthEast USA. Since we are tight on budget and are working as full time consultants ourselves, we are unable to market and expand the company. We were wondering if there are any websites/resources (besides posting an Ad on a jobs website) which we can explore to communicate to potential IT services marketing personnel in the NorthEast USA, to see if we can work on a commission-only basis initially. Once we start serving 2-3 clients and place a few consultants, we can afford to switch to a salary + commission option. This can be a great option for a marketing person who has contacts in the market but would like to work from home or work flex-time. Thank You!

Answer: try craigs list www.craigslist.com just click on your area on the right after you get to their website

Question: What percentage of my marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing? I have a writing and editing services company, and we currently have $4500 of our operating budget. We are planning to do direct mail marketing, advertisements in trade journals, and online marketing (pay-per-click, e-newsletters, etc). How much of my marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing?

Answer: You can test how well PPC works for you with a very short test, $100-$200. I recommend going with Google/Yahoo Paid advertising for it's wider audiences. Create your most compelling ad copy and target popular keywords in your space. Implement the conversion tracking code provided by Google / Yahoo on your "thank you" / sales lead page. You'll be able to determine the ROI of PPC within a short time, and short spend. Hope this helps!

Question: Marketing for personal injury laywers and attorneys, how to market your practice ? I am a personal injury lawyer currently working for a company, but I am interested in starting my own practice, how should I go about marketing my personal injury practice ?

Answer: Check out these guys, they are quite affordable http://www.myearnpro.com/jolly/info

Question: How can I successfully market my network marketing home business? I am a single mother of 1 and tired of working in corporate america. I want to learn how to market my Tahitian Noni network marketing business without targeting my friends and family. I want to come up with a great marketing idea that will not only help my business but others as well. Any suggestions?

Answer: Study simple internet marketing skills and use those techniques to generate your own leads for your business. Hassling friends and family is not an effective way to build your business. These old tactics are responsible for the majority of failure in the industry. Participating in forums that relate to your business helps to generate business leads. You can meet new people by providing information of value without spamming and put info about yourself in your profile page. Submitting articles that are not salesy on the net are also great. The better the value of content, the more people will seek more info from you. I built a website that is independent from the company I represent. This is also a great way to meet new people if you build the site right. One that is easily found on the major search engines. Best Regards!

Question: How can one start a career in marketing research? I have a Bachelor's Degree with a concentration in Marketing. I am interested in getting into a career in the market research industry, however I am having difficulty finding jobs in this field. Most jobs for marketing majors seem to be in sales. I do not feel that I have the right personality and strengths to be successfu in sales. I am more of an analytical, detailed, organized person who prefers woking with data and solving problems. I have looked on the major job search sites, but there are not many opportunities for entry-level candidates. I have researched companies who specialize in market research in my area, and I have been on two interviews, but no job offer. Should I start to look in another direction? What type of work could be a good stepping stone for somebody who wants to get into marketing research? The job interviews I had with the market research companies were entry-level posiitons involving clerical type work.Should I look for clerical positions for experience?

Answer: at this site http://www.job--listings.info/free-aptitude-test.htm you just fill the form in and they'll provide results according to your answers so keep it in the marketing topic and if lucky you should get what you want. There's a couple more tests here too http://www.job--listings.info/ good luck

Question: What are the best marketing magazines to read to keep you up-to-date? I am new to the marketing field and have landed a job about 7 months ago planning, creating and executing the marketing efforts for a small company. Now that I have a firm grasp of the industry and company as to where it has been and where it wants to go, I'd like to subscribe to some magazines/ newspapers, etc that will keep me up-to-date with buying trends, consumer behavior, economic forcasts and marketing ideas. Any suggestions>

Answer: It's quite unusual here to recommend some other person, but I'm sure you'll get the most complete answer from this lady: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt=AqIspP3FrxHcKIRg7L4N6eMSBgx.?show=AA10144492 I've read some of her answers and it seems she is very good at giving the right information in this field. Try to email her and you'll be happy. ))

Question: Marketing Plan who is person in charge in the company to prepare it & which companies needs marketing plan? Who should prepare the marketing plan is it enough for one person to prepare it? What type of companies needs marketing plan for example Investment Company needs a marketing plan?

Answer: Typically the Marketing VP or Manager or Director (senior marketer) is responsible for the marketing plan, although she/he also has input from other departments such as sales, operations, finance, product development. In a small business, one person can be responsible for developing the marketing plan. All businesses need a marketing plan: it is the foundation for sales (without marketing planning, sales can be a scattered effort). Yes an Investment Company needs a marketing plan: what's the market segmentation, target market, product differentiation, product life-cycle, promotion plan, pricing strategy, distribution program and so much more.

Question: What can a marketing guy do for a start-up when the product is not ready yet? I am planning to start a startup with one of my friend but our product is not ready yet. I want to know what can a marketing guy do in that case? like market research, deciding the customer/client strategy, strategy for approaching VC etc.? Any pointers in this regard will be helpful.

Answer: Just to clarify - I am gonna assume you are a Marketing person and not a Sales person. As a Marketing person, you need to have the corporate strategy, product strategy and branding done before the sales person is even hired! As soon as the Sales person comes on board, he can just take ur go to market strategy, use the demo product and start working the market. If I were to list a few things (in chronological order): 1. Vision and mission statement 2. Branding - create logo, design templates, taglines, colour swatch 3. Implementation of branding - create website, sales collateral, brochures, company signboards, demo products, etc. 4. Marketing strategy - Create an overall go to market strategy including pricing and product feature/benefits listing. 5. Promotions strategy - Create the list of external/internal communications activities that you need to take up By the time you have done all this, I sure hope the product is ready!

Question: What questions should we be asking the GM Marketing for our marketing assignment requiring a product launch? For our marketing class assignment, we are required to submit a marketing plan for the launch of a new product. We will be visiting a company's General Manager, Marketing to gain insight. We are a group of 5. We are allowed half an hour with him. In this limited time frame what questions should we ask in order to facilitate our inventing a new product and developing a marketing plan accordingly?

Answer: How did you define your target audience? What factors made you select that target audience? How did you define your "word-picture?" What were your initial goals for the product, and, how did those goals change, if at all, through the development cycle? How did you formulate your product's competitive advantage? What were the obstacles to market entry and how did you overcome them?

Question: What marketing strategies have been effective for you as a mortgage loan officer? I've just gotten into the mortgage business in Texas. I'm looking for any tips to help me to deal with the marketing side of the business and any success stories of particular types of advertising. Thanks!

Answer: There are several marketing techniques that are in use today. #1 You can purchase leads from a lead provider normal cost is approximately $25.00-$35.00 per lead and there is a minimum purchase amount like about 100 per purchase. Some of these are retreads, so you are really guessing which are real or is this someone that just like talking on the phone. There are cheaper ones but they have been around the block a few times. So you are really guessing on these leads. #2 There is telemarketing, but then there is the "Do not call list" So you have to be careful there and not make a mistake or you will be sued. #3 Advertise in the local newspaper that you are now in the business of doing loans #4 You can direct mail to individuals that you are in the business of doing loans. I suggest you secure your own leads by leaving the office and spending time in a area that you want to work and get to know the people that could be your future clients. Find an area in your city that you want to work approximately 5,000-10,000 houses. Make you enough flyers to cover your area. If you have children this will be a good weekend activity for them as well as yourself. While walking the area passing out your flyers, if you see someone out doing the lawn or just out introduce yourself, give them one of your cards. See if they are willing to give you their name and email address so you can email them, on a monthly basis, things about the mortgage industry as well as your monthly newsletter. Place any information you collect in a data base that you should start. Your flyer should tell them a little about you a few of the loan programs that you will be offering and introducing. This is an introductory flyer that you can make on your computer. You can get them ran off at Staples or Office Depot. You should pass these type flyers out at least 3 months in a row. This will let them know that you are sincere and look as if you will be there for them. You should also visit the local commercial places in the same area. Find out if they will allow you to place a flyer holder in their business, give them one of your business cards, find out their name, write it down you never want to forget it because they will become one of your partners. buy something even if you are gonna give it away and don't need it. Do this to as many commercial businesses in the area as will allow you to place a flyer holder in their place of business. You will find the flyer holders at Staples or Office Depot.. Call the post office and inquire about their bulk mailing stamp. Get one and learn the system of bulk mailing. Also call your title company and get them to provide you with the names of the people in your area that you have been passing out your flyer. Remember your data base you were starting and now should have over a thousand names that you alone should have been able to get if you have been walking the area. Once you have passed out the flyers for at least 3-4 months start you a newsletter covering topics on the mortgage business. Get articles from your local newspaper as well as off the internet. Just remember to give credit to the author of the article. You might have a doctor, lawyer or some other professional to help you on your articles. Charge them for the articles, about 50% of the cost of the newsletter. Now remember the businesses that you had your flyers in and you now know their names because you have been there to change your flyers about 2 times per month. Place your news letter in these businesses also. The best thing about these businesses is now you want to see if they will advertise in your business newsletter being sent to the local area in which their business is located. You should be able to charge them about $45.00 to $50.00 per business size card advertisement. Try and get them to place a coupon in the flyer offering some type of discount if the customer bring the coupon in to their store. Now you will need a professional team to assist you in your business. You will need an attorney, a notary, a title rep, an insurance agent that sell homeowners insurance policies and a real estate agent. You should pass out their cards to your clients that need their services and they should pass out your business cards to their clients that need your services. This should give you a steady supply of referrals. This should not be a one way street, they should be helping you as much as they are in the habit of helping you. So you might have to change your professional team to get what need to be accomplished. Now that you have your bulk stamp, your newsletter and your data base that you have now added from your title rep to the names you had already. You are now ready to mail or email your newsletter each month. Don't forget to offer your clients a FSBO package, where you will qualify their possible buyers if they are not pre-approved already. You will want to assist them in setting up an open house where you will be there to assist potential buyers and most importantly pre-approve all those that come to look at the house that aren't. This will give you a steady source of leads also. This should always be in your monthly newsletter that you will assist all those that want to sell their own property. You can charge them $500.00 for providing escrow service, title services, appraisals and other services they will need to close the transaction. With the $500.00 you should be able to place an ad in the local paper of all open houses you will be conducting on the 2nd and 4th weekend of each month or whatever weekend you chose to have open houses. What ever you do, don't try to talk them out of selling their own home, you are there to assist and get to the clients that need pre-approval for loans to purchase homes. They would not be at an open house unless they were considering buying. Always have an ample supply of 1003's on hand. I hope this has been of some help to you, good luck. "FIGHT ON"

Question: How much does someone in international marketing make yearly? I am doing research on international marketing. I would like to know how much someone in international marketing makes yearly, what schooling requirements are needed and what skills are needed and preferred. Also, do you need to have an internship with an international company? Any information about international marketing would be helpful, as long as the websites are reliable and contain real information.

Answer: If you're going into international marketing I believe you need to get a masters. It is very competitive in the business world. From what I understand, even more so in other countries. I most likely would not get a marketing degree, I personally would try to get an international business degree with an emphasis in marketing. Most schools actually REQUIRE you to spend at least a semester (whether summer or otherwise) in another country

Question: What is the difference between a marketing campaign and a promotion? My belief is that promotion is more broad than a marketing campaign (think the four p's). A marketing campaign is found within promotion. I was also assuming a campaign is a strategy of speaking to a particular segment within your target. Is this the case? What if, for example, you have marketing activities you are doing specifically for Christmas. Could this be the Christmas promotion within a wider campaign?

Answer: Marketing campaign involves advertising, hiring a staff of salesmen and women to go out and solicit business, and finding retailers who will carry your product on their shelves. Promotion is temporarily reducing the cost of your retail product (discount sale) to steal your competitors' customers, by trying to convince consumers to switch services or name brands. People are creatures of habit; they'll routinely buy the same brand of products or services, until a better value comes along to entice them to switch.

Question: I am wanting to get into Marketing to utilize my degree and am tired of sales jobs. Any way to open any doors? I have had several sales jobs and want to do marketing outside of sales. I have recently relocated to the Northeast, all Marketing posting want experience in analysis. All of my sales experience leads me to another sales position and I am tired of straight sales. Is there a better way to get into a marketing position with a bigger firm?

Answer: If you have done any market research/analysis as part of your sales roles, then definitely emphasize that. Also, understanding the customer (which you do in sales) is usually a key requirement in a marketing job, so highlight that as well. I do resume/cover letter coaching part time (I work full time as a Senior HR specialist). If you'd like more assistance in positioning your resume, feel free to contact me at interview_ace@yahoo.ca. My rates are competitive. Good luck!

Question: I would like to become a marketing manager, what steps should I take? What is being a marketing manager like? Im a junior in high school, I am going to a junior college for two years and then transferring to a university after, Im planning on getting my masters degree at the university. What steps should I take to becoming a marketing manager? And what is it like to be a marketing manager, what is a typical day like?

Answer: Marketing Management is the most interesting and the most challenging work in a business enterprise it is the department that brings in the money and the department in the business enterprise that touch based with the customers. The marketing concept encompasses three basic concepts. First a through understanding of the customer's needs, wants, and behavior and the development of the product and services of the company to meet these needs. Second emphasis on the integration of the marketing function with research, product development, sales, and advertising to enhance the total effectiveness of the firm. Last attention focused on profit rather than on sales volume. To answer your question the marketing manager has to coordinate all of these activities in his daily work mind you a day is not enough but marketing is interesting, challenging and most of all rewarding.

Question: How do businesses and Marketing agencies work together? How do Business work together with Marketing agencies to ensure the campaign they're trying to market will be perfect?

Answer: those marketing agencies are also business. I think I know what you are asking, in most cases the marketers will bring a product to the market and merchandise it as they wish. Having said that many companies hold the right o approve any advertisement that brings their product to the fore front. Usually they want to make sure that the product isn't misrepresented to the public. An example of this was shortly after Smokey and the bandit was released some advertisers were trying to sell the Pontiac like the Bandit drove and young folks would buy the car and wanted it to do what they saw it do in the movie and what it was advertised to do on TV. General Motors stopped this very quickly As for the advertising that the business does, it isn't referred to as a marketer but is called public relations more common it is called PR

Question: What's the key to success when marketing to women online? I've started a small online business that caters to girl and women. I still feel unable to market to them though lol. I know they're more emotional than us (men) and might be attracted to what moves them rather than what works best but not sure how to go about marketing to them. I think like a man when I market to them because I'm a man lol. Any ideas, tips or anything else that might help me do better in this regard?

Answer: Women, very tough for us guys to figure out, I agree. They are wonderful creatures so much better than us men! I still have trouble figuring out my wife and mother, however, marketing to women should not be that difficult if you use your wits. Ask yourself these questions: 1.) What are my top competitors? 2.) Who among the competitors is selling the most? 3.) What are they doing that I am not? It is pretty basic stuff. If you are selling lingere, I would bet that Victoria's secret knows a bit about how to sell this to women (and men!) so go to their web site and see what they are doing and emulate. If you are selling creams and other beauty products have a look in on Este Lauder, The Body Shop etc. as they know how to sell to women. Take their ideas for your own and modify them for testing. They have spent a fortune on marketing speicialists to design their campaings - - follow the herd and you should arrive at the watering hole before you know it.